kurtwombat's reviews
883 reviews

Giraffes on Horseback Salad: Salvador Dali, the Marx Brothers, and the Strangest Movie Never Made by Josh Frank, Tim Heidecker

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adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

3.25

The very creation of this “graphic novel” is an act of madness. The concept of surrealist painter Salvador Dali writing a screenplay for a proposed madcap Marx Brothers movie in the 1930’s is mind blowing enough. Then comes the modern hubris to create a graphic novel from fragments of that screenplay—the audacity itself being a kind of nod to both Dali and the Marx Brothers. I have been a huge Marx Brothers fan pretty much since birth and a reasonably sized fan of Dali so I was both sides of anxious approaching this book (equal parts eager and concerned). I was eager to see these greats at play but concerned about how they could pull if off without insulting either or both. 
 
Of course this “screenplay” met serious resistance from studios. Despite the author liking to tease otherwise, even if the producer shepherding the Marx Brothers career hadn’t suddenly died—there is no way this movie was being greenlit in 30’s  Hollywood.  There are two critical flaws in getting it accepted and they translate to the book as well. The first is context. While it seems a natural fit to put the madcap Marx Brothers in a surreal setting, the result is they just become part of the wallpaper. The work of the Marx Brothers, as well as Dali’s surrealist paintings, succeed partly because they are set against banal backgrounds. The Marx Brothers need the stuffed shirts and haughty dowagers, straight folks to bounce off of.  Dali too is better served in a gallery—spotlighted insanity—than if his works were put up in the middle of a circus.  The second flaw is saturation. While there is plenty of Dali to be had, the Marx Brothers are underutilized. Groucho & Chico are relegated to goofy sidekick rolls (like the talking animals or objects in a Disney musical) and Harpo doesn’t really appear until the last few pages.  I assumed Harpo would be front and center because it was his meeting with Dali that inspired the who enterprise. I was confused and saddened  by his absence. 
 
That being said, I did mostly enjoy this. Like the Disney characters, Groucho & Chico did add needed spark. Their gags were a mixture of new stuff, referential stuff and stuff simply lifted from their movies. (There is a dictionary gag in this book lifted straight from the “Tootsi Frootsi Ice Cream“ bit in DAY AT THE RACES.) I will admit to a modest thrill seeing them in action, some of the bits deftly delivered—the artist capturing multiple Groucho eye rolls was a particular highlight. The art in general often bordered on the spectacular—a difficult task considering the singularity of Dali’s work. Artist Manuela Pertega, a native of Spain like Dali, caught the spirit of Dali while making a case for her own vision—particularly with her presentation of the Woman Surreal. As this book moves along, the plot calls for and Pertega delivers a growing visual insanity conveying the schism between reality and sur-reality. 
 
I would like to recommend everyone read it in the hopes that they get curious enough to check out a Marx Brothers movie (DUCK SOUP, NIGHT AT THE OPERA, DAY AT THE RACES all classics) or look into the works of Salvador Dali but I acknowledge it likely has a select audience. One can always dream. 
The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

My first Listen With Audrey experience and it was a delight--the presentation includes audio, visual and written notes at the end and themed art work. The poem itself is an intoxicating classic. The quick rhythms that capture you like a whirlpool forever circling inescapable grief beg to be read again the moment you finish.
Silver Screen Fiend: Learning about Life from an Addiction to Film by Patton Oswalt

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dark funny informative reflective medium-paced

2.75

Expected to like this better than I did. I like Patton Oswalt and love movies but this didn’t really gel for me. Ostensibly, this was supposed to be about his becoming a movie maniac for a couple years in such a manner as to negatively affect the rest of his life. He discusses not being in a good space when he went into the mania and being in a better space when coming out but never satisfactorily discusses why he went in or came out or the underlying causes. He whips from one movie to another, maybe the point, but that is irksome to a movie fan. His writing is unsettled through these parts—forced and uncomfortable—like he is still trying to come to grips with it. Where he is at his best, is describing the world of stand-up and some of his personal relationships. These portions are crisp and brisk and too few. The narrative jumps around giving the feel of a loose wheel making a wagon wobble. Really liked a structure he has using Van Gogh’s NIGHT CAFÉ painting to represent pivotal moments in his life but after a promising start that too falls into disarray. A clear concept becomes muddled with repeated applications. Feels portions that didn’t fit into other books were cobbled together to form this one. Mildly enjoyable but mildly disappointing. 
20000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

 I peaked at some reviews before reading this book and quite a few referred to it as boring. I thought, how can a classic novel of undersea adventure be boring. Well, I found out. You do by choking your novel with information about the geography, animal and plant life of the aquatic world that modern folks are either already familiar with or thought they were until confronted with a myriad of Latin terms. I’m sure many of his 1800’s audiences were as mind blown by these descriptions as they were by the action—but that just doesn’t translate. I was inspired to condense the novel to one phrase: 
 
YOU CAN’T SEE THE STORY FOR THE SEAS! 
 
This would be a cracker jack novel if it were 150 pages shorter—or if the interesting segments that pass all too quickly were fleshed out. The potentially fascinating Captain Nemo is too often off the page, as is the entire crew of the Nautilus.  I appreciate not being told everything, but reading over 300 pages I deserve to be told something. Thinking of another equally vengeful sea captain, disappointed that Nemo didn’t get anywhere close the fleshing out of MOBY DICK’s Ahab. Of the other characters I most identified with the Canadian harpooner who almost from the start resents his captivity. Perhaps it’s the translation, but naming a character who longs to escape the sea Ned Land was a bit much. It’s his captivity I feel most keenly—after an interesting start the book really bogs down and I became captive myself. 
 
I did learn one thing. I was always puzzled by the title because 20,000 leagues equals over 60,000 miles. How can they be that far under the sea. But the title refers to the number of miles traveled by the Nautilus during the course of the novel. This mystery solved just became another disappointment. 
Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People by Amy Sedaris

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funny lighthearted fast-paced

4.25

 A most enjoyable and snarky spoof of Crafting Self Help books (and when enjoying the audiobook it feels more like a mock TV show). Not unlike the author’s celebrated TV show At Home with Amy Sedaris, it is as funny but gradually grows darker as it progresses—how dark and in what directions I won’t spoil. Sly in spots, broad in others. Shameless in the best ways. 

Inspector Imanishi Investigates by Seicho Matsumoto

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challenging dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

My Hero Academia, Vol. 1 by Kōhei Horikoshi

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adventurous funny inspiring fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

 My first straight up Manga experience and I quite enjoyed it. Very nice set up for a long series (I was blessed recently with the first 20 installments). Inventive enough to keep this not young adult interested—relieved that there was deftly handled character development and I’m a huge fan of All Might. Looking forward to reading more—hoping the promise of this first chapter carries through. 
An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine

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dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Hidden like a book on a shelf, the life of Aaliya Sohbi is slowly revealed in AN UNNECESSARY WOMAN. She has retired from the world, supplanting her life with literature. Relating her uneasy life through the reassuring eyes of books promotes peace and understanding within her and gives the reader access to depths we might not have expected. From the first page I was at home in her shabby apartment. No matter the weather outside, it feels overcast inside. I can almost smell the mildew, feel the mustiness of a stagnant life clench at my nostrils.  Books are always a refuge. 
 
For a woman who has chosen isolation, her most interesting relationship is with the city she lives in. 
She at once sees Beirut how it is and how it used to be. She has turned it into another book—many chapters and many viewpoints, part history-part biography. 
 
"Beirut…is the Elizabeth Taylor of cities: insane, beautiful, tacky, falling apart, aging, and forever drama laden. She'll also marry any infatuated suitor who promises to make her life more comfortable, no matter how inappropriate he is." 
 
She broadens her reading experience by each year translating a book—the process is really a kind of deep reading since she has no plans to publish or even let anyone else see them. Each translation is  like a relationship that runs it’s course. 
 
The writing is direct and personal. Once in her apartment, drifting with her thoughts, I was content like her. Her life is a path not too distant from my own possibilities. And that is why, when there is an eruptive evolution at the end of the book I was especially delighted. Imagine I would have been happy anyway—as drawn into the narrative as I was. 
 
Quietly seductive and worth the visit. 
Educated by Tara Westover

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad tense fast-paced

5.0

 
Very detailed and lucid account of growing up isolated with and tightly woven into a right wing survivalist family. The main thread of this autobiography is just how tightly woven Tara Westover was into that often abusive family. The extrication happens in many small steps, each feeling like a miracle until you realize there are many more to take. This tension builds throughout—as the children of the family grow up, a darkness envelops their mountain home. Blind obedience fades and questions arise. They chafe under the demands of their dominating father in different ways. Some succumb to the life, some don’t. Tara ultimately finds her salvation in education, hence the title. Perhaps I’m too academically minded, but I would have like to know more about the nuts and bolts of that education. Some of the achievements and finances involved seemed abrupt and fortuitous. Assumed some shortcuts were taken by the editors to make it more readable. I will add that I knew a similarly isolated family, though thankfully not abusive or survivalist, and their kids were all remarkably bright and could have made similar academic jumps. There are a lot of moving familial parts to this drama and the narrative manages to keep them clear. There were times where I was yelling at the book—WHAT ARE YOU DOING!—hoping she’d leave but family is often a bond beyond steel. I will leave you with that frustration warning as well as some disturbing instances of physical abuse—but fascinating all the way through. 
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De Profundis and The Ballad of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde

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challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

 On an almost imperceptible scale, I can identify with the release of writing a well crafted sentence. DE PROFUNDIS was written mostly while Oscar Wilde was in prison—initially denied the ability to write, Wilde was suffocated by the words he couldn’t express. Ostensibly a letter to his lover Lord Alfred Douglas (look up a picture of Douglas online and you will want to start slapping him and never stop), De Profundis becomes an explosion of Oscar Wilde’s heart and soul and mind. He emerges as a man largely transformed by his experience (the spoiled rich like himself that were sentenced to hard labor rarely survived their imprisonment). He doesn’t dismiss his past “sins”, instead the libertine excesses were necessary to get him to prison which was necessary to get him to a more enlightened state. Imprisoned partly because of his own arrogance and partly because of being under the spell of Douglass (again, keep slapping), Wilde weaves a narrative of his relationship with God and the inseparable link between religion and art—art as an expression of nature which is an expression of God. While occasionally redundant or hyperbolic, Wilde expresses his self-discovery with jaw dropping beauty. Eloquent and graceful, like looking at a vast lake where the water is so smooth and glass like it reflects a glorious sky without a flaw. I consider myself spiritual without being religious, but I was genuinely moved by several passages decrying our failures as people to aspire to the beauty of art and God. I don’t want to scare anyone off by making this sound like a born again pamphlet you’ll find stuck on your front door when you get home. It is not that at all. Instead it is a last blast of creative glory from a wildly talented writer—like a fireball flaring out before it falls into oblivion. This is Wilde’s last published prose—he would die a couple years after his release from prison.