The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

Day 5--Book 5/501

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

General Musings: Day 5 and I have two articles and some school work due today. Yesterday I read three chapters of Chandler's The Big Sleep before I realized it is not on the 501 book list (I was at the library and my memory failed me--I should have been reading Hammett's The Red Harvest). Last night I worked a slow shift so I got in some good reading (of actual books on the list).

It occurs to me that many people are questioning how I go about reading the books--allow me to explain. The vast majority of the books on the 501 list I have not read, however, I have read some of them. Strategically, I have decided to sometimes reread a book I'm already familiar with and that buys me a great deal of time in getting around to reading the bulk of books I have not. Moreover, many books (especially in the Children's Fiction section) are quick reads and I can read several a day. Lamentably, since I have not read most of the books and most are not quick reads I still have much reading to do and my diminishing buffer of books that I have read will mean few breaks-- Proust's Remembrance of Things Past alone is 3000 pages of postmodern angst! I'll include a page tally in the near future.


The Mission: 501 books in 501 days culled arbitrarily from the tome 501 Must Read Books.



Today's novel (Thriller): Agatha Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd


Preface: When I was a teenager I loved Agatha Christie mysteries, especially ones with Hercule Poirot--I think I read most of them. I remember doing an oral book report on Agatha Christie's autobiography in the eighth grade--desperate for a word to describe Christie's modesty my mother suggested the word "demure". Henceforth I was known as a chappy (to use a chappy slang expression). Check out Hot for words ' Marina Orlova to understand my passion for philology.








The Book: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is the most famous Poirot mystery (in Christie's biography it earns the accolade of "her masterpiece") but it flew under my radar until a decade ago when I took an English class in Mystery Fiction. When Christie published the novel it created a sensation--angering and/or exciting readers. It was fun rereading this story that is presented as an orthodox closed room murder.

As an aside, I should mention that as a film and book writer I am keenly sensitive to spoilers and I take pains to prevent giving away story surprises. I will try to do the same in this blog which makes for a challenging review since this book has, suffice to say, an exceptional twist (although one used before in Christie's own The Man in the Brown Suit). I will respect you reader and try to entice you to read this book while allowing you to enjoy the twists and turns without compromise.


The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is a classic whodunit set in an English village narrated by the character Dr. James Sheppard who assists Poirot in the investigation (Captain Hastings, Poirot's usual sidekick is absent from the story). Poirot, the small, peculiar, moustached Belgian with many idiosyncrasies is in fine form investigating a death, believed at first to be suicide and than realized to be (cue organ music) murder. There are many suspects, a neurotic sister, a mean daughter, a big game hunter, a maid, a step-son, and (I'm not joking) a butler. And all I can say without spoiling the plot (see above) is Poirot solves the crime and everyone returns to their Edwardian sexually repressed lives while you reread the book to understand how you managed to miss all the clues.


Grade: B+


Observations: The best drawing room murder novel period. However, I'm not a huge fan of the drawing room murder so I knocked the grade down a tad. According to Wikipedia Pierre Bayard, a literature professor, proposes an alternate solution to the mystery and says that Christie misled herself and readers while she subconsciously knew who the real murderer was(?!). I think Mr. Bayard is simple. As for a remaining mystery I can't figure out if Poirot is gay. Is it just me or do you think he is gay too? Not that there is anything wrong with that...


Segues: I think the best drawing room murder films are Gosford Park directed by Altman and the Murder by Death--both reflect my lack of reverence for the form. Altman's film is a murder mystery in which the murder becomes marginalized and eventually forgotten by the class politics of the story.







Murder by Death is an outrageous comedy in which the best sleuths in the world (including Poirot) are invited to dinner at a mansion and offered a million dollars to solve an impossibly convoluted mystery.






And finally--congratulations, this book (and only this Christie book) is on both the 501 and 1001 lists. Check out Vertigo Theatre for their productions of Christie's murder mysteries--my favorite is the Mouse Trap.





Tomorrow's Book (Science Fiction): William Gibson's Neuromancer (6/501)

The Handmaid's Tale

Day 4--Book 4/501


The Handmaid's Tale


It is day number 4 and I am pressed for time. Yesterday was a wild day and I just found out that I'll be done my job as Public Information Officer with the Calgary Fire Department on January 15th. I loved the job but I won't miss it, although my mom was impressed when I was on television.

On January 16th I'll have a new posting within the CFD and a week later I'm off to Victoria for three weeks for my MBA residency. And I have two papers due in the next couple of weeks for my Master of Arts class. Ironically, I have a time management course next week--I hope I make it there.

To summarize my mission (again): 501 books in 501 days culled arbitrarily from the tome 501 Must Read Books. Your mission: read my blog and make snide comments and occasionally read one of the offerings.

Today's novel (Science Fiction): Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale

Preface: I like Canadian literature and I consider myself a feminist but something about Margaret Atwood makes me uneasy--I've never liked her but I've always admired her writing prowess and her gift for storytelling. When I sat down to read The Handmaid's Tale I was not looking forward to it but I must admit I was blown away by the Governor General and Arthur C. Clarke award winning novel.

The Handmaid's Tale is a speculative fiction novel where, in a dystopic near future, America (re-branded Gilead) becomes a radical fundamental Christian theocracy in response to a infertility crisis. That's right baby, patriarchy is back in its full misogynistic and oppressive glory! Women can't own property, have money, have birth control, have fun sex--it's kind of like Heritage Park without the cinnamon buns.

Bad news for poor men is that the future is geared towards a (white) male elite (damn college boys!) called the Commanders who are solely in charge of social reproductive chores--but not with their chaste prissy elite wives but rather with reformed ruined women called Marthas (maybe this is why Atwood irks me, in a future where guys will rule and get all the sex I would still be out of luck).


Marthas (a.k.a. Handmaids) are better than nannies, they wear red habits, cook, clean, have strange sex with Commanders, have weird names, and give away their offspring to the elite wives when they fulfill their mission and once they are no longer fertile they get to clean up hazardous waste. Offred is one such Handmaid, formerly a professional woman, mother, and wife she does not fare well in the male fascist future.

Serena Joy is the wife of Fred (in the future guys get normal names) a leader of the regime. Serena has dried up ovaries and some repressed anger that she channels towards her handmaid Offred, she is also not above having the chauffeur getting the job done for hubby (who may well have dried up testicles). Fred is dumb, horny, and conceited--a quintessential guy. Offred is looking to break out of her handmaid role and things get interesting when everyone starts breaking rules and trying to get what they want--Serena:baby, Offred:freedom, Fred:sex, and chauffeur:revolution.

Grade: A-


Verdict: Okay I admit it this is a great novel. Damn! Atwood goes corporeal, religious, satirical, political, and feminist while telling a hell of a story. Whenever someone at a party starts talking about how feminism was important but now it's gone too radical and why can't we just be complacent and enjoy Sex in the City they should be beaten with a hardcover copy of this book.

Segues: There is a (1990) film adaptation with the late Natasha Richardson (as Offred's renamed character) and Robert Duvall as Fred. It was written by Harold Pinter (who just won a Nobel). The differences between book and film are numerous and frankly I'd like to see an Atwood vs. Pinter MMA match to settle the score.





The novel has also been adapted to radio, theater, and (in 2000) into a Danish Opera. Atwood has only one contribution to the 501 Must Read Books list but has seven in the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die. I recommend Alias Grace (an axe wielding feminist protagonist), Surfacing (a philosophy wielding feminist protagonist), and Oryx and Crake (a post apocalyptic hermit misogynist protagonist).

Tomorrow's book (Thriller): Agatha Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (5/501)

Captain Corelli's Mandolin

Day 3--Book 3/501


Captain Corelli's Mandolin

Day 3 and I am starting to tire--just kidding-- I'm still good but my eyes are a little dry after book 3--could be the fact I also read four (long) chapters on financial accounting in addition to my novel reading. Tony King told me his daughter has a similar blog but is focused on Mann Booker winners--that is a better idea than mine. Damn! He also told me he was a healthy skeptic of my pace--I like the doubt.

Yesterday was the start of my MBA studies--apparently accounting is a big deal in business. Whoda thunk it? I also realized I don't know how to use a financial calculator, I have a poor grasp of Excel 2010, and I'm slightly annoyed by my wife watching the new season of The Bachelor while I twist in the wind.


I hope I can juggle everything this year but I fear the truth...



To summarize my mission: 501 books in 501 days culled arbitrarily from the tome 501 Must Read Books. Your mission: read my blog and make snide comments and occasionally read one of the offerings.

Today's novel (Modern Fiction): Louis De Bernieres' Captain Corelli's Mandolin

Preface: My wife has been demanding that I read this book for a couple of years. She forbade me from seeing the movie (at least until I read the book) after she was devastated by the awful film adaptation. I guess she isn't alone in her dismay since De Bernieres himself said, "It would be impossible for a parent to be happy about its baby's ears being put on backwards." (As an aside Nicolas Cage went from being one of our favorite actors to the B-list--Wicker Man, National Treasure, Ghost Rider, Face/Off, etc--awful. Perhaps the $20 million he owes to the IRS looms larger than my disapproval--but I digress). After reading the novel I realized quickly that I had scored no points with my wife. She cited the blog as being my motivation and felt some injury to her pride that her advice alone was not enough to get me reading--no reward (other than intrinsic) for reading the book. Another aside: Apparently our relationship is replete of make-up sex, angry-sex, and reward-for-reading-spouse's-book choice-sex--I am frustrated but I am determined to have sex simply on principle. But I digress...

Captain Corelli's Mandolin is a love story set against the Italian occupation of an idyllic Greek Island (Cephallonia) during World War II. An Italian officer (can you guess his rank and title from the name of the book?) and a headstrong Greek physician's daughter (are there other types of Greek women?) Pelagia inevitably fall in love. The Italian occupiers are not popular but their lax approach to the war and lack of interest in fighting make them bearable for their angry Greek hosts. After some time the Greeks learn that they like the Italians even though they hate them in principle (much like the Calgary Flames fan base). Everything seems to be going well between the sensitive musician conscript and his lass when (cue evil music) the Nazis arrive. The Nazi's take war pretty seriously and aren't too impressed by the Italians who seem to be on perpetual Spring break. When orders come from above to massacre the Italian troops things go from Spring break fun to catastrophe.

Grade: B+

Overall the book is solid story and a great yarn. The first third of the story uses many characters' perspectives with pleasing effect and when the main characters soon take over the narrative you miss the technique as much as the visits with minor characters. Also, the end of the book is a little drawn out and not terribly satisfying since it tends to the cliche but the story (true in historical elements) is so interesting and the characters so well written it is easily forgivable. Captain Corelli's Mandolin is at its best when exploring the varieties of love--there is straight love, gay love, lust, romance, chaste love, familial love, fraternal love, love of country, love of God, everything but Nazi love (damn Nazis!).

Segues: I haven't seen the film yet (see above) but I have read Bernieres' The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman and his A Partisan's Daughter, the former sublime and the latter a bit of a failure. My wife has read his Birds Without Wings and gave it a thumbs-up.

Update: I watched the film Captain Corelli's Mandolin and had repeated vomiting spells and seizures. By the end of the flick I was cheering on the Nazis and simply hoping Penelope Cruz would get naked--no such luck. It is seldom I actually cheer for the Nazis just to so the film will finish faster. I jest--I hate Nazis. Awful, awful, awful film.



Tommorow's book (Science Fiction): Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale (4/501)

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Day 2--Book 2/501



Charlie and the Chocolate Factory


Welcome to the second day of the Thin Skin of Culture! I got up early to publish this and I feel a bit foolish right now because I'm the only person at work--apparently people like their holidays.


Okay just to summarize the goal is to plow through my newly acquired arbitrary reading list--501 Must Read Books-- in 501 days. Buckle up Poindexter this is going to be a wild ride (by popular demand here is a link to an online list of the 501 book titles).


Today's novel (Children's Fiction): Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory


As a preface I should mention that this is one of the first novels I read as a child and my son has already sat through four readings by me. If you don't want to read the whole book at least read the chapter on Prince Pondicherry and his chocolate palace.


Charlie Bucket is poor. His dad has been laid off from the toothpaste factory where he screwed on toothpaste caps, single servings of cabbage soup are de rigueur, and the only bed in the Bucket household is chock full of nattering grandparents. Everyone in the family is hungry and to add insult to injury poor starving Charlie lives smack dab beside the biggest and best candy plant in the world--Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. Did I mention that Charlie adores chocolate?


The Bucket's reclusive neighbor Willy Wonka is an eccentric confectioner genius who announces a lottery for five lucky children to tour his fantastic factory. After four precocious children win tickets Charlie still holds the impossible hope of being the fifth. I don't think it would be a spoiler to say that Charlie does indeed get to tour Wonka's factory. However, Mr. Wonka has a macabre sense of humour and despite the wonders of his factory it is downright dangerous--after four rooms there are four children missing!


Like Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians people start dropping fast until there is a single survivor and also like the Christie novel the tale is incorrigibly politically incorrect. Published originally in 1961 Dahl's Oompa-Loompas were originally African Pygmies working for cacao beans--in 1973 after enormous pressure from the NAACP and numerous writer peers Dahl changed the origin of Wonka's indentured workers to Oompa-Loompa Land.


The book spawned two film treatments. The first adaptation was Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) starring Gene Wilder. It was a box-office flop but a cool (and creepy) version with a slightly less saintly Charlie (I like the re-edit on the trailer).

The second version was Tim Burton's 2005 eponymously named blockbuster with Johnny Depp playing Wonka a la Michael Jackson. If you haven't seen both films you have some homework once you are done the book.



Grade: A

Other Dahl reading: I recommend Danny Champion of the World a wonderful story of a single father and his son and their penchant for poaching. James and the Giant Peach is another lovable oddity of Children's Fiction that deserves a look. Also, BFG, Matilda, and The Witches are all solid fare. The sequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator and although it is wild and fun it is not a deserving sequel and worse yet has the unforgivable error of citing Charlie's grandmother's age as 81 when she was declared to be over 90 in the original (okay that's a bit picky). Check out Wes Anderson's sublime film adaption of Dahl's Fantastic Mr. Fox.


Tomorrow's book (Modern Fiction): Louis Bernieres' Captain Corelli's Mandolin (3/501)

Vendetta

Day 1--Book 1/501

Welcome to the Thin Skin of Culture!

General Musings: My arbitrary goal is to struggle through as many films, plays, operas, novels, and non-fiction books, in one lifetime as possible. Join me in the frenetic, shallow, and obsessive goal of becoming a postmodern polymath.

Are you with me? Excited? Overwhelmed? Set your own pace and feel free to cheat, skim, and borrow from my blog as much as you like. This isn't Oprah's Book Club and I am not interested in making this Pygmalion--you're intelligent enough to know when to join in and when to take a pass--just make sure to read the blog.

In terms of books, 501 Must Read Books is our arbitrary reading list for the next 501 days (soon to be followed by 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die). Films, operas, and other arts will spin-off of our reading lists. Every day a new book for the five years. Lets get started shall we?

Today's book (thriller): Michael Dibdin's Vendetta

Michael Dibdin was an Irish crime writer of unusual ability and command of his genre. He studied for his master's degree at University of Alberta (go Golden Bears) after graduating from Sussex University. Although he isn't a household name he is one of those writers that the TLS adored and he won the Golden Dagger back in 1988 for his mystery Ratking. Sadly, Dibdin died a couple of years ago in rainy Seattle. Vendetta is the second in the award winning Aurelio Zen series and it is funny, dark, and intense. Inspector Zen is with the Criminalpol section of the Ministry of the Interior in Italy. His senile mother lives with him, his coworkers are corrupt and malicious, and he is being hunted by a psychopath-- and that is just background! The plot: millionaire Oscar Burolo along with his wife and guests are massacred at his retreat in Sardinia. Burolo has friends (and enemies) in high places and the political machinations of the Ministry tap Zen, widely and incorrectly believed to be crooked, to frame a suitable suspect. Our favorite Roman inspector does one better and dares to solve the crime. A fun well written mystery that makes me want to read the rest of the Zen series (I've only read three of the eleven). If I didn't have my next five years booked I'd be reading them right now.

Grade: B+

Segues: Vendetta is the only Dibdin novel on our lists so you are out of luck for the next five years but I recommend his The Last Sherlock Holmes Story and Thanksgiving--both are intelligent and sublime.

If you love the idea of a blood feud between parties in the old bloody Eumenides style check out V for Vendetta for Guy Fawkesing action (hmmm... that's not really what I meant). Originally a graphic novel from comic god Alan Moore it was adapted to the screen back in 2006 by the Wachowski brothers (of Matrix fame). The 1812 overture never sounded so explosive as the climactic scene in the film and better yet you get to see Natalie Portman naked (if only her head).





Tomorrow's book (Children's Fiction): Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2/501)