Movie Club—The Searchers

This month’s Movie Club screening is The Searchers. One of 14 collaborations between John Wayne and John Ford, the film has gone on to gain critical acclaim, often considered one of the greatest westerns of all time.

Ethan Edwards is a Civil War veteran who fought on the side of the Confederacy. After returning to his brother’s home in Texas they are attacked by a Comanche raiding party. The only survivor is his niece who has been taken, and Edwards embarks on a five year long journey to save them.

Edwards is obsessive, unrelenting, and flawed. The motives for his unending search are less to bring his niece back to civilisation than to remove her from the clutches of the Comaches, even if that means killing her. At the heart of the film is Ford’s look at the role of race in the development of the American West and the Western film genre to which he made significant contributions. This has led the film to gain a reputation as a revisionist Western. But the question remains if its actual intention came through or if it is simply another addition to a genre that is so based on and so enthralled in the conflict between white settlers and native Americans.

Either way it is a technically stunning piece of cinematography from a master director as well as having a lot going on in its reels. The screening will be Wednesday 8 July at 6pm at Narellan Library with a discussion about all the ideas and depictions afterwards. Share your thoughts or use the discussion questions to get a debate going.

Book Review—The Surfacing by Cormac James

The HMS Impetus wades into the arctic in search of John Franklin’s lost expedition of 1845. While en route it is discovered that Kitty Rink, a female stow away, is pregnant with Morgan, the second in command’s, child. After a troubled start the ship gets stuck for 18 months and from there unfolds tension and desperation.

The restricted geography of the barren environment and the ship’s hull leaves as the only recourse for movement the temporal. Structured around dates, James replicates the strain of the voyage and moves inwards for psychological drama. It is not an easy novel to read, but not because of dense, obscure references or impenetrable language. Instead the hardboiled journal format leaves the reader fatigued from the fractured repetition. This repetition is not soothing or comforting. It is jarring, unsettling, creaking, and the narrative progresses slowly like the ship jerking in the hard Arctic Sea.

Strenuous and demanding, The Surfacing is as mentally and corporeally unrelenting as the events it depicts.

Andreas

Book Review—The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

′Ay,′ he said aloud. There is no translation for this word and perhaps it is just a noise such as a man might make, involuntarily, feeling the nail go through his hands and into the wood.

Santiago is an unfortunate Cuban fisherman who has not caught any fish for eighty-four days, while his fellow fishermen gain sizable catches. He has been deemed “salao”, the worst kind of unluckiness. But on the eighty- fifth day he believes his fortune will change by sailing his skiff far into the gulfstream. His instinct pays off and so begins a three day struggle with a giant marlin.

The text contains many biblical illusions, conjuring images of feuding brothers, dreams of lions, and numerous references to the crucifixion.  It is also one of Hemingway’s most unique novels, relying more heavily on allegory than the realism that characterises his works, although the work is inspired by real life events. It does feature Hemingway’s influential and trademark restrained prose, the simplicity of which is the strength of the novel combined with the Christian imagery.

The novel brought Hemingway back into the literary limelight and was specifically mentioned by the Nobel committee when awarding him the prize. This is fitting, as in many ways the work is a swan song. His last major work, it was preceded by a few poorly received novels, leaving many to think the old master was unable to produce a noteworthy tale as in his earlier years. But with The Old Man and the Sea Hemingway asserts his abilities, luring readers and fixing them with his many literary tricks and techniques, producing a simple but powerful tale.
Andreas

Book Review: Butcher’s Crossing by John Williams

John William’s third novel, Stoner (originally published in 1965), was heralded as a ‘must read’ of 2013. Now, his earlier work, Butcher’s Crossing (1960), is receiving similar treatment, with invocations of Herman Melville as influence and Cormac McCarthy as successor. 

Bostonian Will Andrews travels to Western frontier country, to Butcher’s Crossing, a town, or rather inhabited road, filled with rumoured prosperity and dwindling reality. The economy is based on buffalo hide and the train is said to be coming through. But times are tough, with the buffalo population on its last whispers. Andrews convinces, or is convinced by, Miller, a seasoned hunter, to partake in a tall-tale expedition to a hidden, untouched valley with several thousand head of buffalo. Although promising to be lucrative, for Andrews this is not about money but experience. It is the grand adventure that entices Andrews.

As the expedition continues aggression exacerbates into fatigue, with the negotiations between hatred and dependence, the wild and the controlled, nature and man, becoming the staples of life. The promise of the grand adventure dwindles into the frivolity of reality. Certainly a must read of 2014. 

Andreas.

Book Review - The Pagan Lord by Bernard Cornwell

The next in the story of Uhtred and the complicated politics and battles of Dane vs Saxon after King Alfred, to see whether England would be Englaland (sic) or Daneland). Historical action with visceral battle scenes and lyrical writing. I love the whale's path, the long waves, the wind flecking the world with blown spray, the dip of a ship's prow into a swelling sea and the explosion of white and the spatter of saltwater on sail and timbers, and the green heart of a great sea rolling behind the ship, rearing up, threatening, the broken crest curling, and then the stern lifts to the surge and the hull lunges forward and the sea seethes along the strakes as the wave roars past. I love the birds skimming the grey water, the wind as friend and as enemy, the oars lifting and falling. I love the sea. I have lived long and I know the turbulence of life, the cares that weigh a man's soul and the sorrows that turn the hair white and the heart heavy, but all those are lifted along the whale's path. Only at sea is a man truly free. P.53 I have tried to explain this to women, though few have understood. Gisela did, as did Athelflaed, but most have looked at me as if I was something disgusting when I talked of the joy of battle. It is disgusting. It is wasteful. It is terrifying. It stinks. It makes misery. At battle's end there are dead friends and wounded men, and pain, and tears, and awful agony, and yet it is a joy. The Christians talk of a soul, though I have never seen, smelt, tasted or felt such a thing, but perhaps a soul is a man's spirit and in battle that spirit soars like a falcon in the wind. Battle takes a man to the edge of disaster, to a glimpse of the chaos that will end the world, and he must live in that chaos and on that edge and it is a joy. We weep and we exult. Sometimes when the nights draw in and the cold days are short, we bring entertainers to the hall. They sing, they do tricks, they dance, and some juggle. I have seen a man tossing five sharp swords in a swirling, dazzling display, and you think he must be cut by one of the heavy blades as it falls yet somehow he manages to snatch it from the air and the blade whirls upwards again. That is the edge of disaster. Do it right and you feel like a god, but get it wrong and it will be your guts trampled underfoot. P 289 Wendy

Book Review - Arena by Simon Scarrow and T.J. Andrews

Simon Scarrow has written very good sword and sandal epics in his own right but teams up here for a straight forward lot of biff with T. J. Andrews. Originally published as 5 ebook novellas, don't come here for subtlety or literary plotting. What you see is what you get, lots of fight action interspersed with a little political chicanery, a lot of fairly gross details on food, sanitary arrangements and some matter of fact understanding of what impact slavery and conquest had on Roman society. Terrific fun. Wendy

Book Review - Never Go Back by Lee Child

Once you are hooked by Jack Reacher, you are committed to needing the latest one as soon as possible. Reacher is intelligent and extremely competent at whatever he does, including beating up bad guys! He has Holmesian ability to immediately deduce background, intent and ability at one look . His planning of how to win a fight against greater numbers of men (its generally but not always exclusively men) has geometric precision. His ability to win is greatly enhanced by his understanding of human and particularly military behaviour. He mostly always gives the bad guys an opportunity to go away before he unleashes mayhem. Too bad most of them are too stupid or cocky to take it. An innate sense of justice and compassion for the vulnerable direct his actions. As an ex Military Policeman, Reacher is a loner who conveniently keeps finding battles to engage in – this time it involves losses from military supplies, or does it? They recently made a film from a Jack Reacher novel and cast Tom Cruise in it. I hope Lee Child got lots of money so he could look away. One of the things that makes the battle-scarred Reacher intimidating is his size . 'Both men looked more than six feet and two hundred pounds. Smaller than Reacher, but not by much.' I don't intend to see the movie. For me, Tom standing on a box just wouldn't cut it - although the library holds it in the DVD collection if you are interested - it's called Jack Reacher. Wendy

Book Review - Child of Vengeance by David Kirk

Set in pre-Shogunate Japan, where the samurai live with death and with honour in a brutal feudal society. A boy is abandoned by his samurai father and raised by his uncle, a monk. When his father returns, Bennosuke must either accept the way of the samurai or deny his birthright. Life is not really that simple however, as he learns. Musashi Benkei was a warrior of ancient legend, a huge man who wielded a staff like no other. The tale went that he held a bridge single-handedly in order for his Lord and his family to perform dignified seppuku [ritual suicide], slaying dozens of the enemy as they came at him. He died on his feet with his staff still in his hands, run through a score of times and riddled with arrows. Not one man had passed him, and both his, and his Lord's honour were assured. It was held as a paragon of a good death. Bennosuke wondered whether Musashi had ever hit a man until his skull burst open. But then, the slaughter was always so very clean in the old tales; evil men came to the hero, and then they were dead. …. Bennosuke looked upon the blood spattered on his kimono, and saw it had dried a dirty, muddy brown. From Shogun by James Clavell to The Tales of the Otori series by Lian Hearn, I have been drawn to tales of this period in Japanese history. The juxtaposition of profound thought, appreciation of beauty, physical and mental discipline, family loyalty & love, political chicanery and brutal violence can be very powerful. David Kirk adds lustre to the genre, although action predominates over philosophy. Wendy

Book Review - The Caspian Gates by Harry Sidebottom

The next installment of The Warrior of Rome story is packed full of battles, adventure and travel as Ballista and his familia experience an earthquake in Ephesus and then head for the Caucausus Mountains to rebuild the Caspian Gates, a barrier to hold the mountain passes against the marauding Alani barbarians. The author teaches classical history at Oxford University and is well versed in the period detail. More importantly, he tells a rollicking good yarn. His warriors are men who fight and kill and face death. They live with honour according to their various gods and customs. Ballista is a northerner of Germanic origin, taken as a hostage as a boy and now a veteran soldier of Rome, whose fate is unfortunately as often decided by the labyrinthine politics of the region as by his skill in fighting battles. The complicated Roman social and political structure is explained enough to let you concentrate on the fighting, the drinking and the sex, with the odd bit of philosophy thrown in. The meditations on being exiled are pertinent and thought provoking. A complete escape from the modern world and well worth a visit. Wendy

Book Review - 1356 by Bernard Cornwell

The English and the French are engaged in the Hundred Years War and the English are using their deadly weapon – the long bow- to good advantage. Cornwell hits the mark with another of his muscular historical novels. Mixing in a little religious mystique with full blown battles where you can almost smell the sweat and the blood, this one has an intriguing story amongst the grunt. You can feel the years of training and the strength it takes to wield the long bow. Training that must begin in youth and continue as adult stature is reached. Looking after your bow was one thing but a successful army also needs strategy, as well as supplies of arrows and food and all the logistical supports. The story races along, buoyed by meticulous attention to detail and crafted by a master storyteller. Wendy

Howdy Partner- A Westerns Booklist

Westerns remain a seriously popular genre of books in our library. People come up to the desk with six or seven westerns at a time and return them the next week- and do it all over again! We never seem to have enough to satisfy the westerner's taste. And it's no surprise- Westerns are a great mix of action and adventure, old hollywood style, fantastic energised landscapes and characters that mix both the outlandish and the familiar. Maybe these guys are onto something then- and so here's a list of new westerns available in our library.

The Sister's Brothers by Paul DeWitt
Dynamite Daze by Ethan Flagg
Long Ride to Yuma by Will Keen
Sharpshooter McClure by I.J. Parnham
Take Me to Texas by Ryan Bodie
The Branded Man by J. D. Ryder
To Die This Day by Clint Ryker
Rustler's Range by Billy Hall
Kansas Fast Gun by Arthur Kent
Border Fury by Corba Sunman

Digital Shelves: Action Adventure

Outback Adventure Reading List

Red earth, blue sky and the crisp crack of gunfire across the plains of the Australian heartland - authors have been sweeping tension, mystery and adventure throughout cities, towns, deserts, rainforests and more for over two thousand years. From the dreamtime stories of Aboriginal tribes to the latest Helene Young novel, Camden Council Library Services is petered with Australian gems (or should we say opals?) for your reading pleasure. Check out our picks below. Simply click the title to go to our catalogue entries and check availability.

1. Jirrabal: Rainforest Dreamtime stories by Maisie Barlow

2. Helene Young - Shattered Sky

3. Tomorrow When the War Began series by John Marsden

4. Tree of Man by Patrick White

5.Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay

Booklist: Top Action and Adventure Fiction

Are you an AA lover? Biting your fingers as you turn the page for the next surprise? Check out our new picks from new fiction for the Action addict. Just click the title to view our holdings or place a reservation






1. The Eden Legacy by Will Adams


2. The End of the Monsoon by John Lathrop


3. The Jungle by Clive Cusler


4. The Legion by Simon Scarrow


5. The Lion by Nelson Demille


6. The Lost Kings by Bruno Hare


7. Master of Rome by John Stack


8. The Sentry by Robert Crais


9. Sharp Turn by Marianne Delacourt


10. Tick, Tock by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge

action heroes!

Alex Rutherford continues a rich historical action adventure tradition with this fictionalised story of Babur, the Moghul emperor. The story begins with Babur inheriting his father's small kingdom in central Asia and follows him as he pursues his dream to emulate his ancestor Timur or Tamberlaine. Ranging through the countries of modern day Uzbekistan, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan and India, Babur's armies face many trials before achieving success. I don't think this reaches the standard set by other historical action writers such as Conn Iggulden or Bernard Cornwell but it is an insight into a very different time and different cultures and very enjoyable escapism.

Wendy

Fire and Sword

Book 3 in Simon Scarrow's epic story of Napoleon and Wellington is another absorbing story. You can feel the suffering of the troops as they march, counter march, deal with low rations and impatient generals. The generals have to deal with non-military imterference into what they know they can achieve. The characters of the two men are developing as they move towards their Waterloo. Napoleon is starting to give into his megalomania viewing all others as subordinate to his visions. Wellington had a much slower rise to much less power and was required to do much more with much fewer resources. The battles are detailed in vivid descriptions so that you can imagine being one of the great generals and trying to decide where and when to commit your last reserves.

Wendy

Azincourt

Bernard Cornwell's masterly recreation of the battle of Agincourt, including the campaign that led up to it is personalised by the focus on Nicholas Hook. Nick has been drawing a bow since he was seven years old, building strength and skill.

"Hook had learned the whispering release that let the string slip through his fingers, which hardened into leather pads. and as he drew and released, drew and released, year after year, the muscles of his back, his chest and his arms grew massive. This was one requirement, the huge muscles needed to draw the bow, while the other, which was harder to acquire, was to forget the eye.
When he first started as a boy, Hook would draw the cord to his cheek and sight down the arrow's length to aim, but that cheated the bow of its full power. If a bodkin was to shear through plate armour it needed all the power of the yew and that meant drawing the cord to the ear, and then the arrow slanted across the eye, and it had taken Hook years to learn how to think the arrow to the target. He could not explain it, but no archer could. He only knew that when he drew the cord he looked at the target and the arrow flew there because he wanted it to, not because he had lined eye, arrow and target.
That was why the French had no archers other than a few huntsmen, because they had no men who had spent years learning to make a length of yew and a cord of hemp become part of themselves." ....... from page 134

War in 1415 is brutal and bloody so this book is not for the squeamish. Cornwell's gift for re-telling famous battles and military campaigns evidenced in his works on Wellington (the Sharpe Series) and the American Civil War (the Starbuck Chronicles) is in full flight here. 6,000 Englishmen (including a few Welshmen) beat a French army of 30,000 helped by the weather and the English longbow.

Interestingly, as an aside in his historical note at the end of the book, Cornwell theorises that as the French had threatened to cut off two fingers from the archers' hands to prevent them drawing the bow, that the English made rude gestures with those fingers at the French after they won the battle. Thus the origin of the infamous two fingered salute!

I love Cornwell's masterly evocation of the few men and women he focuses on to tell the story, his commmand of the details of daily life & military training and of course his strong, though flawed, heroes. Visit the author's website for more info on his works http://www.bernardcornwell.net/

Wendy