THE GREENLANDERS by Jane Smiley (Anchor Books, 2005)
Is life too short for big books?
When it comes to novels like Infinite Jest or Middlemarch, I’d say not.
David Foster Wallace was so overflowing with ideas that he needed the space to expand his thoughts while George Eliot used a larger palette to create a world with a world.
Yet, there seems to be a trend (or requirement) for writing 500 or more pages as a demonstration of a writer’s prowess.
Jonathan Safran Foer’s sprawling ‘Here I Am’ is one recent example of a novel that would have greatly benefited from trimming by at least 200 pages.
HERE I AM by Jonathan Safran Foer (Hamish Hamilton, 2016)
Wilkie Collins once asserted that “the primary object of a work of fiction should be to tell a story.”
Tell that to the post-modernists!
Jonathan Safran Foer says that “I have yet to write a novel from a plan” and says of his third major fictional work that “there wasn’t any one ‘idea’ but a number of disparate starting points”.
I haven’t eaten meat or fish for the past forty years and in all that time I have never been remotely tempted to regress. On the contrary, I am now trying to stop consuming ALL animal related products and switch to a completely plant-based diet.
The wisdom of following a vegetarian lifestyle is, to my mind, beyond dispute and arguments for taking this one step further towards veganism are equally compelling.
Not succulent, tasty or nice.
It is relatively easy to explain why I don’t eat raw steak, ground veal or chicken legs but the processes that lie behind the mass production of eggs, milk and cheese are just as closely tied to barbaric factory farming methods. You don’t have to be overly squeamish or sentimental to see that the routine practices of animal agriculture are increasingly indefensible and unsustainable.
One time carnivores and omnivores might have been able to claim that vegetarian alternatives were hard to find. Now that kind of counter-argument simply doesn’t cut the mustard. Labeling is now much clearer than it was and you no longer have to feed your habit in a back street hippy store or search for food items in a shop resembling a pharmacy. Any supermarket worth its salt will now have sections devoted to those with more enlightened tastes.
If you say you don’t eat meat or fish in a restaurant there’s a greater chance that you will be presented with a more imaginative alternative than an omelette or the kind of salad that looks like a rabbit’s lunch. Also, soya-based products no longer look like ingredients for a dog’s dinner and seem more adapted for human consumption.
I have lived in Emilia-Romagna in Italy for the more than 20 years and the slow but sure sea change has been thrilling to behold. Daily products like soya or oat milk cappuccino, vegan pastries or non-dairy ice cream, all of which would have been practically unimaginable two decades ago, are now both easy to find and more socially acceptable. As a consequence, while there are still many who probably think I’m a crank, there are fewer who will come right out and say it.
Nowadays, if you enthuse about ‘gourmet vegetarian food’ you are less likely to be accused of being oxymoronic. Above all, if you declare yourself to be a vegetarian or vegan, you will not usually be met with expressions of puzzlement or pity.
Like the links being smoking and cancer, it is now broadly accepted by even the most conservative medics that a diet dominated by dead animals is bad for your health. It is also become more evident to the public at large that fast-food nations are also hugely damaging to the environment.
Now,if I am ever asked (either with or without a patronising tone) ‘Why are you a vegan/vegetarian?’, I usually reply with the question: ‘Why are you NOT?’
EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED directed by Liev Shreiber (USA, 2005)
The flaws in this movie mirror those of Jonathan Safran Foer’s debut novel which, broadly speaking, can be attributed to over ambitiousness.
This was my second viewing of the film. The first time I had higher expectations having just read and enjoyed the novel. This time round I was able to appreciate its many strengths and accept its weaknesses.
The punk rock meets Ukrainian folk music makes for a brilliant soundtrack and it is beautifully filmed to accentuate the eccentricity of the story, setting and characters. As in the novel, the first half of the story works spectacularly with many laugh out loud moments. The scene of Jonathan trying to order a vegetarian meal being one of the highlights.
Alex searches for Jonfan
Eugene Hutz of Gogol Bordello fame is inspired casting as Alex and steals the show. He is employed as the official translator to the nerdy American Jew, Jonathan (Elijah Wood) whose obsessive collecting of objects and artifacts from his family’s past lead him on a quest for a woman photographed with his late grandfather in a village called Trachimbrod.
Alex’s idiosyncratic grasp of the English language is hilarious, using words like ‘proximate‘ for ‘close’ and boasting how many women want “to be carnal” with him on account of his snappy dressing and “premium” dance skills. Continue reading →
EXTREMELY LOUD & INCREDIBLY CLOSE directed by Stephen Daldry (USA, 2011)
Having read a few reviews prior to seeing this movie (always a mistake), I was all set to entitle this post EXTREMELY LAME & INCREDIBLY CONTRIVED. This only goes to show that you should always keep an open mind and shouldn’t take what critics say as gospel.
Steven Daldry’s movie is contrived but it is not lame.
The British director actually makes a pretty decent stab at translating a tricky story on such a sensitive topic to the big screen without laying on the sentiment too thickly. It isn’t perfect but is not the turkey some make it out to be. Continue reading →
Is life too short for big books?
Wilkie Collins once asserted that “the primary object of a work of fiction should be to tell a story.” 
