THERE’S A
CROSSWORD
ON THIS
PAGE.

DO
IT.

HAPPY
WEDNESDAY!

Classifieds

Call: #734-418-4115
Email: dailydisplay@gmail.com

ACROSS
1 Pour love (on)
5 Sledding spot
10 Work the aisles,
slangily
13 Very familiar with
14 Not spontaneous
15 Howe’er
16 “Good Guys
Wear Black” star
18 Haul to the shop
19 Sailor’s pronoun
20 Full of energy
21 Stereotypical
Geek Squad
employee
22 Mass-mailing tool
24 Post-
performance
celebration
27 Went astray
29 Pupil’s cover
30 Drawn-out
account
31 Not as
demanding
35 USN clerk
36 Stroke with a
wedge
39 Take steps
42 Defiant retort
43 __-Seltzer
47 Touchdown spot
49 Log-shaped
pastry
51 Display for
lecture
illustrations
55 “Siddhartha”
author
56 Charitable gift
57 Instagram upload
59 “__ matter of 
fact ... ”
60 Young __: tykes,
in dialect
61 Sofa decor
64 Shear (off)
65 Residences
66 __ Romeo
67 Onetime rival of
Delta
68 Having a key, in
music
69 Go against

DOWN
1 Title for Prince
William’s wife
2 The “thee” in
“Get thee to a
nunnery”
3 Seeing the sights
4 Letter-bottom
letters

5 Dispassionate
6 Cocoon contents
7 Ungentle giants
8 Shar-__: wrinkly
dog
9 Paper staff, briefly
10 Downright
11 Skimpy
nightgown
12 Folksy greeting
14 NBC skit show
broadcast from
30 Rock
17 Prince William’s
wife
21 Scottish isle
denial
23 Finger-clicking
sound
25 A little laughter
26 Prefix with
technic
28 Unhook, say
32 “Crikey!”
33 Sailor’s pronoun
34 Doctrinal suffix
37 Desktop with an
AppleCare option
38 “Canterbury”
story
39 Guilty
40 “Operators are
standing by!”
41 Bygone weight-
loss pills

44 French explorer
who named
Louisiana
45 Rude dismissal,
in slang
46 Passage between
buildings
48 AWOL seekers
50 Kenneth __,
portrayer of
Judge Lance Ito
in “The People v.
O.J. Simpson”

52 Baker’s
protection
53 Valerie 
Harper 
sitcom
54 Item draped on a
rack
58 Scout gps.
61 Skin pic
62 “True 
Detective”
network
63 Stripling

By Don Gagliardo and C.C. Burnikel
©2016 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
09/21/16

09/21/16

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

RELEASE DATE– Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

xwordeditor@aol.com

WWW.CARLSONPROPERTIES.- 

COM
734‑332‑6000

FOR RENT

Emma 
Donoghue’s 

bestseller “Room” captured 
the explosive desperation of 
a mother trying to get herself 
and her son out 
of a room. Her 
latest 
book, 

“The 
Wonder,” 

conveys 
the 

urgency to get 
into one.

11-year-old 

Anna O’Donnell 
has not had a 
bite of food or 
a sip of anything other than 
water 
since 
her 
birthday, 

or so she and her family 
claim. Lib Wright, a nurse 
who served under Florence 
Nightingale in Crimea, has 
been asked to watch the girl 
around the clock. Not nurse 
or diagnose her, but to see if 
the girl is indeed a miracle in 
the making. Lib is much more 
inclined to believe she will 
discover subterfuge, not the 
supernatural; 
she 
distrusts 

Anna’s parents, as well as the 
Catholic nun who has also 
been asked to watch the girl.

But the longer Lib stays with 

Anna, increasingly bemused 
as to how the girl seems able 
to survive without food, the 
more she wants to protect 
her — from her parents, from 
those visiting their home in a 
tiny Irish village and leaving 
gifts as if Anna really were 
a miracle in the flesh, from 
the town neighbors who are 
suspicious too. Lib befriends 
William Byrne, a journalist 
who has been charged with 
discovering the truth about 
Anna as well. In his writing, 
he utilizes sardonic wit in 
place of information as Lib 
won’t let him near Anna — at 
first. Eventually, he wins Lib 

over, but whilst meeting Anna, 
the child wins him over. He 
also begins to care about her 
well-being in spite of himself, 
angry that no one wants to 
admit what he can clearly 
see — the girl is dying now, 

regardless if she 
was 
somehow 

managing 
to 

get food before 
what 
people 

are calling “the 
watch” started.

Anna’s brother 

has been dead 
for 
a 
while; 

she is bent on 

getting her dead brother out 
of purgatory and into Heaven, 
but it isn’t clear to anyone but 
Lib how far Anna will go to 
achieve this goal. There is a 
painful family secret involved 
that breaks Lib’s heart; but 
when Lib discovers she’s not 
the first person to learn about 
it, and that previous people 
who knew have done nothing, 
her resolve is stiffened to 
break orders and help Anna, 
before it is too late.

“The Wonder,” like “Room” 

or “Slammerkin,” is impossible 
to put down. (I read it all in 
one sitting, crying for about 
the last 30 pages). While the 
novel is more simply crafted 
than 
some 
of 
Donoghue’s 

other work, her undecorated 
but elegant prose sears the 
image of a dying girl in a room 
into your mind, Anna’s sweet 
raspy voice echos in your ear.

The only aspect in the 

work that applies a little more 
pressure than it needs to is 
Lib’s struggle with navigating 
the 
differences 
between 

watching Anna and nursing 
her. It is abundantly clear that 
Lib, as a nurse, can’t help but 
try to get Anna to a healthier 
place.

Watching 
Lib 
lose 
her 

grasp on ideas she has held 
close to her heart for years, 
due to Anna’s extraordinary 
innocence, 
piety 
and 

selflessness would be sweet 
if it weren’t so raw. As Anna 
softens the blunt edges of 
Lib’s beliefs, Lib is forced 
to confront the capacity for 
cruelty in others.

Donoghue has pinpointed 

and pulled apart a paradoxical 
issue in this novel; she’s 
offering us a story in which a 
woman’s professional opinion 
and knowledgeable position 
is questioned on the grounds 
of her maternal feelings. Just 
when her voice matters most, 
it is willfully tuned out by 
the men in power, who have 
decided Anna’s fate as if she 
has already become nothing 
more than a legend, a tourist 
attraction, a sinless, blameless, 
voiceless symbol.

“The Wonder” may have 

a somewhat happy ending, 
but Donoghue refuses to let 
readers 
forget 
the 
weight 

that’s placed on a tiny girl’s 
shoulders, the power of the 
ghost of redemption, and the 
sobering necessity to speak 
truth of the dead for the sake 
of the living. The book is a 
reminder that hope itself isn’t 
golden, untouched by clouds; 
it is bittersweet; it is the 
acknowledgment of sacrifice 
for the potential of and the 
belief in something better.

‘The Wonder’ explores 
the virtues of sacrifice

BOOK REVIEW

SOPHIA KAUFMAN

Daily Arts Writer

Author of ‘Room’ returns with another compelling drama 
about a starving Irish girl with a resilient spirit

The Wonder

Emma Donoghue

Little, Brown and 

Company

September 20
Lib is forced to 
confront the 
capacity for 

cruelty in others.

A

For the Love of 

Spock

Michigan Theater

Gravitas Ventures

6A — Wednesday, September 21, 2016
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

CBS

Eyebrows fleeky

For 60 years, Mr. Spock has 

remained a cultural icon, an alien 
with an indescribable magnetism. 
Behind 
the 
arched 
eyebrows, 

Leonard 
Nimoy 
is 

equally 
influential 

as an actor and as an 
artistic Renaissance 
man. With “For the 
Love of Spock,” fans 
of “Star Trek,” Nimoy 
or pop culture lega-
cies in general can 
look to the screen for 
two hours of gratu-
itous eyebrow raises 
and perceptive analyses on the leg-
acies of these great men. God bless 
that blunt-bang cut, that silky sto-
icism and those delicately pointed 
ears.

“For the Love of Spock” focuses 

on the creation, development and 
impact of the “Star Trek” charac-
ter Spock, the life and impact of 
Leonard Nimoy himself and direc-
tor Adam Nimoy’s own tumultuous 
relationship with his father. The 
film is an attempt to showcase the 
multifaceted life of his father and 
his monumental cultural legacy.

The documentary is structured 

chronologically, moving from the 
beginning of Leonard’s career as 
an actor to the creation of “Star 

Trek” to Leonard’s death in 2015. 
However, within this time frame, 
the doc discusses Spock, Leonard 
and Adam in a seemingly random 
movement that feels fluid some-
times, while other times seems 
abrupt. At one moment the film 
analyzes the role of Spock as a love 

interest 
with 
a 

magnetic 
attrac-

tion that subverts 
expectations 
of 

manhood, and in 
the next it sharply 
moves to discuss 
how Adam and his 
sister dealt with 
the celebrity of 
the Nimoy name. 
Yet, the somewhat 

jarring structure works, reading 
like a book with chapters rather 
than a continuous storyline. Adam 
does a spectacular job at making 
each segment so wholly intriguing 
that you forget to wonder how one 
moves into the other.

Adam’s creation is equal parts 

media texts and interviews, the lat-
ter composed of commentary from 
Leonard himself, his family mem-
bers and his costars. Retro clips 
from the original “Star Trek” series 
as well as moments from the recent 
cinematic remake, are sprinkled 
throughout, supplemented by pro-
motional posters and fan art that 
together emphasizes the expansive 
and enduring reach of Spock across 

popular culture. The interview tes-
timony is especially interesting — 
“Star Trek” actors and directors act 
as experts in their field to provide 
analyses of Spock as a character 
while offering insight into the com-
plex and influential life of Leonard. 
This technique also bridges the 
generational gap between those 
who watched the original series 
and new fans. Commentary from 
William Shatner (“Star Trek”) and 
George Takei (“Kubo and the Two 
Strings”) is intermingled with 
remarks from J.J. Abrams (“Star 
Wars: The Force Awakens”) and 
Simon Pegg (“Star Trek Beyond”). 
A balanced mix of media and inter-
views works to create an engaging, 
hilarious and insightful explora-
tion of Spock and Nimoys.

One of the most unexpected but 

nevertheless fascinating compo-
nents of the film is its exposure of 
Leonard’s flaws. Through inter-
views with Leonard himself as well 
as his children, the film discusses 
Leonard’s relationship with alco-
hol as a coping mechanism that 
gradually turned abusive and put a 
strain on his family and career. The 
film also dives into the unexplored 
corners of Leonard’s personal life, 
specifically his role as a gener-
ally absent father figure. The film 
doesn’t shy away from the raw and 
the uncomfortable, but ultimately 
smooths the edges with a satisfy-
ingly happy resolution. 

SYDNEY COHEN

Daily Arts Writer

‘Spock’ doc is unexpected, pleasing

Directed by subject’s son, the film explores Nimoy’s electric life

B-

Churchill’s Secret

Aired September 11 

PBS

Biographical stories, while com-

pelling in nature, inherently lack 
one of the specific qualities that 
makes film narratives attractive to 
audiences — suspense. Intrinsically, 
stories true to reality automatically 
possess a built-in character arc and 
narrative structure 
that makes render-
ing them on screen 
natural. 
Audiences 

familiar with events 
and figures popu-
lar in history are 
already attuned to 
the trajectory of the 
story and its ending, 
requiring that their 
interest be captured in a different 
way. That’s where the details come 
in: the nitty-gritty of telling a story, 
a new perspective.

“Churchill’s 
Secret,” 
which 

aired Sunday night as part of PBS’s 
“Masterpiece” 
series, 
concerns 

itself with just that — every painful, 
tense moment following the stroke 
suffered by British prime minister 
Winston Churchill in 1953. Based 
on the novel “The Churchill Secret: 
KBO” by Jonathan Smith, the tele-
vision drama addresses a lesser-
known event in the PM’s life, kept 
secret from the world — delving into 
what made Churchill the leader and 
man that he was.

From the moment Churchill 

(Michael Gambon, the “Harry Pot-
ter” series) stutters mid-sentence 
while hosting a group of prominent 
guests, including the Italian prime 
minister, it’s apparent that some-
thing’s not right. The look of panic 
on his face, cross-cut with his wife’s 
strained composure, indicates the 
tense scenes to follow. The stroke, 
which 
incapacitated 
Churchill, 

was kept secret in an effort to help 
the bedridden PM return to power 
once recovered. His determina-
tion to make his last achievement 
as PM “one of peace” before retir-
ing, against the evident wishes of 

Lady Churchill (Lindsay Duncan, 
“Birdman”) and pressure from gov-
ernment party officials, is executed 
poignantly by Gambon. Aside from 
Gambon’s stellar performance as 
an aging PM, still full of life and 
love for his country and his mis-
sion as its leader, Duncan’s Clemen-
tine Churchill meets Gambon with 
equal emotional prowess.

Clementine fulfills her role 

as dutiful wife to 
Churchill, 
while 

also 
providing 

the audience with 
insight 
into 
the 

more 
sentimental 

wounds 
inflicted 

by 
her 
husband’s 

career. Though the 
primary source of 
the film’s conflict 

is Churchill’s stroke, it awakens a 
host of unborn animosity within 
his family. Churchill must deal with 
old family strife, now instilled with 
fresh life by the concentrated efforts 
to rehabilitate him, while continu-
ing to exert all his efforts into his 
career. Old wounds opened under 
new circumstances are poignantly 
portrayed by the film’s outstanding 
cast and conveyed through subtle 
cues in the movie’s execution. At 
one point, the tension erupts at a 
dinner scene between Clementine 
and her children, who unburden 
themselves of years of emotional 
pain inflicted by their father’s 
demanding career. And suddenly, 
Clementine is transformed from 
the loyal wife to an obsessive, over-
ly solicitous shell of a mother whose 
devotion to her husband cost, her 
her relationships with her children.

Though a poignant and extreme-

ly taxing scene, the argument over 
dinner feels like an ambitious cul-
mination of processing years of 
complex emotions in one scene 
— and an early emotional climax 
at that. Just halfway through the 
film, the family’s discord is revealed 
almost all at once, with little closure 
following the scene. 

The second half of the film focus-

es on Churchill’s recovery, facili-

tated by his nurse Millie Appleyard 
(Romola Garai, “The Last Days on 
Mars”). Though her strength in 
character in caring for Churchill 
as if he were any other patient 
shows throughout the movie, Mil-
lie’s own character arc is given spo-
radic acknowledgement. Through 
Clementine’s prodding, the movie 
reveals little spurts of information 
about Millie that don’t tell us much 
about her at all. It’s her dedication to 
Churchill’s recovery and composure 
in the face of the conflict surround-
ing her that makes her an appealing, 
albeit somewhat flat, character.

Equally as static is the execution 

of the film. Though the camerawork 
and editing waste no time in telling 
the story, the film leaves little room 
for variation or discord that could 
have energized the otherwise som-
ber piece. The seamless pans and 
cuts smoothly transition us from 
one scene to the next, mirroring the 
contained efficiency of Churchill’s 
recovery and the story itself.

However, 
close-ups 
reveal 

Churchill’s struggle. After he is 
rushed to his country home to 
receive care, Churchill’s condition 
takes a turn for the worse. When 
they finally arrive at the estate and 
Churchill’s helped out of the car, the 
camera cuts to a close perspective 
of his foot dragging behind him up 
the stairs of his home. In this simple 
shot, the PM’s helplessness is under-
scored –– quickly and effectively 
conveying the significance of his ill-
ness. Moments like these draw the 
audience deeper into the story with 
subtlety and emotion.

These 
minutiae, 
interspersed 

throughout a story full of earnest 
emotion, make this “Masterpiece” 
drama a truly compelling film. 
“Churchill’s Secret” provides us a 
window into the inner life of one of 
the most powerful and skilled lead-
ers in our history without much 
redundant effort. The simplicity of 
the telling of the story, combined 
with the adept work of its actors, 
provides an intriguing look into a 
great man’s life.

SHIR AVINADAV

Daily Arts Writer

‘Secret’ revels in detail and suspense

PBS film focuses on British prime minister Winston Churchill’s health

