Theme of the Week
Movie Book
Reader: Kitty Simmons
Author: John Grisham
Title: The Firm
Call Number: PS3557.R5355 F57 1991, Video PS3557.R5355 F57 1993
Mitch, the newly graduated Harvard lawyer, lands a job at a prestigious Memphis law firm. Is this job just too good to be true? Well, in a word YES!
Summary: The Firm was the second novel written by attorney-turned author John Grisham, and in my opinion one of his best. Some of the subsequent books are too obviously influenced by his political/social viewpoints for my taste and lacking in the taut suspense running through this one. After Mitch and his wife get settled into a life of luxury and the dream job begins, he discovers some unsettling aspects of his employers. However, the firm has seriously underestimated both the scruples and ingenuity of their new hire. As Mitch uncovers the nasty truth about what everyone is up to, the action really ramps up. Some surprising twists emerge as he figures out how to elude the many dangers encountered along the way and manages to sail into the sunset by book’s end.
The movie version was directed by Sydney Pollack with a star-studded cast including Tom Cruise, Gene Hackman, Ed Harris, and Holly Hunter. As usual with a film adaptation, there are some significant diversions from the book, but the suspense is definitely there. I would suggest reading the book first. The Memphis settings and landmarks were fun for me to revisit since I spent some time there in the 1980s. I thoroughly enjoyed both book and movie and recommend these as perfect fodder for enjoyable summertime diversion.
Kitty J. Simmons, Library Director
Reader: Christina Viramontes
Author: Chaim Potok
Title: The Chosen
Call Number: PS3566.O69 C45 c.4
Summary: The setting is Brooklyn, New York during World War II. Two 15-year-old Jewish boys become best friends after an accident in result of a baseball game. Though both are Jewish, they are different in many ways. Danny Saunders is Hasidic and grew up in a silent environment, while Reuven Malter grew up in a home where his father listened to his words. Danny's father is a tzaddik and it is a position that is passed down from father to son. Words are exchanged when both are studying the Talmud. Danny, on the other hand, has plans on becoming a psychologist, not a tzaddik. He is struggling with trying to figure how to let his father, and the only way this can be done is when his father is speaking to Reuven.
The movie follows the same themes that are found in the book; friendship, father and son, and World War II. Though the movie does not always follow the book it is still beautifully done.
Reader: Tony Zbaraschuk
Author: C.S. Forester
Title: Captain Horation Hornblower, II, Ship of the Line
Call Number: PR 6011.O56 C3
Summary: One of the most famous sea story series of all time, Horatio Hornblower has shown up twice in the movies: a 1951 adaptation by the author starring Gregory Peck, and an ongoing made-for-TV series with Ioan Gruffudd as the externally confident and internally conflicted captain in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars.
This book, one of ten that C.S. Forester wrote about Hornblower, and the core of the 1951 movie, features the captain in operation off the coast of Spain, supporting Spanish guerillas against the invading French forces, facing foes such as his own seasickness, press-ganged sailors, the sudden storms of the Mediterranean, French privateers, and his own love for his admiral’s wife.
The story, though a little episodic, never fails to excite, and the conflict between Hornblower’s sensibility and sense of duty is a worthy theme.
Reader: Cindy Parkhurst
Author: Ian McEwan
Title: Atonement
Call Number: PR 6063 C4 A88 2002
Summary: Atonement is a novel set in England during the years just preceding and during World War II. The Tallis’ are a well-to-do English family with two daughters, Briony and Cecilia. The family is attended by many servants and the children of the servants play with the Tallis children. As the children grow, relationships change and the children are suddenly faced with an adult world and adult relationships. Briony, the youngest daughter, struggles to understand these changes and to interpret unfamiliar signals. Her confusion and inability to come to grips with her lack of sophistication in adult matters lead to criminal accusations and ruined lives. This is a story that reminds us of how powerfully our words can influence others and how careful we must be in interpreting the actions and motives of those around us.
Written in 2002 and made into an Academy Award winning film in 2007, this is a beautifully written story that stands among McEwan’s best.
Cindy Parkhurst