Category: Book Reviews

Categories
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.

Categories
Book Reviews Fiction

Inés Of My Soul By Isabel Allende – An Eyeopening Read On Chile Conquest

Cynthia and I share a rather limited reading list.  I could spend hundreds and hundreds of words here talking passionately about the books I read but she’d catch no ball.  She could go on and on about the books she enjoys reading but I’d would go, “huh?”  But since we are both studying Spanish, and some parts of South America were colonized by Spain long time ago, I was intrigued by “Inés of My Soul” – a historical novel based on Inés Suárez strongly recommended by Cynthia.  Who is she?  Wikipedia sums up nicely as follows.

Inés Suárez (c. 1507–1580) was a Spanish conquistadora (female conquistador) who participated in the Conquest of Chile, was mistress to Pedro de Valdivia, successfully defended Santiago against an attack of Mapuche people in 1541, and was eventually married to Rodrigo de Quiroga, Royal Governor of Chile.

Initially, it came across to me as a romance story – a story told by Inés to her step-daughter Isabel (who initially I thought the author ‘visualized’ herself as Inés’s daughter but we will get to that a little bit later).  A Spanish women born into a poor family got married once in Spain.  Then with the excuse of searching for her missing husband, she ventured into Peru, met with Pedro de Valdivia – a Spanish conquistador who has the vision to civilize and evangelize Chile.  Together, with a rather small Spanish army and the natives from Peru, they conquered Chile.  Valdivia and Inés have found and governed Chile’s capital Santiago, and defended the city against numerous attacks from the native Indians.  The wars described in the book are vividly harsh and bloody.  I can see a lot of quality research going into the writing of this historical novel.  Four years of avid reading, as mentioned in the author’s notes.  It is less of the romance bits but more of the history bits that gripped me.  Eventually, being a mistress to Valdivia did not seem to be agreeable by the Spanish Royalty.  So Inés married to Rodrigo – a war hero – in the age of 42.  The story is told by Inés in her dying hours, not long after her husband’s death.  I suppose this is an attempt to relive the incident of them passing away in the same year.

For those of you who have heard little about the history of Chile, “Inés Of My Soul” is an eyeopener.  The author Isabel Allende has done a good job in stitching the historical incidents together, with her imagination.  I am usually not a fan of this genre because I would prefer to read a journalistic writeup on the event to a novel that is part history, part fiction.  But I enjoy reading this one.  Isabel Allende was born in Peru and raised in Chile.  How suiting it is for her to write about a story that starts in Peru and ends in Chile.  I can now see where the passion transcribed in the book comes from.

Categories
Book Reviews Fiction

Once on a Moonless Night By Dai Sijie – A More Complex Read, Rewarding Nonetheless

In “Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress”, it is the hunger for the banned foreign book titles in the 70’s China that drives the plot forward.  Similarly, in “Once on a Moonless Night”, it is the hunger for the ‘mutilated relic’ – a missing Buddhist sutra – that sets the story on fire.  In fact, the fire is so great that it breathes life to factual and fictitious characters, civilizations, and traditions; from ancient China to modern Beijing, from France to Africa and Southeast Asia.  So much details and emotions are poured into the historical figures and places, as well as traditional workmanships and crafting techniques, one has to marvel at the depth of research the author has performed.  Unlike “Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress”, this book requires patience to read.  The construct of the sentences appears to be more complex (unsure if it is because of the different translators involved).  The history behind the story is vast.  Although I am from a Chinese background and that most of the translated terms, history, and tradition I am familiar with, there are still lots of details I am not . Fortunately, most of the so-called diversions from the main plot are relevant to how the story develops.  That kept me engaged even some of the materials require a higher amount of concentration to grind through.

The story begins with a piece of silk scroll Puyi has torn into pieces by his teeth – hence the ‘mutilated relic’ – and threw out of a Japanese warplane during his final days as the Last Emperor.  That silk scroll turns out to contain a Buddhist sutra written in a dead ancient language that Emperor Huizong from the Song dynasty tried to decipher and could not, that Puyi tried to decipher and could not.  The tale then spins all the way to a vanished civilization called Tumchooq (it is also a language Buddha preached in, the name of one of the main characters, and more), through the Forbidden City, the Manchuria race, different languages and geographic locations, narrated by multiple characters.  It is remarkable to see how the sutra travels through time and space, linking historical and fictitious characters, vanished and present time civilizations as the search continues for the missing sutra.  And when the final piece of puzzle is solved, after numerous twists in plot (too many to mention), the answer seems so humorously simple.  Yet thinking of all the effort and sacrifice people made in order to find the truth, it is mind blowing.

It is quite impossible to quote a particular paragraph to illustrate Dai Sijie’s writing style, because the entire book is treated with the same poetic touch.  If I may, the following excerpt touches my heart the most.  The narrator, a French girl who studied in China, is in search of her lover – a half French half Chinese – who is in turn searching for the missing sutra.  It is this sense of melancholy that touches my heart.

The sun was only just up, the meticulously swept path with not a single fallen leaf on it glittered beneath my bare feet, and each of my footsteps, I was aware, was an act of meditation.  With its sand and its occasional stones positioned here and there, as if among the extinguished, collected, cooled ashes of our passions, without the least spark of an ember to reignite them, that little path was like the life of whoever walked along it.  Perhaps its maker wanted it to remind us that our footprints, like the happy days of our lives, disappear with the first gust of wind, without leaving any trace at all.

It comes with a pleasant surprise that one of the characters in this book – Ma – is indeed the narrator of “Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress”.  And Ma plays an important – albeit minor – role in this book.  I suspect that a Buddhist may get more from this book than I do.  But I am happy that my horizon has been expanded and am certainly looking forward to read his second book if I manage to get hold of it in our library.

Categories
Book Reviews Fiction

The Shattering: Prelude To Cataclysm By Christie Golden – Missing Lore Explained

Flawed as it may be, this book “The Shattering” in several occasions moved me literally to tears.  For better or for worse, Christie Golden may well be one of our finest.  She has the passion to the lore, connection to Blizzard developing team, and has the time and patience to write a book for the fans whom most do not even have the patience to read the few-liner in-game quest text.  I have read her previous book “Arthas, Rise of the Lich King“.  No way I am going to miss this one.  Because I am aspired to be a lore geek.

Unless you have been in the past few months religiously following the lore development at Warcraft’s website and reading through the monthly comic book series, you may feel disoriented from where the Warcraft universe was used to be, to where it is now.  Azeroth has been ripped apart, through the Cataclysm world event.  Weeks before December 7 last year, prior to the launch of Cataclysm, for those who had logged into game, you must have been awed by the change in landscape.  New faces have appeared in our capital cities forming the new line of leadership.  For most the questions you have, “The Shattering” may have the answer.

The story begins with the triumphant return of Garrosh Hellscream who has led the Horde expedition beyond the Dark Portal and Northrend.  A character who is soon to assume the position of acting Warchief.  For most of us who are not familiar with the lore – myself included – Garrosh Hellscream is a character we have little love for.  Especially if you have already read the episode between the reckless Garrosh and the honorable Cairne Bloodhoof, the late Chieftain of the tauren.  And his clashes with the legendary Horde Warchief, Thrall, too may not sit well with some of the lore lovers.  This book has changed my perception of him completely.  Hellscream represents a new generation of leadership, with a unique personality and trait.  To join this new era, there are Baine, son of Cairne, and the young human prince Anduin Wrynn.  Moira Thaurissan née Bronzebeard is also featured as the new dwarf queen.  Varian Wrynn, king of Stormwind, is back.  The ever charming human archmage Jaina Proudmoore – ruler of Theramore – with unknown years of age is still instrumental to the plot development.  Magic must have preserved her well.

The strength of Christie Golden is perhaps on the dramatic dialogs of honor and sacrifice.  I am happy to read how different each race converses.  However, I do not think the author is in particularly strong in the romance bits, nor the battle bits.  And I wish some parts of the story have more depth, and breath.  But such is the challenge of a lore writer, with perimeters drawn by the game designers.  Through “The Shattering”, readers should have a better appreciation on the differences in culture and political climate between the two factions – Horde and Alliance.  I still think that Cataclysm as a world event is bias towards the Horde.  And it is shown in this book too.  Some readers are disappointed that not even Deathwing – the Dragon Aspect that is responsible for this entire Cataclysm –  is mentioned.  No, you cannot find Deathwing in “The Shattering”.  Because this book is a prelude to the coming of Cataclysm.

“The Shattering” is more for the fans, than for general public consumption.  Having said that, I am curious to hear how someone with zero lore background would perceive this fantasy book.  Even for the fans, if you are lost, do not hesitate to consult WoWWiki.com.  It has everything you ever need to know, in the World of Warcraft.

This is an actual in-game image of tauren's capital city Thunder Bluff. This capital is heavily featured in "The Shattering".

This is an actual in-game image of tauren’s capital city Thunder Bluff. This capital is heavily featured in “The Shattering”.

Categories
Book Reviews Fiction

Balzac And The Little Chinese Seamstress By Dai Sijie – Playful, And Adorable

“Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress” tells a story of two young men – in 1971 when Mao’s Cultural Revolution was at its peak – being sent to one of the villages in the mountain called Phoenix of the Sky for re-education.  The irony is, during Cultural Revolution, there was not much education per se, except books authorized by the communists.  This book is originally written in French, by Dai Sijie who was born in China in 1954 and has experienced 3 years of re-education and he is now living and working in France, since 1984.  The political backdrop used in “Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress” hence appears as vivid, and authentic.  I confess that I was too quick to criticize on Sijie’s treatment on the topic of premarital sex as being too inconsequential, too recreational.  Almost too Western and too modern to my liking, given the fact that almost every word he wrote takes me back to China in the 70’s.  But I was wrong.  I am delighted to be wrong.

The two boys – the narrator and Luo – as part of the re-education program are required to perform hard labor such as carrying buckets of excrement up and down the mountain paths, working inside a coal mine, and working in a field with the buffalos supervised by the headman.  The story told from the narrator’s perspective (and at times shift to other characters) is in contrary not gloomy at all.  Outside the inevitable routine, this pair always manages to find interesting things to do.  Soon, they have met the highly sought after and hence wealthy tailor who travels from village to village.  And here is the author’s playful observation of how women love clothes.

Watching them during fittings, Luo and I were amazed to see how agitated they were, how impatient, how physical their desire for new clothes was.  It would evidently take more than a political regime, more than dire poverty to stop a woman from wanting to be well dressed: it was a desire as old as the world, as old as the desire for children.

The tailor has a beautiful daughter, who is nicknamed as “Little Seamstress”.  For Luo and Little Seamstress, there is romance.  As for Little Seamstress and the narrator, there is friendship and love – I think – at a platonic level.  The turning point of the story is Balzac.  That is when the narrator, Luo, and Little Seamstress get hold of a stack of foreign literature.

Balzac is one of the French writers whose books were banned during the Cultural Revolution in China.  The impact of these books to the trio is enormous.  Those books slowly transform them into individuals who want to take free and independent actions, actions that lead them to desire, passion, and love.  In contrast to the uniformity of the Chinese re-education (which I suppose is the whole point of such exercise), “Balzacian” re-education takes on an unexpected turn for each of the three characters.  For the narrator, it is heroism, helping people beyond normal duty and means.  For Luo, it is his desire to transform Little Seamstress from an unsophisticated mountain girl into a literate who reads and internalizes Balzac.  For Little Seamstress, an awakening of what she is truly worth.

During my reading, I was so absorbed into the characters and the story not wanting this 172-page novel to end.  I was expecting a political heavy novel but it is not.  Instead, it is engaging, humorous, and there are enough twists to make the plot unexpected.

Categories
Book Reviews Fiction

Merde Actually by Stephen Clarke – Sex And Love, In French Style (Sort Of)

Give a choice, I would have started from book one of the series “A Year in the Merde” and work my way to “Dial M for Merde”.  But you know how borrowing books from a library is like.

So I have read book four of the series, “Dial M for Merde” in October.  Since I have got hold of book two and three, I figure that it is better to read “Merde Actually” before its sequel, “Merde Happens”.

Paul West, a British who has an ambition to open a tea house in Paris, still seems to have all the luck in his world to date beautiful girls, though does not seem to be lucky enough to date the one he loves.  No doubt, the Merde series are targeted primarily for guys.  Like the chick-lit for the ladies.  I am unsure if girls would find Stephen Clarke’s books an offence to read.  Buy hey, it is true.  Most of the time, we guys are drugged by endless sexual fantasies.  What makes the Merde series such a good read, I think, is that the main character Paul West while getting his fair share of steaming activities does at times say or do the ‘darndest’ thing that jeopardizes the ‘opportunity’.  Just like … well, what real life is, really.  Since I have read the fourth book before this one, I would say “Dial M for Merde”, from the story development point of view, is more entertaining, in a suspense and thrilling sort of way.

To be honest, I am a little bit confused by the story characters (because I am not reading the series in order).  In “Merde Actually”, Paul West has spent a holiday living under Florence’s mother’s roof (due to an unfortunate road accident that renders them with no car).  And then, living under her father’s roof. Thereafter, he focuses on setting up his restaurant in Paris and the two break up due to ‘long distance relationship’.  Then comes Paul’s ex-girlfriend Alexa whom I suppose is Paul’s love of his life.  Majority of the humor still revolves around the common misunderstanding between the French and the British – linguistically and culturally speaking.  I can understand why the French loves Stephen Clarke’s book because it is not condescending to the French culture.  In fact, the story becomes really funny when Paul – who is soaked in French culture for so long – returns to working in London.

The Merde series rank high as books to be read in a relaxing holiday, or on the plane.

Categories
Book Reviews Fiction

The Housekeeper And The Professor By Yoko Ogawa – Beautiful, Simplistic, And Mathematically Charming

“The Housekeeper and the Professor” tells a beautiful story between a professor who only has 80 minutes worth of short-term memory due to an accident, a young housekeeper who has been a single mother since 18, and her son whom the mathematic professor has nicknamed as Root because his hairstyle reminds the professor of the square root symbol.  It is a beautiful story because it is a story of memory and relationship down to very daily routines.  It is beautiful because seldom have I come across a novel with so much mathematics within and yet, engaging.  Let me elaborate.

To explain, say, the unique characteristic of ‘amicable numbers’ – a pair of numbers that the sums of their factors equal to each other (such as 220 and 284), the author makes use of the housekeeper’s birthday (Feb 20) and the prize number as engraved onto the professor’s watch (any other means the professor would have forgotten).  And since the numbers are ‘amicable’, so should the relationship between the two.  The professor then further explains to the housekeeper the beauty of prime numbers, the rarity of twin primes, the alternative means in arriving to the same, and mathematics is indeed the notebooks of God (I have heard this association from one of my friends who studied mathematics in university).  The housekeeper, on the other hand, does not mind the repeated lessons because she left school when young.  Soon, upon the professor’s request (and he seems to have the same request every time his memory is erased), the housekeeper’s son should be with his mother after school instead of staying alone at home.  Beyond the relationship of the three, there is this professor’s mysterious sister-in-law who engages the housekeeping service on behalf of the professor.  She lives nearby but seldom appears in his life.  And there is the agency that the housekeeper works in.  For those who are familiar to Japanese movies or drama series, how this story develops and ends should come as no surprise.  It is an emotional read.  And the ending is poetic.  I love almost every bit of the book except baseball.  Baseball is a sport full of statistics, so it seems.  Hence it blends well with the book.  I am not a fan of baseball.  However, having said that, Ogawa has done a good job in presenting the sport to me in a bearable manner.

How much does memory play a part in our relationship with others?  In the book where all the families are broken, do we have this fundamental desire to be part of a family?  I suppose there is a time when memory permanently breaks a relationship and there is a time when memory sustains and grows a relationship.  In the absence of long term memory, relationship appears to be perpetually in an exploration stage.  Is it at all meaningful and fulfilling?  Does it even lead to happiness?  The book seems to suggest so.  Should we then stop holding onto the unpleasant memories in the past (like the mysterious relationship between the professor and his sister-in-law) and focus on building relationships for the present, which may or may not be relevant in the future?  The book seems to suggest so.

For those who still remember what Euler’s equation means, here is an excerpt as the housekeeper researches based on the professor’s note: eπi + 1 = 0.

To begin with, what was “natural” about this “natural logarithm”?  Wasn’t it utterly unnatural to take such a number as your base – a number that could only be expressed by a sign: this tiny e seemed to extend to infinity, falling off even the largest sheet of paper.  I could not begin to understand this never-ending number.  It seemed as chaotic and random as a line of marching ants or a baby’s alphabet blocks, and yet it obeyed its own inner sort of logic.  Perhaps there was no fathoming God’s notebooks after all.  In the entire universe there were only a handful of especially gifted human beings able to understand a tiny part of this order, and then there were the rest of us, who could barely appreciate their discoveries.

How does such a formula stop an argument between the professor and his sister-in-law, the housekeeper and his son, Root?  Is it as simple as the professor’s pure way to express his love to children using something as unchangeable and true as the Euler’s formula?  And why do all the characters in this book have no name?  The more I think about the story, the more unanswered questions I have.

Categories
Book Reviews Fiction

Luka And The Fire Of Life By Salman Rushdie – Now, This Is Fantasy!

OK.  Let’s kick start the new year with a writeup on Salman Rushdie’s latest novel.  One of the seven books I have read when I was on holiday.

Born in the video gaming era, Salman Rushdie’s new novel “Luka and the Fire of Life” talks to me.  As the main character Luka transverses through the World of Magic, on a quest to save his storytelling father (the Shah of Blah) who has fallen into a deep sleep, Luka needs to face magical creatures not too far off from those found in the World of Warcraft, and gods and titans that remind me of the game God of War.  Even down to the details of leveling and ‘ding’ (commonly known among the gamers as getting to the next level), save points, number of lives, and the concept of game-over (or in the book, it is termed as ‘permination’ – Permanent Termination).

On the surface, “Luka and the Fire of Life” draws from the same source of inspiration similar to many of the video game titles today – fantasy.  Where does fantasy come from?  Legend, tradition, mythology, religion, and science – Rushdie’s new novel has done a marvelous job in meshing up a vast repertoire of fantasy from all over the world and presents them in a concise manner.  A 216-page novel, as compares to the last Rushdie novel I have read, is indeed concise.  This book is an easy and entertaining read.  How the story develops reminds me of the sci-fi writer Piers Anthony’s Mode series.  In that series, a little girl is able to step into an alternative reality and has to take on endless quests in order to complete a certain goal.  In “Luka and the Fire of Life”, a ten year old boy together with a dog named bear and a bear named dog step into the World of Magic.  From there, Luke gathers new fiends, faces new enemies, and together, they have to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles in order to attain an impossible goal – to steal the Fire of Life.

In a deeper examination, the author subtly slips in an at times humorous and at times inspirational message where possible.  Why “Big Bang” when there is no medium bang or an even bigger bang?  Do we live in a fated world whereby our future has already been written?  Or we are truly free to write our history?  What if there is no heaven?  And death merely means meeting one’s counterparty – like particles and anti-particles – and when the two meet, in contrast to be as in coming into being, the person simply un-be and vanish?

For those who enjoy reading fantasy stories, folklores, and mythologies, “Luka and the Fire of Life” guarantees to leave you breathless.  There are dragons and flying carpet, beauty contest amongst the goddesses such as Venus and Aphrodite, the Egyptian sun god – Ra – who speaks in Hieroglyph (it is hilarious!), there are heroes and villains too long to be listed, and there are memorable locations such as the Lake of Wisdom, the River of Time, the Mountain of Knowledge, and the Inescapable Whirlpool and above it, El Tiempo (like El Niño).

From the writing style point of view, this book is lively and modern.  The author has even created terms such as P2C2E (Processes Too Complicated To Explain) and made subtle reference to modern technology (“We [the magical creatures] aren’t needed anymore … with your High Definitions and low expectations”).  There are songs and poems.  And there is a character that partly speaks in Spanish.  I have observed a degree of dualism in the book to link real life characters (within the book of course) and the corresponding characters in the magical world.  I have also observed that when possible, the author augments a commonly associated concept to its opposite pole in order to keep ideas fresh (such as fire of life instead of fountain of life).  From the narration point of view, Salman Rushdie is without a doubt a master storyteller.  He draws you close into Luka and his companions.  Each character is distinct and they are intelligent.  The environment is magical.  Above all, Salman Rushdie has done something probably few have done – a good fantasy story does not have to be lengthy.  And it can be modern too.

Categories
Book Reviews Fiction

Great House By Nicole Krauss – Beautiful Prose Albeit Being Dry And Confusing

It was a promising beginning, for the opening chapter “All Rise”.  The narrator addresses to Your Honor confessing a break-up with her boyfriend, R, in the winter of 1972.  Initially, I thought Nicole Krauss’s new novel was a collection of short stories, which in my opinion would have worked out much better.  Comes the second chapter “True Kindness” when the narration switches from first person to second.  That is unusual.  Because there are only a few novels that tell a story involving you – the reader – throughout the plot.  It is refreshing, even though this second chapter seems depressing.  It is a story told from a father’s perspective.  You are his first son and you have a brother.  There is a funeral for his wife.  And your father recounts the memory of your upbringing, how different you are from your brother, and how you and your father never get along (it does read a bit odd being referred as you, doesn’t it?)  At that point, I still thought that “Great House” was a collection of short stories, a genre I adore reading lately.

Then we have “Swimming Holes”.  A story told by an old husband in the first person perspective, on his soon to be dead wife, and a secret kept by his wife soon to be revealed – she has a son whom she was given away at birth.  And there and then, a connection back to the first chapter “All Rise” with a Chilean poet.  Or is it?  Fourth chapter “Lies Told by Children” is a story – again in first person – about a girl having a brief relationship with a boy who has a sister.  The focus of the story appears to be the siblings’ father, who is an antique collector.  Linking these four stories is an old desk (it could be one, it could be different ones – I cannot tell).  There is where it gets confusing.

These four stories confuse me because they do appear to be independent.  The linkage could well be symbolic.  It is also hard to remember the narrator’s names (or even some characters who are not frequently mentioned but plays a role to the story).  If “Great House” was a collection of short stories, one could get immersed into one story, expect it to have an abstract ending, without the need to memorize the characters, and move onto the next one.  It is like admiring a beautiful garden instead of navigating through a jungle.  To read “Great House” as a novel requires a fair bit of thinking.  If I was to read it again (less likely to be so), I would start to write notes as I progress.  On the characters, the relationships, the objects, the events, the locations, and the timelines.

First four chapters of the book contribute to part one.  In part two, the chapter titles almost resemble the previous part: True Kindness, All Rise, Swimming Holes, and Weisz.  To add onto the reading complexity, one has to link the two parts as well.  Nicole Krauss is a witty writer.  No doubt about it.  Her prose is beautiful, although some of the airy scripts that devote to emotions and feelings may at times lose me.  Because I prefer to see a good balance of actions and internal thoughts.  Also, the entire book has no conversational dialogs.  There are dialogs in the form of thoughts.  And the difference between the two is interactiveness.  Reading how one thinks is different from seeing how two converse.  Hence in summary, I feel the novel is a bit dry for me to read.

To demonstrate the author’s style of writing, here is an excerpt taken from the “True Kindness” that I like best.  Your name is Dov.  A girl you are in love with has spent a night in your room (details not known).  And the narrator is your father who mets this girl in the morning over breakfast while you – I presume – are still asleep.  And you are writing, or attempt to write, a novel about a shark inside a tank.

I sat across from her and watched her eat.  Such a small girl and such a large appetite.  She was sure of her beauty; it was evident in her smallest gestures.  She flung her arms and legs around with unstudied carelessness, but they always landed with grace.  There was an inner logic that organized her thoroughly.  Tell me something, I said.  She looked at me, still chewing.  A musky odor clung to her.  What? she asked.  I sat there, hair growing out of my ears.  Never mind, I said, and let the giant shark swim off away from me.  She finished eating in silence and got up to clean her plate.  At the door she paused.  The answer to your question is no, she said.  What question? I said.  The one you didn’t ask, she said.  Oh?  Which one is that?  About Dov, she said.  I waited for her to go on, but she didn’t.  There was much in that instant I failed to grasp.  I heard the front door close behind her.

Death is everywhere in the book.  I suppose if you are in the right state of mind, this level of melancholy is beautiful.  Some parts of the story can be heart wrenching, emotions described in such realism.  There is also a linkage to the Jews and their heritage.  To link up the stories, Nicole Krauss uses objects such as a desk, a symbolic stone, Israel, and writers, mingled with some of her characters.  Above all, she uses the concept of a house, a Great House (hence the title).  What is a Jew without Jerusalem? she asks.  Bend a people round the shape of what they lost, and let everything mirror its absent form, she adds.  Quote from Books of Kings by the author: He burned the house of God, the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem; even every great house he burned with fire.

“Great House” is one of the books in which I struggle midway wanting to give up but am happy with the poetic ending.  I have read “The History Of Love” too.  But this one is a bit too sad, and dry.