Liars and Saints

 "South Pacific" has returned; a reunion concert just occurred. The novelist Lorrie Moore has confessed that she sometimes watches and rewatches "This Nearly Was Mine" (when she should be working). This is the gold-standard example of a "rearview mirror" song. It's everything you wish you could say to your ex--but you can't, because your ex is receding in the distance (you see her via rearview mirror).  People say that a breakup is especially hard because you're mourning both (a) the loss of routines and (b) the loss of dreams, things you didn't actually have but could enjoy  anticipating . It's (b) that inspires the bridge of Richard Rodgers's song. So clear and deep are my fancies Of things I wish were true; I'll keep remembering evenings I wish I'd spent with you. I'll keep remembering kisses From lips I'll never own-- And all the lovely adventures  That we have never known. In the wake of loss, there is only rumi...

  One of my favorite traditions is the Christmas horror film. In "Silent Night," Keira Knightley plans her own death, with assistance from her husband, Matthew Goode. The apocalypse is en route; most families are choosing a pharmacological "early exit." (The film's greatest scene involves the Coca Cola that Matthew Goode selects. A few of his children complain that he has settled for Coke Zero, rather than real Coke. They're really going to take their suicide pills with Coke Zero? The suspense builds and builds.) More recently, we were treated to "Violent Night," in which Santa has to murder a gang of murderers? I can't remember. But: great title, great ad campaign. This year, no such movie exists, so I made do with "The Order." There isn't a holiday theme. You just get Nicholas Hoult as the head of a neo-Nazi cult; Hoult literally terminates underlings who irritate him, and he plants a bomb in a porno theater (somewhere near Seat...

 I have a few friends with literary aspirations, and the subject of writing is tricky. It's useful, because "shoptalk" can be fun. At the same time, there is always competitiveness and ego. (The writer Simon Rich captures the silliness of ego in "The Baby," a story about a novelist who discovers that his little fetus has enviable storytelling talent. The actual baby is the published novelist, not the emotionally mature fetus.) One friend has released various picture books, and I'm always excited for him, and also slightly miffed. (When Anne Lamott watched a colleague soar to new heights of success, she grew very tired. She grew impatient, saying "wonderful! wonderful! so wonderful!" while half-ignoring the voice in her iPhone.) Because of my own history, I'm drawn to "What Are You Going Through," a novel about a thorny literary friendship. It's essentially the story of Sigrid Nunez and Susan Sontag. Sontag discovers that she has f...

  Among many other strengths, "Somebody Somewhere" has special insights into the sibling bond between children of a mentally ill parent (i.e., all children everywhere). Trish--the MVP on this show--walks all over her sister. We sense that Trish is tightly wound in all contexts, but her behavior with Sam is sometimes deplorable. Showing up fifty minutes early (without warning), then expressing impatience when Sam hasn't anticipated the change in plans. Last-minute canceling a social event (again, without warning) because a Tinder option has made itself available. At the same time, Trish is fiercely proud of Sam. She brags about Sam's singing ability, as if the ability were her own and not Sam's. (This is how a family works. If one person has a talent, it is, oddly, all siblings' shared talent.) Trish also rationally guides Sam through questions about dating, because Sam is intensely neurotic whenever she has to reflect on her own life. (Easy to relate to this.)...

 My neighbor is like a great opera star; she performs stunning arias of complaint, arias of grievance, day after day. I don't have to do a thing. I just take notes. The idea of a half day enrages her. There are too many! And her husband whines about the half days, as well, but his whining is just a performance--a transparent attempt to curry favor. "Don't do that," says my neighbor, when her spouse goes into the "feeling your pain" act. "Just zip it." I mention that--on this particular half day--I'm considering screening the Robert Zemeckis film, "The Polar Express." (I'm on the fence. The trailers look creepy. Also, the book seems to be the perfect length; any effort to blow up that book into a two-hour film event seems inherently dubious...) "Listen," says my neighbor. "I took my kids to the *actual* Polar Express, in Whippany? You have to sign up on the Fourth of July. If you don't hop online on the Fourth, t...

 Creative writing seminars tend to focus on stakes. "What are the stakes?" "You need to up the stakes."  This is something Hitchcock managed extraordinarily well; in "Rear Window," the Jimmy Stewart character is fighting to save his own life. In "Dial M," a man pursues a legal victory because it can ensure his romantic happiness (ad infinitum). What I love in "The Artist," by Ed Vere, is that there is a sense of urgency, even as the writer tells a story that small kids can understand. A dinosaur is born with an innate love of the world's wonder and beauty. She becomes determined to communicate her own vision to the rest of the world. She refashions herself as a graffiti artist, perhaps in New York City, and she wins praise, but then her brush slips. Shamed by her error, she becomes mute. (This is like the weird gap in Jane Austen's career, during which Austen spent years not-writing. Whatever she did, it wasn't writing.) A s...