Category: Book Reviews

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Book Reviews Fiction

The Wind-up Bird Chronicle By Haruki Murakami – So Unreal, So Mesmerizing

The paperback version of “The Wind-up Bird Chronicle” is more than 600 pages long.  It sat inside my bookshelf for a long time because I was not sure if I have the patience to digest such a mightily thick book (to me that is).  I brought it along anyway for my trip to Hong Kong.  I did not manage to finish reading it because I was distracted by a fantasy book I picked up at the airport.  It took me another week in Singapore to finish it off.  If not for my holiday, it would take mightily long for me to complete.  Now I am looking at his new book “1Q84” that I bought in Hong Kong with deep concern.  That too looks thick, divided into three books like “The Wind-up Bird Chronicle”.

“The Wind-up Bird Chronicle” is surprisingly engaging.  I was glued to the story not wanting to put down.  Not many story books these days have this effect on me.  The book is not quite a page turner in a sense that it takes some effort to digest the content.  But it is worth it.  From start till the very end, I had no idea which way the story is heading.  Book One is titled “The Thieving Magpie” and it documents the events that happened between June to July 1984.  Then we have Book Two titled “Bird as Prophet” for events that happened between July to October 1984.  The last books is “The Birthcatcher” that spans a longer time frame of October 1984 to December 1985.

After reading the first few chapters, I concluded that this book has a very strong “Murakami” feel.  As in we could have wiped out the author’s name and avid readers would immediately identify the author.  While the setup may be as such, the story has evolved into something it is unexpected of.  Each character added into the story carries with him or her an unique story.  Centered to the story is the narrator, a man who is ordinary and laid back, whose wife is becoming more distant as days go by.  And they have recently lost a cat.  It seems like such an ordinary story but it is not.  It get more and more complicated and interconnected as the story unfolds and as the little parts chained together.  At some point, I wished I had drawn out a relationship diagram like some of the fellow readers would have done.

Authors like Murakami write stories that lead to open interpretation.  I am sure some of you may interpret “The Wind-up Bird Chronicle” in a completely different way.  But here is mine.  There are a few themes that have emerged.  First is fate versus free will.  The entire story, or at least a good part of it, is driven by fate and prophesies.  Every character seems to exist for a specific reason to fulfill one’s fate and affect others to fulfill theirs.  If it is prophesied that someone is not going to die outside Japanese’s soul in World War II, he or she no matter what will not die.  But that does not mean a happy ending.  And in a morbid way, death may not mean a bad ending either.  It is how fate plays out and people will have to accept the circumstances.  Free will then becomes an illusion.

And then we have our narrator who is surrounded by fate and prophesies of others (and his), by and large goes with the flow, but unafraid of pursuing what he ultimately wants.  That opens up the second theme of this something that exists inside us.  This concept is perhaps the most abstract concept coming from this book.  Most of the time, as a reader, I am unable to pinpoint or even visualize what this something is.  This something could be sinister and evil.  Some use this something to hurt others.  Some possesses this something as an ability to heal others that are bothered by that something inside them.  Like the subject of psychology, it takes time and word to describe that something.  And hence the rather long stories that each character carries.

The good news is that as far as I can remember, there is some kind of closure for each character’s bizarre ‘somethingness’.  Some may demand a bit of open interpretation but it is there.  The third theme I can see is the theme of reality versus the unseen world.  Within the boundary of the story, what is real and what is not?  We are taught that literature that is narrated in first person may not be entirely trustworthy as we are seeing the world through the narrator’s eyes.  But what if those chapters that are outside of this rule may not may not be real within this boundary?  This book has missing chapters that we know should exist within the story’s boundary but are not revealed to us.  And yet some chapters that are revealed to us may not even exist in the eyes of the narrator.  To make matters more intriguing, there seems to be some invisible linkages between certain characters.  Are they the same person or entity?  How do they relate?  Explicitly, this story is divided into a physical reality and a realm that exists only for the soul.  Hence, summing all up, “The Wind-up Bird Chronicle” is engaging, but it does take time to digest.

The fourth theme I can think of is more like a metaphor.  A metaphor that depicts politic as secretive and dirty.  It is probably one of the harder concept to grasp in this book.  What does defilement of body and mind mean?  How does one possibly become a ‘prostitute of mind’?  While reading the book, I kept on wondering if some of these concepts are lost in translation, or simply misunderstood due to cultural gap.  That, together with the triviality of hacking into a computer like many Hollywood movies are the only tiny complaints I have with the book.

Similar to some of the recent book summary I have written, below are some of the memorable quotes.  Is knowing your future a blessing?  Or is it a curse?  If you are to know that you cannot die till a certain age, how is it going to change your life?

When the revelation and the grace were life, my life was lost.  Those living things that had once been there inside me, that had been for that reason of some value, were dead now.  Not a single thing was left.  They had all been burned to ashes in that fierce light.  The heat emitted by that revelation or grace had seared away the very core of the life that made me the person I am.  Surely I had lacked the strength to resist that heat.  And so I feel no fear of death.  If anything, my physical death would be, for me, a form of salvation.  It would liberate me for ever from this hopeless prison, this pain of being me.

The next one is on money.  It is a rather long quote.  I like the punch line at the end of the paragraph.

The address – an office building in the wealthy Akasaka district – was the only thing on the card.  There was no name.  I turned it over to check the back, but it was blank.  I brought the card to my nose, but it had no fragrance.  It was just a normal white card.

“No name?” I said.

She smiled for the first time and gently shook her head from side to side, “I believe that what you need is money.  Does money have a name?”

I shook my head as she was doing.  Money had no name, of course.  And if it did have a name, it would no longer be money.  What gave money its true meaning was its dark-night namelessness, its breathtaking interchangeability.

And here is one confession from a girl to a man in the form of a letter.  Often when I think of my personal weakness, I seem not have a straightforward answer.  Perhaps, the answer is as simple as this.

I’m sorry, though.  I know I should never have done that to you (or to anybody).  But I can’t help myself sometimes.  I know exactly what I’m doing, but I just can’t stop.  That’s my greatest weakness.

Finally, there is one quote on work.  It could be something most of us can relate.

Lately, it’s really been bothering me that, I don’t know, the way people work like this every day from morning to night is kind of weird.  Hasn’t it ever struck you as strange?  I mean, all I do here is do the work that my bosses tell me to do the way they tell me to do it.  I don’t have to think at all.  It’s like I just put my brain in a locker before I start work and pick it up on the way home.  I spend seven hours a day at a workbench … then I eat dinner in the cafeteria, take a bath, and of course I have to sleep, like everybody else, so out of a twenty-four-hour day, the amount of free time I have is nothing.  And because I’m so tired from work, the “free time” i have I mostly spend lying around in a fog.  I don’t have any time to sit and think about anything.  Of course, I don’t have to work at weekends, but then I have to catch up on the laundry and cleaning, and sometimes I go into town, and before I know it the weekend is over.  I once made up my mind to keep a diary, but I had nothing to write, so I gave up after a week.  I mean, I just do the same thing over and over again, day in, day out.

Categories
Book Reviews Fiction

Thrall: Twilight Of The Aspects By Christie Golden – Powerful, And Moving

After I have finished reading Thrall in Hong Kong, I said to Cynthia, “Drop everything you are reading now and start to read this!”  It is that good.  Rewind to the day when we were at the airport.  On several occasions, I struggled if I shall read another book written by Christie Golden.  Price is a factor (S$44 in Singapore while you can get a Kindle copy from Amazon for merely US$15).  I have been camping at our library website for quite some time but the book is nowhere to be seen in the catalog.  Christie Golden does not strike me as a great writer, in the genre of fantasy.  Hence that added to my hesitation.  But hack, it is a holiday trip.  On the day of my holiday, Blizzard has announced a new expansion for the World of Warcraft online game: Mists of Pandaria.  On top of that, Cynthia and I have committed for a one year subscription and will get the upcoming Diablo III free.  There were many reasons to celebrate.  So I bought Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects.

The story is epic, even for those who may have no knowledge of the Warcraft Universe.  The book has told the story well, assuming that the readers may not have any background.  In the beginning, Titans (or creators) have entrusted their power to five dragon Aspects (leaders of dragonflights) and these Aspects – together with their respective dragonflights – are tasked to protect our world.  The green dragon Aspect is bound to the waking Dream of Creation.  She touches all living beings, and sing to them the songs of creation and interconnections.  The blue dragon Aspect regulates, manages, and controls all magic that must be appreciated and valued, and not hoarded.  The yellow dragon Aspect keeps the purity of time.  The red dragon Aspect is gifted with compassion for all living things, to protect and to nurture.  Heal those others cannot, birth what others may not, and love even the unlovable.  And the black dragon Aspect is offered the earth, the basis of all things, to manage time, life, dreams, and magic.  Prior to Cataclysm, Neltharion the Earth-Warder (black) was corrupted by the old gods and has become Deathwing who now destroys life instead of protecting life.  Malygos the Spell-Weaver (blue) was destroyed by the dragonflights led by Alexstrasza the Life-Binder (red) due to his genocidal crusade against all magic users in Azeroth.  Since then, the blue dragonflight is left without an Aspect.  Ysera the Awakened (green) has recently come out from the Emerald Dream after thousands of years of dreaming and she is still somewhat dreamy, somewhat confused.  Nozdormu the Timeless (yellow) has gone missing and no one knows where he is in time and space.

In short, Thrall is a story set against the dragonflights and the unique situation the dragons are now at.  For those of you who are mesmerized by the stories of the dragons since the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, this book is going to fill in so many lore gaps that are not featured in a gaming environment.

The world event Cataclysm was launched on December 7, 2010.  In less than a year, Blizzard has transformed one of the key lore character Thrall from a leader of one faction into a protector of Azeroth and more.  Some may or may not agree on such a special treatment of a Horde character (the Alliance certainly is not happy).  But given the unique background of Thrall – an orc who was raised by humans and learned to befriend with and trust other races – is a pivot to the general theme of Cataclysm: The healing of a wounded world.  Christie Golden has done a great job in intelligently describing Thrall’s life history without making this book reads like a history scroll.  Her strength is her story dialog and it remains powerful and moving.  In more than a few counts, I was moved to tears.  To be frank, I rarely cry reading books or watching movies.  But I do have a few soft spots here and there.

Unlike some of her other books, I feel that the plot of Thrall is tighter.  There is an overall build up to climax and a conclusion to a subplot less likely to be seen in the game.  Now that Dragon Soul patch 4.3 is at hand whereby adventurers will be able to experience first hand in aiding Thrall and the Aspects to battle against Deathwing, Thrall is a must read.

Categories
Book Reviews Fiction

My Favorite Quotes From “Aleph” By Paulo Coelho

I enjoy reading Paulo Coelho’s novels.  They are always inspirational.  Or simply put – food for the soul.  To be frank, I enjoy reading some of his earlier works better than his recent ones.  Hence my expectation for “Aleph” was not that high.  This book surprises me on several fronts.  First, it is quite a page turner, which is not usually the case of Paulo Coelho’s books.  Second, it seems genuine, pouring out from author’s personal experience.  After some research (and to my horror as you will find out in just a bit), while “Aleph” may not have accounted for all that has happened, what is written is 100% bibliography based on a true story.  Hence, depending on your moral compass, it could be inspirational for some, troubling for others.

The center theme of “Aleph” can easily be related by many.  Routines wear us down.  Great losses in life too may dip us into an emotional abyss.  We may find faith and then lose it along the way.  Or regrets in our past and worries in our future too can weigh us down.  How then can we get out of this?  A pilgrimage, as suggested by the author, may have the answer we need.

In “Aleph”, the 59 years old Paulo Coelho has taken a trip on the Trans-Siberian Railway to meet his readers across Russia.  During his journey, a 21 years old Turkish girl Hilal has insisted to travel with Paulo and his team of editor, distributor, and translator.  Coelho (who is married) and Hilal became physically, emotionally, and spiritually close that even with my rather liberate mindset, I was finding it a bit uncomfortable to read.  But it is what it is.  Two people performed rituals together in an intimate setting.  And if you buy into the concept of reincarnation, that two lifetimes ago, Coelho and Hilal were lovers, that past and present are one, I suppose it is OK to be that close.  A bit confusing if you are an outsider.  But say for a moment that reincarnation does exist and we do happen to meet with the same people through time and space, perhaps what Coelho and Hilal have done is beautiful.  It is certainly romantic to read.  I love you like a river, said him to her.  That is probably the most artistic thing a married man can say to his admirer (and lover from another lifetime).

There are quite a few quotes that are memorable, that I can relate and would like to share with you.

1. It’s what you do in the present that will redeem the past and thereby change the future.

2. When faced by any loss, there’s no point in trying to recover what has been, it’s best to take advantage of the large space that opens up before us and fill it with something new.

3. People never leave, we are always here in our past and future lives.

I think the first quote is self-explanatory.  What we do at present matters the most.  The next two are to help us coping with losses.

4. Although sometimes, we need to be strangers to ourselves.  Then the hidden light in our soul will illuminate what we need to see.

What it means, I suppose, is that in order to rediscover ourselves, we need to look pass what has become so familiar.  Examine our lives in the eyes of a stranger in a detached manner.

5. Now each morning, when your mind is still empty, devote a little time to the Divine … Inhale deeply and ask for all the blessings in the air to enter your body and fill every cell.  Then exhale slowly, projecting happiness and peace around you.  Repeat this ten times.  You’ll be helping to heal yourself and contributing to healing the world as well.

I have not tried the above method.  It may work out better than screaming out loud into the mirror every morning and say: This is going to be a great day!

6. Walking is doing wonders for body and soul.  I’m completely focused on the present moment, for that is where all signs, parallel worlds and miracles are to be found.  Time really doesn’t exist.

When I was young, I used to walk a lot, in great distance.  My mother used to call me Walkman.  I agree with Paulo that walking does wonders for our bodies and souls.  Ideas do hit me.  But I have yet to encounter lovers from my past incarnations that way.

7. Don’t be intimidated by other people’s opinions.  Only mediocrity is sure of itself, so take risks and do what you really want to do.

8. Anyone who knows God cannot describe Him. Anyone who can describe God does not know Him.

Both quotes are again self-explanatory.  But it does take some time to fully internalize.

9. Love is beyond time, or, rather, love is both time and space, but all focused on one single constantly evolving point – the Aleph.

That, is the Aleph.  You may need to read the book in order to understand what he says.

10. We can never wound the soul, just as we can never wound God, but we become imprisoned by our memories, and that makes our lives wretched, even when we have everything we need in order to be happy.

On face level, this quote can be useful to most.  But after reading the book, I think that the author may refer to memories of our past lives.  I am not ready to believe in reincarnation (as yet).  Having said that, we should be reminded that we have everything we need to be happy.  And those things are within our reach.

11. Is it possible to deviate from the path God has made?  Yes, but it’s always a mistake.  Is it possible to avoid pain?  Yes, but you’ll never learn anything.  Is it possible to know something without ever having experienced it?  Yes, but it will never truly be part of you.

This is probably one of my favorite quotes.  We shall always seek to experience, accept the pain as it comes, and follow God’s will.

Last but not the least, there is one quote to share.  I agree wholeheartedly.

12. Like the children we will never ever cease to be.

Categories
Book Reviews Fiction Linguistic

An Afterthought: El Búho Que No Podía Ulular

Uff.  Finalmente, I have read a story written in Spanish (just yesterday).  Ironically, it is not as Spanish as I would have expected.  It is a story of an owl banished from his own kind and has ended up being lectured by the ghost of Benjamin Franklin together with the rest of the founding fathers of America in ghost forms.  Coincidentally, this entry is published on the US’s Independence Day.  ¡Qué casualidad!

I have always wanted to read stories in Spanish.  Given my level of deficiency (I pondered hard if I shall use ‘proficiency’), I shall realistically start with Spanish books written for the infants or young teens.  But I have seen too much and my mind has long been corrupted by the earthly vices and spices.  These books are simply not as appetizing.  I cannot even bring myself to read “Hairy Porter”.  Since our classmate is so kind to lend us a Spanish book called “El Búho Que No Podía Ulular”, or in English, “The Owl That Could Not Hoot”, I have decided to give it a go.  I was so determined that I would not publish any entry in my website until I have finished with the book.  This explains why you have not heard from me for quite some time.

Fortunately, this book written by Robert Fischer and Beth Kelly is thin.  And it comes with three stories.  That means, even though I have read one story out of three, I felt as though I have achieved something.  Systematically grinding through the vocabulary and the different verb forms was tedious.  Technology is a double edged sword.  The online resources and offline applications have helped me a great deal in finding what each word or even a sentence means in lightning efficiency.  But I do not find myself making an effort to memorize the meaning and the usage.  I end up looking up the same word again and again.  I suppose if I had a Spanish mama, I could always ask “¿qué significa sonreír?” or “¿qué significa suspirar?”  If I was to invent a new technology to help the Spanish learners, I would create a Japanese lookalike Spanish Nanny Robot.  An attractive one no doubt.  I could ask, “¿Qué significa sonreír?” and she would reply, “It is smile, sweetie”.  Or I could ask, “¿Qué significa suspirar?” and she would reply, “It is sigh, sweetie”.  How cool is that?

Back to the story, it starts with an owl that is unable to hoot.  He can say “why” but he cannot say “who” (the hooting sound of an owl).  Because of that, he is asked to leave the habitat.  Soon, he meets a duck that cannot say “cuac” and instead, he says “cuic”.  The two loners, or rather outliners, have then decided to team up and see what the world has to offer.  Their first mission is to study in a university and become a doctor.  Upon realizing that it would take longer than their lifetime to obtain a medical degree, they have decided to embark a journey of searching for the purpose of life.  This involves interviewing random people on the street and finding out what they do for a living.

The owl that can say “why” naturally does most of the talking.  The duck takes note.  After interviewing hundreds of people, they have come to the conclusion that most people do not like their jobs, yet they do not wish to switch.  They do it for the money and the only time they are happy is when they are not working and on vacation.  The duo further concludes that people are happy when they are spending money.  And they observe that most people do not own what they have.  What then should one do with his or her life in order to be happy?  A typical American story, I suppose.

One day, the owl hears a voice that leads them sneaking into a national museum at night.  Inside a gallery where the portraits of the founding fathers are hung, the owl sees something extraordinary.  All of a sudden, the portraits become empty and the founding fathers have materialized in front of the duo’s eyes (?!).  The ghosts of the founding fathers then lecture the duo on how America was originally founded as a place of equality and freedom and how they are disappointed that the America today is all about making and spending money.  I honestly do not see how this is linked to an owl that cannot hoot and a duck that cannot say “cuac”.  At the end of the story, upon hearing the wisdom of the founding fathers, the owl is enlightened.  And he says, “Libre … es lo que soy”, which means “Free, is what I am”.  Perhaps the moral of the story is that we should not see through the lens of social norms on what we are not capable of doing.  Instead, take the opportunity to break out of the mould and be yourself.  We may stand to gain so much more.

I used to think that I write weird stories.  Those who have read my manuscript for that writing competition would have agreed with me.  But this story is weirder.  If I was to rewrite the story, I would turn this owl that cannot hoot into a hero.  I would bestow some bizarre disasters upon the rest of the owls like the attack of the toxic toads.  And our hero would return to this habitat that rejected him and save the day.  Everyone would worship him and begin to say “why” instead of “who”.  The most beautiful owl in the forest would fall in love with the hero and they would live happily ever after.  Oh, before that.  At the altar, when the priest asks, “Do you take this owl as your lawfully wedded wife?”  Instead of “why?”, our hero would finally able to say “who?”  I think it is darn funny.

Humor aside, there are some good takeaway points from this book that is onto its 40th edition (gasp!).  Below is my favorite.  I too feel that the root of many of our problems today could have been solved by filling our life with love.  That way, we leave no space for fear and hatred.

«Aprendiendo a amarte a ti mismo»’, sonrió Franklin. «Y en la medida en que te ames a ti mismo, podrás amar a tus vecinos, a tus amigos y a todas las demás personas que hay en esta gran nación».

My attempt to translate the above extract is as follows.

“Learning to love yourself,” smiled Franklin. “And as you love yourself, you will love your neighbors, your friends, and the rest of the people in this great nation”.

On a side note, while it is not possible to linguistically memorize what the book teaches, I have noted down all the adverbs that ends with -mente for my future reference: profundamente (profoundly), bruscamente (abruptly), sucesivamente (successively or ‘y así sucesivamente’, which means ‘and so on’), detenidamente (carefully), desesperadamente (desperately), fijamente (attentively), rápidamente (quickly), únicamente (solely or only), tristemente (sadly), apresuradamente (hastily), constantemente (constantly), fríamente (coldly), repentinamente (suddenly), tímidamente (timidly), lentamente (slowly), amablemente (amiably), actualmente (nowadays and not actually!), alegremente (happily), completamente (completely).

Categories
Book Reviews Fiction

Hotel Iris By Yoko Ogawa – Beautifully Ugly, Dark And Shocking

I do not suppose what Ogawa wrote is unrealistic.  At times, we read in the news about some women who are victims of domestic violence but yet, they have a tendency to return to the very same man who bestows such violence upon them.  I have read the story of Natascha Kampusch and had a glimpse of the kind of sick things some men do behind closed doors.  I have also read that some couples enjoy S&M and derives extreme pleasure from extreme pain. Mixing these together, we have “Hotel Iris” – almost.

A young girl who works at the front desk of a hotel is seduced by a much older man who appears to be mostly timid and loving outside his house, and someone quite the opposite when he is alone.  The love affair has then turned into a strange game of S&M.  How can a young girl be seduced by such a monster and be convinced that this is OK and that she is shamelessly ugly?  Ogawa has indeed taken a brave move and she presents to the readers the psychological and emotional journey of a young girl in first person view: Her longing to be away from her demanding job at the hotel, her longing to see this old man who does strange things to her body while showering her with words of love and tenderness, and her plunging into the point of no return.  Ogawa’s writing style is neat and elegant.  Deployed to this rather dark and ugly topic, the story reads almost too beautiful.  I must say, it was a strange feeling reading “Hotel Iris”.

Like one reader has pointed out, “Hotel Iris” is very different from “The Housekeeper and the Professor“.  Had I read these two books without knowing who wrote them, very likely I would not have thought that they come from the same author.  The writing style is the same though.  Since I like Ogawa’s writing style, I enjoy reading the two book just the same.  I look forward to reading more of hers.

Categories
Book Reviews Non-Fiction

Lion’s Honey The Myth Of Samson By David Grossman – A Mostly Imaginary Piece Of Work

After reading “Lion’s Honey”, I did some research on the author.  He is an Israeli, an established writer as well as a political activist.  This explains quite a few queries lingered in my mind after reading his book.  There are only very few places when Grossman subtly touched onto modern politics.  Here is one.  I am quoting the text here because quite possibly, I like this aspect of the book the most.

Yet there is a certain problematic quality to Israeli sovereignty that is also embodied in Samson’s relationship to his own power.  As in the case of Samson, it sometimes seems that Israel’s considerable military might is an asset that becomes a liability.  For it would seem, without taking lightly the dangers facing Israel, that the reality of being immensely powerful has not really been internalised in the Israeli consciousness, not assimilated in a natural way, over many generations; and this, perhaps, is why the attitude to this power, whose acquisition has often been regarded as truly miraculous, is prone to distortion (page 88-9) […] This is connected, without a doubt, to the very real dangers lying in wait for Israel, but also to the tragic formative experience of being a stranger in the world, the Jewish sense of not being a nation ‘like other nations’, and of the State of Israel as a country whose very existence is conditional, whose future is in doubt and steeped in jeopardy, feelings that all the nuclear bombs that Israel developed, in a program once known as the ‘Samson Option’, cannot eradicate (page 90).

Majority of the book is not about politics.  His interpretation of the Samson story may run against the grain of the familiar Samson in the Hebrew Bible (his own words).  As a Catholic, I would say that his interpretation runs against the grain of the same story in the Christian Bible as well.  The way Grossman breathes life to a local hero (or “judge”) and his surrounding characters extracted from the Book of Judges prompts me to reflect upon how we Christians breathe life to Jesus.  Because I am not used to reading the Old Testament in such fashion, I find that Grossman’s interpretation of Samson is highly imaginative at best, controversial at worst.  What do I mean?  I will get to that in just a moment.

First, to put things into context, I refer to the Catholic Study Bible’s guide on reading the Book of Judges.

There is one overriding theme that dominates the Book of Judges: the sin of idolatry leads to punishment; but if the people of Israel turn back to the Lord, the Lord will deliver them from their enemies … Into the theological framework of “sin-punishment-cry for help-deliverance” the deuteronomistic writers have incorporated various stories that relate the deeds of local heroes.  For the deuteronomistic writers the unity of all the tribes is an important concern; thus, in their historical schema, these heroes become leaders for all Israel.

The Book of Judges documents a number of heroes.  I must admit that the story of Samson is a peculiar one.  He does not lead all Israel as a warrior, nor does he liberate the people from Philistine.  Victories he has scored over the Philistine are personal.  There seems to be no reason to include Samson into the Book of Judges except in (15, 20) when the writers wrote: Samson judged Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.  To understand its theological value, one has to read this biblical story in more detail.

Grossman’s “Lion’s Honey” dissects the biblical story word-by-word.  Some discussions – for good reasons on my end – I am finding it hard to concur with the author.  For example, in the Bible, after the woman being told by angel that she was going to have a son, she relayed the message to her husband and said, “A man of God came to me […] he said to me, ‘You will be with child and will bear a son.  So take neither wine nor strong drink, and eat nothing unclean.  For the boy shall be consecrated to God from the womb, until the day of his death.'”  And because she mentions about his son’s dying day, Grossman has gone into deep reflection and written pages of explanation on what has driven Manoah’s wife to add these words.  To me, it is simple.  Because the angel says so.  And she is merely relaying the message to her husband.  To Grossman, one of his many interpretations on this particular phase is that ‘Samson has been deposited within her for safekeeping and she knows that things that are deposited must, in the end be returned’, among many emotional turmoils that Grossman has imagined.

Grossman describes Samson as an artist, starting from his episode with the lion’s honey.  Or rather, honey from the lion’s carcass.  Grossman has gone in great length on how Samson would feel scooping honey from the lion, sharing honey with his parents.  Grossman wrote:

Take a look at him: a he-man with a little licking boy inside.  (How astonishing and poignant, this gulf between enormous physical strength and an immature, childlike soul.)  He walks and eats, walks and licks, till he gets home to mum and dad, and gives them the honey, “and they ate it”, apparently straight from the palms of his hands.  What a marvelous sensual scene!

Personally, I would not interpret this a as ‘marvelous sensual scene’.  Samson is bound by a vow to eat nothing unclean.  He is not faithful to these vows and has contacted with a dead animal, even eats food from it.  My discomfort with “Lion’s Honey” is not only on how Grossman dramatizes the story by imagining ‘[Samson] playing with his parents, touching them and dancing for them and laughing with them like any normal person, with the honey dripping, flowing down a cheek, sliding to the chin, being licked up, as the laughter swells to the point to tears …’, but also how some of the crucial interpretations such as the breaking of vow have been omitted.

There are controversial interpretations on the Samson story too.  When the wife of Manoah said, “A man of God came to me (13, 6)”, I would interpret the message as it is: an angel appears.  But Grossman offers a different perspective.  The phrase ‘came to me’, to his tradition, also means copulation.  Hence, to follow Grossman’s lead, the wife may not be barren as mentioned in the Bible.  A stranger copulated with her and impregnated her.  Fast forward to the part on Samson’s death, the Bible wrote: Then they brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze fetters, and he was put to grinding in the prison.  According to Grossman, the verb ‘to grind’ in Hebrew carries a clear sexual connotation.  Hence, to the author, Samson may well be used as a stud bull when ‘everyone brought his wife to him to the prison that she might bear a child by him’.  I do not read Hebrew.  This interpretation is beyond me.  I would interpret this part of a story as a simple act of punishment and would not further analyze on how Samson was punished in the prison.  In short, I am happy with the direct meaning of ‘grinding’.

The most disturbing interpretation of Grossman is perhaps the part on Samson having to entertain the Philistines.  The passage on the Bible is simple.  It wrote:

When [the Philistines’s] spirits were high, they said, “Call Samson that he may amuse us.”  So they called Samson from the prison, and he played the buffoon before them.  When the people saw him, they praised their god.

According to Grossman, it was a sex act that Samson has performed in front of three thousand men and women.  This is a disturbing interpretation.  I would rather stick with the understanding that Samson was given to clowning and joking that somewhat triggers my mental association to the story of Jesus being put on a purple robe and a crown of thorns (Mark 15, 17).  I am finding it difficult to add so much texture into Bible that can hardly be verified or cross referenced to.

For better or worse, because I have read “Lion’s Honey’, that has prompted me to read this part of the Bible in greater depth.  Grossman’s book does by and large offer insights to the story of Samson.  Some reviewers have mentioned that the Samson story is their favorite in Old Testament.  As for me, mine is the story of Elijah.  Paulo Coelho has done a great job in breathing life to Elijah in his book “The Fifth Mountain”.  Grossman has also attempted to breathe life to Samson.  Unfortunately, that has left a strange aftertaste.  To close off this entry, I would like to share the theology of the story of Samson according to Catholic Study Bible.

The activity of the Lord gives us an indication of the theology that is in the background of the story of Samson.  The Lord is responsible for Samson’s birth, for Samson will be the Lord’s instrument in defeating the Philistines.  To defeat the Philistines is also the reason that the Lord is behind his marriage to a Philistine woman (14, 4).  The Lord gives Samson strength in his encounters with the Philistines.  The Lord responds to Samson’s prayers: for water (15, 18) and for vengeance (16, 28).  That the Lord is active in all that Samson does is clear.  We can wonder about a chosen hero who has a weakness for women, but it is clear that his bedroom exploits, though not explicitly condemned, are not approved of by the authors.  Indeed, his downfall rests upon his inability to say no to a woman.  Also operative theologically in this story are the consequences of breaking a vow.  Samson is a Nazirite, but fails to live in accordance with their code and suffers as a result of his disobedience.  At the same time, even his defeat becomes an opportunity for the Lord to gain victory over the Philistines.

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Book Reviews Fiction

A Wild Sheep Chase and Dance Dance Dance By Haruki Murakami

By pure chance, I bought both “A Wild Sheep Chase” and “Dance Dance Dance” in HMV during sales on the same day.  Also by pure chance, one of my blogger friend, JoV, once dropped a comment here implying that the stories of these two books are linked.  So before I headed to my holiday, I frantically researched online on which book comes first.  It is “A Wild Sheep Chase” followed by “Dance Dance Dance”.  I read Sheep on the plane and Dance during my holiday.

If you are into the literature of Murakami, reading these two books enabled you to witness an important juncture a writer has encountered in his writing career.  Sheep is the last of the Rat Trilogy, the only one from the series that the author was comfortable in having it translated into English.  Dance was written after he has gained international recognition.  Straddled in between is Norwegian Wood that propelled Murakami to the international fame.  Now you get the picture.

Sheep is unlike some of the Murakami books I have read.  The beginning two-third of the book reads like a detective story.  A page-turner with plenty of dialogs.  The story involves a main character who takes life as it is, seldom plan or have a dream for anything; an ordinary girl with extraordinary ears and she works in three different jobs at the same time; a professor who is obsessed with sheep; a friend who has disappeared a long time ago suddenly contacted the main character via mails.  The story is, for lack of a better word, a wild sheep chase.  According to the narrator, sheep was unseen of in the ancient Japan.  And like – I suppose – dragons and unicorns (my interpretation) – such creatures could be seen as deities.  In the book, there is this notion of sheep-made-man and becomes all powerful or even man-made-sheep that becomes something I am not sure how to put in words.  Because of my Catholic root, such notion appears to have a religious reference, especially when Christ according to our tradition is portrayed as the Lamb of God.  Interestingly, Sheep has no further exploration on the topic of religion.  Only a borrowed image to turn Sheep into a fantasy, and a comedy.  I have thoroughly enjoyed the first part of the book even as I might have questioned the literature value within.

The turning point is the last third of the book.  I suspect that is also the turning point of Marakami’s writing style.  There are more internal dialogs within the main character.  The author’s sense of the surrounding has been heightened and sharpened.  The plot becomes dream-like – a signature writing style that exhibits in his later books.  When the story was ended, I wanted more.  As far as the Rat Trilogy is concerned – Rat being the name of the runaway friend – the story has ended.  But there are far more open questions left behind.  That is when “Dance Dance Dance” comes into the picture.

Unlike Sheep, Dance does not begin each chapter with a title that foretells what is to come; unlike Sheep, Dance does not have the plot progression based on a set of clear and defined clues.  In fact, I would describe Dance as a wandering adventure.  For a majority of the plot, I have no idea as in where the story is heading, and I doubt if the main character does.  The main character (now has a name) is in search of someone he loved (also now has a name).  It starts with vivid dreams that lead him back to Dolphin Hotel, a hotel that is featured in Sheep.  I can see there are a fair bit of parallelism between the two books.  The role of his friend Rat in Sheep is now taken over by his old classmate Gotanda.  The hotel, now being rebuilt, is still the center of the story.  The symbol of authority has morphed from mafia gang into police force.  Some characters from the past have made an appearance in Dance.  Dance is still a detective story at the core, but the plot becomes more subtle, more surreal.

The overall mood of Dance is dark.  In terms of character development, I in particularly like the relationship between the thirty-odd-year-old main character and a thirteen-year-old girl.  It could have gone wrong in so many different ways because knowing Murakami, the topic of sex is always on the table.  Fortunately, the author has threaded the moral boundary as close and careful as he can.  Majority of the materials turn out to be a good inspiration read for the teenagers, even for adults.  Here is an excerpt on a troubled teen regretting on the things she said and done to the one who is now dead.  The narrator is the main character of the story.

I pulled the car over to the shoulder of the road and turned off the ignition.

“That’s just stupid, that kind of thinking,” I said, nailing her with my eyes. “Instead of regretting what you did, you could have treated him decently from the beginning.  You could’ve tried to be fair.  But you didn’t.  You don’t even have the right to be sorry.”

Yuki looked at me, shocked and hurt.

“Maybe I’m being too hard on you.  But listen, I don’t care what other people do.  I don’t want to hear that sort of talk from you.  You shouldn’t say things like that lightly, as if saying them is going to solve anything.  They don’t stick […] It’s not a question of manners; it’s a question of fairness.  That’s something you have to learn.”

Yuki couldn’t respond.  She pressed her fingers to her temples and quietly closed her eyes.  She almost seemed to have dozed off, but for the slight flutter of her eyelashes, the trembling of the lips.  Crying inside, without sobs or tears.  Was I expecting too much of a thirteen-year-old girl?  Who was I to be so self-righteous? […]

Yuki didn’t move.  I reached out and touched her arm.

“It’s okay,” I said. “I’m very narrow-minded.  No, to be fair, you’ve done the best that can be expected.”

A single tear trailed down her cheek and feel on her lap.  That was all.  Beautiful and noble.

“So what can I do now?” she spoke up a minute later.

“Nothing,” I said. “Just think about what comes before words.  You owe that to the dead.  As time goes on, you’ll understand.  What lasts, lasts; what doesn’t, doesn’t.  Time solves most things.  And what time can’t solve, you have to solve yourself.  Is that too much to ask?”

“A little,” she said, trying to smile.

“Well, of course it is,” I said, trying to smile too. “[…] Life is a lot more fragile than we think.  So you should treat others in a way that leaves no regrets.  Fairly, and if possible, sincerely.  It’s too easy not to make the effort, then weep and wring your hands after the person dies […]”

This is quite a long excerpt.  But I like how the two interacted.  And there is an important message for us too.

Besides the main character’s relationship with Yuki, I also enjoy reading the love story between Yumiyoshi – the hotel receptionist – and him.  I would not go in great detail here.  It is equally beautiful that requires patience to appreciate.

In closing, both books are not to be missed and have to be read one after another.  Sheep first, then Dance.  It is rare to spot an opportunity to witness the turning point of a writer’s career.  This is one.

Categories
Book Reviews Fiction

The Last Werewolf By Glen Duncan – Love It Or Love It Not?

Many praise on the literature touch by the author on a topic that is so popularized nowadays so much so that some may ask: do we need another book on werewolves and vampires?  I picked this book for Cynthia to read during our flight to Barcelona.  And I finished reading it in one setting on our way back.  Cynthia adores this book.  As for me, my initial expectation turned out to be a notch too high.

It is a rather unique story.  Werewolves are driven into extinction by the human hunters.  Jake is the last of his kind and has since given up the hope of continue living with the curse.  Or rather, continue killing during full moon and continue running away from the hunters with the silver bullets.  The story then delves deeper into the cause of extinction, the involvement with the vampires, and the birth of a new motivation for Jake to perhaps live on.

“The Last Werewolf” – I admit – has an unique plot.  It is never straightforward and full of surprises with a fair bit of distractions.  Some of the sub-plots do not seem to go anywhere – and hence, a ‘distraction’.  Do all the loose ends have to be tied up in the end of a story?  I would prefer so.  Some readers may think otherwise.

On writing style, his is certainly different from the typical werewolve and vampire books.  Below is an illustration on the description of one of the main characters.

She had the look of a foreign correspondent caught off-guard mid-report by an explosion.  Early thirties, eyes the color of plain chocolate and similarly dark hair in two soft shoulder-length waves.  A single mole or beauty spot at the corner of her mouth.  White-skinned but with a warmth and suppleness that betrayed – surely? – Levantine or Mediterranean blood.  Certainly not ‘beautiful’ or ‘pretty’ but Saloméishly appealing, visibly smudged with the permissive modern wisdoms.  This was a girl who’d been loved by her parents and grown vastly beyond them.

And another one on the first transformation from man to werewolf that by the way, the entire process counting the days leading to the full moon takes pages worth of materials.

A breeze stirred the honeysuckle, the hairs on my ears and delirious wet snout.  My scrotum twitched and my breath passed hot over my tongue.  My anus was tenderly alert.  I pictured my human self jumping the twenty feet, felt the shock of smashed ankles and slivered shins – then the new power like an inkling of depravity.  I leaped from the window and bounded into the moonlight.

I could appreciate a touch of artistic value onto writing a fantasy story, although at times, bulk of the text appears to be too airy for me to digest.  My biggest discomfort is the author’s overly reliance on using parentheses to clarify ideas.  That habit of his inevitably disrupts the fluidly of my reading and frankly speaking, before passing the halfway mark, I gave up reading anything that is written inside the parentheses.  I would prefer to have the clarifications worked onto the paragraphs.  That may require more work, but I think it is worth the effort.

On a positive note, Cynthia has pointed out the fact that some of the fantasy books of this genre are written from the girl’s perspective, on how the girl needs to be protected, and on talking about the emotion of love.  This book is written from the man’s perspective and love has become an action.  This is refreshing because rather than stating the obvious on how vulnerable the female party is, the story focuses on what the male character does.  As for me, I like the raw energy and desire of the main character.  He is, after all, a werewolf.  An animal.  A killer.  The honesty in the main character’s sexual encounters for instance – both conventional and unconventional – is not for the narrow-minded.  Neither is the idea of taking lives without remorse.  Certainly R-rated in my opinion.  Will there be a sequel?  Highly likely so.  Would I read that?  Most likely, for the sake of closure.

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Book Reviews Fiction

Eat Pray Love By Elizabeth Gilbert – Not Just Another Chick Lit

So this is my first entry in Wilfrid’s blog.  Hope it is in line with Wilfrid’s overall blog theme and does not offend anybody, hehe …

I am reviewing “Eat Pray Love” because there is high probability that Wilfrid is not going to finish reading the book.  He bought the book to join a read-along and at that time I was reluctant to read the book as I thought it was just another chick lit which honestly I am not interested in (Shopaholic series, anyone?).  Was not interested in the movie, was not interested in the book.  However, one fine day, out of boredom, I picked the book up from the table, casually started reading the first page, and I got hooked!  Even the preface was interesting.  So I went on, surpassing Wilfrid’s bookmark.

The first part of the story – Italy – was interesting because it was the time she found God.  Her “encounter with God” was believable and it touched me deeply.  She found God said this to her during her loneliness and depression, “I’m here.  I love you.  I don’t care if you need to stay up crying all night long, I will stay with you. … There’s nothing you can ever do to lose my love.  I will protect you until you die, and after your death I will still protect you.” I shed a tear reading that paragraph because it reminded me how that love applies to me too.  To anyone of us.  (I do believe in God even though world-renowned-Nobel-winner scientists claimed that there is no space for God in this universe).  That paragraph was the most memorable part for me about Italy.  I am not really a foodie so can’t share much of her enthusiasm about Italian food.

The second part of the story – India – was even more captivating.  She continued her journey to deepen her spirituality, and she managed to tell her story without preaching how a certain religion is the best.  There are some references to yoga which I found entertaining as well, especially since I picked up yoga about a year ago.  I did enjoy reading India part the most, although there were tons of cliches in there.  For example, there was the “Instructions for Freedom”.   And Richard the Texan always sounded too preachy for me.  He sounded like someone who always had the right answer and a bit cocky about it.

However I respected her struggles to further her spiritual journey there – she managed to conquer her limitations in a realistic way, and I could see how she grew to be a more grounded, happier, and calmer person.  One amusing scene was how she hated a morning chanting ritual called Gurugita, tried all sort of ways to avoid it but in the end she was hell-bent to join the ritual and derived benefits out of it.  We could also see how she managed to finally meditate when initially she couldn’t even hold it for 2 minutes (who could?)

India was good for me.

The third part of the story – Indonesia – unfortunately fell flat.  It was an anti-climax after all the discoveries and growth she had made in the previous places.  I didn’t get anything out of this section – it was simply like reading someone’s letters of having a holiday in Bali.  Not to mention the “holiday” was 4 month long so it was a bit of an indulgence in my view.  The author did not really use this section to conclude the previous 2 sections, and on top of that it was not clear to me how she “pursued the balance between worldly enjoyment and divine transcendence”.  I admire her initiative to help the locals, but I expected more from her 4 month stay in Bali.  I stopped reading the book for a while because the book got a bit boring and there was only that many times I’d like to read how someone “had nothing to do in the island of paradise”.

All in all, it is a reasonably good book.  Wilfrid would agree that I am a picky reader (although not a sophisticated one), so it said something that I finished reading the book.  It is certainly not a chick lit (if we exclude the Bali part) and I did enjoy reading Elizabeth’s personal journey to be a happier person.

Footnote by Wilfrid: This entry is written by Cynthia and is published as it is.  This is a read-along and JoV and J have contributed there entries as well.

Categories
Book Reviews Fiction

Merde Happens By Stephen Clarke – Hilarious! At Least For Most Part

“Merde Happens” is part 3 of the merde series.  It helps to have read the previous installment.  Compares to “Merde Actually”, this one is funnier.  Perhaps because I have done my share of road tripping in US and I can relate the culture shock the main character Paul West has experienced.  To recap, Paul West is a British who works in France, has quite a few extraordinary love affairs with the French girls, and in this episode, he is going to America with his girlfriend (finally) Alexa and his American poet friend Jake who speaks very strange English mixed with French.  A good part of the book is spent on Paul and Alexa on a Mini in America.  It is hilarious to experience the frustration of a couple trying to read map while understanding how the road system works.  Just like in real life when – in general – women don’t like to read map and men don’t like asking for direction.  There is a fair amount of US and European history being used as a plot.  There is also some insanely hilarious moments on outsourcing.  To that end, I would rank “Merde Happens” higher than “Merde Actually” and somewhat on par with “Dial M For Merde“.  I have yet to read the first installment “A Year In The Merde”, and I am looking forward to doing so.

After reading a few of his books, I begin to see a certain pattern.  Initially the story would be like going nowhere, then things begin to get exciting and the story would reach a climax.  After which, it would be like going nowhere again (usually with a breakup of a relationship), with a rather melancholy ending that introduces plot opportunity for the next book.  This book seems to take a little dive towards the end.  But I would say, for most part of the story, “Merde Happens” is a hilarious read.  Not a soul nourishing read, but one you would want to read on a holiday and by a beach underneath a palm tree.