Monday, June 2, 2014
A Classic Hard Boiled Novel from John D. MacDonald
Reviewed by James L. Thane
Four out of five stars
This is a stand-alone novel, first published in 1955, and written by John D. MacDonald, who is best known for his Travis McGee series. It's a classic Fawcett/Gold Medal novel in which the protagonist starts out with an apparently reasonable objective but soon finds himself in over his head and in danger of losing his life in some very unpleasant way.
In this case, the protagonist is a man named Tal Howard, who had the misfortune first of going off to war and then of being captured and sent to a prisoner of war camp. The camp, of course, was a horrible experience and while there, Tal became friends with another prisoner named Timmy Warden who came from a small town named Hillston.
Sadly, Timmy died in the camp, but before he did so, he confessed to Tal that he had stolen $60,000 (at a time when that was still a lot of money). He had embezzled the money from his brother, George. To add insult to injury, Timmy had also been sleeping with George's trampy wife, Eloise. Timmy tells Howard that he buried the money and that only a woman named Cindy would know where to find it. Timmy regrets all of this now, and hopes only to survive long enough to return to Hillston and make things right with his brother.
Timmy dies before he get a chance to make amends. Tal Howard is eventually rescued from the camp and after he recovers is at loose ends. After his experience in the war, he has no interest in resuming his old life and so decides to go to Hillston, find the mysterious Cindy, dig up the money and live happily ever after.
Naturally, this won't be easy. And once Howard reaches Hillston, he realizes just how complicated a task he has set himself. To make matters worse, there's already another ex-POW from the camp named Fitzmartin, who apparently heard part of Timmy's story and who's arrived in town ahead of Howard, also determined to find the money. Fitzmartin is a psycho S.O.B., typical of the villains that MacDonald tended to create, and obviously he's going to pose a formidable obstacle in the way of Howard's objective.
If all that weren't bad enough, little Hillston proves to be a town with a lot of dark secrets and mysteries, and the deeper Howard digs, both literally and figuratively, the more trouble he's going to be in. Along the way, naturally, he'll also encounter any number of interesting females, and the end result is an engaging tale that should appeal to any fan of classic hard-boiled crime fiction.
A Minority of Tension
The Minority Report by Philip K. Dick
Reviewed by Jason Koivu
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I'm not an old, crusty sci-fi fan who read this when it came out in '56. No, I'm a neophyte who only knows about The Minority Report because of the 2002 movie version. It's hard not to associate this solid, yet too short short story with that blockbuster flick starring Tom Cruise...
...and I'm not even going to try. Why? Because I loved the movie, even though I hate Tom Cruise. Maybe "hate" is too harsh. Let's just say I've never liked him and have only tolerated watching his movies, all the while wishing it was someone else in his role.
Even with my anti-Cruise bias, I really enjoyed the heck out of the movie and expected the same with the story. Well, that didn't happen. Oh, I enjoyed it all right. It's perfectly fine. However, it lacks tension. Certainly high-stakes are on the line for our hero Anderton, the head of police force that captures and incarcerates would-be criminals before the crime is committed, but figuring out what's going on is made all too easy for him. It needed to be teased out a bit more.
I have to hand it to the screenwriters and director Steven Spielberg for tricking out this pedestrian story and turning it into a fast, fun, 2+ hour thrill ride. In comparison, the original story is like a quarter's worth of floppy anti-climax on one of those sticky, paint-chipped, slow-moving mechanical rides out front of your typical beat-down grocery store.
Reviewed by Jason Koivu
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I'm not an old, crusty sci-fi fan who read this when it came out in '56. No, I'm a neophyte who only knows about The Minority Report because of the 2002 movie version. It's hard not to associate this solid, yet too short short story with that blockbuster flick starring Tom Cruise...
...and I'm not even going to try. Why? Because I loved the movie, even though I hate Tom Cruise. Maybe "hate" is too harsh. Let's just say I've never liked him and have only tolerated watching his movies, all the while wishing it was someone else in his role.
Even with my anti-Cruise bias, I really enjoyed the heck out of the movie and expected the same with the story. Well, that didn't happen. Oh, I enjoyed it all right. It's perfectly fine. However, it lacks tension. Certainly high-stakes are on the line for our hero Anderton, the head of police force that captures and incarcerates would-be criminals before the crime is committed, but figuring out what's going on is made all too easy for him. It needed to be teased out a bit more.
I have to hand it to the screenwriters and director Steven Spielberg for tricking out this pedestrian story and turning it into a fast, fun, 2+ hour thrill ride. In comparison, the original story is like a quarter's worth of floppy anti-climax on one of those sticky, paint-chipped, slow-moving mechanical rides out front of your typical beat-down grocery store.
Japanese Artist: Junko Mizuno
Collector File 002: Junko Mizuno's Illustration Book by Junko Mizuno
Reviewed by Jason Koivu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
*** Images follow which are not safe for the kiddies and work-place viewing! ***
Japanese artist Junko Mizuno creates some psychedelic art that is often bizarre...
And sometimes a little gross...
The most common subject is a young woman, often partially disrobed, commonly with an intensely cute and petite beastie of some sort, and almost always with massive amounts of hair...
My wife, fresh from a year of teaching English in Japan, indoctrinated me into current Japanese youth culture. I bought into it with a hipster's irony, but eventually I found that I was actually falling in love with some of its aspects. Anime and manga have been with us a while now, but Japanese comic art has been a staple of mainstream illustration and animation for decades. Those old holiday cartoons and the Rankin Bass versions of The Hobbit and Return of the King that I've adored since I was about 5 years-old were all drawn by Japanese artists. So, a seed had already been sewn within me, it just took a guiding hand to lead me back to the new Japanese art-world order.
While being no expert on that subject, I nonetheless feel that Mizuno has contributed something with some importance to the current movement. Her use of color catches the eye, the dreamy quality of the images mesmerizes, and just as you begin to think this is all nothing but nonsensical imagery, something pops (or poops) out at you and, in the very least, raises a smile upon the viewer's absorbed face.
Bought this years ago at a book signing in Hollywood. Nearly silent, bobble-headed Mizuno sat at a table signaturing away with her gaze perpetually lowered. I said something like "Love your stuff. Thank you!" but what I meant to say was "I want to put you on my keychain and take you home with me!".... I think that's why she was avoiding eye-contact with us monstrous pail-skins, fearing the gigantic blue-eyed devils would kidnap her for trinket usage. The following picture of Mizuno (middle) displays her wee-ness...HA! "wee-ness". Why do I feel like she'd be happy to hear someone said she possessed a wee-ness?
Reviewed by Jason Koivu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
*** Images follow which are not safe for the kiddies and work-place viewing! ***
Japanese artist Junko Mizuno creates some psychedelic art that is often bizarre...
And sometimes a little gross...
The most common subject is a young woman, often partially disrobed, commonly with an intensely cute and petite beastie of some sort, and almost always with massive amounts of hair...
My wife, fresh from a year of teaching English in Japan, indoctrinated me into current Japanese youth culture. I bought into it with a hipster's irony, but eventually I found that I was actually falling in love with some of its aspects. Anime and manga have been with us a while now, but Japanese comic art has been a staple of mainstream illustration and animation for decades. Those old holiday cartoons and the Rankin Bass versions of The Hobbit and Return of the King that I've adored since I was about 5 years-old were all drawn by Japanese artists. So, a seed had already been sewn within me, it just took a guiding hand to lead me back to the new Japanese art-world order.
While being no expert on that subject, I nonetheless feel that Mizuno has contributed something with some importance to the current movement. Her use of color catches the eye, the dreamy quality of the images mesmerizes, and just as you begin to think this is all nothing but nonsensical imagery, something pops (or poops) out at you and, in the very least, raises a smile upon the viewer's absorbed face.
Bought this years ago at a book signing in Hollywood. Nearly silent, bobble-headed Mizuno sat at a table signaturing away with her gaze perpetually lowered. I said something like "Love your stuff. Thank you!" but what I meant to say was "I want to put you on my keychain and take you home with me!".... I think that's why she was avoiding eye-contact with us monstrous pail-skins, fearing the gigantic blue-eyed devils would kidnap her for trinket usage. The following picture of Mizuno (middle) displays her wee-ness...HA! "wee-ness". Why do I feel like she'd be happy to hear someone said she possessed a wee-ness?
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