here it is

It is now the holiday season. I managed to survive flying to virginia and back for my brother's wedding.

Over the course of flights and such, I read Michael Chabon's The Final Solution, Jonathan Lethem's Men and Cartoons and Dave Eggers' How we are Hungry.

The Final Solution was a quick and compelling read. The book had some nice illustrations as well.

Men and Cartoons has several good stories and some that are less enthralling. There is another Lethem compilation coming out; my main gripe is that a) these books were not packaged together (which would have been cheaper) and b) there were no illustrations in Men and Cartoons which given the subject matter is a bit disappointing as although I am a big fan of Lethem, there could have been some value added.

I enjoyed How We are Hungry. I haven't actually finished either of Eggers' full length novels, but the short stories were better. I think he sells his stories very well at readings and is a likable personality but I find his longer works draining and self-indulgent.

I saw the Lemony Snicket movie on Thursday. I enjoyed it. The adaptation went to the spirit of the books and I could deal with the reconstructed plot. Jim Carrey was, of course, unfortunately placed in this movie but he didn't ruin it. The end credits animation was very cool. I didn't like the way the Klaus character came off and some of the film was aimed to a lower common denominator than the books, but such is life. I will almost certainly buy the dvd. Possibly I will see this again at the theater.

Oh, I also read the Paul Auster work in progress in Granta. It seems pretty good and is entitled The Brooklyn Follies.

I saw the Pernice Brothers dvd and listened to the live album, which I saw recorded at the Mercury Lounge. It sounded better than I thought it would. The DVD looks like it was made with iMovie, and that's fine with me.