The Tale of Two Incendiaries

Incendiary by Chris Cleave which was also a movie Starring Michelle Williams, Ewan McGregor, Matthew Macfadyen.

On a Chris Cleave high after finishing Little Bee, I embarked on the story of Incendiary. I opted for the movie first and then picked up the book. Cleave's character development remarkable. In Little Bee's first 100 pages I had to keep verifying the story was fiction. The voice of the main character was so poetic and focused, it felt like a story being told from a heart full of pain and hope. The overview of Incendiary kept me from diving into the book. I wasn't sure I was ready for a full on terrorist attack. The movie had been sitting in my Netflix queue before I even heard of Chris Cleave, so I thought it was a safe bet if at some random time I deemed it worthy of a queue placement.The focus is a working class young mother coping with her grief by writing a letter to Osama Bin Laden after losing her husband and son in a terrorist attack in London.

How different could the movie and book be?

The plots were quite different. The premise was the same. Michelle Williams plays the hauntingly ordinary woman with power and ease. The woman is also never named adding to her ordinariness. Cleave delivered another moving character voice with speech and phrase which again added a big dose of reality to the story. The voice in book is present in Michelle Williams performance, even though the events unfold in a very different manner.

As for the rest of the cast, Ewan McGregor who plays Jasper Black and Matthew MacFadyen who plays Terrance Butcher were underutilized. If the relationships defined the book would have made it into the movie, it would have been a dramatic Olympics. In the movie both their characters were just kinda there and not of any help to the events unfolding. They weren't of any help because nothing really unfolded in the movie whereas the male characters in the book were present and had an impact on the woman's coping process.

The movie opted to have the woman fixate on a boy who was the son of one of the terrorists. It anchors the movie on the woman's grief. She grapples with her anger and the vulnerability of the boy who lost his father in the bombing. Haunted by her son and crippling grief she becomes disconnected from reality. As the movie reveals more answers to the bombing, she is so isolated it doesn't have an impact and doesn't seem fully explained. The hopeful ending seems a little pasted on and awkward.

The book confronts many more angles to the woman's grief and position by becoming entangled with Jasper and his girlfriend Petra, both reporters. The relationships and people she interacts with are much more developed. Jasper struggles more with the attack, and the connection he and the woman share sustains beyond just feeling bad for her. Petra, who was not in the movie, drives home the class distinctions and makes a beautiful symbol of the selfish and apathetic. The relationship between Terrance and the woman is much sweeter and painful. The woman's connection to the bombing revelations have much more connection to her actions in the end.  The ending is anything but hopeful, but very poetic.

I know, I know. The book is always better. I expected it because of how much I like Chris Cleave' writing. What I didn't expect was such a departure from the book that resulted in two really talented actors giving such bland performances. The movie is worth watching if you want to see Michelle Williams do some amazing work or just watch Ewan McGregor be cute and Scottish. For a good story with rich characters and real struggles, check out the book.

A Fragrant Mistake

Bath & Body Works products smell heavenly. I believe this to be a fact. Add a sale on their products, and I have died and gone to heaven. So, last December when I was shopping at the Bath & Body Works at Woodfield Mall, their Moisturizing Hand Soap seemed like a glorious find.

It was on sale in cucumber melon and my new favorite scent, midnight pomegranate. Of course it was get 3 for $15, so I gave dancing waters a try. Not only did it smell delectable, but offered the added bonus of moisturizing. By mid-January, my family suffers from red chapped dry hands that look like we have been washing our hands in acid. So, adding moisturizer and not having to follow my sons around with the lotion after every wash seemed genius.

After living with this soap, I am sorry to say it was a bad purchase. It fails to lather on your hands. It does a great job making bubbles in the sink as it is slipping off your hands. (Which my 6 year old took note of right away and conducted many "baths" for his rubber duck with it.) Any soap drips on the sink turned into cement. Having 2 school age boys and bath happy rubber duck, I have a lot of cucumber melon and dancing water drips cemented onto the sink. Whether it is pride or thriftiness, I refuse to just pitch a product. I just vow to make a better purchase each time I use the offending product. It took some deep breaths, but usually works for me. So, when I saw the soap was getting used up I was excited. It gets used up fast because it takes so much soap to actually wash your hands, plus bubble baths for the duck. However for a 6 inch tall bottle, I was annoyed to see the dispenser stop working with 2 inches left at the bottom. Not only was it a bad product but the bottle is a faulty design. I should have introduced it to the trash at this time, but I persevered in the name of a sale. So, I added water. The nasty soap separated into equal parts suds and cement with the cement at the bottom. It is an impressive gradient of color, and only the water squirts out at about eye level.

My family had milder cases of acid hands this winter, but I was still chasing them with the hand lotion. I ended up with drier hands from extra scrubbing of the sink. Next time, I will stick with the foaming hand soap at Bath & Body Works. Even if there is a sale.

It's All About Perspective

Wow! City! by Robert Neubecker

I am reaching back in time to pay tribute to this life changing picture book. Robert Neubecker connected me to the level artistry evolving in picture books. It was a book I had stumbled upon at the public library in 2004. At the time one year old LOVED books. I couldn't read enough to him, and his favorites he wanted over and over. He was full of questions so the more going on in the pictures the better. This was a favorite for a long time because of the sheer amount of information he had to study. It was very special to me, too. When I first thought of picture books I thought of the Little Golden Book Series I would hunt up at every grocery store as a five year old. While classic children stories, they were a bit stiff and lacked excitement. So, to open this book and see the entire concept told from a child's perspective was exciting. Wow! Book!

I couldn't recall a book from my childhood which was so interactive and vibrant, all the while conveying an ordinary extraordinary experience to most children, your first visit to the big city. The layout size and the number of things to each page give the story movement. There is a "Where's Waldo" effect with finding Izzy and encountering the random scenes unfolding in front of her. Each page you don't know where to look, just like when you are stepping in to the glitz and bustle of the city after a long stretch away.

My son was obsessed with cars and trucks, so we spent a lot of time on any page with a vehicle. I have two favorite scenes. The scene with Izzy seeing the tall buildings and Izzy's father trying to read the Uptown Subway map.

If you have small children it will keep all of you entertained. If you don't but want to see some really colorful and clever art, I guarantee you will be too.

Brothers

Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick.

I first heard of this book a year ago at the Anderson Bookstore Children's Literature Breakfast. Mr. Sonnenblick spoke to the crowd of mostly teachers, school librarians, local authors, illustrators and two aspiring writers with great heart and humor. Now that I have read his book I can appreciate how genuine of a talk he gave because this book has both heart and humor. It is a sweet, funny but ultimately realistic read about a 13 year old boy coping with his younger brother's fight against leukemia. 

Moved by his talk, I bought the book. Troubled by the sibling strife in a string of books read with my sons lately, I took the time to pick it up. I was searching for something for my sons to show there can be a little love and tenderness, too. So, I gave this book a read. And I am so glad I did. Steven, the older brother, is honest about his feelings about his brother, his parents and his social anxiety. He struggles with very similar feelings captured in all the other sibling rivalry tales, but cancer has a way of putting things into perspective. It was so precious to read this tale with the final message being, "It's good to love your brother." I think my 7 year old could grasp it, and I plan to read it with him.

It is a great demonstration of values and modeling for tweens. Sonnenblick captures the isolation of being a teen and what it means to truly grow up.  Steven began the process of coping with his brother's cancer entirely alone and feeling quite abandoned. He had to learn to rely on his circle of teachers and friends. He also had to accept a certain level of neglect because sometimes troubles are bigger than your parents.  Steven's thoughts are raw and unfiltered, allowing the reader to go through the coping process.

It could be argued that the 13 year olds weren't really acting like 13 year olds. Their actions and interactions at times were so mature. But I think that is the beauty of the story and makes these characters important for kids to read about. You can be a man by the things you do, not the hairs on your chest or your birthday. This gradually becomes clear to Steven, giving him the confidence to overcome his insecurities.

Most important, I loved the drumming and band theme. A former band geek myself, I could appreciate the time practicing to help "deal." Also, the day of performance excitement was spot on!

There is hope yet that my sons will make a little room in their hearts for each other...and maybe the drums, too. Thank you, Mr. Sonnenblick and Steven.