The Gum Thief

Woo. This one has been in draft version for some time now. I actually finished The Gum Thief by Douglas Coupland during CNY. I was pretty much out of action that time due to a bad cough and cold so I had more time to catch up on some reading.

The Gum Thief is about the story of Roger, a middle-aged office supplies store worker, and Bethany, his young Goth co-worker who is having some sort of identity crisis. It's told in the form of diary entries, which Roger and Bethany exchange with each other. They drift by with the mundane tasks of stocking pens and paper in the store aisles, while writing to each other and discussing their thoughts on life, death and love. (They are not romantically involved, if you were wondering.) Roger shares with Bethany about the shit that has happened in his life, which is a way of self-reflection for him. And along the way Bethany fell in love with a boy, which turned out to be a bad mistake.

I was initially excited to get into Coupland's latest work since Jpod, but I'm rather disappointed with the book. I don't really know if it was because I was sick when I was reading it, but quite often I found my eyes glazing over the characters' philosophical musings, a hallmark of Coupland's writing. This time it seemed a little trite, a little stale, and a little too self-indulgent.

The back of the book describes The Gum Thief as a 'wise, witty, and unforgettable novel'. Unfortunately, the book tries to be wise and witty, but only ends up being forgettable.

3 out of 10 nerf ninja darts.

"The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini

This is my first time reading one of Hosseini's books, which by the way was a gift from a good university friend of mine. The book is about 2 boys growing up in Afghanistan in the 1970s; one the son of a rich man, the other the son of the rich man's servant. It's a beautiful crafted story set in a country that is in the process of being destroyed; first by the Russians and subsequently by the Talebans. It details how the 2 boys, Amir and Hassan, became like brothers as they grew up motherless and how they took part in kite-flying contests, with Hassan running after kites that were cut, hence the title. But more importantly, its a tale of betrayal by Amir, who though born of a noble and honourable man, had trouble living up to his father's strength of character. In the end, he let Hassan down and this caused him so much anguish that he lied to evict Hassan and his father from the household they had served for so many years, so that their presence would not weigh on his conscience. Amir and his father eventually fled to the US where he became a writer and married an Afghan lady. But a call from one of his father's old friends harkened him back to the land he grew up to fulfil a task that would afford him redemption for the wrong that he committed. Without giving the plot away, there are 2 kinds of wrongs; one of commission and the other of omission, and what Amir did was the latter.

I like the book for Hosseini writes beautifully, evoking emotions and detailing events with dexterity. Its quite amazing how he juxtaposes the idiosyncracies of the Afghan people with their courage and strength in weathering war and destruction. Its a funny yet thought-provoking book, asking hard questions about why some of us don't stand up for ourselves, let alone for others, and how every wrong exacts a price on your life that you'll have to pay, sooner or later. That unless you've the moral courage to face up to your wrongs, no matter how hideous they may be, you'll never be able to make peace with yourself. On the whole, its my best read this year so far, and I give it 4.5 out of 5. I can't wait to read Hosseini's "A Thousand Splendid Suns".

"Microserfs" by Douglas Coupland

Microserfs (link to Book Ninja's earlier posting on this book) is the second book I've read by Coupland. The first I read -- being JPod -- was a real hoot, a real laughter-a-page type of book. In comparaison, I found Microserfs darker in terms of mood.

The only word that currently comes to mind when I think about this book is "randomness". The story is told from the perspective of Daniel Underwood, or "Dan" as he is known by his fellow coders, as he records the events from his days working in Microsoft to when he and his group of friends venture out into the start-up land, and discover relationships as well as a way of balancing their work and personal life.

I didn't rate this book highly as I thought that at the end of the day, it stopped short of being a good read as it didn't leave me with any takeaways. Notwithstanding I think Microserfs remains an "ok" read because it explores the sub-culture of the geek in a fashion that is at times dark, but yet kinda funny. The book also attempts to broach themes like the relationship of technology and humans, how human life has evolved with the advent of technology.

I realise I haven't anything much to say about this book. Hmm...

Geek rating: 3 out of 5

An Unreadable: "Foucault's Pendulum" by Umberto Eco

My first chuck in this blog is ... (drum roll)... "Foucault's Pendulum" by Umberto Eco!

I picked up this book on Don's recommendation. Either I read it in the wrong frame of mind or it's really unreadable. Truth be told, the gist of the story as told from the cover of the book does not seem that bad. But it is deceptive, and having attempted to read it more than once, I have eventually decided to concede defeat and consign it to the "condemned" list.

Come to think of it, it's been a while since I have been so ill-disposed to a book. But hey, there's always a first time, I reckon.

Cheers for the Year Ahead

Wa, design for the mast-head of "Bookworm Supergeeks"!

One for the CNY, perhaps?

Regardless, Happy CNY to my fellow geeks and readers of this blog!

As my friend memorably says, "Huat ah!"

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami is a story about.......a man who loses his cat.
.
..
...
*scrunches face thinking how to continue*


....of cos it's not just about that. The unemployed Toru Okada, after losing his cat, starts to encounter all sorts of strange events and characters. His wife leaves him without warning. He meets a pair of spiritual medium sisters, who were originally asked to help find his cat but seem to have a mysterious reason for coming into his life. His neighbour, a girl in her late teens, will engage him on thoughts about death and life. He learns about the Japanese side of WWII in Manchuko, about how this soldier was trapped in a dried-up well for days...Okada then decides to climb into an abandoned well, to experience the same darkness and mull over why his wife left.

I think explaining The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is very much like explaining a particularly vivid dream you had. To you, you're enthralled at how real the dream was and the things that 'happened'. But to the listener, it sounds rather nonsensical.

The magic of the book is that the premise is pretty strange yet not unbelievable. Or maybe it doesn't matter. Because you get drawn into the souls of the characters, their struggle for identity, for meaning to life.

If someone were to ask me what The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle was about, I'd scrunch up my face again and crack my head on how to begin...but one thing's for sure, I really enjoyed the whole reading experience.
It was just like a very nice dream.

9 out of 10 ninja dream inducing smoke balls.

"Salmon Fishing in the Yemen" by Paul Torday

A whimsical read with some moments of light-hearted humour.

Dr. Alfred Jones is a fisheries scientist working for the government. He has been "forcefully" inducted into a project to introduce a salmon population in the dessert-like climate of Yemen. Initially skeptical and downright dismissive of the project, he eventually comes to believe in the creation of this miracle and finds a sense of inner peace and contentment that he never used to have, back before his involvement.

The story is told in various ways, from the "direct" perspective of Alfred, his diary, various accounts of interviews, letters written by various characters in the story and even selected email communications reproduced in its original form (complete with email addresses, signoffs et al).

Political satire underlies much of the book, in a world where the media are cast as newshounds/purveyors of "newsworthy" stories, and easily manipulated by politicians out to get good news published.

It is also a commentary (of sorts) on modern relationships. In Alfred and Mary's relationship, we see the dying embers of their marriage. Childless and each pursuing diverse careers, they spend much of time living apart, in 2 continents and 2 different worlds. In choosing to portray much of their interactions with each other via the email channel, Torday certainly meant it as a side commentary on modern relationships and the institution of family. In Harriet and Robert's inability to be together, it was the underlying sadness of what could have been but didn't, because they were separated by death and war.

In totality, Salmon Fishing is an easy read, if a bit disappointing in terms of its ending. I was kinda expecting a whimsical ending to the story, but surprisingly Torday chose to return to the cold hard world of reality in closing the book by depicting the whole Project as a failure. For this disappointing ending, I give it 3 stars out of 5.