The Last Act

 The Book

At 140 pages, Philip Roth's novel is a short and quick read, but it covers a lot of ground. It does this by skipping chunks of time, with details mentioned briefly, but with a focus on pivotal conversations and moments that have a real bearing. There is very little to no description provided to set scenes and the reader fills in the blanks.

Simon Axler is an actor in his fifties who has done film, TV and lots of theatre work. He has a crisis of self-belief in his ability and can no longer perform, bringing him close to suicide in his depression. He spends time in a psychiatric institution and befriends a woman whose reason for being there is shocking. This is the storyline you want to be explored and developed, but instead we have Pegeen Mike, a young lesbian daughter of former stage actor friends, who is wanting to lay low after splitting from a passionate affair with a female university dean.

Stonehearst Asylum

The Book

The short story that the film is based on goes by the bizarre title of The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether (referring to a severe form of humiliation meted out to people who deserved punishment - being brushed in hot tar and then coated with feathers). It is the original tale from which all other versions stem whereby the lunatics have taken over the asylum.
The tale is told in the first person by a gentleman who, while travelling in France, makes a visit to a private mad-house as he has heard great things about their methods of treatment. A friend introduces him to the superintendent, Monsieur Maillard, who welcomes him and invites him to dine with six other guests. The behaviour of the guests becomes increasingly eccentric, but the gentleman is uncertain whether it is the peculiarity of the Europeans (and doesn't want to make a social faux pas) or that he is dining with lunatics.
The end of their meal is interrupted when a group of freakish apes crash into the room and a fight ensues. The real guards and doctors of the asylum had been locked in the basement, tarred and feathered. One had escaped, released the others and they had now successfully recaptured the mad-house.

Men, women & children

The Book

Chad Kultgen's novel focuses on the way the internet, social media and texting has altered relationships - familial, friends and partners. None of it in a good way. Fathers and mothers start extra-marital affairs with ease via dating and sex websites; friends are developed online but with no context or meaning; partners express their love and urges to each other via text but find it difficult to talk to each other when face to face. Because of this whole new world of communication, people have lost the art of telling people how they really feel except online where no-one can see them or interact in an emotional way. This is cleverly conveyed by all the real life conversations carried out with the word "said" - there is no adjective that conveys emotion and lets you or the other characters know how they are feeling. Its easier to text about sex than talk face to face about it - there is no embarrassment and talking dirty can be less restrained or awkward.

Child 44

The Book

44 children have been brutally murdered - found naked with their stomachs removed and mouths stuffed with ground bark.

The true enemy in Tom Rob Smith's novel set in Stalinist Russia, however, is the state system and its ideological viewpoint. Having read George Orwell's 1984, the nightmarish scenario "Imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever" was one I was familiar with but wasn't aware how much was history.
The reason a killer has been allowed to get away with so many murders is because the state does not recognise crimes like murder - that is a capitalist weakness. As everyone is happy and content in Russia, there should be no need for crime. Each murder is treated as an isolated incident with no co-ordination and a convenient person who is not the ideal Stalinist citizen is rounded up, tortured until they confess and then executed.

 Leo Demidov is an MGB State Security Officer who has carried out these practices for years in return for advancement and security, but when a scheming, jealous partner incriminates Leo's wife as a spy, he is demoted and sent to a remote outpost for not agreeing (and thereby going against the State).
With nothing to lose, disillusioned Leo starts to investigate the true serial killer, but its difficult to get evidence when fear of the State is greater than fear of a murderer.
The final confrontation between Leo and the killer is rather a subdued affair following the thrill of the chase and a massive plot reveal, but everything is tied up nicely.
If you intend to read the book, don't read any further as I am going to reveal the twist...

Seventh Son

The Book

.. or books, as the Seventh Son is the title covering the first two separately published books in the Spook series by Joseph Delaney - Spook's Apprentice and Spook's Curse. Delaney's books are set in a fictional County in medieval England, but taking inspiration from real places in Lancashire, where he lives. There is a definite Northern feel, with characters walking over fells and saying Aye a lot, which immediately sets alarm bells ringing with me about the adaptation, looking at the cover of the book (the film poster) which has Jeff Bridges as the Spook and Julianne Moore as a pale red head (I am guessing a witch).


Tom Ward starts learning to be the Spook's Apprentice and leaves his family to be taught in the ways of imprisoning boggarts, witches and ghosts.


The first book focuses on this initial training and Tom's gradual introduction to Alice, a young girl with pointy shoes, who persuades him to help Mother Malkin, an old crone of a witch to escape her imprisonment by the Spook. Realising his error, he tries to kill the newly risen witch and she becomes wick - a shapeless form that can take over the body of another. The finale is set for a great showdown where the reader is looking for clues as to who out of Tom's friends and family might be the witch in disguise.