Ken Follett had long been a staple of the bestseller lists for his novels of intrigue and espionage. Then came The Pillars of the Earth, a grand novel of epic storytelling that readers and critics quickly hailed as his crowning achievement. Now, The Pillars of the Earth is available for the first time to a new audience of readers, in this attractive new trade paperback edition.
In 12th-century England, the building of a mighty Gothic cathedral signals the dawn of a new age. This majestic creation will bond clergy and kings, knights and peasants together in a story of toil, faith, ambition and rivalry. A sweeping tale of the turbulent middle ages, The Pillars of the Earth is a masterpiece from one of the world's most popular authors.
"A novel of majesty and power...Will hold you, fascinate you, surround you." --Chicago Sun-Times
"A towering tale...There's murder, arson, treachery, torture, love, and lust...A good time can be had by all." --New York Daily News
"Touches all human emotions...truly a novel to get lost in." --Cosmopolitan
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Thursday, November 19, 2009
ADELITA (CANCION MEXICANA COMPLETA)
En lo alto de la abrupta serrania,
Acampado se encontraba un regimiento,
Y una moza que valiente lo seguia
Locamente enamorada del sargento
Popular entre la tropa era Adelita,
La mujer que el sargento idolatraba,
Porque a mas de ser valiente era bonita,
Que hasta el mismo coronel la respetaba
Y se oia que decia
Aquel que tanto la queria:
Que si Adelita se fuera con otro,
La seguiria por tierra y por mar;
Si por mar en un buque de guerra,
Si por tierra en un tren militar
Una noche en que la escolta regresaba
Conduciendo entre sus filas al sargento,
Por la voz de una mujer que sollozaba,
La plegaria se escucho en el campamento
Al oirla, el sargento, temeroso
De perder para siempre a su adorada,
Ocultando su emocion bajo el embozo,
A su amada le canto de esta manera
Que si Adelita se fuera con otro etc.
Y despues que termino la cruel batalla
Y la tropa regreso a su campamento,
Por las bajas que causara la metralla
Muy diezmado regresaba el regimiento
Recordando aquel sargento sus quereres,
Los soldados que volvian de la guerra
Ofreciendoles su amor a las mujeres
Entonaban este himno de la guerra:
Y se oia que decia
Aquel que tanto la queria:
Y si acaso yo muero en campaña
Y mi cadaver lo van a sepultar,
Adelita, por Dios te lo ruego
Con tus ojos me vayas a llorar
Y se oia que decia
Aquel que tanto la queria....
Y si Adelita fuera mi novia,
Y si Adelita fuera mi mujer,
Le compraria un vestido de seda
para llevarla a bailar al cuartel
Y si acaso yo muero en la guerra,
Y si mi cuerpo en la sierra va a quedar,
Ahy, adelita, por Dios te lo ruego,
Que por mis huesos no vayas a llorar.
Si Adelita quisiera ser mi esposa,
Si Adelita ya fuera mi mujer,
Le compraría un vestido de seda
Para llevarla conmigo al Edén.
Acampado se encontraba un regimiento,
Y una moza que valiente lo seguia
Locamente enamorada del sargento
Popular entre la tropa era Adelita,
La mujer que el sargento idolatraba,
Porque a mas de ser valiente era bonita,
Que hasta el mismo coronel la respetaba
Y se oia que decia
Aquel que tanto la queria:
Que si Adelita se fuera con otro,
La seguiria por tierra y por mar;
Si por mar en un buque de guerra,
Si por tierra en un tren militar
Una noche en que la escolta regresaba
Conduciendo entre sus filas al sargento,
Por la voz de una mujer que sollozaba,
La plegaria se escucho en el campamento
Al oirla, el sargento, temeroso
De perder para siempre a su adorada,
Ocultando su emocion bajo el embozo,
A su amada le canto de esta manera
Que si Adelita se fuera con otro etc.
Y despues que termino la cruel batalla
Y la tropa regreso a su campamento,
Por las bajas que causara la metralla
Muy diezmado regresaba el regimiento
Recordando aquel sargento sus quereres,
Los soldados que volvian de la guerra
Ofreciendoles su amor a las mujeres
Entonaban este himno de la guerra:
Y se oia que decia
Aquel que tanto la queria:
Y si acaso yo muero en campaña
Y mi cadaver lo van a sepultar,
Adelita, por Dios te lo ruego
Con tus ojos me vayas a llorar
Y se oia que decia
Aquel que tanto la queria....
Y si Adelita fuera mi novia,
Y si Adelita fuera mi mujer,
Le compraria un vestido de seda
para llevarla a bailar al cuartel
Y si acaso yo muero en la guerra,
Y si mi cuerpo en la sierra va a quedar,
Ahy, adelita, por Dios te lo ruego,
Que por mis huesos no vayas a llorar.
Si Adelita quisiera ser mi esposa,
Si Adelita ya fuera mi mujer,
Le compraría un vestido de seda
Para llevarla conmigo al Edén.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo - Christiane F.
Christiane F. (born Vera Christiane Felscherinow on May 20, 1962) is a former heroin addict famous for her contribution to the autobiographical book Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo, and the film based on the book, which describes her struggle with various forms of drug addiction during her teens.
Christiane was born in Hamburg, but her family moved to West Berlin when she was a child. They settled in Gropiusstadt, a dreary neighborhood in Neukölln consisting mainly of high-rise concrete apartment blocks where social problems were prevalent. Christiane's father frequently had a violent temper, drank heavily and raged at his family, and her parents eventually divorced. When she was 12 years old, she began smoking hashish with a group of friends who were slightly older, at a local youth club. They gradually began experimenting with stronger drugs, such as LSD and various forms of pills, and she ended up trying heroin. By the time she was 14, she was a junkie and prostitute, mainly at the then-largest train station of West Berlin, Bahnhof Zoo. Here she became part of a notorious group of teen aged drug-users and prostitutes (of both sexes).
Two journalists from the news magazine Stern, Kai Herrmann and Horst Rieck, met Christiane in 1978 in Berlin when she was a witness in a trial against a man who paid underaged girls with heroin in return for sex. The journalists wanted to disclose the drug problem among teenagers in Berlin, which was severe but also surrounded by strong taboos. They arranged a two-hour interview with Christiane. The two hours ended up being two months, where Christiane provided an in-depth description of a life with drugs and prostitution that she and other teenagers in West Berlin experienced in the 1970s. The journalists subsequently ran a series of articles about her addiction in Stern, based on tape recorded interviews with Christiane.
The interviews were extensive, and the Stern publishing house eventually decided to publish the successful book Christiane F. – Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo in 1979. The book chronicles her life from 1975 to 1978, when she was aged 12–15. The narrative of the book is in the first person, from Christiane's viewpoint, but was written by the journalists functioning as ghostwriters. Others, such as Christiane's mother, and various people who witnessed the escalating drug situation in Berlin at the time, also contributed to the book. It depicts several of Christiane's friends along with other drug addicts, as well as scenes from typical locations of the drug scene in Berlin.
Christiane was born in Hamburg, but her family moved to West Berlin when she was a child. They settled in Gropiusstadt, a dreary neighborhood in Neukölln consisting mainly of high-rise concrete apartment blocks where social problems were prevalent. Christiane's father frequently had a violent temper, drank heavily and raged at his family, and her parents eventually divorced. When she was 12 years old, she began smoking hashish with a group of friends who were slightly older, at a local youth club. They gradually began experimenting with stronger drugs, such as LSD and various forms of pills, and she ended up trying heroin. By the time she was 14, she was a junkie and prostitute, mainly at the then-largest train station of West Berlin, Bahnhof Zoo. Here she became part of a notorious group of teen aged drug-users and prostitutes (of both sexes).
Two journalists from the news magazine Stern, Kai Herrmann and Horst Rieck, met Christiane in 1978 in Berlin when she was a witness in a trial against a man who paid underaged girls with heroin in return for sex. The journalists wanted to disclose the drug problem among teenagers in Berlin, which was severe but also surrounded by strong taboos. They arranged a two-hour interview with Christiane. The two hours ended up being two months, where Christiane provided an in-depth description of a life with drugs and prostitution that she and other teenagers in West Berlin experienced in the 1970s. The journalists subsequently ran a series of articles about her addiction in Stern, based on tape recorded interviews with Christiane.
The interviews were extensive, and the Stern publishing house eventually decided to publish the successful book Christiane F. – Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo in 1979. The book chronicles her life from 1975 to 1978, when she was aged 12–15. The narrative of the book is in the first person, from Christiane's viewpoint, but was written by the journalists functioning as ghostwriters. Others, such as Christiane's mother, and various people who witnessed the escalating drug situation in Berlin at the time, also contributed to the book. It depicts several of Christiane's friends along with other drug addicts, as well as scenes from typical locations of the drug scene in Berlin.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Shutter Island - Dennis Lehane
The story takes place in 1954 on Shutter Island, home to a psychiatric hospital called Ashecliffe. U.S. Deputy Marshals Teddy Daniels and Chuck Aule investigate the disappearance of a patient, Rachel Solando, who had committed multiple murders. The deputy marshals search the island for the patient as a hurricane bears down on them, and they find that the hospital has practiced sinister measures during its existence.
The Return of the Dancing Master - Henning Mankell
From Publishers Weekly
Mankell, known in this country for his Kurt Wallander police procedurals (Faceless Killers; The Dogs of Riga), sets this intricate, stand-alone tale of murder and intrigue in the vast pine forests of north-central Sweden. Stefan Lindman, a 37-year-old policeman in the city of Boras, sees his life, both professional and personal, as absolutely ordinary. Then he discovers a strange lump on his tongue; it's cancer, and his life changes dramatically. At the doctor's office he picks up a discarded newspaper and reads that former colleague Herbert Molin has been murdered in the northern forests. Because Lindman needs to take his mind off his upcoming cancer treatment, he decides to investigate Molin's death. As the details of the crime come to light, Lindman realizes he never knew the real Molin. The plot involves the secret world of Nazis, both past and present. The prose can be cold and spare, at least in translation: "There was a smell of paint in the house. All the lights were on. Lindman had to bow his head when he entered through the door." The unrelenting Lindman turns out to be an innovative investigator, though those seeking fast-paced action rather than meticulous introspection will be disappointed. Secrets are slowly and methodically teased from the evidence, and by the satisfying end readers with a taste for the unusual will find Lindman, and the mystery he solves, not in the least bit ordinary.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
Mankell, known in this country for his Kurt Wallander police procedurals (Faceless Killers; The Dogs of Riga), sets this intricate, stand-alone tale of murder and intrigue in the vast pine forests of north-central Sweden. Stefan Lindman, a 37-year-old policeman in the city of Boras, sees his life, both professional and personal, as absolutely ordinary. Then he discovers a strange lump on his tongue; it's cancer, and his life changes dramatically. At the doctor's office he picks up a discarded newspaper and reads that former colleague Herbert Molin has been murdered in the northern forests. Because Lindman needs to take his mind off his upcoming cancer treatment, he decides to investigate Molin's death. As the details of the crime come to light, Lindman realizes he never knew the real Molin. The plot involves the secret world of Nazis, both past and present. The prose can be cold and spare, at least in translation: "There was a smell of paint in the house. All the lights were on. Lindman had to bow his head when he entered through the door." The unrelenting Lindman turns out to be an innovative investigator, though those seeking fast-paced action rather than meticulous introspection will be disappointed. Secrets are slowly and methodically teased from the evidence, and by the satisfying end readers with a taste for the unusual will find Lindman, and the mystery he solves, not in the least bit ordinary.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Auschwitz and After - Charlotte Delbo
Auschwitz and After (Auschwitz, et après) is a first person account of life and survival in Birkenau by Charlotte Delbo. Delbo, who had returned to occupied France to work in the French resistance alongside her husband, was sent to the camp for her activities. Her memoir uses unconventional, almost experimental, narrative techniques to not only convey the experience of Auschwitz but how she and her fellow survivors coped in the years afterwards.
Auschwitz and After is really a trilogy of separately published shorter works: "None of Us Will Return" (Aucun de nous ne reviendra), "Useless Knowledge" (La connaissance inutile), and "The Measure of Our Days" (Mesure des nos jours). The first and last volumes deal with Auschwitz as lived and remembered, respectively, and do not entirely follow linear time. The middle volume concerns the surviving Frenchwomen's slow journey back to freedom after they were moved from Auschwitz to Ravensbrück and ultimately turned over to the Swedish Red Cross, and is somewhat more linear.
"O You Who Know," ("Vous qui saviez") a poem early in the trilogy, challenges the reader with the inadequacy of what they already understand:
O you who know
Could you know that hunger makes the eyes sparkle?
While thirst makes them dim?
You who know
Could you know that you can see your mother dead
Without shedding a tear?
You who know
Could you know how in the morning you crave death
Only to fear it by evening?
"Horror cannot be circumscribed," she concludes, and throughout the trilogy she regularly expresses doubt as to whether she can truly tell the reader what it was like, whether anyone can.
You don't believe what we say
because
if what we say were true
we wouldn't be here to say it.
we'd have to explain
the inexplicable
"I am not sure that what I wrote is true," she wrote in the epigraph to the first volume, "I am certain that it is truthful." Resolving those two statements makes reading Auschwitz and After an advanced reading experience that more are slowly discovering.
Auschwitz and After is really a trilogy of separately published shorter works: "None of Us Will Return" (Aucun de nous ne reviendra), "Useless Knowledge" (La connaissance inutile), and "The Measure of Our Days" (Mesure des nos jours). The first and last volumes deal with Auschwitz as lived and remembered, respectively, and do not entirely follow linear time. The middle volume concerns the surviving Frenchwomen's slow journey back to freedom after they were moved from Auschwitz to Ravensbrück and ultimately turned over to the Swedish Red Cross, and is somewhat more linear.
"O You Who Know," ("Vous qui saviez") a poem early in the trilogy, challenges the reader with the inadequacy of what they already understand:
O you who know
Could you know that hunger makes the eyes sparkle?
While thirst makes them dim?
You who know
Could you know that you can see your mother dead
Without shedding a tear?
You who know
Could you know how in the morning you crave death
Only to fear it by evening?
"Horror cannot be circumscribed," she concludes, and throughout the trilogy she regularly expresses doubt as to whether she can truly tell the reader what it was like, whether anyone can.
You don't believe what we say
because
if what we say were true
we wouldn't be here to say it.
we'd have to explain
the inexplicable
"I am not sure that what I wrote is true," she wrote in the epigraph to the first volume, "I am certain that it is truthful." Resolving those two statements makes reading Auschwitz and After an advanced reading experience that more are slowly discovering.
In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer - Irene Gut Opdyke with Jennifer Armstrong
When World War II began, Irene Gutowna was a 17-year-old Polish nursing student. Six years later, she writes in this inspiring memoir, "I felt a million years old." In the intervening time she was separated from her family, raped by Russian soldiers, and forced to work in a hotel serving German officers. Sickened by the suffering inflicted on the local Jews, Irene began leaving food under the walls of the ghetto. Soon she was scheming to protect the Jewish workers she supervised at the hotel, and then hiding them in the lavish villa where she served as housekeeper to a German major. When he discovered them in the house, Gutowna became his mistress to protect her friends--later escaping him to join the Polish partisans during the Germans' retreat. The author presents her extraordinary heroism as the inevitable result of small steps taken over time, but her readers will not agree as they consume this thrilling adventure story, which also happens to be a drama of moral choice and courage. Although adults will find Irene's tale moving, it is appropriately published as a young adult book. Her experiences while still in her teens remind adolescents everywhere that their actions count, that the power to make a difference is in their hands.
Running Through Fire: How I Survived the Holocaust - by ZOSIA GOLDBERG as told by HILTON OBENZINGER
A fellow Jew within the Warsaw Ghetto, offended by Zosia Goldberg's unaccented Polish, spat at her in Yiddish: "May you die amongst the goyem!" Zosia took this "curse" as a message from God. It sparked her escape from the Ghetto, convincing her that only by posing as a Gentile could she survive.
And Zosia did not die amongst the goyem-but nearly. She was a "débrouillarde": she ran through fire without getting burned. Her story features resistance at every turn, narrow escapes, and help from the most unlikely sources. At times suffering bitter betrayals by fellow Jews, she also encountered unexpected sympathies from some Nazis themselves. Zosia's story is as much a chronicle of the Holocaust as it is everywoman's struggle against human folly and depravity.
"Running Through Fire is a book filled with unspeakable horrors-but it is told without a shred of self-pity. Zosia Goldberg never complains, never bemoans her lot. She battles and endures, and in this raw, unvarnished tale of human suffering, she has given us a manual of hope."-from the introduction by Paul Auster
After surviving WW II, Zosia Goldberg came to the United States, married, then moved to Caracas, Venezuela, to operate a garment business. She returned to America after her husband's death and currently resides in Florida. She has one son.
Hilton Obenzinger (Preface) is a poet, novelist, and critic, and a recipient of the American Book Award. He teaches American literature and honors writing at Stanford University.
And Zosia did not die amongst the goyem-but nearly. She was a "débrouillarde": she ran through fire without getting burned. Her story features resistance at every turn, narrow escapes, and help from the most unlikely sources. At times suffering bitter betrayals by fellow Jews, she also encountered unexpected sympathies from some Nazis themselves. Zosia's story is as much a chronicle of the Holocaust as it is everywoman's struggle against human folly and depravity.
"Running Through Fire is a book filled with unspeakable horrors-but it is told without a shred of self-pity. Zosia Goldberg never complains, never bemoans her lot. She battles and endures, and in this raw, unvarnished tale of human suffering, she has given us a manual of hope."-from the introduction by Paul Auster
After surviving WW II, Zosia Goldberg came to the United States, married, then moved to Caracas, Venezuela, to operate a garment business. She returned to America after her husband's death and currently resides in Florida. She has one son.
Hilton Obenzinger (Preface) is a poet, novelist, and critic, and a recipient of the American Book Award. He teaches American literature and honors writing at Stanford University.
The Girl in the Red Coat - Roma Ligocka
As a young child, in the Krakow ghetto, Ligocka was known to everyone by the strawberry-red coat she always wore-an image that Steven Spielberg would use in Schindler's List, without knowing anything about Ligocka herself. Determined to tell her own story, Ligocka gives a harrowing, impressionistic account of her early memories of the ghetto: the men in shiny black boots with snarling dogs, the endless waiting in lines, people shot indiscriminately and her grandmother's seizure by SS officers while Ligocka hides under a table. Ligocka and her mother sneak out of the ghetto and are taken in by a Polish family; her father, taken to Auschwitz, escapes several years later. In a poignant episode, the little girl doesn't recognize this haggard specter who wants to embrace her. The memoir also describes Ligocka's youth in Communist Krakow: her career as an actress in theater and films, her struggle as an adult to confront her frightful memories and the weathering of new crises, from the passing of her parents to political turmoil in Poland. Though Ligocka's rendering of her early childhood voice isn't quite seamless (it sometimes sounds forced and too knowing), this doesn't take away from the power of her narrative, and readers may be particularly interested in her experiences as one of a tiny handful of Jewish survivors in Communist Poland.
Sarah’s Key - Tatiana de Rosnay
Paris. Spring 1942. The Vel’ d’ Hiv’ (Operation Spring Breeze). Tatiana de Rosnay’s novel Sarah’s Key revolves around this deplorable historic event. Operation Spring Breeze was a French-led “round-up” of more than 13,000 Parisian Jews (mostly women and children) under order of the Nazis. Initially kept in inhumane conditions at the Vélodrome d’Hiver (an indoor cycle track), these victims of the Holocaust were eventually moved to concentration camps inside France (where they were guarded by French gendarmes) and later moved to Auschwitz where they were slaughtered. The roundup accounted for more than a quarter of the 42,000 Jews sent from France to Auschwitz. The Vel’ d’ Hiv’ has become of symbol of national shame in France.
De Rosnay has created a work of fiction which imagines a child caught in the round-up and how that one moment in history can have repercussions far into the future.
She closed the door on the little white face, turned the key in the lock. Then she slipped the key into her pocket. The lock was hidden by a pivoting device shaped like a light switch. It was impossible to see the outline of the cupboard in the paneling of the wall. Yes, he’d be safe there. She was sure of it. The girl murmured his name and laid her palm flat on the wooden panel. “I’ll come back for you later. I promise.” -From Sarah’s Key, page 9
De Rosnay has created a work of fiction which imagines a child caught in the round-up and how that one moment in history can have repercussions far into the future.
She closed the door on the little white face, turned the key in the lock. Then she slipped the key into her pocket. The lock was hidden by a pivoting device shaped like a light switch. It was impossible to see the outline of the cupboard in the paneling of the wall. Yes, he’d be safe there. She was sure of it. The girl murmured his name and laid her palm flat on the wooden panel. “I’ll come back for you later. I promise.” -From Sarah’s Key, page 9
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Death in Venice - Thomas Mann (Der Tod in Venedig)
The main character is Gustav von Aschenbach, a famous author in his early fifties who has recently been ennobled and thus acquired the aristocratic "von" to his name. He is a man dedicated to his art, disciplined and ascetic to the point of severity, who was widowed at a young age. As the story opens, while strolling outside a cemetery, he sees a coarse-looking red-haired man who stares back at him belligerently. Aschenbach walks away, embarrassed but curiously stimulated. Soon afterwards, he resolves to take a trip.
He decides on Venice, reserving a suite in the Grand Hôtel des Bains on the Lido island. While en route to the island by vaporetto (motor boat), he sees an elderly man, in company with a group of high-spirited youths, who has tried hard to create the illusion of youth with a wig, false teeth, makeup, and foppish attire. Aschenbach turns away in disgust. Soon afterwards he has a disturbing encounter with an unlicensed gondolier —another red-haired man— who keeps repeating "I can row you well" when Aschenbach orders him to return to the wharf.
Aschenbach checks into his hotel, where at dinner he sees an aristocratic Polish family at a nearby table. Among them is an adolescent boy in a sailor suit; Aschenbach, startled, realizes that the boy is beautiful. His sisters, however, are so severely dressed that they look like nuns. Aschenbach overhears the lad's name, Tadzio, and conceives what he tells himself is an abstract, artistic interest.
Soon the hot, humid weather begins to affect Aschenbach's health, and he decides to leave early and move to a more salubrious location. On the morning of his planned departure, he sees Tadzio again, and a powerful feeling of regret sweeps over him. When he reaches the railway station and discovers his trunk has been misdirected, he pretends to be angry, but is really overjoyed; he decides to remain in Venice and wait for his lost luggage. He happily returns to the hotel, and thinks no more of leaving.
Over the next days and weeks, Aschenbach's interest in the beautiful boy develops into an obsession. He watches him constantly, and secretly follows him around Venice. One evening, the boy directs a charming smile at him, looking, Aschenbach thinks, like Narcissus smiling at his own reflection. Disconcerted, he rushes outside, and in the empty garden whispers aloud, "I love you!"
Aschenbach next takes a trip into the city of Venice, where he sees a few discreetly worded notices from the Health Department warning of an unspecified contagion and advising people to avoid eating shellfish. He smells an unfamiliar strong odour everywhere, and later realises it is disinfectant. However, the tourists continue to wander round the city, apparently oblivious. Aschenbach at first ignores the danger because it somehow pleases him to think that the city's disease is akin to his own hidden, corrupting passion for the boy. During this period, a third red-haired, disreputable-looking man crosses Aschenbach's path; this one belongs to a troupe of street singers who entertain at the hotel one night. Aschenbach listens entranced to songs that, in his former life, he would have despised – all the while stealing glances at Tadzio, who is leaning on a nearby parapet in a classically beautiful pose.
Next, Aschenbach rallies his self-respect and decides to discover the reason for the health notices posted in the city so he can warn Tadzio's mother. After being repeatedly assured that the sirocco is the only health risk, he finds a British travel agent who reluctantly admits that there is a serious cholera epidemic in Venice. Aschenbach, however, funks his resolution to warn the Polish family, knowing that if he does, Tadzio will leave the hotel and be lost to him.
One night, a dream filled with orgiastic Dionysian imagery reveals to him the sexual nature of his feelings for Tadzio. Afterwards, he begins staring at the boy so openly and following him so persistently that Aschenbach feels the boy's guardians finally notice, and take to warning Tadzio whenever he approaches too near the strange, solitary man. But Aschenbach's feelings, though passionately intense, remain unvoiced; he never touches Tadzio, or even speaks to him; and while there is some indication that Tadzio is aware of his admiration, the two exchange nothing more than the occasional surreptitious glance.
Aschenbach begins to fret about his aging face and body. In an attempt to look more attractive, he visits the hotel's barber shop almost daily, where the barber eventually persuades him to have his hair dyed and his face painted to look more youthful. The result is a fairly close approximation to the old man on the vaporetto who had so appalled Aschenbach. Freshly dyed and rouged, he again shadows Tadzio through Venice in the oppressive heat. He loses sight of the boy in the heart of the city; then, exhausted and thirsty, he buys and eats some over-ripe strawberries and rests in an abandoned square, contemplating the Platonic ideal of beauty amidst the ruins of his own once-formidable dignity.
A few days later, Aschenbach goes to the lobby in his hotel, feeling ill and weak, and discovers that the Polish family plan to leave after lunch. He goes down to the beach to his usual deck chair. Tadzio is there, unsupervised for once, and accompanied by an older boy, Jasiu. A fight breaks out between the two boys, and Tadzio is quickly bested; afterward, he angrily leaves his companion and wades over to Aschenbach's part of the beach, where he stands for a moment looking out to sea; then turns halfway around to look at his admirer. To Aschenbach, it is as if the boy is beckoning to him: he tries to rise and follow, only to collapse back into his chair.
His body is discovered a few minutes later. When news of his death becomes public, the world decorously mourns the passing of a great artist.
The novella is constructed on a framework of references to Greek mythology, and Aschenbach's Venice seems populated by the gods. By dedicating himself to Apollo, the god of reason and the intellect, Aschenbach has denied the power of Dionysus, god of unreason and of passion – a voluntary act of what Freud would call "suppression". Dionysus seems to have followed Aschenbach to Venice with the intent of destroying him: the red-haired man who keeps crossing von Aschenbach's path, in the guise of different characters, could be none other than Silenus, Dionysus's mythological chief disciple. (Silenus' role is disputed, however, since he bears no physical resemblance to the secondary characters in the book.) In the Benjamin Britten opera these characters (The Traveller, the Gondolier, The Leading player and the Voice of Dionysus) are played by the same baritone singer, who also plays the Hotel Manager, The Barber, and the Old Man on the Vaporetto. The trope of placing classical deities in contemporary settings was popular at the time when Mann was writing Death in Venice: in England, at almost the same time, E. M. Forster was at work on an entire short-story collection based on this premise. The idea of the opposition of the Apollonian and Dionysian seems to have been introduced by Nietzsche and was also a popular motif of the time.
Gustav von Aschenbach's name seems to be inspired by the homosexual German poet August von Platen-Hallermünde. The character's last name may be derived from von Platen's birthplace, Ansbach. However, it still has another clear significance: Aschenbach literally means "ash brook". The character of von Aschenbach was based partly on the composer Gustav Mahler(the soundtrack of the film based on the novella thus made use of Mahler's compositions, particularly the "Adagietto" movement from the Symphony No. 5). Mahler had made a strong personal impression on Mann when they met in Munich, and he was shocked by the news of his death while on Brijuni. Mann also based Aschenbach's first name and facial appearance on Mahler but didn't talk about it in public.
He decides on Venice, reserving a suite in the Grand Hôtel des Bains on the Lido island. While en route to the island by vaporetto (motor boat), he sees an elderly man, in company with a group of high-spirited youths, who has tried hard to create the illusion of youth with a wig, false teeth, makeup, and foppish attire. Aschenbach turns away in disgust. Soon afterwards he has a disturbing encounter with an unlicensed gondolier —another red-haired man— who keeps repeating "I can row you well" when Aschenbach orders him to return to the wharf.
Aschenbach checks into his hotel, where at dinner he sees an aristocratic Polish family at a nearby table. Among them is an adolescent boy in a sailor suit; Aschenbach, startled, realizes that the boy is beautiful. His sisters, however, are so severely dressed that they look like nuns. Aschenbach overhears the lad's name, Tadzio, and conceives what he tells himself is an abstract, artistic interest.
Soon the hot, humid weather begins to affect Aschenbach's health, and he decides to leave early and move to a more salubrious location. On the morning of his planned departure, he sees Tadzio again, and a powerful feeling of regret sweeps over him. When he reaches the railway station and discovers his trunk has been misdirected, he pretends to be angry, but is really overjoyed; he decides to remain in Venice and wait for his lost luggage. He happily returns to the hotel, and thinks no more of leaving.
Over the next days and weeks, Aschenbach's interest in the beautiful boy develops into an obsession. He watches him constantly, and secretly follows him around Venice. One evening, the boy directs a charming smile at him, looking, Aschenbach thinks, like Narcissus smiling at his own reflection. Disconcerted, he rushes outside, and in the empty garden whispers aloud, "I love you!"
Aschenbach next takes a trip into the city of Venice, where he sees a few discreetly worded notices from the Health Department warning of an unspecified contagion and advising people to avoid eating shellfish. He smells an unfamiliar strong odour everywhere, and later realises it is disinfectant. However, the tourists continue to wander round the city, apparently oblivious. Aschenbach at first ignores the danger because it somehow pleases him to think that the city's disease is akin to his own hidden, corrupting passion for the boy. During this period, a third red-haired, disreputable-looking man crosses Aschenbach's path; this one belongs to a troupe of street singers who entertain at the hotel one night. Aschenbach listens entranced to songs that, in his former life, he would have despised – all the while stealing glances at Tadzio, who is leaning on a nearby parapet in a classically beautiful pose.
Next, Aschenbach rallies his self-respect and decides to discover the reason for the health notices posted in the city so he can warn Tadzio's mother. After being repeatedly assured that the sirocco is the only health risk, he finds a British travel agent who reluctantly admits that there is a serious cholera epidemic in Venice. Aschenbach, however, funks his resolution to warn the Polish family, knowing that if he does, Tadzio will leave the hotel and be lost to him.
One night, a dream filled with orgiastic Dionysian imagery reveals to him the sexual nature of his feelings for Tadzio. Afterwards, he begins staring at the boy so openly and following him so persistently that Aschenbach feels the boy's guardians finally notice, and take to warning Tadzio whenever he approaches too near the strange, solitary man. But Aschenbach's feelings, though passionately intense, remain unvoiced; he never touches Tadzio, or even speaks to him; and while there is some indication that Tadzio is aware of his admiration, the two exchange nothing more than the occasional surreptitious glance.
Aschenbach begins to fret about his aging face and body. In an attempt to look more attractive, he visits the hotel's barber shop almost daily, where the barber eventually persuades him to have his hair dyed and his face painted to look more youthful. The result is a fairly close approximation to the old man on the vaporetto who had so appalled Aschenbach. Freshly dyed and rouged, he again shadows Tadzio through Venice in the oppressive heat. He loses sight of the boy in the heart of the city; then, exhausted and thirsty, he buys and eats some over-ripe strawberries and rests in an abandoned square, contemplating the Platonic ideal of beauty amidst the ruins of his own once-formidable dignity.
A few days later, Aschenbach goes to the lobby in his hotel, feeling ill and weak, and discovers that the Polish family plan to leave after lunch. He goes down to the beach to his usual deck chair. Tadzio is there, unsupervised for once, and accompanied by an older boy, Jasiu. A fight breaks out between the two boys, and Tadzio is quickly bested; afterward, he angrily leaves his companion and wades over to Aschenbach's part of the beach, where he stands for a moment looking out to sea; then turns halfway around to look at his admirer. To Aschenbach, it is as if the boy is beckoning to him: he tries to rise and follow, only to collapse back into his chair.
His body is discovered a few minutes later. When news of his death becomes public, the world decorously mourns the passing of a great artist.
The novella is constructed on a framework of references to Greek mythology, and Aschenbach's Venice seems populated by the gods. By dedicating himself to Apollo, the god of reason and the intellect, Aschenbach has denied the power of Dionysus, god of unreason and of passion – a voluntary act of what Freud would call "suppression". Dionysus seems to have followed Aschenbach to Venice with the intent of destroying him: the red-haired man who keeps crossing von Aschenbach's path, in the guise of different characters, could be none other than Silenus, Dionysus's mythological chief disciple. (Silenus' role is disputed, however, since he bears no physical resemblance to the secondary characters in the book.) In the Benjamin Britten opera these characters (The Traveller, the Gondolier, The Leading player and the Voice of Dionysus) are played by the same baritone singer, who also plays the Hotel Manager, The Barber, and the Old Man on the Vaporetto. The trope of placing classical deities in contemporary settings was popular at the time when Mann was writing Death in Venice: in England, at almost the same time, E. M. Forster was at work on an entire short-story collection based on this premise. The idea of the opposition of the Apollonian and Dionysian seems to have been introduced by Nietzsche and was also a popular motif of the time.
Gustav von Aschenbach's name seems to be inspired by the homosexual German poet August von Platen-Hallermünde. The character's last name may be derived from von Platen's birthplace, Ansbach. However, it still has another clear significance: Aschenbach literally means "ash brook". The character of von Aschenbach was based partly on the composer Gustav Mahler(the soundtrack of the film based on the novella thus made use of Mahler's compositions, particularly the "Adagietto" movement from the Symphony No. 5). Mahler had made a strong personal impression on Mann when they met in Munich, and he was shocked by the news of his death while on Brijuni. Mann also based Aschenbach's first name and facial appearance on Mahler but didn't talk about it in public.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Bitter Moon - Roman Polanski
Bitter Moon is a 1992 film starring Hugh Grant (Nigel), Kristin Scott Thomas (Fiona), Emmanuelle Seigner (Mimi) and Peter Coyote (Oscar) and directed by Roman Polanski. The film is known as Lunes de fiel in France. The script is inspired by a book with the same name, written by the French author Pascal Bruckner. The score was composed by Vangelis.
"Polanski directs it without compromise or apology, and it's a funny thing how critics may condescend to it, but while they're watching it you could hear a pin drop." Chicago Sun Times
"Polanski directs it without compromise or apology, and it's a funny thing how critics may condescend to it, but while they're watching it you could hear a pin drop." Chicago Sun Times
Kolya - Jan Svěrák
Kolya (originally Kolja) is a 1996 Czech film drama about a man whose life is reshaped in an unexpected way. The film was directed by Jan Svěrák and stars his father Zdeněk Svěrák who also wrote the script from a story by Pavel Taussig.
The film begins in 1988 while the Soviet bloc is beginning to disintegrate. František Louka, a middle-aged Czech man dedicated to bachelorhood and the pursuit of women, is a concert cellist struggling to eke out a living by playing funerals at the Prague crematorium. He has lost his previous job at the philharmonic orchestra due to having been half-accidentally blacklisted as "politically unreliable" by the authorities. A friend offers him a chance to earn a great deal of money through a sham marriage to a Russian woman to enable her to stay in Czechoslovakia. However, the woman uses her Czechoslovak citizenship to emigrate and join her boyfriend in West Germany.
Due to a concurrence of circumstances she has to leave behind her Russian-speaking five-year-old son, Kolya, for the disgruntled Czech musician to look after. At first Louka and Kolya have communication difficulties, as they don't speak each other's languages and the many false friend words that exist in Czech and Russian add to the confusion. Gradually, though, a bond forms between Louka and Kolya. The child suffers from suspected Meningitis and has to be placed on a course of carefully monitored Antibiotics. Louka is threatened with imprisonment for his suspect marriage and the child may be placed in a Russian children's home. The Velvet Revolution intervenes though, and Kolya is reunited with his mother. Louka and Kolya say their goodbyes.
The film begins in 1988 while the Soviet bloc is beginning to disintegrate. František Louka, a middle-aged Czech man dedicated to bachelorhood and the pursuit of women, is a concert cellist struggling to eke out a living by playing funerals at the Prague crematorium. He has lost his previous job at the philharmonic orchestra due to having been half-accidentally blacklisted as "politically unreliable" by the authorities. A friend offers him a chance to earn a great deal of money through a sham marriage to a Russian woman to enable her to stay in Czechoslovakia. However, the woman uses her Czechoslovak citizenship to emigrate and join her boyfriend in West Germany.
Due to a concurrence of circumstances she has to leave behind her Russian-speaking five-year-old son, Kolya, for the disgruntled Czech musician to look after. At first Louka and Kolya have communication difficulties, as they don't speak each other's languages and the many false friend words that exist in Czech and Russian add to the confusion. Gradually, though, a bond forms between Louka and Kolya. The child suffers from suspected Meningitis and has to be placed on a course of carefully monitored Antibiotics. Louka is threatened with imprisonment for his suspect marriage and the child may be placed in a Russian children's home. The Velvet Revolution intervenes though, and Kolya is reunited with his mother. Louka and Kolya say their goodbyes.
Pelisky - Jan Hrebejk
Pelíšky (English: Cosy Dens) is a 1999 Czech film directed by Jan Hřebejk. It is loosely based on the novel Hovno Hoří (Czech: "Flaming Feces") by Petr Šabach.
Pelíšky is a bittersweet coming-of-age story set in the months leading up to the ill-fated 1968 Prague Spring. Teenager Michal Šebek (Michael Beran) develops a crush on his neighbor, Jindřiška Krausová (Kristýna Nováková). Michal's family is headed by a stubborn army officer who believes that the latest East German Tupperware will sufficiently shame those American imperialists, while Jindřiška's father is an ardent foe of the Communists saved from prison only because he is a war hero. Much to the parents' dismay, the younger generation couldn't care less for politics. Instead, Michal sports a Beatles mop-top and runs a local film group specialising in Hollywood and pre-war French films, while Jindřiška starts hanging out with a mysterious hipster.
Pelíšky is a bittersweet coming-of-age story set in the months leading up to the ill-fated 1968 Prague Spring. Teenager Michal Šebek (Michael Beran) develops a crush on his neighbor, Jindřiška Krausová (Kristýna Nováková). Michal's family is headed by a stubborn army officer who believes that the latest East German Tupperware will sufficiently shame those American imperialists, while Jindřiška's father is an ardent foe of the Communists saved from prison only because he is a war hero. Much to the parents' dismay, the younger generation couldn't care less for politics. Instead, Michal sports a Beatles mop-top and runs a local film group specialising in Hollywood and pre-war French films, while Jindřiška starts hanging out with a mysterious hipster.
We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver
We Need to Talk About Kevin is a 2003 novel by Lionel Shriver, concerning a fictional school massacre. It is written from the perspective of the killer's mother, Eva Khatchadourian, and documents her attempt to come to terms with her son Kevin and the murders he committed. Although told in the first person as a series of letters from Eva to her husband, the novel's structure also strongly resembles that of a thriller. The novel, Shriver's seventh, won the 2005 Orange Prize, a UK-based prize for female authors of any nationality writing in English. It is published outside of the US by Serpent's Tail.
Kevin
Kevin's behavior throughout the book closely resembles that of a psychopath, although reference to this condition is sparse and left mostly up to the reader's imagination. He displays little to no affection or moral responsibility towards his family or community, and commonly distances himself from people to avoid attachment. Kevin seems to regard virtually everyone with contempt and hatred. Eva, his mother, makes frequent attempts to enter Kevin's mind and identify some reason for his detachment and his actions, which to non-psychopaths seem incomprehensible. He engages in many acts of petty sabotage from an early age, from seemingly-innocent actions like spraying ink with a squirt gun on a room painstakingly wallpapered by his mother in rare maps to encouraging a girl to gouge her eczema-affected skin. Rationalization for his behavior is one of the central themes of the story -- when asked the simple question 'Why?' after the massacre, he responds that he is giving the public the excitement and scandal that they secretly crave. Only in rare instances does another side of Kevin emerge: in childhood when he becomes very ill, and later, just before he is transferred to an adult prison and is evidently nervous. In these instances, he displays the simple need for love and comfort that all children seek. It is left ambiguous as to whether this is Kevin's real personality hidden under layers of psychopathy, or vice versa.
Kevin
Kevin's behavior throughout the book closely resembles that of a psychopath, although reference to this condition is sparse and left mostly up to the reader's imagination. He displays little to no affection or moral responsibility towards his family or community, and commonly distances himself from people to avoid attachment. Kevin seems to regard virtually everyone with contempt and hatred. Eva, his mother, makes frequent attempts to enter Kevin's mind and identify some reason for his detachment and his actions, which to non-psychopaths seem incomprehensible. He engages in many acts of petty sabotage from an early age, from seemingly-innocent actions like spraying ink with a squirt gun on a room painstakingly wallpapered by his mother in rare maps to encouraging a girl to gouge her eczema-affected skin. Rationalization for his behavior is one of the central themes of the story -- when asked the simple question 'Why?' after the massacre, he responds that he is giving the public the excitement and scandal that they secretly crave. Only in rare instances does another side of Kevin emerge: in childhood when he becomes very ill, and later, just before he is transferred to an adult prison and is evidently nervous. In these instances, he displays the simple need for love and comfort that all children seek. It is left ambiguous as to whether this is Kevin's real personality hidden under layers of psychopathy, or vice versa.
City of God - Paolo Lins
City of God (Portuguese: Cidade de Deus) is a 1997 semi-autobiographical novel by Paulo Lins, about three young men and their lives in Cidade de Deus, a favela in Western Rio de Janeiro where Lins grew up.
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
A gripping story of a child’s journey through hell and back.
There may be as many as 300,000 child soldiers, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s, in more than fifty conflicts around the world. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them. He is one of the first to tell his story in his own words.
In A LONG WAY GONE, Beah, now twenty-six years old, tells a riveting story. At the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he’d been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts. Eventually released by the army and sent to a UNICEF rehabilitation center, he struggled to regain his humanity and to reenter the world of civilians, who viewed him with fear and suspicion. This is, at last, a story of redemption and hope.
Ishmael Beah was born in Sierra Leone in 1980. He moved to the United States in 1998 and finished his last two years of high school at the United Nations International School in New York. In 2004 he graduated from Oberlin College with a B.A. in political science. He is a member of the Human Rights Watch Children’s Rights Division Advisory Committee and has spoken before the United Nations, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Center for Emerging Threats and Opportunities (CETO) at the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, and many other NGO panels on children affected by the war. His work has appeared in VespertinePress and LIT magazine. He lives in New York City.
There may be as many as 300,000 child soldiers, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s, in more than fifty conflicts around the world. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them. He is one of the first to tell his story in his own words.
In A LONG WAY GONE, Beah, now twenty-six years old, tells a riveting story. At the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he’d been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts. Eventually released by the army and sent to a UNICEF rehabilitation center, he struggled to regain his humanity and to reenter the world of civilians, who viewed him with fear and suspicion. This is, at last, a story of redemption and hope.
Ishmael Beah was born in Sierra Leone in 1980. He moved to the United States in 1998 and finished his last two years of high school at the United Nations International School in New York. In 2004 he graduated from Oberlin College with a B.A. in political science. He is a member of the Human Rights Watch Children’s Rights Division Advisory Committee and has spoken before the United Nations, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Center for Emerging Threats and Opportunities (CETO) at the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, and many other NGO panels on children affected by the war. His work has appeared in VespertinePress and LIT magazine. He lives in New York City.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
The Glass Castle - Jeannette Walls
The Glass Castle is a 2005 memoir by Jeannette Walls detailing the harsh but passionate wanderings of her childhood with siblings Brian, Lori, and Maureen, their father Rex and mother Rose Mary — as the family shuttled from Arizona, California, Battle Mountain, Nevada and Welch, West Virginia — with periods of homelessness, Walls' ultimate move to New York City at age 17, and her later successful writing career.
Using a straightforward, non-judgmental style, the memoir recounts the parents' difficulty and unwillingness to provide their family's daily needs — while at the same time feeding their sense of adventure and intellectual curiosity. On the one hand, the children fend for themselves for food and clothing — on the other hand, their brilliant, alcoholic father illuminates for them physicist Mitchell Feigenbaum's study of chaos theory.
Using a straightforward, non-judgmental style, the memoir recounts the parents' difficulty and unwillingness to provide their family's daily needs — while at the same time feeding their sense of adventure and intellectual curiosity. On the one hand, the children fend for themselves for food and clothing — on the other hand, their brilliant, alcoholic father illuminates for them physicist Mitchell Feigenbaum's study of chaos theory.
Siddhartha - Hermann Hesse
Siddhartha is an allegorical novel by Hermann Hesse which deals with the spiritual journey of a boy known as Siddhartha from the Indian Subcontinent during the time of the Buddha.
The word Siddhartha is made up of two words in the Sanskrit language, siddha (achieved) + artha (meaning or wealth). The two words together mean "he who has found meaning (of existence)" or "he who has attained his goals". The Buddha's name, before his renunciation, was Prince Siddhartha Gautama. In this book, the Buddha is referred to as "Gotama".
Sl.ower, he walked along in his thoughts and asked himself: “But what is
this, what you have sought to learn from teachings and from teachers, and what they, who have taught you much, were still unable to teach you?” And he found: “It was the self, the purpose and essence of which I sought to learn. It was the self, I wanted to free myself from, which I sought to overcome. But I was not able to overcome it, could only deceive it, could only flee from it, only hide from it. Truly, no thing in this world has kept my thoughts thus busy, as this my very own self, this mystery of me being alive, of me being one and being separated and isolated from all others, of me being Siddhartha! And there is no thing in this world I know less about than about me, about Siddhartha!”
The word Siddhartha is made up of two words in the Sanskrit language, siddha (achieved) + artha (meaning or wealth). The two words together mean "he who has found meaning (of existence)" or "he who has attained his goals". The Buddha's name, before his renunciation, was Prince Siddhartha Gautama. In this book, the Buddha is referred to as "Gotama".
Sl.ower, he walked along in his thoughts and asked himself: “But what is
this, what you have sought to learn from teachings and from teachers, and what they, who have taught you much, were still unable to teach you?” And he found: “It was the self, the purpose and essence of which I sought to learn. It was the self, I wanted to free myself from, which I sought to overcome. But I was not able to overcome it, could only deceive it, could only flee from it, only hide from it. Truly, no thing in this world has kept my thoughts thus busy, as this my very own self, this mystery of me being alive, of me being one and being separated and isolated from all others, of me being Siddhartha! And there is no thing in this world I know less about than about me, about Siddhartha!”
A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini
A Thousand Splendid Suns is a 2007 novel by Afghan author Khaled Hosseini, his second, following his bestselling 2003 debut, The Kite Runner. It focuses on the tumultuous lives of two Afghan women and how their lives cross each other, spanning from the 1960s to 2003.
The title of the book refers to a phrase from the poem "Kabul", by the 17th-century Persian poet Saib-e-Tabrizi.
KabulAh! How beautiful is Kabul encircled by her arid mountains
And Rose, of the trails of thorns she envies
Her gusts of powdered soil, slightly sting my eyes
But I love her, for knowing and loving are born of this same dust
My song exhalts her dazzling tulips
And at the beauty of her trees, I blush
How sparkling the water flows from Pul-I Bastaan!
May Allah protect such beauty from the evil eye of man!
Khizr chose the path to Kabul in order to reach Paradise
For her mountains brought him close to the delights of heaven
From the fort with sprawling walls, A Dragon of protection
Each stone is there more precious than the treasure of Shayagan
Every street of Kabul is enthralling to the eye
Through the bazaars, caravans of Egypt pass
One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs
And the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls
Her laughter of mornings has the gaiety of flowers
Her nights of darkness, the reflections of lustrous hair
Her melodious nightingales, with passion sing their songs
Ardent tunes, as leaves enflamed, cascading from their throats
And I, I sing in the gardens of Jahanara, of Sharbara
And even the trumpets of heaven envy their green pastures
Time magazine's Lev Grossman placed it at number three in the Top 10 Fiction Books of 2007, and praised it as a "dense, rich, pressure-packed guide to enduring the unendurable."Jonathan Yardley said in the Washington Post "Book World": "Just in case you're wondering whether Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns is as good as The Kite Runner, here's the answer: No. It's better."
The title of the book refers to a phrase from the poem "Kabul", by the 17th-century Persian poet Saib-e-Tabrizi.
KabulAh! How beautiful is Kabul encircled by her arid mountains
And Rose, of the trails of thorns she envies
Her gusts of powdered soil, slightly sting my eyes
But I love her, for knowing and loving are born of this same dust
My song exhalts her dazzling tulips
And at the beauty of her trees, I blush
How sparkling the water flows from Pul-I Bastaan!
May Allah protect such beauty from the evil eye of man!
Khizr chose the path to Kabul in order to reach Paradise
For her mountains brought him close to the delights of heaven
From the fort with sprawling walls, A Dragon of protection
Each stone is there more precious than the treasure of Shayagan
Every street of Kabul is enthralling to the eye
Through the bazaars, caravans of Egypt pass
One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs
And the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls
Her laughter of mornings has the gaiety of flowers
Her nights of darkness, the reflections of lustrous hair
Her melodious nightingales, with passion sing their songs
Ardent tunes, as leaves enflamed, cascading from their throats
And I, I sing in the gardens of Jahanara, of Sharbara
And even the trumpets of heaven envy their green pastures
Time magazine's Lev Grossman placed it at number three in the Top 10 Fiction Books of 2007, and praised it as a "dense, rich, pressure-packed guide to enduring the unendurable."Jonathan Yardley said in the Washington Post "Book World": "Just in case you're wondering whether Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns is as good as The Kite Runner, here's the answer: No. It's better."
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
The Kite Runner tells the story of Amir, a young boy from the Wazir Akbar Khan district of Kabul, who betrayed his best friend Hassan (by allowing him to be raped), the son of his father's Hazara servant, and lives in regret. The story is set against a backdrop of tumultuous events, from the fall of the monarchy in Afghanistan through the Soviet invasion, the mass exodus of refugees to Pakistan and the United States, and the rise of the Taliban regime.
The Kite Runner has been accused of hindering Western understanding of the Taliban by portraying Taliban members as representatives of various Western myths of evil (see Assef's Pedophilia, Nazism, drug abuse and sadism, and the fact that he is an executioner. The American Library Association reports that The Kite Runner is one of its most-challenged books of 2008, with multiple attempts to remove it from libraries due to "offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group."
The Kite Runner has been accused of hindering Western understanding of the Taliban by portraying Taliban members as representatives of various Western myths of evil (see Assef's Pedophilia, Nazism, drug abuse and sadism, and the fact that he is an executioner. The American Library Association reports that The Kite Runner is one of its most-challenged books of 2008, with multiple attempts to remove it from libraries due to "offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group."
City of Thieves - David Benioff
“City of Thieves” follows a character named Lev Beniov, the son of a revered Soviet Jewish poet who was “disappeared” in the Stalinist purges, as Lev and an accomplice carry out an impossible assignment during the Nazi blockade of Leningrad. Before Lev begins to tell his story, however, a young Los Angeles screenwriter named David visits his grandfather in Florida, pleading for his memories of the siege. But this is no postmodern coquetry. In fact, the novel tells a refreshingly traditional tale, driven by an often ingenious plot. And after that first chapter Benioff is humble enough to get out of its way. For some writers, Russia inspires extravagant lamentations uttered into the eternity of those implacable winters. Happily, Benioff’s prose doesn’t draw that kind of attention to itself.
Lev, an intelligent, awkward, eternally self-doubting Jewish teenager, and Kolya, a Slavic Adonis, have been imprisoned after wartime infractions. Awaiting execution, they’re summoned by the secret police: Colonel Grechko’s daughter is getting married, and eggs are needed for the cake. It would be easier to find snow in Saudi Arabia, but if Lev and Kolya can locate a dozen they’ll get back their ration cards — and their lives. Very soon, the odd couple are dodging a husband-and-wife team of cannibals and seducing their way — well, Kolya is, at least — through the starving city.
Lev, an intelligent, awkward, eternally self-doubting Jewish teenager, and Kolya, a Slavic Adonis, have been imprisoned after wartime infractions. Awaiting execution, they’re summoned by the secret police: Colonel Grechko’s daughter is getting married, and eggs are needed for the cake. It would be easier to find snow in Saudi Arabia, but if Lev and Kolya can locate a dozen they’ll get back their ration cards — and their lives. Very soon, the odd couple are dodging a husband-and-wife team of cannibals and seducing their way — well, Kolya is, at least — through the starving city.
Friday, October 23, 2009
The Forty Days of Musa Dagh - Franz Werfel
The Forty Days of Musa Dagh is a 1934 novel by Austrian-Jewish author Franz Werfel based around an event that took place on Musa Dagh in 1915 during the Armenian Genocide in Turkey. The book was first published as Die vierzig Tage des Musa Dagh in German in November of 1933. The Forty Days of Musa Dagh achieved great international success and has been credited with awakening the world to the evidence of the persecution of the Armenians. The novel is a fictionalized account based on the real-life defense of Musa Dagh's Damlayik by Armenians who were facing systematic deportations and massacres put into effect by the Committee of Union and Progress central government.
Musa Dagh has often been compared to the resistance in the Jewish ghettos during the Second World War, one of those, the ghetto of Bialystok found itself in the same situation as Musa Dagh when in February 1943, Mordecai Tannenbaum, an “inmate” of the Vilna ghetto was sent with others to organize Bialystok's resistance. The record of one of the meetings organizing the revolt, suggests that the novel was often used in the Ghettos as a reference to successful resistance: “Only one thing remains for us: to organize collective resistance in the ghetto, at any cost; to consider the ghetto our Musa Dagh, to write a proud chapter of Jewish Bialystok and our movement into history” noted Tannenbaum. Copies of the book were said to have been "passed from hand to hand" among the ghetto's defenders who likened their situation to that of the Armenians'. According to extensive statistical records kept by Herman Kruk at the Vilna ghetto library, this book was the most popular among ghetto readership, as is recounted in memoirs by survivors who worked at the library.
Musa Dagh has often been compared to the resistance in the Jewish ghettos during the Second World War, one of those, the ghetto of Bialystok found itself in the same situation as Musa Dagh when in February 1943, Mordecai Tannenbaum, an “inmate” of the Vilna ghetto was sent with others to organize Bialystok's resistance. The record of one of the meetings organizing the revolt, suggests that the novel was often used in the Ghettos as a reference to successful resistance: “Only one thing remains for us: to organize collective resistance in the ghetto, at any cost; to consider the ghetto our Musa Dagh, to write a proud chapter of Jewish Bialystok and our movement into history” noted Tannenbaum. Copies of the book were said to have been "passed from hand to hand" among the ghetto's defenders who likened their situation to that of the Armenians'. According to extensive statistical records kept by Herman Kruk at the Vilna ghetto library, this book was the most popular among ghetto readership, as is recounted in memoirs by survivors who worked at the library.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
The Castle - Franz Kafka
The Castle is a novel by Franz Kafka. In it a protagonist, known only as K., struggles to gain access to the mysterious authorities of a castle who govern the village where he wants to work as a land surveyor. Kafka died before finishing the work, but suggested it would end with the Land Surveyor dying in the village; the castle notifying him on his death bed that his "legal claim to live in the village was not valid, yet, taking certain auxiliary circumstances into account, he was permitted to live and work there". Dark and at times surreal, The Castle is about alienation, bureaucracy, and the seemingly endless frustrations of man's attempts to stand against the system.
The title, Das Schloß, may be translated as "the castle" or "the lock". It is also similar to Der Schluß (close or end).[1] The castle is locked and closed to K and the townspeople; neither can gain access.
The title, Das Schloß, may be translated as "the castle" or "the lock". It is also similar to Der Schluß (close or end).[1] The castle is locked and closed to K and the townspeople; neither can gain access.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), by Milan Kundera, is a philosophic novel about a man and his two women and their lives in the Prague Spring of the Czechoslovak Communist period in 1968. Although written in 1982, the novel was not published until two years later, in France; the Czech: Nesnesitelná lehkost bytí and French: l'Insoutenable légèreté de l'être titles are the more common worldwide.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being catalogues Prague in 1968, the artistic and intellectual life of Czech society during the Communist period, from the Prague Spring to the USSR’s August 1968 invasion and its aftermath, and until 1984. The characters are Tomáš, a successful surgeon; his wife Tereza, a photographer anguished by his infidelities; Sabina, a free-spirit artist, who is Tomáš’s lover; and the secondary characters Franz, the Swiss university professor lover of Sabina; and Simon, Tomáš’s estranged son from an earlier marriage.
Challenging Friedrich Nietzsche’s concept of eternal recurrence (the universe and its events have already occurred and will recur ad infinitum), the story’s thematic meditations posit the alternative that each person has only one life to live, and that which occurs in that life, occurs only once shall never occur again — thus the “lightness” of being; whereas eternal recurrence is the “heaviness” threatening the meaning of said life.
The German expression Einmal ist keinmal encapsulates “lightness” so: “what happens but once, might as well not have happened at all. If we have only one life to live, we might as well not have lived at all”; if concluded logically, life ultimately is insignificant. Hence, because decisions do not matter, they are rendered light, because they do not cause personal suffering. Yet, simultaneously, the insignificance of decisions — our being — causes us great suffering, perceived as the unbearable lightness of being consequent to one’s awareness of life occurring once and never again; thus no one person’s actions are universally significant. Said insignificance is existentially unbearable, given that people want their lives to have transcendent meaning. As literary art, The Unbearable Lightness of Being is considered a modernist humanist novel and a post-modern novel of high narrative craft.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being catalogues Prague in 1968, the artistic and intellectual life of Czech society during the Communist period, from the Prague Spring to the USSR’s August 1968 invasion and its aftermath, and until 1984. The characters are Tomáš, a successful surgeon; his wife Tereza, a photographer anguished by his infidelities; Sabina, a free-spirit artist, who is Tomáš’s lover; and the secondary characters Franz, the Swiss university professor lover of Sabina; and Simon, Tomáš’s estranged son from an earlier marriage.
Challenging Friedrich Nietzsche’s concept of eternal recurrence (the universe and its events have already occurred and will recur ad infinitum), the story’s thematic meditations posit the alternative that each person has only one life to live, and that which occurs in that life, occurs only once shall never occur again — thus the “lightness” of being; whereas eternal recurrence is the “heaviness” threatening the meaning of said life.
The German expression Einmal ist keinmal encapsulates “lightness” so: “what happens but once, might as well not have happened at all. If we have only one life to live, we might as well not have lived at all”; if concluded logically, life ultimately is insignificant. Hence, because decisions do not matter, they are rendered light, because they do not cause personal suffering. Yet, simultaneously, the insignificance of decisions — our being — causes us great suffering, perceived as the unbearable lightness of being consequent to one’s awareness of life occurring once and never again; thus no one person’s actions are universally significant. Said insignificance is existentially unbearable, given that people want their lives to have transcendent meaning. As literary art, The Unbearable Lightness of Being is considered a modernist humanist novel and a post-modern novel of high narrative craft.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
The Little Prince / Le Petit Prince - Though ostensibly a children's book, The Little Prince makes several profound and idealistic observations about life and human nature. For example, Saint-Exupéry tells of a fox meeting the young prince as he exits the Sahara desert. The story's essence is contained in the lines uttered by the fox to the little prince: "On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux." ("It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.") Other key thematic messages are articulated by the fox, such as: "You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed" and "It is the time you have spent with your rose that makes your rose so important."
The Reader - Bernhard Schlink
The Reader (Der Vorleser) is a novel by German law professor and judge Bernhard Schlink. It deals with the difficulties which subsequent generations have in comprehending the Holocaust; specifically, whether a sense of its origins and magnitude can be adequately conveyed solely through written and oral media. This question is increasingly at the center of Holocaust literature in the late 20th and early 21st century, as the victims and witnesses of the Holocaust die and its living memory begins to fade.
Schlink's book was well received in his native country, and also in the United States, winning several awards. The novel was a departure from Schlink's usual detective novels. It became the first German novel to top The New York Times bestseller list. It has been translated into 37 languages and has been included in the curricula of college-level courses in Holocaust literature and German language and German literature. A 2008 film adaptation directed by Stephen Daldry was received with mixed reviews.
The novel's take on the Holocaust is doubly unusual among Holocaust fiction in that not only does it put historical distance between its narrative and the wartime period, it has as its main contact with those events a perpetrator instead of a victim.
Schlink's main theme is how his generation, and indeed all generations after the Third Reich, have struggled to come to terms with the crimes of the Nazis ("the past which brands us and with which we must live"). For his cohorts, there was the unique position of being blameless and the sense of duty to call to account their parents' generation - GENERATION ZERO
The New York Times: Arresting, philosophically elegant, morally complex. . . . Mr. Schlink tells his story with marvelous directness and simplicity.
Los Angeles Times: A formally beautiful, disturbing and finally morally devastating novel.
The New York Times Book Review: Moving, suggestive and ultimately hopeful. . . . [The Reader] leaps national boundaries and speaks straight to the heart.
Elle - Francine Prose, Haunting. . . . What Schlink does best, what makes this novel most memorable, are the small moments of highly charged eroticism.
Schlink's book was well received in his native country, and also in the United States, winning several awards. The novel was a departure from Schlink's usual detective novels. It became the first German novel to top The New York Times bestseller list. It has been translated into 37 languages and has been included in the curricula of college-level courses in Holocaust literature and German language and German literature. A 2008 film adaptation directed by Stephen Daldry was received with mixed reviews.
The novel's take on the Holocaust is doubly unusual among Holocaust fiction in that not only does it put historical distance between its narrative and the wartime period, it has as its main contact with those events a perpetrator instead of a victim.
Schlink's main theme is how his generation, and indeed all generations after the Third Reich, have struggled to come to terms with the crimes of the Nazis ("the past which brands us and with which we must live"). For his cohorts, there was the unique position of being blameless and the sense of duty to call to account their parents' generation - GENERATION ZERO
The New York Times: Arresting, philosophically elegant, morally complex. . . . Mr. Schlink tells his story with marvelous directness and simplicity.
Los Angeles Times: A formally beautiful, disturbing and finally morally devastating novel.
The New York Times Book Review: Moving, suggestive and ultimately hopeful. . . . [The Reader] leaps national boundaries and speaks straight to the heart.
Elle - Francine Prose, Haunting. . . . What Schlink does best, what makes this novel most memorable, are the small moments of highly charged eroticism.
Tannhaeuser - Richard Wagner
an opera in three acts, music and text by Richard Wagner, based on the two Germanic legends of Tannhäuser and the song contest at Wartburg. The story centres on the struggle between sacred and profane love, and redemption through love (a theme running through almost all Wagner's mature work).
The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
The Picture of Dorian Gray is the only published novel by Oscar Wilde, appearing as the lead story in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine on 20 June 1890. Wilde later revised this edition, making several alterations, and adding new chapters; the amended version was published by Ward, Lock, and Company in April 1891. The story is often mistitled The Portrait of Dorian Gray.
The novel tells of a young man named Dorian Gray, the subject of a painting by artist Basil Hallward. Basil is impressed by Dorian's beauty and becomes infatuated with him, believing his beauty is responsible for a new mode in his art. Talking in Basil's garden, Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton, a friend of Basil's, and becomes enthralled by Lord Henry's world view. Espousing a new hedonism, Lord Henry suggests the only things worth pursuing in life are beauty and fulfilment of the senses. Realising that one day his beauty will fade, Dorian cries out, expressing his desire to sell his soul to ensure the portrait Basil has painted would age rather than himself. Dorian's wish is fulfilled, plunging him into debauched acts. The portrait serves as a reminder of the effect each act has upon his soul, with each sin displayed as a disfigurement of his form, or through a sign of aging
The novel tells of a young man named Dorian Gray, the subject of a painting by artist Basil Hallward. Basil is impressed by Dorian's beauty and becomes infatuated with him, believing his beauty is responsible for a new mode in his art. Talking in Basil's garden, Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton, a friend of Basil's, and becomes enthralled by Lord Henry's world view. Espousing a new hedonism, Lord Henry suggests the only things worth pursuing in life are beauty and fulfilment of the senses. Realising that one day his beauty will fade, Dorian cries out, expressing his desire to sell his soul to ensure the portrait Basil has painted would age rather than himself. Dorian's wish is fulfilled, plunging him into debauched acts. The portrait serves as a reminder of the effect each act has upon his soul, with each sin displayed as a disfigurement of his form, or through a sign of aging
Oedipus on the Road - Henry Bauchau
In a novel of genius, Henry Bauchau gives us the unwritten chapter of the Oedipus story and joins an elite pantheon of those––Sophocles, Freud, Cocteau––who have brought the myth enduring significance.
Oedipeus on the Road is a unique, stunningly beautiful rendering of the journey that leads Oedipus from Thebes to Colonus––and from a world of exile to one of legend. This is the chapter that Sophocles never wrote, the redemptive passage of the fallen, blinded king to his final––this time glorious––encounter with destiny.
Bauchau finds Oedipus stranded outside the walls of his former palace, eye sockets and soul still bleeding, and leads him––along with his daughter Antigone and the seductive shepherd-bandit Clitus, whose loyalty to the pair probably has less to do with his allegiance to Oedipus than his intentions toward his daughter––through a geographical and spiritual landscape littered with the physical, artistic, and mental rites of passage that separate Oedipus from immortality.
Oedipus on the Roadis a triumph of erudition folded into a dazzling feat of textured and lyrical storytelling reminiscent of Mary Renault, Umberto Eco, or Roberto Calasso. It is also a richly layered modern novel, impressive for its light touch and deftness with character and plot.
Oedipeus on the Road is a unique, stunningly beautiful rendering of the journey that leads Oedipus from Thebes to Colonus––and from a world of exile to one of legend. This is the chapter that Sophocles never wrote, the redemptive passage of the fallen, blinded king to his final––this time glorious––encounter with destiny.
Bauchau finds Oedipus stranded outside the walls of his former palace, eye sockets and soul still bleeding, and leads him––along with his daughter Antigone and the seductive shepherd-bandit Clitus, whose loyalty to the pair probably has less to do with his allegiance to Oedipus than his intentions toward his daughter––through a geographical and spiritual landscape littered with the physical, artistic, and mental rites of passage that separate Oedipus from immortality.
Oedipus on the Roadis a triumph of erudition folded into a dazzling feat of textured and lyrical storytelling reminiscent of Mary Renault, Umberto Eco, or Roberto Calasso. It is also a richly layered modern novel, impressive for its light touch and deftness with character and plot.
The Girl Who Played with Fire
The Girl Who Played with Fire (original title in Swedish: "Flickan som lekte med elden") is the second novel in the million-selling Millennium Trilogy by Swedish writer Stieg Larsson. It was published posthumously in Swedish in 2006 and in English in January 2009.
The book features many of the characters that appeared in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, among them Lisbeth Salander, the "Girl" of the title and a social misfit hacker, and Mikael Blomkvist, a investigative journalist and publisher of Millennium magazine. The final book in Stieg Larsson's posthumously published Millennium trilogy, "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest", seals his status as a master storyteller
Mikael Blomkvist, publisher of Millennium magazine, has made his living exposing the crooked and corrupt practices of establishment Swedish figures. So when a young journalist approaches him with a meticulously researched thesis about sex trafficking in Sweden and those in high office who abuse underage girls, Blomkvist immediately throws himself into the investigation.
He’s had no contact with tattoed wild-child and computer hacker extraordinaire Lisbeth Salander since they risked their lives on a terrifying hunt for a serial killer last year (see The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). But unknown to Blomkvist, Salander has had contact with him – or at least, with his computer hard drive, which she has cloned and is monitoring from the vast new apartment she has bought with her fraudulently obtained fortune.
Repeatedly abused while young, Salander is a traumatized survivor of the care system in Sweden – but she’s no helpless victim. A punk avenging angel with boxing skills, a photographic memory and pathologically focussed on seeking out and punishing violent misogynists, Salander is drawn to the investigation on Blomkvist’s computer. So while Blomkvist and his fellow Millennium idealists research the sex industry according to the rules of good journalism, Salander – spurred on by the appalling case studies of teenage prostitution she finds on Blomkvists computer – takes matters into her own hands. She plots punishment for the traffickers, but before she can carry out her own brand of justice, she is accused of three murders, all connected to the sex trafficking exposé about to be published in Millennium.To avoid capture by the police, Salander vanishes. While the tabloids go wild at the idea of a “psychotic lesbian SM Satanist” on the run, Blomkvist tries despairingly to clear her name, though he can’t find her anywhere. When he does eventually make contact, it is to discover that Salander is more embroiled in his investigation than he could have thought possible. It turns out that for Salander, the trail of guilt leads shockingly close to home.
The book features many of the characters that appeared in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, among them Lisbeth Salander, the "Girl" of the title and a social misfit hacker, and Mikael Blomkvist, a investigative journalist and publisher of Millennium magazine. The final book in Stieg Larsson's posthumously published Millennium trilogy, "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest", seals his status as a master storyteller
Mikael Blomkvist, publisher of Millennium magazine, has made his living exposing the crooked and corrupt practices of establishment Swedish figures. So when a young journalist approaches him with a meticulously researched thesis about sex trafficking in Sweden and those in high office who abuse underage girls, Blomkvist immediately throws himself into the investigation.
He’s had no contact with tattoed wild-child and computer hacker extraordinaire Lisbeth Salander since they risked their lives on a terrifying hunt for a serial killer last year (see The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). But unknown to Blomkvist, Salander has had contact with him – or at least, with his computer hard drive, which she has cloned and is monitoring from the vast new apartment she has bought with her fraudulently obtained fortune.
Repeatedly abused while young, Salander is a traumatized survivor of the care system in Sweden – but she’s no helpless victim. A punk avenging angel with boxing skills, a photographic memory and pathologically focussed on seeking out and punishing violent misogynists, Salander is drawn to the investigation on Blomkvist’s computer. So while Blomkvist and his fellow Millennium idealists research the sex industry according to the rules of good journalism, Salander – spurred on by the appalling case studies of teenage prostitution she finds on Blomkvists computer – takes matters into her own hands. She plots punishment for the traffickers, but before she can carry out her own brand of justice, she is accused of three murders, all connected to the sex trafficking exposé about to be published in Millennium.To avoid capture by the police, Salander vanishes. While the tabloids go wild at the idea of a “psychotic lesbian SM Satanist” on the run, Blomkvist tries despairingly to clear her name, though he can’t find her anywhere. When he does eventually make contact, it is to discover that Salander is more embroiled in his investigation than he could have thought possible. It turns out that for Salander, the trail of guilt leads shockingly close to home.
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