reviews
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The Siege Of Krishnapur: Gil Hates The Booker Prize Winners #6 (1973)
“The Siege Of Krishnapur”, by J. G. Farrell. I may have mentioned that I can’t get enough of novels set during the English occupation of India. Yes, even though we lost. Perhaps especially because we lost. Writers tend to use extreme cases to bring out their characters’ most secretly held views, and this is no… Continue reading
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G: Gil Hates The Booker Prize Winners #5 (1972)
“G.” by John Berger. Oh thank god. This tale of a repressed young man who becomes what you might call a crap Casanova is at least interesting and has some history going on in it, specifically the whole business of Trieste getting annexed to Italy in 1921. No, shut up, it’s interesting. There’s also an… Continue reading
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In A Free State: Gil Hates The Booker Prize Winners #4 (1971)
“In A Free State” by V. S. Naipaul Once again, not my kind of book. This is a long novella, two short stories, and a framing sequence, about the state of being in another country, and slowly letting go of your obligations to where you came from – being in a ‘free’ state, you see.… Continue reading
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The Elected Member: Gil Hates The Booker Prize Winners #3 (1970)
“The Elected Member”, by Bernice Rubens. Well, I didn’t like this at all. We are confronted with our first family novel, and again, it’s all talk and no sense. Sigh. This is why Gil Hates Literature I will attempt to summarize. A Jewish family in the East End has a problem son, who has gone… Continue reading
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On The Town (1944)
OK, things Gil didn’t know about this show: The plot is essentially that Warren G and his homie Nate Dogg are cruising for skirts in the 213, and… wait, what? Well, c’mon, this does sound a bit like “Regulate” only set in the 1940s. Anyway. OK, this is the tale of three sailors on twenty-four… Continue reading
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Once More With Feeling (2001)
OK, I’m going to avoid commenting on the success of the plot aspects of this, because I haven’t watched it, and I see from Wikipedia (which is not the same as wanting to hear from anyone else, in the considerable detail I’m sure could be supplied 😉 that this episode of “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”… Continue reading
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Once On This Island (1990)
Flaherty and Ahrens are a very reliable writing team aren’t they? I haven’t heard or seen anything by them that’s been less than good. “Anastasia” is a lovely movie, “Lucky Stiff” was funny, and you can expect positive writeups for “Ragtime” and “Seussical” in the next couple of months. I like that. So what about… Continue reading
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Pal Joey (1940)
Rodgers. Hart. 1940. And the first musical-theatre antihero, apparently. Based on a novel written as a series of letters from a dodgy nightclub entertainer to his friend. I knew nothing about this, but then I look at the song list. I’ve at least heard of several of the songs here, including “I Could Write A… Continue reading
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Parade (1998)
My introduction to Jason Robert Brown’s songwriting: I was in the audience for the 2005 Voice Of Musical Theatre final when Tom Solomon came out and sang “Big News” as the second of his three songs, and we all stared at one another and said, “Well, fuck, he’s won, hasn’t he?” (He won. Talk about… Continue reading