Book of the Week - Week Four

BOOK OF THE WEEK!

It's always nice to have friends that love books as much as you do. Mainly because I'm rather horrible at picking books--I like the randomosity factor now and pick books from the shelves at whim or send the children I nanny out in search of something that catches their eye. When I was at my friend Colin's place the other day, I mentioned this in passing and he gave me the eye, saying "Why don't you just ask me? I love books." Which was a very good point. I went home with an Ikea bag full of his and Terry's favorites.

The first one I read, which I had been excited to check out since Colin mentioned it, was this week's book Einstein's Dreams. Framed within the period of Einstein working on his Theory of Relativity, the novel explores different ideas of how time could work in a society, each short chapter a different idea that floats through the mind of a sleeping genius.

Beyond the stereotypical time conventions ala Benjamin Button or time stopping, this book is filled with interesting scenarios presented in a dreamlike but powerful manner. What if time slowed the higher up you went? What if time slowed the faster you went? What if, every once in a while, time just blinked out for a second? What if you couldn't tell what was a cause and what was a result? 

The style is beautiful, full of imagery and poetically phrased ideas. Each chapter is also maybe three pages long, giving just enough to introduce the idea but let it linger with the reader. Although I did hastily get through this book in one evening, I considered what I should have done was read one of the dreams a day and let myself think about each before moving on. I might have gotten more out of it that way. It was just too interesting to put down, though.

Beyond all of the wonderful things I'm saying about the prose and the ideas inside, I also want to point out that it's only 140 pages of sparse but fascinating prose. It's definitely a quick read. Not something thrilling or page-turning but meditative. I very highly recommend it. 

Oh, and all of my google searching for the cover image informed me that apparently it's also a play? Part of me is intrigued and part of me is worried that it would be very Brechtian in production. I've never really liked epic theater and I could just see this great book becoming pretentious and pompous onstage. Read it instead of watching a bunch of actors try to make you think you like modern art please.

Book of the Week - Week Three

It's time again for 

BOOK OF THE WEEK!

This week's book was chosen because I simply can't stop telling people about it. It's called The Island at the End of the World and it's by Sam Taylor, the author of The Amnesiac which I have not read but it sounds fantastic.

The basic plot of the book is that there has been another great flood and the sole survivors are a small family unit: Pa, Alice, Finn, and Daisy. They have lived for years and years on a small, idyllic island which seems to fulfill all their needs. One day, however, a boat is spotted on the horizon and a stranger wanders into their perfect world. While Pa worries that this will spin the world he has created out of control, the children start to grapple with what this new addition to their tribe could mean.

Now, to be perfectly honest, the only reason I picked up this book in the first place was that it was published by Penguin, my favorite publisher and holder of my undiminished faith in all of their novels. Twenty pages in, however, I was dismayed to find that perhaps I had for once picked the sole rotten apple in the bunch.

My main problems with the beginning of the novel had to do with their narratorial style. Each chapter switched between first person narrators, from Pa to Finn and back again, switching to Alice later in the book. While each of these narrative voices are very powerful, unfortunately, young Finn's style, having been raised on the island, is completely phonetic. While an understandable choice, it becomes grating to read and the novel seems more like an exercise in patience than an interesting read.

Sticking through it, though, proved gratifying. The story the novel tells is interesting and the last twenty or so pages were as page-turning as the best of them. I absolutely loved the conclusion. 

The absolute best part, however, was Alice's narrative voice. We don't get to experience it until about halfway through the novel, when Finn's narration switches to Alice's. One of the details in the book is that Pa had only brought three books with him on the ark: a book of children's fables, the Bible and the works of Shakespeare. Knowing that that is all Alice has known since she was a young girl, her voice is a beautiful mix of normal speech and Shakespearean poetry that heightens the strong emotions as the novel races towards the inevitable conclusion.

This book is nowhere near perfect and very hard to get into but I feel it rewards the reader at the end, telling a complete and thought-provoking story. Definitely worth a try. 

Book of the Week - Week Two

Time once again for ....

BOOK OF THE WEEK!

In honor of this week being one year since moving to Japan, I picked this week's book from one of Japan's most famous authors, Haruki Murakami. An important figure in postmodern literature, Murakami has written many books that have been published to great acclaim all over the world.

The book I have chosen, After Dark, is by no means one of his most famous. You'd have to find Kafka on the Shore or Norwegian Wood for those. No, this is a short little novel he published in 2004 (2007 for us English speakers) but my favorite simply because it was the first of his I read.

A short novel at 208 pages, it takes place in the lives of several people over the span of one night in Tokyo. A student studying at Denny's. A manager at a love hotel. A girl in a deep sleep at home. Each of these characters, as well as several others, manage to intertwine their lives with those around them yet stay a distant presence at the same time.

An interesting look into the alienation of life in a big city, the thing I find most amazing about this book is the way it reads. The only way I can think to describe it is that it reads like watching a play. The images are so clear and so direct that it just happens in your mind's eye. And although there is no doubt as to what is happening, there is a vagueness and murkiness about it, too, as if the reader should be looking deeper or finding the meaning to the hollow areas.

It may not be his most famous piece or one of the deepest things you've ever read but it's a good taste of Murakami and a good starting book. If you have some time to sit down, it's a fast, interesting read. 

Book of the Week - Week One

Time to introduce a new corner of the blog. Every Monday we're going to have...

BOOK OF THE WEEK!

Our very first book of the week is Harry Potter. I wanted to choose something a little less well known but as the last movie comes out this Friday, it seemed only appropriate.

If you haven't read Harry Potter yet, well, I'm not quite sure how you've managed to get along in this world til now. Harry and his classmates have not only enchanted millions of children into reading but have created a whole generation of young adults waiting for their Hogwarts letter. It has gone beyond simply a series of books and has become a marker of a time period, something that connects people of a certain age with that same dream, "what's your sign?" turning into "what's your house?"

I'm a Hufflepuff, by the way.

The last movie is coming out this week and for many of us, it seems like a marker of the end of our childhood. We grew up with Harry and his friends and now there will be no more new magic. But that's the wonderful thing about books: they're always there for a reread. There's always some little detail that you forgot about, a spell that slipped your mind. And Harry, Ron and Hermione will always be a part of our lives, for as long as we want them to be.