The Virgin’s Lover is another historical novel by the popular British writer Philippa Gregory. Gregory has very obviously done a tremendous amount of research on British history in general, and the Tudors in particular. The Virgin’s Lover tells the story of the early years of the reign of England’s Elizabeth I.
Elizabeth was only 25 when she ascended to the throne. She was the daughter of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. She succeeded her older half-sister Mary I, the daughter of King Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon. Mary died at the age of 45, leaving no heirs. For a time during Mary’s reign, Elizabeth had been imprisoned in the Tower of London. There were, of course, a number of other candidates with claims to the throne but, shortly before her death, Mary recognized Elizabeth as her heir. Elizabeth was crowned at Westminster Abbey on January 15, 1559.
Matters at the Court were not easy, particularly for a young and inexperienced Queen. Elizabeth relied heavily on her advisers, particularly William Cecil. These are the generally accepted facts. From this point on, Gregory takes the story into the realm of fiction. She presumes that Elizabeth falls in love with the married Robert Dudley (later named Earl of Leicester) and begins a passionate affair with him. This book follows the trajectory of their affair and its consequences.
Elizabeth, of course, never married (hence the sobriquet “Virgin Queen”) but, for much of her reign, she entertained various royal suitors. Most of these proposed matches were considered for political purposes. In The Virgin’s Lover, Elizabeth negotiated with emissaries from King Philip II of Spain (the widower of her late sister) as well as from the Hapsburg Archduke Charles of Austria.
This book doesn’t grab your attention like The Other Boleyn Girl. It took me a while to get into the story. For me the interest was more about life in sixteenth-century England. However, as more of the back story was revealed, and as the machinations of the Tudor court were depicted, I got more interested in the story. So, if you don’t care for this book at first, it is worth reading a bit further on.
In USA:
Published in hardcover-Touchstone 2004
Softcover edition-Touchstone 2005
The Virgin’s Lover (Boleyn)
The Mandelbaum Gate by Muriel Spark is the third book I’ve completed for the Book Awards Challenge. In 1965, it was the winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Muriel Spark is better known for writing The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, which was made into a movie in 1969.
This novel takes place in Israel and Jordan in 1961. Barbara Vaughan is a British schoolteacher, and a convert to Catholicism. She travels to the Holy Land to go on a pilgrimage, and to visit her fiance, an archaeologist at a dig in Jordan. Freddy Hamilton is an employee at the British Consulate in Jerusalem. Since Barbara was born half-Jewish, Freddy decides that it is too dangerous for her to travel to Jordan alone. Freddy arranges for her to tour Jordan in disguise. As a consular officer, Freddy travels freely between Israel and Jordan. In 1961, Jerusalem was a divided city so Freddy’s back and forth between counties essentially consisted of walking through the eponymous Mandelbaum Gate between East and West Jerusalem.
At the same time, the trial of Adolph Eichmann is proceeding in Tel Aviv. One of Barbara’s Jewish cousins, an international lawyer, is called to Israel to consult on the case. Barbara meets with him, and attends one session of the Eichmann trial.
And there are many other peripheral characters in this book. Unfortunately when each is introduced, there is no way of knowing if the character will be integral to the story, or not. While the story is interesting, the writing seems dated and stilted. The chapters are quite long, which makes the book seem disorganized.
Now, it’s not that this is a bad book, I just think it was written in a different style than we generally see these days with popular novels. It’s a bit dated sand lightly difficult to get through. The true value of The Mandelbaum Gate is reminding us that what we now call Israel was controlled, not too long ago, by Arabs who hated Israel. The book does refer somewhat to the issue of the Palestinian refugees, but also only in a rather offhand way. I have a hard time enthusiastically recommending this book to anyone, except as a curiosity.
In USA:
Published in hard cover-Alfred A. Knopf 1965
Softcover edition-Welcome Rain Publishers 2001
The Mandelbaum Gate
Wall-E, the animated Disney film, is absolutely charming. Wall-E, the robot, is irresistible. Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class has spent 700 years cleaning up the planet. He compacts and stacks the trash one cube at a time. His only companion is a plucky cockroach. In his spare time, Wall-E watches a clip from Hello Dolly! No, Wall-E is not your ordinary robot.
One day, a space ship lands and out comes Extra-terrestrial Vegetation Evaluator, a state of the art probe deployed by Axiom. Wall-E is enamored of EVE, and he hitch a ride on the ship when it returns EVE to her home in space. And then the complications begin.
Like other Disney/Pixar ventures, Wall-E is extremely well done. It will appeal to all ages. There is very little dialog, but those who are too young to follow the plot will nevertheless be captivated by the the music, the action, and of course the robots. I’d recommend this to anyone, except for anyone who is really a curmudgeon.
Wall-E (Wall-E and Eve) Movie Poster Print - 24″ X 36″
Well, I finally got around to seeing The Dark Knight, the latest chapter in the ongoing saga of Batman movies. It really was not a priority for me to see this movie, since I figured that teen age boys were really the demographic it was aimed at. To my surprise, I actually liked it.
The Dark Knight has a stellar cast. And they were all at their best. The late Heath Ledger was truly an accomplished actor. His portrayal of The Joker, the archvillain of this movie, was amazing. Ledger’s Joker was scary, creepy, and not at all campy like Jack Nicholson’s. And it was light years beyond Cesar Romero’s in the original Batman TV series.
As Batman, Christian Bale far surpassed his own portrayal from Batman Begins. He is a much more convincing Batman. As a bonus, his gadgets and vehicles are better than in the previous movie. Special mention must be made of Maggie Gyllenhall, who does a much better job in the role of Rachel Dawes than Katie Holmes. And the rest of the cast was quite good as well.
The movie is dark and sinister. The sound track keeps pounding away throughout the film. But the action never stops and it is a thrilling movie.
The Dark Knight: Featuring Production Art and Full Shooting Script
Mariner’s Compass by Earlene Fowler is the second of ten books I’m reading for the Book Awards Reading Challenge. It’s kind of fun trying to find books that I ordinarily would not read. And this is one of them. Mariner’s Compass won the 2000 Agatha Award for Best Novel. I don’t know too much about the Agatha Awards, but I believe they are reader generated for mystery writing, so there are really no standards except popularity.
Fowler has written quite a few books with the same main character, Benni Harper. This is the first I’ve heard of Fowler and Benni Harper. It’s sometimes difficult warming up to a character mid-series, but I had no problems here. Benni Harper lives in the fictional town of San Celina, located on California’s central coast. She is newly married to the town’s Chief of Police, Gabe Ortiz.
As the book opens, Benni receives a phone call from her friend Amanda, who is a local lawyer. Amanda informs Benni that she is the sole beneficiary of the estate of the recently deceased Jacob Chandler, a man Benni has never met. In order to inherit the estate, Benni must sleep at Chandler’s now vacant house alone every night for two weeks.
As soon as Benni takes up the challenge, complications ensue. There are friends and acquaintances of Chandler’s who don’t think Benni is entitled to Chandler’s estate. There is a dog who comes with the house. And of course Gabe, the ever suspicious policeman, does not want Benni involved in this at all. Benni, however, is determined to see this through and discover who Jacob Chandler is, and why she is his heir.
Chandler left clues for Benni, and she follows them in a scavenger hunt fashion. These clues take her all over central and southern California. In fact for me, the most interesting parts of the book are the descriptions of rural California.
Benni (like Fowler) is an avid quilter. Jacob Chandler was a highly skilled woodworker. These two crafts are woven into the story, and also add some interest. Basically, this book was easy and fun to read. it was, however, rather bland and lacked the excitement of a great mystery.
In USA:
Published in hardcover-Penguin Putnam 1999
Softcover edition-Berkley 2000
Mariner’s Compass (Benni Harper Mystery)
This being a Presidential election year, there was bound to be a movie about…a Presidential election! Sorry, I don’t intend to sound cynical. I really enjoyed Swing Vote. Yes, it celebrates voter fraud and neglectful parenting but, let’s face it, it’s a movie.
Kevin Costner plays Bud Johnson, the above mentioned neglectful parent. His intelligent, well-spoken twelve year old daughter Molly (who really is the parent in the relationship) expects her drunk, shiftless, uninformed father to vote in the election. They live in the improbably named town of Texico, New Mexico (which, by the way, actually exists in Curry County). After the polls close on Election Day, there is no President due to a near tie in the electoral votes. And New Mexico’s votes are split. Due to a glitch in a voting machine, Bud’s vote is invalidated. New Mexico law allows him to file a petition to re-vote. Bud Johnson’s vote, therefore, will decide the Presidential election.
When Bud’s new voting day is set the Presidential candidates, played by Kelsey Grammer and Dennis Hopper, and their staffs, and the media descend on Texico. The candidates begin wooing Bud shamelessly, even turning his favorite fishing river into a protected wilderness.
Swing Vote shows politicians at their worst, and does promote the power of the single vote. I really enjoyed it, despite the fact that it presents such an extremely unlikely scenario. Just remember that it is only a movie.
Swing Vote [Theatrical Release]
First of all, I should qualify this review by saying I saw the Broadway production of Mamma Mia twice, and I own quite a bit of Abba music. And imagine how disappointed I was on a recent trip to Stockholm to find that the Abba Museum was not opening until next year.
Anyway, this movie was a lot of fun. No, Pierce Brosnan can’t sing. And of course it’s improbable that dozens of people would break out in song and dance at the same time. But that’s musicals. And this is pure movie musical escapist fantasy.
For anyone who doesn’t know, Mamma Mia is, essentially, the songs of Abba strung together around a very thin plot. Sophie, a young woman played by Amanda Seyfried is engaged to be married to Sky, played by Dominic Cooper (whom you may have seen and remembered as Dakin in The History Boys). Sophie’s mom is Donna, played ably by Meryl Streep, but she does not know who her father is. Since she wants her father to be at her wedding, she secretly invites three old boyfriends of her mother’s to her wedding.
Where there are secrets, there are complications. Don’t worry, there is a happy ending.
Christine Baranski and Julie Walters (Mrs. Weaslyof Harry Potter fame) play Meryl Streep’s two fun-loving, singing, dancing sidekicks. They make a great trio. So see this movie and, if you do go, please stay for the closing credits.
Mamma Mia!
Michael Ondaatje’s Divisadero is beautifully constructed and written. It is a bit complex, and difficult to explain without divulging too many details, but I’ll try.
It is the story of three children, raised by the same man, whose name we never learn. The eldest child, a boy named Cooper, was taken in by the man and his wife after a tragedy destroyed his family. Anna was born to the man’s wife, Lydia Mendez, who died shortly thereafter. When the man took Anna home from the hospital, he also took Claire, another baby who had been born at the same time and been orphaned. This family lives and works on a farm in Northern California, near Petaluma.
The story begins when the children are teenagers, in the 1970’s. Initially, Anna is the narrator. After an incident of extreme violence tears apart the family, Cooper and Anna leave the farm. When the story picks up, many years have passed. The children are grown, and each is leading a separate life. The have, in fact, not seen or spoken to one another since the incident.
The remainder of the story is told from each of their viewpoints. They take different paths to adulthood. Anna is living in rural France, researching the life of Lucien Seguro, a writer. In his life, we see echoes of the lives of our original characters.
As I said, this book is a bit difficult to explain but it is worth reading. Divisadero is a winner of the Governor General’s Award for fiction. This prize is given by the Canada Council for the Arts. Michael Ondaatje’s best known work is likely The English Patient, which was a Man Booker Prize winner. Ondaatje’s prose is lyrical and quite, and lovely to read. If you’re looking for a novel to challenge you a bit, this might be it. And speaking of challenges, this book is the first of ten I’m reading for the book awards reading challenge.
In USA:
Published in hardcover-Alfred A. Knopf-2007
Softcover edition-Vintage-2008
Divisadero
