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| 1429536322
| 9781429536325
| 3.87
| 78,967
| 1987
| Apr 01, 1990
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really liked it
| "For all men are eggs, in a manner of speaking. We exist, but we have not yet achieved the form that is our destiny. We are pure potential, an exam "For all men are eggs, in a manner of speaking. We exist, but we have not yet achieved the form that is our destiny. We are pure potential, an example of the not-yet arrived. For man is a fallen creature--we know that from Genesis. Humpty Dumpty is also one. He falls from his wall, and no one can put him back together again--neither king, nor his horses, nor his men. But that is what we must all strive to do. It is our duty as human beings: to put the eggs back together again. For each of us is Humpty Dumpty. And to help him is to help ourselves." I became intimately familiar with Paul Auster for the first time when I read his novella Travels in the Scriptorium back when I was eighteen and I had wasted the first two years of college skipping classes I don't like and opting to stay inside my dorm room instead just to read books and watch shows. Auster's book was one of these distractions I easily warmed up to, particularly when I found his narrative style to be surreal and at times even out-of-this-world while also still being in it. It's a refreshing paradox and his work was probably the very first time I read something not strictly reality-bound. Perhaps he may even be the author who fueled my interest in metaphysical stories after all. As soon as I finished The New York Trilogy, a book I had in my possession for seven years but had put off reading, I realized that it was a rather incomplete experience--and that is not necessarily a bad thing. Comprised of three short stories that have vague interrelations with one another, Paul Auster's The New Trilogy is quite the evasive, baffling yet wondrously insightful novel concerning the nature of stories, identification and pursuit for substantial meaning. Disguised as a detective story, each tale is told in the perspective of protagonists who investigate cases that ended up revealing something crucial in themselves which would ultimately turn out to be inconsequential and unknowable after all. I supposed one can consider this as a meta story on detective fiction which are two things I absolutely love separately. Seeing them woven together in The New York Trilogy was a thrilling thing to see in theory. After all, the genre of hard-boiled detective fiction and procedural crime stories in general are encompassing, influencing some of the finest works in books, television and movies. Most of the popular shows on TV right now deal with a detective of some sort and his colleagues as they solve mysteries and crimes ranging from mistaken identities, theft, murder, serial killings, and even to the spookier stuff that may or may not have a touch of the macabre or the supernatural. The most recent and grandest of this had to be HBO's True Detective which I was completely obsessed with for a time, especially during its first season. The reason I bring it up is because Paul Auster's novel strongly reminded me of True Detective's formula and approach. At first glance, each of the tales in this book was a detective story but as the plot evolves and the characters start to become more familiar with the readers, that's when we discover for ourselves that the mystery being solved here is the crisis and inner demons of the protagonist himself. The more involved he becomes in the case he is trying to solve, the more his own deeper struggles become unsolvable to him. He therefore found himself trying to unravel the mystery before him, hoping it would help him get some type of closure in his own life where there are some things he isn't allowed to comprehend at all. The stories then become rather convoluted, shockingly obtuse and unsatisfactory as soon as you get to the last page. "The present is no less dark than the past, and its mystery is equal to anything the future might hold. Such is the way of the world: one step at a time, one word and then the next. For knowledge comes slowly, and when it comes, it is often at a great personal expense." Much like the first season of True Detective, The New York trilogy is a collection of the fragmented consciousnesses of its protagonists who turn out to be the heart of the mystery that the plot itself is ironically the one trying to untangle for the readers. Each story then reads like a myth, one that divulges secrets in the dark but never truly shedding a light on each clue; a story that frustratingly conceals more than it reveals, leaving readers dumbfounded of the pieces scattered before them. I had the same kind of grueling experience while watching True Detective although since it was in visual form, I'm able to enjoy it and still be grounded on reality regarding the vital scenes I see for each episode. With the written form, the desired effect is much more personal and horrific; I simply do not know what to make out of the smallest details for the stories which I get the sense are important but become lost to me along the way. And that, I think, is Auster's aim in trying to construct a meta interpretation of detective stories in general. That is where the frustration and dissatisfaction lie. The primary reason why we read books, especially works of fiction, is to understand ourselves and the world around us. We explore stories because they are supposed to reflect reality and interpreted in a creative, intellectual stimulating way. For Auster's The New York Trilogy, he purposefully wrote these three tales with the opposite of what the reader expects. In fact, most of the scenes in this novel are banal, utterly uneventful a and mercilessly puzzling. Man is considered to be the most mysterious being of all, but his life, when broken down into details, is nothing but a whimsical and tattered tapestry that doesn't always depict a complete picture. And aren't we all trying to be completeists in our lives; trying to define everything in terms that for us make sense but in the end may be just as incomprehensible as where we have started? I'm certainly more confused now after finishing this novel than I was when I began reading it days ago. It's an awful yet uplifting feeling all the same. Paul Auster brilliantly captures this paradoxical relationship we have with stories in this passage: "We all want to be told stories, and we listen to them in the same way we did when we were young. We imagine the real story inside the words, and to do this we substitute ourselves for the person in the story, pretending that we can understand him because we understand ourselves. This is a deception. We exist for ourselves, perhaps, and at times we even have the glimmer of who we are, but in the end we can never be sure, and as our lives go on, we become more and more opaque to ourselves, more and more aware of our own incoherence ." In City of Glass, we meet the small-time fiction writer named Daniel Quinn who was mistaken as a detective but he was intrigued enough about the case laid before him that he placed it upon himself to solve it. He follows a man who in turn is an eccentric trying to decipher the nature of language, hoping to create a universal language everyone can speak, much like in the biblical story of the Tower of Babel until God struck down these humans and made them speak different languages. There is also the brief allusion to Don Cervantes' Don Quixote which Quinn contemplated about for a while, never knowing that--by the end of the story--he himself has become such a tragic character in the same vein as the delusional "knight" in Cervantes' dramatic tale. Quinn loses all sense of reality and identity the more he tried to unravel a mystery that is simply not for him to solve. In Ghosts, we meet the detective Blue, a protégé of Brown, who is hired by a man named White to conduct surveillance on a man named Black. Blue performed his duty well, submitting his daily reports to White regarding Black's rather dull and uneventful activities. As the case consumes him, Blue becomes increasingly anxious and paranoid, theorizing that this was all a grand conspiracy between White and Black, and that he is the one being watched instead of the other way around. Upon confirming this, Blue then is faced with an impossible choice. Finally, we have The Locked Room which is a staple of the genre where a supposedly unsolvable crime was committed inside seemingly locked room. It's worth noting that True Detective's third episode of the first season is named with the same title (and is one of my favorites). In this story, an unnamed protagonist was asked by the wife of his childhood friend to find the missing man in question. This man, Fanshawe, left his works of fiction in the confidence of the protagonist where he specifically requested for the protagonist himself to determined if his material is worth publishing. The protagonist had the stories published and then married Fanshawe's wife and adopted his son. But Fanshawe was not dead but remained adamant that he doesn't want to be found. Unable to satisfy his curiosity and eager to completely get a sense of closure from Fanshawe, the protagonist still pursued finding Fanshawe (in order to kill him) and discovered a rather bizarre thread of events that had something to do with the first story City of Glass but the reader and the character himself have no clue as to how all of this is connected...and perhaps we never have to know. "Writing is a solitary business. It takes over your life. In some sense, a writer has no life of his own. Even when he's there, he's not really there." Paul Auster's The New York Trilogy is a dizzying experience filled with unanswered questions and equally unsolvable mysteries. His characters were just as painstakingly elusive, leaving us with only a sense of what has happened in our minds but never what has truly happened in objective reality. That's because there is no objective realism in the three stories and everything is open to interpretation and up for debate. In spite of this, I definitely enjoyed the topsy-turvy ride Auster provided for this novel, and I would recommend it while also cautioning readers to have a tremendous amount of suspension of belief because The New York Trilogy is one of the most nonsensical narratives you will ever come across. Still, it's an interesting journey worth the try. RECOMMENDED: 8/10 DO READ MY REVIEWS AT [image] ...more |
Notes are private!
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Sep 13, 2015
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ebook
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| 0385667833
| 9780385667838
| 0385667833
| 3.73
| 382,917
| 1958
| Apr 21, 2009
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really liked it
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Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart is a substantial and illuminating piece of African literature written by its author in the English language with the
Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart is a substantial and illuminating piece of African literature written by its author in the English language with the purposes of not only portraying the Nigerian tribal culture through the neutral lenses of one of its native writers, but also to connect with a wider, global audience who very much need a fresh perspective when it comes to how Africans live, worship and govern themselves as families and clans. In this sense, most of the critical acclaim that this novel received is well-deserved. I could definitely agree that it's something schools should require for students to read and analyse in their literature classes. I also think that the broader strokes that Achebe achieved in writing Things Fall Apart must be better appreciated, I believe, with the sequels that followed it. I myself feel encouraged to pick them up someday. For now, I'm content to lavish on the richly detailed significant moments that happened in this book which were relayed with both sheer insight and pragmatism in a scale I thought was admirable and genuine. The central figure of this book is a native named Okonkwo who is considered to be one of the most formidable wrestlers in his clan. He also fancies himself as a self-made man of brute force and hard labor, dedicated in making a name and reputation for himself where his own father before him has failed. From the very start, readers are immediately informed that Okonkwo despises weakness and laziness since his culture demands a man to be strong with the typical and traditional traits of masculinity. He must be steadfast in dominating his wives and children and must never show affection or leniency even towards his loved ones. The mark of a proud man, indeed, and this singular quality has made him rather unappealing to me. Nevertheless, I thought he was a main character I didn't mind reading about or learning more from since there are other times I think he is also sympathetic enough to warrant some of my understanding and compassion. I like the fact that Okonkwo values hard work above all else, that he has to strive to attain for a prosperous life, and that he wants the same for his eldest son borne of his first wife. In this sense, I thought he was agreeable enough. With Okonkwo as the focal point, Achebe also explored the inner workings of the clan he is a part of which include some practices and customs that may seem bizarre from an outsider's point-of-view. Much of the book delved upon the daily grind of their lives which include the homemaking and services provided by the women, festivities and certain offerings for their gods especially during harvest seasons, and the clan's very own judicial system which may seem primitive if not outright cruel for modern readers who will encounter it in this book but I think it's a system that works best for them in the long run. There is also a matter of how Okonkwo treats his wives and children which are questionable, of course, because he can be violent and definitely beats them around whenever they displease him but Achebe never describes this violence in detail which gives the effect that such a occurrence is commonplace. I didn't particularly feel enraged either only because Achebe can somehow make a reader readily understand that this is simply a matter of how the culture works and whatever preconceived judgments someone of my own upbringing has should be cast aside to enable to view this with a more pragmatic observation. I succeeded, in this case, and bore in mind that a husband beating his wife in the context of their culture is his right because she is his property, and that is a norm I should only consider myself fortunate not to be a part of. In my perspective, it is nothing other than systematic abuse that is normalized by societal acceptance, but to the clansmen and women it's what is prescribed by their laws and religion. I find it amusing, though, that there was a mention of a certain holiday where husbands cannot beat their wives because it would displease gods. The irony of that did not escape me. I think books like this one (and Mahfouz' Palace Walk which I read a week ago) have challenged me to keep an open mind when it comes to things which I'm readily prejudiced against especially when it comes to the maltreatment or oppression of women as portrayed in fiction. I think an author's intention is the defining point in this and so far neither Achebe or Mahfouz has glorified violence or the subjugation of women and their neutrality is helpful and comforting somewhat. Still, there are real social issues and horrors that condemn and harm women across the world; some of those struggles are culturally unique as well, but although Achebe and Mahfouz have touched upon them in their respective books, their stories were ultimately not modes of advocating for it or against it, so readers shouldn't concern themselves too seriously about them when reading either of these books. Or you may choose to do so but hopefully with caution, tact and good intentions. Such an open discussion is something that might prove to be otherwise fruitful. Going back to the review: Things Fall Apart as a chronicle of tribal life is well-versed and insightful, but midway in the book, the story gradually builds up to the altercations and cross-cultural misunderstandings that occur between the Africans and the Christian missionaries who settled in their homelands, and whose warped sense of ethnocentrism and religious fervor drove them to convert these people they perceive to be barbaric and inferior to them. I thought this is the most exciting part of the entire novel itself even though it only happened for less than a hundred pages. Amdist this conflict is Okonkwo who view these outsiders as a plague that threaten to corrode their way of life and worship, and he must make the ultimate choice as an individual as to whether or not he must subject himself and his family to their will. At the heart of Things Fall Apart are the small moments of triumph and compassion that Okonkwo and his family share which are my favorite parts of the book. But, unlike Palace Walk, this novel is not character-centered so I can admit that I find myself rather detached at times when reading certain texts. I never felt like I knew any of the characters in this book so identifying with their sorrows and struggles never deepen enough to take root. In general, I've looked at the events that took place in Things Fall Apart with the knowledge and experience of someone who grew up and lived in a colonized nation such as the Philippines. Contextualizing my own cultural struggles with the ones Achebe have showcased here was rather helpful. My country is an archipelago which meant that there are still a variety of existing tribal natives in other lands, and though the Philippines is now a homogeneous Christian nation, that road to progress is paved by civil wars between the Filipinos and their Spanish patrons who aimed to spread the Catholic faith by any means necessary. I think this was why I was very fascinated and sympathetic with the last five or six chapters of the book that delved upon this conflict because I have read it in my own history books. In this manner, I thought Things Fall Apart is remarkable and brilliant. It may not be as personal or intimate as my reading of Mahfouz' Palace Walk has been but it's nonetheless just as invigorating and exceptional. This is a book with impressive breadth and insight, and one you should strive to explore at one point in your life. It's quite an indisputable treasure. RECOMMENDED: 8/10 DO READ MY REVIEWS AT [image] ...more |
Notes are private!
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Apr 08, 2015
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Apr 12, 2015
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Jan 30, 2014
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| 4.04
| 490,556
| Feb 26, 1985
| Feb 2001
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really liked it
| "...people could close their eyes to greatness, to horrors, to beauty, and their ears to melodies or deceiving words. But they could not escape scent. "...people could close their eyes to greatness, to horrors, to beauty, and their ears to melodies or deceiving words. But they could not escape scent. For scent was a brother of breath. Together with breath it entered human beings, who could not defend themselves against it, not if they wanted to live. And scent entered into their very core, went directly into their hearts, and decided for good and all between affection and contempt, disgust and lust, love and hate. He who ruled scent ruled the hearts of men." ~p. 155 There are two scents that I can remember rather sharply as long as I close my eyes and focus on them. The first one is the cigarette smell of my father's breath every time he kisses me as a child. It was probably the very reason I started smoking in the first place when I was only twelve years old because it was a scent that I associated with love and affection at that time. Even though he quit the habit when I was fourteen, I will always think of cigarette smoke as my father's signature scent, and breathing it in also comes with the fond recollection of my carefree innocence and the safety of a strong, paternal figure who will always protect me. That particular scent has etched on me so distinctly and completely that I instinctively have those warm feelings to this day whenever I'm at a social gathering with friends whose second-hand smoke is essentially a kind of nostalgia that intoxicates me. The second smell is my high school best friend's shampoo whose brand I never found out by name but it's something I can spot with my nose even from a distance. As soon as I encounter that shampoo scent, there's a lightness to my step when I approach it, knowing it's her, the love of my life then who fills up my breathing space with something extraordinary every day. In 2009, an upperclassman in college recommended the film adaptation of this book back when I didn't even know about this German novel. The movie starring Ben Whishaw as the lead role was something quite unforgettable in concept even if the delivery of the story itself felt lacking. Nevertheless, it was truly a bizarre story, one that confounds and disturbs--a spooky examination of the powerful extent that our olfactory sense has on us, like how certain smells can trigger memories and emotions in an inexplicable manner. I didn't like the movie as much but the plot and character did stay with me until I found out a copy of this book three years ago for the Manila International Book Fair. "There are scents that linger for decades. A cupboard rubbed with musk, a piece of leather drenched with cinnamon oil, a glob of ambergris, a cedar chest--they all possess virtually eternal olfactory life. While other things evaporate within a few hours if they are exposed to the air in a pure, unbound form. The perfumer would bind scents that are too volatile, by putting them in chains, so to speak, taming their urge for freedom--though his art consists of leaving enough slack in the chains for the odor seemingly to preserve its freedom even when it is tied so deftly that it cannot flee." ~p.193 Patrick Süskind's 1985 novel Perfume: The Story of a Murderer closely follows the dark tale of the orphan and aspiring perfumer Jean-Baptiste Grenouille who was born with an acute sense of smell. Puzzlingly enough, he has no smell of his own. This is a symbolic characteristic that I find poignant. The book was set in mid-century France, specifically in the grimy and filthy streets of Paris whose awful and wondrous variety of scents has drawn someone of Grenouille's special ability in the first place. In part, Perfume reads as a straightforward biography of the protagonist mostly told in the perspectives of the different men and women who have encountered him. It was by the last hundred pages of the novel that the narrative is transformed into a serial-killer suspenseful tale which was well worth the wait, given the amount of time that the author has spent earlier in the book, crafting a rather slow-burning pace that led to Grenouille's growing awareness concerning his prowess and the ultimate goal he must reach. I thought Süskind's style was a great exercise of literary discipline where he not only have to vividly capture olfactory descriptions throughout the novel, but also possess a greater understanding of what a creature like Grenouille must live like, as well as how he responds to his environment and humanity in general. With his gift, he never quite developed inherent qualities like empathy since he is only able to know people in the most visceral yet hollow of ways by associating everything a human being is through smell alone. "Beneath his mask, there was no face but only his total ordorless." ~p. 241 Grenouille's repulsion towards humans become more apparent once he fully embraced his narcissism and uniqueness, arguing that he must be above humankind because of his acute olfactory functions. He can create and concoct scents that can deceive people and he takes much pride in this feat. His feelings of superiority and alienation heavily stems from the fact that he never had any kind of meaningful connection or relationship with another person. He might as well be a new breed of human altogether and he knows this only too punishingly well. Suskind described Grenuoille as unremarkable in appearance, very inconspicuous and frail that he would hardly ever make an impression. In spite of Grenouille's bloated sense of worth, he remains very much human because he still possesses that natural inclination of ours to desire and wish for love. Grenouille does want to be accepted and loved even if it's in the most twisted way imaginable; and the grave road he paved to acquire just that is absolutely frightening. Deeply motivated to "rob a living being its aromatic soul" in substitute of his own, Grenouille mistakes this for happiness. Grenouille begins to seek the ultimate olfactory concoction found in the odors of adolescent girls whom he began to hunt down in order to acquire their essence and store it in a perfume bottle. This is the most engaging part of the entire novel; his desire to create a perfume that makes him irresistible to humans. It is sad when you think about it. What Grenouille simply wants to accomplish is to reaffirm his existence through defining his relevance in the only manner he is capable of. Under the threat of population and emphasis on the significant role of the majority versus the individual, Grenouille feels invisible, taking comfort in the lie that this does not bother him when it in fact imprisons him in a state of mind where no one can reach him. "Jean-Baptiste Grenouille [is] a compelling character designed to exploit a deeply embedded cultural fascination with the criminal genius...Grenouille's appeal derives from the similarity of this homicidal predator of eigtheenth-century France with present-day serial killers, real and fictional, who continue to attract both artistic and public interest. As a serial killer, Grenouille conforms to a profile established by current clinical research linking the narcissistic borderline personality with homicidal psychopaths. Severe emotional traumas in early life have blocked the healthy internalizations needed to build a stable core self. Lacking coherent self-structure as the basis for internalizing authority, he has no superego. Guilt is not an aspect of his consciousness; he murders merely to acquire the materials necessary for his art." With such a painstakingly layered and symbolic themes that populate this book, there have been a handful of analyses and interpretations about Perfume out there which are also available online. The most striking article I've read about it (as quoted above) asserts that 'the novel is a cautionary fable revealing how the Enlightenment ideal of individual autonomy is all-too-easily subverted by instrumental reason to produce the ego pathology that increasingly infects modern society.' Granted, this analysis mostly focuses on the subversions and criticism on Romanticism, as well as issues on the subject of melancholia and mourning in a literary perspective, but it's a rather interesting read to so I advise you check it out if you ever decide to read this book. "He, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, born with no odor of his own on the most stinking spot in this world amid garbage, dung and putrefaction, raised without love, with no warmth of a human soul, surviving solely on impudence and the power of loathing--he had managed to make the world love him. And in that moment he experienced the greatest triumph of his life. And he was terrified. He was terrified because he could not enjoy one second of it." ~pp. 239-240 Anyone loves a great serial-killer story and this may be no Darkly Dreaming Dexter because it's not a hard-boiled thriller dealing with moral ambiguities as slick and sexy as the aforementioned series does, but Perfume nonetheless excels in the genre in its own sublime way. With a character like Jean-Baptiste Grenouille who is more or less a blunt-force trauma-to-the-head, this book delivers a dark fable that's more often than not rather crude and petrifying in scope, yet its prose also becomes delicate to the touch, even when it's uncomfortably bizarre to see the events unfold before you. The gruelling climax and ending will simply astound and leave you cold for hours. This is a guaranteed contemporary classic that will deftly play with your imagination. "But Grenouille perceives that this is not enough because he cannot love himself. He knows that, even though he can appear as the most wonderful of individuals to everyone in the world with this scent, he cannot smell himself and, therefore, he cannot know who he truly is. With this lack of self-knowledge, the world and himself have no meaning." RECOMMENDED: 8/10 DO READ MY REVIEWS AT: [image] ...more |
Notes are private!
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Mar 05, 2015
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Paperback
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| 0143106481
| 9781101097144
| 0143106481
| 4.03
| 115,550
| Feb 1928
| Sep 27, 2011
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really liked it
| "Even death may die.." American author H.P Lovecraft is such a prominent and prolific horror writer that a subgenre of horror was even name "Even death may die.." American author H.P Lovecraft is such a prominent and prolific horror writer that a subgenre of horror was even named after him. Lovecraftian horror involves "the cosmic horror of the unknown and the unknowable more than gore or other elements of shock". With this mind, I was quite excited to read this anthology which collected his finest eighteen short stories throughout the years. This paperback edition I own even includes a great introductory essay to the life and times of Lovecraft, as well as explanatory notes that serve as expansions of ideas taken from his stories; a glossary that also offers more insights to his writing process, influence and conceptualization. Frankly, I think The Call of Cthulu and Other Weird Stories is a fascinating though difficult read. I have my reservations both in reviewing and recommending this anthology. I don't believe this is exactly something anyone can just enjoy and appreciate. In fact, upon closer inspection, I found that most tales included in this volume are interrelated, if not indirectly referential of each other. This is probably because Lovecraft, like all great literary masters, has created his own fictional universes where these stories breathe. For example, mentions of the place Arkham happens frequently, as well as the elusive grimoire known as the Necronomicon. This could mean that for a novice, the collection may get alienating here and there. If this is the very first Lovecraft material you will ever read, then I think this particular anthology might baffle you at times because the degree of difficulty to his prose that might not be accessible to a reader more used to a contemporary and more straightforward style of storytelling, particularly when it comes to horror. Speaking of which, I rather found Lovecraft's style challenging myself. There are so many adjectives and lengthy phrases; his general tonality can be bizarrely bone-dry in delivery which sometimes dilutes whatever horrific or terrifying plot thread you're supposed to be following. To be perfectly honest, a few of the stories in the volume have rendered me sluggish, mostly because I could predict the ending. In addition to that, there are three of four stories that are mostly repetitive, thematic-wise. I think these are my major criticisms of the anthology in general. However, his style isn't necessarily a bad thing though. When a certain story being told is unbelievably haunting and evocative, Lovecraft's prose can put you under a terrifying trance. What such stories excel in isn't about the gore or the shocking twist, really. It's the slow-burning build-up that leads to the tragedy. The Call of Cthulu and Other Weird Stories is ruthlessly engaging when you least expect it to and that's what made the obstacles along the way worth conquering as a reader. I think this anthology would be more enjoyable when one's focus is singular. You can consume this in a slower pace if it means developing a richer and deeper understanding of what makes Lovecraft's stories so magnetic. Personally, I would re-read the stories again just so I can spot more connections among them. After all, I think this volume doesn't even cover the wide expanse of the Lovecraft universe, particularly that of the Cthulu mythos which is a rather influential piece of fiction and a tirelessly imaginative lore that has enchanted other writers across generations to contribute their own works to this perplexing creature of the most visceral and unknowable of horrors ever realized in fiction. The story Festival is credited as probably the first time Lovecraft has tried to weave Cthulu mythos for the very first time. I highly suggest that you and I check out more about said mythos in other collections. I only have five stories that I would consider absolute favorites because they spoke to me in the most unpleasant yet invigorating ways. Understandably, I must include the namesake The Call of Cthulhu which was simply the stuff that makes nightmares real. Elaborate and layered with puzzles within puzzles, this story leaves so much to the reader's interpretation as it slowly crawls its way into your consciousness; right until the moment when you realize that it's irreversibly stuck in the damaged corners of your own mind. Two other stories like Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family and The Picture in the House are astounding because Lovecraft has woven them in a way that makes the discovery at the end so dreadful to comprehend. The suspense in these stories are unforgivably subtle, as if it only managed to graze my skin, but further reflection of these tales would reveal just how much they made me slightly sick to my stomach. The stories Herbert West -- Reanimator and The Rats in the Walls really got under my skin. The former was definitely the best horror story I ever read about resurrecting dead people that I think rivals even Mary Shelley's classical novel Frankenstein. I could imagine watching the story unfold on screen which was why I want to watch the said film version of this story soon enough. Meanwhile, the latter story almost, sort of, destroyed me. It was an exploration of madness that is so hard to put in words even as I type this review unless one has dabbled in something akin to it (which, unfortunately, I once had back when I was less in control of my mental state as a young girl). The Rats in the Walls symbolize a rude awakening where there really is no way you can ever go back; where a physical manifestation of your fears become a consuming preoccupation that can deteriorate the rest of your soul. I think there are many levels to this story that will make for a fruitful discussion. It's almost painful for me to read this tale without cringing in revulsion and distress. Some other noteworthy tales to read are The Whisperer in Darkness, The Colour Out of Space, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, and The Haunter of the Dark. They are deft and daring in concept and execution and would make you question certain comfortable things in life after finishing them. In a nutshell, H.P Lovecraft's The Call of Cthulu and Other Weird Stories is a worthwhile and challenging reading experience that I can only recommend to people who are prepared for something drastically eye-opening. The very best of the stories included in this anthology are like itches you can only keep scratching if the relief you garner from it also means that you have to bleed. RECOMMENDED: 8/10 Read more of my review in: [image] ...more |
Notes are private!
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Mar 16, 2015
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Mar 23, 2015
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Jan 30, 2014
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Paperback
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| 0312378467
| 9780312378462
| 0312378467
| 3.51
| 105
| 2010
| Feb 02, 2010
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liked it
| "There must be a never-ending supply of Holmes stories just as there must be air and water. And they must be the finest Holmes stories we can creat "There must be a never-ending supply of Holmes stories just as there must be air and water. And they must be the finest Holmes stories we can create. Not the true quill of the Master perhaps, but still nourishing to a parched and hungry soul." This is the final anthology I'm reviewing for the Sherlock Holmes birthday month last January which managed to bleed into this month as well because I was preoccupied with other readings so I had to take breaks for the last two books in my SH roster. But I eventually did finish reading all of them and now I'm officially ending with yet another collection edited by Michael Kurland, Sherlock Holmes: The American Years. It's worth mentioning that this is a re-read from six years ago which meant that the material is once again fresh in my eyes and I can honestly say that I barely remember a lot of these stories at all. Only one really struck me as a standout. The ten stories included in this volume have operated with a premise based on the idea that the Great Detective has travelled to America; and what adventures he may have had during the course of his stay there. It was briefly mentioned in the canon that Holmes did find his way in the colonies before, and that inference should definitely breed a new set of possible scenarios as to why and how. Naturally, it could be because of a murder mystery or an ongoing investigation of any crime that is intriguing enough to draw in Holmes which was more or less what these stories offered. Another element common in all these tales is the inclusion of real-life historical figures for Holmes to interact with. In a sense, The American Years can be readily considered a collection of pastiche. Almost all of them too are origin stories pertaining to how Holmes found his vocation and calling as a detective. I only considered four of them my favorites and these are My Silk Umbrella by Darryl Brock where Holmes meets Mark Twain, author of Tom Saywer's and Huckleberry Finn's Adventures during a baseball game and hilarity ensues; The Old Senator by Steve Hockensmith where Holmes is a stage actor who encounters William Gilette, the most memorable actor himself who played him a decade or so later on stage; The American Adventure by Gary Lovisi where Joseph Bell, the doctor Conan Doyle based Holmes on originally, was actually his mentor and friend after all; and The Curse of Edwin Booth by Carole Bugge where the titular actor is haunted by his brother's Lincoln assassination but struggles to eventually overcome that notoriety through the help of a certain aspiring English detective. The rest of the stories are fairly decent although a few can be grating because of its alienating quality, most especially if certain historical facts go way over your head while reading. We have Inga Sigerson Weds by Richard A. Lupoff in which Sherlock Holmes has a older sister; The Sacred White Elephant of Mandalay by Michael Mallory; The Reluctant Assassin by Peter Tremayne that makes use of the Irish civil wars as a backdrop; Cutting for Sign by Rhys Bowen which is a proper Western tale where Holmes learns deductive reasoning from a Native American named Shadow Wolf; The Stagecoach Detective which is another Western but this time it deals with a female cast; and The English Senor by Martha Randall set in Mexico where an elderly woman is the POV character and imparts a young Holmes with a lesson never to underestimate the ways of the human heart. It's weird for me to rate this the lowest of all the four anthologies I've read, considering I remember enjoying this a lot six years ago when I read it for the first time. I suppose it just didn't age well for me. Nevertheless, the aforementioned four favorite stories are worth checking out so this is still a commendable collection. I agree with the introduction I quoted for this review that there must be an endless supply of new Holmesian stories for generations to come! RECOMMENDED: 7/10 DO READ MY REVIEWS AT [image] ...more |
Notes are private!
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Feb 03, 2015
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Feb 08, 2015
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Jan 29, 2014
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Hardcover
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| 0312325959
| 9780312325954
| 0312325959
| 3.77
| 153
| 2003
| Jan 22, 2004
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really liked it
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January is the great detective Sherlock Holmes' birthday month and he has been my childhood hero for a decade so I decided to celebrate him this year
January is the great detective Sherlock Holmes' birthday month and he has been my childhood hero for a decade so I decided to celebrate him this year by reading and reviewing four Holmesian anthologies and this is the third for that rundown. A collection edited by Michael Kurland (who also happened to contribute his own story for this one), My Sherlock Holmes has quite an interesting unifying theme to its thirteen pieces. Where other anthologies still often make use of Dr. John Watson as its first-person narrator, this volume allows other characters from the canon to share their perspective of events regarding never-before-published cases of the great detective. Ranging from the familiar ones to the most obscure, some of the tales span for more than ten pages with two of three of them savory in length and pace. According to its general introduction, My Sherlock Holmes borrows the stylistic approach of the famous Japanese story Rashomon where each character has his or her own version of the truth. True to that essence, some of the stories presented are conflicting accounts from some of the canonically established representations of Watson's narratives about certain cases. Others are new concepts altogether that challenge the preconceived notions we have about Sherlock Holmes and his relationships with people or crime-solving itself. Of all the thirteen, I can recommend seven of the stories. A lot of these stories prove to be challenging, admittedly, because the length surprisingly exceeds what I'm normally used to with anthologies such as this. For some, such length is justifiable and has made the entire story enjoyable and exciting to read while a few others just bored me to no end. My absolute favorite of all has to be Call me Wiggins by Norman Schreiber whose primary POV is the former Baker Street Irregular urchin of the same name. What I love about this story is the fact that Charles Lutwidge Dodgson makes a fictional appearance as one of Holmes' closest friends and Wiggin's mentor. Dodgson is more popularly known as the author Lewis Caroll who wrote the immortal Alice stories. The story presents the simplest of mysteries and yet inevitably the most tragic and it's such a whimsical and delightful look at one of history's most eccentric writers and his relationship (granted it's fictional) with the great detective. It's just really awesome for a Caroll fan like me. Other gratifying stories are The Incident of the Impecunious Chevalier by Richard Lupoff that explored the POV of Agustin M. Dupin, Edgar Allan Poe's own great detective, who suffered much criticsm from Holmes in A Study in Scarlet so this is the story where he aims to remedy that misconception; The Dollmaker of Marigold Walk by Barbara Hambly that is written in Mary Morstan's POV concerning a series of abductions that are akin to that of the Jack the Ripper; Mycroft's Great Game by Gary Lovisi which is an amazing alternate interpretation of the events of The Final Problem regarding the deathly confrontation between Holmes and Moriarty; and Michael Kurland's own contribution piece Years Ago in a Different Place that explores the early friendship between Holmes and Moriarty in college where an unfortunate fallout between them occurs during Holmes' very first criminal investigation. We also have characters we have never considered prominent before such as Amelia Pettrigrew who is supposedly the second wife of John Watson after Mary, and she is present in Michael Mallory's The Riddle of the Young Protestor, where she gets to do some deductive reasoning herself concerning an antique treasure hunt riddle. Finally, we have And the Others by C.D Ewing, whose format reads much like Chuck Palahnuik's novel Rant where the writer supposedly gathered interviews and testimonials from Gregory Lestrade, James Mortimer, Arthur Conan Doyle himself etc. about the things they remember the most about the great detective. In addition, we also have stories written in the POVs of Irene Adler, Sebastian Moran, and Reginald Musgrave. These stories were okay but not instantly captivating unlike the others mentioned above but they are notable because these characters are well-known. My Sherlock Holmes is a fairly decent and worthwhile read for anyone who considers himself or herself a Holmesian aficionado. There are great gems to found in this volume whose lengthy narratives are justifiable because of the tantalizing content they delivered. RECOMMENDED: 8/10 DO READ MY REVIEWS AT: [image] ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jan 20, 2015
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Feb 2015
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Jan 29, 2014
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Paperback
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| 1841197270
| 9781841197272
| 1841197270
| 4.35
| 3,592
| 2001
| Jan 01, 2003
|
really liked it
| "The moment seemed to sum up my extraordinary friendship with Sherlock Holmes. Together, we had stood in many a drawing-room, many a library, and in o "The moment seemed to sum up my extraordinary friendship with Sherlock Holmes. Together, we had stood in many a drawing-room, many a library, and in our own rooms in Baker Street, examining evidence, discussing the significance of trifles, sifting through the debris of shattered lives, searching for truth and justice." Continuing with my second anthology to read, relish and review for Sherlock Holmes' Birthday Month is Murder in Baker Street edited by Martin H. Greenberg., Jon L. Lettenberg and Daniel Stashower. This collection is composed of eleven compact tales of hard-boiled cases that are conventionally delivered in the typical Doyle-esque Victorian classic narrative which works to a certain extent in the seven stories that I favored the most. I was fresh from the heels of the first anthology I read ( Twenty-Two Hundred Baker Streets ) so I think comparing and contrasting these volumes has been unavoidable. It's truly an apples-and-oranges scenario, however. While Twenty-Two Hundred was a volume that focuses more on alternate-universe scenarios and speculative fiction, the stories in Murder in Baker Street are all set in the established canon timelines with a few tweaks where Holmes and Watson were able to meet certain real-life figures (such as Bram Stoker) or become privy to witness the effects of inventions that they were never able to be acquainted with in Doyle's original stories. In the editors' introduction, they specifically stated that they wanted their collection to stay true to the essence of Arthur Conan Doyle's characterization and formulaic writing and if you're like me who will always prefer the canon over anything else (including visual adaptations; however, Elementary to me is the closest one that captured the partnership of Holmes and Watson and the sheer attention to detail and procedural investigation that Doyle have employed whenever Holmes unravels a case) then this volume will please you if it's strictly based in a purist's perspective. The authors who contributed their stories have certainly made a stellar effort to incorporate the exceptional elements that made Doyle's Sherlock Holmes timeless and critically-acclaimed in the first place, including the atmospheric grime and smog of London with all its horrors and wonders. Each tale is self-contained as most of Doyle's short stories tend to be where a seemingly mundane or inexplicable problem at hand is brought by a client (who may be a victim, perpetrator or both) to 221b Baker Street where the world's only consulting detective and loyal bibliographer and friend reside. There the investigation starts which breathlessly or sometimes patiently unfolds until we get to the part where a twist or a solution is revealed that could either be very shocking or rather simple yet elegantly detailed and satisfying nonetheless. Out of the eleven stories, I enjoyed seven the most. These are (1) The Man from Capetown by Stuart M. Kaminsky, the first story that establishes the setting and tone of the entire anthology; (2) The Siren of Sennen Cove by Peter Tremayne where a religious man visited Holmes after the detective's retirement to solve the mystery behind a series of shrunken ships in the coast; a very whimsical Moriarty story called (3)The Case of the Bloodless Sock by Anne Perry; (4) A Hansom for Mr. Holmes by Gillan Linscot that is narrated by another character, a modest cabbie who wanted nothing to do with Sherlock Holmes until he gets caught up in an assassination attempt; the very straightforward yet amusing puzzle-story (5) The Adventure of the Chesire Cheese by Jon L. Breen; (6) Darkest Gold by L.B Greenwood which had Watson trying to fool Holmes with a disguise as he follows his friend to a rather dangerous scheme involving a married couple and an ethnic tribe; and, finally, (7) The Remarkable Worm by Carolyn Wheat where Holmes and Watson get commissioned for their very own wax figures to be displayed in the London Museum yet they somehow ended up stumbling upon a terrible family affair. These were charming stories that hit me with nostalgia the strongest. This anthology will be better appreciated if you've enjoyed the Doyle canon itself since the style and linguistics of the stories here are more conventional and in line with how the original author has written Holmes and Watson as well as the cases they solve. An enjoyable read, overall. RECOMMENDED: 8/10 [image] ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jan 12, 2015
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Jan 18, 2015
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Jan 29, 2014
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Paperback
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| 4.11
| 1,497
| Oct 01, 1999
| Nov 01, 2000
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really liked it
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I started my Book Diet novels 2015 by reading four Sherlockian anthologies during January, which is also the said Great Detective's birthday month, so
I started my Book Diet novels 2015 by reading four Sherlockian anthologies during January, which is also the said Great Detective's birthday month, so I thought it only appropriate to finish this year with a Sherlock Holmes novel once more, and this time it's something written by writer Larry Millet. It's the first time I encountered his Holmes series. In fact, I purchased this book by luck while sifting through boxes of a second-hand bookstore months and months ago. I'm always on the look-out for any Holmesian story I can get my hands on so I immediately bought this and knew I had to read it soon enough. And it wasn't a disappointment. Millet's series, from what I can tell, are focused on Sherlock Holmes' travels and subsequent cases in America, and The Rune Stone Mystery. Once again chronicled in the first person by his constant and faithful friend Dr. John Watson, this story takes readers into Minnesota where a farmer uncovered what could possibly be a Viking rune stone that would prove that the Vikings themselves have arrived to America before Columbus. If proven true then this could be the biggest anthropological discovery in recent years. Disguised under assumed names of London museum curators, Holmes and Watson traveled to the states, but before they could authenticate the rune stone, the farmer who discovered it had been brutally murdered and the said stone can't be found in his possession! Afterwards, more disconcerting facts and theories begin to surface among the townsfolk, especially the Swede residents. And thus began a thorough police investigation (and Holmes' own deductive process on the side) where certain persons of interest have more to conceal than anticipated, and the key in solving this disturbing mystery might just lie in the late farmer's daughter, the fragile Moira "Moony" Wahlgren who may have a developmental disorder, and whose life is endangered because of her connection to her father's presumably hoax of a rune stone. If the rune stone is indeed a hoax then who could possibly benefit from it? Who could be held liable if the artifact was discovered and proven false? What lengths would concerned parties will go just to ensure it's not revealed to the public? What happens if the rune stone is indeed the true thing--why kill for it? Holmes and Watson try to unravel this tangled web of conspiracies as best as they could, only to find more threads that don't make sense and even mislead. With a daring and riveting narrative that definitely captures Conan's own style, this novel also has enough memorable characters to keep readers very invested in the resolution of the case and the sideline conflicts of its characters, but of all of them, Millet also included a unique character of his creation named Shadwell Rafferty, an inquisitive and charismatic Irish saloon owner who knew is way around America, and has assisted Holmes in other cases featured in Millet's previous novels. Rafferty's rapport and chemistry with both Holmes and Watson is refreshing and enjoyable, and he provides a great contrast to Holmes' own brand of cleverness. Rafferty is also a talented investigator, and his insights and warmer approach to things and people lend a more human touch to the art of deductive reasoning which even Holmes welcomes, seeing as Rafferty definitely assists than hinder. I liked how he made passages of chapters very entertaining and humorous at times. Another intense and curious character is the villainess Mary Comstock whom Holmes even compared to Professor Moriarty which is both the highest and most perturbing compliment the great detective could ever assign to anyone. She's essentially a female arch-enemy, a rare type of woman whom Holmes described succinctly, "has no need for men in her life but finds uses for them every now and then". She's portrayed to be wicked and without remorse, and her interest in the rune stone is a puzzling one, something that Holmes was determined to find out before she ends up a few more steps ahead of him in the game. Their interplay as detective and criminal is noteworthy and even Watson is mesmerized by it. I was also heavily invested in the child Moony's involvement since from the beginning I knew she had a critical role to play in the events later on. Anyone who would attempt to write a Holmesian novel should make sure it's always engaging and thrilling, filled with characterizations that ring true from the source material. It also has to branch out and include more details and depth to what was established by Doyle, always both mentally challenging and entertaining for readers like myself. Although at first I wasn't that intrigued with the rune stone case, the way the mystery unfolded and the players who are involved have acted or been disposed of had won me over eventually while midway through reading. Sherlock Holmes and the Rune Stone Mystery had been captivating and earnest in its portrayal of the Great Detective and the loyal doctor, and the mystery and detection were satisfying during the process of the case, and as readers reach that unexpected conclusion, they would be pleased that they stuck around long enough to see it all the way through the end. I'm certainly going to try and find more Millet books after this one. RECOMMENDED: 8/10 DO READ MY REVIEWS AT [image] ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Dec 12, 2015
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Dec 31, 2015
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Jan 29, 2014
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Paperback
| |||||||||||||||||
| 0143105027
| 9780143105022
| 0143105027
| 4.20
| 745,352
| Feb 1962
| Nov 27, 2007
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really liked it
|
I have no obvious vices like smoking or drinking but this year, there were two books so far which had compelled me to indulge in these things. Upon fi
I have no obvious vices like smoking or drinking but this year, there were two books so far which had compelled me to indulge in these things. Upon finishing Patrick Suskind's Perfume: The Story of a Murderer two months ago, I immediately went to the nearest convenience store and bought a single cigarette stick to corrupt my lungs with; even just for that night because the reading experience was quite exceptional and I needed the taste of nicotine in my mouth to preserve it somehow. Now, as I write this review, I suddenly had this overpowering craving to drink booze, and vodka, I find, has always had a soothing effect on me which was exactly what I needed to suckle on once I did finish the end of this novel. "The story is always about someone, a man or woman, who didn't seem to fit into the world and always shocked people by misbehaving. There is the rebel who tries to destroy the social order and the follower who tries to please it. And then there was the witness; one who is transformed and enlightened from all this. The rebel, the follower and the witness. The two extremes and the resulting compromise." I suppose like most people, I know of this book because of the movie starring Jack Nicholson in the lead role but I barely remember that film adaptation now because I think it had almost been a decade since I last saw it; which was great because at least I get to read this book with fresh eyes with only remnants of what I have watched from the movie sometimes resurfacing when I read a particular scene that I can somewhat recall seeing before. Nevertheless, reading Ken Kasey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest has been really thrilling in spite of the narrative's slow-burn tendencies. Told in the first-person perspective of the Native American Chief Bromden, the book reads like a journal of personal experiences and interactions of this said character with the people he is co-existing with inside the 'loony bin' where the story majorly took place. There were even quick sketches of certain in between the pages which gives the narrative an authentic 'diary' feel to it. Chief Bromden as the narrator for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is someone I would consider the most reliable of all the unreliable narrators out there (if that even makes sense). Because of his heritage, he usually keeps to himself, content on people assuming he's either deaf, mute or dumb--or all of the above. This is a man who prioritizes self-preservation and keeping up with the status quo, more so than any character in this book and that's mostly because he knows first-hand how being different will get one into trouble. He had been in several other mental institutions before and know of the small horrors and limited compensations that people who are considered 'unfit' have to undergo. Through his eyes, readers get to acquaint themselves with the overall routine and the ridiculously inhibiting way of life that patients at the mental hospital he is currently committed in have no other choice but to live by. In charge of all this is the middle-aged re-inforcer of the most precise of rules, Nurse Ratched, whose staunch ways re-define a whole new level of totalitarian matriarchy. I find Bromden's descriptions of her physical appearance, habits and eccentricities to be rather chilling since he always compares her to something of a detached automation than an actual living, breathing person with feelings of her own. Because of this limited perspective and insight, we never really get to see any kind of vulnerability or sympathetic trait from Nurse Ratched unless of course her perceived weaknesses are interpreted rather antagonistically not necessarily by Bromden himself but by the other male characters. If this was truly a nest of cuckoos then Nurse Ratched may as well be their mother bird and she governs every facet of their life and she often demonstrates her power and influence in the most gratingly passive-aggressive manner ever imaginable. There is certainly a matter of questioning the author's intent that somewhat demonizes female authority and I personally can encourage that discussion because any criticism regarding its chauvinism towards its only main female character can now be raised and argued by readers of my generation. I do think Nurse Ratched is portrayed in a harsher light than needed. It's worth a discussion most probably because of her gender and what she directly (and in latent terms) symbolizes in relation to that. Like any promising and compelling story on overthrowing the oppressive regime or taking away the control from the most inhumane of overlords, this book's knight-in-shining-armor is a less pristine version of said trope and this is realized in no other than Randle Patrick McMurphy, a gambler and recently diagnosed 'psychopath' who is all kinds of charming and disarming, much to the initial dread and eventual relief of the other patients including Bromden. McMurphy's very role and participation in the book is to create a shift in power dynamics among Nurse Ratched and her blabbering, passive and frightened patients. Through McMurphy's carefully cultivated chaos, the other male characters of this book started to recognize the seemingly small injustices and that they shouldn't have to put up with Nurse Ratched's deliberate manipulations. The maltreatment they are suffering was often described as rather mundane or inconsequential--such as the lack of enough free time to do other activities, or the refusal of the staff to cater to some more humane methods to pacify them--but their rights are still being violated little by little until these men are reduced into spineless fools who would quiver at the sight of Nurse Ratched's shadow as it passes them by. Clever and more than a match to Nurse Ratched's imposing authority, McMurphy quite literally gets the patients riled up, waking up these men from their once restful and lethargic states so they can have a more meaningful purpose than just take whatever the medical staff would give them, mediation or otherwise. McMurphy is not a saintly liberator, however, and Bromden recognizes that there is ego and impulse in every action that McMurphy commits; sometimes he deliberately tries to rattle the one in charge either to know that he could or to reap whatever kind of benefits he will receive if he did succeed. Nevertheless, Bromden becomes fond of him and so do the other patients because for the first time in a long time they have someone to look up to, someone to defend them and someone they can consider their friend against a nameless, overreaching system that oppresses them and makes them feel less human and more burdensome creatures who can never fully function outside the confines of the facility. It's a rather poignant affair especially when McMurphy realizes what he meant to these men and that he himself is beginning to care about them beyond seeing them as an audience he can perform his anarchist tricks for. Bromden also grows midway through the book, realizing that he doesn't have to hide under 'the fog' anymore, not when McMurphy has shown him that the only person standing in the way of his freedom and self-esteem issues is himself and once Bromden overcame his insecurities and fears, his trauma of his past concerning his father has lessened, and he began to fight back against the same oppression that has him kneeling down for a very long time. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest has some riveting social commentary regarding the function and tension of power constructs that also happens to include a scathing indictment of the health care system back then when it came to treating mentally damaged patients. The book also examines in a quite humorous but still piercingly philosophical way this inherent inclination of humans to rebel against an authority or refuse a system they perceive as demeaning and aggressive. There are plenty enough layers in this novel that readers can freely discuss and argue about for days. Deceptively slow in establishing its key players and moments, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is guaranteed to be very satisfying midway and until the very unexpected end. RECOMMENDED: 8/10 DO READ MY REVIEWS AT [image] ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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May 21, 2015
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May 29, 2015
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Jan 29, 2014
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Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 0385264666
| 9780385264662
| 0385264666
| 4.19
| 20,608
| 1956
| 1990
|
really liked it
|
Two years ago, I spotted Palace Walk in a bookshelf and thought that this might be an interesting read because the last time I encountered a story tha
Two years ago, I spotted Palace Walk in a bookshelf and thought that this might be an interesting read because the last time I encountered a story that has something to do with Muslim culture was in Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner and that was it. Still, I always strive to expand my preferences and immerse myself on literature that is more culturally diverse than I'm more used to. In all honesty, I also selected to buy this particular book because of the Nobel Prize Awardee label attached to it. So trusting that alone, I essentially went blind purchasing this novel, not knowing what to expect. I didn't even research about the book afterwards, and only done so once I finally finished it last night during a four-day Holy Week vacation at a beach resort. In addition to reading Magneto Testament (which I just finished under an hour) Palace Walk has filled my humid, sea-drenched days with unexpected humor and entertainment each time I turn its pages, because this was actually a witty book filled with cultural and psychological insights on a lifestyle and struggle I was never very familiar with, but could very much deeply relate to nonetheless. It was rather shocking for me then, to be this insatiably riveted about a novel that mainly derives its drama and development from one family that's composed of some of the most well-rounded, compelling and sympathetic characters I have ever come across in literature. I was mistaken to believe this is going to be an intimidating and difficult novel to peruse through (much like The Kite Runner which could be gruelling and depressing at times). I really thought this would be challenging in a sense that its exploration or themes would be dark and serious but I was pleased to have been misled by that first impression. Palace Walk is an utter delight, and a novel I can definitely say is very much character-centered in its approach and exposition. Writer Naguib Mafouz found his story's core strength and purpose by ensuring that these characters that readers would get to spend time with are always engaging and vibrant that we never stopped caring about them for a second. I may not always agree with certain characters' habits, temperament and actions but Mafouz has shown brilliant calibre because he managed to infuse just the right details concerning their personal lives that readers can't help but sympathize with them anyway. Set in 1917 in Cairo, Egypt during the first World War, the novel could have stressed and divulged more on the political climate which had engulfed the place and its constituents at the time, but in all honesty we never truly touch upon that until the last hundred pages or so of this five-hundred-paged book. What the writer chose to dwell on instead is the Abd al-Jawad family who is the integral part of the overall narrative structure for Palace Walk. The author spent a great majority of the story tackling the inner conflicts and dynamics present within this household with the father al-Sayyid Ahmad, his doting and subservient wife Amina, and their three sons (Yasin, Fahmy and Kamal) and two daughters (Khadija and Aisha). Their individual roles, personalities and relationships with each other never fail to be a source of not only endless amusement for me, but also substantial reflections about social issues. As awfully entertaining Palace Walk has been in the way the writer dwelt with much of the interactions and scenes using wit and humor, Mafouz was also able to tackle general sensitive issues with sheer elegance and understanding, and they concern mostly of the submissive parts that women in general play during that time as dictated by their religious practices, as well as the pronounced gender dichotomy and bias that are so ridiculous through our modern perception by now. Now I have never considered myself a staunch feminist but it did make me wonder if there are particular scenarios in this book that might possibly offend me if I did view it as a feminist in the first place (which, by the way, I never claimed to be). My own socio-political leanings aside, I was still very much appalled with the fact that the Muslim women in this book are not allowed to go to school or learn issues from the outside world. Their needs must always coincide with the men in their family, and their duties and fulfilment should always be centered around domesticity and homemaking. I think this has always been the case though some Islam-based countries have started to radically change these old-world practices. But taking into account the times this book was written in, I suppose I can understand why this is the way women are portrayed because it's an honest depiction of the lives they led at the time. Regardless, I believe Mahfouz has written these themes with surprising optimism that blended so well with the tactful way he approached the issue. I never felt bad for the women. In fact, I developed genuine admiration for them with the way they managed to find the smallest joys even if I can't for the life of me imagine living such a heavily restricted existence where I'm not allowed to study in school, form my opinions and speak my mind, make my own choices and find a career other than being a housewife and mother. I try to avoid contextualizing my modern sensibilities as I read Palace Walk though, and doing so has made me enjoyed the novel and the characters a lot more. For me to futher illustrate this gender dichotomy for this review, let's take the mother Amina as an example. She is one of my top favorites and I find her to be impressive in spirit and character. She is virtuous and steadfast in her devotion to her philandering husband, and possesses a naturally curious mind that never truly realizes its potentials only because of the limitations that precede her gender. Her only means to learn about new information is through her sons who adore her enough to include her in their intellectual debates and discussions some of the time. It was mentioned later on that there are women who are allowed by their husbands to go outside every once in a while, but Amina's husband al Sayyid-Ahmad is just too much of a conservative and controlling patriarch that wants to dominate everyone in his household. The thing that really pisses me off about this man is that he's a hypocrite. He maintains a false façade around his family while living a completely hedonistic life when he's around his co-workers and multiple lovers. Later on I began to pity him because he was always so concerned about keeping up appearances that his children have only known how to fear him and not love him. That's I think is the greatest tragedy for a father but I don't think he will ever realize this, nor is it a concern of his. As for the children, I really loved the eldest daughter Khadija and the youngest Kamal. Khadija is definitely relatable because she is opinionated and shows a lot of intelligence which sadly only gets to shine through her deflective use of sarcasm to cover up her insecurities. Much of her conflict revolves around being unmarried at twenty and the preference of suitors and potentials husbands to her younger sister Aisha whom I find only remarkable in beauty and not in personality. Kamal, on the other hand, is inquisitive and playful, always living in his imagination and daydreams which makes him often a problem for his family. I love him very much though because of his inclination to learn and his outward sunny disposition even if his father disapproves of him, as well as his affectionate relationships with his mother and sisters which I hope will stay the same even when he grows older. The older two sons, Yasin and Fahmy, are well-written characters themselves. Yasin is the son from al-Sayyid Ahmad's first marriage and he is probably the closest one who mirrors his father in a lot of ways, mostly his unflattering and vain qualities such as the way he perceives women and wrongly asserts his morality for the sake of a false sense of masculine security. Again, as much as I dislike both of these men, I can understand why they believe they have a right to live their lives according only to their pleasure and whims, with callous disregard of the way their loved ones would feel. Meanwhile, Fahmy is the second son who is an aspiring lawyer and is very much interested to involve himself in the inner workings of politics which I think could lead to some potentially disastrous results especially since they are living during wartime. I like Fahmy enough because aside from Kamal who is still fairly young, he doesn't seem to be that preoccupied with lustful adventures unlike his father and brother, and finds more satisfaction in scholarly matters. Still, the truth remains that the gender dichotomy that their culture and society permeates is harmful in this sense, I believe. Though the men are free to be who they want to be, they are still equally oppressed because they also feel that they have to play parts that serve to hide who they are and how they feel inside, all for the sake of machismo and patriarchy. Basically, the selling point of this novel is that it's well-balanced; there are light and funny parts, as well as serious discussions about religion and political strife; all the while the author himself took much care and sensitivity in regards to the way he characterized his protagonists in the context of their own belief systems that may not always be agreeable but were articulated authentically enough to merit some contemplation. This book is also part of a trilogy, and I will certainly pick up the next two books because I am intrigued and invested on the world that Mahfouz has created. Palace Walk excels in the exploration of the day-to-day pressures, self-reflection and relationships of its characters. As a reader, I can't help but care about their welfare even with Yasin and al-Sayyid Ahmad whom I only have lukewarm feelings for. I was able to celebrate the joys and despair the losses that these characters experienced as I glided comfortably through the pages, and I think that alone makes this novel very commendable and worth the read. Overall, Palace Walk is humorous, insightful and easily enjoyable. If you like character-centered plots and family drama in general then this book might appeal to you. It doesn't take itself that seriously and when it does, it can be warm and sublime in a lot of aspects, allowing readers to appreciate and value the richness of their own beliefs and idiosyncrasies as contrasted or reflected by the Abd al-Jawad family's own. RECOMMENDED: 8/10 DO READ MY REVIEWS AT [image] ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Apr 2015
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Apr 05, 2015
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Jan 29, 2014
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Paperback
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| 0802130208
| 9780802130204
| 0802130208
| 3.89
| 281,485
| May 01, 1980
| Jan 1994
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it was amazing
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No other book is as infectiously humorous and as enjoyably absurd as A Confederacy of Dunces. I would like to have met its author, John Kennedy Toole,
No other book is as infectiously humorous and as enjoyably absurd as A Confederacy of Dunces. I would like to have met its author, John Kennedy Toole, someday, if it wasn't for the misfortune of his suicide eleven years prior to the publication of this cult classic-turned-mainstream sensation. I think this is the third Pulitzer award-winning novel that I have read since Middlesex and The Orphan Master's Son, and so far the streak of such critically-acclaimed pieces has yet to let me down. It took me a whole week to finish this book only because I had X-Men comics books squeezed in to read and review in between, but if they weren't there, I can honestly say that I would've finished Toole's book in just two days because even the grimy parts are so riveting. This was a gripping tale akin to superb situational comedies in television, composed of an ensemble of not-always-likable characters who misunderstand the intentions and needs of others including their own. That, to me, is the charm of A Confederacy of Dunces. Its pages were principally filled with people who are vivid and alive because its author has grounded them in realism that is not often flattering in portrayal and yet the characterizations remain curiously honest nonetheless. Now I just found out that this is actually what one calls a "picaresque novel" which is defined as "a genre of prose fiction which depicts the adventures of a roguish hero of low social class who lives by his wits in a corrupt society. Picaresque novels typically adopt a realistic style, with elements of comedy and satire." Think of this book's protagonist as the American equivalent of Don Quixote but a much more pitiful version--a breathing obese man of paradoxical inclinations and eccentric opinions about himself and the society named Ignatius J. Reily. "When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him." He is disillusioned and uniquely self-entitled; someone whose education and highbrow level of thinking have contributed to his bafflingly misanthropic views concerning his fellowmen and their vices and sins he perceived to be their only defining qualities. He is filled with resentment for the moral decay of his hometown, New Orleans during the 1960's, and attributes that to the various groups of minorities whom he believes corrupts the sanctity of the place. As outlandishly entertaining as he may be, I found myself growing increasingly weary and frustrated of him, especially when it came to the lamentations he'd write in his journal. He's the kind of grating idealist who puts more importance on his ideals and is comfortable upholding them in spirit only, and never does anything remotely valuable for it in practice. However, every time he would exercise some form of civil action, it often leads to clumsy and ridiculous scenarios which Toole writes about with such great wit and humor. Comparing him to the endearing Don Quixote is an injustice of sorts because Ignatius is truly appalling because he is unmindful of how obnoxiously he treats his own mother, Irene, and the array of other secondary characters around him. For all his self-awareness and staunchly conservative views about morality, as well as his insistence on clinging to antique philosophical world views, Ignatius does not possess any kind of social intelligence whatsoever. I would have guessed that he might possibly belong somewhere in the autism spectrum. He is overtly meticulous of his clothing (he wears the same thing every day; that infuriating green hunting cap and red sweater) but ignores other forms of hygiene and personal neatness. He is an insufferable buffoon whose only redeeming facet is that he makes me laugh and I can't stop reading about the hilarious misunderstandings he gets caught up in. The narrative of the book focuses mostly on Ignatius' "struggles" to find a decent job and the laughable ways he would sabotage his own means of livelihood because of his inherent tendency to impose intellectual superiority over the people he meets in workplaces. He is inconsiderate about everyone; he has low opinions about everything especially when they contradict his rigid moral codes, and he is essentially a hypocrite who will constantly fail to acknowledge himself as one even if he stares at himself in the mirror. He trivializes real social issues in exchange for his imagined ones which were so tone-deaf and goddamn outdated. His disillusion is only matched by his on-and-off college girlfriend Myrna Minkoff who considers herself a radical activist but is just as blinded and superficial in her crusades for social change. That being said, I enjoyed him endlessly as the main character. He was every bit of fascinating as much as a vehicular accident I cannot turn away from as it crashes over and over again. Other characters were also so interesting to read because they were so well-defined by their mannerisms, language and thoughts every time they appear in the pages, often doing something crazy and desperate yet undeniably human and sympathetic that would earn chuckles from me every now and then. In fact, the most noticeable and commendable trait Toole deserves to be praised with is the way he creates lasting impressions on these characters through the way he makes them speak and communicate. Like any great satire, A Confederacy of Dunces relies a lot on situational ironies which are sprinkled in the scenes where characters would discuss certain things or be engaged in mundane-turned-bizarre scenarios that one cannot help but find them infectious and clever. Toole has a dark sense of humor yet a knack for impressive comedic timing in the way he sets up these situations. If this was ever adapted for a TV show or film, I think that all the dialogues should be kept intact. They're the novel's strongest suit. Toole's own mother had insisted on getting this book published after her son's death, and I'm pleased that she persevered in that pursuit because it would have been a literary crime to keep this novel away from public consciousness. I loved every chapter and detail offered in A Confederacy of Dunces. I have never been so touched or moved into a fit of giggles like this. As annoyed as I am by Ignatius, his journal ramblings dripping in condescension and sarcasm have been a source of joy for me. The bastard also has a lucky streak. I cannot tell you how infuriating it had been that after all the lives he accidentally ruined or made worse, Ignatius manages to walk out on everyone, unscathed. What a lucky son of a bitch. But I wouldn't want to spoil you of the journey ahead of you if you happen to decide to adapt some good 'taste and decency' (as Ignatius himself would phrase it) to pick up this novel and experience the absurdities unfold for yourself. The front row seat to A Confederacy of Dunces will be the most engaging albeit confusing experience you will ever have in your life so I suggest you don't miss out. The book is vibrant and memorable; Toole's delivery is grounded by realistic characters accompanied by this heightened sense of entertainment that was only made possible through the perfect blended style of comedy and drama which its author both lovingly and crudely instilled in the text. RECOMMENDED: 10/10 DO READ MY REVIEWS AT [image] ...more |
Notes are private!
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Apr 21, 2015
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Apr 30, 2015
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Jan 29, 2014
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my rating |
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| 3.87
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really liked it
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Sep 13, 2015
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Jan 30, 2014
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| 3.73
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really liked it
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Apr 12, 2015
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Jan 30, 2014
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| 4.04
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really liked it
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Mar 10, 2015
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Jan 30, 2014
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| 4.03
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really liked it
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Mar 23, 2015
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Jan 30, 2014
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| 3.51
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liked it
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Feb 08, 2015
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Jan 29, 2014
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| 3.77
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really liked it
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Feb 2015
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Jan 29, 2014
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| 4.35
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really liked it
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Jan 18, 2015
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Jan 29, 2014
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| 4.11
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really liked it
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Dec 31, 2015
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Jan 29, 2014
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| 4.20
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really liked it
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May 29, 2015
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Jan 29, 2014
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| 4.19
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really liked it
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Apr 05, 2015
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Jan 29, 2014
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| 3.89
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it was amazing
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Apr 30, 2015
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Jan 29, 2014
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