Category: Fiction

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Book Reviews Fiction

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami – Surreal and Beautifully Written Short Stories

I would be lying to say that I wasn’t stopped by this rather sexy book cover (which later found out that it is rather relevant to the leading story).  But there are plenty of sexy book covers out there to grab attention.  I liked the book title but was not familiar with the author’s name.  I am naturally attracted to foreign writers but shall I invest my time to read an unfamiliar author’s work and to broaden my exposure when my personal reading preference flavors depth than breadth?  I flipped the book open and started reading it, inside a library.

“To put it in the simplest possible terms, I find writing novels a challenge, writing short stories a joy.  If writing novels is like planting a forest, then writing short stories is more like planting a garden.  The two processes complement each other, creating a complete landscape that I treasure.  The green foliage of the trees casts a pleasant shade over the earth, and the wind rustles the leaves, which are sometimes dyed a brilliant gold.  Meanwhile, in the garden, buds appear on flowers, and colourful petals attract bees and butterflies, reminding us of the subtle transition from one season to the next.” – Haruki Murakami, Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, vii.

I love to write and I couldn’t agree with him more.  I have attempted to write both novels and short stories and I often find myself torn between the two.  Why?  Haruki Murakami couldn’t have said it better.

I personally enjoy reading short stories; not used to in the beginning but I have grown accustomed to, and now fall in love with.  On that count, I simply cannot, for instance, get enough of Italo Calvino’s work – an Italian author who wrote lots of great short stories.

“Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman” is a collection of short stories written in the period of 1981 to 2005.  And they are translated from Japanese by Philip Gabriel and Jay Rubin.  I can’t really pinpoint a common theme across all these 25 stories (334 pages, hardcover).  All I can say is that Haruki Murakami has a keen sense of observation at the most minute detail.  You can actually see the story as you read it.  And Haruki Murakami’s stories are mostly surreal, at times metaphoric.  I sense that some stories are inspired by certain bizarre news that most people disregard.  Some stories are written using himself as the main character so I gather that these stories relate to people in his real life and are told with a certain dose of imagination.  Some supposedly fictional characters read almost like the author himself with a changed name.  Some fictional characters are, I believe, purely fictional.

In short, there are no ordinary stories when told by Haruki Murakami, even those with plots that do not resolve into any dramatic ending.

Out of these 25 stories, some leave a deeper impression than others.  The four and a half pages long short story “A Perfect Day for Kangaroos”, for instance, is one of my favorites.  The author wrote about a man bringing his girlfriend who wanted to see a baby kangaroo to visit a zoo.  “Man-Eating Cats” started with a piece of news reporting on an old woman who died in her apartment and the hungry cats locked inside had nothing to eat but to feed on the dead body .  The story itself is nothing gross to that extend but a good metaphor that links the main character with an, perhaps, imaginary lover?  The story “Firefly” is a beautiful love story of perpetual waiting while “Chance Traveller” is an emotional story between the two estranged siblings.  “The Kidney-Shaped Stone That Moves Every Day” is a carefully crafted story that is told within a story and the last chapter “A Shinagawa Monkey” exposes our very own psychological subconciousness and identity with the help of a … talking monkey that steals name tags.

The opening chapter “Blind Willows, Sleeping Woman” may as well be a representative piece of work from the book with the same title – a statement of what Haruki Murakami’s unique style is all about, at least for this book.

Certainly, I intend to follow the rabbit hole and dig deep into what Haruki Murakami has to offer.  To end this review, I found this rather interesting dialogue between the main character – an author – and a subject of his affection.

“Writers don’t have any talents to offer.  A pianist could play you a tune.  A painter could draw you a sketch.  A magician could perform a trick or two.  There’s not much a writer can do.” – Haruki Murakami, Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, 293.

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Book Reviews Fiction

Paulo Coelho – Brida – Witchcraft, Bridging the Visible and the Invisible

OK.  Seldom do I need to finish reading a book, write a review, and return it to the library before midnight.  This is going to be an interesting experience.  Usually after I arrive at the last page of a book, I would revisit all the pages I noted that are pivoting to the development of the story for completeness’s sake.  Speed blogging at its best without compromise!

It is interesting that only in year 2008 the English translation of “Brida” is published.  The original version (written in Portuguese I presume) was published in 1990 sandwiched between Paulo Coelho’s two classics “The Alchemist” (1988) and “The Valkyries” (1991).  “Brida” lacks the inspirational impact these two classics have and it also lacks an engaging storyline as compares to some of his recent works, in my opinion.

His recent work “The Witch Of Portobello” (2006) paints the journey of the witch Athena loosely based upon Jung’s four stages of individual progression: Persona, Shadow, Soul, and Wise Old Man or Great Mother.  As for “Brida”, the author takes a deeper look into witchcraft – the four ways a woman can communicate with the Universe through reincarnation: the virgin, the saint, the martyr, and the witch.

To bridge the visible and the invisible is magic.  And how do some manage to get there?  According to the book, there are two traditions: the Sun (for wizards) and the Moon (for witches).  Strange concept, isn’t it?  There are more to it.  Paulo Coelho links the nine gifts that these two traditions took care with St. Paul’s first epistle to the Corinthians.  For those who are familiar with the Bible, these nine gifts should not be foreign to you: the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, faith, healing, the working of miracles, prophecy, the discerning of the spirits, speaking in tongues, and the interpretation of tongues.

The book has some strange linkages to the Virgin Mary, Jesus, and the Catholics.  You may know that at one point in time, witches were burned by the Christians.  In fact, the rituals – described by the author in a separate warning note as the practices of the Tradition of the Moon for centuries – are somewhat related to the hardship that the witchcraft has lived through.  From within the story, Catharism (a Christian religious sect with dualistic and gnostic elements) is mentioned and because there is a linkage to historical events, it makes me wonder how much is factual.  Perhaps, some people do able to alter their state of consciousness and observe auras.  Looking at today’s world, there are people who claim to be able to do that.  There are even machines that can take pictures of our auras.

Bizarre surreal tradition of witchcraft and to some extend wizardry aside, “Brida” is loaded with fragmented inspirational messages.  Check this out.  How many of are you (like me) constantly trying to find a right path in life – be it as love, career, or anything in general?  Sometimes we set off down a path because we don’t believe in it.  And it is so easy to prove that it isn’t the right one.  But when things start to happen and the path does reveal itself to us, what do we do?  We become afraid of carrying on.  So true.  And why do we experience disappointment, defeat, and despair at times?  Well, according to the author, they are the tools God uses to show us the way and to encourage us to have the courage to make mistakes, to risk failure and disillusion, and basically prompting us to keep searching, keep looking.

Some of the concepts – though are not new to me – do make me stop and think.  If I want to find out about something, what shall I do?  Plunge straight in!  I know it is so obvious but more often than not, I avoid taking the plunge and instead, procrastinate just for another day, and another.  How about doubts that I have, doubts that get constantly generated off my head?  Maybe I doubt if I am good enough to do this or that.  Maybe I doubt if this or that will happen.  According to the author, the moment we stop doubting is the moment we stop moving forward.  And I often think that – in contrary to the book – changing on the outside is easier than changing on the inside.  Come to think of it, I don’t think the way I am perceived externally have changed much over the years (still the shirt and tie at work and blue jeans after all).  But I have changed the way I perceive the world and the people around me from within much over the same period.  My favorite message?  Finding one important thing in life doesn’t mean that I have to give up all the other important things.

So true.

Go back to “Brida”, the book has devoted much of its content in the sexual union between a man and a woman.  In its own words, “when male knowledge joins with female transformation, then the real magical union is created, and its name is Wisdom”.  For the conservative minds, the idea of experiencing communion with God by opening all the five senses during sexual union could be hard to accept.  To that end, instead of hearing my interpretation, here is an excerpt.

“Because anyone who comes into contact with sex knows that they’re dealing with something which only happens in all its intensity when they lose control.  When we’re in bed with someone, we’re giving permission to that person not only to commune with our body, but with our whole being.  The pure forces of life are in communication with each other, independently of us, and then we cannot hide who we are.” – Paulo Coelho, Brida, 128.

So, is “Brida” a must-read?  I think if you are new to Paulo Coelho, you may wish to start with some of his other classics.  For the fans, I guess we just have to read it right?  I am not sure why Cynthia loves “Brida” better than “The Witch Of Portobello” …

Wait, “Brida” is also a book about a love so strong but yet cannot be possessed.  Could it be …

To end this entry, let me share with you two memorable quotes from the book.

Nothing in the world is ever completely wrong … even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

And by an English poet William Blake.

What is now proved was once only imagin’d.

PS. I made it before midnight!  Time now is 11.20pm and I am heading to the library to return the book.

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Book Reviews Fiction

Clive Barker – Mister B. Gone – How Open Is Your Open Mind? Can You Read A Book Backward?

Whether or not you will find “Mister B. Gone” rewarding hinges on whether or not you “get it“.  Since I am a responsible netizen, I am going to self-censor this entry with a NC-16 rating due to my personal views on homosexuality and religion.  Besides, why would we wish to expose readers younger than 16 years old to a book full of grotesque and evilness?

But I got it so I find “Mister B. Gone” not entertaining, not pleasant, but a rewarding read.  I am going to tell you what it is in just a bit without giving out spoilers that may affect your reading pleasure – that is if you still decide to read this book after you are through with this review.

Many people think that Stephen King is a master of horror stories.  Stephen King’s stories are not scary, the earlier work of Clive Barker are.  I have read all his 9 fictions up to “Everville”, which is where all the good stuffs stop.  I have read some of his recent works and they are not as inspiring.

I often find Clive Barker’s ideas original.  “The Thief of Always”, for instance, is a rather short story on someone stealing the “always” from the kids.  Imagine, things that “always” happen do not happen anymore.  How cool the idea is that?  I also like “The Great and Secret Show” and its sequel “Everville”.  I have even endured the close to 900 pages “Imajica” and loved it.

So, how do I find “Mister B. Gone” (year 2007, 256 pages, hardcover), a story of a demon who finds himself fished out of Hell and now walks the Earth?

It is known to the world that the author lives with his partner David Armstrong.  And to that end, I didn’t know what to feel when I discovered that the main character is perhaps a gay demon.  OK, it was not explicitly mentioned that the demon is gay but he is emotionally in love with another guy.  Bottom line is, for sure I can’t relate.  But I suspect another group of readers may be able to.

“Mister B. Gone” also makes reference to the Christian Gospel, the Vatican, the Pope, and the Archbishops and cast them into less than positive light.  Again, it is a formula that has been tried and used millions of times and the idea of a battle between the Angels and Devils is also not new.  At times I wonder what would an alternative reality be if someone replaces these ingredients with the Quran, the Ulama, and the Imam and writes the same storybook?  I think of Salman Rushdie (the book “The Satanic Verses”) and Geert Wilders (the short film “Fitna”).  And why does the Christian world so tolerance towards such a blaspheme?

Freedom of speech, I got it (though not totally agree with it).

Nothing is pretty inside “Mister B. Gone”.  Nothing pretty survives inside “Mister B. Gone”.  It is not a horror fiction.  It is more like a fiction of grotesque.  And it is written in such a strange way that this (gay) demon supposes to keep talking to you (as a reader) and begs you to burn the book.  He even threatens you, insults you, and makes you feel very uncomfortable to continue reading the book.  And why would anyone wish to continue reading a book that even the main character is far from lovable – an ugly, mutilated, evil albeit intelligence demon committing grievous crimes that make the World War II atrocities look mild?  Granted that the human counterparts within the plot are not doing things that we are proud of either.  But I wouldn’t philosophically read too much into that.

Enough of suspense.  So, what is it?  If you are observant enough, it may occur to you that the book is created backward based on one random sentence one character says.  I suspected that after I have spotted that tiny sentence and all of a sudden, the title of the book makes so much sense when you tie it back to the ending (at first I thought it was due to “Mister B. Be Gone”, which also makes sense as that line is taken from somewhere in the book).  Usually the author’s note of acknowledgement is at the beginning of the book right?  Guess where this note is?  And I often wonder why the author keeps repeating the key events of the story that happen in the past.  Now, I think if I read the book backward, section by section, I may still be able to follow the flow of events.

Isn’t that brilliant?  A book version of the Eagle’s song “Hotel California” (rumor has it that when played backward, there is a hidden message). 

To be frank, the last 6 pages of the book is very rewarding.  It does change your perception of the story in a big way provided that you can withstand 250 pages worth of torture – a torture not because the book is badly written, but because it is full of agonies and grotesque in graphical details, insults and verbal abuse to say the least.

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Book Reviews Fiction

Doris Lessing – The Story Of General Dann And Mara’s Daughter, Griot And The Snow Dog

Doris Lessing - The Story of General Dann and Mara\'s Daughter, Griot and the Snow Dog

By no means I wish to diminish the genius of Doris Lessing, the sequel to the epic novel “Mara and Dann” reads more like an extension than a novel that exists in its own right.  But, any kind of follow on story on where “Mara and Dann” has left off is going to be a piece of good news to the fans – at least to me.

Unlike “Mara and Dann”, “The Story of General Dann and Mara’s Daughter, Griot and the Snow Dog” (year 2005, 282 pages, hardcover) has a totally different emphasis; and that emphasis is certainly not of the civilization progression and the struggle of survival that has been so well covered in “Mara and Dann”.  Like some of Doris Lessing’s previous works, there is a switch of perspective here and the world is now seen through the lens of Dann instead of Mara. 

I won’t cover how the story begins in this review as by doing so will inevitably give away the ending of the prequel.  All I can say is that the story dwells more on human emotion from within rather than a plot driven by quests and events as it was for the prequel.  Some readers may wonder why so much literature is spend on the internal struggle of Dann himself against his the other side and the undying loyalty to General Dann through the eyes and heart of Captain Griot.  To me, feeling seldom changes overnight; perspective seldom changes overnight; we seldom change overnight.  For the patience ones, the reward is the seamless transition of perspectives through different characters and to be able to observe how the characters grow, gradually and realistically.

Added to the main storyline are Mara’s daughter Tamar and a snow dog Ruff.  The snow dog has certainly added a new dimension of the story telling never seen before in “Mara and Dann”.  For the observant ones, I think the brilliance of having a snow dog as the plot unveiled is an attempt to explain and perhaps acts as a redemption to what happens at the beginning of the story.

This story reads like an extension partly because the physical location covered is a lot lesser than its prequel.  Dann’s perpetually yearning for exploration does guide him towards the Ice Cliffs of Yerrup – a part of the world that is new to “Mara and Dann”.  Other than that, the majority of the plot happens in North Ifrik.  And similar to “Mara and Dann”, this sequel does not have a main quest.  For those are hoping and expecting to read a story of how one man can save the world, this is not a story of such kind.  And no, I would not recommend you to read this before its prequel either.

With its open ending, I will not be surprised that there will be another sequel in the making.  Even if there is none, I am happy that the story ends where it is now, more so than how it was ended in “Mara and Dann”.

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Mara And Dann By Doris Lessing – An Adventure Of A Sister And A Brother During The Next Ice Age

Mara and Dann by Doris Lessing

Having read a few of the books by the Nobel Price winner in literature, Doris Lessing, I am curious about her another genre that is not popularly accepted by the critics – science fiction.  So I picked up “Mara and Dann” (year 1999, 407 pages) from our National Library.  I have not read all of her thirty over books yet but if the book publisher describes the heroine of this book as “one of Doris Lessing’s most appealing heroines”, I would gladly take their words for it is a nice departure from the rather dark and depressing titles of “The Fifth Child” and its sequel “Ben in the World” whereby the main character is more or less a monster living in our own world.

Perhaps human condition regardless of time is depressing.  Life is hard.  And the saving grace throughout the time continuum is love.  In “Mara and Dann”, the story is set somewhere in the distant future when our Earth is covered in ice – except Ifrik (equivalent to our modern day Africa).  Dotted in this continent Ifrik are civilizations of different progression (stone age, medieval, military, religion, and science), people of different shapes and colors, richness and the poor, and in the diverse race of the Mahondi,  the Rock People, the Hadrons, the Hennes, the Agre, and the Albs, nothing escape the sharp eyes of Mara who is always hunger for knowledge.

Abducted since young, Mara – a Mahondi by birth – began an epic journey traversing Ifrik together with her little brother Dann.  The main plot evolves around Mara with Dann coming in and out of Mara’s journey.  In “Mara and Dann”, you will get to experience Ifrik first hand with Mara.  You may even feel the thirst and hunger of Mara like I do, and the joy and desperation.  You will certainly see how the characters grow as they aged, how their bonding gets stronger as days go by.

What some may see lacking maybe a main quest within the story.  What propel me to continue reading the book, however, was simply: what will Mara see next?  In such, “Mara and Dann” is a different type of page turner perhaps more appealing to those who are drawn to the world of scare resources, slavery, conflicts, racism, and sexism.  My main take home messages are two: (1) we always expect things to remain the way they always do (which they don’t) and (2) we can’t truly understand something unless we experience them.

A timely read as we ourselves are faced with the challenge of climate change, today.

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Remember Me By Sophie Kinsella – A Calculated Risk That May Or May Not Work For Some

Remember Me by Sophie Kinsella

Fanboi talk aside – as I do have read all eight of her novels – “Remember Me” is an interestingly subtle departure from her time proven success with the Shopaholic formula.  First, let’s recap.  Be it as Becky Bloodwood of the Shopaholic series (5 books), Samantha of “The Undomestic Goddess”, Emma of “Can You Keep A Secret”, or Lexi of “Remember Me”, the author’s heroines have always been an embodiment of someone who is flawed, optimistic, and passionate towards family and friends.  The formula extends beyond the main character herself.  There will be lovers involved, parents, best friends, best friends who are no longer best friends, bosses, and a sister in some cases, and to top it up, Sophie Kinsella’s books are always a fun read that make you laugh-out-loud drawing suspicious glances from people around you.

The bottom line is: does the world need another book from Sophie Kinsella?  For those who worship the Shopaholic series, “Remember Me” may come across as less entertaining.  It has lesser laugh-out-loud moments per page flipped.  For those who find the Shopaholic series too shallow but enjoy reading her standalone novels instead, “Remember Me” may come quite close to “The Undomestic Goddess”, which I still think it is the author’s best work today.

There is a novelty in the idea itself: imagine what would happen if one day you wake up and three years worth of memory has just vanished?  And you wake up with a new job title, a new look, new set of friends, and you realize that you are married to someone who is a stranger to you.  Through the character Lexi, Sophie Kinsella explores the condition of amnesia, and more so than any of her previous works, I think there are a fair bit of planning in order to make the storyline works – set aside the need to have every small details made sense to the readers.  To that, I think Sophie Kinsella has done a great job in delivering a relatively more complex storyline with relatively more character development for those who surround the main character.

“Remember Me” is still a page turner and prompted me in thinking: perhaps all these efforts of upkeeping my own blog site are not too bad an idea just in case one day, touch wood, I bump my head onto something and lose a chunk of memory.

PS. I tried to place a reservation at our National library but I gave up after seeing the queue.  I was close to number 250 with just over twenty books available for lending.  And knowing how long it may take for the paperback to hit the bookstore, I go for the hardcover instead.

Related Entries: Can You Keep A Secret?, On Sophie Kinsella’s Shopaholic & Baby, and Undomestic Goddess – A Good Read

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Book Reviews Fiction

Ben In The World By Doris Lessing – Sympathetic Love And Desperation Mashed Into One

Ben In The World - Doris Lessing

I have written and rewritten this entry so many times that it is no longer funny.  So I shall get straight into the point.  The beauty – which ironically the word beauty is the least appropriate word to describe the story – of “Ben in the World” is that Doris Lessing has created a main character so far fetched from the current reality (a yeti? a primate?), put this hideous being into an imperfect world of greed, abuse, violence, indifference, and desperation (a.k.a. our reality) and you wonder, who or what is more hideous?  The main character, Ben, or the rest of the scumbags?  And because Ben is so out-of-this-world, it gets you curious in finding out who he is and what he is.  But that is not all that “Ben in the World” has to offer.  Just when you thought you have seen it all and let your common sense anticipates how the storyline unfolds, you are vastly disappointed.  The storyline simply defies all expectations, fails to resolve the way you want it to be, and this frustration motivates you to make connection with the main character of the book and you wonder, who is more frustrated?  You or Ben?  And when you finish reading the very last sentence, it suddenly hits you.  It is you whom Doris Lessing is talking to.  It is you who should feel ashamed of being indifference to the less fortunate, physically and mentally challenged ones.

OK, I am ashamed of who I am.

I think what Doris Lessing does is witty.  Through the little actions and conversations of her characters, she invokes metaphors that aid self-reflection.  In “The Fifth Child”, the focal point is onto Ben’s family, especially his mother Harriet.  I must say while I view “The Fifth Child” as a story with a powerful plot that comes down to maternal love, unconditional love, I was greatly curious about what this abnormal child of Harriet really like.  What pleases him?  What does he want in life?  How does he perceive external environment?  Is he evil?  And “Ben in the World” picks up where “The Fifth Child” leaves off.  If the original story is about maternal love, unconditional love, I would say this sequel is about sympathetic love and desperation.

The last sentence of the book still lives vividly in my mind.  Oh God, I want to unread that.  PS. That sentence only makes sense if you read the book.

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The Fifth Child By Doris Lessing – Horror Or Tragedy? You Decide

The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing

Doris Lessing needs no introduction in my site (please refer to the previous entry).  I had one other book in mind when I visited the library last week but it was not available.  So I have decided to pick another book authored by Doris Lessing.  Spoilt by options, I chose a rather short novel (160 pages) – “The Fifth Child” – as well as its sequel “Ben in the World”.  The sequel was selected by pure chance.

Reading Doris Lessing reminded me of one of the literature values the famous Italian writer Italo Calvino promoted in his “Six Memos for the Next Millennium” – Quickness.  The pace of “The Fifth Child” is extremely fast especially for the first quarter of the book.  The two main characters – David and Harriet – fell in love, bought a huge mansion in London, had their first child, then second, then third, then fourth and in the same period, other family characters were introduced to paint a ‘happy’ and ‘cheerful’ environment for the couple who was determined to be happy and had as many children as possible – all within 40 of pages.

Then Harriet was pregnant with the fifth child.  And that is when the story turns into a tragedy.  This thing that was born has no better word to describe than perhaps, troll or goblin or medieval human being.  Doris Lessing’s subtle sensitivity shines through the passages of horror and shock that each character has to bear.  The ‘happy’ family was shattered, no longer lived in harmony, and there came the irrational actions of Harriet’s heroic struggle to love her son without reciprocation, against the will of her family.  Nobody would understand.  I too would not.  However, under Doris Lessing’s pen, Harriet’s unconditional, yet difficult, love towards this thing inspires the readers how powerful maternal love can be.  The feeling described is so real that, to me, it almost read as a horror story that I could not stop reading.

I have just started reading the sequel “Ben in the World”.  So far, it is even better than “The Fifth Child”.  If you have the stomach for this kind of novel, you may wish to give it a try.

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The Cleft By Doris Lessing – Drop All That You Know And Start Over

The Cleft

In the beginning, there were only women.  Then one day, a deformed baby with a tube hanging in front was born.  These deformed babies grew up with breasts that have no milk inside and nipples that were dysfunctional …

The above is how the plot begins in “The Cleft”.  I don’t know how you all make decision in picking up a book to read.  Here was what went through my mind chronically when I picked up “The Cleft”.

  1. Cool title with a nice cover – 5% of importance
  2. Nobel Price winner in literature sticker – 30%
  3. Unusual plot of in the beginning, there were only female species – 40%
  4. Under 300 pages – 10%
  5. Writing style that is easy to read – 15%

In fact, “The Cleft” has all the right ingredients that I was so tempted to buy the book at first sight, at second sight.  But these days, I want to see return from my own tax money.  I borrow from the library instead.
 
To fully appreciate “The Cleft”, you really have to drop all that you know about the two sexes and start over.  Presumptions will only frustrate you and you may probably miss what “The Cleft” is about: an evolution of human society from single sex sea creatures (in human form) that have no conception of the collective “we” and the individual “I” to the interdependency of the two sexes that realize “how few we are, how easily we die” (a direct quote).  The journey from the primordial life form to the realization of moral righteousness, the importance of the continuation of the species, the never ending yearning of exploration, and the discovery of love is not an easy journey to cover in fewer than 300 pages.
 
And that is only half of what “The Cleft” is about.  The main story – that only account for a tiny portion of the book – centers around an old Roman senator who was tasked to write a history on the first recorded human society.  Seeing how history was written in “The Cleft” makes me reflect upon how our own history is written.  Legends are passed onto generations orally in forms of memories, and stories.  Somehow, the first half of the book – the early era of the clefts (female species are being referred as “the clefts” while the male species are referred as “the monsters” by the clefts and as “the squirts” amongst the men) – reminds me of the biblical story of Adam and Eve, equally mythical and ancient.
 
One day, a boy was born amongst the clefts and the clefts had decided to feed the “deformed” baby to the Great Eagles at the Killing Rock.  Soon, more and more boys – or “monsters” in their jargon – were born and instead of killing the boys, the Great Eagles took them away from the caves of the clefts and into the valley.  There, the monsters or rather the squirts – a preferred term amongst the male species – established themselves as a society relying on the Great Eagles to deliver them the babies.  The early era of the clefts is definitely a great read on its own.
 
Superimpose onto this fable is the old Roman senator taking in a beautiful young wife who was sexually active amongst her own social circle.  Back in the days of the Roman Empire, or even to the days of the Cleft when clefts and squirts participated in mass procreation exercise, what social norms were there to judge the orgies and gladiators?  There was probably none.  That is the hat you may wish to wear when you read “The Cleft”.  And that is probably why Doris Lessing is a genius – shifting a rather simple fable from our modern day mindset into a perspective of an ancient Roman making the idea so original.
 
Over time, songs were written (like my favorite title: “how few we are, how easily we die”) and onto the second era, the clefts and the squirts further interacted, procreated, disagreed, and fought.  The fundamental differences between the two sexes began to emerge.  The harsh external environment made them realized how fragile life was, how precious babies were.  The notion of love and leadership began to emerge too.  This later era of the clefts may not be as magical as the one before making it a less interesting read.  But I guess the rather beautiful and abrupt ending makes up for it.  Till today, I am still trying to decipher what to make out of the ending.  I was like so close to the Cleft civilization one moment in time and all of a sudden, I was thrown back to my own reality.  The visualization of the Cleft civilization literally faded away in front of my own eyes.
 
On a side note, it is coincidental that the author of this book (88 years of age) and the author and director of “Persepolis” from my previous blog are both born in the same place – Persia or Iran, depending which year you are referring to.  Doris Lessing’s parents were both British and she has won every single European literature award.  I wish I could recommend a more renowned literature from her collection of 50 books but this rather controversial piece of artwork is all that I have read from her.

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An Attempt To Pinpoint Why I Still Love Reading Chinese Literature – A Brief Review of 倪匡中篇奇情武俠系列《金腰帶》

倪匡中篇奇情武俠系列《金腰帶》

I have read tens or perhaps hundreds of English books but none matches the sensation I derive from reading in my mother tongue.  Like this particular book I am going to feature here, I was so deeply affected that my mind just wouldn’t allow me to do anything else right after I’ve finished reading the book.  The plot was alive in my mind for days thereafter.  I still cannot pinpoint why.  All I could guess is that the reading pleasure may come in fourfold: the native understanding of the passages, the linkage to the culture and tradition, the construct of the phrases, and the depth and complexity of the development of human characters within.

People at times tease me on how much I suck in English spelling, which is true.  Unlike English whereby words are constructed in alphabets that can be pronounced without knowing the underlying meanings, you can’t do the same for Chinese characters.  You may be able to recognize the meaning of a character because characters are often assembled in components that represent the picture, sound, color, or the combined meaning.  It is only fair to say that I am trained in recognizing and replicating words in the form of characters rather than memorizing the pronunciation of the words in alphabets.  While I can quite easily find a Chinese book that I can recognize 99.99% of the words within, I can hardly say the same for English, by a far margin.

Recognition of words aside, it is often the context of a certain phrase derived from some literatures written in the old days that contributes to the art value of the modern day Chinese literature.  If I was to soak myself into the work of Homer or Shakespeare or Dante or Woolf the same number of years I soaked myself in the Chinese poems and classic literature and history, I think I may be able to gain a similar level of appreciation from reading English literature.  I knew that all those years of reciting old Chinese poems and literature does translate into something.  There is just no easy way to do this except to invest time and effort.  It is part of the culture and tradition that is imbued in me from young.

Another notable difference, especially in the genre of Wuxia (that I will explain later), is the excessive usage of dramatic and explicit expressions to describe situations that often lift up my soul just by reading those phrases at face value.  For those who have the Chinese background, let’s see how many of the following phrases you can recognize.  To describe a fearful looking man, we use “the horizontal growth of facial flesh” to paint a brutal picture of his face.  To describe the break of dawn, we compare that scenic view to “the white belly of a fish”.  Picture yourself in front of a half naked blacksmith creating a piece of metal weapon.  As the hammer hits the red hot piece of steel, you can see the pulsation of this man’s muscles.  We describe his muscles as “an infinite number of jumping mice”.  When faced with a clamoring crowd, we describe the situation as “seven mouths and eight tongues”.  Why is there an extra tongue?  That is how noisy the crowd is.  Finally, I will leave the last example, a four-character Chinese word, for you to decipher – “the howling of the devil, the rallying of the god”.

There is a certain parallelism between the Chinese genre Wuxia and the Western fantasy I believe.  As I was once told, in the world of the Western fantasy, the good and evil is often well defined.  It is the same for Wuxia though to add to the element of drama, there is often shades of good and evil.  There are evil characters that may behave in an honorable way or good characters turn bad.  The center philosophy of Wuxia is a blend of honor and martial arts.  In the godless world of Wuxia, characters wield rare weapons, have gifted talents, able to perform martial arts, and some gain once-in-a-lifetime enlightenment to take them from heroes to legends.  Center to the human character in the world of Wuxia is honor, love, hatred, deceit, revenge, betrayal, struggle, and sacrifice.  It is hard to define any Wuxia piece of work as comedy or tragedy like a Western piece of work.  Chinese authors seem to have no qualm in letting their most beloved characters assassinated, murdered, killed, mutilated, disfigured, or even raped at times by the very person these characters trust, by the most evil characters, or simply by the most insignificant characters.  If there is any redemption to all these mishaps, the plot of a typical Wuxia story often resolves to the theme of: justice will prevail, honor will be restored.  But at what cost?  That is the beauty of this genre.  The authors’ imagination is the limit.

Ni Kuang (倪匡) is a Chinese writer from Hong Kong who is famous for his science fictions.  I cannot recall how many of his books I have read when I was a student.  His venture into the Wuxia genre is new to me.  In fact, this genre has been dominated by the legendary works of Jin Yong (金庸) that are usually lengthy and come in a volume of one, two, four, or five (another interesting observation is that some Western literature often comes in the form of trilogy instead).  Ni Kuang has written a set of short Wuxia stories (each story roughly equals to 1/32 of a typical length of a story by Jin Yong) when he was young but the timing was not right for him to release his materials.  It could be because short Wuxia stories were against the norm back then.  Now that Ni Kuang is in his 70s and all of a sudden, he has decided to release all his Wuxia works in one go.  Rejoice for fans like me of course.  With such drastic reduction in length, Ni Kuang has stripped away the historical references to the main storyline like the typical Wuxia novelists do, the poems and the scenic descriptions that are so prominently demonstrated in Jin Yong’s work, as well as having a much limited character set.  The result is a tight storyline, fast pace read with a high entertainment value.

《金腰帶》 (loosely translates to “The Golden Belt”) as part of Ni Kuang’s medium length Wuxia story series contains two short stories, like the rest in the same series.  The first story is about how a daughter of an evil lord gets involved with a young hero who is in love with a lady from a good lord.  The second independent story is about how a daughter seeks revenge after her parents were murdered due to a treasure they stole and later on falls in love with the son of the very person she is seeking revenge upon.  I have retold the story to Cynthia in English (with drawings, timeline, and flowcharts) and she was deeply moved.  I guess, in a rather long fashion, I have illustrated the last attribute of the uniqueness of Chinese or especially Wuxia stories: the depth and complexity of the development of human character within.