Master was a little crazy; he had spent too many years reading books overseas, talked to himself in his office, did not always return greetings, and had too much hair.
This is the story of a collection of different characters; Ugwu from a small village who becomes a Houseboy to Odenigbo, a university professor. His lover Olanna. Her twin sister Kainene. Kainene’s English lover Richard. The setting, Nigeria in the 1960’s, is one I know pretty much nothing about. And I know even less about the Republic of Biafra. But it isn’t just a political or historical novel. It is really all about the people.
Prologue
She was standing in the middle of the railroad tracks. Her head was bowed and her right front hoof was raised as if she rested.
The Wars tells the story of Robert Ross, an officer in the Canadian army during WWI, a young man full of guilt over the death of his sister. This sister, Rowena, suffered from hydrocephalus, and Robert had promised to never leave her. But, when she is being watched by their younger brother Stuart, she falls, hits her head and dies. In the aftermath, Robert enlists.
The rain was falling steadily on Buxton that Thursday afternoon in March, the town veiled by drifting low clouds, grey and discouraging.
Jack and Joe are identical twins. Medal winners in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, their lives diverge down different paths. One joins the RAF and flies bombing runs during World War II, the other is a pacifist and a conscientious objector.
But it is hard to describe the plot of this novel with a brief paragraph; it is about the choices people make, about the different possibilities that are out there, and about how there is no such thing as being totally right or wrong in war. It is an alternate history, starting with the present-day investigations of historian Stuart Gratton, who lives in a world where Churchill and Hitler stepped down from power after a deal negotiated by Rudolph Hess, and saw the emergence of a far different world order.
Dir: Marc Forster
Writ: David Benioff based on book by Khaled Hosseini
Khalid Abdalla … Amir
Atossa Leoni … Soraya
Shaun Toub … Rahim Kahn
Sayed Jafar Masihullah Gharibzada … Omar
Zekeria Ebrahimi … Young Amir
Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada … Young Hassan
Homayoun Ershadi … Baba
I haven’t read the book this film is based on so I can’t comment on how well the story makes the translation from one medium to the other. The film tells the story of a young boy growing up in Afghanistan before the Soviet invasion, and so before the Taliban came to power. He is best friends with a younger boy who is the family’s servant’s son, Hassan. We first meet Amir and Hassan when they are flying kites above Kabul. Hassan is the best kite runner in the city; he chases, or runs, down the kites that have had their strings cut. But Hassan is of a different tribe to Amir and so both have to put up with a lot of bullying. As Amir’s Baba laments, Amir rarely stands up for himself, it is always the younger Hassan who fights back.
Dir: Philip G. Atwell
Writ: Lee Anthony Smith & Gregory J. Bradley
Jet Li … Rogue
Jason Statham … Jack Crawford
Devon Aoki … Kira
Luis Guzmán … Benny
Supposedly this is a martial-arts action film about an FBI agent hunting down an assassin because he killed the cop’s partner. But in reality there isn’t enough plot for that. Which is very surprising because there is a LOT of story and very little martial arts. There is a fair amount of action, but it is all things we’ve seen before.
As always the problem with reviewing a series of books is that you might give away plot points by accident, so I’m not really going to mention the plot at all.
I really liked the gender twist. And the problems that Tobin/Tamir faced were well-written. Plus it made for a fresh take on the whole romance side of the book. But overall none of the characters really leapt off the page for me.
I was interested, but never really gripped by the plot either, so I’d have to say that it was an average enough read. Nothing I’d recommend to anyone.
He was born in the dying days.
It was the withering end of 1896. He was called William after the long-dead Orange King, because his father took an interest in such distant matters.
Dir: Marc Forster
