Contents
Spoilers for all of these to follow.
Ted Hughes’ Difficulties of a Bridegroom.
Nico Walker’s Cherry
The Moment, Aidan Zamiri
Wuthering Heights, Emerald Fennel
Books
Ted Hughes’ Difficulties of a Bridegroom.
Recently finished reading. A dynamic collection of the former Poet Laureate’s short stories with a very insightful foreword. Difficulties deals with themes of violence, estrangement, and isolation. Though there’s overlap with his collection “Wodwo”, many of these works are debuted here, despite Hughes’ prolific publishing career, spanning over 40 years of writing.
Nico Walker’s Cherry
Cherry is a raw, powerful semi-autobiographical account of the life of a young man (probably Walker with the names changed) who spirals from lacklustre college student to army medic in Iraq and, ultimately, to opioid addict and bank robber.
Drawing heavily on Walker’s own experiences, and written while serving time in prison, the novel’s prose feels brutally honest and almost conversational, capturing both the absurdity of war and the numbing despair of addiction. Though its style can be abrasive, I think that bluntness is precisely what makes Cherry stick the landing—proving it to be a gripping portrait of a lost generation searching for meaning in the wreckage of modern America.
Movies
The Moment, Aidan Zamiri
The BRAT film. Shot and edited surprisingly well, and surprisingly maturely, given the subject matter. Better than the majority of tour movies, despite lacking a central plot. Things kind of just happen to her? And why was Kylie Jenner in it? Some pretty gaping holes aside, it looked good. And it held our attention well, and the first ten minutes really would kill a grandpa.
There genuinely wasn’t very much of BRAT in it though.
Wuthering Heights, Emerald Fennel
A serious departure from the source text, and I’m not convinced that it did it justice. But then, I don’t think it was trying to. A salacious, provocative reinterpretation of Bronte’s classic, Fennel’s film replaces the pivotal death with pregnancy - for this Heathcliff, the woman of his desire, impregnated by another man, is as good as dead.
Music
From 1970’s New Morning record, Dylan’s folky, bluesy iconic sound.
I made my dad listen to this in the car the other day, and it prompted me to return to it a few more times. Obviously, a great poem, but an interesting study in how the form impacts the narrative.
Not music, but a huge fan of Tetragrammaton and this particular conversation with OpenAI founder and part-time exile Greg Brockman was fascinating.
Art
Charlotte Salomon, Untitled
Edvard Munch, Sailors in the Snow
Marianne von Werefkin, At the Cafe
