A lot of the books I review for this site have movies based on them.  What happens most of the time is that I see a movie I like and then I want to read the book.  I know some people would rather read the book before seeing the movie, but for me the opposite is mostly true.  Sometimes the movies are very faithful to the books and sometimes they are completely different.  Nora Ephron’s movie version of Julie and Julia incorporated aspects from this book while interspersing another book about Julia Child’s life.  Julie and Julia, the book, is all about Julie Powell.

I listened to the audio version of this book and will say up front that it is abridged, although I don’t know how abridged it is.  Here is the general story:  Julie Powell is a secretary in a government office across from the World Trade Center in New York City after 9/11 so she is fielding calls from family members and other angry people.  In her home life, she finds a copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child at her mother’s house in Austin, TX.  She takes it back home to New York and her husband Eric gives her the idea of doing a blog post (this is 2002 before most people knew what blogs were). She gets the idea for a project where she will spend a full year making every recipe in the book and blog about it.

Along the way, the reader is treated to the trials and tribulations of Julie Powell. Other reviews have remarked that Julie comes across as whiny and full of herself, but that didn’t bother me so much.  There were parts of the book that were very funny and I enjoyed her sarcastic sense of humor.  I think the highlight on that account would have to be the section where she has to deal with cooking lobster.  Yes, I also felt sorry for her husband Eric for having to put up with her crying fits and tantrums, but at least Julie was honest enough to be straight forward about all of that stuff and you can tell that she feels gratitude toward Eric for sticking by her.

Several weeks ago I got to hear Julie Powell speak at the Texas Library Association convention.  That is one of the reasons I wanted to listen to the book and I’m glad I was most of the way through it by the time I heard her speak because there were many references to the book in her speech.  She was very down-to-earth and humble about her new fame. The Q&A after the speech was most interesting because she talked about meeting Meryl Streep on the set, if she and Eric were still together after two books (the other being Cleave written after Julie and Julia) about testing their marriage, and what her favorite recipe from the book was (beef bourguignon) and least favorite (aspics).  It was a very enjoyable and highly entertaining speech and I’m glad I got to hear it.

If you can get over the whining and narcissism in the book, I would recommend reading it or better yet listen to Julie Powell read it.  It is a pretty fun, light book to read.

There is a certain kind of reality that you can only experience while you are still a child. Days are longer. Summer vacations last for years. A single afternoon can last forever. The world holds magic, and secrets, and imagination is a powerful and potent force. Adults grow up to forget about this parallel universe. They don’t remember being afraid of the dark, or the reasons why they felt so frightened in the first place. Children know exactly why.

The story takes place from the viewpoint of Beau, who is ten years old. He is at that in between age where he’s starting to become aware that he is “too old” for certain things, but still has some interest in them. For example, he feels too old for the nickname his father gave him, “Snug”, but still likes it when his father calls him that. His sisters, Nonie and Missy are twins, but not very much alike in personality. Missy has a tendency to act much younger than her age, while Nonie is beginning to become interested in boys. Clegg drops the reader directly into Beau’s head, and in doing so reminds us of the way the world felt when we were children. This enhances the extreme creepiness in this story.

Beau, his sisters, his baby brother, and his parents are driving to Gull Island, in South Carolina. Every summer the family stays at the large and decaying home of Rowena Wandigaux Lee, the children’s grandmother. The children think of her as “Grammy Weenie”, or some derivation of this secret nickname. Their cousin, Sumter, and his parents will also be there. Beau’s mother and Sumter’s mother are sisters.

“No child alive has a choice as to where he or she will go in the summer”, Clegg writes. Gull Island is an extremely dreary place to be. It’s humid. There are countless mosquitos and other bugs that bite. There isn’t much to do except hang around on the rocky beach, or visit the mostly run down amusement park. Grammy Weenie can be mean spirited, and frightening at times. She tells spooky stories about her deceased daughter, and about scary things that she believes happened on Gull Island. Not one person in either of these two families wants to spend their summers on Gull Island, and yet, they drive there every summer anyway. The parents spend a great deal of time drinking, and getting into arguments.

The trip out to Gull Island reminds me of every summer vacation I’ve ever been on that involved driving somewhere far with my family. The baby gets fussy. The other kids get bored, and start annoying each other before falling asleep. Somebody accidently leaves something important behind at the gas station. The parents are stressed out, too warm, and take their irritation out by snapping at the cranky children. We’ve all been through this sort of thing. One of the children smuggles something she shouldn’t have along on the trip, and the result is an unsettling preview of things to come.

Sumter isn’t quite right. His cousins know it, but can’t exactly explain what is wrong with him. Perhaps he’s actually insane. The adults, of course, are either unaware of Sumter’s differences, or are choosing to ignore it. This summer, Sumter discovers something new to entertain himself with.

There is a shack on the property which was once used for storage that he was told to “never, never, never” go inside of. He names this place “Neverland”, and forbids the other kids from going inside, making it that much more attractive. Sumter has started to worship “Lucy”, who he believes is a God that he found in the shed. Beau doesn’t quite believe this when Sumter tells him, even when some truly bizarre and terrifying things start happening inside that shed. “Lucy”, like many Gods, requires sacrifices.

Eventually, Sumter and Beau are joined by Nonie and Missy. What began as something like a game, doing what “Lucy” wanted them to do, quickly spins out of control. The darkness that has been unleashed cannot be stopped. Or, can it? By the time the adults are aware that things have gone horribly wrong, it’s nearly too late. It’s up to Beau to make things right again, if he is able.

Few books have given me the creeps as much as this book has. The suspense had me turning pages as fast as I could read, so I could find out what happened next. Clegg has created an exquisite mix of truth and mythology, of secrets and lies, of darkness and the supernatural. For a little taste of what I mean, watch the book trailer:

You may want to sleep with the lights on tonight. If you find that you can’t sleep at all, here is something to pass the time until the morning sun shines through your window again. Oddly enough, there is a game created about this book. The idea is simple. Look at two versions of the artwork from Neverland, and click on whatever you can find that is not the same in both pictures. The music and imagery are as chilling and spooky as the book itself.

I don’t have much real world knowledge of people with schizophrenia except from what I see in such movies as A Beautiful Mind or Proof.  This book gives a good perspective on the condition and the challenges associated with it, not only for the person afflicted, but for those who care for them as well.   Social workers must be some of the most caring and patient people in the world.

Steve Lopez is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times who, while on his way to work, stumbles onto this homeless man in one of the tunnels in L.A.   He is playing an old, beat up violin with 2 strings, but Steve can see that the man has talent.  After talking with the man a little bit, Steve learns that the man, Nathaniel Ayers, went to Julliard.  Lopez can’t believe this and after doing some research and calling the school finds out that what Ayers was saying is the truth.  This starts one of many columns about Nathaniel Ayers and a long lasting friendship.

Nathaniel has a way of rambling when he talks, jumbling many different ideas from Beethoven to Steve Lopez to Cleveland, where he’s from originally, to New York and L.A.  He lives on the street in the Skid Row section of Los Angeles and has to tap a couple sticks on the ground at night to scare the rats away.  Steve Lopez takes it upon himself to try to get Nathaniel some help through LAMP, a non-profit organization in L.A. devoted to ending homelessness.  Through Steve’s columns, readers donate cellos and violins to Nathaniel and at one point he has 6 instruments.  He keeps the cello, violin, and his original 2 string violin in his shopping cart that he carries with him everywhere.  He is very paranoid, despises smokers and cigarettes with a passion, and can be horribly racist on his bad days.

The book is really interesting in that Steve talks to mental health workers to get their varying opinions on what to do with Nathaniel.  Opinions vary so widely because mental health is so varied from person to person.  It’s not easy and it takes more than a year, but Steve slowly starts to see Nathaniel start to move inside to an apartment which he resisted so vehemently at first.  He also starts to learn more about Nathaniel’s back story, his time at Julliard, and his family.  He also struggles with trying not to spend too much time with Nathaniel so he can have time with his own wife and his new daughter.

I enjoyed this book.  Nathaniel has such a passion for music and relishes it when Steve takes him out to the Walt Disney Concert Hall.  It was interesting learning about homelessness and schizophrenia in one of the worst cities for homelessness as well.  The movie version was very similar to the book and I couldn’t help picturing Robert Downy Jr as Steve Lopez and Jamie Foxx as Nathaniel Ayers while I was listening to the book. Of course the book had more information and more details.  If you enjoyed the movie or have an interest in the mental health profession you should check out this book.