May 21, 2013Book Reviews

Anatomy of a Night by Anna Kim

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Anatomy_Of_A_Night ★★★½☆
Anatomy of a Night
A Novel by Anna Kim
Translated from the German by Bradley Schmidt
(2012) 2013 / 303 Pages

Located in Eastern Greenland, the poor, tiny Inuit village known as Amarâq is about to bear witness to the suicides of eleven of its inhabitants over the course of a single night.  Are these events tragic? Are they senseless?   Or are they shockingly considered part of the normal experience of living in this land of harsh, unforgiving conditions?

Anatomy of a Night is a novel told both in real time and through flashback sequences that highlight the interconnected stories of each of these suicidal individuals.  Author Anna Kim has a devastating command over language, but not in the way in which you would immediately expect.  Reading this novel one isn’t instantly filled with sorrow for the plight of these indigenous people.  She doesn’t attempt to manipulate you into sympathizing with their daily struggles.  Instead, Kim offers up a portrait of a society that chooses to see things a different way, one that readily embraces suicide as a reasonable first response when faced with crisis:

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May 20, 2013Book Reviews

The Other Typist by Suzanne Rindell

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The_Other_Typist ★★½☆☆
The Other Typist
A Novel by Suzanne Rindell
2013 / 368 Pages

Blame F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.  Because of its recent resurgence by way of a blockbuster Hollywood adaptation you may just find yourself jonesing for another fix from 1920s prohibition America.  In theory this one does contains all the elements you crave: a big city setting, some strong sexual tension, adventures in blind tigers, and a healthy dose of strange, alluring women.  The reality however, is that for all of its potential, the story never quite rises beyond the cursory.

Told in first-person through the eyes of Rose Baker, a young stenographer charged with witnessing and documenting the confessions of some of the New York City’s most hardened criminals, The Other Typist is content to draw sketches, rather than paint portraits, of the time period and locations in which it operates.  Reading the novel, one never truly feels the tension of being in a windowless police interrogation room with a murder suspect.   They never experience any of the danger inherent with frequenting a speakeasy.  In fact, there’s very little offered by way of intensity or excitement for the bulk of the tale.

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May 19, 2013News

Verisimilitudes: Week Ending 05.18.2013

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Typographical_EraWelcome to Verisimilitudes, our regular round-up of the past week’s activity. It’s your one-stop source for all of the bits and bleeps we’ve been posting here and on social platforms.

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May 19, 2013Television

The Killing: Who Killed Rosie Larsen?: Our Theory

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The_KillingWe’re baaaack! With AMC’s recent announcement that they’ve rescued The Killing from the land of the cancelled and have decided to push ahead with shooting a brand new third season, we thought it only fair that we should rescue these old posts from our archives as well.

Over the next few weeks we’ll try to get them all back into circulation. They start off slow, but three or four weeks into it, you’ll see that we get uber obsessed and start jotting down all of the details from both versions, detective style.

 

The following is a peek back at our original guess at how we thought the murder mystery would resolve.  We got the Aunt Terry part right, but we thought it had more to do with Rosie’s beloved butterflies.  All things considered, we still like our ending better.

With just three more episodes to go we’ve reviewed the case files and we’ve come to a conclusion: Terry Marek is ultimately the one responsible for Rosie Larsen’s murder. Read on to absorb our full theory and let us know what you think.

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May 18, 2013Television

The Killing: Season Two: Week Nine

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The_KillingWe’re baaaack! With AMC’s recent announcement that they’ve rescued The Killing from the land of the cancelled and have decided to push ahead with shooting a brand new third season, we thought it only fair that we should rescue these old posts from our archives as well.

Over the next few weeks we’ll try to get them all back into circulation. They start off slow, but three or four weeks into it, you’ll see that we get uber obsessed and start jotting down all of the details from both versions, detective style.

This week on AMC’s The Killing: Linden spends the entire episode in a psych ward talking about her feelings while Holder sniffs out a break in the case, Gwen and Jamie act annoying, Tommy and Denny get a dog, and Terry and Stan make up, but not out.  It wasn’t the worst episode of the series, but it sure was tedious and chock full of useless information about Linden’s past.  Read on to absorb our impressions of episode ten.

Remember to comment away below.

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