Lynette McClenaghan

As well as reviewing dark fiction, I review music, including biographies of iconic musicians. One of my recent blogs reviewed: Love Becomes a Funeral Pyre (Biography of The Doors by Mick Wall)

Watch this space for more reviews, include: Steampunk Erotica and Bram Stokers (stories include alternative endings).

Not to be missed DVD for Doors fans and a worthwhile watch for those who appreciate great music.

This DVD is essential for any Doors fan. Even casual fans should buy it as it may well inspire them to investigate the band’s music further. The restoration of the film of the Doors’ 1968 Hollywood Bowl concert is a triumph of modern technology and a credit to the original cinematographers. The video and audio is now so good that the concert could have been filmed last week. The process of restoration is covered in detail in one of the excellent Extra features on this DVD. The mini-documentaries are well worth watching and there are some bonus television performances included.

The concert itself shows the band at their peak in a live setting. At the time much of their best music was still to come, particularly the albums Morrison Hotel and L.A. Woman, but this performance is a good representation of their work up until this point. Later in their career live performances would become often shambolic and unpredictable as Jim’s erratic behaviour took increasing hold over him, and the band. This performance is tight and professional. The richness of their music works well in the live setting where their improvisation and extended versions of songs are developed and explored musically and lyrically. The impression we get watching is of a well-rehearsed band with an intuitive understanding of where each song is going.

The concert takes you back to a time when bands just came on stage and played. Unlike the garish and tacky antics of some modern performers, the Doors grab you and hold you with musicianship and the power of their music. There is not much theatricality, except in The End and The Unknown Soldier. Jim is the brooding presence you’d expect, but with boyish smiles and charm, he is also an engaging frontman, and expressive vocalist. Robby is never less than tasteful and astute in his playing. Like the others, he makes it look easy, until, in one of my favourite shots, we see him close up, breath condensing in the cold night air, sweat pouring down his face. Laid back, but intense. Ray is perpetually smiling, hunched over his keyboards with his head cocked sideways, absorbed in the music, playing brilliantly, giving the band so much of their unique sound. The revelation for me was John Densmore. His work is powerful and expressive, subtle and complex. He is easily the equal of any rock drummer, including Baker, Bonham or Moon (and considerably more sane!)

Great concert, but I was saddened when it finished. Ahead lay trouble with the law, controversy, and for Jim, decline, and a squalid death three years later. That we know how the story ends makes this wonderful concert also quite poignant.

Love Becomes a Funeral Pyre: Biography of The Doors by Mick Wall

Misunderstood genius and lost soul – couldn’t put it down 

This biography of The Doors, America’s version of the 1960’s Rolling Stones, is brilliant, engaging and sometimes difficult to read. Wall paints an evocative portrayal of the path to self-destruction Jim Morrison paved for his short life. Tragic and intense, Wall captures the essence of how the band’s singer, young lion and iconic sex symbol, packed thirty years into three. Wall aptly foreshadows Morrison’s demise as tortured, often misunderstood genius, musician and poet. Along with his downward spiral he pulled his band down with him. Despite the open anarchy Morrison inflicted on his entourage and society the band seemed to miraculously resurrect itself. What makes this read even more compelling is his how Morrison College educated, awkward and overweight with no obvious musical talent became an accidental rock star.

Wall’s criticism of Morrison and the band’s keyboardist, Ray Manzarek, is often harsh. But it is easy to read against the flow of this and to see Morrison’s story as a tribute to the poet and social critic he wanted to be known as. Despite being comfortable as a misfit, he initially couldn’t resist the adulation he gained. However, it didn’t take long for the gloss to wear off and him shunning fame and the power it wielded it was always going to be too late for Morrison. Wall captures the decent of a lost soul so destroyed by drugs, alcohol and fame that he resembled the living dead. Even when Morrison was at his lowest points and inebriated he was still able to capture audiences with his poignant lyrics, unique voice and thought provoking philosophy.

I read this as a tribute to Morrison and The Doors regardless of what Wall may have intended.

Handcuffs and whips and orgasms…Oh My!

I was in a bookstore a week ago and a middle-aged woman came in and asked the assistant for the second Shades of Grey book. “I never read books but I couldn’t put this down,” she said. I thought that if this book is getting adult non-readers into reading it can’t be too bad, so took the plunge.

Pretty much every negative comment about the novel here is true and I am bewildered as to how anyone could have the patience and tolerance to finish and enjoy it. The prose is flat and tasteless, for example: “Curiosity kicks in big time”. This is lazy writing. The characters are cardboard cut-outs. Grey is too good to be true, excellent at, like, everything, and so hot. Ana is dim, spraying repetitive clichés all over the place and blundering about carelessly. The supposed big attraction, the sex scenes, are cookie-cutter depictions that might have been lifted from porn fiction or video sites. Other weaknesses are more minor irritations, such as the English vernacular that James uses, e.g. “Laters, Baby”. Or, my favourite, the lengthy list of rules set down for their relationship and her role as a submissive.

However, the book is also disturbing, unintentionally, as I cannot believe that James has the capacity for subtlety or thematic depth. Grey is morally not much better than a paedophile, using power, wealth, status and influence to get what he wants, which is control over Ana. He flatters her, buys her expensive gifts, overwhelms her with his accomplishments, so he can possess her. This is an abusive relationship. He tells her at one point that she is the one who has power over him, a predictable and egregious abuser’s rhetorical gambit. Everything he does for her he really does for himself. He is a creepy stalker. He preys on Ana’s naiveté and uses his sexual experience and her attraction to him to manipulate her. He gives his actions a veneer of fairness and consensuality with his agreements and rules while binding the girl to him. Yes, she is an adult and a willing participant, but I found his insinuation of himself into her life and his exercise of power to be distasteful. Although Ana eventually leaves, her subjugation to him has been profound; her small rebellious acts of questioning him about his past simply highlight how little agency she has. I do not know how female readers can be okay with a woman who trades sexual exploitation for…well, it’s hard to see what she gets from the relationship apart from lots of orgasms (these are hilarious) and a great deal of distress. The car and the other gifts are simply part of his manipulation – he’s rich, they mean nothing except to enforce gratitude. He does other exciting things to make her happy, but it’s always a big deal, a stunt to be impressive, and thereby coercive.

Surprisingly, at times I thought there might be a real novel lurking within Fifty Shades of Grey. James might have explored dark eros and given us some meaningful insights. But this novel is too self-important and humourless. The sex scenes are not erotic or exploratory, but grindingly mechanistic and Ana’s responses increasingly mind-numbing and risible.

The last word comes from a young woman serving in a café who I mentioned the book to: “ I tried to read it but I couldn’t finish because it was so boring”.

Professor Challenger

I thoroughly enjoyed each of these stories as they are all as well written and dramatic as the best known of the collection, The Lost World. Arthur Conan Doyle’s writing here has stood the test of time; modern readers will find his prose engaging and accessible, not dated or impenetrably dense.

These stories are generically interesting too – fantasy, romance, adventure, thriller mixed in with a kind of early science-fiction. What also struck me was that there is a strong thread of social criticism implicit in some of the stories, most notably in Land of Mist, which I’ll return to in just a moment. Doyle has a social conscience; although it may seem elitist, his decrying of his period’s general scientific ignorance and closed-mindedness is just as relevant today. Another example is in The Disintegration Machine, with its trenchant condemnation of the amoral development and sale of weapons of mass destruction.

Arthur Conan Doyle is sometimes mocked for what some take to be his naïve credulity in matters of the occult. The story in this collection, Land of Mist is criticised by another reviewer as merely an apology for the author’s spiritualist beliefs. Rather, it is a study of how society may ruthlessly crush those it deems heretical, and its focus on institutional authoritarianism, police duplicity, the corruption of the law and the exploitation of the helpless is quite moving. Some of the scenes recall Dickens’ depictions of poverty and squalor.

For the price you cannot go wrong with this collection. Reading these stories has inspired me to seek out other examples of the author’s lesser known works.

Writer in research

Why writers have to be readers. I was amazed by a comment made at a workshop I attended when a delegate said she didn’t read other authors’ works because she didn’t want to be influenced by them. Can you think of any other artist who can claim their work hasn’t been influenced by other artists?

Claustrophobia is a page turner. Pen pulls you into her world of deceit despite her contemptible attitude and behavior. The novel delivers as a psychological thriller despite Ryan’s clumsy manner of execution. The husband is too good to be true, while Pen’s characterization is not always convincing. Sometimes she seems much older than 32, other times her dialogue is consistent with teen talk. Claustrophobia displays evidence of solid writer research as Ryan mounts a scathing critique of the selfish, middle classes and tale of modern society.

Pen is fascinating because she raises a number of questions. Is she a psychopath or simply spoilt or stupid? Either way she lacks morality. I initially selected this read as the blurb suggested it was thematically similar to one of own titles, In Jeopardy, therefore, becoming part of my writer in research work. Regardless of the genre an author writes in, Claustrophobia offers essential insights into characterization (despite shortcomings), character development and plot complexity. Ryan’s foreshadowing is brilliant as it hints without giving away the punch line. She effectively conveys the sense of doom that awaits these characters, but leaves several equally unpleasant conclusions.

Review – Upstairs at the Party

Even when reading for leisure, I read like a writer and think critically about what I’m reading. This often follows writing and posting reviews on Amazon of kindle and print purchases. Upstairs at the Party is a dark story. A review I read in the Herald Sun interested me enough to purchase this novel. Days later I read a review written in The Age giving Upstairs at the Party faint praise. The reviewer was critical of the story’s bleakness and added that it didn’t offer a happy ending, and this was a feature of the story that appealed as I write horror and dark tales. Like Upstairs at the Party horror, dark material and dirty realism offers hard hitting social commentary where happy endings only sanitise serious and thought provoking issues.

Upstairs at the Party is both a fascinating and frustrating read. As other reviewers have noted, it is a keenly observed and evocative portrayal of the characters’ time at university. It does not sentimentalise this era; some scenes are grim and confronting, and the social comment is apposite.

It is also a scathing indictment of selfish, self-centred people. We watch as the characters waste their lives and fritter away the value that their education and the privileges and responsibilities that it endowed them with on empty pursuits.

I found myself skipping bits as I became increasingly frustrated by characters’ aimless ineptitude. Their engagement with life is often oblique and peripheral. Perhaps this is Grant’s point – that their impotence has as much to do with flawed and undeveloped personalities as it has to do with the social conditions in which they live. She thereby reminds us of the importance of social and cultural engagement that goes beyond gestures and rhetoric.

Annabelle – Movie review

Horror fans will enjoy this flick. Its cinematic effects and shock factor are dramatic and there are a number of frightening moments in the story. Annabelle will particularly appeal to a teenage audience. We were sitting next to a group of teenage girls who were scared witless and enjoyed themselves. Although the ending was derivative, the storyline didn’t give any clues away and the finale was a genuine surprise. However, Annabelle relied too much on horror film clichés, such as, the kindly priest who comes to the rescue and suffers for his goodness. Some of twists and turns in the plot seem to rely on easy options. The two main protagonist’s reactions are often naïve or foolish and seem to only serve to keep the plot going. After being terrorised by the hideous doll, Mia decides to keep it. The horror potential of some scenes could have been better explored or developed. For example, when the doll rises into the air Mia sees the face of a cartoonish devil which reduces the scare factor. Examples such as this one verge of cheesy. Alongside The Conjuring, the prequel, Annabelle, isn’t in the same class. The Conjuring maintains unrelenting tension where there is no easy escape for the characters.

Jimmy Page: Magus Musician Man (an unauthorised biography) by George Case

Apart from my interest in Led Zeppelin as musical geniuses, reading is an essential part of the writer research component of my writing. I am currently working on a final draft of a story titled The Lester that combines music and the supernatural. Without committing to reading widely I don’t believe that I could write fiction.

I am reassured by this being an “unauthorized” biography as it has not been impinged upon by the subject or his minders. Case has been scrupulous in his research and his presentation of Page as a musician and band leader. The “magus” in the subtitle is a bit misleading as there is not much about Page’s involvement with magick – the Crowley and Anger connections are not dwelt on. Instead, Case presents Page’s “magus” qualities as inherent in his music and in the band’s profound influence – at the time and over the years.

Page’s musicianship, as a guitarist naturally, but also as a producer and arranger, is a key element in the story. Case is also a musician and so we are given plenty of details about the musical aspects of Page’s guitar work and in the studio. This material will interest musicians and those looking for a story that goes into aspects of Page’s and Led Zeppelin’s legacy that moves beyond stories of sharks and similar debauchery. Not that Case elides this kind of material. The band’s artistic decline is placed within the circumstances and events of the time.

While factually there may not be much that is new here, Case’s book is important because he analyses his subject. Their grinding schedule of recording and touring caused Page “psychic dislocation…from which he would never recover”, according to Case. He offers considerable insight into Page’s and the band’s triumphs and tragedies.

A Writer’s Day

Being a serious fiction writer means that you to have engage in research. I regularly read, watch and study the works and craft of other artists.

Today I watched Begin Again. The tale of promising musician, Greta, playing muse to boyfriend and rising star, David who betrays her, and not the kind of film I usually watch. Being a Keira Knightly fan I expected this film would deliver and it did.

From the film’s opening it sustains interest and even though this is a feel-good film it isn’t predictable and doesn’t disappoint with clichés. One of its features is that it’s critical of corporate music publishing, but takes a fresh approach to how a promising singer becomes a star.

The film is critical of the corporate music world showing it to be out-of-touch with artists and only interested in the bottom line. One of its key ideas is how a group of musicians working collaboratively and not simply for money or fame is able to subvert the corporate model.

After the film I bought the following movies to watch as part of my writer research work: Cujo, Midnight Lace and Twist.

Before I posted my review on Stephen King’s latest novel Mr Mercedes there were over 800 reviews. However, Amazon informed me that my review assisted someone to purchase the novel.

Crime King
With Joyland Stephen King showed that he can write a dramatic and moving crime story. With Mr Mercedes he has done it again, even better. This is a darker novel. Brady Hartfield is confrontingly dreadful and there are scenes here which will shock many readers. But because this is Stephen King we are given much more than (non-supernatural) horror. What stood out for me was King’s characterisation. The main protagonist, retired detective Bill Hodges, is complex, sympathetic and flawed. There is a supporting cast, apart from Brady, who are interesting people, from his teenage neighbour Jerome whose courage and loyalty is crucial in the acceleration of tension as the novel progresses; to Holly, damaged and frail, but quite extraordinary. In her case King sketches in some back story to deepen and enrichen the character and to enhance our shifting responses to her.
King’s concern with social justice is also significant. We meet the victims of Brady’s mass murder before it happens. These are ordinary people struggling to make ends meet in a society that is indifferent to their needs, except when they can be exploited. Social disintegration and isolation are seen throughout the novel. The juxtaposition with those who care about others is stark. Like Dickens, King uses his society as not just a setting for the story but a crucial aspect of his writing’s moral force.
Impeccably plotted, filled with memorable characters and events, Mr Mercedes is an emotional, dramatic read: