Dead Man's Party - 01/12/2007

Anyone see the movie "Donnie Darko?" It is a.... psychological? .... Sci-Fi.....what is it? movie about a disturbed young man. He's schizophrenic and sees a 6 foot tall frightening bunny....most definitely not "Harvey," but Frank, whose voice he hears during the day and who gives him a verbal portent of doom to come in like 26 days. This movie is existential, it's not rational. HE is not rational, yet things click into place in the end in an eerie culmination that keeps you thinking long after it is over. Jake Gyllenhal plays a convincing sad, confused oftentimes disturbed Donnie with the apropos last name. He lives and sees things in a level of reality that others can't see and his "visions" that others think are the babbling of an insane person reveal themselves to be true, but only to the audience. The ending took me a second to understand; the portal, the engine, the book the lady wrote, the second reality. It was dark, I was sad, and it was good. If you want a movie that will make you think, rent Donnie Darko.

On the literary front, I checked out "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold. This was a recommendation from my pal Wendy. It was one of her book club books. Side note: I would LOVE to join a book club. She's in Minnesota, so no joining hers. I can't though, with David and my work situation.

Back to Ms. Sebold's book. I got it Thursday during my lunch break. I came home at 5:30-ish and started dinner. I bathed Isabel, and did other things, as I started to read bits and pieces throughout the night. At 11:30 p.m., when I stopped reading, I had gone through 261 pages.
The story is told by a 14 year old girl who has just been murdered. She is in heaven looking down on her parents, siblings, her friends, her town, her murderer. She is watching life unfold after she is gone. It is heart-wrenching. My heart actually ached while reading this; my eyes teared up at some points. It's the struggle of this girl; the struggle of this poor family, dealing with their loss individually, rather than as a whole. It's the breaking of some relationships, and the strengthening of others. I was extremely melancholy when I went to bed. Wendy told me to take heart; the ending is great. I have less than 100 pages to go, but I want to wait until Isabel is in bed before I give this book my full attention.