American History X

Yeah well.. it takes me ages to read a book let alone write a review... So i thought i probably should include the movies i watch too...

So yesterday... I saw the movie American History X. I dint know what i was to expect from the movie, with the exception that a friend had suggested the name and told me that he relly liked it. I have had the dvd with me for over 5 months i think. I just did not feel like watching the movie.

And yesterday, with the cable gone and nothing else to do... I finally sat down to watch the movie. I actually thought it will be a movie on the American Indians for no apparent reason.

Anyhow getting back to the movie...

It is a hard hitting drama and it stars Edward Norton (his range of movies is just amazing - fight club, primal fear, the illusionist... etc). The story I dont think is new, but the way it has been dealt with is novel.

The movie is about a man who belives in white supremacy and his journey from the suburbs he lives in to a jail back to his family. Considering he really believes in the idealogy (atleast he thinks he does), it takes some really dramatic incidents to jolt him to realty. He comes back to his family and finds himself staring at his own older image in his brother.

The movie moves in and out of the past and the present quite effortlessly. Despite the violence and the hard hitting scenes, the movie manages to retain its simplicity.

And somehow as it is with these "real" movies, there is never a happy ending as such. I could almost predict that something nasty was about to happen and well... i was not dissapointed.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter

The Story

The book is about a young doctor who delivers his own twins - a girl and a boy. And soon after he discovers that his daughter suffers from Down Syndrome. In that split second he makes a decision. His decision affected by his past -- haunts him and his family for the rest of his life.

What I Think

I am not too sure what I want to say about the book. The story is quite different from the kind of stuff I am used to reading. The book left me with a pang of dissapointment and sadness for the lead character. The characters are left groping in the dark without answers while the reader is left with this urge to somehow set evrything right by giving them an answer --- U see its quite a helpless situation.