What's Going On Here?

There are SO MANY wonderful book review blogs out there and I can't compete with them, that is for sure. So this is not a book review blog. This is just a way for me to organize what I have read so that I can be better at matching the right book to the right person. The blog title comes from the brilliant mind of the most talented woman who ever lived, Ms. Judy Garland. The full quote is, "Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of someone else." That is what I hope to do here and in ever aspect of my life.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Ariel

Ariel was a song from the 70s and I just couldn't stop thinking of it as I was listening to Ariel on my way from Pittsburgh to Goodlettsville, TN.  In the song, the name is pronounced AIR iel, as you can see from that very funny video.  But the narrator of Ariel pronounced it more like the thing that bring in radio and tv signals.  When I first look up the Ariel song, I was going to say that it was a terrible song, and yeah, I guess it is, but listening to it after all these years, like someone posted on youtube, I couldn't help but smile.  I remember owning this on a 45 even.  It might have been my mom and dad's record, but I remember loving it.  
I can't say I loved Ariel the book.  I do love Lawrence Block.  I love him SO much!  It was just so different from his other books that I think I had different expectations for this book.  And I think that I was feeling kind of lonely, on the road on the second day of the year, alone, with the sun not shining.  It was just a tough book to listen to because it is definitely not a happy book.  It has a very Ice Storm-y feel to it.  And I really didn't like that movie at all.  It was just far, far, too depressing.  Ariel is set around the same time, the 70s, it seems and two of it's characters are extremely selfish adults.  Roberta and Jeff, who are married, but not to each other.  Which is a great song by the way.  Roberta and her husband David have an adopted daughter, Ariel and a new born son, Caleb.  Much is made about Ariel being and unusual name, and it was at the time, but after Disney's Little Mermaid, you'll find Ariels everywhere!  
Roberta has an affair with Jeff and then she doesn't want to be with him any more and then she does.  And then she loves Ariel and then she doesn't.  And then she makes David move to an older house and then she wants to move out because it's haunted and well, Roberta is a jerk.  
It was hard to do anything but dislike Roberta and Jeff so much that it ruined the book for me!  
The book is part supernatural and part something else.  Part rotten people I guess.
Although I think I discovered who Margaret Simon's real parents might be!  Roberta and Jeff!  
The writing is great though, total Block.  I just think it was too disturbing for my taste.   

No comments:

Post a Comment