Ataraxia

  The Enormous Radio by John Cheever   Falconer is an amazing book, by John Cheever. I was so enthusiastic about it that I determined to try and read it again and now that I came across short stories by John Cheever I will read them. I have started with The Enormous Radio. “Jim and Irene are average. They have average income and…respectability; they have two children and live on the 12 th  floor of an apartment house. They went to the theater an average of…10.3 times a year.” Humor is in your face from the start. The two heroes of the short story differ from the rest in their interest for serious music, which they listen to on an old radio. When the old radio stopped in the middle of a quartet, Jim bought a new one. In the first place, it seemed the new instrument is better, but odd noises affected her listening of a Mozart quintet. The radio was ugly; the title reveals an enormous size. All kinds of noises interfere with the pleasure of listening to music: elevator, phon...

  Hunt for the Wilderpeople, based on the book by Barry Crump Hunt for the Wilderpeople has won the award for Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Actor in 2017 Alas, there were not the Academy Awards, Golden Globes, BAFTAs or the most important of all…                  The Cannes Film Festival This admirable, warm, fresh, amusing, entertaining, interesting, provoking motion picture has won the aforementioned prizes at the…                 New Zealand Film and TV Awards It is the story of two people who live at the edge of, or even outside society, because they do not adapt. Ricky Baker is a boy who seems to be eight or nine, who arrives at the home of foster parents Bella and Hector, although the latter divulges that, it was actually the former who wanted the boy in her house. Ricky does not kno...

  A few stories by John Cheever Boy in Rome is very good The short stories of John Cheever are mesmerizing. The author has received the Pulitzer Prize for them and for good reason. Boy in Rome I have just finished Boy in Rome with the same pleasure that I have experienced with all the other about twenty I have finished so far. Humor is mixed with complex feelings like sadness, empathy, regret, longing. The boy in Rome is recounting experiences that include at one point his grandfather who had a cruel habit at meals. He gave the children meals they did not like and it was so much of a hateful event that our hero asked – -            Grandfather, why do you cook these if you do not like it -            And the old man cursed and used bad language in response The reason why some Americans stay in Rome is to avoid taxes, but the father of the boy is buried in the cemetery. This is why th...

  Ideal Home, written and directed by Andrew Fleming 7 out of 10 Criticizing this motion picture could be difficult in that it is a comedy, well intentioned,we should not expect comedies to be all about World War III Asa wonderful as Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. As the final credits roll on, it is clear that one of the purposes of this feature - in fact one would say the main one - is to celebrate difference, gay marriage, relationships and the children that can be raised in these families. Photographs of maybe dozens of lesbians, gays and their happy children are on display on the big screen. On that measure, the film must be lauded. There are also some good comedy moments. Alas, not many. Not enough to make this a historical moment. It can remind one of La Cage aux Folles, presumably the better version is the original, as it happens most of the time, although the Hollywood adaptation has Robin Williams and Gene Hackman in the cast. Steve Co...

  Storm Boy, based on the novel by Colin Thiele 8.8 out of 10 The essence of Storm Boy is phenomenal. However, even if at heart this is an extraordinary story, the telling seems somewhat less adroit than we could have expected, given that the Academy Award Winner and multiple nominee, the artist that has enchanted the public in The King’s Speech, Shakespeare in Love, Elizabeth, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, shine and so many more marvelous roles, Geoffrey Rush plays the main character. The Storm Boy is Mike Kingley aka Geoffrey Rush, playing the hero when he is a grandfather, looking back at his life. When we follow the events associated with the finding and the rescue of the pelicans, it is all splendid. Alas, the part of the plot where Michael Kingley has to take part in a boardroom meeting, flies in a helicopter, wonders around a luxurious, spectacular mansion and talks to his granddaughter seems superfluous or worse. The teenager may be a promising actress, a teenager ye...

  Chinatown, written by Robert Towne, directed by Roman Polanski 10 out of 10 Notes and thoughts on other books are available at: -               https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEVa4_CsRStSBBDo4uJWT8BSWtTTn0N1E  and    http://realini.blogspot.ro/ Chinatown is one of the masterpieces that will remain in history and I have it included in my top twenty favorites. It is also on All-TIME 100 Movies list: -            http://entertainment.time.com/2005/02/12/all-time-100-movies/slide/all/ Robert Evans, the producer of this film and the man responsible for other major motion pictures, one of which might be the very best of them all, The Godfather, writes about Chinatown in his book about movies: -            The Kid Stays in the Picture We learn from there how Robert Evans was involved in getti...

  A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters by Julian Barnes 10 out of 10 Some critics have not been overwhelmed by a book that the undersigned finds exhilarating, while others have been enthused; sometimes the same media outlet had both skeptics – Jonathan Coe – and admirers, as it happened with The Guardian, which has included the work on its list of 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jan/23/bestbooks-fiction The Ten and a Half Chapters are often amusing, hence, the inclusion on the aforementioned list in the section named comedy, but there is also tragedy in most if not all of them, beginning with a jocular take on Noah and his ark, in the first part called The Stowaway. The woodworm that has the role of narrator ridicules Noah and his drinking problem, speaking of the impure; those who were not taken on board or chose to die when told they could only take one mate and not the family. One of the most depressing, upsetting chapters is Three Si...

  Babylon Revisited by Scott F. Fitzgerald   According to critics, Scott F. Fitzgerald is the best writer I had the chance to read. On the Modern Library top 100 list, Scott F. Fitzgerald is situated at number two, while Ulysses is placed at number one. One day, I may still get through with the best English novel of the 20 th  century, again – in scholars ‘eyes. I have tried to cope with the complexity of James Joyce, even liked The Portrait of The Artist as a Young Man and Dubliners, but Ulysses seems too much, at least for the time being. The Great Gatsby is the masterpiece I have read, placed highest in the experts ‘hierarchy. With its accessibility, Great Gatsby is a kind of summer camp game compared with the difficult, overwhelming Ulysses. As for Babylon Revisited, it seems to be lacking something- I liked it less than Benjamin Button, with his curious case. Instead of gaining my sympathy, Charlie- the main character seems somehow aloof and unlikeable to me. I may b...

  In Defense of English Cooking by George Orwell is the eighteenth of The Essays that are placed on the 917 th spot on The Greatest Books of All Time site, where the algorithm changes the hierarchy, who knows what the data used is, but if it takes into account the ‘reading public’, then the chefs d’oeuvre will descend, and the likes of The Da Vinci Code will dominate the arena, and the GOAT – you have more than five thousand reviews on books from the aforementioned site and others, with notes on films from The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made and other lists waiting for you on my blog and YouTube channel https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/02/is-this-unique-could-it-make-money.html so maybe you take the bait and click     9 out of 10   The Essays of George Orwell are a pleasure to read https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/inside-whale-and-other-essays-poetry.html and they touch on such a wide range of subjects, from Dickens to Engl...