Kwaidan

The movie of this is much superior to the book.  That is not to say the book doesn’t have imaginative tales.  It’s just that there was so much visual imagery and it took more time to develop the stories.  Hearn was not Japanese.  He moved there and found much inspiration.  I liked The Story of O-Tei about a girl who promises to come back again into a guy’s life.  It was sweet but of course with a supernatural edge.  Yuki-Onna is an example of a story that was much better in the movie.  A five-page story became a thriller onscreen.  The best story happens to be the best part of the movie too. The Story of Mimi-Nashi-Hoichi about a blind man who is covered with Japanese writing for protection.  I won’t tell more.  You have to see and read it for yourself.  

Trial Balance

This collection includes stories that William March wrote from the 20’s-40’s.  William March is most known for The Bad Seed, the classic novel that really started the evil child genre.  He didn’t get to see how successful it would be becoming a play and an Oscar-nominated movie.  He died the same year it was published. I was happy to find that he’s great at short stories as well.  The best story in this collection is easily the comic Woolen Drawers about a promiscuous woman who wears woolen drawers, instead of fancy petticoats one day.  She is too embarrassed to sleep with her date.  Her date mistakes her for being a prudish woman and falls for this image.  Gradually the woman changes as well.   I also like George and Charlie about an ordinary man who is changed by a radical, philosophical thinker.  A Shop in St. Louis is about a girl who doesn’t put family as a priority, saving money for a business elsewhere.  She comes to regret her financial decisions.  Miss Daisy is another story worth reading.  It’s about a boy who meets a phony old woman.   This is out of print but wasn’t hard to find.

The Wife of his Youth and other stories

I really like Chesnutt.  He was a mixed author.  He stated that he was 7/8’s white but was proud of his African American background.  I read his short story The Sheriff’s Children for school in my American Literature class.  It was one of the best stories featured in this collection.  It’s about a sheriff who realizes the African American person in his jail is his child.  I also liked The Wife of his Youth where a dark black woman tells a man a story about how she got sold into slavery but is still looking for the husband that she lost.  There’s a cool twist.  Also, A Matter of Principle shows hypocrisy well.  The Bouquet is a lovely story about a black girl who dearly loves her teacher but can’t attend her funeral because of racism.  I never heard of Chesnutt before until this year.  He’s not that well known compared to authors like Zora Heale Hurston but he’s worth discovering.  

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

  

I watched the Tara Fitzgerald tv version.  I had mixed feelings about it.  I liked it but it was too graphic for me.  I liked the ending more in the tv movie because the book doesn’t really have much of an ending.  This was written by the underrated Bronte sister Anne, the first book I’ve read of her.  Her sister Charlotte called this book a mistake.  I wonder if this is because Anne based some of Mr. Huntingdon on their drunken brother.  But then it could have been all imagination.  It’s about an artist Helen Huntingdon who has escaped her alcoholic husband with her kid.  A good guy Gilbert Markham falls for her.  However, she tells Gilbert the story of her nightmarish marriage.  At first, her husband Mr. Huntingdon fools her.  Then she sees what a rotten man he is.  Yet at the end when his health deteriorates she comes to his bedside.   Anne only wrote two books.  What a pity.  I bought the other one and plan to read it sometime.  

The Complete Stories of Truman Capote

I was indifferent to The Complete Stories of Truman Capote at first.  I wasn’t impressed with the first few stories.  There was a gothic Southern feel to them but they didn’t capture my attention.  I felt that the middle of the book brought the good stories.  The best story here is a prison love story called A Diamond Guitar.  I also liked Master Misery about a woman who sells her dreams.  As well I enjoyed A Christmas Memory about a boy and his elderly friend making fruitcakes mostly for strangers.  The only story I didn’t like here was Mojave.  It was cynical and didn’t belong in a collection of stories mostly about small-town life.  Capote was a multitalented writer, writing nonfiction, novellas, and novels.  This shows what he could do in one form.  

Hester

In Hester, John Vernon walks off with the bank’s money.  Catherine Vernon saves the town from ruin.  After this, she is in a position of power and is treated with utmost respect. Later on John’s daughter, Hester and Catherine are enemies.  Hester doesn’t know about the act of her father yet despite this the two mutually hate each other.  Throughout the book, Hester has a number of suitors: Harry, Roland, and Edward.  Edward is the one she wants, although Catherine looks upon him as a son.  It isn’t until Edward does something of a dishonest nature that Catherine and Hester build a relationship.  I read this book because I don’t know enough about female writers from the 1800’s, that is except the Brontes and Jane Austen. Although it was more than 400 pages I got through it in a reasonable time.  The author Margaret Oliphant wrote works about the supernatural as well.  I'll have to look into those. 3/5

The Man in the High Castle

I’m disappointed that the Amazon series of this has nudity as the book doesn’t include that.  I won’t be a viewer of that show as I’m trying to watch the media I see. I’m sad about that as this has much potential.  Philip K. Dick’s book though is amazing.  It’s about a world where Germany won World War II.  American antiques before the war have become a big thing among the Japanese.  An antique dealer Robert Childan discovers that one of his antiques is a fake.  What he doesn’t know is that most of the antiques are fakes and they are coming from the Wyndam-Matson Corporation.  A Jew who has disguised himself named Frank Frink and his friend Ed decade to make jewelry for a living, a business which is first discarded but then is looked upon as a smart idea.  All of the characters are reading this banned bestseller going around called The Grasshopper lies Heavy, an alternate history book about if Germany lost the war.  I also liked the Japanese couple Paul and Betty who treasure the past and listen to old blues records.  I really need to get into that genre.  My sister was into that way back when we were in high school.  I would hear it in the background of our house and tell myself I need to listen to her stuff.  It’s about time I got around to it.  Anyway, I read The Man in the High Castle book within a week. I found it riveting.   I already read Do Androids dream of electric sheep years ago and thought it was fantastic as well.  I like Philip K. Dick and plan to read more of his books in the future.   4/5