Ataraxia

  Three funny Stories by Frank Sullivan, E.B. White and Peter de Vries The Night the Old Nostalgia Burned Down by Frank Sullivan The way I understand this short, humorous account is by taking the proposals as exaggerations and laughing at them. It is however difficult to separate preposterous from facts. Perhaps Governor Lovelace has really brought the first marble from England, in 1668 and gave it to the great aunt of the narrator. But it seems incredible that a childhood friend, Ada Rehan – “a little gold-haired thing”- would shoot President Garfield. Aunt Caroline is an apparition, with “silk hat, immaculate shirt, white tie…and that magnificent, purple black beard” -            A beard, and magnificent to boot? Really? An outstanding scene is the one of the ritual of the Saturday night bath, when they would line up: -            father, mother, housekeeper, butler, second girl, t...

  The Moon is Down by John Steinbeck Impressive work, 8 out of 10   These will be notes about the adaptation of the original novel, for the National Theater. Mihail Sebastian is the very talented author who took on this novel, certainly interested in the subject. An army occupies a town somewhere in Northern Europe and we can be pretty sure that the invaders are Germans. From the very start there is a conflict, as soldiers search for guns in the houses of the mayor and the doctor. In spite of the usual depiction of the Nazis, Colonel Lanser, the commanding officer of the occupiers comes across as a decent man. He has been through the First World War and was marked by the experience and the terrible events that he witnessed. Officers under his command are not as sensible as their superior and start creating trouble in the town. Captain Loft is a villainous man and provokes Alexander Morden, a local worker in the mine into attacking the invader. Another officer steps in and is k...

  Sebastian, Mon Frere...Scrisoare Catre Un Frate Mai Mare by Gabriel Liiceanu Letter To An Older Brother Another version of this note and thoughts on other books are available at: -               https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEVa4_CsRStSBBDo4uJWT8BSWtTTn0N1E   and    http://realini.blogspot.ro/ After The Forbidden Door, I had the chance to read another emotional account from the same author. Gabriel Liiceanu address the Jewish community and Mihail Sebastian in particular with a declaration of affinity. Sebastian, Mon Frere translates as Sebastian, My Brother. And then it is repeated in the title: -            Letter To An Older Brother There are a number of similarities and both The Jewish people and the Romanians have suffered at the hands of tyranny. Granted, the ordeal of The Chosen People may have a thousand years or more ov...

  Irish Cream by Mircea Cartarescu Another version of this note and thoughts on other books are available at: -               https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEVa4_CsRStSBBDo4uJWT8BSWtTTn0N1E This is a short story by a Romanian writer. Not just any creator, but one deserving of a Nobel. At least that is the view of those who promote his name. Considering the big Prize received by Bob Dylan and the Belarus writer, among others, I’d say that Mircea Cartarescu might be entitled. I am not such a big fan of his though. Among the most important, if flimsy reasons are his political convictions, at least those held some years back. It is not wise to think about the man behind the great author, when reading War and Peace or why We Love Women. But ever since I have learned about the idiosyncrasies of Leo Tolstoy, Ernest Hemingway, Henrik Ibsen, among others, I have a different perspective on their works and tend to ...

  One Last Thing, written and directed by Tim Rouhana 8 out of 10 One Last Thing is a very charming, thought provoking film. It has had its premiere on our local Cinemax channel and it was a joy to watch. Wendell Pierce is a very charming, talented actor, who has the leading role of Dylan Derringer in this motion picture. We can say that his achievement, of making the audience like him is even more remarkable if we consider that he is a dentist in the film. Who likes dentists? This middle aged man has been trying to find his estranged child. One day, he has news and is informed that his daughter lives in Brooklyn. The hero lives and works in Florida. Traveling to see the girl is emotional and takes a toll on the man who does not know how to approach his daughter. Therefore he follows her for two days, finding she has a girlfriend, they kiss in a bookshop, under the spying eyes of the father. The dentist falls over a shelf of books on display, as he tries to keep his presence incogn...

  Writers and Leviathan by George Orwell is the thirty eighth and the one before last of The Essays - you find this collection in the 917th place on The Greatest Books of All Time site, nevertheless, the algorithm changes the places in the hierarchy, ergo you could see a different structure, I don’t know what data is used, however, if it takes into account the ‘reading public’, then the chefs d’oeuvre will descend from the top spots, and the likes of The Da Vinci Code will dominate the front rows, and they will become the “GOAT” – that notwithstanding, 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/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html if you are interested, why plug this, I don’t know     10 out of 10   ‘It must have been love/but it’s over n...

  The Iceman Cometh by Eugene O’Neil   To my surprise, I have just learned that The Iceman Cometh is appreciated by critics as one of the greatest plays of American Theatre. Not that I did not enjoy it, but had not heard of it, which is not saying all that much and had decided to listen to it, because George Constantin had a role in it. As part of my reading and listening plan, plays in which our greatest actor had a role are advancing to the top of the list. He was -and is in recordings- so great, that any material gets other worldly proportions. The Eugene O’Neill play is excellent, albeit it sounds like a joke, when we look at the characters and the setting: The characters are: The owner of a motel and bar, an Italian pimp aka barman, officers who deserted, an African American, a Dutchman and prostitutes… It is like one of those humorous lines: an Italian walks into a bar. The main character Hickey has a terrible crime in his past and comes to the bar, after a selling tour,...

  The Heartbreak Kid, screenplay by Neil Simon, based on story by Bruce Jay Friedman Eight out of 10 Alas, the genius who wrote the amusing screenplay for this comedy has just died, the other day – May he rest in peace! The Heartbreak Kid has been adapted for the big screen more recently, a version that is not as good as the one looked at here, opened in 1972, with Ben Stiller in the title role and reviewed here: http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-heartbreak-kid-by-scot-armstrong.html The Neil Simon version has been nominated for two academy Awards, for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and Best Actress in a Supporting Role, the latter was nominated for a Golden Globe Neil Simon was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Screenplay and Charles Grodin for Best Actor in a Motion Picture. Charles Grodin is marvelous in the role of Lenny Cantrow, who marries Lila Kolodny aka Jeannie Berlin nominated for the Oscar and the Golden Globe for her performance. The newlyweds travel to Miami...

  The Madman of Bergerac aka Le Fou de Bergerac by Georges Simenon Nine out of 10 The Madman of Bergerac is a captivating, intelligent, short, wonderful detective story written by one of the best authors of the genre, Georges Simenon, who has more than three works included on The Guardian 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jan/23/bestbooks-fiction Inspector Maigret is the hero of the crime stories written by the great Georges Simenon and in this book, he travels to the countryside, by train, in order to spend time with his friend, former commisaire Leduc, who has invited him to fish with him and enjoy a well-deserved holyday. When two people come to the compartment where the inspector has a place, he moves to a second-class area, where he shares the space with a man who sleeps in the bunk on top, where he keeps moving, making noises and overall behaving as a tormented man- something we would understand later. When the commisaire finally complain...