Bradley Barn Session - George Jones

Mental Session

Advantages: Tense, Atmospheric Thriller
Disadvantages: Hardly upbeat! (Is a positive for some!)

Now i'll turn my hand to a little video nasty! Hardly but a little more of a creepy one than I usually review. So what's it all about? ------------------------------- 'Session 9' is a film made in 2001 and is directed by Brad Anderson (The machinist). The film is a psychological thriller set around Danvers State Mental Hopsital and is focussed on a team of asbestos removal specialists who are somewhat obstructed in the path of completing their work by a few odd occurances in the old Hospital. The team are given a strict deadline that their leaders Gordon (Peter Mullan) and Phil (David Caruso) are in disagreement over the realism of the goal. Gordon is going through some personal turmoil and seems determined to take his mind off of this by getting his team working extremely hard. A subplot to the group dynamic is that Phil ...

shanediablo 01.08.2008 · Read full review
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Review of Session 9 (DVD)

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' Creator

Advantages: Excellent read
Disadvantages: None

and Conan Doyle's known obsession with spiritualism. Funnily though the famous fairy hoax where Conan Doyle was taken in is not mentioned? almost as if Barnes were being protective of his subject - except this is not a biography! The characterization of George is interesting. Even at the height of his persecution Barnes refuses to bathos. He achieves this by making the character of George frankly not very sympathetic. This does not mean the reader is not driven to empathise with him, but this is because of the injustices visited upon him rather than the merits of his stiff, almost unfeeling, character. The book has been researched meticulously and sheds light on one of English literature's most interesting characters. Is this biography or is this fiction? Well the book cover helpfully tells us it is fiction but the nature of the book is ...

JoePoirot 24.01.2006 · Read full review
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Review of Arthur And George - Julian Barnes

A very Puzzling Affair

Advantages: true story, characterisation, brillauint research
Disadvantages: pace an direction of plot in first half of book

I am very much a creature of habit when it comes to book reading. I know which genres I like and very rarely stray from them. You will never see me indulging in some horror, cheap tacky romance or crime. So what happens when it is difficult to pigeon hole a book into a specific genre? This was the case when I bought Arthur and George by Julian Barnes. The Booker Prize nominated Arthur and George is a funny beast. It is a faction (fiction based on a true story) twin biography with elements of a detective novel and just a little bit of romance thrown in for good measures. The book is set mostly in 19th and 20th century Britain. It details the lives of two (at first glance) unconnected gentlemen. The first one Arthur, the son of a mentally unstable, alcoholic, Irish artist grows up in poverty in Edinburgh becoming a doctor ...

duskmaiden 19.10.2006 · Read full review
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Review of Arthur And George - Julian Barnes