sorana_necula_reset

Two for one, three for two: no noun without an adjective, never a single adjective where two or more will do. Silence is "utter", hatred "raw and naked", puddles "brown, murky and stagnant". The quirkiest of all appendages in this novel is the heroine's nose: not only "long, straight" but also "impervious".                                                                   That misplaced "v" embodies the ingredients Thrity Umrigar brings to what might have been a tried (or tired) intertwining of genres: a Mumbai novel, a Mumbai Parsi novel, a post-nationalist slum poverty novel and, perhaps most compelling, a maid-and-mistress story: think Douglas Sirk's film Imitation of Life. The varied elements of this tale of affection and class conflict are carried off with a winning ease and enthusiasm that make it both engross...

Whatever respect I had for Haruki Murakami as a writer - which is considerable - it is as nothing to the depth of my bow down before the Japanese novelist on discovering that he has run an ultramarathon. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami Find this on the Guardian bookshop His description of the physical and mental agonies as he struggled to complete the 62-mile course, followed by the near-religious experience of the last few miles, when he knew he was going to finish, is one of the highlights of what he calls "a kind of memoir". Non-running readers of his novels will probably ask: "Why on earth did he run 62 miles when he knew it would hurt so much?" Runners ask a different question: "Why have I never done that?" I did have a plan to run 50 miles on my 50th birthday last year but a cycling injury to my calf - like Murakami, I also do triathlon - grounded me. Now, also like him, my running is accompanied by const...

Readers of her ``Life in the 30s'' column in the New York Times (collected in Living Out Loud ) know Quindlen as an astute observer of family relationships. Her first novel is solid proof that she is equally discerning and skillful as a writer of fiction. To sensitive Maggie Scanlan, the summer when she turns 13 is ``the time when her whole life changed.'' Aware that her father, Tommy, had outraged the wealthy Scanlan clan by marrying the daughter of an Italian cemetery caretaker, Maggie is a bridge between her ``outcast'' mother and her grandfather, whose favorite she is. Domineering, irascible, intolerant John Scanlan looks down on both Pope John XXII and President Kennedy for deviating from traditional Catholic doctrine. His iron hand crushes his wife and grown children, and when he decides that Maggie's parents and their soon-to-be-five offspring should move from their slightly shabby Irish Catholic Bronx suburb to a large house in Westchester which he h...

                                                                                                                  Philip Roth's angry, painful novella The Dying Animal, about Roth's recurring and now ageing character David Kepesh and his self-lacerating affair with a beautiful young student, has been intelligently transformed into a movie called Elegy. The change of title is a clue to how the text has been softened and sweetened - elegies are composed in honour of dead people, not dying animals - but the result works perfectly well on its own terms, and it is substantially better than the last Roth adaptation to reach the screen, The Human Stain. As the story of a love affair and its long, unhappy endgame, ...

The film is based on writer-director-producer  Sean Hanish’s  own experience, as it tells the story of  Maggie  and  Aaron  ( Minnie Driver  and  Paul Adelstein ) in the aftermath of a stillbirth. Maggie falls into depression, their relationship and their relationship crumbles, and eventually they’re faced with another pregnancy and the uncertainty that comes with it. Cheery subject matter, I know. But if you can believe it, the movie avoids corniness, and there was minimal eye-rolling on my part, which you can imagine is one of the highest compliments for me to pay a movie. Minnie Driver’s performance definitely helped, and fortunately the script lived up to the star power. It felt honest and truthful to how real people talk about their problems, without relying heavily on cliche or metaphor. She made me really feel for her character, and unlike with other TV movies about serious issues, I didn’t find myself wondering the whole time, “Is t...

Gleeson plays Father Lavelle, a no-nonsense but grounded priest on the gorgeous Sligo coast, and during confession one of his parishoners tells him that he is going to kill him in a week's time. Instead of trying to sway his would-be assassin, the good priest simply continues about his business, as he plays the role of one part police detective, one part social worker, and one part therapist for the entire village. Despite the tiny population, the village is full of a vast array of characters, with an excellent supporting cast - Kelly Reilly, Dylan Moran, Chris O'Dowd, Domhnaill Gleeson, David Wilmot - bringing them all to life. The terrific new film from writer-director  John Michael McDonagh , is a whodunnit with a difference, a black comedy with aspirations, merrily lifting its name from the small hill outside Jerusalem where Jesus was slain.  Calvary : the title serves notice and puts the viewer on guard. It flashes like the final destination on the front of a bus, as M...