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Saturday's child works hard for a living
1. Thank you all for your suggestions for what to buy with my gift card. I am mulling them over.
2.
The Matisse Stories by A.S. Byatt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book only has three stories in it; each is proceeded by a Matisse painting/drawing, and each story also references Matisse in some way.
The first story, "Medusa's Ankles," is about a woman getting her hair cut in a salon. I have a hard time parsing the end of this one. I'm not certain if it's supposed to be funny and ironic or really sad. I'm not sure if it's supposed to indicate that the woman's perception of the haircut and what it represents is off or not.
In "Art Work," the housekeeper of an artistic family is revealed to possess a great deal of artistic talent herself.
And in "The Chinese Lobster," what appears at first glance to be a story about a sexist, sexually harassing male professor turns into a poignant story about mental illness and suicide. The turn is really well done in this one.
Art, the artist's eye, the artist's life (including the way that so many male artists are supported by women), the artist's way of thinking and noticing--these are perennial concerns in Byatt's fiction.
View all my reviews
The Biographer's Tale by A.S. Byatt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a book about ambiguity (among other themes) and how we deal with ambiguity. In it, the protagonist is a literature graduate student who is unsatisfied with the world of literary criticism and decides to research a biographer as a way of connecting with something he finds "real." Details about the biographer prove very elusive but profoundly life changing for him. As always, this novel reveals Byatt's wide range of interests, in this case ecology, insects (bees and stag beetles in particular), photography, Ibsen, Galton, and Linnaeus. This is not my favorite of Byatt's novels, but I find her ideas about scholarship and storytelling and identity and the Self to be very thought provoking and intriguing.
View all my reviews
3. Emma and I watched Unicorn Store with Brie Larson and Samuel L. Jackson. It was a super cute movie. The theme of the movie is growing up and whether growing up means having to give up certain interests and aesthetics. I was really afraid that the unicorn would turn out to be a scam; I am so happy that the unicorn is real and that Virgil sees it. I totally teared up when Virgil and her parents finish decorating the unicorn stable with her artwork. I also really like that even though she feels lonely and out of sorts, by the movie's end, the protagonist has managed to make three friends.
I am very intrigued by the boss character. To me, he's the best acted character in the whole movie. He walks that line between skeevy and sincere, and I genuinely can't tell if he's trying to sexually harass Brie Larson's character or be her friend. He clearly gave up a childhood dream of figure skating. In the ill-fated ad presentation, he also looks as if he's been swayed until he gives in to the generic, expected ad. He comes off surprisingly sympathetic to me, as if he's the future Brie Larson's character is headed for if she doesn't figure out how to grow up and stay herself.
2.
The Matisse Stories by A.S. ByattMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book only has three stories in it; each is proceeded by a Matisse painting/drawing, and each story also references Matisse in some way.
The first story, "Medusa's Ankles," is about a woman getting her hair cut in a salon. I have a hard time parsing the end of this one. I'm not certain if it's supposed to be funny and ironic or really sad. I'm not sure if it's supposed to indicate that the woman's perception of the haircut and what it represents is off or not.
In "Art Work," the housekeeper of an artistic family is revealed to possess a great deal of artistic talent herself.
And in "The Chinese Lobster," what appears at first glance to be a story about a sexist, sexually harassing male professor turns into a poignant story about mental illness and suicide. The turn is really well done in this one.
Art, the artist's eye, the artist's life (including the way that so many male artists are supported by women), the artist's way of thinking and noticing--these are perennial concerns in Byatt's fiction.
View all my reviews
The Biographer's Tale by A.S. ByattMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a book about ambiguity (among other themes) and how we deal with ambiguity. In it, the protagonist is a literature graduate student who is unsatisfied with the world of literary criticism and decides to research a biographer as a way of connecting with something he finds "real." Details about the biographer prove very elusive but profoundly life changing for him. As always, this novel reveals Byatt's wide range of interests, in this case ecology, insects (bees and stag beetles in particular), photography, Ibsen, Galton, and Linnaeus. This is not my favorite of Byatt's novels, but I find her ideas about scholarship and storytelling and identity and the Self to be very thought provoking and intriguing.
View all my reviews
3. Emma and I watched Unicorn Store with Brie Larson and Samuel L. Jackson. It was a super cute movie. The theme of the movie is growing up and whether growing up means having to give up certain interests and aesthetics. I was really afraid that the unicorn would turn out to be a scam; I am so happy that the unicorn is real and that Virgil sees it. I totally teared up when Virgil and her parents finish decorating the unicorn stable with her artwork. I also really like that even though she feels lonely and out of sorts, by the movie's end, the protagonist has managed to make three friends.
I am very intrigued by the boss character. To me, he's the best acted character in the whole movie. He walks that line between skeevy and sincere, and I genuinely can't tell if he's trying to sexually harass Brie Larson's character or be her friend. He clearly gave up a childhood dream of figure skating. In the ill-fated ad presentation, he also looks as if he's been swayed until he gives in to the generic, expected ad. He comes off surprisingly sympathetic to me, as if he's the future Brie Larson's character is headed for if she doesn't figure out how to grow up and stay herself.
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I am just collecting team-ups between Brie Larson and Samuel L. Jackson. They were both in Kong: Skull Island, of which the least said the better, and this and Captain Marvel. I think they should do a straight-out buddy comedy at some point . . . .
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The Biographer's Tale doesn't really play around with fairy tales at all (and in my memory, the Children's Book does that, but I could be conflating). It *is* about scholarship and academia and ways of knowing, so that might scratch the same itch as Possession. In a departure for Byatt, the protagonist is male, and I wonder if that's what keeps it from being a 5-star book for me. IDK
Of all the Byatt novels I've recently reread, the best is the Potter Quarter; if you haven't read those four books, I think I'd do that rather than read The Biographer's Tale.
Is Skull Island the one with Loki in it? I kinda liked that one. LOL I forgot she was in it; I didn't know who she was at the time we watched it.
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It also has the honor of finally making me see that Tom Hiddleston is attractive. LOL
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book wiki
movie imdb
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Yes! I really loved that too! :-)
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