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This Halloween, I dressed up as Bella Swan from the popular book series that is the literary pinnacle of teen angst and self-destructive obsession: Twilight. The problem? I’m 29 years old. But, like, whatever, okay? I like, totally looked like Bella/Kristen Stewart/someone more than a decade younger than me. Like, for serious. And my husband, Joey, was a smokin’ Edward, complete with ruby lips, pallid complexion, mussed hair, and, oh yes, glittery skin. You Edward fans know what I’m talkin’ bout. Mmm hmm. That’s right. Check it:
Don't we look intense?
Yes, I admit it. I’m a Twilight fan. I can’t help it. The plot lines are addicting, the characters are mesmerizing, and Stephenie Meyer’s writing, although not uber-intellectual, keeps the reader hooked from beginning to end. The movie version of Twilight, in a word, sucked, but it allowed me the opportunity to watch a 14-year-old or so girl sitting two rows in front of me in the movie theater scream like the banshee every time Edward came on the screen (confession: I did the same when Edward’s “father,” Carlisle Cullen, made his premier in the first hospital scene), as well as rock back and forth in her seat for the entire movie. It was funny. And disturbing.
And to prove that my friends are also book nerds, here is a photo of Angie as Hermione from Harry Potter.
Yes, that it is Quidditch manual in her hand. Yeah, we’re lit geeks. Ya jealous?
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to hunt down movie clips from the soon-to-be-released New Moon, which is guaranteed to be about five kajillion times better than Twilight. Three words: Jacob is ripped. Too bad Taylor Lautner, the actor who plays Jacob Black, was born in 1992, right around the time when I was lusting after Zack Morris. Ah well, that’s the beauty of fantasy books, isn’t it?
I’ll leave you with yet another sweet picture of Joey & me acting out the cheesiest quote of the entire Twilight series: “And so the lion fell in love with the lamb.”
“Stupid lamb.” ~ Bella Swan
The 2008 paperback edition of Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon
Ever heard of Michael Chabon? If so, you probably recognize him for his 2001 Pulitzer-Prize winning novel, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. Although Kavalier & Clay is on my to-read list, I decided to “go rogue” like Sarah Palin and read one of its predecessors first—Chabon’s 1995 novel, Wonder Boys. What I found is that this “novelist’s novel” is a winner in its own right.
Wonder Boys centers on the helter-skelter existence of its protagonist, Grady Tripp, a middle-aged professor and novelist whose professional life is deteriorating in march-step time with his disastrous personal life. As Grady makes a half-hearted attempt to reconcile his troubled marriage in the wake of adultery, he must also endure a prolonged bout of creative sterility, an affliction made all the worse by Grady’s proximity to his promising and troubled young pupil, James Leer. To evade the moroseness of reality, Grady opts to live in a foggy, pot-induced haze. He eventually emerges from the smoke when he is forced into clarity by professional disaster and a sudden new responsibility.
Chabon expertly crafts the novel’s Pittsburgh-ian world of drugs, promiscuity, and general immorality in a manner that makes the reader want to alternately slap and embrace its hapless characters. Wonder Boys is a commentary on both the elusive nature of success and fame and the chaotic nature of human existence. Rife with humor, yet sobered by gritty realism, it is that rare book that makes you laugh aloud one moment and, in the next, stop to think seriously about your own life—its unavoidable failures and unexpected triumphs.
Wonder Boys was adapted into a film in 2000, starring Michael Douglas as protagonist, Grady Tripp (an odd bit of casting in my view, but I have yet to see the film, so perhaps Douglas makes it work), Robert Downey, Jr. as his morally dubious editor, and Toby McGuire as the innocent ingénue who eclipses Grady’s talent. But before you Netflix Wonder Boys, make a trip to your local library or swing by your favorite bookstore and pick up the novel. Chabon’s writing, in all of its offhand, reckless, and casual brilliance, won’t disappoint.
