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Book Review - Second Person Singular by Sayed Kashua  Kashua tells the story of an Arab-Israeli lawyer, living in Jerusalem, trying to fit into Israeli society while serving his Palestinian clientele. The lawyer buys a used book and finds in it a note that he is certain was written by his wife. The discovery kicks off an obsessive search for the recipient of the note. The author does a terrific job of portraying jealousy and how trapped we are by our cultural moorings. There is much playing with ideas of identity and fitting into a culture different from the one you were raised in. As with any art originating in that part of the world, SPS has some political commentary, but it is nuanced and non-confrontational. In his portrayal of relationships between the Jewish and Arab peoples of Jerusalem, Kashua's writing reminded me of Naipaul's 'the world is what it is' perspective in A Bend in the River. There is much to like in this book, I'd rate it right up there with Intimacy by Hanif Kureshi and Kinshu: Autumn Brocade by Teru Miyamoto, two of my favorite 'relationship' novellas.
Film Review - Once Upon a Time in Anatolia by Nuri Bilge Ceylan  This is such a delightful, moody film with atmosphere and composition in practically every frame. The movie begins with a dark scene shot through a dirty glass window showing three men breaking bread and by turns talking seriously and joking. A dog barks in the background and one of the men gets up, grabs some food and goes out to feed the dog. A short interlude for credits later we see three vehicles with piercing headlights driving through the rural landscape, stopping ever so often, looking for the evidence of a crime. About three fourths of the movie is shot in the dark, following the three cars around the desolate Anatolian landscape. Through dialog that sounds so casual as to seem completely spontaneous, we learn more about the main characters - the fatalist police chief, his flunky, the pensive doctor, the shocked man in fisticuffs who leads the cops from one abandoned field to another and the prosecutor who once resembled Clark Gable. There are two spectacular moments in the film, delivered unexpectedly but consistent with the tension that precedes them. In the first, the doctor is confronted by a horrific mask carved onto the rock in an open field. This happens in a flash of lightning when the doctor is relieving himself. In the second scene, the doctor again, no less vulnerable, is sitting as a guest in the room of a village mayor, waiting for electricity to be restored. As the darkness persists, in walks the mayor's daughter, so shockingly beautiful that the doctor virtually melts as she offers him tea. The movie's tone is unhurried, and it reminded me in many ways of two of Bong Joon-Ho's films, Memories of Murder and Mother. If you enjoyed those two movies, you most certainly must check out Once Upon a Time in Anatolia. |
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