Bookworm: Start ‘Blues Brothers’ and you’ll be hooked
Poetry books: Isn’t it time to enjoy a rhyme?
“The Blues Brothers: An Epic Friendship, the Rise of Improv, and the Making of an American Film Classic”
- By Daniel De Visé
- c. 2024, Atlantic Monthly Press
- $28, 386 pages
The first time you saw it, you knew you’d have to see it again. You were obsessed with the comedy. You couldn’t get enough of the music. You still remember the first-third-fifth time you saw the movie, alone or with friends, in a theater or on TV. And in the new book, “The Blues Brothers” by Daniel De Visé, yours wasn’t the only addiction that took hold.
As the audience quietly fidgeted and cameras readied on the night of April 22, 1978, no one was sure how the opening skit of “Saturday Night Live” would be received. Its stars, Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi had talked about starting a band together for years. This would be their debut. It would have to work.
And it did: the audience seemed slightly unimpressed by the Blues Brothers at first, says De Visé, but they were “stirred to jubilation” by the skit’s end.
Born in early 1949 to immigrant parents, John Adam Belushi grew up skirting discipline by making his mother laugh at his antics and his wit. He deflected problems at school in the same way but his clowning belied a straight-laced aversion to drugs and alcohol.
That lasted until he discovered a love of the stage, and he was introduced to “weed.”
With a father who worked for the National Film Board in Canada, it’s almost no surprise that Daniel Edward Aykroyd, born in 1952, would be drawn to the limelight. A talented mimic, Dan began classes at a local Ottawa community playhouse at age twelve; briefly, he considered becoming a priest because his parents seemed to want it.
Eventually, because he was rather impish, the Aykroyds were told “that perhaps Dan wasn’t suited to the priesthood.”
It was just as well. Comedy was always his thing; in fact, he was working with Second City Toronto in the early 1970s when an “oddly proportioned, white-scarfed Albanian” joined the troupe. Aykroyd liked the guy, and he introduced Belushi to the blues ...
The sarcasm and wit are still there. The music sings to your youth. Stream the movie this weekend and enjoy, but even if you’re a long-time fan, you may be surprised to read the back-story of that iconic movie in the book that bears its name.
Indeed, though he leans heavier on Belushi’s story than he does on Aykroyd’s, author Daniel De Visé has a nice variety of obscurities to share in “The Blues Brothers,” and they extend well beyond both big and small screens. As explanation, he starts by introducing readers to Aykroyd’s and Belushi’s earliest influencers, blending in other Second City and SNL alumni and relevant people when appropriate. This absolutely invites reminiscing. Yes, the seed-to-screen timeline for the movie can be lengthy and sometimes overly-detailed here, but the narrative seems fresh despite its age.
With the feel of a class reunion or like paging through your high school annual, this book will very much appeal to readers who can still quote the movie or sing its songs. Start “The Blues Brothers,” and you’ll be hooked.
Books for poetry month
- By various authors
- c.2023, 2024, various publishers
- $18.99 - $20 various page counts
On your hands, you got lots of time. You can make a song, you can make a rhyme. Make a long story, make a short one, write what you like, make it simple and fun. Writing poetry uses your imagination: you play with words, paint a picture, there’s no intimidation. Creating poetry can be a breeze, or just reach for and read books exactly like these ...
Picture books for the littles are a great way to introduce your 3-to7-year-old to poetry because simple stories lend themselves to gentle rhymes and lessons. “See You on the Other Side” by Rachel Montez Minor, illustrated by Mariyah Rahman (Crown, $18.99) is a rhyming book about love and loss, but it’s not as sad as you might think.
In this book, several young children learn that losing someone beloved is not a forever thing, that its very sad but it’s not scary because their loved one is always just a thought away. Young readers who’ve recently experienced the death of a parent, grandparent, sibling, or friend will be comforted by the rhyme here, but don’t dismiss the words as kiddishness: adults who’ve recently lost a loved one will find helpful, comforting words here, too.
Flitting from here to there and back again, author Alice Notley moves through phases of her life, locations, and her diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer in her latest poetry collection, “Being Reflected Upon” (Penguin, $20.00). From 2000 to 2017, Notley lived in Paris where she completed her wrestle with breast cancer. That, and her life abroad, are reflected in the poetry here; she also takes readers on a poetic journey on other adventures and to other places she lived and visited. This book has a random feel that entices readers to skip around and dive in anywhere. Fans of Notley will appreciate her new-age approach to her works; new fans will enjoy digging into her thoughts and visions through poems. Bonus: at least one of the poems may make you laugh.
If you’re a reader who’s willing to look into the future, “Colorfast” by Rose McLarney (Penguin, $20.00) will be a book you’ll return to time and again. This, the author’s fourth collection, is filled with vivid poems of graying and fading, but also of bright shades, small things, women’s lives yesterday and today, McLarney’s Southern childhood, and the things she recalls about her childhood. The poems inside this book are like sitting on a front porch on a wooden rocking chair: they’re comfortable, inviting, and they tell a story that readers will love discovering.
If these books aren’t enough, or if you’re looking for something different, silly, or classic, then head to your favorite bookstore or library. The ladies and gentlemen there will help you figure out exactly what you need, and they can introduce you to the kind of poetry that makes you laugh, makes you cry, entices a child, inspires you, gives you comfort, or makes you want to write your own poems. Isn’t it time to enjoy a rhyme?
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The Bookworm is Terri Schlichenmeyer. She has been reading since she was 3 years old and never goes anywhere without a book. Terri lives on a hill in Wisconsin with two dogs and 11,000 books. Read past columns at marconews.com.