Every 14 Days...(15)

Clockers (Richard Price)

‘Clockers’, the 1995 Spike Lee film, is one I have not seen for a while. The book of the same name pre-dating it by 3 years is written by Richard Price, a regular contributing writer on ‘The Wire’. Since I have a liking for both, I decided to take it for a spin, a rather long spin.

Split in two halves, alternate chapters focus on ageing homicide detective, Rocco Klein, and drug dealing lieutenant, Strike. After being given the duty himself, Strike discusses with his estranged brother that a local restaurant manager and low-level drug dealer has ‘got to be got.’ But before Strike can fully whimper out of his murderous responsibility, he is shocked to find that the deed has already been done and that his brother has turned himself in.

Put on the case, Rocco finds himself at odds to explain why a decent, hard-working man would hand himself in over the murder. Believing his brother Strike has to be involved somehow, Rocco presses hard to put the young clocker under pressure to take responsibility for the murder and clean his brother’s name.

The bold David Simon quote on the front cover reads ‘The Wire wouldn’t exist without Clockers’ and is one that can be taken as true. Written at a similar time to Simon’s books, it has a similar vein running throughout, focusing on individuals and building up their character and traits slowly. Many ideas, themes and characters from this book feature in ‘The Wire’, which Price would later write on.

It’s a long read and an intense one, focusing largely on the two main characters, but is well written, engrossing and asks some interesting questions about what would drive a man to kill.

Days to read: 26

Days per book: 14.5

The Box Lady and Other Pesticles (Richard Herring)

Following on from where ‘Bye Bye Balham’ left off, this is the second instalment of paper publishing of the second longest online blog in the world.

Looking back at himself a decade down the line, he sees himself starting to set-up his new life in Shepherd’s Bush following having said ‘bye bye’ top Balham. It’s more of the same, showing regret and shame at some of his previous actions as an older, wiser and now married man.

Being that this blog has now made its mark on Mr Herring’s ‘Warming Up’ blog, I can’t wait to see my name in print in 20 years or so time.

Days to read: 15

Days per book: 14.6

Mao: The Unknown Story (Jung Chang and Jon Halliday)

Back in August, 2008, I bought and started to read ‘Mao: The Unknown Story’. But by September, only just over one hundred pages in, I got bored and chose to start something else instead. Ever since, the seemingly never-ending book has remained on floor piles or shelves in the various accommodation I have since inhabited. But, seeing as everything else on my bookshelves had already been read, I thought it about time that I finally finished the bastard.

At some 765 pages, if you remove all the appendices and index, and small print, this is a long old book. Upon starting it, I whizzed through the first hundred pages again on train journeys, but beyond that, found the book to be slow and plodding. The book starts off at a pace you feel you can keep up with, but when getting to The Long March, you feel like you might have actually been part of it, as it seems to read in a ‘and then this happened’ manner. Motivation to keep going, therefore, soon started to decrease.

Reading ‘Mao: The Unknown Story’ is a bit of an ordeal, struggling through a long-winded book, feeling less motivated and as if you aren’t intelligent enough to care about some thing that happened loads of years ago.

The book, however, does not always sit amazingly well with me. While a history book – looking into ‘facts’ – it feels written in a story-like manner, as if first-hand experience. While all sources, etc. are cited at the back of the book, they are not always linked to the text, and the little inflictions and adding of ‘our italics’ seem more like the authors painting the picture they want you to believe, rather than leaving you to conclude your own opinions based on evidence.

Much of the book is undoubtedly true and it uncovers some previously unknown information, but with the style in which it is written and the negative attitude towards the subject from the outset, it feels less an academic text, and more a biased television documentary. This is a book that will divide opinion, but one thing that is for certain is that this is not the most comfortable read.

Days to read: 91

Days per book: 16

Every 14 Days...(11)

Round Ireland with a Fridge (Tony Hawks)

There have been a lot of books based on drunken bets in recent years, many getting to the point of needless stupidity in order to create an excuse to write a book about their ‘journey’. ‘Are you Dave Gorman?’ by Dave Gorman and Danny Wallace is a book I have read previously and is one of the earlier ‘drunken bet’ books to come about. But preceding that was Tony Hawks’ (of the non-skateboarding variety) ‘Round Ireland with a Fridge’: an account of his circumnavigating Ireland with a refrigeration unit after seeing a man hitchhiking in such a way and wondering if it would be possible to achieve.

This is all very well and stupid. What follows is a witty and dry account, naturally with the non-skateboarder, though disappointingly he received a great deal of media coverage during his journey and as such often found it easy to find a free ride, free alcohol and free accommodation. This turns the journey more into a drunken tour round the pubs of Ireland – a book I’m sure has been written many times before.

Though while the journey may have been made easier for him, doesn’t mean it isn’t eventful and entertaining. Travelling alone (not even with a fridge) while reading made it an appropriate read and served as a minor travelling companion. Though I’m sure many have travelled round Asia with a book before me. Funny enough, it justifies the £100 bet it was originally born from. He may be no skateboarder, but has written a certainly cool book.

Days to read: 5

Days per book: 14.1

Coin Locker Babies (Murakami Ryu)

This book took a long time to get going. Over the first few days of reading, I had barely turned any pages, finding it clunky and difficult to get into. To start, there are lots of jumps in the timeline with constant moving forward in time, seeming like a new story starting every ten pages. This allows for plot holes to become apparent and little real affinity with the lead characters. When the two titular coin locker babies reach the age of 17, the book becomes more linear and the characters start to take greater shape, which was necessary if I was to keep going.

So continues my reading of what I’ve so far found to be the inconsistent Murakami Ryu. An improvement on ‘Almost Transparent Blue’, being that it has a story, it’s a bumpy read that has intriguing enough a story but asks too much of the imagination of the reader to fully grasp the motivations of the two leads, and is ultimately a little anticlimactic.

The writing style doesn’t make things any easier, though I would blame this more on the translation than the author himself. Use of slang seems like a cry to gain more street cred, but often feels inappropriate in the context. In looking at his girlfriend, Kiku dreams of her ‘armpits’, her ‘breasts’ and her ‘cunt’, as any young man would.

An overambitious piece, while it has its moments, it falls short in too many areas, furthering my opinions of Murakami as an inconsistent writer.

Days to read: 12

Days per book: 14

The Corner (David Simon and Ed Burns)

Having read ‘Homicide…’ after the joys of discovering ‘The Wire’ at last, I followed it up with David Simon’s sequel, ‘The Corner’, written with former homicide detective, Ed Burns. Like the non-fiction work about the Baltimore Homicide Department, ‘The Corner’ is the record of a year spent following the lives of those involved in Baltimore’s drugs wars; this time from the perspective of the dealers and addicts.

Focusing on one family, the McCullough’s, it’s the real-life account of twelve months in their, and the streets, lives. Again, it has a docu-drama feel: part description of events that unfolded; part account of the wider issues at hand in America’s cities.

With some minor overlap with ‘Homicide…’, it is clear to see how the real-life personalities charted here became the characters of the television series: with father Gary McCullough becoming addict and copper-fiend Bubbles and young dealer DeAndre McCullough part-D’Angelo Barksdale, part-Namond Brice. Indeed, some of those featured did themselves have some role or other in the making of ‘The Wire’, as art imitates life.

Again, it’s a long and detailed read, with numerous people covered extensively, though does show how much time and effort was put in to the research that would eventually become ‘The Wire’: a show two decades in the making.  

Days to read: 22

Days per book: 14.2

I've Never Seen The Wire

‘Now, normally when you see a special about jail, it’s on regular TV and there’s a lot of shit they don’t show. Oh, not the HBO jail specials...’ Chris Rock

Let’s say someone tells you they’ve just seen the greatest film of all time, and then that film turns out to be ‘Top Secret’ starring Val Kilmer. Whether or not you actually like the film, you will always walk away disappointed by the fact that you have not seen the greatest film ever made, despite Val Kilmer’s performance.

The audacity of hype often makes seeing something irrelevant, as however good someone says something is, the reality will get nowhere near to touching the excitement that your imagination will create. ‘The Hunger Games’ is not going to be the ‘film event of 2012’; it’s going to be shit.

I often found myself watching HBO’s ‘Oz’ late night on Channel 4 in the late 90s, when the channel was still reasonable. So, when mutterings among friends mentioned ‘The Wire’, a show that features many similar cast members as ‘Oz’, I could see myself believing that it might actually be ‘one of the greatest TV shows ever made.’

But, having never actually seen it for myself, I left it at that; what I can’t see, can’t entertain me. But as the name came up more and more, I decided that it probably would disappoint, never having heard a bad word said against it. I didn’t need to see it. I can sit comfortably knowing that it is one of the greatest television shows ever made without ever having seen it, much like how Christians treat their relationship to ‘Jerry Springer: The Opera.’

But maybe I should.

So, waiting for an adequate moment – say, quitting my job – to sit back to watch 60 episodes worth, I proceeded to borrow the box set and let the inevitable disappointment enrapture me.

I was soon disappointed to discover I had not been disappointed. Probably the first time since I first saw the whole first series of ‘Peep Show’, I actually wanted to watch as much as possible, putting off silly chores such as sleep to get through the first few episodes of the first season. A lot has been said about ‘The Wire’ being more novel than television show, and that is exactly how it works: every second has to be taken into fully understand what is going on and follow the many characters and each of their individual storylines.

With so much detail put into even the smallest regular characters, each is realistic, with charm, flaws, personal problems and an inability to speak clearly. Also, the fact that main characters can go missing for a few episodes if not relevant to the main storyline gives it an edge over many shows which serve more as a vehicle for overpaid celebrity. The cast, as well as the viewers, are in this for the long haul.

The creators/writers and many cast members having actually been part of homicide in Baltimore also adds to the realism, with former child murderer Felicia Pearson playing a hit-woman and Method Man playing a man with an actual Wu-Tang Clan tattoo, as well as Brits playing various degrees of convincing Maryland accents.

Much can be said about the level of depth, the multi-layered storylines, the social comment, the believable characters, the focusing on every aspect of crime, and I’m sure many others can do it better than me. But, with the understated nature of much of what takes place, for once you feel you are watching a television show that is about telling a story.

I easily missed ‘The Wire’; it being shown on random channel FX and at a not-exactly-noticeable-time on BBC Two, but perhaps that’s a good thing. There was not as much publicity that I’m aware of as doled out for other hour-long US drama series; the hype came more from people that had seen it and liked it (and not just on Facebook), with claims of it being ‘the greatest’ coming after people had seen it, rather than before.