Recent short reviews by Theric Jepson, which he publishes on his Thubstack.
The Love Map: Saving Your Love Relationship and Incidentally Saving the World, by Carol Lynn Pearson. Novel.
The Love Map is of that tradition that are technically novels but are just as likely to be shelved by your local library in nonfiction, perhaps under philosophy or self-help, alongside books like Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance or The Greatest Salesman in the World. When Carol Lynn sent me a copy, that’s how she pitched it, as “a very intriguing look at love. Short. Fiction. True—like Jonathan Livingston Seagull is true.”
It’s one of those books that can be dull if it’s not the right moment for you to read it. But if it does happen to be the exact right moment for you to read this book, it’ll be the exact right moment for you to read this book.
In brief, it is the story of a marriage on the rocks. One of these sad people goes on a mystical journey with her “Self with a capital S.” The self keeps the name Joanna and gives her Self the name Sylvia, who then takes her along seven steps through the Four Kingdoms: Survival, Joyous Sexuality, Blast Furnace, Through the Eyes of God. Along the way, Joanna—like all of us—will save the world.
I’m glad I read it when I did! It’ll make a nice addition to a little project I’m working on….
My Wife Wants You to Know I’m Happily Married by Joey Franklin
WWJD (2022). Film, directed by Bianca Dillard and Davey Morrison. Written by Anna Lewis and Davey Morrison.
I paid fifty bucks for this dvd/bluray combo ten years ago to help pay for production (look for my “name” in the credits) (and, yes, ten years is a long time). IMDb estimates the budget at 5K; I haven’t asked Davey if this is accurate, but I can believe it. There are a few issues with (especially) the sound mix, for instance, but the film is great. Really. I highly recommend it. You can stream it for much cheaper than I paid.
I read the original play nearly fifteen years ago (I don’t remember the exact date and, best I can tell, I didn’t track it under my listed readings) but I thought it was great then. The movie isn’t the play in smart ways. For instance, instead of on-stage doppelgangers, they make use of old film, and it works great. It had been long enough since I read the play, that I really did not know where the movie was going, but it’s a satisfactory ride.
Incidentally, I recommend reading the linked-to pdf not just for the play written by Anna Lewis (movie) / Anna Christina Kohler Lewis (thesis) but also for the scholarly things she says afterwards about her play. Interesting stuff.
My Wife Wants You to Know I’m Happily Married by Joey Franklin. Personal essay collection.
My general experience with personal essayists is similar to Lemony Snicket’s with poets (scroll down to where he’s talking about Campbell McGrath). I rarely finish single-author collections, that is to say, unless I own them and spend years reading them. So. Doesn’t happen a lot.
But I’ve been wanting to read this one for a while and when I discovered that my library had it, well!
I’ve read Joey before (but none of these essays) and each of these essays on its own is an excellent piece of work. But read altogether, well, you say motif, I say this again? But that’s my bad attitude. And I was able to tamp it down every time it arose and that meant I kept being delighted.
Essays on kissing and cockroaches and the name Joey and hyperbole. The sort of polymathic everyday eclecticism you expect from the modern creative-nonfiction professor. Fun stuff to read.
But better read over a coupla years.
CRYO (2022). Film, directed by Barrett Burgin, written by Burgin and Mason D. Davis.
Just assume a lotta SPOILER WARNINGs in this review, mkay?
I’ve been meaning to watch this since before Barrett Burgin argued even harder for my probably liking it. And now I finally have.
Funny thing, my heightened expectations worked against the film at first. I so smugly assumed that I understood how things were unrolling that I was disappointed with some clunky moments. But then, as the film was ending, it did not end. I had days to go, in fact. And slowly I came to realize that I had fallen for the lies of the adversary.
The teeny budget of this film does not show in the sets or props or camerawork. And the actors are skilled, but the budget does reveal itself a few times in some lines that could have used a few more takes. But even with that caveat, I feel no need to complain.
Unless it’s at myself I really wish I had watched CRYO before recording the latest episode of Face in Hat (look for 5.4 which has not yet posted as I post this). At least I watched it before the next issue of Irreantum hits! It’s not too late to watch it yourself! Irreantum won’t drop till the end of December (watch for 19.4)!
The Darkest Abyss: Strange Mormon Stories by William Morris.