There are many echoes here, of Moby Dick, of Maya Angelou, of Peter Pan, of the childhood of King Arthur as told by T. H. White, in which Merlin enables the boy to inhabit the bodies of fish and birds.

Some might call it derivative, but universal also applies, at least for the vast numbers of alienated. Most teens feel alienated, but Zits has more reasons than most. His Indian father never acknowledged him, his Irish mother died when he was 6. He has spent 15 years in foster homes and jails, and a brief time with an aunt whose boyfriend abused him. He's a genuine Lost Boy, whose native intelligence guides him to the few things worth watching on television, where he learns everything he knows about Indians from the History Channel.

A jail encounter with another young man, a Nietzsche-quoting blue-eyed blond anarchist who calls himself Justice, leads him to a bank armed with a paint gun and a .38 Special, and the shooting spree that ensues lands him in a series of violent events. He becomes an Indian child at the Little Bighorn when Custer attacks, an FBI agent at Red River, Idaho, in the 1970s with his memory of the future intact, knowing the ensuing myth of that event is untrue. He befriends and teaches an Arab to fly and is heartbroken when the man crashes a plane into a crowded Chicago street. And finally, his own defeated father.

This is the first novel in 10 years from Alexie, a Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian, who grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in northern Washington. As the only Indian at his high school (except for the school mascot), he excelled academically.

Somewhere he picked up a wonderfully caustic wit, which serves him well as a novelist, poet and screenwriter (Smoke Signals, The Business of Fancydancing and 49?, a 2003 short which has been playing at film festivals.)

He has said "I didn't know I was going to be a funny writer," Alexie says. "I just started writing and people laughed. And at first I was sort of offended. I expected, like many young people, that writing was supposed to be so serious—that if people were laughing it couldn't be serious. But I've learned that humor can be very serious. You know if you have people laughing, you can talk about very difficult subjects. I use it as an aesthetic—I suppose I should say anesthetic—and also to be profane and blasphemous. There's nothing I like more than laughing at other people's idea of the sacred."

Young Adult lit? Sure, I guess. But before you give it to one of those mysterious creatures, read it yourself and come to terms with the fairytale ending.

E-mail Sophie Annan Jensen at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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Lead guitarist works the crowd during Lakeport's summer concerts. Photo by Harold LaBonte.

ROBINSON RANCHERIA – The band Real Deal, a favorite among the many bands that entertained Friday evenings in Lakeport during the summer of 2007, returns to the area Friday and Saturday night when they perform in the bar and Robinson Rancheria Casino between Nice and Upper Lake.

The band, led by keyboardist FrankieJ, has performed over several decades as an opening act for some of America's best-known rhythm and blues and soul bands both here and abroad.

Lead guitarist Neil Stallings adds an extra bit of showmanship to his performance. Stallings also has played for many well-known bands during his long career.

E-mail Harold LaBonte at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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Though it may not prove a winner on screen, the action movie “Hitman” is based on an alleged top-selling, award-winning video game franchise. At the risk of exposing my cultural ignorance, I am unaware of this video game’s reputed popularity. No matter, as I am blissfully oblivious to the electronic gaming market in general. Being out of touch may not be such a handicap, because after all Hitman should stand on its cinematic merits.

In any event, I am usually game for a high-octane, shoot ‘em up adventure, where the elite assassin performs his job with lethal grace and resolute pride. In the movie's title role, Timothy Olyphant is the complex and mysterious hired gun known only as Agent 47. He’s a laconic loner who reveals little about himself, choosing to let his weapons do all the talking. He’d like to be Gary Cooper with automatic weapons, but this isn’t a western.

Oddly enough, this is more of a freak show. The background story has Agent 47 trained from birth in the deadly arts at some sort of weird monastery, where the young are molded into trained killers, detached emotionally from any real feelings and thoughts held by average folks. Like his equally anonymous colleagues, Agent 47 is stripped of conscience and morality.

The puzzling thing about Agent 47, dressed impeccably in fashionable suits, is that like his fellow assassins he’s got a shaved head with a tattooed barcode on the back of his scalp. Curiously enough, he runs around with the barcode constantly exposed, as if nobody is going to notice it.

The great unanswered question is why there’s a barcode emblazoned on his cranium to begin with. Does it have any practical value? Does he scan his head at the checkout counter of the arms-dealing supermarket when loading up on a stockpile of automatic weapons and grenades?

The story for Hitman, such as it is and as best as it can be followed, is that Agent 47, taking orders from the Agency by way of a computer, is on a mission to assassinate Russian president Mikhail Belicoff (Ulrich Thomsen). The reason for this assignment is unclear, though the target is described as a “moderate,” who’s unfortunately saddled with an unsavory younger brother (Henry Ian Cusack), a peddler in weapons, drugs and prostitutes.

The job goes off without a hitch, or so he thinks, until Belicoff appears again in public with nary a scratch. Hot on the trail is Interpol agent Mike Whittier (Dougray Scott), who knows that Agent 47, operating with lethal precision, does not miss a target.

The female interest is the slinky, hot babe Nika (Olga Kurylenko), connected to the Belicoffs and a key witness. She’s made some bad career choices, and now she’s taken hostage by Agent 47, who has to go on the run. For reasons that are muddled, the hitman is betrayed by the Agency, and suddenly he’s being chased through a train station by a bunch of bald guys with barcode tattoos.

Meanwhile, the Russian secret police and Interpol, not exactly working in sync, are after Agent 47 as well. A whole bunch of people are trigger happy, but none quite as much as the film’s putative hero. As time passes, the enigmatic, ruthless Agent 47 looks increasingly like the reasonable guy in a world populated with double-crossing thugs.

Meanwhile, the emotionally distant professional assassin has to deal with his pretty hostage, though he rarely lets his guard down. Interestingly, she attempts continuously to seduce him, but having been raised in a sheltered environment at the assassin school, Agent 47 never picked up any tips from James Bond, who always managed to give in to his carnal desires with the bad girls while keeping his wits intact. But our guy is unflappable and unmoved, even in the face of Nika’s seductive striptease.

Hitman has no really useful purpose other than to serve up large portions of violence and gunplay, where the high body count seems destined to create a new benchmark in wanton killings. The film is intermittently intriguing and interesting, but for reasons that seem elusive. If it’s basically mindless action on the menu, then Hitman does the trick.

DVD RELEASE UPDATE

From the guys who brought us crude comedies like “Knocked Up” and “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” comes “Superbad” in a two-disc unrated edition with additional footage deemed too raunchy for theaters.

Having seen the original, I can only wonder how much more over the edge they can go with this story about some guys desperate to hook up with their dream girls on a wild party night before heading off to college.

The two-disc set includes a bevy of bonus material, much of it designed to capitalize on the film’s essential lewdness.

Still, I am fascinated to see the “Press Junket Meltdown” feature, mainly out of professional curiosity.

For those who want to tone down the vulgarity, there’s also a single-disc rated version.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

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This month host Phil Mathewson will perform along with other local musicians, magicians and poets. The fun starts at 4 p.m. and continues to 6 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 1.

If you would like to perform come by and we will fit you in somehow. The open mic is always free with food and drink for sale at the café.

Café Victoria is located on the corner of Third and Main Street in Lakeport.

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