The Ferguson Rifle - Review

My grandparents love Louis L'amour.  When we visited them this winter, I asked them to recommend a few of his books.  We also listened to some short stories on tape.  (Yes, my mom's car still uses audio cassettes!)  This has been a good way for me to get a sense for my grandpa's world.  Also, L'amour is one of the best selling American authors of all time - with 101 books and around 300,000,000 total sold.  The reason for all that success is that he tells a great story.
The Ferguson Rifle tells the story of a scholar, who returned ventured westward into the North American wilderness after losing his wife and daughter in a fire.  Told in the first person, the action is quick, but also seasoned with the scholar's reflections on life and on his life in particular.  This is a good quick read.  It reminds me very much of John Grisham's writing, only set in the wild American west.
The Josh rating: JJJJ.

Sanctuary - Review

William Faulkner's Sanctuary was the best, weirdest, darkest, most difficult novel I've read in a while.  It was like reading a novel through a kaleidoscope.  The characters, settings, and times shift and turn at a dizzying pace.
Half-way through the novel, he gives information that makes sense of the opening scenes.  Even in the closing chapters, information unfolds that interprets many of the mysterious edges that haunted the whole novel.
It's almost as if Faulkner has this huge entrancing photograph that he has torn into little bits.  Then, he takes the readers through the frustratingly entrancing process of reassembling the original image.
This is not a novel for the faint at heart.  It deals with rape, murder, impotence, racism, class-ism, divorce, adultery, alcoholism, and more.  The general message seems to be that our world is a tangled up mess, where all our broken pieces are more connected to everyone else's broken pieces more than we'd like to admit.
The Josh rating: JJJJ.

Double Indemnity - AFI Greatest Movie #29

"Straight down the line, Baby.  Straight down the line."  Perfect plan.  Perfect execution.  Perfect murder.  Except that nothing is ever perfect.
In Double Indemnity, AFI's 29th greatest film of all time, Fred MacMurray (the star from "My Three Sons") is swept into a murder plot by a beautiful woman who wants to be free from her overbearing husband.  As an insurance guy, he ought to know how to work the system, and he almost does - until his intuitive and nosy friend spots the one hole in their case.  From that point on, MacMurray begins to unravel in the style of Crime and Punishment.
All in all the point seems to be rather simple, crime (and selfishness) doesn't pay.  Theologically, you can almost see sin's creeping tentacles slowly wrap around MacMurray and pull him foot by foot into his own pit.
The closing scene is artistically brilliant in its reverse foil.  MacMurray's friend, who was always in need of a match, suddenly has one on hand and lights one last cigaret for MacMurray as he waits dying for both the ambulance and the police.
A classic crime and suspense tale, but not incredible.  The Josh rating: JJJ.