The View From Jackie’s Head – #15
There is so much rattling around in my brain and I just had to let some of it out. To start with there is John Grisham. Now John Grisham used to be one of my favorite authors and then he just went kaflooey. His last few books have been dull, bad or worse. Now he has come out with a new book, THE RECKONING. When you start it you quickly realize this is the story of a murder in a small town.
A local hero survives the war, comes home and for some reason (only known to himself) heads to the Methodist Church and shoots the preacher. Now there’s a plot you can dig into. But by the halfway point of the story you know the outcome of the trial and the verdict. That’s when Grisham goes off the rails and starts telling us the backstory of the hero/murderer. He takes his readers to the Philippines and focuses on the Bataan Death March.
When he finally comes back to the present time of his story he lets the book end with a whimper and not a bang. I wanted a bang. I wanted a rousing John Grisham type of finish that he is so able to give. But he didn’t and I am now burned out on Grisham. And I am also burned out on Nicholas Sparks. His latest is called EVERY BREATH and it is pure Sparks.
EVERY BREATH is a love story, which every Sparks novel is. It has two wonderful people who meet and fall in love. They are perfect for each other until Sparks throws in a wall of problems between them. With Sparks you read then you cry; you read then you cry. We have all come to expect this, but in EVERY BREATH it is just so contrived.
And while I am slamming authors, stand up Michael Connelly, You have provided me with Harry Bosch books for years now and I have been happy with mostly every one. But a few months ago you brought out a book with a new lead character. Her name is Renee Ballard and she is a cop who works close to where Harry works. I didn’t mind her because she was in a stand alone book – I thought.
But no! Connelly has now released DARK SACRED NIGHT and it is a Harry Bosch/Renee Ballard book. He has combined these two leads into one story and it looks like that might be setting a pattern for the future. Forget about it. I like my Bosch stories as one man shows. Harry doesn’t need, want, and shouldn’t be forced to bring her along on his adventures. Bad move, Michael Connelly, bad move.
Now let’s skip over to movies. It is getting close to the end of the year and every studio is promising the big guns as the months wind down. The problem is the big movies are not living up to the hype. Melissa McCarthy goes all dramatic on us in “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” and she may well get an Oscar nomination. But the movie is a drag down mess. Hugh Jackman acts his heart out in “The Front Runner” but with seeing politics on TV all day do you want to see it when you go out to the movies?
Then there is “Wives”. It is directed by Steve McQueen who gave us “12 Years A Slave”. It is supposed to qualify for multi awards. It is good, Viola Davis is good as is the rest of the cast. But it is a heist movie people and a heist movie is a heist movie. Nothing spectacular, Just a well acted tale of a crime. And please world quit saying Cynthia Erivo plays one of the widows. She doesn’t. She plays the driver and she only has a couple of scenes.
Well I feel better for getting all that off my chest. I do however want to end with something positive. Go see “Instant Family”. It is so good.
Jackie K Cooper
11/19/18
