Film – Finding My Wings

Before Jobs vs Gates there was Edison vs Westinghouse

The Last Days of Night by Graham Moore (Random House), 2016; Random House Audio, Johnathan McClain narrator
In 40 words or less: The US was on the cusp of electrification in 1988. Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse were battling it out to see whose company and which technology would change the nation. Moore makes history read like a twisted fairy tale.
Genre: Historical Fiction
Locale: US
Time: 1888
This is an ideal audiobook. The story is narrated by Westinghouse’s lawyer, Paul Cravath, who later achieved fame as the designer of the modern law firm. A key figure in the book is Nikola Tesla, whose genius was matched by his idiosyncratic and accented English. McClain’s reading really does the various characters justice.

Thomas Edison is lauded as a genius to be emulated in creativity and business. In truth, he was not a very nice man at all. Graham Moore’s The Last Days of Night is truthful in its telling of one of the most expensive market battles and patent lawsuits in U.S. history – worth a billion dollars in 1888. The fight between George Westinghouse and Thomas Edison was two-pronged: whether AC (Westinghouse) or DC (Edison) current would be the standard for wiring and electrifying the country; and who owns the rights to the design and sale of the light bulb.

In the collection of the Corning Museum of Glass

Moore has chosen Paul Cravath, a young and inexperienced lawyer hired by Westinghouse to handle the suit, as the narrator of the tale. Cravath has a chip on his shoulder. He is disaffected from his family and is not as well connected as his fellow law classmates. Barely out of school, he is caught up in high stakes on-the-job training on the front page of America’s newspapers. Fighting for market share was a very dirty business with bribery, physical violence, even kidnapping part of the game. Cravath later made an indelible mark in legal circles by creating the modern American model of progression within legal firms.

A third major scientific player in this future of America’s homes and businesses was Nikola Tesla, brilliant and only interested in the purity of the idea. Tesla’s knowledge was part of a continuing tug-of-war between Edison and Westinghouse.

There was plenty of real life drama to go around in Moore’s telling of the story. He enriched Cravath’s role, and the human intrigue, by embellishing the details surrounding Cravath’s wife, a beautiful singer named Agnes, who seemingly came out of nowhere into the heights of society.

This book has it all – genius, intrigue, romance, blackmail and corporate greed. Many additional luminaries of the period appear. After all, they traveled in the same business and social circles. There is more than enough American industrial history to satisfy a history buff, details about the taming of electricity for the scientist, and an awkward courtship to entertain a romantic.

Were that not enough, The Last Days of Night will be coming to the screen this winter starring Eddie Redmayne as Paul Cravath.

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‘The Zookeeper’s Wife’ coming to a big screen near you

Ten years ago, Diane Ackerman brought the story of Jan and Antonina Zabinski before the public in The Zookeeper’s Wife. Next Friday, March 31, the heroics of the Zabinskis will receive even greater exposure as the film The Zookeeper’s Wife comes to neighborhood theaters. I’ve been a cheerleader for the book for all ten years. It combines narrative nonfiction, nature writing and a little-known story of genuine heroes of the Holocaust in one tight package.

I’ve not had the opportunity to see the film as yet. Those who have seen it in preview have found it moving and frightening – both reactions completely appropriate to the subject at hand. The book is based in large part on Antonina’s journals. Jan Zabinski was the head of the Warsaw Zoo when the Nazis invaded Poland. He and his young family lived on site, taking care of the animals as conditions worsened. For scientific reasons, several Nazi officers were keenly interested in the animals and spent considerable time at the zoo.

Of greater note are the extraordinary lengths Jan went to secreting Jews out of the Warsaw ghetto and hiding them within the zoo. Jan was the head of a cadre of resistance members that moved more than 300 Jews, partisans and other opponents of the Nazi regime out of and through Warsaw to safety in the countryside.

As is often the case, the screenplay for this movie was written by someone other than the author. Books and movies have very different ways of treating the same story. When a screenwriter takes on the task of turning well-written nonfiction into a film the most important thing should be whether the truth remains in the telling. The cast for the film, headed by Jessica Chastain, is international and should help capture the range of people that were caught up in Warsaw during the war.

Make no mistake, this film will not gloss over the horrors of the war and just show cute animals. As in the book, there will be moments of humor and tenderness. It should also show the individual and collective depravity of the Nazi regime. For this reason, it is rated PG-13. Anyone considering taking somewhat younger children who have had exposure to Holocaust material before should keep in mind that there may be very different reactions to pictures and sounds than to words on a page.

Without broad critical reactions, it is hard to know if the movie will have a wide distribution. If you can, see it. Regardless, both the story Ackerman has to tell and her writing would make reading The Zookeeper’s Wife time well spent.

Unreliable narrators make for page turners

Regular readers know that most of my posts speak to the suitability of the book for group discussion. In the case of the three books here, The Widow, Gone Girl, and The Girl on the Train, the literary device seems the most interesting subject for conversation.

After the author, the second most important player in most books is the narrator. Often that key role is overlooked as s/he/it lays out the setting, describes the characters and moves the plot along. At the author’s discretion, the narrator may discern the inner thoughts of the characters or view the goings-on as if from above. When a novel is told in the first person that world is seen only through his or her eyes. At times, multiple characters are responsible for providing vastly different perspectives.

In the last few years a number of very popular novels have been written using an unreliable narrator or narrators. Each novel begins with a seemingly normal situation that quickly goes awry. If you are a film lover, the master of the genre was Alfred Hitchcock.

Two weeks ago the latest addition to the literary subgenre was published. Fiona Barton’s The Widow opens shortly after an accused child kidnapper was killed by a bus. Told from the perspectives of the widow, the mother of the missing child, the detective and a reporter, the story jumps forward from the death and back to the kidnapping and subsequent investigation. There is a measure of desperation in each of the narrators – the detective’s career was hard hit as the kidnapping remained unsolved, the mother’s capability, love and morality were questioned, the reporter is in search of that career-making scoop. The undercurrents of the widow’s life bring added tension to the story.

In Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl a young wife goes missing on her fifth anniversary. Nick and Amy appear so happy. As the backstory unfolds, it becomes apparent 41Afp8YyB-L._SX303_BO1,204,203,200_ that life is not all it seems. With each chapter, questions quickly arise about Nick’s veracity. He isn’t telling the whole truth. Using Amy’s diary, her perspective on the marriage and her intentions are brought out bit by bit. At each turn, the reader wonders who, if anyone, is really being truthful and how far out of control the characters and story will spiral. Flynn set a new bar for dark stories of domestic life. Her writing is terrifyingly brilliant and I’m not sure I’d want to have her at my dinner table!

Last winter The Girl on the Train was touted as the successor to Gone Girl. Paula Hawkins main character is a woman whose life is out of control. Rachel travels 516YNFvZnrL._SX332_BO1,204,203,200_ on the same train daily, observing the changing patterns of those who live in the neighborhood along the tracks. When she sees a crime, she reports it. Drinking too much, out of a job, and hiding the truth of her situation from family and friends, Rachel’s credibility is immediately suspect. Connections to some of those under suspicion further call her judgment into question. Rachel, too, wonders at times if her memory is accurate. While she lies to others and to herself about her circumstances, Rachel is sincere in her interest in seeing the truth uncovered. In the next few months, The Girl on the Train will open in movie theaters. In the film version the story is moved from Britain to the US but little else is changed.

Given the publicity and popularity surrounding the release of each of these titles, expect to see more novels of this type in the months ahead.

Whether film or novel, Emma Donoghue’s ‘Room’ will grab you

Having just seen a preview of Room, the movie Emma Donoghue brought to life from her novel, I’m not surprised the process took five years. As a fan of the book, I was waiting to see how a story told through the eyes of a five-year old could be transferred successfully to the screen. Jacob Tremblay as Jack and Brie Larson as Ma made believers out of me within minutes. Lenny Abrahamson’s direction brought the difficult juxtaposition of home/prison to life.

My companion at the theater had not read the novel but was familiar with the real life situation in Cleveland a couple of years ago. We were impressed with how regular each of the characters appeared even in the midst of extraordinary circumstances. The acting was so persuasive I was still grabbed emotionally despite knowing exactly what would happen. The only jarring note was William H. Macy as Joy’s father, but he fit the role to a tee.

For those easily spooked I’d likely choose the book over the movie. While there is little violence, the story is about physical and emotional abuse and the most vulnerable. Room in both versions is a story very well told.

******** From October 16 **********

Five years ago, during one of my Book Expo America forays into the larger world of soon-to-be published titles, I picked up Emma Donoghue’s novel Room. With its colorful and childish lettering on the cover, it gave off a simple, calm impression. Was I wrong. It was Room that brought home the wonder of reading a title months before it hits the stores and the critics have at it. This book made such an impression that I seek it out every time I pass the shelf. So why write about it now? Today the movie version of Room is opening in New York, Los Angeles and other select locations. It will have wider distribution beginning next week.

Room is Jack’s story. Jack is five years old and lives with his mother, Ma, in a single room with no view of the outside world. Ma has been a prisoner for seven years after having been kidnapped. Jack is her captor’s son. As a reader, there is magic mixed with horror in Jack’s description of his world. Under the worst of possible circumstances Ma is nurturing a funny, bright boy while hiding from him the unending terror that is her life. When I read it back in 2010 the story was almost unimaginable. Two years ago, a reality all too similar to Donoghue’s fiction was uncovered in Cleveland. Three young women, and the daughter of one, were held in a similar fashion for up to ten years. The tragedy of life imitating art.

Emma Donoghue could have taken the easy way out and ended the novel with Jack and Ma’s escape. At that, it would have been a searing story of love and creativity under dire circumstances. Jack is to all appearances an active, inquisitive, normal boy, albeit a boy with inanimate objects for friends and no conception of the world beyond his walls. Instead Donoghue touches the world anew through Jack’s eyes – the bright vastness and the feel of the breeze in the open air. New people, new sounds, new experiences – all overwhelming at times. Too often we are desensitized by the common and everyday. Room brings back the mix of excitement and trepidation of the unfamiliar.

Having read the book in advance, I am now lucky to have snagged preview tickets for the film. I plan to assiduously avoid reviews until after I bring fresh eyes to the screen on Wednesday. For now, I can wholeheartedly recommend you read the book. Next week I’ll see if the movie can capture Jack and Ma’s world.

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