It’s true, though–Tales of the City always reminds me of my childhood, because of how much I adored the PBS series when I was younger. I think I was 11 or 12 when I first saw it–my parents and I were watching it, and about ten minutes in, the nudity started. I remember my dad asking my mom if she thought I was too young to be watching, but they let me watch anyway. And I’m glad they did, for 2 reasons: 1) the scene […]
This is the Zodiac Speaking.
I can’t believe it took me so long to read this book. I’ve been fascinated by the Zodiac case for years, ever since I first saw David Fincher’s movie based on this book, but I think I always felt like the book was too dated to bother with since it was written in 1985. Well, I was wrong. This book is completely engrossing. I think most people probably know the basic outline of the Zodiac murders–a serial killer murdered several people in San Francisco in […]
Historical Fluffiness from the Forties
Lisa See, the author of [i]Snow Flower and the Secret Fan[/i], which was a really good book, has delivered a less interesting and slightly faded remix of the same themes Snow Flower had – namely, friendship and Chinese culture. The characters are wooden: good-girl Grace, scandalous Ruby, cantankerous Helen. The story limps along like a wounded homing pigeon, following the “glamour” of the Forties while skipping any of the realities of the second World War. (It does make an appearance, as do the Japanese internment […]
Frantic Avoidance
As a piece of art, I have to give it to Dave Eggers. AHBWOSG is carefully composed, wonderfully constructed, funny, poignant, and moving. But it’s also a pile of emotional bullshit that took me ages to read, and I couldn’t get away from it fast enough once I had inhaled the last intentionally-breakneck run-on paragraph. I have now moved on, immediately and purposefully, to “Men Explain Things to Me.” But back to the “Staggering Genius,” which is a memoir, slightly fictionalized, as Eggers explains […]