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Art and Life: A Year in Review

It’s fun checking the “best of” lists that come out this time of year. Did my favorite books make the list? Movies? Museum shows? Plays? Restaurants?

Yes and no.

Let’s start with books. On everyone’s list is Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch, and it’s on mine, too — an oversized, engaging read — but there’s another New York orphan whose story enchanted me. Cathleen Schine’s Fin & Lady pairs an 11-year-old boy with his achingly beautiful and overly fun 24-year-old half sister in 1964 Greenwich Village. They become a family, of sorts — until Lady leaves Fin and her many suitors for Capri.

Another New York tale I fell for was David Gilbert’s & Sons. At the end of his days, a celebrated writer and his teenage namesake are united with their estranged family: grown sons, a caring ex-wife. I didn’t want this read to end: these are worldly characters caught in outrageous situations.

Finally, a shout out for Robert Stone’s Death of the Black-Haired Girl. Yes, that Robert Stone. At 76, his first thriller. Perfect.

My favorite museum show of the year — and I traveled to Rome, Florence, Montreal — was (and still is) in Chicago, at the Art Institute of Chicago. Art and Appetite: American Painting, Culture and Cuisine, through January 27. It was a joy to move through the rooms of this well-curated show.

Movies: where’s the love for Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine? It shows up at number 16 or so in most “best of lists” and yet it’s my Number One. Not a wasted scene! Twists and turns! Great acting and storytelling, set in beautiful San Francisco. His best in years.

Another overlooked gem: Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring, which I found on pay per view. It didn’t last long in the theaters, which is too bad, because it’s a true story expertly told by Coppola. Hollywood teens burgle and hang out in the homes of stars, trying on clothes and jewels and bags, lounging. It’s wonderfully paced; a brilliant commentary on our celebrity-soaked culture.

Plays: An Iliad, at the Court Theatre, which I saw for the second time. A one-man show, about war, that brings me to tears. Also Strawdog Theatre’s masterful staging of Great Expectations.

Meals: Memorably, I dined at Sofi Restaurant in Printer’s Row. Also Riccardo’s Trattoria and its charming Enoteca across the street, in Lincoln Park, where I feel like I’m in a Woody Allen movie. Too, I am always happy to find myself at Toni Patisserie in the Loop.

Within my own home, I am savoring the work of my sons, my nephew and my niece. Evan Dent’s sports columns in the McGill Daily are smart, funny, brave and beautifully written. This one’s a favorite. www.mcgilldaily.com/2013/09/odyssey-to-the-great-white-north/ Also, Mason Dent’s exquisite and intriguing photographs http://hmdiv.tumblr.com/ Ryan Arthur’s luminous book of photographs, The Height of Land http://houseboatpress.com/heightofland.html/ Lucy Knisley’s much-praised food memoir Relish, a graphic delight. http://us.macmillan.com/relish/LucyKnisley

I loved the reporting and writing I did for Crain’s Chicago Business this year. I wrote about a chalk artist, $100,000 mattresses, second homes, a Holocaust documentary, spinal implants, Miss Manners, the economic impact of same-sex marriage. Wonderful, interesting assignments. (Thank you Michael Arndt and Jan Parr.) http://www.chicagobusiness.com/

Finally, I am proud of myself for putting out two linked novellas this year, with the help of Mason Dent (cover design and photography) and the awesome Michael Campbell, who designed the e-books. http://mcwriting.com/

They’re in Amazon’s Kindle store and other e-outlets, getting 5-star reviews.

 

Because of You http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DX6NJ5G

A Prince of Persia http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H2X1B60

It has been a very good year. Thanks for reading.

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5 thoughts on "Art and Life: A Year in Review"

  • 1. Winter’s Bone Jennifer Lawrence gives one of the year’s standout performances in Winter’s Bone, the second feature from Down To The Bone director Debra Granik . But while Lawrence’s evocation of a superlatively proud, stiff-necked Missouri teenager supporting her mother and younger siblings is key to the film’s success, Granik’s realization of the Ozarks is rich, specific, and frightening, and it provides the other necessary half of the puzzle. The film functions as a crime procedural as Lawrence hunts down her father, whose disappearance may cause her family to lose the home that allows them to survive with a tiny bit of fiercely protected independence. But it’s also the kind of vivid time-and-place portrait that offers a window into another world—in this case, a meth-ravaged, chilly backwoods country that inspires equal parts intense hatred and intense bonding in its clannish inhabitants.

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