I finished my current book “Swimsuit” by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro. It was good. A good summer beach/pool read, which is exactly where I finished it today – poolside. Not a literary classic but as long as I’m entertained and stay interested, I’m happy. That’s what summer reading is.
Some of it took place on Maui. Sigh….a favorite vacation destination (well, that I’ve been to anyway.) When I think “vacation” I envision Maui. I haven’t been for a few years and desperately want to go back.
In the book, it’s the site of violent rapes and murders. That’s definitely not so good. Yet somehow even with that as the background, as the writers described the lanais and the tropical breeze, hotels and beaches, I was happily imagining Maui, not a crime scene!
The book takes quite a few twists and turns, some predictable and some not. If you like Patterson’s style of writing, then you will at least moderately enjoy this book. Even though he likely wrote very little of it, it’s got his signature. It’s fairly graphically violent though.
Next up! I just downloaded Bret Easton Ellis’ new one “Imperial Bedrooms” – the sequel to “Less Than Zero”. That’s the only book of his (or movie) that I have read/seen. I refused to read or see “American Psycho” but we’ll see how this one is. I liked Less Than Zero – both book and movie (actually preferred the movie as I think the soundtrack and the hazy shade of filming added to the story (as did the Bangles’ Hazy Shade of Winter :) ) Plus I think Robert Downey Jr. and James Spader were outstanding in that movie, as they always are.
And it seems RDJ graduated from being Julian to a more healthy lifestyle in real life – I’m happy to see that as I do believe he is a real talent (see Chaplin) even if a bit cuckoo…
11:45 am on July 19th, 2010
See – I thought the direct opposite – the book was good, but the movie was weak – mostly because of Andrew McCarthy – totally miscast and since he was the central character made it suck. I agree that Spader and Downey were good in their roles as well as Jamie Gertz (WTF happened to her???)
Anyway, the soundtrack is great and I still have it in the regular rotation (loser).
12:21 pm on July 19th, 2010
I guess since I saw the movie first, those were the characters in my head. And I clearly do NOT recall Clay being as F’ed up as he is in this latest book. Yes, the casting of Andrew McCarthy clearly toned Clay way down but wow – the Clay in this book is a complete soulless prick (bad word!) – imo. I think I need to go back and re-read Less Than Zero.
I last saw Jamie on some standard formula sitcom where she is the cuter wife to the overweight, regular blue collar but funny and nice guy. I want to say ABC’s answer to the King of Queens. But I never saw the show, just remember noticing her in the ads. Don’t know if it’s still even on. Kinda far from the Lost Boy loving, LA drug and party queen she was in the 80s :)