http://www.goodreads.com/review/list_rss/269132 en-US Sun, 04 May 2008 20:06:19 -0700 60 http://www.goodreads.com/ 200 41 http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_logo.gif 11027376 Sun, 04 May 2008 20:06:19 -0700
Mackendrick tells it to you straight. He wasn't a theorist, he was a legitimately famous British filmmaker (who hasn't at least heard of "The Sweet Smell of Success?") who became a college professor for 20-odd years. This allows him both the knowledge of what makes a film good and also the ability to communicate this info to the reader.

The examples Mackendrick uses from personal experience are invaluable. For instance, he shows the script of "Sweet Smell of Success" before and after Clifford Odets helped him revise it, showing the improvements. On the other hand, I remember reading a book that analyzed the brilliance of "Annie Hall's" script and then subsequently reading another book by Allen's editor, Ralph Rosenblum, that talked about how the film was 9 hours long and had no story, and how Rosenblum basically created the film in the editing room. Only a filmmaker who was there can truly tell you how a film came into being.

The book is divided into both screenwriting and directing, both parts equally enlightening. My only wish is that I'd read this book sooner.

]]>
author: Alexander Mackendrick
name: Nick
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at: 05/08
date added: 05/04/08
shelves:
review:
The best book on the craft of filmmaking that I've read--and at this point, that's a lot of books.

Mackendrick tells it to you straight. He wasn't a theorist, he was a legitimately famous British filmmaker (who hasn't at least heard of "The Sweet Smell of Success?") who became a college professor for 20-odd years. This allows him both the knowledge of what makes a film good and also the ability to communicate this info to the reader.

The examples Mackendrick uses from personal experience are invaluable. For instance, he shows the script of "Sweet Smell of Success" before and after Clifford Odets helped him revise it, showing the improvements. On the other hand, I remember reading a book that analyzed the brilliance of "Annie Hall's" script and then subsequently reading another book by Allen's editor, Ralph Rosenblum, that talked about how the film was 9 hours long and had no story, and how Rosenblum basically created the film in the editing room. Only a filmmaker who was there can truly tell you how a film came into being.

The book is divided into both screenwriting and directing, both parts equally enlightening. My only wish is that I'd read this book sooner.


]]> 17210709 Mon, 31 Mar 2008 19:24:23 -0700
I think my favorites were lightness and multiplicity considering that quickness, exactitude, and visibility seem to be very self-evidently positive qualities of literature (who wants to read a slow, vague, abstract novel?) But the idea of lightness as a positive quality was fresh for me: not lightness as insubstantial but rather, "be light like the bird, not the feather." And the goal of literature as a connector of the wildly disparate knowledges of the modern world, the multiplicity of knowledge in every book, I think is a courageous call to arms, especially if coupled with quickness and lightness.

Calvino occasionally meanders a wee bit too far from his topics in the essays but his digressions are terrifically thought-provoking. His vast knowledge of world literature is also inspiring--he basically provides a list of great authors you should read (if they're good enough for Calvino...).

Although this has the potential to be a little bit too academic for some, I heartily recommend this as caviar for a hungry mind.]]>
author: Italo Calvino
name: Nick
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1993
rating: 5
read at: 03/08
date added: 03/31/08
shelves:
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Calvino is just so effortlessly wonderful. He and literature have a very intimate relationship and she tells him secrets about herself that no one else gets to hear. Until now! Calvino spills the beans on what are the qualities he feels are most important to the literature of the future: lightness, quickness, exactitude, visibility, and multiplicity.

I think my favorites were lightness and multiplicity considering that quickness, exactitude, and visibility seem to be very self-evidently positive qualities of literature (who wants to read a slow, vague, abstract novel?) But the idea of lightness as a positive quality was fresh for me: not lightness as insubstantial but rather, "be light like the bird, not the feather." And the goal of literature as a connector of the wildly disparate knowledges of the modern world, the multiplicity of knowledge in every book, I think is a courageous call to arms, especially if coupled with quickness and lightness.

Calvino occasionally meanders a wee bit too far from his topics in the essays but his digressions are terrifically thought-provoking. His vast knowledge of world literature is also inspiring--he basically provides a list of great authors you should read (if they're good enough for Calvino...).

Although this has the potential to be a little bit too academic for some, I heartily recommend this as caviar for a hungry mind.
]]> 6713763 Thu, 27 Mar 2008 23:11:17 -0700
This book is a brilliant collection of investigations into the lives of fascinating, and oftentimes eccentric, New Yorkers, mainly from the first part of the 20th century. Gypsies, bohemians, deaf people, Native Americans, turtle famers.

There are also short stories that Mitchell actually wrote but I don't find them nearly as compelling as the reporting he actually did.

There's not much to say about this book except it's really terrifically fun to read, the best kind of non-fiction.]]>
author: Joseph Mitchell
name: Nick
average rating: 4.61
book published: 1993
rating: 5
read at: 03/08
date added: 03/27/08
shelves:
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I have not quite finished this book but I took a break, came back, and now have read enough of it to feel I can write a review (it's four books in one, it's a collection of profiles, I'm allowed).

This book is a brilliant collection of investigations into the lives of fascinating, and oftentimes eccentric, New Yorkers, mainly from the first part of the 20th century. Gypsies, bohemians, deaf people, Native Americans, turtle famers.

There are also short stories that Mitchell actually wrote but I don't find them nearly as compelling as the reporting he actually did.

There's not much to say about this book except it's really terrifically fun to read, the best kind of non-fiction.
]]> 15743236 Wed, 27 Feb 2008 15:39:40 -0800
I did not finish this book but I did read Hornby's, Chaon's, Crichton's, Gaiman's, Leonard's, and attempted to read King's (impenetrable). Leonard's. Leonard's was the only one that was good--it was quite good. The others were quite bad, really, just rather lame stories.

I do not want my odds to be one out six when reading a book of stories. That's like reading a novel and there's twenty good pages out of every one hundred and twenty. Perhaps, I'm reading the wrong stories but I just don't want to waste any more time.]]>
author: Michael Chabon
name: Nick
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2003
rating: 3
read at: 02/08
date added: 02/27/08
shelves:
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The problem with anthologies like this is that if the writers submit new stories, which they did in this case, they're just not going to be their best work. Those same writers are going to save their best work for their OWN collections of short stories.

I did not finish this book but I did read Hornby's, Chaon's, Crichton's, Gaiman's, Leonard's, and attempted to read King's (impenetrable). Leonard's. Leonard's was the only one that was good--it was quite good. The others were quite bad, really, just rather lame stories.

I do not want my odds to be one out six when reading a book of stories. That's like reading a novel and there's twenty good pages out of every one hundred and twenty. Perhaps, I'm reading the wrong stories but I just don't want to waste any more time.
]]> 16548767 Wed, 27 Feb 2008 15:31:08 -0800
author: Dave Eggers
name: Nick
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2000
rating: 3
read at: 02/08
date added: 02/27/08
shelves:
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Fun but a bit boring at times. Needs to cut down.
]]> 15743209 Wed, 20 Feb 2008 15:34:32 -0800
I think those readers are approaching this book the wrong the way when they critisize Gladwell for his inability to prove his points thoroughly. Sure, Gladwell could have dotted every i and crossed every t and shown every counter-example to the theories he's proposing. There's a word for the books that accomplish that: BORING. Gladwell is a storyteller and he knows how to keep the reader involved. By going into too much detail, he would lose his audience. Hopefully the reader who isn't convinced entirely can go into further detail by reading Gladwell's sources which are exhaustively referenced in the back of the book.

Another criticism is that Gladwell doesn't come to a specific point or that his points are hazy (this was probably more true with "Blink"). I almost want to say "who cares?" This book and "Blink" are veritable digests of the latest advances in psychology and sociology. So what if the overarching idea of the book is loose? You have now understood countless fascinating anecdotes which you can reconstruct in your own way. It is Gladwell's loose structure that allows him to connect these disparate dots in a story that you can digest, and despite the accusations that he is not precise about his overall thesis, the individual incidents are very well explained.

I love knowing the differences between Sesame Street and Blue's Clues and the differences between an adult's and a child's cognitive capabilities. Would I have read an entire book devoted solely to that? Probably not, but I was happy to read a chapter devoted to it, and a very well-written one at that.

Perhaps I approach non-fiction in a different way than most--and I will admit that I'm fascinated by almost any new, dramatically different idea about any subject, regardless of whether or not I believe it to be true--but I think that people who go into this book seeking a different way of thinking about the world around us, macro & microcosmically, will enjoy themselves. Those who go into the book seeking to be convinced beyond doubt that that way of thinking is the correct way, will not.]]>
author: Malcolm Gladwell
name: Nick
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at: 02/08
date added: 02/20/08
shelves:
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This book is fascinating and I was disappointed to read that many other readers didn't think so. So here's my response.

I think those readers are approaching this book the wrong the way when they critisize Gladwell for his inability to prove his points thoroughly. Sure, Gladwell could have dotted every i and crossed every t and shown every counter-example to the theories he's proposing. There's a word for the books that accomplish that: BORING. Gladwell is a storyteller and he knows how to keep the reader involved. By going into too much detail, he would lose his audience. Hopefully the reader who isn't convinced entirely can go into further detail by reading Gladwell's sources which are exhaustively referenced in the back of the book.

Another criticism is that Gladwell doesn't come to a specific point or that his points are hazy (this was probably more true with "Blink"). I almost want to say "who cares?" This book and "Blink" are veritable digests of the latest advances in psychology and sociology. So what if the overarching idea of the book is loose? You have now understood countless fascinating anecdotes which you can reconstruct in your own way. It is Gladwell's loose structure that allows him to connect these disparate dots in a story that you can digest, and despite the accusations that he is not precise about his overall thesis, the individual incidents are very well explained.

I love knowing the differences between Sesame Street and Blue's Clues and the differences between an adult's and a child's cognitive capabilities. Would I have read an entire book devoted solely to that? Probably not, but I was happy to read a chapter devoted to it, and a very well-written one at that.

Perhaps I approach non-fiction in a different way than most--and I will admit that I'm fascinated by almost any new, dramatically different idea about any subject, regardless of whether or not I believe it to be true--but I think that people who go into this book seeking a different way of thinking about the world around us, macro & microcosmically, will enjoy themselves. Those who go into the book seeking to be convinced beyond doubt that that way of thinking is the correct way, will not.
]]> 9932690 Thu, 07 Feb 2008 14:02:13 -0800 Palm-of-the-Hand Stories is one best collections of short stories I have ever read. In the back of that book is "Gleanings from Snow Country," the last work Kawabata wrote before he died. It is a condensation of the novel in question. Remarkably, it is not even a rewriting but rather a series of excerpts from the book, reprinted with exact fidelity; Kawabata thought he might "glean" the book for its most important moments but leave them unchanged.

The only thing that has changed for us is the translator. Whereas J. Martin Holman, one of the two translators of the stories, creates passages of simple beauty, Seidensticker's writing is academic, dull, and rhythmically wrong. Who knows if he had an ear for Japanese--he did not have one for English.

The novel, then, is difficult to see amongst the awkward prose. There are moments of beauty in there but they are tangled up in linguistic ugliness. I have hope that this is a wonderful novel, but I would recommend that no one read it in English until a better translation appears.]]>
author: Yasunari Kawabata
name: Nick
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1996
rating: 4
read at: 01/08
date added: 02/07/08
shelves:
review:
Let it be known that this is a terrible translation. I am convinced that I would have enjoyed this book ten times as much if someone other than Edward Seidensticker had bothered to translate it. My reasoning? Kawabata's Palm-of-the-Hand Stories is one best collections of short stories I have ever read. In the back of that book is "Gleanings from Snow Country," the last work Kawabata wrote before he died. It is a condensation of the novel in question. Remarkably, it is not even a rewriting but rather a series of excerpts from the book, reprinted with exact fidelity; Kawabata thought he might "glean" the book for its most important moments but leave them unchanged.

The only thing that has changed for us is the translator. Whereas J. Martin Holman, one of the two translators of the stories, creates passages of simple beauty, Seidensticker's writing is academic, dull, and rhythmically wrong. Who knows if he had an ear for Japanese--he did not have one for English.

The novel, then, is difficult to see amongst the awkward prose. There are moments of beauty in there but they are tangled up in linguistic ugliness. I have hope that this is a wonderful novel, but I would recommend that no one read it in English until a better translation appears.
]]> 14059569 Wed, 06 Feb 2008 17:37:13 -0800
author: Lillian Ross
name: Nick
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1952
rating: 4
read at: 02/08
date added: 02/06/08
shelves:
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This book is an amazing account of Hollywood in the 1950s. Ross writes with aplomb and her nuanced descriptions of every feeling and thought of these larger-than-life characters strike one as both perfectly representational and beautiful, possibly what every journalist aspires to create. My one disappointment was ending with Schenck and not with Huston--it just didn't have quite as much punch as I would have liked for such an exciting read. That aside, the book reads very quickly and is very funny at times, so it's still highly recommended.
]]> 10075090 Thu, 17 Jan 2008 08:05:26 -0800
author: Anne Lamott
name: Nick
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1994
rating: 5
read at: 12/07
date added: 01/17/08
shelves:
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After so many books about how fun and easy writing can be, it's great to have a book that shows how painful and difficult it really is. Lamott puts a premium on discipline, the discipline of writing every day at a set time and trying hard to get the first draft out, no matter how bad it may be. This message may not be news to most, but along with the added info that neurosis and writing go hand in hand, Lamott is not here to inform, she's here to encourage. She's a real teacher, someone who isn't just trying to show you how to get to where you're going, but also to help you restart if you've missed a step. She's also very funny and a good writer to boot so the book was an absolute pleasure to read. Pick it up when you're feeling down (about writing.)
]]> 9012687 Tue, 04 Dec 2007 10:41:35 -0800
author: Carter Wiseman
name: Nick
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1998
rating: 5
read at: 12/07
date added: 12/04/07
shelves:
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Having never studied architecture before (except through the lens of structural engineering), I found Wiseman's book an excellent introduction to the American variety. The writing itself is superb--a splendid mix of facts, anecdotes, theories, and opinions--so that even for a novice like myself, everything was understandable and engaging. Although it focuses on the 20th century, there's a nice, compact introduction of the previous 2-3 centuries that lets everyone get up to speed. Particularly interesting were the more contemporary architecture, since, with the exception of, say, MoMa or Bilbao, these buildings aren't in the public eye as much as previous works are. Wiseman is a harsh critic of most architecture from the last 40 years, but his opinions are well-supported and, from my perspective of the pictures displayed in the book, generally spot on.
]]> 6713861 Mon, 12 Nov 2007 12:04:49 -0800
Maybe my tastes are changing, I don't know, because it seems like I'm in the minority amongst readers.]]>
author: Flann O'Brien
name: Nick
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1939
rating: 2
read at: 10/07
date added: 11/12/07
shelves:
review:
I didn't finish this book--which is very rare for me--because I just didn't like it that much. I got about halfway through, which I felt like a real achievement considering how slow-going it is. I've read some slow books in my day but usually there's a substitute for a practically plotless novel: humor, stylistic beauty, philosophic depth, etc. Although some think this is a hilarious book, I didn't find even a tenth as entertaining as "The Third Policeman." And even though O'Brien is a terrific writer, I can't quite praise the prose in this book as anything more than uniquely efficient.

Maybe my tastes are changing, I don't know, because it seems like I'm in the minority amongst readers.
]]> 9012483 Mon, 12 Nov 2007 11:44:15 -0800
author: M. Bang
name: Nick
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at: 10/07
date added: 11/12/07
shelves:
review:
Fun little book that breaks down pictorial aesthetics piece by piece.
]]> 6804394 Thu, 04 Oct 2007 22:23:52 -0700
author: Isak Dinesen
name: Nick
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1993
rating: 3
read at: 10/07
date added: 10/04/07
shelves:
review:
This is just not as good as her earlier collection "Seven Gothic Tales," which has some of the best short stories ever written. That book had a youthful excitement and vigor, full of surprising stories that delighted in the art of keeping the reader on his toes. "Winter's Tales" is much...frostier. Much of it seems cold and dead. It feels as if Dinesen has decided not to be childish any more and instead feels obliged to share great "mature" wisdom with everyone without bothering to tell a ripping good story. Mind you, "Winter's Tales" was written during the dark days of WWII, so there's a reason why she's not as chipper. But as far as posterity is concerned, that doesn't cut the mustard.
]]> 4388234 Mon, 24 Sep 2007 12:58:00 -0700
author: Robert Musil
name: Nick
average rating: 4.45
book published: 1996
rating: 5
read at: 09/07
date added: 09/24/07
shelves:
review:
Endlessly awesome. Practically plotless and hence captures the imagination purely through its profundity of ideas. The possibilites that Musil postulates through the character of Ulrich are awe-inspiring--his attack on every single way we live our lives is shocking, yet completely reasonable--but ultimately, the abstractness of these solutions cannot uphold the corporeality of an actual human life, and despite the apparent overused and scarred nature of every path that seems to stretch out before us, Musil eventually concludes that we must continue to try to blaze a new trail within reality itself, not outside it. One of the great novels.
]]> 4388240 Thu, 13 Sep 2007 15:21:29 -0700
author: Howard Zinn
name: Nick
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1980
rating: 5
read at: 09/07
date added: 09/13/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 4398882 Mon, 10 Sep 2007 15:36:56 -0700
Rather, the book is held together by a string of incredibly detailed descriptions of highly emotional moments in one family's life. The vivid inner lives of the characters that Agee creates are instantly recognizable--I think that Agee is close to Tolstoy in his ability to verbalize those intimate feelings that pass through us, discharge their precious emotional cargo and then carry on, leaving us to dig into the recesses of our mind to try and recall, through the help of that tired bloodhound named Memory, what actually happened to us.

Mind you, the book is quite sad and offers none of the satisfaction of a good yarn with its tidy realization and conclusion. Instead, like the telescope at some tourist vista point, allowing us incredibly close access to some impossibly far site, our vision abruptly ends as our coin clanks into the bowels of the machine, and we return to our usual vantage, marveling at how beautiful and yet how brief our time away was.]]>
author: James Agee
name: Nick
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1998
rating: 5
read at: 09/07
date added: 09/10/07
shelves:
review:
This isn't a difficult book but it's certainly not traditional. There is practically no profluence beyond the natural causality of a single incident--the death of a good man. In other words, there are no surprises, nothing is coming that you don't already know, no real "narrative" reason to turn the page.

Rather, the book is held together by a string of incredibly detailed descriptions of highly emotional moments in one family's life. The vivid inner lives of the characters that Agee creates are instantly recognizable--I think that Agee is close to Tolstoy in his ability to verbalize those intimate feelings that pass through us, discharge their precious emotional cargo and then carry on, leaving us to dig into the recesses of our mind to try and recall, through the help of that tired bloodhound named Memory, what actually happened to us.

Mind you, the book is quite sad and offers none of the satisfaction of a good yarn with its tidy realization and conclusion. Instead, like the telescope at some tourist vista point, allowing us incredibly close access to some impossibly far site, our vision abruptly ends as our coin clanks into the bowels of the machine, and we return to our usual vantage, marveling at how beautiful and yet how brief our time away was.
]]> 5404811 Thu, 30 Aug 2007 23:12:19 -0700
author: Luis Buñuel
name: Nick
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at: 05/06
date added: 08/30/07
shelves:
review:
Bunuel's life is more exciting than most movies. In fact, it's a movie waiting to happen.
]]> 5404787 Thu, 30 Aug 2007 23:08:49 -0700
author: James Agee
name: Nick
average rating: 4.55
book published: 1989
rating: 5
read at: 07/03
date added: 08/30/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 4388228 Sat, 11 Aug 2007 12:50:42 -0700
P.S. I hated the movie.]]>
author: Denis Johnson
name: Nick
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1992
rating: 5
read at: 01/05
date added: 08/11/07
shelves:
review:
Wowsers. A book that really makes you wonder: how does he do it? The stories seem so simple and yet so perfectly profound. Captures a different way of seeing the world.

P.S. I hated the movie.
]]> 4365043 Sat, 11 Aug 2007 10:22:21 -0700
author: Flann O'Brien
name: Nick
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1967
rating: 5
read at: 06/04
date added: 08/11/07
shelves:
review:
I think this is an amazing book. So deliciously strange yet inviting. O'Brien comes closer to Kafka than anyone I've read in creating an atmosphere of dread and comedy simultaneously. Takes a while to heat up but once it does, hoo boy.
]]> 4388288 Sat, 11 Aug 2007 10:21:58 -0700 Best short short story writer every? Very likely (or maybe a tie with Borges).]]>
author: Yasunari Kawabata
name: Nick
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1990
rating: 5
read at: 11/04
date added: 08/11/07
shelves:
review:
Best short story writer ever? Maybe.
Best short short story writer every? Very likely (or maybe a tie with Borges).
]]> 4398717 Sat, 11 Aug 2007 10:20:14 -0700
author: Paul Auster
name: Nick
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1990
rating: 2
read at: 04/07
date added: 08/11/07
shelves:
review:
I only read City of Glass which I thought was post-modern bullshit, the worst kind of smug, experimentalism covering up a lack of imagination and good storytelling. Cleverness without substance.
]]> 4398439 Sat, 11 Aug 2007 10:09:41 -0700
author: Alan W. Watts
name: Nick
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1973
rating: 5
read at: 04/07
date added: 08/11/07
shelves:
review:
What a beautiful soul to think about life in this way. Not strict Zen but not necessarily watered down either. A way of thinking without thinking.
]]> 4388517 Sat, 11 Aug 2007 10:07:07 -0700
author: Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki
name: Nick
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1991
rating: 5
read at: 05/07
date added: 08/11/07
shelves:
review:
D.T. Suzuki rocks.
]]> 4398342 Sat, 11 Aug 2007 10:05:15 -0700
author: Ryunosuke Akutagawa
name: Nick
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 07/07
date added: 08/11/07
shelves:
review:
A few stories are amazing but there are a few clunkers as well. Perhaps it's the translation...
]]> 4388508 Sat, 11 Aug 2007 10:03:41 -0700
author: Italo Calvino
name: Nick
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1977
rating: 4
read at: 06/07
date added: 08/11/07
shelves:
review:
The first novella is much better than the second.
]]> 4398145 Sat, 11 Aug 2007 10:03:24 -0700
author: Paul Ekman
name: Nick
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 03/07
date added: 08/11/07
shelves:
review:
The science behind emotions is fascinating. Ekmans' writing style, not so much. Feels a little bit like reading a lab report. Love the material but wish he had brought in a co-writer to smooth things out.
]]> 4398088 Sat, 11 Aug 2007 09:58:38 -0700
author: Henry Green
name: Nick
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1993
rating: 5
read at: 11/06
date added: 08/11/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 4388302 Sat, 11 Aug 2007 09:57:02 -0700
author: Isak Dinesen
name: Nick
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1934
rating: 5
read at: 07/06
date added: 08/11/07
shelves:
review:
Sooooo wonderful. Gothic in the sense of heavily romantic, dark, and mystical. Not every story is amazing, but most are and the ones that aren't are far better than most of the pedestrian, middle-brow attempts at originality that seem to get all the raves these days.
]]> 4388455 Sat, 11 Aug 2007 09:56:43 -0700
author: Kingsley Amis
name: Nick
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1993
rating: 5
read at: 08/06
date added: 08/11/07
shelves:
review:
Slow start and then impossibly hilarious. Really.
]]> 4388513 Sat, 11 Aug 2007 09:55:52 -0700
author: Graham Greene
name: Nick
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1991
rating: 5
read at: 10/06
date added: 08/11/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 4388469 Sat, 11 Aug 2007 00:27:49 -0700
author: Keith Johnstone
name: Nick
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1987
rating: 5
read at: 01/05
date added: 08/11/07
shelves:
review:
This is going to sound corny: this isn't just a book about improvisation, IT'S A BOOK ABOUT LIFE!! Okay, terrible, but true. Johnstone writes about human psychology and the way we interact socially as a way into comedy and improvisation. That bestseller "Blink" shamelessly quotes from it, yet the surprising insights this book reveals make that book rather dull in comparison.
]]> 4388331 Sat, 11 Aug 2007 00:17:30 -0700
"At the party celebrating completion of Tojuro's Love, Mrs. Yamamoto came and spoke to me. 'My husband was very happy. He said Kurosawa can write scripts, handle the directing, do the editing, and now the dubbing--he'll be all right.' My eyes suddenly got very hot. Yama-san was the best kind of teacher. Yama-san, I promise you I'll try a little harder, a little longer. This is the memorial speech I offer up to Yama-san."]]>
author: Akira Kurosawa
name: Nick
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1983
rating: 5
read at: 01/06
date added: 08/11/07
shelves:
review:
Kurosawa was a true humanist. This book isn't an explanation of an artist's theories or an explication of his films--just a simple account of the memories of a very full and beautiful life. Yet Kurosawa never ignores his faults either. He just tells his story like it is. Sometimes he's so emotional, he makes me emotional just reading his earnestness, here about his directing mentor, Yama-san:

"At the party celebrating completion of Tojuro's Love, Mrs. Yamamoto came and spoke to me. 'My husband was very happy. He said Kurosawa can write scripts, handle the directing, do the editing, and now the dubbing--he'll be all right.' My eyes suddenly got very hot. Yama-san was the best kind of teacher. Yama-san, I promise you I'll try a little harder, a little longer. This is the memorial speech I offer up to Yama-san."
]]>