Short Takes
June 6, 2013
Marty Arnold (1929-2013)
Marty Arnold was the deputy editor of The New York Times Magazine when I was writing often there. One piece was a murder investigation: the killing of a 13-year-old boy in a suburban schoolyard. Four boys had been arrested; two of them were brothers and had been convicted. I quickly discovered they were innocent, so I asked to interview them. Their father called Marty: “Is Jesse Kornbluth who he says he is?” Marty’s reply: “You better fucking believe it.” When Marty told me about the call, he put his hand on my shoulder and added one line: “If we find your car burning on the side of the road, we’ll know you got the story.” You can go for a long time on support like that.
June 1, 2013
Guess the author, win a prize. The answer: ELIZABETH GILBERT
From the publisher’s catalogue, [REDACTED’s] first novel in twelve years, weighing in at 512 pages:
This is an extraordinary story of botany, exploration and desire, spanning across much of the 19th century. The novel follows the fortunes of the brilliant Alma [REDACTED] (daughter of a bold and charismatic botanical explorer) as she comes into her own within the world of plants and science. As Alma’s careful studies of moss take her deeper into the mysteries of evolution, the man she loves draws her in the opposite direction — into the realm of the spiritual, the divine and the magical. Alma is a clear-minded scientist; Ambrose is a Utopian artist. But what unites this couple is a shared passion for knowing — a desperate need to understand the workings of this world, and the mechanism behind of all life. [REDACTED] is a big novel, about a big century. Exquisitely researched and told at a galloping pace, this story novel soars across the globe — from London, to Peru, to Philadelphia, to Tahiti, to Amsterdam and beyond. It is written in the bold, questing spirit of that singular time. Alma is a witness to history, as well as maker of history herself. She stands on the cusp of the modern, with one foot still in the Enlightened Age, and she is certain to be loved by readers across the world.
May 20, 2013
Only in New York (through Thursday): ‘Cape Spin’
130 wind turbines, 400 feet high, in Nantucket Sound — who wouldn’t want that natural, cheap energy? A lot of people, as it turns out. (Including the Kennedys.) ‘Cape Spin! An American Power Struggle’ tells the funny/tragic story of this project. It’s good. (My friends made it.) For tickets, click here.
May 20, 2013
The movie to see: ‘Frances Ha’
After, try getting this woman out of your head. Her optimism, her love of her friend, her lack of filter — for most of the movie, these charm you. But there comes a moment when you lose patience with Frances. She’s no longer a young woman trying to find a place for herself in her own life, she’s a screw-up, a dingbat, a flop. How does she change, "grow up," become a new and better incarnation of the woman we loved in the beginning? That occurs off-screen. The movie is blighted by these two moments: the extra beat of bumbling, the absent beat of explication. But these are quibbles. "Frances Ha" is an affirmation and a delight. And the final 30 seconds are the most satisfying I’ve experienced in a movie theater in a long time.