Brookswords

The Girl Who Played With Fire

Just finished The Girl Who Played With Fire, which had me as transfixed as its predecessor, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. The 'girl', Lisbeth Salander, is one of the most unusual & unpredictable protagonists I've ever come across. It will be quite a challenge for the actress just chosen to play her in the Hollywood version, Rooney Mara. In the weeks before the choice to play Salander was announced, there was quite a frenzy in Hollywood -- comparable to the protracted Scarlett O'Hara search which eventually handed stardom on a silver platter to Vivien Leigh. I like the fact that Mara, a virtual unknown, was chosen over big names like Scarlet Johansson -- said at one point to be a shoo-in for the role -- Ellen Page and Natalie Portman. And I also like the fact that, like me, she has a last name for a first name.

Echo Park

My neighborhood has been getting a lot of attention lately.  First, there was the film 'Quinceanera', an incisive look at gentrification and cross-cultural issues.   There are so many
picturesque shots of Echo Park in the film, it seems at times like a travelogue-- which might encourage even more gentrification!  D'ooh!

Then there was the news that Jennifer Lopez will be producing a new TV comedy called Echo Park--perhaps influenced by 'Quinceanera', it will focus on cross-cultural issues, but this time for laughs.

Finally, Michel Connelly's 'Echo Park' has just been released.  Connelly is my current fav among mystery writers--and he lives up to my expectations, at least in the following excerpt, where he describes Sunset Boulevard in Echo Park, which my apartment overlooks:

“By day a walk down the main drag of Sunset Boulevard might require skills in five or more languages to read all of the storefronts. By night it was the only place in the city where the air could be split by the sound of gang gunfire, the cheer for a home-run ball, and the baying of the hillside coyotes — all in the same hour.”

The cheering sounds for home-run balls come from Dodger Stadium, within walking distance of my place.  My son saw a coyote here one night--and, just a few days ago, a raccoon on my porch scrambled away when I got home late.  It was as surprised & scared to see me as I was of it;  had we been able to communicate, I'm sure we'd have given each other heartfelt apologies.