“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 [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Fiction'
The Housekeeper And The Professor By Yoko Ogawa – Beautiful, Simplistic, And Mathematically Charming
January 9th, 2011 4 Comments
Tags: Yoko Ogawa
Luka And The Fire Of Life By Salman Rushdie – Now, This Is Fantasy!
January 3rd, 2011 2 Comments
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 [...]
Tags: Salman Rushdie
Great House By Nicole Krauss – Beautiful Prose Albeit Being Dry And Confusing
December 19th, 2010 2 Comments
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 [...]
Tags: Nicole Krauss
Book 3 Of Midnight’s Children – Wrapping Up Week 4 Read-Along
December 14th, 2010 7 Comments
One month has passed since I have joined my blogger friend and her friends and her extended friends to read Salman Rushdie’s “Midnight’s Children”. I can be a slow reader when the topic gets heavy and indeed, I am happy to have completed my reading in time for the closing of this read-along activity. When [...]
Tags: Midnight's Children read along · read along · Salman Rushdie
Book 2 Of Midnight’s Children – Wrapping Up Week 2 & 3 Read-Along
December 4th, 2010 3 Comments
I read somewhere that vocabulary defines one’s wisdom. In the sense that it is a tool – perhaps one major tool – to express oneself. The more diverse and vast one’s pool of vocabulary is, the more precise one’s idea can be articulated. It is observed that most adults after leaving school seldom learn new [...]
Tags: Midnight's Children read along · read along · Salman Rushdie
Lovers In The Age Of Indifference By Xiaolu Guo – Neat, Witty, And Melancholy
November 29th, 2010 2 Comments
How effortless Xiaolu Guo has turned indifference into art! In this collection of 17 short stories of vastly different styles, a few themes persist. Indifference is one. And then there are lovers in love, not in love; a prominent linkage to China with geographic locations within China, outside China. While it is difficult to feel [...]
Tags: Xiaolu Guo
Book 1 Of Midnight’s Children – Wrapping Up Week 1 Read-Along
November 21st, 2010 9 Comments
Before I write a wrap-up of my week one’s read-along progress, I have two confessions to make. This activity was first conceptualized with Jo – the UK blogger – and I commenting on a list of books that we wish to have started reading but now collecting dust at our bookshelves. You see, I have [...]
Tags: Midnight's Children read along · read along · Salman Rushdie
Maynard & Jennica By Rudolph Delson – You Wouldn’t Want This Love Story To End
November 18th, 2010 No Comments
Once in a while, I would discover some books that are so unique and you want to know the sad part of the story? I can never find another book quite like the ones I love, not even from the same author. Like Nick Hornby’s “High Fidelity” and his endless top 5 lists. I can [...]
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Lord Vishnu’s Love Handles By Will Clarke – This Is Wacky, This Is So Fun!
November 5th, 2010 No Comments
This story makes no sense. It really does not. You know how the opening paragraph of a book set the tone and style of the entire book. Here is the first paragraph from “Lord Vishnu’s Love Handles”. Shelby is a slut. She is also my wife. And that presents certain problems. Actually it presents major [...]
Tags: Will Clarke
UFO In Her Eyes By Xiaolu Guo – An Original Work Examining China’s Past (And Future) In Guo’s Eyes
October 25th, 2010 8 Comments
“UFO In Her Eyes” is one strange novel, and I am liking it. I don’t think I have read something quite like this before. The storyline is strange. But even more so is the format and the way this book is written. The story begins in year 2012, in a small Chinese village called Silver [...]
Tags: Xiaolu Guo