Book Review: I Like to Watch: Arguing My Way Through the TV Revolution

(Bought at the Strand Book Store for $10): Pulitzer Prize winning critic Emily Nussbaum's collection of reviews and profiles from the New Yorker forms a fascinating history of the evolution of TV in the early 21st century. From the rise of cable to the current state of streaming, Nussbaum digs deep into the meaning of such cult and pop hits as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Americans, Law and Order: SVU, Jane the Virgin, and many others. Her take on David Chase's love-hate relationship with his audience in The Sopranos brings up several interesting points like the moral ambiguity of Dr. Melfi helping Tony not to be a better man but a more efficient gangster. She says Chase makes us love Tony but then makes us hate ourselves for loving him and watching him every week.  I haven't watched ALL of these shows, but Nussbaum makes me want to. 

Her extended profiles of prolific show-runners Kenya Barris (black-ish), Jenji Kohan (Weeds, Orange Is the New Black) and Ryan Murphy (Glee, Pose, Feud, etc.) offer a glimpse into the shifting power struggle in entertainment as these black, female and gay voices become more powerful. There are also views of the past with ruminations on Norman Lear, Joan Rivers, and Sex and the City.

Nussbaum recently was reassigned to cover theater for the New Yorker and I'm looking forward to her perspectives.

Book Review: Sucker's Portfolio

(Downloaded on my Kindle for $2.99) As far as I can tell, this is the last of the Vonnegut fiction collections I have't read yet. I recently caught up with all his previously uncollected and unpublished works. I read Welcome to the Monkey House, his first published collection, in high school and should probably read that one again since I will understand it better. Sucker's Portfolio started as a Kindle Serial with each story--and an essay--dropped one at a time. Now as a collection, it also includes an unfinished sci-fi story, Robotville and Mr. Caslow which just ends abruptly in the middle of a scene.

I enjoyed Paris, France the most. This one did not touch on the usual Vonnegut dark subjects of war, outer space, etc. but focuses on relationships as three diverse couple share a train compartment on the way to and back from a vacation in the titular City of Light. Appearances are deceiving as each turns out to be totally different than what we expect from their initial descriptions.

Miss Snow, You're Fired also had some insightful characterization as a beautiful secretary enflames passions in a huge corporation, the site of many other Vonnegut stories.

Book Review: Chess

Also known as The Royal Game. Bought at the Museum Shop at the Agora in Izmir, Turkey for 59 Turkish Lire or about $2 US. Stefan Zweig's compact novella (80 pages) pits a savant chess master against an Austrian refugee who studied the game obsessively while being held prisoner by the Nazis. Zweig was also an escapee from the Third Reich and committed suicide with his wife in 1942 after they had emigrated to Brazil. The heart of the piece is Dr. B.'s description of his captivity and how he managed to outlast the Nazi interrogators by focusing on chess. He plays against Czentovic, an oafish tradesman's son who happens to be a natural chess master. Zweig examines how obsessions can save us, but also harm us. Dr. B and Czentovic meet on a ship and are drawn into a game by curious fellow passengers. The former is driven nearly mad with the desire to win and his mania nearly destroys him. Compelling and impactful, like a short, sharp shock (to paraphrase WS Gilbert).