Sunday, February 03, 2008

Some Things I Have Recently Enjoyed

Persepolis. I admired more than loved this movie because the story was so familiar (not the author's fault) from Reading Lolita in Tehran. But the images were haunting and the story clearly told. A good capsule of what's happend over the last 30 years. And some of the artwork is stunning.
In Treament is my new addiction. Five nights, five patients, each of them telling a story that is poignant and riveting. All of this is held together by therapist, Gabriel Byrnes, who sees his own therapist on Fridays. I didn't like HBO's fall try at a therapy series but this one, minus the embarrassing clinical sex, looks to be a winner.
I've only seen the first two episodes of this Breaking Bad but Brian Cranston holds the screen with the story of a high school chemistry teacher with lung cancer who raises money to suppost his family (his son has CP and his wife is pregnant) by opening a crystal meth lab in the dessert. It manages to be funny, sad and engrossing so far.
This book defies the notion that a murder must happen by page 3. No crimes take place for 3/4 of the book and I was not bored for a second. Willeford is a genius at setting , character and atmosphere, and most of all, humor. I laughed more reading this book than anything I can remember. I dread the day when I close my last Willeford book

2 comments:

Josephine Damian said...

Patti: I too love the "Treatment" series - thought the opener was the weakest - clearly the sexual transferance plot line was to draw in viewers on the first night.

I liked the three other patient segments - and of course am doing my own "diagnosing" as I watch. A bonus is watching the actress Embeth Davidtz because I have envisioned her in the role of my WIP's MC.

I'll look into that book - I always admire a mystery writer who ignores the advice the "get the gore on the floor" on page one - it's taken me years to have that confidence in my own thrillers - start with the MC, not the killer/the killing.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Yes, I agree that the first was the weakest although my husband adored it. Side Swipe is the third in Willeford's Hoke Moseley series but you don't need to read the others to follow this. A completely different CW book is Pickup, written earlier but really terrific in a William Kennedy kind of way.