(via Caustic Cover Critic)

It’s been a long while since I’ve read anything this wonderful, engrossing, or disturbing.  It’s been years since I’ve read anything this good.

Let The Right One In is everything that you think it is, and nothing that you think it is.  Vampires, you think.  Well, you’re right.  Sort of.

If you’re coming across this title completely unawares: Let The Right One In is, more or less, the story of friendship between an ostracized almost teenager and a young-seeming (but very old) vampire.  What stands out, aside from the quality of the writing and the fantastical element of vampires (which is actually not heavy-handed for 95% of the book) is the believability of the story.  People act like you’d expect them to act, and are, if not fully realized, at least compelling characterizations.

It’s a story of friendship and loneliness, and of suffering and depravity (and of identity and anonymity) — but in all the wrong places.  Not wrong, necessarily, but unexpected.  Which is to say the story takes your expectations and muddles with your brain.  Makes you wonder.  Surprises you with what you already know.  There’s much in the story to find disturbing, but it doesn’t always come from the places you want it to come from, if you can want it to come from anywhere.  “Expect” is a better word, but not the right one.  The story doesn’t always lead where you’d hope. When it does, maybe you wish that’s not what you had hoped.

Let The Right One In makes you wonder about people, like you always do.  Makes you think.  Believe.  Wonder.

There’s not much that can be said without giving away the progression — the learning — of reading through the book, or watching the movie.  Lindqvist adds some interesting details to the science of vampires: curious asides that, for all their apparent insignificance, only work to strengthen the narrative as a whole.

Having come to the book by way of the movie, I feel like this is one of the few instances where neither the book nor the movie let the other down.  Both perform exceptionally; having seen the movie, the book still surprised me.  Changed my impressions, but without diluting the impact of the movie.  The book and movie are different in many ways, but they complement each other extraordinarily well.  They’ll bear re-reading & re-watching.

I loved this book.  I expect a long drought before I find something as interesting, challenging, and satisfying.

p.s. although what is the square root of a pork chop?

(via monochrom)

The thesis pursued in this article is that this strong thematic aspect of The Dark Knight finds its roots in a short story by the labyrinthine Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges.

(via monochrom)

In Theaters:

• Let The Right One In – Easily the best vampire movie of 2008, and likely the best of the past few years (if not longer).  ’Let The Right One In’ was bizarre, brooding, bloody, and just right — if frequently in an uncomfortable, awkard sort of way. [imdb]
• The Quantum of Solace – ‘Casino Royale’ set a high standard, of which Quantum fell short; but it was still worlds above the most recent Bond movies prior to ‘Casino Royale’.  Also, I tend to have a soft spot for supervillains with credible plans (which is to say, impossible plans, but at least plans that don’t aim for total world domination… right away).
• There Will Be Blood – I was sold from the opening dissonance.  Not an easy movie by most standards, but well worth the challenge.  Dry, solid, menacing.  Powerful.
• The Dark Knight - What’s to say?  It’s mostly been said.  Superb.  Almost pitch-perfect, although I could have done with a slightly more subtle Two-Face.
• Tropic Thunder – I was completely startled by ‘Tropic Thunder’, which I did not expect to like at all.  Not only was the movie hilarious, but — well, mostly it was just hilarious.  Disconcertingly so.  Also, disconcerting.
• Tell No One – Not necessarily what you’d expect from an American mystery re-written for France… but surprisingly excellent.  The premise — a widower, years after his wife’s death, receives an email (sort of) indicating that his wife might still be alive — starts off weak, but is worked into the otherwise tightly spun plot.  Tension-filled, confusing, and humane. [imdb]
• Iron Man – This was just spectacular, big screen superhero sci-fi fun.  Well put-together, well told.  And shiny.

On DVD:

• The Man from Earth – I watched this based on a recommendation, but without knowing what it was about.  You should too. [imdb]
• Triplets of Belleville – An off-kilter cartoon, at turns sad and brilliant, that takes you on a brilliant romp.  Worth it for the dog alone.  The dog!  The animation is gorgeous to watch, and the scenery (and plot) is wild. [imdb]
• The Orphanage – Standard-issue horror movies tend to be crap — sometimes by design (which can work quite well), but just as often not; it’s the rare horror movie that’s earnest and atmospheric and really compelling.  The Orphanage is one such movie.
• Redbelt - I will say right away that I’m a fan of David Mamet.  I enjoy the unique… cadence of his dialogue, and his films.  Some people do not warm to the style, and ‘Redbelt’ is likely not for them.  I enjoyed ‘Redbelt’ quite a lot.  By comparison, I’d say ‘Redbelt’ is better than ‘Spartan’ or ‘Heist’, but not as complete as ‘The Spanish Prisoner’ or ‘House of Games’. [imdb]

Books

There are few stand-outs from among the books I read in 2008.  Unusually, I have few fiction recommendations to pass along — and none that were published this year.  I look forward to reading through some outstanding fiction this year.  We’ll see how that goes.

• Gang Leader for a Day, by Sudhir Venkatesh [nonfiction] – Despite not having read Freakonomics (which, apparently, uses anecdotes from Venkatesh in its telling), I was intrigued by the premise of this book — a sociologist drawn into a gang.  I was surprised by how humanizing and “impartial” (though that’s not the right word) Venkatesh manages to be while still remaining true to the basic facts of the places he hangs out.  You’d think “visits” would be a more appropriate verb, but you’d be wrong.  A surprising book, if not totally worldview-shattering.
• A Night in the Cemetery, by Anton Chekhov [fiction] – (Mostly) early short stories by Chekhov, stories of foreboding and murder and mystery.  A collection of crime stories that manages to be much more.  A really solid group of stories.
• Traffic, by Tom Vanderbilt [nonfiction] – Maybe you spend enough time in traffic during the day, and couldn’t care less about why it exists — and maybe you wonder.  Maybe you’re curious why people drive like they do; sure, you know why you drive the way you do, but–well, maybe you don’t.  A fascinating look at traffic, built on anecdotes and research, stories and experiments.  A (startlingly) fun read, quick, entertaining, and quite possibly useful.
• The Year Million, edited by Damien Broderick  [nonfiction] - An anthology of speculative nonfiction examining what the far future will look like.  Not 100 or 200 years into the future but, as the title suggests, orders of magnitude more.  The writing is uneven — not surprising, given the wide assortment of authors — but the unabashed creativity and imagining is not: regardless of what ends up being true, the writers here have created a magnificent (and daring) work of speculation.
• Out of Eden, by Alan Burdick  [nonfiction] – You may hear people speak disparagingly of alien mussels and invasive shrubs and non-native weeds.  It’s doubtful you’ve traveled as many places as Alan Burdick has specifically to talk about those things, however.  And you probably haven’t uncovered the nuances between the terms, or the tensions among different groups of people and how they conceive of such species.  If you’re concerned about invasives, you’ll learn a lot from this book — although you may walk away from it with a more sophisticated appreciation for the different ways species mix in our world.
• The True History of the Kelly Gang, by Peter Carey [fiction] – True history is misleading, though the book is based on a historical figure — 19th Century Australian outlaw/folk hero/bandit Ned Kelly and, you guessed it, his gang.  Told in many different ways, in wildly creative “dialogue” (and dialect), ‘True History’ is a compelling, fast read.  (Although you ought to look at the first few pages, and see if the style is something you can tolerate — because if it’s not, the book will be truly unbearable and, worse, unfinishable for you!) 
• Wild Trees, by Richard Preston [nonfiction] – A look at the eclectic communities of climbers and researchers structured around the mysterious, giant trees of coastal California.  You wouldn’t expect the world’s largest things to be as secret as some of them are — it turns out to be much more difficult to figure out the height of these giants than you’d imagine.  A curious turn for the writer of The Hot Zone, but one to which he’s clearly committed — the time and effort spent on this book are clearly impressive.

(via Bookslut via TMN)

Secret reason: James Bond was an ornithologist.  And Ian Fleming enjoyed birding.

Perfect!

(Although I realize this may already be semi-common knowledge that I’ve merely evaded up to this point.)

(via a silly list in The Atlantic)

A book’s journey from one language into another can be perilous. The Russian title for J. D. Salinger’s classic tale of adolescence translates as “Above the Precipice in the Rye.” A clerk in a Yokohama bookshop once told John Steinbeck’s wife that yes, he had a copy of Steinbeck’s “Angry Raisins.” Has this bumpy road gotten any smoother in recent years? Let the following quiz be your guide.

…

3. James Finn Garner dedicated his best seller “Politically Correct Bedtime Stories” to his wife, Lies (pronounced “lease”), which is the Dutch equivalent of Elizabeth. In the Norwegian edition, the book’s dedication reads:

a) “This book is dedicated to Untruths, for everything”
b) “For Dissembling, my everything”
c) “For Rental Unit, my north star”
d) “Lies Flat, I can’t live without you”

(via NYT: “Transloosely Literated,” by Henry Alford [6 Jul 2008])

The (terribly informal) verdict:

Believable: Iron Man, Batman

Unbelievable: The Incredible Hulk

Quote:

Now, many people are aware that the most incredible thing about the Hulk is the way his pants always stay on when he expands to ten times his original volume.

But did you also know:

The good superhero stories require only one miracle exemption from the laws of nature.

Oh.  You did?  Well then.

(via SciFi Scanner)