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Realini rated a book really liked it Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark Nine out of 10 Alas, this reader has not managed to discern the exquisite, too for him sophisticated intimacy, humor of this acclaimed work, included on The Guardian’s 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, in the ...more
Dec 12, 2019 03:39AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark <iframe id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Realini rated a book it was amazing The Asphalt Jungle by W.R. Burnett	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
The Asphalt Jungle by W.R. Burnett 10 out of 10 It is very rare to find a magnum opus such as the Asphalt Jungle, but it is unique and almost impossible surely to find more than ten other brilliant works of art that would make it there, among the very ...more
Dec 10, 2019 04:05AM · like · see review
Realini rated a book it was amazing The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 (Adrian Mole, #1) by Sue Townsend	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 by Sue Townsend 11 out of 10 This magnum opus is Glorious, absolutely phenomenal, hilarious, fantastic, mirthful and we can go on – it has been a long time since this reader has been laughing for so long and ...more
Dec 07, 2019 04:36AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend <iframe id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Realini rated a book really liked it Z by Vassilis Vassilikos	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Z by Vassilis Vassilikos 9.5 out of 10 Alas, if you are looking for Z by Vassilis Vassilikos, the entries you find on the internet are scarce and the work that has been considered a masterpiece does not even have a Wikipedia page – whereas a multitude ...more
Dec 04, 2019 03:49AM · 1 like · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Z by Vassilis Vassilikos. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Z by Vassilis Vassilikos <iframe id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Realini rated a book really liked it The Irishman by Charles Brandt	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
The Irishman, based on the book by Charles Brandt 10 out of 10 this is a note on the film, not the book on which it is based.... Given the glorious reception received by this magnum opus, the only thing that may be left to establish would be what will ...more
Dec 03, 2019 03:59AM · 4 likes · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Irishman by Charles Brandt. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Irishman by Charles Brandt <iframe id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Realini rated a book really liked it Downton Abbey: The Complete Scripts, Season One by Julian Fellowes	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Downton Abbey, screenplay by Julian Fellowes Nine out of 10 This is an excellent, formidable production that highlights the British School of Cinema at its best, showcasing exceptional, superb acting (on a side note, this cinephile has recently seen ...more
Dec 02, 2019 01:58AM · 1 like · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Downton Abbey by Julian Fellowes. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Downton Abbey by Julian Fellowes <iframe id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Realini rated a book really liked it The Irishman by Charles Brandt	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
The Irishman, based on the book by Charles Brandt 10 out of 10 this is a note on the film, not the book on which it is based.... Given the glorious reception received by this magnum opus, the only thing that may be left to establish would be what will ...more
Dec 01, 2019 03:38AM · 4 likes · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Irishman by Charles Brandt. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Irishman by Charles Brandt <iframe id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Realini rated a book really liked it Scarlet Sister Mary by Julia Peterkin	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Scarlet Sister Mary by Julia Peterkin 10 out of 10 It seems somewhat sad to see that quite a number of formerly acclaimed chefs d’oeuvre have fallen into neglect and if you look them now on the world’s database, you tend to find very little about them ...more
Nov 30, 2019 04:20AM · like · see review
Realini rated a book it was amazing Saturday Night and Sunday Morning by Alan Sillitoe	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning by Alan Sillitoe 10 out of 10 Let me start by strongly recommending that you check The Guardian’s 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list - https://www.theguardian.com/books/200... - because the Magnus opus by the ...more
Nov 26, 2019 04:24AM · 1 like · like · see review
Realini rated a book really liked it Rickshaw Boy by Lao She Read 2 times	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Rickshaw Boy aka Camel Xiangzi by Lao She 10 out of 10 One of the spectacular, glorious aspects of reading masterpieces, such as Luòtuo Xiángzi, is that one can travel to the far corners of the earth, changing latitudes and longitudes in a matter of ...more
Nov 19, 2019 04:24AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Rickshaw Boy by Lao She. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Rickshaw Boy by Lao She <iframe id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">

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Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark
Nine out of 10

Alas, this reader has not managed to discern the exquisite, too for him sophisticated intimacy, humor of this acclaimed work, included on The Guardian’s 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, in the Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark
Nine out of 10

Alas, this reader has not managed to discern the exquisite, too for him sophisticated intimacy, humor of this acclaimed work, included on The Guardian’s 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, in the Comedy section no less - https://www.theguardian.com/books/200... - and has had to abandon it after about one hundred pages, although even before that it had become clear that the members of Autobiographical Association and even worse, the main character herself do not present the attractiveness that protagonists of the masterpieces read recently enjoyed – The Asphalt Jungle, The Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 ¾, Z by Vassilis Vassilikos, Scarlet Sister Mary and more.

The author has no fewer than four (!) novels on the aforementioned Guardian compilation, including The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie ( adapted for the big screen, with the legendary Maggie Smith in the leading role) which is also part of a more ‘select’ group, that of The Modern Library 100 Best Novels list, at 74- http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/... - , and reviewed in a less traditional manner, in the garden with macaws (?) here: http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/08/a...
Furthermore, Loitering with Intent was short listed for the Booker Prize in 1981 and the style, passages that stand out from the early chapters indicate this is an outstanding book – the issue here is that the reader could not set the time, effort and does not have the capacity to rise to the challenge, the level of sophistication, comprehension, sense of humor, appreciation of excellence and beauty needed for the work, evidently.
‘My morale was high, I needed a job but that which should have been a depressing factor, when viewed in cold blood simply was not’

This is one quote that has attracted the attention of the undersigned, who might have thought when reading this sentence that ‘this is the beginning of a long friendship’, just like at the end of Casablanca, only it was not to be for Fleur Talbot is too outré, unusual and feels rather artificial, remote, far from the granted limited area where this reader feels comfortable – apparently, this would be scenery, plots like the one in Asphalt Jungle, where protagonists appear real and Loitering with Intent might serve as a caution, in the sense that one can read a lot – like yours truly – but there would still be domains where access is, if not denied completely, affected by the inability to engage.

Sir Quentin Oliver hires Fleur Talbot as an assistant, to type and eventually contribute to the autobiographies of a group of acquaintances and friends, which would be published only after seventy years will have passed, to avoid any infringement upon the rights, the equanimity of living mortals, who after such a long time will have been dead, but this is no easy – and for this reader not quite thrilling – endeavor and the main character would be suspected by some of the members of the association, starting with the defrocked priest.
The assessment of the name of the writer and narrator that fills the role of heroine is also relevant for the quality of the writing, the insight, the sharp eye, the exceptional genius of the author – come to think of it, all the book needs is the right sort of readers, and the under signed is not in that category –

‘Fleur was not the right name and yet it was mine, as are the names of those melancholy Joys, those timid Victors, the inglorious Glorias and materialistic Angelas one is bound to meet in the course of a long life and I will not mention the Lancelots who I assure you have nothing to do with chivalry’

Another aspect which has been noted by this reader is the sexism of Quentin Oliver, though we must place things in perspective and say that shortly after World War II, attitudes and norms were very different from today – the employer remarks at one time that ‘argumentative women are like water coming through the roof’.

As noted already, this is obviously a splendid book for the gifted reader and a rather difficult one for those, like the under signed, who prefer established, conservative, perhaps accessible characters and finds it awkward to establish a bond with personages like Fleur, Sir Quentin – now that is an interesting name and perhaps a future cat or dog that we might have, especially if the spouse imposes her wishes, might get it – Oliver and the other figures, such as the Mummy of the employer, who arrives unexpectedly at the room occupied by the heroine, who has to rent from the Alexanders, the man being unhappy with the fact that the young woman has just one room but lives like she has more, with her books and habits… ...more

Realini rated a book it was amazing

The Asphalt Jungle
by W.R. Burnett

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The Asphalt Jungle by W.R. Burnett
10 out of 10

It is very rare to find a magnum opus such as the Asphalt Jungle, but it is unique and almost impossible surely to find more than ten other brilliant works of art that would make it there, among the very The Asphalt Jungle by W.R. Burnett
10 out of 10

It is very rare to find a magnum opus such as the Asphalt Jungle, but it is unique and almost impossible surely to find more than ten other brilliant works of art that would make it there, among the very best, the crème de la crème, in both book and cinematic format, for this bestseller has made on both The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made list (https://www.listchallenges.com/new-yo...) and The Guardian’s 1,000 novels Everyone Must Read compilation, in the Crime section - https://www.theguardian.com/books/200...

A group of very interesting, if flawed, evidently, individuals try to pull off a major heist, indeed, the biggest in the history of this Midwestern town, which has never seen a robbery to exceed the figure of one million dollars – which would be more than one hundred in the currency of the present – that would target a jewelry store, masterminded by the newly released from prison, infamous as a man with a reputation for major operations, Erwin ‘Doc’ Riedenschneider, a German American with a perverse inclination for very young, in fact underage girls – a disgusting inclination that might bring his downfall – who arrives at the start to see a bookmaker dealing in illegal bets, Cobby.
Doc Riedenschneider has a proposition to make for the very influent lawyer, Alonzo Emmerich, the one recommended by a jail bird that has served with the Doc – in fact, one of the terms of the arrangement on the table is that the attorney would help release the friend of the criminal mastermind – and when they meet at the house by the lake, which the lawyer has set up expensively, going beyond his means in the process, for the gorgeous, resplendent Angela Phinlay (played by Marilyn Monroe in the big screen adaptation), the German has a feeling that there is something phony, suspicious about the would be partner in crime, who has some odd propositions, once he sees that this is the hit of the century.

Spending with no restraint, Emmerich has long passed the limit and although there are people who owe him more than one hundred thousand, it would be difficult and anyway time consuming to recuperate even part of that, not to mention that the tax office expects him to pay another one hundred thousand or more and he has to finance the operation as his participation in the deal, in exchange for a percentage of the take, which would be expensive diamonds and other jewelry that would have to be handed over to what they call a ‘front’, someone with access to huge amounts of cash, that would give perhaps 50% of the value of the stones and then distribute them across the country, as we would later learnt that this side of the ‘business ‘works from the head of operations.

The lawyer is frantic and makes a mistake when he quickly offers to be the ‘front’, although that is not the way things are managed, he attracts the attention of Riedenschneider and he has a less than convincing explanation for this idea, even if the reader has an inside track into this development and sees that the would be financier has no means to put up the cash and he is now envisaging a different outcome for the heist, one in which he simply runs with the gems, double-crossing his partners and though aware of the Clear and Present death Danger, he sees no other alternative for the mess he is in, unable to face the pressure and sure that he would be bankrupt and finished, one way or another…
Another character, in fact probably the main personage the hero aka antihero of the story is Dix Handley – who ‘works’ as a tough man under this assumed name, a hooligan as the German calls his profile – who is a complex figure, involved in hustling and perhaps we could call it smaller crime, chosen by the mastermind to be the ‘muscle’, the one to bring force to the scene, if something unexpected happens and they have to face a guard, private detective or another unpredicted, dangerous foes, and he is the one who wants to abandon it all, leave this life outside the law and return to his southern farm, uninterested at one point in money, sure in his mind that if there would be fifty, maybe five hundred thousand and he would still rather go home…

Two other characters involved in the narrative would be Gus Minissi, a good friend and the one who supports Dix all the way through, a former criminal who is still participating in robberies, such as this jewelry heist, and another friend of his, Louis Ciavelli, a married man, who has a baby and has kept this side of his life secret from his wife, who thinks that he has a day job and he has left behind the bachelor, agitated life he had had, only to be astonished and tormented when her spouse would come home seriously injured, supposedly in a fight wherein someone will have fired a gun.
Emmerich pulls off part of his double game, when he invites the eager Cobby to participate in the robbery, although not in the percentages, which would be divided between the lawyer, mastermind, who has it all planned and means to pay fixed amounts for the help, the ‘hooligan and the tool man, Louis Ciavelli’ for discussion of percentages with the tough men is risky, for they often – or most of the time – get greedy and use force to grab more or all of the fortune…in fact, dix would be offered $ 5,000 at the start and another five thousand at the end, plus a few percentages.
Cobby would put up fifty thousand, in exchange for a profit of $ 20,000 at the end, all for the few days that his money would be needed to finance and execute the plan, although he is told to keep this a secret and not mention it to Doc, who would have become more than suspicious if he were to know this crucial detail, which does not strike the bookmaker, for he is so much in awe with the lawyer, who has been seen as a major player and very few had been aware of his inevitable financial collapse, if any…

One aspect which is interesting although somewhat intriguing for the present day reader, used as he or she is with the modern age Goodfellas type of crime, to make this trip to the past, where there were very few phones, never mind the ubiquitous mobile handsets of this age, and a totally different attitude of the police – at one instance, one of the main players – let us stay away from spoilers and keep his name secret – has to make a call and the commissioner allows him to place it in private…we do not see that in the stories that take place today…after all, the free world has one of the most vicious liars in history as leader, if he is not convicted by the Senate – there is a one in ten million chance that this happens ...more

Realini rated a book it was amazing

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 (Adrian Mole, #1)
by Sue Townsend

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The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 by Sue Townsend
11 out of 10

This magnum opus is Glorious, absolutely phenomenal, hilarious, fantastic, mirthful and we can go on – it has been a long time since this reader has been laughing for so long and The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 ¾ by Sue Townsend
11 out of 10

This magnum opus is Glorious, absolutely phenomenal, hilarious, fantastic, mirthful and we can go on – it has been a long time since this reader has been laughing for so long and intensely, while engaged with a book that could have been read maybe twenty or more years ago, considering that a version of it was in the hand and if memory does not play tricks, was there, in the bags, during a trip to Sofia, in Bulgaria, but given the outré title, it seemed at the time that this is not a serious work and it probably has a target made of children.

Fortunately, you can find this transcendental comedy on The Guardian’s 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list - https://www.theguardian.com/books/200... - and it is also part of the BBC compilation of 100 Most Influential Novels, with maybe more than 2,000,000 copies sold to this day, a narrative that is both engaging, simple, modern, knowledgeable of the time and the characters, extremely amusing and at times explosively funny, although there are so many sad, indeed disastrous aspects in the life of the hero, Adrian Mole, who has to go through the separation quarrels of the parents, who drink a lot – no, better said too much – and then do not appear to care much, if at all during periods, about the wellbeing of their child, who has very little to eat for days and for much longer periods, he is fed more than inadequately.
From the first New Year’s resolutions, through to consequent ones, the protagonist tries to ‘help the needy’ (the blind across the street), be kind to the dog – the poor animal is drunk on cherry brandy, is taken frequently to the vet, for various operations, during which coal, cotton and all kinds of other things are extracted from his stomach, ears- in fact, Adrian would help an old man who becomes his friend – in spite of the fact that the hero who is also the narrator admits there is nothing that they have in common, the old man smells, the main character does not and so on – Bert Baxter would be frequently helped by the younger Samaritan, who also saves his dog on occasion.

The teenager laments that he may end up in a children’s home, when in the first chapters, his parents drink so much, then they start quarreling, the mother gets very close to the neighbor – albeit it would take quite a long time for the innocent, ingénue to think of anything suspicious – the one who would be called the creep Lucas – in intimacy he would be Bimbo – the one who would be abandoned by his wife for…another woman, in a very agitated dynamic, the Mole parents seem to keep close even when this becomes a strange three way, up to the point where Pauline Mole would separate and go to live with creep Lucas in Sheffield, to be visited by her son, who would take a trip with the couple to the north…

Adrian would be unhappy with his single parent – who looks like a ‘poofter’ in his apron – when he (the father, not the boy) becomes unemployed – he used to laugh out loud at the ads for electric heaters, which he had tried to sell, whenever they came on television – and the pupil calls the school to say that his parent is mentally ill, trying to hide the shame of having a father without a job, and when they ask, he answers that he would call, if the parent becomes aggressive – the postman, who appears to read the cards, expresses a bizarre, inappropriate sympathy when he says that ‘he would give the mother a thrashing, if she were his wife, to which the hero thinks that he does not know his mother, for if anyone laid a finger on her, it could be the last thing they did’
If not every single sentence, then maybe every other is fantastically amusing, like for instance the description of Glasgow at 11 a.m. when he has counted 27 drunks over a distance of one mile, or dismissed creep Lucas and mother, as they prepared to walk up a mountain, or when the father takes the bottles from Bert, in his car, only to find he is left without petrol and therefore calls AA, only to have the man retort that he needs alcoholic anonymous, not the automobile club, then the fact that ‘mother went to a women’s workshop on self-defense, so that if my father moans at her for burning the toast, she will be able to karate chop his windpipe’…later, the rather medieval, sexist father says that ‘women ought to be at home, cooking, but he said that in a whisper, so that he would not be karate chopped to death.

After a long period of unemployment, George Mole is finally in a job as supervisor, only the crew he has is made up of a group of bizarre skinheads and punks, called Kev, Daz, Mav and other peculiar names, and when the father brings them home to celebrate some progress in their cleaning endeavors, Pauline mole and the Indian neighbor, Mrs. Singh are shocked to see these fellows walking one by one into the kitchen…another hilarious moment takes place with the start of the Falkland’s War, which is announced on the radio and when Adrian runs to announce his father, who is asleep in bed – when out of work, he does that often, if not always – and jumps out at the news that Argentina has invaded the islands, which he thought are just off the coast of Scotland, only to go back to sleep, when he learns that they are actually many thousands of miles away…
To add one more outstanding episode in this chef d’oeuvre that is full to the brim with them, one could mention the scene where the hero has some glue to use on the model airplane and when he is tempted to sniff it, to see what happens, instead of the expected ecstasy, he has his nose attached to the plane and George Mole has to take the son to the casualty room, where the doctor puts ‘glue sniffer’ in the records…

The interaction with Pandora, the girl that has first a penchant for Nigel, a friend of the main character and only in the later chapters becomes infatuated with our hero is also one of the highlights of this magnificent, overwhelming book that is such an Absolute Pleasure to read, the essential splendid comedy, Ultimate Joy and fabulous entertainment… ...more

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Z
by Vassilis Vassilikos

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Z by Vassilis Vassilikos
9.5 out of 10

Alas, if you are looking for Z by Vassilis Vassilikos, the entries you find on the internet are scarce and the work that has been considered a masterpiece does not even have a Wikipedia page – whereas a multitude Z by Vassilis Vassilikos
9.5 out of 10

Alas, if you are looking for Z by Vassilis Vassilikos, the entries you find on the internet are scarce and the work that has been considered a masterpiece does not even have a Wikipedia page – whereas a multitude of futile, useless things and names have more than a page, they often have more than plenty – although it has been included on The Guardian’s 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list - https://www.theguardian.com/books/200... - in the State of the Nation section.

This reader has been transmogrified by the adaptation for the big screen, directed by the marvelous Costa-Gavras, with the magnificent, radiant Yves Montand and Jean-Louis Trintignant, a magnum opus that has won two Oscars, being nominated for Best Motion Picture, Best Director, the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film, the Jury Prize and Best Actor at the most relevant cinematic gathering, The Cannes Film Festival.
In fact, that initial impression, of decades ago, when the poignancy of the images was so powerful that the deputy who is hit with a club on the head stayed in my mind for the intervening years and unfortunately has managed somehow to overpower the rendition of the events described in the novel, which became thus one of the few perhaps no more than ten – books to be surpassed by the film, when both are magical.

One issue that one may have with the novel Z might be that it tends to be long, probably too long for the readers of this age – including the undersigned – especially if one knows the story, which I did, and the details of the process, the finding of the culprits, the overturning of initial false, incriminating statements made, in which vicious specialist said that the death of Z was caused by a fall and not by the club with which he was hit on the head, before the pickup with three wheels is driven across his body, which had stumbled to the ground.
The name of the book which is also the name chosen for the main character is fabulous in that it is a symbol and works better that a substitute for Grigoris Lambrakis, the real life deputy who had been killed in 1963, in Salonika, which has become in the meantime Thessaloniki, and Vassilis Vassilikos could have written about Alexis Gavras – by the way, Alexis Zorba by Nikos Kazantzakis is yet another contemporary chef d’oeuvre, by another Greek phenomenon – but the power resting within Z is glorious.

Another reluctance that this reader has had and it prevented it from fully attaching to Z, the narrative and the ‘good personages’ within is connected with the political orientation of the camp of the hero, for albeit he seems to be rather independent, detached from the communists, those are his most fervent supporters and this is anathema for someone who has ‘benefited’ from their doctrine, the cruel, exterminating, murderous tyranny brought by the Soviets, with the slogan ‘all animals are equal’, whereas we knew in practice, and from George Orwell, that ‘some animals are more equal than others’.
The hero is presented as close to a God, an athlete with a superb physique, with achievements in competitions, convincing, brave, powerful, intelligent and able to lead the crowds, but when he arrives in the city of Salonika, the local extreme right is poised to make an example out of him and his followers, using the authority, infrastructure of the police and other local institutions to beat, abuse, eventually eliminate, throw stones at those taking part in the meeting – which was difficult, almost impossible to organize, for the local leaders pressed those in charge of the venues to refuse the requests of the leftists.

A general, the chief of police and other high-ranking officials are all involved in the murder of Z, albeit it would be difficult – perhaps unattainable. – to convict those who gave the orders, in spite of the fact that the monsters used to swing the tools of death are apprehended quite soon – against the wishes of their leaders, who try to hide at least one of them, but because one courageous, heroic individual, Hatzis, jumps on the three wheeler, just as it tries to disappear from the crime scene, after the deputy had been clubbed on the head and then driven over, and he fights with the two monsters and thus exposes them to a possible punishment by the law.
Yango Gazgouradis and his partner in crime Vango, a pedophile who abuses victims and is protected by the police, in exchange for his brutality, the force he uses on opponents of the extreme right wing, those who call themselves Friends of Peace are communists all for the mad, pro fascist forces – they have alas not gone into extinction, either in Greece, where they have the Golden Dawn, or in other places, like America, where the supremacists, extremists now have an idol, the orange buffoon that 53% of republicans a new poll shows think he is better than…Lincoln!

The goons speak loudly about what they are going to do, after all, who is going to arrest them, if the chief of police and other men in uniform are the ones who organize and press them to abuse, beat and eventually kill their opposition, with promises of money and the abolition of fines, misdemeanors and other penalties they may face, the two killers and others who have been brought to the forefront to attack those who want to participate in the meeting and get close to the heroic Z.

Killing the brave, valuable, superhuman almost hero has some mixed results and we could say that on the one hand, his departure would have a tremendous echo, would help to unite his supporters, who have such a magnificent cause now, a God-like figure, eventually they win political power, but on the other hand, without going into spoiler details, we could also point out the fact that the process of bringing justice is immensely difficult – it ever achieved – and many of those involved, from Z, who pays with his life for his ideals, to Hatzis and others who g=face abuse, discrimination and physical violence for their decision to stand for justice, human values, truth, democracy and rule of law. ...more

Realini rated a book really liked it

The Irishman
by Charles Brandt

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The Irishman, based on the book by Charles Brandt
10 out of 10

this is a note on the film, not the book on which it is based....

Given the glorious reception received by this magnum opus, the only thing that may be left to establish would be what will ...more

Realini rated a book really liked it

Downton Abbey: The Complete Scripts, Season One
by Julian Fellowes

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Downton Abbey, screenplay by Julian Fellowes
Nine out of 10

This is an excellent, formidable production that highlights the British School of Cinema at its best, showcasing exceptional, superb acting (on a side note, this cinephile has recently seen Downton Abbey, screenplay by Julian Fellowes
Nine out of 10

This is an excellent, formidable production that highlights the British School of Cinema at its best, showcasing exceptional, superb acting (on a side note, this cinephile has recently seen The Irishman and finds the two films almost equally powerful, but the performance of the once fantastic Al Pacino is inferior to what the cast of Downton Abbey offers audiences) with actors that form a perfect ensemble, without a strident note, as seemed to be the case with the aforementioned Martin Scorsese achievement, where one actor is somewhat at odds with the rest…

For those who have seen the equally entertaining series, the subject, setting, family and connections are familiar, although there are some new highlights here, the main point, the zenith of the movie being the visit of the king and queen and the big and small dramatic complications that this rare honor brings, from the attempts made by one who hates the royals, to the complicated arrangement that such a guest brings with him, the entourage, the preposterous, pompous personnel (one of whom steals) that reduces to humility the known butlers – the one who had retired, but is brought to active service to deal with the serious challenge, and the one in office, who has a brush with law, because of his sexual orientation which was punished by law at the time…
Imelda Staunton, one of the best British performers, plays Violet Crawley, an aristocrat from the entourage of the royals, a new figure for the series fans, who has a maid that seems to inherit her fortune, causing the wrath of the invincible, often hilarious, but also infuriating Violet Crawley aka the unforgettable, iconic Maggie Smith, up to the end when the secret is revealed (the one that would stay in the dark here) and the lady that towers over Downton Abbey, often influencing her son, Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham, would show remarkable emotion, genuine emotional intelligence.

The team of servants from Downton Abbey has to engage in a conflict with the visiting employees of the Royal House, from the manager to the French chef, because while they felt – most of them, with the notable exception of Daisy Mason – honored by the visit – the hilarious, admirable Mr. Molesley aka excellent Kevin Doyle, is actually so overwhelmed that he provides quite a few mirthful, buoyant scenes when he is flabbergasted by her royal highness, the queen – and see the fact that they are actually excluded from any task and hence a contact, a feeling of satisfaction as a provocation and inadmissible in ‘their own house’.
The ‘rebellion’ has some amusing effects, for they all conspire to put the chef to sleep, make a call to the man in charge to ask him to leave the premises on an invented reason, lock some others in their own room and when the case required, they used information about misbehavior or plain theft to make the visiting crew abide by their demands…

It is a formidable motion picture, which can be used in schools of acting, with everything in the right place, the task of organizing a very large team is daunting, but handled here with perfect ease. ...more

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The Irishman
by Charles Brandt

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The Irishman, based on the book by Charles Brandt
10 out of 10

this is a note on the film, not the book on which it is based....

Given the glorious reception received by this magnum opus, the only thing that may be left to establish would be what will ...more

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Scarlet Sister Mary
by Julia Peterkin

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Scarlet Sister Mary by Julia Peterkin
10 out of 10

It seems somewhat sad to see that quite a number of formerly acclaimed chefs d’oeuvre have fallen into neglect and if you look them now on the world’s database, you tend to find very little about them Scarlet Sister Mary by Julia Peterkin
10 out of 10

It seems somewhat sad to see that quite a number of formerly acclaimed chefs d’oeuvre have fallen into neglect and if you look them now on the world’s database, you tend to find very little about them and this looks to be the case of Scarlet Sister Mary, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1929 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulitze...) but not much read these days.

One reason might be that phenomenal as this novel is, it could be difficult to read and the undersigned thought himself lucky to have the habit of reading for some hours every day, for without that ritual, the dialogue specific to the Gullah people of the Low Country in South Carolina, which is hard to comprehend, given that it includes expression such as ‘chillen’ and there are words that the locals have not heard about and thus are twisted, like diploma, which Seraphin is trying so hard to get, only it had never been heard of and therefore the name and the notion are alien for her mother and neighbors…
The heroine is named in the title, Mary, referred to as ‘Scarlet’ because of her alleged sin, which takes place once her lawful husband, July, abandons his home and wife for the company of Cinder, a rival woman that we would learn as we read that has used magic, the power of a charm provided by the local magician, Daddy Cudjoe, the one who offers both black and good witchcraft – anyway, he had not known when Cinder came to him that this would be used on a married man and he complains about ‘women’ and what had happened when he finds out from the wife, who wants a charm to get her spouse back, which would be very difficult because one charm would have to annul another powerful one that worked, for those who believe such theories.

The main character had been an orphan and she was taken and raised by auntie Maum Hannah and her crippled son, Budda Ben, the latter being the victim of a fall when he was a baby and later on, the subject of insults, abuses and harassment by the children of the village, especially those of Andrew, an important man in the religious community, and the one who, instead of reining in and better instructing his children, decides to target the challenged man and exclude hi from the religious group, on the grounds that, exasperated and quite overwhelmed the vicious boys who chased, set the dogs on him, would curse and voice his frustration and legitimate anger.
Maum Hannah and Budda Ben are vehemently opposed to the matrimony of the heroine to the infamous July and we would see that their opposition was more than reasonable, it was prophetic, for on the very night of the wedding, the groom decides to take Cinder for a dance – admittedly, given that those locals that were religious were fundamentalist and almost fanatical in their ways and thus only the ‘sinners’, those outside the church could do something so reprehensible as to dance, his bride would not dance – and he is enjoying so much the agitation with another woman, that his spouse is provoked into showing how good a dancer she is, offering reason for her ‘impeachment’- to make a passing reference to the idiot who is now ruling the free world and the process that should have liberated us from this plague…

However, there is soon another infringement of the drastic rules of the local church, when the first son of the heroine, Unex from the original ‘Unexpected’, a name most did not now, but July thinks about, is born long before the ‘rightful’ date, nine months since the matrimony, making the others understand that ‘Scarlet Sister Mary’ had had carnal relations with her would be spouse, before the sanctity offered by marriage and this is a reason for her exclusion, which would have anyway arrived later, because once she is left by her husband and she would have suffered tremendously for many months, she in the end decides to put this pain behind, has sex with June, the brother of the departed husband and a loyal, steady support in the vicissitudes of having to cope alone with a period of disease affecting the cotton crop.
Sister Mary would have a ‘litter’ of children, since she would change course dramatically, after the initial descent into Hades, the terror of losing the one she loved, she would maintain, indeed she would emphasize this to her daughter, Seraphin, that no ‘mens’ deserve so much affection and she would keep having children, after the initial ‘love child’, Unex, the others being all, ‘carnal children’, all with different fathers, loved, encouraged, pushed to overcome adversity – in the case of one of them, a serious accident involving one of the new machines operating near the crops severs one leg and he is lucky, if we can say such a thing, that a doctor is in the area and he could saw the wound together, or else he would have died.

If in the first place Mary is so furious and hateful that she would like to kill Cinder, after her reversal of fortune she even travels to the city to visit the woman, by that time abandoned in her place by the philandering, womanizing July, and she is now without a tooth in her mouth and living in squalor, making the former rival pity the state in which this victim is now in; the heroine is now more concerned with and opposed to Doll, sister of July and wife of Andrew, the latter being overwhelmed by the free spending spouse who is demanding for a car – it seems to be the beginning of the last century, though no date is mentioned – and Scarlet Sister proves her magnanimity in recommending that Andrew, a man she is attracted to, and for the last twenty years it looks like she had given in to her impulses, makes peace with his absent and quite difficult wife.

As Mary gives birth to twins, most likely the last birth, there is another infant in the same room and his presence there is so mysterious as to border the miraculous, supernatural, albeit the secret is soon uncovered and there is yet…another baby to join the new born and the grandmother has hence four newly born to care for… ...more

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Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
by Alan Sillitoe

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Saturday Night and Sunday Morning by Alan Sillitoe
10 out of 10

Let me start by strongly recommending that you check The Guardian’s 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list - https://www.theguardian.com/books/200... - because the Magnus opus by the Saturday Night and Sunday Morning by Alan Sillitoe
10 out of 10

Let me start by strongly recommending that you check The Guardian’s 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list - https://www.theguardian.com/books/200... - because the Magnus opus by the glorious Alan Sillitoe is just another in a series of masterpieces that the undersigned has read, found on the mentioned compilation, which has included phenomenal works, in a comprehensive manner, with attention given to Australian, British and other writers, a literature that covers continents, different genres – this book comes into the State of the Nation section.

Arthur Seaton is the complex hero of the narrative, based as it seems on one side of the author, who has evidently included some of his own experience – he has lived in Nottingham, worked in a factory at a lathe (just as the protagonist of Love on the Dole) and has been inspired by another writer to relate memories of his own home town, written under a tree (was it an orange one?) in Spain – and has created a main character with stamina, charm – at one stage, he has sex with two married women, sisters, and he is starting off with a new relationship, all at the same time – some serious flaws, like the side of his personality that makes him say to himself, a few times, and others that if he would be hit by a woman, he would hit back.
The hero is also quite retrograde, medieval in the manner he envisages his future married life, which, although distant or impossible (as he sees it for some time) would include some primitive rules that would have the future wife watching the children, allowing him to continue with his quite excessive boozing and whatever his male superiority would desire and allow, and he would surely not tolerate confrontation, as he sees in the house of his aunt, Ada, who has fourteen children from the marriage with her late husband and she has about five more now, that she has entered matrimony again.

The story opens with a drinking contest and it appears that this chapter has been a short story – the writer explains about the book in the afterword and the end of the e-book contains a short biography and more information on Saturday Night…- the main character drinks seven gins and more beers, winning the competition with Loudmouth, but at the end of the effort, he is somewhat high and falls all the way from the top of the stairs, engaging consequently into an amusing, is strange communication with a waiter, then parking his uncontrolled body on the porch of his lover, Brenda, the woman who has two children and is married to a colleague of Arthur, Jack, a man who is quite difficult to figure out, even for the bright hero, who has a habit of telling people he knows about them, although when they retort in the same way, he declares he has jot figured out himself ….

Arthur is inventive, smart, exaggerated at times, such as when he makes up stories, one for the use of his father, who is watching television from 6 to 11 (the protagonist thinks that if something calamitous happens and somehow people lose the ability to watch their TVs, it would lead to a rebellion, albeit he does not care in the least about this addictive occupation) pretending that people have gone blind from too much watching – he was just playing games, but on another level, programs like the ones on Fox News or the equivalent in other countries would have the said effect, of blinding viewers, albeit not literally, just as the father talks about newspapers and the lies they print…
Brenda tells her lover one day that she is pregnant and he is responsible and she is sure, when he asks, because she has had no coitus with her husband in months and they need to solve the problem whatever it takes, in spite of the attitude of the would be father, who seems to thinks that since she already has two children, another one would not make a bid difference, but nonetheless, he would ask his Aunt Ada about what is the exit and after some awkward exchanges he finds that a bottle of gin and an excruciatingly hot bath might do the trick and if it doesn’t, well…the invented friend would just have to marry.

During chapters or episodes, the protagonist does not look like he cares much, indeed, he is the one to say he ‘does not care what happens in Kenya’ and he is not very romantic or loyal, for when he goes to the fifteen days required by the army for training, he does not forget to inebriate himself to the point where he kicks mates and the Sargent, only to be tied to the bed, but he simply does not remember to write at least a postcard to Brenda, who would reproach that upon his return, when he meets her and her sister, Winnie, the latter entering an outré threesome, that has some brutal effects on the philandering bachelor, who would be the target of the wrath of the jealous, cuckold husband – Winnie’s, not Jack – who takes a friend along to have his revenge.
We tend to side with Arthur, but his idiosyncrasies, his cheating, the superficial, indifferent, ultimately harmful way in which he deals with his partners are evident and if this makes the story and the central figure more interesting, giving it more space, width and opening, it is at the same time a reason to disengage with him, although there is something to be said on the attitude of the women, who are accomplices in the infidelity and furthermore, Winnie is aware of the affair that her sister has with the man that she would encourage, entice, perhaps even tempt into her bedroom, understandable as this is, given that her spouse is in the army, away in Europe and from one point in time, he is known to have his own mistress in Germany.

Outrageous, politically abhorrent as he would be today, Arthur is hilarious and incredible, in his examination of women, rebarbative, primitive as it is, when he says that he can tell the size of their breasts and ‘the Whippet face has small, pheasant egg sized ones, the laughing woman would give one something to hold on, while the mysterious type would not have large tits, but would compensate that by being rather wild in bed’.

A fantastic, marvelous, amusing, instructive, inspiring novel that has been adapted for the big screen. ...more

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Rickshaw Boy
by Lao She

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Rickshaw Boy aka Camel Xiangzi by Lao She
10 out of 10

One of the spectacular, glorious aspects of reading masterpieces, such as Luòtuo Xiángzi, is that one can travel to the far corners of the earth, changing latitudes and longitudes in a matter of Rickshaw Boy aka Camel Xiangzi by Lao She
10 out of 10

One of the spectacular, glorious aspects of reading masterpieces, such as Luòtuo Xiángzi, is that one can travel to the far corners of the earth, changing latitudes and longitudes in a matter of minutes – the undersigned has been over the past weeks to Africa and Surinam with Oroonoko, Queensland, Australia with Remembering Babylon, England with North and South and the list as long as the number of novels we can engage with – and as luminaries have stated, we can also live a multitude of lives, through the characters in the books we open and keep in our minds and imaginations, especially the one that are worthy, as is this work, included on The Guardian’s 1,000 Novels everyone Must Read list - https://www.theguardian.com/books/200...

The hero of the Camel Auspicious Lad – which is yet another name for the book, the literal meaning of the original, Chinese title – is Xiangzi, a man who might become an antihero, as a consequence of a series of traumas, misfortunes, losses and a descent into a state of selfishness, disabusement, indifference and viciousness, brought about by the death of a few people in his life, rejection, extortion, after a rather promising, optimistic start for the young Rickshaw Boy, who came into Beijing – for some reason named Beiping in the book version available here – from the countryside, as so many used to do in China, at the beginning of the last century – they still try to do that today, but in the authoritarian land which has a president for life, it is not allowed to migrate so easily and most of those who travel to the cities are not able to enroll their children in state institutions and face other hardships.
Xiangzi is determined to work hard, use his unusual, tall size, the good muscles he has and the overall health and fitness to acquire a rickshaw of his own, living an austere life, staying away from smoking, drinking or gambling and avoiding the whorehouses – he has seen colleagues unable to urinate, as a consequence of sexually transmitted diseases, albeit he would contract one, when he has an affair with the concubine of one of his employers – until the time when he would start thinking that it is no use being a hardworking, honest, decent Rickshaw Boy, but before that he tries hard, saves hard earned money and buys a rickshaw, which he unfortunately takes to an unsafe area, where it is confiscated by soldiers and worse, the poor man is taken prisoner and forced to work as a slave for the troops, until there are explosions near the camp and the havoc, the resulting chaos is speculated by the protagonist, who had understood that he needs to escape soon, if he is to have a new chance to start over and resume his life, after this abhorrent trauma of his kidnapping and losing all his savings and the rickshaw…

Xiangzi hides near a group of camels and he has the chance to walk away, after the soldiers abandon the animals and seeing as he had nothing left, the hero takes one by the lead and two others follow, making him understand that this is something he could use, although it would be difficult and he understands the perils of being killed, exposed as a false camel herder, but in the end, he does find an older man who takes the animals, offers only 30 Yuan for them, only given the circumstances, it is better to take up the offer and eventually use this money to start the capital for a new, or just a little used rickshaw and before that, he finds refuge with Old Master Liu, the one who has a rickshaw rental outfit and a rather ugly, ‘manly’ daughter, Huniu, who is in her forties or close, unable to find a husband, having a rather hard, rough manner that had earned her the nickname ‘Tiger Girl’.
The Rickshaw Boy also gains a nickname, Camel, and he is not very popular with other men that rent rickshaws, because he prefers to remain private, he does not engage in drinking gambling or whoring, up to the time that is when everything changes and the previous paradigm of honesty, working hard, respect for others is replaced with the exact opposite, faced as he is with extreme adversity, for after being taken prisoner by rebels, losing the rickshaw, he is again manipulated and trapped by Huniu Liu, who invites her in her room one night, makes him drink alcohol, taking advantage of his previous teetotal ring, for he quickly becomes inebriated, they have sex and then she comes to the new employer he finds, Mr. Cao, and claims him for her husband, invoking her pregnancy, only to retract that on their wedding day, when she shows the pillow with which she had fooled him and her father.

Fourth Master Liu, who had acted as a gangster in his past, has a mildly positive opinion of Xiangzi, but nonetheless, not to the point where he would accept the humiliation of having him as a son-in-law (at that time, many rules were different), a simple Rickshaw Boy, when the Master is so wealthy and respected and even if the daughter is ugly and undesirable, he would not accept the union, under no circumstances, refusing to back down when Tiger Girl reveals that she is carrying a child, only to see that she is thrown out and has to take two rooms with her husband, hoping and scheming for a return, imagining that the old man would not refuse to accept his only descendant back to their home and she would see that the stubborn, mean Master Liu prefers to sell everything, pack and move away to an undisclosed location, rather than pass his fortune to the daughter and her humble husband.
There are many developments in a rather complex novel, that deals with the themes of poverty – indeed, we find that the author would return from exile to communist China, in a possible sign that he favors this dreadful, dictatorial regime – the undersigned has lived for 25 years and still sees the ghastly consequences all around – personal calamities, tragedies that strike in various manners and forms, from the death of a wife that was not loved – in fact, the hero hated more than he respected this consort that provided some money for a new rickshaw at one point – to the possible failure of what looked at some time as a possibly for Redemption, a new life with the woman who was forced to become a prostitute – in the manner of the famous Sonja from the Magnus Opus Crime and Punishment and so many other divine books – Little Fuzi.

This book represents the means to get more knowledge about China, admittedly, an older version of the rising and dangerous dragon of this age, the suffering of poor people like the one who becomes an antihero in the last part, no more interested in values, being concerned with others, but individualistic in the extreme, ready to do anything for himself and nothing for anybody else… ...more