"Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn

Well... it's been a long while since any of us posted on this blog. Guess life caught up with us!

In any case, it took convalescence and a night of sleepless tossing in bed (on account of the coughing) when it suddenly came to me that maybe... I should try to blog something here in our long forgotten blog.

So here it goes.

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"Gone Girl" was something I first across as a book, didn't find it interesting on account of the introduction at the back of the book, but later caught in the cinemas, and decided to pick up on the book on my Kindle one day. The movie adaptation was intriguing enough to make me think, well, maybe the book had more to offer, given the typical constraints in a movie length which had to keep the audience going.

The plot synopsis can be found courtesy of Good Reads. The story is told from both the perspective of husband (Nick Dunne) and wife (Amy Elliott), criss-crossing across events.

I would classify Gone Girl as pop fiction (which was why it didn't interest me at that time because I thought it was your typical husband wakes up to find wife gone story), and even after reading the book, I still do.

[Alert: spoiler ahead]

Having said that, I have a more nuanced reaction to it now, seeing it as a cynical reflection on relationships and how they play out when a couple's relationship, which to me is always private and rarely understood by outsiders, is trotted out and dissected in the public glare. I do not know if the author's intent was to villanise Amy and casting Nick as the poor victim, but my personal opinion is there are no good guys in this story.  Both Nick and Amy used public, and social media, and their stereotypes to their respective advantage as they played their dangerous game of mental chess to outwit each other (oops, spoiler, Amy didn't die).  Amy played up her role of loving but abused wife, whilst Nick displayed newfound media manipulation tactics in his portrayal of a repentant husband who had strayed and is living in regret.

Having the story told from intersecting perspectives and from the first person level really added a level of intimacy to the story.

The textbook ending of a reunited couple left me cold.  Not "cold" in the classic sense of disappointment but "disturbed", by the glue that ultimately binds a couple's relationship.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10 on the geek scale

"Nobody" by Creston Mapes

That I chose a book review over studying for my Spanish placement test, and a book that I finished last weekend and not the one I just finished at that, is very telling of two things.  Namely, I am procrastinating the reunion with my Spanish study, and I'm patently not too impressed by the book I just read (being Henning Mankell's "The Man from Beijing").

I read "Nobody" from my Kindle e-Reader in one sitting.  I had this book in my Kindle library for the longest time (because it was free when I came across the book so I downloaded i)t, but somehow never got around to opening it until last weekend.  Set in Las Vegas, the story's told from the perspective of this reporter whose impulsive act of rifling through a murdered man's pockets ended up getting him into hot soup, but also eventually finding God, faith and love.  The murdered man by the way turns out to be this really rich man who lost his wife in a tragic plane accident, questions his faith and left a church and wound up in Las Vegas, determining that the best way to be with God is to seek to bring those who are far from it into the faith.

Not being particularly religious myself, I thought the book went rather heavy with the elements of being a good Christian that I was comfortable with.  But setting that aside, I did think Holte's (the murdered man) character had good in him, to the point that the poem that was chosen to start the book had particular reasonance.  If you are interested in reading the poem, it's "I stand at the Door" by Sam Shoemaker, which is available to read on the W3 here. 

I'm not sure why, despite my earlier professed discomfort, this book is still stuck in my mind.  Maybe because I always had a latent curiousity about religion and faith, though not in the way of wanting to follow any particular religion, but more from the perspective of being an outsider, of how faith can be such a powerful and uplifting tenet for many people.  So while the story, which is only OK for me, did not make me go "wow", some of the themes interwoven in the story throughout is still hovering at the back of my mind.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

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"Sept Jours Pour Une Eternité" by Marc Levy

Bookwormsupergeeks is still alive...right?!  I don't think the lot of us ever stopped reading, but life probably caught up with us, and we have been ignoring thinking about the stuff we read, or more accurately putting down our thoughts down on paper.

Maybe 2013 will be the revival of this blog?  I don't know if this will happen myself, but anyway it never hurts to try.

It's a bit of a cheat, but I actually read "Sept Jours Pour Une Eternité" in the close of 2012.  It was one of the books I bought in a bookshop in Bern during my February work trip, but I only got around to starting it when I went to Phuket. 

This is my second book by Marc Levy, and I was actually hesitating between this and another title (also by Levy) in the bookshop, but eventually I went with this because the introduction to the story caught my interest.

The storyline is simple.  Aghast with the way things are going on on earth, the Devil and God agreed on a seven-day challenge in which each will send their best agents to do what they do best, i.e., do good (for God's side) or do evil (patently batting for the Devil).  In seven-days, the winner will be decided and the loser will relinquish all rights to convert humanity.  What both never counted on was when both agents met each other and fell in love....

I had fun reading this story even though some parts were more heavy going than others due to sheer laziness on my part not to consult the dictionary for some of the French words that I didn't understand.  At heart this is a love story with, well, supernatural elements.  Though I did think that Lucas' abilities seem to be more "out of this world" compared to Zofia's, which seemed to focus mainly on how much of a good Samaritan she was.  The showdown between the Devil and God was rather funny too, with both of them manifesting ill temper for the way things have turned out.

The only gripe I have would be the abrupt ending to the story.  I wouldn't tell you what happened, but it did provoked feelings of being ill-used by the author, after spending time reading the story, and for the story to just end...like...that.

Book rating: 3 out of 5 stars

"Carry on, Jeeves" by P.G. Wodehouse

The thing about the recent spate of irregular sleep is, it affords an excellent opportunity to catch up on reading. I finished the two books I was reading concurrently, being Terry Pratchett's "The Last Hero" and Wodehouse's "Carry on, Jeeves", the latter a birthday present from Ju and G. I won't review Pratchett, not because it's not a great book, but because this is the second time I'm reading it, and reviewing it didn't seem quite right.

This being my first Jeeves book, I found myself laughing aloud quite often at Jeeves' presumptuous attitude, and how Wooster's ridiculous attempts to assert himself always fail. To say that it is a marvelous inversion of the classic master and servant relationship would not be remiss, I think. It's humourous light reading, and Wodehouse's touch of Brit humour is really quite endearing. Thanks G and Ju for introducing yet another good author.

Was reading the last few stories yesterday on the bed, and sis was beside me. I was regaling her with choice bits from the story and she was laughing along. Then she started on her perennial quest to introduce me to manga, which has many good stories running along similar lines. Was wondering if I should give it a try: after all, I became a convert of graphic novels too, didn't I, even to the pater's derision of "you actually read graphic novels?"

Rating: 4 out of 5

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

After friendly jibes from my friends, especially Ju-Lyn, from time to time, I thought it was time to submit a review :) I've heard about this book from Gary and Lay Suan, the other 2 (more regular) contributors to this blog, but didn't get a chance to read it. That is, until recently when I got it as a Christmas present, courtesy of Ju-Lyn and Gary.

I won't say I got hooked right from the start, but the fact that Death is the narrator makes me wonder how the story will unfold, and I've been reading this almost every night. Anyways, the story tells of a German girl called Liesel Meminger in Germany during World War II. She lost her brother quite early on and her mother disappeared after she was put in the foster care of the Hubermanns. To get back at fate for all the losses that she suffered, she became a book thief.

To be frank, I'm not done with the book. But being a history student who specialised in European (and Chinese) history during my university days, I can imagine how it must be like for Liesel and the other characters in the book living in Germany then. And of course, it showed that there were decent Germans, in addition to those who ardently supported Hitler, not to mention countless others who died opposing him within and without Germany. The fact that her foster family sheltered a Jew, who is the son of Hans Hubermann's buddy during World War 1 who had saved his life, represents redemption. While the story doesn't talk about the war directly, you see its impact on the town, Molching, that Liesel lived in, such as the absolute obedience and worship of the Fuhrer and how this permeates into every aspect of life.

I guess I like the book, both for its innovative narration of events by Death, who is rather sentimental and human, and how it doesn't talk about war in a in-your-face way. But it paints a picture of a society being sucked into the depths of human darkness slowly but surely, but with pockets of hope and yearning for redemption.

Timoleon Vieta come home by Dan Rhodes

I'm back! Also after a 5 month hiatus coincidentally~
I partly blame my fellow supergeeks non-posts for my lack of posts, but also because I get so lazy over the weekends, I can't quite bring myself to write something that uses more than 5% of brain power.

Anyhoo, I just finished Timoleon Vieta come home the night before. This is my second Dan Rhodes book, the first being Little Hands Clapping.

Rhodes writes very well, he has a clean, concise style, almost like a children's-book way of writing but with much darker themes. TVCH is supposed to be a parody of the classic"Lassie come home"film, and while I can't remember what happened in Lassie, man, are the characters in TVCH tragic. There were instances where I would put down the book and go," Wah lau, that person is damn cham man."

All in all, still a good and easy read. 7 dog saliva-soaked biscuits.

"The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde

I'm back! After a hiatus of 5 months, I've finally gotten around to picking up book review blogging again.

The book I picked to break the dry spell is Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray". Always wondered about the book since I saw Gray's character appearing in a movie (forgot the title) and how the heroine eventually broke free of the evil Gray's clutches by exposing the actual picture of himself.

The plot can be simply summed up thus: a portrait painted by his artist friend awakens Gray to his own physical beauty and thus tempted, he made a wish that he could stay young forever whilst the portrait grew old. The portrait did, but the toil it took on Gray's own character (Wilde used "soul" but I thought it rather fanciful so I opted for the more staid "character") tainted it so that eventually the morally-corrupted Gray tried to destroy the canvas. In so doing he pierced the chimera of his own existence, and he died, but not before he was transformed back into the decrepit old man in the portrait. (O dear, have I gone and done a spoiler?)

One tidbit before I launch into the review: "The Portrait of Dorian Gray" was Wilde's first and only published novel.

I think if one were to do a literary criticism à la English Literature as taught in school, there are volumes one can devote to how Gray's portrait is the inner reflection of his soul, the references to the private and public self, how the portrait actually becomes a mirror of the social, cultural mores of the society then, etc. Even the saint-devil pairing of Hallward (the artist) and Lord Henry, who initiates Gray into the path of hedonism, is worthy of mention, for no two good friends can be more different, and have such different impact on Gray's life.

Wilde's bon mots are also something to treasure in this book, though they come fast and furious to the extent that I was quite inured to it by the end of the book.

All in all, a fascinating read, the first few chapters which saw me through six hours of transit at BKK airport, direction home bound.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

(P.S.: No image of the book can be found online, though it is not for lack of trying.)