by Joshua Braff
I often wonder how autobiographical some books are. Did the author use this experience as an opportunity to heal parts of his childhood? Did a little digging and he’s the second of four siblings. Older brother, Adam, himself, younger sister and youngest brother. Seems pretty familiar. Parents remarried and his father was an attorney who did stage work…
But all I can really say is what a horrible father. And quite a selfish mother as well. I can understand her trying to escape and gain a sense of self, but it seems like she did it at the expense of her children. She’d run off to all these conferences and enjoy this life of purpose, but meanwhile, she would just dump her children with their abusive father so she could go off and enjoy her interests. And it wasn’t even like she gave them any tools to deal with him. Just off she went.
I liked the way the book ended. You don’t really know where that boy is running, but you get the sense that he’s not running for anyone else but himself this time. I liked how his older brother had to tell him that it was his time to go and that he had to go alone. Sometimes you can’t save anyone else but yourself. But I think what was different about what he did and what his mother did was that he admitted it. And it was never his responsibility to save his brother. It was just fact that it was his time to move on. But he did try and help Jacob find his own way.
“‘I get to go alone.’”
“I look down at the floor, trying not to cry, trying to see who I am without this parachute I’ve stitched. And it’s vicious I’m afraid, this lonesome I taste.”
TPL DVD: I found this movie a nice change. It was sweet and simple and just one of those stories that makes a better movie than a book. Although I can only assume so, because I didn’t read the book. But I’m not all that interested in picking it up either. There really wasn’t anything new or astonishing about it. Just a typical story about friendship and romance. Quite enjoyable.
by Chris Crutcher
Wow, what an intense book. I have to admit, I’m glad they have a new cover out for it. I didn’t really get how the main character is a Japanese-black-white teen, but the cover picture is a pure white guy. I mean at least they got it right with the C on the letter jacket (unless they decided to portray Mike), but in the end TJ doesn’t even get a letter. Anyway, small technicality, but I’m glad that they have updated the cover to be a little more correct.
It’s pretty unbelievable the amount of hate in this world. And it’s great to see books being published that talk about race and hate and abuse in such an upfront and honest way. You can see how Crutcher’s experience as a social worker has really led to some profound insight that people might never really be exposed to, except in the darkest of places. I wonder how much of this is his own personal means of therapy. That maybe somehow he writes of the horrors he’s witnessed to try and pay something forward. I wish these books were more popular, I don’t even know if they’re on the shelf at work.
It was pretty heartbreaking how Heidi wanted to try and scrub away her color. How someone would feel so small that they were threatened by the existence of a little girl. And then try and kill her. But I think a lot of this stuff can’t be made up, it happens everyday.
“My parents have always encouraged me to be loud when I run into racism, but I can’t count on racism being loud when it runs into me.”
TPL DVD: I’m definitely glad I didn’t pay money to watch this movie. Parts got a little long and tiring. But I really love how Paul Rudd has moved into comedies and out of the old romantic comedies he was doing before.
I actually thought that Barry would get some kind of gig selling his mice. They were actually pretty fantastic in a really crazy way. I wonder who did all of them, because the attention to detail was amazing. It was heartbreaking to find that he was expressing his loss and sadness through propping up his mice. But at the beginning of the movie I wondered why they all had red hair.
by J.K. Madigan
I liked Blake’s point of view. I didn’t think he was that funny, but I liked how he tried to use his humor to get him through some tough situations. I thought that overall he was a pretty honest character who suffered some honest and real situations. I think it’s quite common to fall into other people’s lives and try and save them or try and help them out of their fucked up situations. I think Marissa was lost and couldn’t really accept the help from the people who were healthy enough to help her. She kept wanting her mother to do everything.
I feel like the ending was too abrupt. We never really find out what happens to Marissa or her mother. But I guess that’s how life is sometimes, people just fall out of our lives and we never really know what happens to them. Facebook and other digital forms of communication make it a little easier, but still, I feel like sometimes, once people are gone, they’re gone for good. And all we can do is hold on to the time that was spent together.
TPL DVD: Thought this was a pretty interesting movie. Sad to think of all these women being taken and sold this way. I couldn’t get over how immature his daughter was though. Her mother and stepfather kept giving her all this stuff and spoiling her, but she wasn’t able to process any of it. I think the part that annoyed me most was that she kept running everywhere. What 17 year old runs everywhere like that?
TPL DVD: This movie was kind of slow and boring. But it was interesting to know that Joan Jett had made I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll famous and also did a cover of Crimson and Clover. So, I thought she had written these songs at first, but now after doing a bit of research, she kind of just covered them. She did a lot of covers.
Kind of sucks what happened to Cherie Currie though. She had some issues and they just seemed to be highlighted by drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. Good for Joan Jett for not giving up. She found something that kept her afloat and stuck with it. But other than those insights, I really didn’t like the movie or find her life that interesting. Kind of just another rock ‘n’ roll story.
TPL DVD: I didn’t remember how cheesy the script was for this movie. The only part I really liked was the attack scenes. The shots that they got when the Japanese were flying in are great. It must have been quite overwhelming to see 300 Japanese planes suddenly descend from the skies.
But everything else just felt empty and stereotypical of what you’d think of an American WWII movie. Well at least they showed a little respect to the Japanese and didn’t make them all villains and horrible people. However, they still had racial slurs and put downs. But the Japanese were smart and overcame the barriers their opposition thought protected them, like making the torpedoes float through the shallower water. They were also sneaky and conniving, waiting till right before the attack to show their true colors.
