What Are You Reading

[Rumor Control]

The member of the wedding. One of the rare times the movie is as good as the book.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Rereading Youngblood Hawke by Herman Wouk, a "big" story of a young man from Kentucky who makes a big splash in the literary world in 1946 and in the next few years. Wouk is a storyteller's storyteller. According to what I've read, Hawke's story is based on the life of Thomas Wolfe. There was a film version in '64 with James Franciscus as Hawke -- not a choice I would have made -- and Suzanne Pleshette as his editor and one of his two love interests. It'd be interesting to see the film.

 

[Harp]

According to what I've read, Hawke's story is based on the life of Thomas Wolfe.

Wouk easily carves a day or two out of a weekend-rain or shine-and I read Hawke after catching a few moments of the film version,
but did not know of the Wolfe tie in to the story other than the underlying malady issue. Wolfe has always seemed enigmatic; more so than Flannery O'Connor,
whom is almost mystical in nature by comparison to the more cosmopolitan tubercular.

 

[AmateisGal]

I finished the second book in the Clara Vine series and it was just as good as the first. This series is set in 1930s Berlin and I highly recommend it. The research alone to recreate Berlin and the Nazi hierarchy - who figure prominently in the book as characters - must have been staggering. I am so fully immersed in Berlin of that time period that it's astonishing. A mark of a truly good author.

 

[Fading Fast]

Rereading Youngblood Hawke by Herman Wouk, a "big" story of a young man from Kentucky who makes a big splash in the literary world in 1946 and in the next few years. Wouk is a storyteller's storyteller. According to what I've read, Hawke's story is based on the life of Thomas Wolfe. There was a film version in '64 with James Franciscus as Hawke -- not a choice I would have made -- and Suzanne Pleshette as his editor and one of his two love interests. It'd be interesting to see the film.

Possibly the only one of his early (pre '80s) novels I haven't read, which I will now add to my list (always kind of knew I should read it - just haven't for some reason). Also, for a relatively recent one, I'd highly recommend his novel "A Little Hole in Texas," as a decent, quick read and because it has the best explanation - for a lay person - I've ever read of the Higgs Boson.

 

[Fading Fast]

I finished the second book in the Clara Vine series and it was just as good as the first. This series is set in 1930s Berlin and I highly recommend it. The research alone to recreate Berlin and the Nazi hierarchy - who figure prominently in the book as characters - must have been staggering. I am so fully immersed in Berlin of that time period that it's astonishing. A mark of a truly good author.

"Black Roses" is still in my Amazon cart just waiting for me to open my wallet and buy it - which will happen based on your strong recommendation.

 

[AmateisGal]

"Black Roses" is still in my Amazon cart just waiting for me to open my wallet and buy it - which will happen based on your strong recommendation.

Huzzah!

 

[Benzadmiral]

Possibly the only one of his early (pre '80s) novels I haven't read, which I will now add to my list (always kind of knew I should read it - just haven't for some reason). Also, for a relatively recent one, I'd highly recommend his novel "A Little Hole in Texas," as a decent, quick read and because it has the best explanation - for a lay person - I've ever read of the Higgs Boson.

I'm a big fan of Wouk -- except for not being as prolific, to me he's the 20th century's answer to Charles Dickens *. My college's library has a copy of "Hole in Texas," I think.

* Though if you throw the prolific detail in, I'd say Stephen King is our Dickens. Both were amazingly prolific, both were very popular in their own lifetimes, both had works frequently adapted to other media during their lives (stage plays, in Dickens's case). Both liked to perform: King has had bit roles in several movies made from his works; Dickens traveled doing readings from his. Both tended to write long novels; and King sort-of serialized his The Green Mile in monthly (paperback) installments when it first came out, just as Dickens's novels were serialized in his time.

(This case is easier to defend than my notion that Neil Simon is the 20th Century's answer to Shakespeare. Chew on that one a while.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

Wouk's best novel, for my money, remains "City Boy," a sweet, rather lovable story about a schnooky little Jewish kid growing up in the Bronx in 1928 which gives Wouk a good claim at being the Mark Twain of the 20th Century.

I liked "Marjorie Morningstar" until the end, when I threw it across the room with a profane oath.

 

[Fading Fast]

...I liked "Marjorie Morningstar" until the end, when I threw it across the room with a profane oath.

Yup, loved the book, hated the ending.

The "Caine Mutiny" was one I could hardly put down and the movie, while not as good as the book, is still a very well-done adaptation.

That said, for me, Wouk is "Winds of War" and "War and Remembrance." I read them around when they came out and they had a major impact on me engendering a life-long interest in WWII and appreciation for thoughtful and engaging historical fiction.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I liked Caine when I read it, especially because my boss at the time was a real Queeg type. He's the guy I used to toy with by sneaking into his office early in the morning and moving everything on his desk half an inch to the right or left.

Wouk's work in radio for Fred Allen in the late 1930s is quite interesting when seen in the scope of his later work. His main assignment on the Allen program was a segment called "People You Didn't Expect To Meet," a series of scripted interviews with New Yorkers in odd occupations, and having listened to most of these sequences I can see how they might have affected Wouk's affinity for sharp characterization.

 

[Fading Fast]

I liked Caine when I read it, especially because my boss at the time was a real Queeg type. He's the guy I used to toy with by sneaking into his office early in the morning and moving everything on his desk half an inch to the right or left....

⇧ That put a smile on my face. The subtle "effin'" with someone is usually the best revenge.

 

[Harp]

Morning commuter train reading: Charged with Murder, The Chicago Reader; August 18th weekly issue. The continuous debate over embrace of agency within the Felony Murder Doctrine.
Adversarial agency inclusion remains inherently problematic in both theory and practice. Meanwhile, the Sun Times sports section features the Cubs' bull pen rotation quandary;
Notre Dame's hot paw quarterback dilemma-a nice dilemma to have; and tonite's Bears v Patriots matchup. Had Belichick better handled red zone management in last season's
Broncos game and ordered kicking instead of a lousy down-to-the-wire two point conversion, the Pats might have gone to the Super Bowl. Hope the Bears kick their ass.
And handicapping Saturday's Pacific Classic. It's Chrome's race to lose but he's riding the rail from first post and the horse prefers the outside.

 

[ChiTownScion]

I liked Caine when I read it, especially because my boss at the time was a real Queeg type. He's the guy I used to toy with by sneaking into his office early in the morning and moving everything on his desk half an inch to the right or left.

I make it a point of gifting two large ball bearings to friends who are former US naval officers. They always seem to get the joke: rolling the bearings in their hand and exclaiming, "AH! The STRAWBERRIES!!"

 

[LizzieMaine]

We actually *had* a "strawberries" incident at the radio station -- our own Queeg mounted an investigation to determine who was sneaking into the locked supply closet and stealing rolls of toilet paper. He was a Freudian delight who crawled with clues, as Mr. Keefer might have said.

 

[ChiTownScion]

We actually *had* a "strawberries" incident at the radio station -- our own Queeg mounted an investigation to determine who was sneaking into the locked supply closet and stealing rolls of toilet paper. He was a Freudian delight who crawled with clues, as Mr. Keefer might have said.

For my money, Barney Greenwald was the real hero in both the movie (Jose Ferrer) and the book. I've always admired gutsy Jewish guys who never back down (goes back to David taking down Goliath, I suppose) and his post trial speech is really the best part of the book. It ends:

“‘Scuse me, I’m all finished, Mr. Keefer. I’m up to the toast. Here’s to You. You bowled a perfect score. You went after Queeg, and got him. You kept your own skirts all white and starchy. Steve is finished for good, but you’ll be the next captain of the Caine. You’ll retire old and full of fat fitness reports. You’ll publish your novel proving that the Navy stinks, and you’ll make a million dollars and marry Hedy Lamarr. No letter of reprimand for you, Just royalties on your novel. So you won’t mind a li’l verbal reprimand from me, what does it mean? I defended Steve because I found out the wrong guy was on trial. Only way I could defend him was to sink Queeg for you. I’m sore that I was pushed into that spot, and ashamed of what I did, and thass why I’m drunk. Queeg deserved better at my hands. I owed him a favor, ‘don’t you see? He stopped Hermann Goering from washing his fat behind with my mother.”

 

[AmateisGal]

The Madwoman Upstairs, a delightful, quirky novel about the last surviving descendent of the Bronte family.

 

[Fading Fast]

For my money, Barney Greenwald was the real hero in both the movie (Jose Ferrer) and the book. I've always admired gutsy Jewish guys who never back down (goes back to David taking down Goliath, I suppose) and his post trial speech is really the best part of the book. It ends:

“‘Scuse me, I’m all finished, Mr. Keefer. I’m up to the toast. Here’s to You. You bowled a perfect score. You went after Queeg, and got him. You kept your own skirts all white and starchy. Steve is finished for good, but you’ll be the next captain of the Caine. You’ll retire old and full of fat fitness reports. You’ll publish your novel proving that the Navy stinks, and you’ll make a million dollars and marry Hedy Lamarr. No letter of reprimand for you, Just royalties on your novel. So you won’t mind a li’l verbal reprimand from me, what does it mean? I defended Steve because I found out the wrong guy was on trial. Only way I could defend him was to sink Queeg for you. I’m sore that I was pushed into that spot, and ashamed of what I did, and thass why I’m drunk. Queeg deserved better at my hands. I owed him a favor, ‘don’t you see? He stopped Hermann Goering from washing his fat behind with my mother.”

It was a "can't put it down" novel for me for passages just like that. And Ferrer delivered it pitch perfectly.

Also, like "The Apartment" and "Double Indemnity," "The Caine Mutiny" shows how versatile Fred MacMurray was / how much talent he had - he was so much more that just Mr. Douglas from "My Three Sons."

And no new news here, but Bogie is ridiculously good in it as well.

It is hoping to read the next "The Caine Mutiny," the next, "House of Mirth," or the next "Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society" (Lizzie and Amateis Gal, have you read that one - I think you'd both enjoy it?) that will keep me always reading. While I enjoy many of the books I read, it is finding that book you can't wait for "life to get out of the way," so that you can get back to reading it that drives me to passionately pick up the next book.

 

[Benzadmiral]

I've said for years that Caine Mutiny practically reads itself to you, it flows so well. Even if, like me, you know little more of Navy regs and procedures than what you've seen on Star Trek, Caine is a great read.

Bogart as Queeg -- superb. Of course I've always wondered how Lloyd Nolan did with the role on stage, the 1954 play The Caine Mutiny Court Martial. I think Henry Fonda played Barney Greenwald. Lemme check Internet Broadway Database. . . .

Yep, Henry Fonda it was, along with a fellow named James Bumgarner as "Member of the Court." We know him now as James Garner. (My paperback movie/play tie-in edition of Caine has some photos from the play, and Garner is recognizable.)

IBDb also mentions two revivals, one in the Eighties with Michael Moriarty as Queeg, and one in 2006 with David Schwimmer as Barney Greenwald!

 

[Harp]

The Madwoman Upstairs, a delightful, quirky novel about the last surviving descendent of the Bronte family.

Love this book.
Anne's diary, The Warnings of Experience, and Charlotte's unforgettable quip, "The heart has hidden treasures; in secret kept, in silence sealed." And Heathcliff calling out to Catherine....
Men should read the Brontes as their canon wisely pierces love's veil. And, like Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes subsequent scribes have added a certain luster.