Interesting, overlooked, and significant obituaries from around the world, as they happen, emphasizing the positive achievements of those who have died. Member, Society of Professional Obituary Writers.
Friday, July 25, 2014
FRIDAY BOOK REVIEW: 'The Book of the Dead'
By BRAD WEISMANN
The Book of the Dead: Lives of
Justly Famous and the Unreservedly Obscure
John Lloyd and John Mitchinson
2009
Crown Publishers
New York
When I was a kid, the most
prevalent form of literature in our house was the Reader’s Digest and its
assorted ancillary products, derivatives, and uncategorized spawn. Condensed
Books. Spring 1961 through Autumn 1968? Check. Treasury of Great Operettas,
Mood Music for Listening and Relaxation, Joyous Music at Christmastime? On my
turntable.
One of these was what first
spawned by interest in biographies, and eventually obituaries. “Great Lives,
Great Deeds” is an out-of-print Readers Digest compendium of more than 80
little inspirational life sketches of heroic figures – sans warts,
contradictions, controversy, or depth.
These mini-hagiographies first inspired
me, and later confounded me. The chasm of cognitive dissonance between our
official narratives and the textured, ambivalent truths of lives lived made me
want to crack jokes, or read a corrective.
Subsequent journeys through
Vasari, Plutarch, Suetonius, and modern counterparts such as Schonberg’s “Lives
of the Great Composers” and the Durants’ “Interpretations of Life” have proven
to be tasty samplers for me, gateway drugs that encourage deeper investigations.
How pleasant it was to find this
gem in a street rack a few weeks ago. “The Book of the Dead” is a delightfully
readable, completely disrespectful – and still thoughtful – mashup of bios from
across the historical spectrum.
It helps that the authors are the
redoubtable John Lloyd (Britain’s “Blackadder” TV series) and the master
researcher John Mitchinson. Between the two of them, they subsume a plethora of
fascinating facts about each subject into a charming, provocative, and
sometimes silly narrative.
Rather than categorize their
subjects by nation, vocation, or other criteria, the duo engages our minds by
lumping them together under unlikely banners such as sex, food, questing,
particularly rotten childhoods, imposters, and those who kept monkeys. Somehow,
it all works. For those who might otherwise fail to consider figures such as
Benjamin Franklin and Moll Cutpurse, St. Cuthbert and Bucky Fuller, or Oliver
Cromwell and Frida Kahlo as people with something significant in common, well.
(And for those intrigued by the outlandish details, there is a helpful list of
sources for further reading in the back of the text.)
The unifying element of this brisk,
absorbing read is its tone. “The Book of the Dead” is shot through with the
sheer pleasure of storytelling, the high spirits that come from shedding light
on dusty, musty old exemplars, and a kind of bitter optimism – the faith that
mankind’s peculiarities lead as often to good as to evil, and that the
unexamined life is not worth laughing at. This cheeky cynicism animates the
book and makes it something to purchase, hold onto, share, and read aloud to
someone who is easily upset by such things.
Thursday, July 24, 2014
Panna Rittikrai
Martial arts choreographer, stuntman, actor, and film director -- via the Bangkok Post. The stunt coordinator behind the epic four-minute one-take fight sequence in "The Protector."
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Curt Gentry
Award-winning writer; co-writer of "Helter Skelter" -- via sfgate.com. A native of Lamar, Colorado, he was a graduate of CU.
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Edward Clay "Tap" Canutt
Stuntman and actor; son of Yakima Canutt -- via westernboothill.blogspot.com.
Monday, July 21, 2014
Thomas Berger
One of America's most underrated novelists -- via the New York Times. Best known for writing "Little Big Man," he could write in any genre with ease, making sardonic points about society and mankind in general along the way. His Carlo Reinhart novels, "Sneaky People," "The Feud," "Regiment of Women," "Killing Time," and on and on . . . superb work. Pick up anything of his and you will enjoy it.
Great quote from him in the New York Times obituary: "I should like the reader to be aware that a book of mine is written in the English language, which I love with all my heart and write to the best of my ability and with the most honorable of intentions -- which is to say, I am peddling no quackery, masking no intent to tyrannize, and asking nobody's pity. (I suspect that I am trying to save my own soul, but that's nobody else's business.)"
Great quote from him in the New York Times obituary: "I should like the reader to be aware that a book of mine is written in the English language, which I love with all my heart and write to the best of my ability and with the most honorable of intentions -- which is to say, I am peddling no quackery, masking no intent to tyrannize, and asking nobody's pity. (I suspect that I am trying to save my own soul, but that's nobody else's business.)"
Claudine Bouche
http://www.criterion.com/films/218-jules-and-jim
Film editor of such classics as "Jules et Jim," "Shoot the Piano Player," and "The Bride Wore Black" -- via A'voire A'lire. Declared dead after disappearing in early April.
Film editor of such classics as "Jules et Jim," "Shoot the Piano Player," and "The Bride Wore Black" -- via A'voire A'lire. Declared dead after disappearing in early April.
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