Stoner by John Williams

 

In this weeks Sunday Times in the regular article "Dead, alive and underrated", Taffy Brodesser-Akner chooses Stoner by John Williams for the first of these. This is one of my very favourite books. Here is my review from 28th January 2014.

The last in a trilogy of American University novels I have read recently, and equal to the wonderful The Art of Fielding and The Secret History. Recently rediscovered in the UK, John Williams' novel Stoner from 1965 is a beautiful, sad but at times uplifting story of William Stoner, a farm boy who finds literature during his time at the University of Missouri. There he stays to teach and we follow his quiet life through all it's ups and downs. But what propels this book to it's status as Waterstone's Book of the Year is the prose. Simple and clear, you are able to race through the sentences whilst at the same time absorbing everything on the page. The writing flows expertly and intelligently and keeps the reader involved despite the subject matter. A simple life, one mainly devoid of love and humour. Stoner has difficulty with relationships, although most are not of his own making. I was so angry at certain points in the story that I wanted to throw the book across the room. Chapter 8 is 14 pages of domestic horror. Is Stoner one of life's losers? We have to ask that question. I don't think so. He may have been if he stayed on his parent's farm. But he had choices. He married the wrong woman, and perhaps these days he would have left. But in the 1930's and 40's things were different. But he had his books and his teaching and for him, that was just enough.

I was going to read it again but cannot find it on my bookshelf. A new copy would be nice.

Parthenope at The Rex Berkhamsted

 

Set amongst the villas on the coast outside the city of Naples, this Italian film is a thing of beauty. The light, the colour, the locations, all are a delight. As are the cinematography, the clothes and music. The story of Parthenope less so but still worth seeing. Loosely based on a siren from Greek mythology on this same coastline, writer/director Paolo Sorrentino has made a homage to his home city. He has cast Celeste Dalla Porta in her break out role as the great beauty. But she never really takes advantage of her looks, more interested in her academic studies in anthropology. This is just a side plot of little significance, although it does bring in Devoto Marotta as Silvio Orlando as her tutor, and the best acting in the movie. These  scenes are the most dramatic. 

Then there is Gary Oldman, no less, as the famous writer John Cheever. (Of course Parthenope loves his books, but he sees nothing in her). I would love a film about this man. See picture below. Of less interest is the too long section towards the end when Parthenope meets the awful Cardinal Teserone, maybe an excuse to see the seedier side of Naples. At well over two hours, this film would have been far better with this part cut out. But we had to see the dark side of the city. Especially at night the long straight street called Spaccanapoli. (It did remind me of when we took the train from Sorrento to Naples, Alison just getting off at Pompeii. The walk from the station in Naples to the sea front was, I remember, through a seedy part of the city, but one particular church was superb. And I did get to see the Galleria Umberto, also in the film. I took the ferry back to Sorrento.)

So the film is visually stunning. It is the locations that make this movie. Catherine Wheatley in a 25th May post for Sight and Sound magazine called it "a swooning tribute to Naples" and that "it puts beauty before plot". However she likes "the images - the images - etc". We also see Capri. Everything lit in the sun. One particular piece of music was wonderful. Valse triste Opus 44 No 1 by Sibelius.

Movies at Home: The Ladykillers

 

I was surprised that this 1955 film was in colour. The other big surprise was at the beginning when elderly Mrs Wilberforce visits the police station. And who does she meet but the Superintendent played by Jack Warner. An in-joke by the producers as the actor was famous for playing humble PC George Dixon in the BBC series Dixon of Dock Green that ran between 1955 and 1976. That was after Jack's police officer was shot dead by Dirk Bogarde in 1950's The Blue Lamp. However, on with the film. Mrs Wilberforce has advertised for a lodger and who turns up but Alec Guinness in his creepiest role of all time. She agrees to his friends joining him to rehearse their music.

But obviously this is all a front for a robbery that becomes the chaotic thread of the whole movie. The vehicle they use is actually a 1951 Studbaker Champion, an American car would you believe. Well the whole film has this air of craziness. The robbery makes use of some wonderful London locations. (I was ten and living in West Kensington when the film was made in 1955). In fact the website REELSTREETS has a complete run down of the exterior shots. I was amazed at just how deserted the roads were in those days. 

Back at Mrs Wilberforce's house there are so many twists and turns in the plot, with an ending about which I had no idea. It's here that the railway behind the house comes into play. I had seen so many scenes of this movie on different programs, but never the last reel. See other posts on this blog for producer Michael Balcombe and director Alexander McKendrick. They have a starry cast that also includes the crooks: Peter Sellers, Cecil Parker, Herbert Lom and Danny Green. All outplayed by Katie Johnson as Mrs Wilberforce. My overall impression was that it does become a little repetitive in the second half as well as a bit sinister. A black comedy, certainly. 

Classic Movies on Sky Arts - Series 3 Episode 1 - The Story of The Ipcress File

 

A new series of Classic Movies introduced and written by Ian Nathan. With the presenters from the previous series. Ian is at the Royal Albert Hall (that features in the film) to tell us that 1965's The Ipcress File is "one of the greatest spy movies ever made". Michael Caine, in his breakthrough role, is Harry Palmer. The producer Harry Saltzman like him in Zulu . Other actors had been considered but as Neil Norman says, he is "so appropriate for the role".

But this was the "perfect antidote to Bond". The producer and director Sidney J Furie went out of their way to make everything different. It is shot in near monochrome that Neil Norman says is "gritty". The book on which the film is based was published in 1952. Written by Len Deighton who was hired to write the first draft of the screenplay. We hear all about his background, going to school at Marylebone Grammar. Ian Nathan tells us he based the main character on a "dull kid at school" called ... Harry Palmer. Deighton gave him this anti-authoritarian personality, just out of military prison. A type of personality straight out of American gumshoes with  Stephen Armstrong describing his "no respect for authority". But he looks after himself with Christian Newland describing him "making his own elaborate meal".

Neil Norman explains the plot that involves the "classic double agent". It's about the abduction of scientists with Stephen Armstrong saying it's about "traitors, brainwashing and spies". Ian talks about all the "mistrust in the (secret) service". Palmer's boss is Major Dolby plated by Nigel Green.  Shot in 1964, the city locations are all so familiar to me, living in West London at the exact same time in the sixties: Shepherd's Bush, Kensington Gore but not the city centre. We hear about how the film was made, Ken Adam's sets and the cinematography. A punch up in a telephone box is filmed through the window. Neil Norman says that this is "almost avant-garde film making" with the director making all these inventive shots. 

Neil Norman talks about the final act, "when a spy gets on a train there is always danger". The brainwashing clip is still disturbing today. The music is by John Barry, the score is deliberately almost off key. Christina says this gave the film it's "very distinct sound". Stephen Armstrong summed up the film as "a piece of history" with Ian adding that it was "masterful". I saw it at least twice when it was released in 1965. I need to see it again.

Wonderland: Science Fiction in the Atomic Age - Episode 4 Quatermass to Christopher Nolan

 

When I was young I desperately wanted to watch Quatermass, the TV series that starts this fourth and (thank goodness) final episode of this series. But I was not allowed. I was eight and living in London when 1953's The Quatermass Experiment was broadcast. It was the first British seriously adult drama from the BBC that "terrified its's large British audience". Perhaps my parents were right. But it was a big hit. The following feature films had even greater success such as Quatermass and The Pit. They seem so tame these days. 

We then hear about the John Wyndham novels (some of my favourites as a late teenager) that were then made into films. An extract from The Day of the Triffids takes me back. After Doctor Who and those Daleks, we are into 2001, A Space Odyssey (that I watched in the first row of the Odeon Leicester Square when it first opened), Close Encounters of the Third Kind and A.I. Artificial Intelligence that is described as "attractive but sinister" and that I found so sad. I wasn't sure about references to Neuromancer. 

We then have all sorts of short clips from who knows where. The producer then describes Ridley Scott's Blade Runner and the  earlier novel on which it is based Do Androids dream of Electric Sheep? Alien gets a mention as does The Matrix where the narrator tries to unravel it's complexities. I was unimpressed by the inclusion of all those Marvel films (are superhero movies science fiction?) Followed by The Dark Knight? and The Day After Tomorrow. Fortunately we see a clip from the film and hear about Cormac McCarthy's The Road. Of course it was the producer that had saved himself to tread an extract. But does it end with Kim Stanley Robinson's The Ministry of the Future. Why?

Just to add the same presenters from previous episodes are here, although nearly all is narrated by Adrian Munsey, producer, director, music, editing and everything else. Is this one man's vanity project? He does have unseen Anna Wilson-Jones as a part time narrator, but it's all a bit of a mess, cramming so  much in. Avoid in the future.

Pro Kleen Grass Green

 

With no rain for nearly three weeks, lots of sunny weather and higher than normal temperatures, many of the lawns are suffering from lack of rain. However, the lawn treatment I used at the beginning of April seems to have done it's stuff despite the lack of soil under our turf. I have not had to water the grass and despite the forecast for many more days of sunshine, I am confident I will not have to. All this without Green Thumb treatments. Good old Pro Kleen Grass Green.

This was how it looked in the middle of March after the moss was raked out.

Let's Do It: The Birth of Pop by Bob Stanley - Chapters 21 to 30

 

21 Pardon My Pups: The Boswell Sisters

Tell me, why do we alternate chapters of a particular genre with an actual artist? The Boswell Sisters were, apparently a singing trio who appeared in a couple of films with Bing Crosby that "don't do them justice". Then something about Mildred Bailey who may have been an inspiration for Billie Holiday and others. 

22 Make These People Sway: British Dance Bands

I'm more on familiar territory here. Starting in the 1920's "it was modern, streamlined and it felt like the future, a sophisticated future". The bands had adopted a string bass and Spanish guitar to replace the sousaphone and banjo. In the West End of London, Ambrose was playing at The Mayfair Hotel and Jack Jackson at The Dorchester. (To digress, Jack Jackson started out as trumpeter and bandleader. I knew him when he became a radio compere and then a disc jockey. I remember him on Radio Luxemburg at the end of the 1950's and early 60's presenting Jack Jackson's Juke Box. Never more than a minute for each record fast and furiously interspersed with humour, noises and anything he could think of.)

New halls were springing up everywhere to host live music and dancing such as the Hammersmith Palais. Bandleaders such as Henry Hall, Harry Roy, Ambrose and Geraldo made a lot of money. With others I had never heard of who get pages and pages. 

23 Fascinating Rhythm: Fred Astaire and the Dance Hall Boom

Does the dancer Fred deserve a chapter of his own on pop music. Maybe the author needed this to create the fifty chapters. So much is familiar: his dancing partners, and the movies such as Top Hat in 1936. But we also hear about the sad story of Leslie "Hutch" Hutchinson where the author cannot resist telling us a nasty piece about racism in Britain that supposedly led to his demise. He should keep these remarks for another book. 

24 Eighty-Eight Key Smiles: Fats Waller and Friends

Another artist whose LP I played time and time again. We hear about the background of Fats Waller and how he became the greatest of all the stride-piano players. We are told a lovely story about how Fats was abducted to play at a birthday party of one Al Capone. By the end of the 1920's he was composing standards such as Ain't Misbehavin'. "His workload was prolific", so many recordings, so many appearances. We then hear about his major composition, the six part London Suite. All on YouTube.

Maybe the most interesting bit was about the pianist Art Tatum who Fats thought was God. Art's technique was simply superlative in all genres of music. Far more modern than Fats and, again, lots on YouTube. Finally a note about Earl Hines who played with Louis Armstrong (I may have that record) before taking his own band on the road.

25 Tight Like That: The Age of Swing

I was looking forward to this chapter. America's big bands were hugely popular with so many big names of whom I have seen a few live (Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Woody Herman). But not Benny Goodman, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Glen Miller, Artie Shaw, Gene Kupra, Les Brown (and his band of renown) and Stan Kenton who were just the ones I knew. 

These bands saw the large growth in big ballrooms and spectacular venues where the dancing boom had been popularised by Fred Astaire. They were made for the big bands. Hollywood's Palladium had 12,500 square feet of dancefloor and 35,000 were there the week Harry James played there. 

However, the author tells us that "swing was born at Roseland (1658 Broadway) in the late 1920's thanks to Fletcher Henderson and his orchestra" with it's biggest success in 1935/6. We hear about their history and the thirteen piece orchestra. See their Harlem Madness on YouTube. The only member of the band I knew was saxophonist Coleman Hawkins.

There is then a part about Benny Goodman, his tours and residencies. There is so much detail in this book that it makes my head hurt. Their recording sessions, where they played. So much detail. The same goes for Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Tommy Dorsey etc etc.

26 Serenade in Blue: The Great American Songbook

These are "a collection of standards that began with Jerome Kern's They Didn't Believe Me. Apart from the obvious composers of whom we have already heard, many of the big songs were written by people we had never heard of. Such as Herman Hupfeld who wrote As Time Goes By. The list goes on and on. Then a much longer piece about Cole Porter, obviously. But then why do the Marx Brothers come into this chapter??? Thank goodness it ends with George Gershwin's songs for Fred Astaire's 1937 film Shall We Dance, that included many standards such as Let's Call The Whole Thing Off, They All Laughed (at Christopher Columbus) and They Can't Take That Away From Me. 

27 The Winds Grow Colder: Judy Garland and Billie Holiday

Back to alternating genres with artists. But why a couple of opposites? And which one do you think supplies the picture at the start. Not the right one for me. If I wanted to read biographies of these two I would buy a separate book, but I do not. Here we get potted bios from other sources. For example Judy Garland's final film at Shepperton. ("You'll miss me when I'm gone"), and Billie Holiday at Manchester Free Trade Hall when her microphone failed and she sang unamplified to huge applause.

28 Be like the Kettle and Sing: Britain at War

An unusual beginning with Tony Crombie, a jazz drummer, recording "in 1941 at least 50 clubs in Soho". He said that the bombs lit up the city as he walked back. But when war was declared, the BBC decided to cut out all music, pop, light or serious. But when subjected to fierce criticism, that didn't last. We hear about Vera Lynn (of course), The Squadronaires and other female groups. These were fighting losing battles to members going off with GI's. The BBC's house bands were Geraldo and Jack Payne. Then Victor Silvestre and ballroom dancing that continued into the 50's. (Mum and Dad met at a dance). I skipped the piece on Gracie Fields.

29 Why Don't You Do Right: America at War

In 1940 "America danced as Europe fell to the German army". We hear all that was happening in New York, ballrooms, dance halls and the bands kept playing. Back to 1928 and a piece about juke boxes that started life as "a new machine called the Orchestrope". It could take 28 records. When America finally came into the war, it's all about female groups (again) such as the Andrews Sisters. And how in 1942 the American Government rationed record production to save on shellac whose main supplier was Burma then occupied by the Japanese. 

30 Hot Licks with Vanilla: Glenn Miller

This does deserve a chapter on it's own, although so much is familiar. I have an EP that, of course, includes Chattanooga Choo Choo. We hear about the Army Airforce Band that Captain Glenn Miller put together during WW2 that had "umpteen number ones". He actually took his band "to Britain in the summer of 1944" just before I was born. He was just forty years old. We are told they performed 800 times! We are told about that huge string section, but there is nothing on the internet to support this theory! However, then came disaster. Leaving the UK his plane was lost and never recovered. See James Stewart in "The Glenn Miller Story".