Double Indemnity

Lately, I am hooked to noir and hardboiled. I love noirs... especially the ones set in the 1920's. They are from different era when guys called women 'dame'. They are awesome. They sweep me away.This book is touted as one monumental noir novel, and its author (James M. Cain) as a highly influential person to noir development. I made a resolution to read this book when the right moment come. It came around two days ago. I devoured it instantly. I enjoy it thoroughly.The narration is done by an insurance agent who has a funny name, Walter Huff. Mr. Huff as a nickname is pretty funny, it sounds like sound that you make when you puff. The narration is fast-paced and built with the signature diction of noir. It is gritty. It is dark and self-examining.So, what is double indemnity? 

dou·ble in·dem·ni·ty

noun

NORTH AMERICAN

1. provision for payment of double the face amount of an insurance policy under certain conditions, e.g., when death occurs as a result of an accident.
2. 
   
3. This term is very relevant in this book, in fact, it's one of the main characters motive, beside lust. In the beginning, we are introduced to an insurance salesman doing his usual routine. Walter Huff tried to sell a policy renewal to his client, a Mr. Nirdlinger. However, he wasn't home when Walter paid him a visit. Walter seemed like an OK guy, a regular joe. But then he met a woman that will change his life and dirty his hands, Phyllis Nirdlinger. This is the exact moment when his moral is tested. And he failed the test. This moment makes me wondering. If you know that someone plan a homicide, why don't you prevent it? Are lust and money so big a temptation? I mean, Walter's life is plain, but it isn't dull. He can assess people well - it's one of his asset - and he enjoys selling insurance policies, which are exciting for him. He is good. It's a respectable life, he isn't a beggar. Is it possible to want someone so much after your first meeting that you decide to risk everything you have? When I read this book further, I feel that the two characters who conspire to take another human being life are so disconnected and distant. I mean, well... taking someone's life is a huge sin, morally and religiously. It will need a huge temptation to do the aforementioned act. But I didn't sense that Walter is tempted enough. It feels so insignificant compared with other things that he had already had.
4. 
   
5. Then Phyllis. She is first shown as a woman with a plan, then a willing accomplice in adultery and marricide, then later we learn that she is really crazy. The crazy talk she said at the beginning? Totally not an act. She is also more... ahem, experienced than Walter. Let's say that poor Walter should have done a more complete background check about his soon-to-be partner in crime. I dislike her depiction as a crazy woman, because it feels incongruous with her former acts. They were coldly and logically calculated.
7. The biggest irony in this book is when Walter tried to be a teacher in Murder 101, the pupil was more experienced. And Phyllis fared better when her acts were one-woman-acts. When a new partner was introduced, it was proven to be a big, fatal failure. A real pity, Phyllis.
8. 
   
9. 

And Walter? WRONGEST DECISION EVER, dearie.

See?

There are several memorable quotes in this book. I'll give you two.

I had killed a man, for money and a woman. I didn't have the money and I didn't have the woman. 

That's all it takes, one drop of fear, to curdle love into hate.

Chicago - the Dissection - part one

Thank you for Adit who recommended this film in the first place.

Chicago is a musical starred by Renee Zellweger as Roxanne 'Roxie' Hart, Catherine Zeta-Jones as Velma Kelly, and Richard Gere as Billy Flynn. It is adapted from the Broadway musical Chicago by John Kander (music) and Fred Ebb (music), with storyline adapted from a play by Maurine Dallas Watkin, a female reporter. The story is inspired by real-life cases of Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner. Chicago is an amazing satire. Rarely satire is delivered in such an enjoyable form as this vaudeville movie.

This review will contain spoiler. Proceed at your own risk.

The film opens with shot of an eye. The eye, I think, alludes to Beulah Annan's 'man-taming' eyes. In the next scene, chanteuse Velma Kelly stepped out from a taxi after a rainy night at Chicago. She was late, and hastily prepared herself to perform. Here, we are treated with Zeta-Jones' surprisingly superb voice and dance in her performance of All That Jazz.

I love the way Zeta-Jones confidently stated, "Don't sweat it, I can do it alone", signaled the light-boy, and smirked defiantly and continued her performance after she saw the cops came. And there's one thing that is my favourite - the seemingly irrelevant trivia. All That Jazz is filled with them. Here is the list:

• ...I hear that Father Dip is gonna blow the blues...
  I Googled and it says that it is a nickname for Louis Armstrong, a legendary jazz and blues musician.
• ...I bet that Lucky Lindy never flew so high...
  Lucky Lindy is a nickname for aviator Charles Lindbergh, who also happened to be a big hypocrite. 
• ...oooh, you're gonna see your sheba shimmy-shake...
  Sheba is a 1920's slang, means a woman.

The Velma scenes are intermittently showed with the scenes which show us a sweet-looking blonde woman (later, we knew her name is Roxie Hart) who looked ordinary and had a dream to become a performer, and who seemed to enjoyed a little affair with a man (who is, we learned later, named Fred Casely) outside her marriage. The scenes are not suitable for underages and definitely not for office or school consumption.

Fred promised that he'll use his connection to realise Roxie's dream to become famous, a somebody. Later, Roxie learned that he lied solely to gained access to Roxie's favours (ahem, ahem). Roxie, in a heat of anger (after being knocked around), shot Fred thrice. He died instantly. All while a song played on the Harts' gramophone. This scene alludes to the fact where Annan shot her lover and let him bled to death while playing a really silly song on her gramophone.

Then Roxie's husband, Amos, came home. Roxie then told a story to her husband and begged him to help her. Amos agreed. This scene is brilliantly told via a 'song of love and devotion by Ms. Roxie Hart to her dear husband, Amos'. I AM pleasantly SURPRISED that Zellweger can sing.

Hohoho. I love Funny Honey's lyrics. It's funny how easy a song of love and devotion changed into a song of anger and fight. All of Roxie's praises to her husband evaporated when Amos denounced her (completely justifiable in my view), called Roxie 'act like some goddamn floozy!' (oh, how I love those 1920's vocab!). The change from that 'funny, sunny, honey, hubby of mine' to 'scummy, dummy, crummy! hubby of miiineee' happened very fast. The lyrics is a fine mix of insult and praises. Roxie said she loves her husband (praise!) despite 'he ain't got the smarts'(insult)  - of course, that what made him so easily tricked and obeyed Roxie's request. And when Amos smartened up and realized what actually had happened, both got real angry. Roxie for feeling betrayed, Amos too. And it is funny to see Roxie shouted, "You are... an unfaithful... husband!".

Lady, you need a huge and clean mirror for self-reflection.

And it's funnier to see how Amos just got silent and did not even raise his head to meet anyone's gaze.

Next scene, Roxie admitted that she shot Casely and the reason she did it. Of course it was done when she was high in adrenaline. Now the adrenaline started to wear off, she started to feel fear. And then, enter the matron, Matron 'Mama' Morton.

Queen Latifah's performance in When You're Good to Mama rocks! The lyrics are amazing. Mama is awesomely referred as, 'The Keeper of the Keys, the Countess of the Clink! The Mistress of the Murderess Row, Matron... Mama... Morton!!!" The song sketched about Mama's personality and policy, and the subsequent scenes support that sketch.

When you're good to Mama, Mama's good to you :)

Mama, true to her words, practiced reciprocity. And because of that, Roxie's night in Cook County Jail was a freezing cold one. While she lay down and tried to sleep, she recounted the stories of the fellow inmates of Murderess Row in a very delicious performance of Cell Block Tango, in which she was an audience watched the other inmates' confessions. The reasons behind their dirty deeds are cliche, yet understandable. They defended themselves, said that...

• ...he had it coming...
• ...if you had been there, if you had heard (for the case of Bernie)/ seen (Wilbur) it, I betcha you would have done the same!
• ...he took a flower at its prime...
• ...the dirty bum, bum, bum... (for Al Lipschitz, a promiscuous and apparently bisexual lover)
• ...I didn't do it, but if I'd done it, how could you tell me that I was wrong?

Overall, very catchy. Velma's story: '... I completely blacked out, I didn't remember a thing' clearly alludes to Belva Gaertner's defense that she completely blacked out and woke up with bloody hands that held a gun while beside her, her paramour lay dead.

Next. Roxie, saw that Velma got all the publicity and got more famous, decided that she wanted the same thing. She tried to befriend Velma. Velma rudely refused her advances. Roxie then decided to seek Mama's advice. Mama's solution? Call Billy Flynn. Billy is a famous criminal lawyer with shining track record and huge, huge fee. Four thou at the least. Even there's a fee for calling him. To show how capable and duplicitous he is, Richard Gere as Billy Flynn with the County Cook Jail girls perform All I Care About is Love. Billy is introduced as 'The silver-tongued, the Prince of the Courtroom, the one, the only, Billy Flynn!' It's not exaggeration, apparently. Billy is shown as cliche, an immoral lawyer who loved money and cared only for his track record and fame, both influenced by the number of successfully freed clients. Whether they are guilty or innocent is not too important. Flynn is an amalgam of Gaertner and Annan's defense lawyer.

So there's a way out... But how will Roxie finance her way out? There seems to be no light in the end of the tunnel. But, surprise, surprise... 

Does he look familiar?

Zoom in, with better lights...

Right.

Can a man be this pathetic? God. But believe it or not, it is based on true story. Beulah Annan too, screwed around and had a side dish. And yes, her husband paid for her lawyer too. And supported her during her trial until she was acquitted. So yes, a man can be this pathetic.

End of part one, because I felt sleepy. Night.

NB:

For some of you, all of Chicago's scenes might feel downright immoral to you, but for me, they are incorporated for the sake of storytelling, and thus should be enjoyed and viewed as artistic performances. Sure, the performances are full of women and men in minimal and revealing clothes and provocative gestures and gyrates, but they are very fine works of art.

Skin Tight by Carl Hiaasen

The first Mick Stranahan book! Well... who is Mick Stranahan?
Mick Stranahan is an Irish ex-cop, ex-District-Attorney-employee, veteran of five marriages (all to waitresses) and numerous romances. After leading such turbulent and tumultuous life, it is no wonder that he wants a little peace at his very rustic house in a secluded area near the sea which is famously called Stiltsville Village.
But, one day, the peace was suddenly shattered when a hit man attacked Stranahan at his own house. A very unwelcome act, not to mention life-threatening, which was quickly remedied with a quick wit and reflexes and a cooperative marlin wall mount... Days after the incident, Stranahan's life quickly became more interesting with amazing speed.

I read this book after I read its sequel, Skinny Dip. It affects my enjoyment of the book only a little. This book is funny and hilarious too, with Hiaasen's standard fare - the environmentalists, nature's enemies, and a criminal case that pits those opposing sides against one another.

A very refreshing read. I recommend this book for the ones who want or need hearty laugh or just light reading.

Kitab tentang Yang Telah Hilang oleh John Connolly

Aslinya berjudul The Book of Lost Things, seperti yang bisa dilihat pada gambar sampul di samping.
Buku ini sudah lama terbitnya sih, dan saya juga bacanya sudah lama. Tapi buku ini meninggalkan kesan yang sangat dalam buat saya. 
Awalnya, saya membeli buku ini karena tertarik pada retelling cerita dongeng. Saya lemah banget pada iming-iming 'retelling cerita dongeng'. Buku ini terbukti memuaskan. Beberapa cerita dongeng yang di-retelling dan turut membentuk alur cerita buku ini adalah dongeng Rumpelstiltskin dan Si Jubah Merah (Little Red Riding Hood). Keduanya diceritakan ulang menjadi sangat gelap dan kelam. Atmosfir buku ini memang gelap dan kelam, bahkan sejak awal.
Buku ini diawali dengan peristiwa kehilangan yang besar. Kehilangan istri dan kehilangan ibu. Wanita yang meninggal adalah ibu dari David, protagonis utama kita. David adalah anak laki-laki yang biasa-biasa saja, introvert. Hubungannya dengan ayahnya semenjak kematian ibunya cukup dekat, walaupun David selalu merindukan ibunya.
Sampai ayahnya bertemu Rose dan menjalin hubungan dengan Rose.
Ayah David dan Rose lalu menikah (MBA, by the way) dan pindah ke rumah Rose. Beberapa bulan setelahnya Rose melahirkan bayi laki-laki, Georgie. Georgie bukan bayi yang mudah diberi simpati. Dia rewel, dan penyakitan. Hal ini membuat perhatian ayah David dan Rose terpusat pada Georgie. David semakin menarik diri dari dunia dan menenggelamkan diri dalam buku-buku dongeng yang bertulisan nama 'Jonathan'. Buku-buku yang berbisik kepadanya. Di samping itu, semenjak pindah ke rumah baru dan tenggelam dalam dunia buku David sering pingsan dan mengalami khayalan yang seolah nyata. Tetapi ayahnya hanya menganggap David kena ayan.
Relasi David dengan Rose sendiri tidak pernah baik. David tidak suka pada Rose yang dianggap tidak layak menggantikan ibunya. Rose sendiri berusaha mengambil hati David, tapi selalu gagal, walaupun ada satu saat langka ketika keduanya bicara dengan baik-baik. Dalam percakapan ini, David mendapat pengetahuan baru tentang Jonathan.
Keadaan semakin diperparah dengan kedatangan si bayi baru. Rose yang kelelahan semakin sulit mengontrol emosinya dan pada suatu ketika, amarahnya pada David meledak. David, yang sudah menanggung banyak beban baru (kehilangan perhatian, penyakit aneh) juga meledak dan lari ke reruntuhan dekat rumah. Dan pada saat bersamaan, pesawat tempur Jerman jatuh di dekat reruntuhan itu.
David pingsan. Dan ia bangun di dunia yang asing dan baru baginya... Dunia yang mengerikan. Di mana cerita dongeng menjadi nyata. Sayangnya, bukan dongeng yang indah.
Apalagi yang selanjutnya terjadi pada David? Well, seperti para ksatria dalam dongeng, David diuji. Luluskah David dari semua ujian yang ia alami? 
... untuk itu, baca sendiri bukunya untuk menemukan jawabannya :)
Beberapa dongeng yang di-retelling selain dua dongeng di atas:

• Childe Roland
• Sleeping Beauty
• Hansel dan Gretel
• Snow White

Itu saja yang saya ingat. Selebihnya, saya tidak mengenali dongeng yang di-retelling. Dongeng hasil retelling benar-benar sangat berbeda dengan dongeng aslinya. Lebih dewasa dan lebih gelap, dengan pesan moral yang juga lain sekali dengan pesan moral yang tersirat dalam dongeng originalnya. 

Aftertaste yang saya rasakan setelah membaca buku ini adalah perasaan hangat bercampur kesedihan. Perasaan hangat karena ternyata masih ada hal yang indah dan baik setelah melewati segala hal yang mengerikan itu. Kesedihan karena ternyata orang baik tidak selalu mendapat upah yang sesuai dengan perbuatannya di dunia - entah bagaimana dengan upah di akhirat. 

Cocok sekali untuk penyuka cerita fantasi maupun retelling fantasi.

Good job, Mr. Connolly! Sayangnya saya malah belum membaca satu buku pun dalam seri supernatural-kriminal Anda. Kalau boleh menyimpang, banner website Anda sangat saya sukai. Archangel Michael, sedang mengalahkan setan :)

Vish Puri Series

Hello, all! This time, I'll share my opinion about the books in Vish Puri series - namely the first and second books, The Case of Missing Servant and The Case of A Man Who Died Laughing. I decide to review them in one post. I found the existence of these books in Goodreads and decided to give them a shot.

I like this book because it describes the backgrounds and the characters in detail. They gave me good laughs, too. I also love the characterization of Vish Puri. Usually, these warm-hearted detective novels have detectives with, let's say, very minimal power of investigation. Vish Puri, however, is different. Vishwas Puri, affectionately called "Chubby", is a Delhi-based PI in India. He is quite famous, being the only PI that have appeared on a magazine cover. He is a very traditional man who resents the Westernization of India values. I like him immediately. It's quite difficult to find a PI with brain and good personal life - intact marriage, no dark past trauma, etc. Usually either the PI is very brilliant but leads a dark personal life full of past baggage or he has peaceful life but well... minimal power of detection.


The author made me laugh a lot with Indian swearwords - one stuck immediately. It is maaderchod, which definition can be found in the glossary in the end of the book - or with the aid of faithful Google. More laughter caused by the Indian-English dialogues ("She is reverting tomorrow, na?"). No offense, but... They are funny!

These books gave glimpses about life in India. Wow. I think Indonesia is bad enough - sometimes water doesn't flow and sometimes there are blackouts... but India, especially the region where the Puris live in these books is worse. Power outage can be expected daily, and water is precious - although they live in town. The environmental pollution is similar too - Yamuna is no longer a pristine river in Mahabharata and Ramayana epics but a sewer. Even the moral corruption is the same - small bribes to government authorities to grease the wheels of bureaucracy, corrupt babus (the meaning is different from its Indonesian counterpart - the word babu in India means a clerk or bureaucrat), corrupt government members... The people who are relying too much to superstitious stuff and fake holy people... These books paint India in such way that makes me view India as a Hindu version of Indonesia. 

All in all, these books are must-reads, especially for you who enjoy Alexander McCall Smith's works and Nury Vittachi's. 

Going Postal by Terry Pratchett

Wow. I really like this book. It is a very refreshing read.

Meet Moist von Lipwig (pronounced Lipvig, thank you) a.k.a. Albert Spangler, incorrigible con man with a face so unforgettable that his mother once brought home a wrong kid from school. And he would hang tomorrow... But an angel came, an angel who would come only once for every man.
Thus, Mr. Spangler was hanged. He was dead. But immediately he got a new life as Moist von Lipwig and even got a job as a Postmaster. A unenviable job, because four Postmasters before him had been dead in unexplained circumstances... And not only that. By accepting that job, he found himself became a rival of clacks company, Grand Trunk, which was headed by a dangerous man.

This book is fast-paced. I find Moist to be a charming character. He thinks fast, and talks even faster. His falling in love with Adora Belle Dearheart, a girl who could see who he was through-and-through is funny and sweet. Ms. Dearheart's name is bound to give a wrong impression - bear in mind that she was nicknamed 'Killer' and 'Spike'. Affectionately, of course.
The concept of clacks is interesting. Clacks is equivalent to the Roundworld telegraph, but I feel that Sir Terry describe it as the more modern invention - the Internet. The description of its operators remind me to Google and Apple and Microsoft employees, you know, that type of people. 
The application of clacks and stamps can be seen as successful attempt to modernise Ankh-Morpork. It pleases me when an author continues to improve the city he creates. Because of it, Ankh-Morpork feels real. An ever-changing, dynamic city.

I've also watched a part of the movie adaptation, and I must say...
...that it disappoints me. I wholly disagree with its description of Moist. The movie Moist is too easily angered and too moral. I cannot imagine the Moist von Lipwig in the book haunted by his past doings, of people he has conned. Adora Belle's portrayal is fine - Claire Foy is suitable for portraying Adora. The other thing that disappoints me is a standard issue in movie adaptation - the omitting of the book parts. Because of these reasons, I cannot finish the movie - I cannot stand seeing Moist being made like that. 

Ten stars for the book.
Six for the movie.

The Summer of the Ubume

I first knew this book's existence by browsing my 'Recommendations' in Goodreads. Here is the short summary from amazon.com:

In Japanese folklore, a ghost that arise from the burial of a pregnant woman is an Ubume. 
The Summer of Ubume is the first of Japan's hugely popular Kyogokudo series, which has 9 titles and 4 spinoffs thus far. 
Akihiko "Kyogokudo" Chuzenji, the title's hero, is an exorcist with a twist: he doesn't believe in ghosts. To circumnavigate his clients' inability to come to grips with a problem being their own, he creates fake supernatural explanations--ghosts--that he the "exorcises" by way of staged rituals. His patients' belief that he has vanquished the ghost creating their problems cures them.
In this first adventure, Kyogokudo, must unravel the mystery of a woman who has been pregnant for 20 months and find her husband, who disappeared two months into the pregnancy. And unravel he does, in the book's final disturbing scene.

Whoa. Let me list the things that hooked me immediately. 20 months pregnancy? Check. An exorcist who doesn't believe in ghost? Check. What kind of exorcist has no belief of the existence of the very thing he meant to exorcise? A seemingly supernatural case with logical explanation? Check. A ghost that I hear for the first time? Check.

And this is what I felt after finishing it.

This book is completely scary. It covers both fields of fear - the irrational (ghosts) and the rational (all the psychological twists and dramas). 
The book starts with lines that commonly found in mystery books - lines that spoken by someone we don't know. Sometimes we dismiss it, but later in the story those lines are found to be important. Such lines.
The story starts innocently enough. A poor journalist, Sekiguchi, visited his friend, Chuzenji 'Kyogokudo' Akihiko who was an owner of a used-books store in order to share a controversial story.
However, it was soon revealed that one of the person involved in the story was none other than their high school friend, Makio. After knowing that fact, Sekiguchi decided to further investigate the story. In doing it, he asked for help from his friend who was a private investigator, Enokizu and Kyogokudo's sister, Atsuko. By a strange twist of fate, Enokizu got a new client who was another key player in the weird story, Kuonji Kyoko, the sister-in-law of Makio.
And this is where the book begins to ride the crazy train.
The narrator - Sekiguchi - became more and more unstable along the story. I really want to shake him real hard or give him a good slap. CAN'T YOU BE A LITTLE BIT SANE, PLEASE. And grow some backbone. Buck up, man! At some point, I wonder which ones are crazy/ unusual. Is it Kyogokudo and Enokizu? Or is it Sekiguchi? I think it's the latter.
There was a long lecture about the nature of memory, brain, consciousness, subconscious, ubume, and quantum theory which I found to be a little bit tedious but interesting enough. Because I've watched Moryo no Hako before, those seemingly-out-of-topic lectures didn't bother me too much. I skimmed through some parts of them though - sorry, author. They were appropriate additions to the book.
The solution was a bit unbelievable. I can't imagine how a pair of eyes can thoroughly fooled their owner by unseeing something that was clearly there. I can understand if it just happened to one person. But three? And one of them didn't have any ties with the other two? Erm. I'm having a hard time to imagine, let alone believe, that such thing can happen.
This is a very noir book. It leaves a taste that needs to be cleaned fast, without delay. I don't recommend you to read another heavy or dark book after reading The Summer of the Ubume.
Nine stars. Deducting one for the solution.