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Uncle Orson Reviews Everything
December 14, 2003
First appeared in print in The Rhinoceros Times, Greensboro, NC.
Christmas Movies, Wolff and McCammon, and mixed drinks
I do hope, when it's time for me to shuffle off this mortal coil, that I die of
whatever weird illness it was that killed Bette Davis's character in Dark
Victory.
No symptoms whatsoever until twenty minutes before the end, but
enough warning to make a few redemptive, noble gestures, and then fade out
in a very attractive pose and with unmussed hair.
*
What is the best Christmas movie?
That depends on what you want -- light-hearted fun, pure nostalgia, or a
film that moves you and fills you with the spirit of love associated with the
season.
Two of the greatest Christmas movies are quite dark. It's a Wonderful
Life shows us George (James Stewart) on the brink of despair, deprived of the
fulfilment of his dreams, and finally at the point of suicide because of the
public humiliation that will, undeservedly, come upon him. And what is the
rest of the movie? Showing him how much worse things would be if he had
never lived!
One Magic Christmas likewise takes Mary Steenburgen's character
through the loss of everything she loves, until she recovers her sense of joy.
It's weirdly perverse, this sense that you must face the worst thing in the world
in order to get your perspective back, but perhaps it's true.
More important than accuracy, however, is the fact that both of these
movies make me cry, remind me of my love for my family, and anyone who
loves these movies must have something wonderful in their heart.
It's like Joni Mitchell's lines about Christmas in her wistful, sad song in
which she wishes she had a river to skate away on.
The silly-fun genre I don't really enjoy as much, mostly because when it
comes to Christmas I'm a humorless oaf. But I certainly did enjoy the first
Santa Clause movie, and there are moments in A Christmas Story that
amuse me. Most "funny" Christmas movies, however, leave me cold.
Which is perhaps why I have to put the Laurel and Hardy March of the
Wooden Soldiers in the nostalgic rather than funny category. The movie is
actually quite awful. But it takes me back to my childhood and that is all tied
in with Christmas in many people's hearts.
Which may be why completely unChristmasy movies like The Wizard of
Oz are considered by so many people to be holiday movies. Why? It makes no
sense -- except that Christmas is a time for nostalgia. Which is why my wife
thought of the classic The Canterville Ghost as being a Christmas movie. Of
course it's not -- it's a wartime fantasy, of all things!
So what category are Holiday Inn and White Christmas in? I grew up
decorating Christmas trees while these silly but lovely Hollywood musicals were
playing. Funny? Oh, now and then. But mostly nostalgia -- that and great
old songs.
Miracle on 34th Street -- the original one, with Natalie Wood and
Maureen O'Hara as daughter and mother, and Edmund Gwenn as Kris Kringle
-- is great on all counts. It has its dose of darkness, though it never goes as
deep and as dark as It's a Wonderful Life and One Magic Christmas. It's also
funny and satirical, taking on psychologists, the legal system, and the whole
commercialization of Christmas. And for me, at least, it has nostalgia to spare.
(The 1994 remake was cold -- they didn't understand the movie they
were making -- though the TV movie from 1973, with David Hartman, Jane
Alexander, and Roddy McDowall was pretty good.)
There's something else to these favorites of mine, though. Christmas, as
we experience it, is an American phenomenon. And Wonderful Life, One Magic
Christmas, and 34th Street are as much about American life as they are about
Christmas.
And maybe that's why none of the Christmas Carol movies really do much
for me. They're so very English. As a lifelong Anglophile, I don't think of that
as a drawback under ordinary circumstances; but the Christmas Carol movies
don't speak to that deep place in my heart where my secret memories live. I
have never lived in the streets where Christmas Carol is set; but I know the
settings of the American movies from my childhood on.
So, while I can enjoy Christmas Carols from the 1951 version with
Alastair Sim as Scrooge to the Albert Finney musical Scrooge to the Muppett
version with Michael Caine (and my favorite is still the Mr. Magoo tv version,
for nostalgic reasons), none of these movies wakens Christmas in my heart.
*
I grew up reading the Boy Scout magazine Boy's Life, as did many
thousands of other boys; so it's no surprise that two excellent American writers
chose Boy's Life as the title, or at least part of the title, of a book.
And what books they are! Tobias Wolff's This Boy's Life: A Memoir is
that rare thing, a literary work that never sacrifices clarity for flash. The
painful honesty of it is almost unbearable at times, but at the end, I felt as
thought I'd been inside another person's life more deeply than I ever thought
possible.
On the other hand, Boy's Life by Robert McCammon has the look and
feel of contemporary fantasy, even horror, as, through a boy's eyes, we watch a
southern town interact with a deep and violent river -- and the deep stream of
violence that runs like ancient magic through the veins of society.
These are older works now, but both McCammon and Wolff are still
writing at the top of their form.
Wolff's new book, Old School, is written as if it were another memoir,
though it is definitely a novel, definitely fiction. This account of a teenage boy
with literary aspirations is that most awful thing -- a book about a writer --
but unlike the self-indulgent and (to me at least) repellantly pretentious hero of
Catcher in the Rye, this young writer rings true to me.
His prep school takes literary competitions as seriously as Greensboro
schools take football, and in the process of showing us the rivalries, Wolff does
something that is incredibly hard to do: He creates the poems supposedly
written by these somewhat-talented prep school kids, giving each poem just the
right balance of youthful vigor and ignorance; they are never comically bad.
Wolff never sacrifices truth for a laugh.
I have no idea whether this book will speak to nonwriters, but from my
point of view, no one has ever written so truthful an account of a young writer's
life and development. It's also a story about inexplicable, impulsive sin, but I
don't want to give away the plot to those who might be tempted to do
themselves the favor of reading Old School.
Meanwhile, Robert McCammon -- who also wrote the unforgettably
redemptive Gone South -- has recently written an unforgettable American
novel in two volumes, called Speaks the Nightbird. Part I, Judgment of the
Witch, and Part II, Evil Unveiled, are promoted on the cover as if they were
horror novels, and that's not surprising -- McCammon's roots are in that
genre.
But don't be deceived by the bestseller-style cover with a Stephen King
blurb. McCammon is not writing horror, or even, really, fantasy. He's writing
serious fiction that strikes at the root of the American mythos.
Speaks the Nightbird follows the adventures of a young American man
who clerks for a British-born judge in colonial South Carolina, as they travel to
a new town to hold the trial of an accused witch. As credible evidence piles up
against the witch, and as the judge lies dying of the local plague, the clerk's
curiosity and compassion draws him into danger but also into a new life.
All the themes required of a candidate for the title of Great American
Novel are present here -- the book deals with slavery, with Indians, with
religion, and the pursuit of money. And because the author is McCammon,
these elements are brought to vivid life as we watch good people do bad things
with the best of intentions -- and bad people occasionally do good things by
sheer inadvertence ...
*
John Sandford's "Prey" novels were interesting at first, but for me, the
constant pursuit of insane serial killers finally became too ugly and unpleasant
for me to want to go back.
Which is a shame, because Sandford is a very good writer of thrillers. So
I'm glad that he gives himself a break from the Prey series now and then to
write about super-hackers Kidd and LuEllen, who bridge the gap between
cybercrime and real-world adventures.
The Hanged Man's Song is Sandford's latest novel in this series, and I
enjoyed every minute of it. This is not a candidate for Great American Novel,
but it is already a winner if what you're looking for is a delightful ride through
the not-so-clean underbelly of computer culture.
*
Back when I still drank Diet Coke, I discovered that despite its brown
color, it's a great mixer. Mix either orange juice or pineapple juice with Diet
Coke, and the result is absolutely delicious.
Gross to look at, like something you might dredge up from a swamp, but
delicious.
Alas, the caffeine in Diet Coke gives me migraines, and the
noncaffeinated version isn't as readily available. I had to give it up.
In my office, I keep a little fridge full of beverages and healthy snacks --
various juices, applesauce, and diet soft drinks. (Diet soft drinks are health
food, on my planet anyway.)
So the other day, in a fit of madness, and having no fear of swamp-colored drinks, I took a can of Kerns apricot nectar and a bottle of Stewart's
Diet root beer and mixed them together in a big red plastic cup.
Then, in the spirit of the dare-taking fourth grade boy that still lives
inside me, I drank it.
My report: Mm-mm-mm. Terrific.
You who are afraid to live on the edge, you miss out on experiences like
this one.
But even the Evel Knievel of mixed soft drinks has limits. I also have V-8
in my fridge, but I will never, ever combine it with anything.
Though I can't help but wonder how it would taste if I ran it through the
blender with some avocado ...
And if that don't make your eggnog curdle, you're tougher than you look.
*
In my constant search for chocolate perfection, I have traveled the world,
selflessly sacrificing my ability to fit into size 36 pants so I can learn of the best
of all possible chocolates and pass the information on to you, my beloved
readers.
So of course, when the best all-time ever-in-the-world chocolate-covered
cashews come my way, it's not the result of any search (or sacrifice) of mine.
Nooooo. It was my cousin from L.A. who sent along a 22-ounce tin of
chocolate-covered cashews from The Peanut Roaster.
And to add insult to injury, do you want to know where The Peanut
Roaster is located?
Henderson, North Carolina. (On the web at www.peanut.com, or call 1-800-445-1404.)
And do you know why my cousin sent us twenty-two ounces of perfect
chocolate-covered cashews?
Because he is evil, and very thin.
Honestly, folks, the cashews inside are excellent, but it's the chocolate
that makes these into jewels. It's the same quality of milk chocolate that I
never thought I'd see again when I left Brazil thirty years ago. In those days,
my addiction was to the chocolates at the Copenhagen stores in São Paulo.
Nobody in America ever attempted to make anything so good. Until now.
I've never seen these in a store. If I had, I would be living in a tent
outside that store.
But because it came as a gift from my evil, can't-gain-weight-no-matter-how-hard-he-tries cousin, I can't even go out and buy more. I have to wait, a
whole miserable year, until next Christmas.
And then what if he buys me something else?
*
These days, it seems like half the sizes in the stores are a lie.
I can wear an American extra large shirt with room to spare. But lately
quite a few stores have started importing clothing from other places, where
Extra Grande means "really big and loose, if you're a squirrel."
Some XL shirts I can put on and they're roomy and loose; others, I can't
even get the edges together.
Same thing with pants. There are size 42 pants out there that fit tighter
than a size 38. Pretty soon, sizing for men will be as chaotic as it is for women.
If you're a man in that awkward clothing-size range where you're not
quite big enough to find a good selection at a big & tall store, but too big to find
anything decent at regular clothing stores -- in other words, between 38 and
42 in the waist -- try going online to the Polo website (Polo.com).
Polo clothes seem to be designed to fit American men with delusions of
being just a tiny bit thinner than they actually are. Which means they're loose
and comfortable.
*
Sometimes store brands aren't cheap knockoffs. For instance, the
Harris-Teeter store brand is the only cottage cheese worth eating in Greensboro
(though Kroeger's was identical, before H-T bought them out). And the Target
store brand of potato chips -- the "Archer Farms Market" brand -- is really
very good, with an "Italian" flavor that is excellent.
Speaking of chips, I tried the Lay's "guacamole" flavor potato chip. If
there's any actual avocado flavor, I can't detect it. But it's a spicy, delicious
potato chip all the same -- much more highly spiced than the guacamole-flavored Dorito made by the same company.
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