The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
4 — Wednesday, October 26, 2022 

Design by Emma Sortor

It was 2013. I was going to see 
“Frozen.” 
At 10 years old, I had been 
brewing in a lukewarm stew of 
stories with true love and happy 
endings for as long as I could 
remember. I followed my family 
into the movie theater feeling like 
a total fairy tale movie expert. 
The premise of “Frozen” is 
simple: Two princesses grow 
up as best friends but drift apart 
after Elsa (Idina Menzel, “Rent”) 
accidentally injures Anna (Kristen 
Bell, “The Good Place”) with her 
magical ice powers. Years later, 
during a tense confrontation, 
Elsa accidentally freezes Anna’s 
heart, a curse that will prove fatal 
if not broken by an act of true 
love. It’s an uncomplicated story 
about forgiveness and emotional 
vulnerability. 
Watching “Frozen” in the 
theater for the first time, I settled 
comfortably into my seat as soon 
as the first musical number 
began. I knew how this was going 
to play out: Elsa would worry, 
Anna would hope and the curse 
would be broken by the end. I 
was enjoying myself, but I wasn’t 
thrilled. 
The climax of the film reached 
its peak and I watched calmly as 
Anna raced through a blizzard 
toward her love interest, Kristoff 
(Jonathan 
Groff, 
“Glee”). 
A 
true love’s kiss was imminent, 
and the curse would be broken. 
Then, suddenly, just moments 
from salvation, Anna spots Elsa 
about to be struck by a sword. I 
remember the surprise I felt when 
she diverted her path to protect 
her sister. 
As Anna reached toward the 
blade, the curse took effect. She 
froze. 
The sword shattered against 
her hand. A final breath of air 
drifted from her frozen lips. 
Everything fell silent. I was 
stunned.
My 
decade 
of 
princess 
education had not prepared me 
for this. Anna was dead. All was 
lost.
I 
watched 
with 
terrific 
fascination as Elsa rose and 
stumbled to her sister, sobbing 
against her lifeless form. The 
snow hung in the air.
There was a vague shuffle from 
the audience. My younger sister’s 
small face was crumpled in 
confusion — this wasn’t supposed 
to happen. The princesses were 
always happy in the end. I was as 
lost as everyone else. But I loved 
it. 
This was the first time a movie 
had made me feel something 
complicated. I wasn’t just scared 
or sad. I was stumped. I couldn’t 
think of a way the story could 
move forward.
“Frozen” does have a happy 
ending. Anna’s block of the 

sword is the act of true love that 
saves her from the curse. She 
thaws shortly after my newfound 
favorite princess movie scene 
concludes and everything wraps 
up rather neatly. But I didn’t think 
about the gentle resolution as I 
walked out of the theater. What 
stuck with me was how I felt at 
the film’s darkest moment. 
It was that feeling you get 
when you drop something and it 
shatters. A feeling of irreversible 
loss. That feeling has a name: 
tragedy. 
After 
“Frozen,” 
I 
devoted 
myself to it. 
I gravitated toward my family’s 
older DVDs, “kid” movies with 
moments of unabashed tragedy 
like “The Hunchback of Notre 
Dame” and “Bambi.” I lost myself 
in books like “Little Women” and 
melodramatic musicals like “Les 
Misérables.” I was surprised and 
thrilled that so many disastrous 
stories existed. 
I began to wonder why so many 
people are drawn to tragedy. 
Life is hard enough. Why would 
anyone ever want to compound 
that feeling? To me, kind-hearted 
characters who get much worse 
than they deserve are consistently 
fascinating; they make stories feel 
real. As much as we may love fairy 
tales and happy endings, real life 
tends to be messier. It’s thrilling 
to consume art as rich and 
textured and confusing as reality. 
I am drawn to a wide variety of 
tragedies these days. 
Doomed romances leave me 
thinking hard about regret and 
melancholy. I often return to 
the sentimental first romantic 
encounter in “La La Land,” 
reveling in how the colors and 
music 
parallel 
the 
movie’s 
devastating final sequence. 
Fantastical stories like “Lord of 
the Rings” and “Star Wars” also 
have a special place in my heart 
because of their fundamental 
themes 
of 
destruction 
and 
chaos. My favorite example of 
this is “Revenge of the Sith,” 
which 
essentially 
reads 
like 
a 
Shakespearean 
tragedy. 
I 
can spend hours talking about 
how 
director 
George 
Lucas 
(“Star Wars: Episode IV: A New 
Hope”) connects political and 
interpersonal machinations in 
such a way that our heroes are left 
to become the worst versions of 
themselves.
Slice-of-life movies that feel 
extremely rooted in reality are 
another one of my favorite vessels 
for tragedy. In “The Florida 
Project,” there is no villain. It is 
societal failure that sends our 
characters spiraling into poverty 
and despair. “Licorice Pizza” 
is another one of my villain-
less favorites, which focuses on 
how earnest desires for love and 
acceptance often erode morality.
Biopics and real-world stories 
also have a huge capacity for 

‘Frozen,’ fairy tales and 
my fascination with 
tragedy

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

LOLA D’ONOFRIO
Daily Arts Contributor

The 2022 Booker Prize: Reviews and predictions 
by the Michigan Daily Book Review

The Booker Prize is one of the 
most prestigious literary prizes in 
fiction. Getting the nomination at all 
is a feat in and of itself; getting onto 
the shortlist and winning cements 
an author’s place in literary history. 
This year, 13 books were longlisted for 
the prize, with only six making the 
shortlist — those under consideration 
for winning the overall prize.
Luckily for our readers, in keeping 
with tradition, the Michigan Daily 
Book Review has read and reviewed 
all of the nominated books. Among 
them are the youngest author ever 
nominated, the oldest author ever 
nominated, the shortest book ever 
nominated and a debut novel. Here 
are our thoughts on the finalists of 
2022.
Our projected winner: “Glory” by 
NoViolet Bulawayo
Our 
longlisted 
underdog: 
“Nightcrawling” by Leila Mottley

THE SHORTLIST
“Glory” by NoViolet Bulawayo
NoViolet Bulawayo’s “Glory” 
is nothing short of a masterpiece. 
It follows the downfall of a 
dictatorship 
in 
the 
fictional 
African country of Jidada, in 
which the 40-year reign of Old 
Horse comes to an end in a violent 
coup d’etat (inspired by an actual 
2017 coup in Zimbabwe). Though 
every character in the novel is 
an animal, the struggles and 
conflicts in the novel feel as real 
as the events they’re inspired 
by. Bulawayo’s novel operates 
within its own vast mythos and 
cultural legacy, which is slowly 
built upon by various references 
to Jidada’s rich albeit complicated 
past as a former colony. The novel 
is a negotiation between this 
colonialist past and a future as 
an independent nation. Bulawayo 
communicates these themes in a 
multitude of ways, but her use of 
language throughout the novel is 
perhaps the most striking; words 
and phrases are repeated with 
a steady rhythm, until they gain 
an emotional resonance in the 
reader’s mind, reminiscent of 
poetry. Bulawayo unflinchingly 
examines the question of how we 
can overcome traumatic legacies 
and pick up the pieces to forge our 
own paths.

“Small Things Like These” by 
Claire Keegan
At 116 pages, “Small Things 
Like These” by Claire Keegan is 
the shortest book ever nominated 
for the Booker Prize. Don’t let its 
size fool you; the book is quiet and 
contemplative but stands out with 
its exposure of a tragic reality 

that threatens to rock the Irish 
town of New Ross. Set in 1985, the 
book follows Bill Furlong, a coal 
merchant who lives a good life with 
his wife and five daughters.
“Small Things Like These” is 
the story of a hardworking man 
and a choice that could alter his life 
forever. In a way, the book is simple. 
Even Keegan’s prose is simple; the 
book is filled with descriptions 
of Furlong’s work and home 
environment and the coldness of 
Ireland around Christmastime. But 
that’s not to say it doesn’t pack an 
emotional punch.
“Small Things Like These” is 
a worthy Booker finalist, but it 
probably won’t win. 

“The Trees” by Percival Everett
Grounded 
in 
mystery 
and 
intrigue, 
steeped 
in 
bitter 
dark humor, Percival Everett’s 
“The 
Trees” 
combines 
the 
Guggenheim- 
and 
Creative 
Capital 
fellowship-awarded 
author’s signature engaging and 
pleasurable prose with a side of 
scathing social commentary. “The 
Trees,” rife with twists and turns, 
takes place in the small town of 
Money, Mississippi. Sixty-seven 
years after the brutal murder of 
Emmett Till, a series of killings, 
eerily similar to Till’s, arise. 
Gut-wrenching, acerbic and 
willing to go to the unseemly 
places we would rather ignore, 
“The Trees” is both highly 
deserving of its spot on the 
shortlist and a top contender for 
the Booker prize. 

“The 
Seven 
Moons 
of 
Maali 
Almeida” 
by 
Shehan 
Karunatilaka
“The 
Seven 
Moons 
of 
Maali 
Almeida” 
by 
Shehan 
Karunatilaka delivers a biting 
satire on the human condition, 
rich with colorful visuals, cutting 
sardonic humor and existential 
contemplation. Set in 1990, as the 
ruthless decades-long Sri Lankan 
civil war rages, Karunatilaka 
introduces the readers to a 
protagonist whose lifestyle and 
behavior casts him as an outsider, 
an unrelatable deviant murdered 
for trying to uncover the truth. 
What unfolds is a familiar murder 
mystery whodunit but with a 
twist of magical realism that 
skews the line between real and 
fake. “The Seven Moons of Maali 
Almeida” offers what a good book 
should — a delicious page-turner 
that will keep you thinking even 
after the cover closes. “The Seven 
Moons of Maali Almeida” most 
assuredly deserves its spot on 
the shortlist for the 2022 Booker 
Prize.
“Treacle 
Walker” 
by 
Alan 

Garner
In “Treacle Walker,” an ordinary 
boy named Joe makes a bizarre 
transaction that enables him to see 
and experience the most peculiar 
things. It’s a surrealist novel, 
whimsical and full of oddities. 
Garner’s writing is incredibly spare, 
and its mysterious silences cause 
the reader to lean into the story, 
rapturously hanging onto every 
word and treasuring the dollops of 
pure wisdom and truth that make 
this novel compelling. There are 
certain phrases that are repeated 
throughout the novel, like “What 
sees is seen,” “I heal all things; save 
jealousy,” and “Can’t never did.” In 
this little book, Garner powerfully 
communicates his many insights 
about the world. “Treacle Walker” 
is a book you could read over and 
over again and still see something 
new every time.

“Oh William!” by Elizabeth 
Strout
In 
Elizabeth 
Strout’s 
third 
installation following Lucy Barton, 
the author’s ability to invigorate 
the complexities of life into her 
characters and narratives shines 
through better than ever before. 
Lucy, a writer softly in tune with 
the world’s emotions around her, 
is wrapped back into the world of 
her complicated ex-husband. He 
is perhaps the only aspect of the 
world she cannot unravel, and 
is an on-again, off-again friend 
for reasons she cannot explain; 
really, the two act as magnets of 
mysticism to each other despite the 
juxtaposition of their characters. As 
the most recent indulgence of the 
pair and central plot of the novel, 
William ropes Lucy into a long 
winded trip to co-investigate his 
discovery of a life-altering family 
secret.
It is not surprising that “Oh 
William!” is a Booker shortlist 
nominee: Strout offers a tender, 
intimate look into the angst, 
fears, insecurities and existential 
mysteries life has to offer, along 
with the lonely joys and beautiful 
imperfections 
that 
make 
it 
worthwhile. 

THE LONGLIST
“After Sappho” by Selby Wynn 
Schwartz
“After Sappho,” author Selby 
Wynn Schwartz’s debut novel, 
is the kind of book you can open 
to any page and find something 
beautiful: “scry the marvelous 
new thing that will grace and 
harrow your life,” “the world 
was made of threads humming 
into place,” “just outside time or 
subject, wistful in colour, its edges 
tinged with foreboding.” Written 
as a series of short vignettes of 

just a few paragraphs at a time, 
labeled by character and year, this 
book is best read like a collection 
of poetry: in small doses focused 
on language and unconcerned 
with 
plot. 
Schwartz 
loosely 
traces the lives of iconic Sapphic 
women, from the very famous 
Colette and Virginia Woolf to the 
lesser-known Lina Poletti and 
Sarah Bernhardt, as they loved 
other women and made strides 
in feminism and art. But the book 
is not a biography; Schwartz 
herself 
describes 
it 
in 
the 
bibliographic endnote as “a hybrid 
of imaginaries and intimate non-
fictions.” She takes on the voice 
of a Greek chorus in a tragedy 
as they follow Queer women 
through time and offer interludes 
of Sappho’s poetic fragments. 
While “After Sappho” deserves 
its place on the longlist for its 
attention to historic detail and 
poetic language, its sometimes-
confusing timeline and narrative 
— clarity on which are often 
sacrificed to the altar of making 
the book sound pretty — mean 
it sits comfortably off of the 
shortlist. 

“Trust” by Hernan Diaz
“Trust” has fantastic writing 
but is a disappointing concept 
novel. Composed of four chapters 
written as excerpts of other books, 
Diaz’s debut samples literature 
written in an alternate 20th 
century America. Each sample 
stacks neatly on top of each other 
in one conveniently-themed book 
jacket. They are written from 
a different perspective (with 
a corresponding new writing 
style and skill level) revolving 
around 
the 
topic 
of 
money 
and the life of one Wall Street 
tycoon. But the stories carry few 
points of continuity and, at its 
base construction, the book is a 
hamfisted consideration about 
how truth, myth and memory are 
formed — a tragically haphazard 
copy-and-paste of gorgeous short 
stories and gimmicky narratives. 
The second story, stylized as a 
half-complete manuscript, was 
written with no narrative purpose 
besides existing as a prolonged 
example of the many discarded 
biographies mentioned in a later 
story. Instead of being excited 
by the gimmick, I found it twee 
and embarrassing. Much like the 
“Bojack 
Horseman” 
character 
Vincent Adultman (the nom de 
plume of three kids masquerading 
in a trench coat), the novel wears 
the veneer of a cohesive story 
without being a unified treatise. 

MICHIGAN DAILY 
BOOK REVIEW

‘Black Adam’ claims to be the dawn of a new day for DC — but can it deliver?

I 
speak 
on 
behalf 
of 
all 
superhero movie fans when I 
say: 
We’re 
getting 
impatient. 
Recent storylines feel contrived, 
productions appear fatuous and 
characters lack their previous 
charm. It seems we’re on the verge 
of a breakup with the superhero 
craze. Perhaps we want different 
things — maybe it’s time we see 
other people. 
But we haven’t given up yet. 
Enter “Black Adam,” the highly 
anticipated DC Extended Universe 
blockbuster that will debut Oct. 
21. Starring Dwayne Johnson 

(“DC League of Super-Pets”) in 
the titular role, “Black Adam” is 
the first movie to tell the story of 
one of DC Comics’s most powerful 
antiheroes. Tapping into darker 
material has worked in DC’s favor 
before — “The Batman” (2022) 
was well-received by audiences 
and praised by critics for its 
psychological portrayal of Bruce 
Wayne in the form of a neo-noir 
thriller. Like “The Batman,” “Black 
Adam” walks the blurred line 
between good and evil without 
being anchored to the origin story 
of its eponym.
In a virtual college roundtable 
with The Michigan Daily on 
Oct. 6, Johnson, actors Pierce 
Brosnan 
(“Goldeneye”), 
Aldis 

Hodge (“Green Lantern: Beware 
My 
Power”), 
Noah 
Centineo 
(“To 
All 
the 
Boys” 
trilogy), 
Quintessa 
Swindell 
(“Master 
Gardener”), Sarah Shahi (“Sex/
Life”), Mohammed Amer (“Mo 
Amer: Mohammed in Texas”) and 
producers Hiram Garcia (“DC 
League of Super-Pets”) and Beau 
Flynn (“Red Notice”) discussed 
their new film. 
Brosnan said with sincerity, 
“Every day was a joy to go to work 
with my fellow actors here, and we 
really did become a family.” The 
word “family” was thrown around 
numerous times during the panel as 
each member of the cast expressed 
their gratitude for the opportunity 
to be part of such a harmonious 

team. 
The 
cast’s 
playful 
camaraderie was impossible to 
miss — the actors were unable to 
contain their effusive laughter as 
Hodge explained the story of his 
animated reaction to receiving the 
news that he had gotten the role 
of Hawkman. The stars of “Black 
Adam” have undeniable chemistry 
off-screen, a promising indicator 
of the dynamics we may observe 
on-screen. Flynn shared, “You kind 
of have to cross your fingers when 
casting roles … (but) the minute we 
saw them together, we knew (it) 
was a home run.” 
Johnson’s remarkably successful 
Hollywood career has spanned 
years, a rare feat given that his 
background is not in acting. But 

“Black Adam” stands out among 
his past projects as his first foray 
into the superhero subgenre, in a 
role he said was “truly an honor” 
to play. 
Johnson spoke on the driving 
force behind this story: “We all 
wanted to make a film that was 
different and unique in this world 
of the superhero genre that has 
been so wildly successful for so 
many years.” Johnson added that 
the idea to finally bring Black Adam 
and the Justice Society to life was 
intended to usher in “a new era of 
The DC Universe.” Rather than 
creating a place for “Black Adam” 
within the existing hierarchy, the 
goal of this project was to “(design) 
a movie that was disruptive” to the 

patterns of its own genre. Garcia 
echoed this idea as he spoke on 
“(delivering something) special 
for the fans” while creating a film 
that felt “fresh and (allowed) us to 
elevate the genre that we’re playing 
in.” Whether “Black Adam” will 
make good on its promises of 
nonconformity remains to be seen. 
Though we have another week 
to wait for the movie to hit the 
big screen, one thing is certain: 
Those who made “Black Adam” are 
proud of it. In a genre that relies 
heavily on tradition, this film aims 
to preserve the thrill of a classic 
superhero story while reimagining 
the DC vision. With that in mind, I 
am ready to give “Black Adam” the 
chance it deserves. 

MAYA RUDER
Daily Arts Contributor

This image is from the official trailer for “Frozen” distributed by Walt Disney Animation 
Studios.
Read more at MichiganDaily.com

