Randall L. Wilson

Quick & Dirty, July 14 2004

When I travel I like to read the historic markers and understand the significance of what I am seeing. If I don't have a clue about the context ("the what dynasty was when?") I tend to feel lost and frustrated. Typically, I don't have the time in the weeks before my trip to digest an eight volume history of a country but would like a high level view of the important people, periods and events in the country's history. "A Traveller's History France" perfectly fit that bill.

Some of the features I liked are a list of all the French kings and their linneage, a timeline with all the relevant events and an alphabetical list of major events and battles. The writing is lucid, succinct as… Read more

Art for Art's Sake Indeed, July 9 2004

Smoke billows from a Seine river steamship, flags flap in a spring breeze, a young man catches a glimpse of the woman that will serve as a life long romantic love. These images float across the opening pages of "Sentimental Education," Gustave Flaubert's portrait of mid-19th century Paris society.

I'd read this book in college and when I recently slogged through the horrific "Da Vinci Code" I decided to reward myself by re-reading "Sentimental Education," a novel that evokes the spirit of an age, etches a portrait of a culture and delves into the heart of human fraility and grandeur.

Twenty years ago I was intoxicated by this book, believing it to be the perfect novel, populated with… Read more

Surprisingly Fresh, May 25 2004

I'd never seen an Andy Hardy film but I'd read that they reflected L.B. Mayer's delusional vision of American, full of sanctimonious lectures about the virtues of clean, small town living. But if "Love finds Andy Hardy" is typical of the series, then this view is both harsh and narrow. Yes, this is a story about a very white, very Christian small town but there aren't many lectures and the story is simple and unpretentious which allows the actors to develop their characters. The film suggest a way of living that allows for disagreement, sibling rivalry, unrequited love but doesn't transform any of that into pathos or moral tales. Instead, scenes unfold naturally and easily with a… Read more