2009 October 05 » Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog

Thoughts on Romancing the Stone (1984)

Posted by Anastasia on October 5, 2009 No Responses »

Oct 052009

Romancing cover I’ve seen Romancing the Stone at least ten times by now, but that doesn’t mean I can’t write a semi-review about it! It’s actually just some thoughts I had while watching it on Sunday, and so there’s some spoilers for the movie here. If you haven’t seen the movie already you may want to proceed gingerly; but it’s an awesome movie so you should definitely see it ASAP.

I first saw Romancing the Stone because my mom TRICKED me into watching it when I was, what, twelve? And it’s been one of my favorite movies since. I love the action-adventure bits best, though Kathleen Turner is a close second and everything else comes after. The romance? Eh. Not as fun as the other stuff (sorry, but I can barely stand Michael Douglas). Anyway, it’s basically like a really fun romance novel in live-action format, including the scantily-clad heroine and buff manly-man hero who trade insults and, of course, end up falling in love with each other while growing into new, better people. Oh, and there are villains in snazzy uniforms, drug dealers with big trucks, Danny DeVito, man-eating crocodiles, shoot-offs, jungle excursions, dancing, and lots of humor. Yay!

Romancing stereotypes Probably the best thing I like about Romancing the Stone is that it doesn’t treat romance novelists as stupid, vapid women who spend all their time eating bonbons and fluffing their feather boas. Sure, Joan is a bit naive and she does some pretty stupid things for a New Yorker (like believing the obviously sleazy Zolo when he told her another bus was coming and it wasn’t– then he tried to rob her), but she’s an intelligent woman who is incredibly brave and loves adventure (and, yeah, romance). I love too that at the end of the movie she still writes romance books instead of moving on to literary fiction, or something. These sort of things give romance books (and readers), a kind of validation while simultaneously throwing out the sad-neurotic-cat-lady myth that romance readers are encumbered by.

I also really love how the visuals match up with the characters’ emotional states. Take Joan, for instance. At the beginning of the movie she’s high-strung and, okay, kind of neurotic. She wears her hair up in a high, tight bun and her face looks pale and wan. When she meets Jack and properly starts on her journey of self-enlightenment, her hair slowly starts falling down. She still looks kind of pale and ill, but she’s got a rather snappy ponytail. And then when they get to the drug dealer’s village, after their mad run from the soldiers, her hair is completely down, curly and loose, and her face has finally got some color to it. And what do you know: she’s also gotten more self-confidant, happy, and even a bit more grown up.

Romancing big gun There are lots of little things like that in Romancing the Stone, and trying to find them makes watching the movie even more fun. Plus the story is just an excellent thing as well: it’s exciting and romantic and funny, even with Michael Douglas as the leading man. Plus I love Kathleen Turner (and her awesome bag).

I wish Romancing the Stone was a book. I’d keep it forever and reread it each year o and it’d be wonderful. (We have a copy of the movie on VHS and I’ve totally hugged it to my chest like some 1980′s teen movie heroine.) I don’t really like the sequel, The Jewel of the Nile, but I haven’t seen it in a while so I can’t really remember why.

This one, though? Pure awesomeness.

Review: Tunnels by Roderick Gordon and Brian Wiliams

Posted by Anastasia on October 5, 2009 3 Responses »

Oct 052009

Tunnels HB Tunnels by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams
Publication: The Chicken House (December 10, 2007), Hardback, 467 pages / ISBN 0439871778
Genre: Sci-Fi, Fantasy, YA
Rating:
Find @ Amazon or IndieBound
Challenges: Countdown 2010 (2007 #2)
Read: October 2009
Source: Library

I’ve seen this book on bookstore shelves for at least a year now, and every time I almost bought it. The cover is so nifty and the premise is so interesting that it must be a great book, right? Unfortunately, I had a lot of problems with it. So many, many problems and I’m glad I didn’t buy it (got it from the library instead). There’s some good ideas in it, but the longer the book goes on the worse I found it, and by the end I wanted to throw the book out the window.

Summary from Amazon:

14-year-old Will Burrows has little in common with his strange, dysfunctional family. In fact, the only bond he shares with his eccentric father is a passion for archaeological excavation. So when his dad mysteriously vanishes, Will is compelled to dig up the truth behind his disappearance. He unearths the unbelievable: a subterranean society that time forgot. “The Colony” has existed unchanged for a century, but it’s no benign time capsule of a bygone era. Because the Colony is ruled by a merciless overclass, the Styx. Will must free his father–is he also about to ignite a revolution?

My main problem is that I think the book suffers from lack of focus. Who’s the main character? Will? His dad? Is there more than one protagonist or is it an ensemble cast? None of this was made very clear, and it wasn’t until about a third of the way into the book that I decided that Will must be the protagonist and every other POV shown was just to provide some more info on whatever situation those characters are in. Will’s dad, for instance, gets quite a lot of “screen time” in the first half of the book, as does Will’s sister and Chester, his best friend. Now, I don’t mind when a book has more than one POV, or even more than one protagonist (like Faerie Wars, for instance), but it has to be set up in a way that I can immediately spot who the important people are and who isn’t. The POV switching was so messy that I honestly got really annoyed– omniscient narrators are one thing, but lack of clarity is another.

My next problem with the book is that the characters are so boring. Even Will, who is potentially the most interesting character (he eats rocks!), is somehow boring. His dad is the worst offender, though: the man’s an archaeologist and he digs up all these interesting things and he’s got a almost-mad-professor kind of thing about him, but he’s dull.

The whole book is sort of on the edge of being really great, but it gets bogged down with all this crap. I’m not even going to talk about the plot holes, okay, but they’re there, and they bugged me.

By the time I got to about 100 pages from the end I was really fed up, and so I actually took a break of about two weeks before finishing it. I probably shouldn’t have left it so long because when I finally did start reading it again I was feeling pretty hostile and didn’t enjoy the ending at all. And now as a whole I’m feeling pretty blah about the whole thing, you know? Huge disappointment.

So, what did I like? Eh. I liked how Will was an unusual protagonist, and I found him really interesting at first. He’s obsessed with digging into the earth, he chews on rocks to figure out what kind they are, he carries around a shovel like it’s a sword, and he’s in love with old stuff. He’s also got an albino-like complexion, and I haven’t read many books with albinos (or near-albinos).

I liked the underground city thing. I’ve read quite a few books with underground cities, but this one was unusual in that it’s nearly entirely cut off from the topside and the people who live down there have a completely different culture than the topside people. They also have kind steampunk/sci-fi technology that’s really cool, and crazy-scary secret police dudes, and horrible table manners. And giant cats who act like guard dogs!

I likes how it was a bit darker than I was expecting. Will and Chester get into some major trouble while underground, and it’s not glossed over. I’m talking psychological torture, physical torture, starvation, etc: it’s not super detailed but what was in there was horrifying. They’re kids and these psychotic police guys are torturing them! Sheesh.

So, I did like some stuff. But unfortunately the stuff I didn’t like couldn’t pull this book out of the “meh” realm for me and I don’t see myself reading any of the other books any time soon.

Other reviews: The Quagmire | Reading for Sanity | KyusiReader