The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

I usually read only at night, last thing before bed when it’s quiet and dark except of course for my reading lamp. I am easily distracted and whenever I see people reading in a noisy airport or crowded lunch room I always wonder how, and am admittedly a bit jealous that, they are able to concentrate on their book in such a place. Since I always have extra time to kill during my lunch breaks I thought I would try reading in my car this time. At first it was difficult but I soon got used to it and was able to become well enough engrossed into the story even in a busy parking lot. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was recommended to me by Luci. A strange name indeed (the book’s name not Luci’s) but you have to admit the title does stand out and grab your attention.

This is another book with written in an unconventional format. (Do you remember These Is My Words?) This time the whole book is a compilation of letters. They are nearly all written by or to a Miss Juliet Ashton and travel mostly between London and an island in the English Channel called Guernsey. WWII has just ended and this story begins and ends in 1946 and deals with the occupation of Guernsey by Z Germans during the war as well as Juliet’s search for material for her next book.

I’m sure it’s normally a fairly quick read but due to my experimental and relatively brief reading sessions during my lunch breaks in my Civic where I was constantly checking my watch to make sure I wasn’t late back to work etc. progress was, well, slow. In hind sight this was probably the worst book to try to read in twenty minute bursts particularly because of the letter format and the fact that I found it difficult to keep track of who was who for about the first half of the book. Oh yeah, the book is actually divided into two parts. The first part introduces all the characters and provides much of the background information but nothing much really happens in the present. Things begin to pay off in the second half and especially in the last third of the book.

I have come to understand that a romantic story written by a woman will always contain more than one possible candidate for groom at the inevitable engagement/wedding finale. Since this book contains multiple references to Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice in particular it was not surprising that characters named Markham and Dawsey soon appeared. (Markham/Wickham, Dawsey/Darcy) Coincidence? Yeah, okay sure. Anyway, that’s no big deal but I just wanted to let you know how clever I was to pick up on the similarity of the names, or not.

I saved the final 100 pages for a proper reading session without distraction or time restriction. As the second half was set on the island I decided to drive out to Waterton and park beside the lake to read the end of the story. The sounds of the little waves breaking on the shore along with the wind rushing through the trees made it easy to imagine I was on Guernsey myself. Well, kinda, not really but it was fun to pretend anyway.

(Yeah, so I'm there on the shore of Guernsey. As you can see it was a beautiful day. You can see St. Peter Port just over to the right there. Across the Channel to the left are the um Green Cliffs of Dover and that kind of pointy castle like shape way down there, I'm pretty sure that's Hogwarts. Yep, pretty sure.)

Overall I found the first half contained slightly more witty writing and the second half had the best of the story. The islander’s stories that Juliet collects for her book include recollections of terrible events that happened during the war and show how they were able to cope and endure all the hardships they faced. There are stories of great bravery and unexpected kindness found amongst all the evil as well. The ending is suddenly but not unexpectedly happy.

I think my favorite part was the letter Juliet wrote to Sophie on September 7, 1946.

Everyone has his/her dearest treasures. Sometimes they are kept in an old box tied up with string, sometimes they are hidden deep inside a heart. Those who are lucky enough to be shown the precious contents can know that they are loved.

Thanks Luci for the recommendation!

Inception

Well, I finally got around to seeing Inception last night. Even into its fourth weekend I was surprised to see how full the theater got. With a nearly full room there was bound to be a few disruptions during the show but thankfully most of the texting and talking crowd was in the next theater watching Step Up 3D.  Yeah, yet another teen dance off movie... in 3D. Now tell me again how 3D is not mostly a money grabbing gimmick.

Before I get to Inception...

Out of all the movie stars, singers or just plain celebrities on lists A through Z there have always been a few (usually in pairs) who I often get mixed up with each other.  Maybe you get confused sometimes too.  Usually they look very similar or at least have a similar character or personality,  or maybe not, but for some reason they often occupy the same space in your brain. I think the first pair I can remember mixing up were James Coburn and Lee Marvin. Do you even know who they are or are you just too young?  Okay then, some more recent interchangables.

How about Amy Adams and Isla Fisher (Amy)

or Zooey Deschanel and Katy Perry (Zooey)

or Yoda and Fozzie Bear

okay well, maybe they just sound the same but still...

So what do all these pairs have to do with Inception?  Well, one of the actors just happens to be half of another pair of actors I often misremember. His name is Cillian Murphy.

Actually he looks even more like another actor than the one I sometimes confuse him with. That makes a total of three I guess. I wonder if you can guess who the other two are, just for fun.

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SPOILERS AHEAD

Inception may be compared by some, myself included to Shutter Island.  Both movies star Leonardo DiCaprio who has major wife trouble in both and neither story is what it seems at first. Both leave you with the feeling that you need to watch them again but there is a big difference. More on that later.

I have mixed feeling about Inception. On one hand it is a very original story that has obviously had much work put into it. It requires your full attention and even then it is hard to keep up sometimes, at least it was for me.  On the other hand at times it seems to fall back into the typical North American action movie cliche with lots of gunfire, car chases and things getting blowed up real good. Of course some or maybe all of this is happening within a dream so it doesn't even have to make sense, how fortunate.

Inception is all about dreams, dream sharing and dreams within dreams. Leo DiCaprio plays Cobb, the ultimate corporate spy who enters other peoples dreams to steal their secrets. He works for super duper powerful folks who buy whole airlines instead of just a few extra seats just to make getting the job done slightly more convenient.  Cobb's quest is to enter the dream of a dying man's son and instead of stealing information, he is to plant an idea in his head, the idea that he must find the ring and bring it back to Mordor at any cost. Oh wait, sorry. That was something else.  In fact, the quest is to get the son to split up his father's company instead of continuing in his footsteps. Slightly less epic I agree but I suppose we're long past the age of swords, bows and arrows, catapults and prickly elephants so I guess we take what we can get right?

The story and process are so complicated that the actors spend half of the movie explaining how everything works and what will or at least should happen. One important safety tip seems to be to remember that if you die in the Matrix... sorry, getting confused again, if you die while dreaming you end up in dream limbo and have to spend eternity with Marion Cotillard. Hey, where do I sign up?

A main focus of the movie is on people not knowing what is a dream and what is reality.  The plot of the movie involves planting a certain idea into a persons mind and while doing this maybe the film plants into our mind a tiny doubt about our own boundary between dreams and reality.  Several of the main characters have small personal objects called totems they use to help them distinguish between dreamland and real life. Cobb's is a spinning top.

If it gradually slows down, falls over and stops when he spins it that means he is awake. If it keeps spinning like some freaky perpetual motion machine that means he is still dreaming.  Of course the very last shot in the movie is of the top spinning and Cobb has walked away distracted by something else. The movie then ends before we find out if the top stops or keeps on going.

I think this was meant to leave the ending up to us, or maybe to see if we've figured it all out for ourselves. Were we clever enough to know if he is still dreaming or not?

But at that moment I realized something a bit strange, that I didn't care one way or the other.  There had been just a bit too much silly action, a bit too much fighting weightlessly in hotel hallways, an infinite supply of baddies, too much reliance on explanation, too much confounding and cleverness or at least the appearance of such. 

At the end Cobb is finally reunited with his children who are being attended by a character played by Michael Caine. I remembered another Chris Nolan Film, The Prestige, in which Caine also is there at the end of the movie to witness the reunification of father and child.  That time it was so moving and perfect. This time I didn't really feel anything. I realized that I had spent the whole time trying to keep up with the complexity and absurdity of the plot that I hadn't noticed that it hadn't been able to move me.

After seeing Shutter Island you can go back and rewatch it and realize why Leo's character feels seasick even though the water is calm, why the guards are on edge when they land on the island, why he never has his own matches and all the other things. You realize that so many things were not what they seemed the first time. At first I thought I would need to watch Inception again as well but then knew that I wasn't sure I even wanted too.  It wouldn't be a completely different experience like Shutter Island was. You would just pick up a few more things you missed the first time.  The end result and experience would be mostly the same.

I'm glad I saw it. It was unique and sometimes cool. Marion Cotillard was so lovely. That Juno chick was just alright. Leo did well though I thought he did better in Shutter Island.  My favourite performance of his is in Catch Me if You Can. Do check it out. Now if you'll excuse me I need to find a spinning top and check something...

Surry Girls and Despicable Me

I had planned to go into town today to see a movie, either Despicable Me or Inception, but the thought of doing that daily drive again on my day off seemed like such a chore.  Then I remembered that the theater in Waterton just happened to be playing both those movies right now so I decided to head for the mountains instead. I could spend the afternoon in resort mode and then catch one or both of the films I wanted to see in the evening.

As I set out the sky was overcast but I hoped for the best and was happy to find a cloudy but completely windless Waterton.  I must say that if I had my choice I think I would choose a cloudy but calm Waterton over a sunny but mercilessly windy one almost every time.  I really love the way Waterton smells in the summer. Of course it varies depending on where you are but in town, the further from the lake (it smells like water for some reason) and closer to the mountains you are the better it smells. 

One of my favourite strolls in the village is from the falls down the road to the lake and then back to the falls via the back alley.  I find the alley, which is of course the very closest you can get to the mountains without actually entering any hiking trails, to be the most aromatic, cozy and quiet places to walk.

To finally get to my first topic of discussion today, I parked my car across from the theater, to which I would return later, and set out for my walk.  The tennis courts were all in use which was quite a rare sight, at least for me.  I passed Cameron Falls but don't remember if I even turned my head. Probably did just out of habit if nothing else. As always, once past the falls the noise of town and rushing water quickly faded and I entered the most enjoyable part of my route. When I was about midway between the falls and the lake everything was quite quiet then I started hearing voices behind me.  As they got closer I could tell it was two girls talking and at the rate they were gaining on me they must be on bikes I thought.  A few seconds later I recognized my favorite accent in the whole world, English from England. Yeah I know there is more than one kind of English accent and I couldn't tell you exactly which one it is that I like so much but they were speaking in it. You know, proper yet not pompous.  About the last ten seconds before they passed me all was quiet again and I assumed they were pausing their conversation until they were well clear of me for whatever reason.  I would pretend not to have noticed them at all as they passed so they would feel comfortable to resume there intimate discussion as soon as possible.  The moment they passed I saw that they were riding one of those those Surry bikes from Pat's and that they both had long hair. Just as I was thinking that they were probably both quite pretty and that it was a shame I would never find out, both girls turned their heads over their shoulders and in that killer accent of theirs said hello and smiled. Then they were gone... and I couldn't stop grinning until I reached the lake.  I know it's probably pathetic that something so small could have made my day in such a big way but it did and I won't try to deny it.  As I made my way back from the lake to the falls via the back alley the sweet smell of Waterton was especially fine.  I was so glad I didn't go to town today.

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The early show was going to be Despicable Me at 7:00 so I went in for that. I wasn't sure about the quality of the picture or audio in this old theater but was interested to see the inside as I don't recall ever being in there before.  It is nice to visit an old and unrenovated theater now and then.  Waterton's has definitely retained its original character.  It is a little bigger than you might think from looking at it from the outside.  The floors are wooden as are the seat armrests.  Not a cupholder in sight either.  One refreshing change from the ordinary was the lack of any pre movie commercials or even previews. The lights went down and the movie started, awesome!  The movie image had rounded corners for some reason and there was a slight flicker noticeable.  It kind of reminded me of watching old home movies on 8mm film. The sound was OK and the flicker was ignorable so I got down to the business of getting into the movie.

Despicable Me is about an aging super villain named Mr. Gru and three girls named Margo, Edith and Agnes. At one point the three girls conversation goes like this:

Edith: Mr. Gru is nice.

Margo: But scary.

Agnes: Yeah, like Santa.

I think that might be the line that got the most laughs in the whole movie.

I kind of felt like I was watching a mixture of The Incredibles, Toy Story and even a bit of Star Wars.  Although this movie doesn't come close to being as good as any of those.  It almost seemed like the script had been written several years ago as some of the references and phrases have already come and gone. Does anyone still say "that's how I roll" anymore? There were a couple of others I noticed but of course can't remember now. At one point some "minions" (think Pizza Planet Claw game Aliens from Toy Story) were giggling beside a copy machine and I said to myself "please don't let them be laughing because they are making copies of their butts but that is exactly what they were doing." So 1990s.  There were a few laughs here and there but mostly the whole thing felt a bit off.  Thankfully one saving grace was that unlike many movies. DM actually got a bit better as it neared the end.  Overall I'd give this one about a 6/10.  I know most people are rating it higher than that but that's all I can give it.  And believe me it's not because I was in a bad mood going in to it either, 'cause I SO wasn't.

Driving home I soon forgot the movie and remembered the pretty girls on the bike turning their heads to say hello to a stranger. I wonder if they were from Surry.