November 10: How Mild, Poor Tiny Tim, Good Reads, New Cartoon

"And I know," said Bob, "I know, my dears, that when we recollect how patient and how mild he was; although he was a little, little child; we shall not quarrel easily among ourselves, and forget poor Tiny Tim in doing it."

Bob has a strong bond with Tiny Tim.  In this passage, he speaks to his family about Tim, who has died.  It is a heart-wrenching scene, full or sorrow and loss.  It is also a scene of happy remembrance as each member of the Cratchit family pledges to keep the spirit of Tim alive.  Bob and Tim are Dickens' version of the Madonna and Christ Child in A Christmas Carol.  The Cratchits are the Holy Family of Dickens' tale.

It's time for another episode of Saint Marty's Good Reads, the day where I talk about books I love.  Today's book, no surprise, is about a father and a son.  It's a memoir by film critic David Gilmour titled The Film Club.  As the dust jacket of the book says, it's "[t]he true story of a father who let his son drop out of school--if he watched three movies a week."  Gilmour makes the unusual decision to let his son quit high school if his son agrees to watch three films of Gilmour's choosing every week.  Gilmour continues his son's education, through cinema.  The first paragraph of the book pretty much says it all:

I was stopped at a red light the other day when I saw my son coming out of a movie theater.  He was with his new girlfriend.  She was holding his coat sleeve at the very end with her fingertips, whispering something into his ear.  I didn't catch what film they'd just seen--the marquee was blocked by a tree in full flower--but I found myself remembering with a gust of almost painful nostalgia those three years that he and I spent, just the two of us, watching movies, talking on the porch, a magic time that a father doesn't usually get to have so late in a teenage boy's life.  I don't see him now as much as I used to (that's as it should be) but that was a gorgeous time.  A lucky break for both of us.

It's a hopeful memoir.  Gilmour's choice to finish his son's education with film is both moving and inspiring.  Gilmour's son, Jesse, struggles through the normal teenage landscape of drugs and alcohol and sex, and Gilmour provides his fatherly wisdom through films like American Graffiti and The Big Sleep and Plan 9 from Outer Space and True Romance.  It's a great read about a father and son connecting on a deep level, and it inspires me as the father of a four-year-old boy.

Gilmour shares his passion with his son.  He dispenses his advice through the lens of film, and it works.  Jesse experiences heartbreak and disappointment, but, in the end, he triumphs and learns how to survive in an adult world.  Gilmour's writing is beautiful, full of moments of connection and, at times, frustration.  At it's heart, The Film Club is about the love of a father for his son.  It is smart and moving.  The final paragraph breaks your heart and gives you hope for future of Gilmour's son.  And the future of all the Tiny Tims of the world.  All because of one father's love.

Saint Marty hopes he can be half the father Gilmour is for his son in The Film Club.

Confessions of Saint Marty