BOOK REVIEW BY CELIA RIBES

BOOK TITLE: Cradle and all

AUTHOR: James Patterson

PUBLISHER/YEAR: Headlines 2000

BOOK TYPE: Fiction thriller

PAGES: 468

SUMMARY: Cradle and All tell the story of two young girls who are both pregnant, despite the fact they are still virgins. One is Kathleen from Boston; the other Colleen from a little village in Ireland. Both suffer from disbelief and belief from others. Of course, in America when the media know what was happening turn it into a circus. It is assumed that one is going to bear the child of Satan while the other will bear a child of Christ, the saviour, who is supposed to save the humanity from epidemics, droughts, famine and floods, as the secret of Fatima predicted.

The girls are being observed by the Catholic Church and its investigators. Anne Fitzgerald, a former nun turned private investigator, is hired by the Archdiocese of Boston to investigate the immaculate conceptions. She comes to take care about the young women and to find out who is the true virgin. Immediately she realizes that both are in great danger, terrifying forces of light and darkness are gathering. Anne must discover the truth to save the young women, to save herself, and to protect the future of the humanity.

OPINION: I would like to say this book wasn't at all what I expected. I think this book has a great plot and ideas but there is no depth into the characters and it is difficult to be absorbed by the storyline.
Moreover there are too many incongruities. For example, it is assumed that the two girls are virgins because their hymen is intact, but the medical procedures required to monitor a pregnancy would not leave a hymen intact, even if the hymen had been there to begin with.
Moreover reading this book Christians will feel appalled by the sexualizing of the story of the Immaculate Conception, there are plenty of graphically depicted sexual scenes.

LANGUAGE/STYLE: Patterson has a particular style of writing in which he limits the size of each chapter, which used to be tree or five pages longer. It actually works well and keeps the story following well. However, there is a noticeable lack of detail. The settings, characters, and actions taking place are never fully explored. The vocabulary used is simple and quite informal, with short and simple sentences.

FILM REVIEW BY CELIA RIBES

FILM TITLE: PRIME

COUNTRY/YEAR: U.S.A 2005

GENRE: Romantic comedy

DIRECTOR: Ben Younger

WRITING CREDITS: Ben Younger

CAST: Uma Thurman (Rafi Gardet)
Meryl Streep (Dr Lisa Gardet)
Bryan Greenberg (David Bloomberg)
Jon Abrahams (Morris)
Annie Parisse (Katherine)
Aubreu Dollar (Michelle)

PLOT / SYNOPSIS:
Rafy, thirty-seven years old, is a successful New York fashion photographer, whose personal life is not working so well. She is taking regular sessions with psychoanalyst Dr Lisa Metzger in order to deal with her divorce and her desire for a child.

Meanwhile she meets David, a twenty-three year old Jewish guy who is living with his grandparents and wants to be a painter. They start to see each other and become gradually more involved. However there is a problem: the difference of age. Both are worried about this, and they are not sure about whether it can work. Rafy ask for advice to her psychoanalyst. Lisa encourage her to continue with the relationship, but things change when Lisa discover that the boyfriend of her client is her son.

OPINION:
Prime throws in every romantic comedy cliché that exists and the story is pretty basic. But even when it is not an original film it is an enjoyable film. The film deals with an interesting subject which is the age difference between a woman and a man. No one cares if the man is the oldest, however when the woman is the oldest things change. Ben Younger knows it is fun but also painful to watch Rafi and David cross lines of age, culture and religion, and that is what makes his movie funny and heartfelt.

TYPE OF LANGUAGE USED:
The language used in the comedy is American English. The main characters use an informal language, an every day speech. The dialogues are simple and very funny, but also very touching and human.