Category: Book Reviews

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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”.

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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.

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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: eÏ€i + 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.