Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 14, 1994 TAG: 9407310007
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: D-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
By Ron Faust. Forge/Tom Doherty Assoc. $22.95.
It would be easy to compare Ron Faust's new novel to Hemingway's "To Have and Have Not." They begin with similar settings (the Florida Keys and other islands), fatalistic narrators (Faust's protagonist revels in his existential angst) and terse prose (Faust doesn't waste a word in 320 pages). But within a few short chapters, it becomes clear that Faust is up to something altogether different. "When She Was Bad" is a wildly plotted and inventive tale that takes one bizarre turn after another.
The key to the novel is a woman, one of the most fatale femmes ever to show up in popular fiction. She uses many names, and from the moment Key West reporter Dan Stark sees her, he's out of his league. She claims to have escaped a shipwreck, and says that she knows where a fortune in emeralds is waiting to be scooped out of shallow water. Stark's hooked. He quits/is fired from his job, stocks his sailboat with provisions and is off on an adventure that can't be described in a short review.
"When She Was Bad" is one of those novels that's wildly implausible in retrospect, and an unalloyed delight while you're reading it. Also, it's the kind of story that's bound to tempt Hollywood but no film could do justice to Faust's vision. Don't wait for the movie. Take this one to the beach, the pool or wherever. Then sit back and enjoy.
- MIKE MAYO, Book page editor
Independent Visions: A Critical Introduction to Recent Independent American Film.
By Donald Lyons. Ballantine. $12. (trade paper).
To a fan of lower-budget, non-studio affiliated films, Donald Lyons' "Independent Visions" would seem at first like a real find. The book deals with the works of such writers and directors as Gus Van Zant, Hal Hartley, John Sayles, Allison Anders, Richard Linklater, Steven Soderbergh, Quentin Tarantino, Tamra Davis, Abel Ferrara, Nick Gomez, Whit Stillman, Stacy Cochran, Carl Franklin, Robert Rodriguez, Jim Jarmusch, and the Coen and Hughes brothers to name a few. It covers a lot of potentially interesting ground and yet I felt thoroughly disappointed upon finishing "Independent Visions."
It's difficult to understand for whom this book was written. Lyons dissects dozens of independent films, using a rambling, indelicate, Cliff's Notes-synopsis style. And, though billed as an "introduction" to independent cinema, readers unfamiliar with these movies will also find themselves introduced to a great deal of the plot twists and endings, thus defusing most of the suspense or freshness or surprises that the films themselves offer. On the other hand, readers who have seen the movies that Lyons examines won't find very many of his opinions overwhelmingly interesting or insightful.
One key factor of film criticism is difference of opinion; commentaries about movies, written from someone else's perspective which may run contrary to your own, can cause you to re-examine films that you like or don't like, sometimes for the better. However, many of the proclaimations that Lyons makes are so unusual and questionable that, when considered as a whole, they are impossible to ignore. For example, in one short paragraph, he dismisses the Coen brothers' excellent 1990 film, "Miller's Crossing," as a "not terribly complex saga," which could hardly be further from the truth. The author spends inordinate amounts of page-space coming to neutral conclusions about such unimportant, contrived movies as "In The Soup," "Bodies, Rest & Motion," and "Simple Men." And, in probably the most off-the-wall instance, after a lengthy, play-by-play overview of the interesting but flawed film "My Own Private Idaho," Lyons claims: "When it came out, I called `My Own Private Idaho' the best American movie of the Nineties. Still is."
Such a broad statement made me wonder just how many movies Lyons has seen in the last couple of years. On top of everything else, "Independent Visions" is also spotted with bad jokes, a sometimes flippant and smug writing style, factual errors and inaccurate quotes.
- NEIL HARVEY
The Skylark's Song.
By Harriet Segal. Donald I. Fine. $23.95.
Harriet Segal's newest is a multi-generational novel centered on Julia Rhinehart whose long-dead first husband, a popular composer in the World War II period, has been rediscovered by music fans and Broadway. In addition to the recently widowed Julia, the plot also focuses on her children and grandchildren. The characters' involved lives include a wide range of difficulties and successes. The novel also flashes back to Julia's youth in New York with the glittering world of Broadway and the harsh reality of wartime.
Actually, it may be these flashbacks accompanied by the shifting focus on different characters that make "The Skylark's Song" confusing and uneven at times. When Segal confines her story to Julia's past and present, the novel fares far better.
- HARRIET LITTLE
Neil Harvey lives in Blacksburg.
Harriet Little teaches at James River high school.
by CNB