Wiki of TCIOTDITN
[Unrelated to the geek review - I'm pretty darn irritated with Blogger and my inability to upload a picture successfully. Don't know if it's cos of singnet or whatever silly reasons but it's really getting on my nerves. Rargh.]
TCIOTDITN by Mark Haddon is one of those bestselling must-read books like The Life of Pi and The Kite Runner which I never quite got round to picking up. Well, in the recent Kino National Day sale, I did, which I'm glad for.
Christopher, the 15 year old main character, is autistic and the story is told from his perspective. Through this first person narrative, it opened up my eyes to how the mind of an autistic person works. And it is truly humbling. When we see individuals behaving strangely in public, we automatically keep a wide berth, and, more often than not, label them 'crazy' or 'disturbed'. But as I read how Christopher reacts to people and his environment, and conversely how they react to him, it made me sad to be reminded that our society treats people who are 'different' badly.
I laughed, and I cried reading TCIOTDITN - while the book had plenty of lighthearted moments, there were times when it was just heartbreaking. It truly is a contemporary must-read.
8.5 ninjadogs.
Sunday, 30 August 2009
Monday, 10 August 2009
After Dark by Haruki Murakami
Wiki of After Dark!After Dark is a nice and slim novel, spanning 200 pages of which I completed in about 2 and a half sittings. That's the beauty of Murakami, his stories are always very readable and time seems to fly by as you delve into each chapter.
After Dark is one of the more surreal stories I've read by Murakami. And while I got to the end in one piece, unlike Paprika where I experienced several brain farts along the way, I felt that there were certain parts of After Dark that whooshed over my head. It's like a chef that took great pains to create a delicacy, he spent a lot of time combining the right ingredients, applying intricate cooking methods, and laying it out beautifully on a plate for my consumption. And all I did was pick it up, pop it into my mouth and go," Mmm! Nice!"
I do recommend the book for some nice light reading if you're on a plane or something, just don't expect to fully taste the metaphysical speculation and exploration of compassion and alienation if you're going to wolf it down like me.
7.5 out of 10 ninja nose pellets.
Saturday, 8 August 2009
"House of Sand and Fog" by Andre Dubus III
Plot synopsis by Wikipedia can be found here.
"House of Sand and Fog" (henceforth shortened to "HSF") is not one of the usual books that I will pick up on reading the introduction at the back cover, mainly because the introduction at the back's so blah, and gives no clue into the gripping storyline that had me tuning out everything but the book during the few days I sat reading the book in the express bus on the way to work.
My colleague was the one who highly recommended the book to me, telling me it was a good read. As I recall, we were discussing "Revolutionary Road" and I was raving about its storyline and we got to talking about other books, and somehow this came up.
The storyline, if you have read the plot synopsis by Wikipedia, is innocuous enough, but what I liked about HSF was how the character built up was cleverly interpersed with the plotline. Usually for novels, one tends to root for one side or the other, but HSF had me sympathising with both sides, and biting my nails (figuratively, of course!) as to how the tussle for the house would resolve itself.
The story is told from Behrani, the disposed Iranian Colonel who flees Iran to seek a better life for himself in America, and Kathy Nicolo, a recovering drug addict, whose house has been taken from her due to a mistake by the authorities. Behrani seizes the chance to better his life by buying the house at a low price, which starts the struggle for who has the rights to the house. The tussle drags in the whole Behrani family and Lester Burdon, a police officer.
I won't spoil the book by talking about the ending here because half the enjoyment of the book was wondering how this Gordian Knot would resolve itself. I confess I was still hoping for a happy ending, but really, as the book progresses, one really realises that things often have a way of evolving until it is all but out of control, and careening towards the one sure path of tragedy. And only when it is too late, did one realise that maintaining a stand actually costs so, so much.
How tragic human life can be, that only with hindsight is it 20/20. How apt the book title, literally "sand and fog".
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
(P.S.: No picture of the book, not for lack of trying. A search did not carry the version I read. :P)
"House of Sand and Fog" (henceforth shortened to "HSF") is not one of the usual books that I will pick up on reading the introduction at the back cover, mainly because the introduction at the back's so blah, and gives no clue into the gripping storyline that had me tuning out everything but the book during the few days I sat reading the book in the express bus on the way to work.
My colleague was the one who highly recommended the book to me, telling me it was a good read. As I recall, we were discussing "Revolutionary Road" and I was raving about its storyline and we got to talking about other books, and somehow this came up.
The storyline, if you have read the plot synopsis by Wikipedia, is innocuous enough, but what I liked about HSF was how the character built up was cleverly interpersed with the plotline. Usually for novels, one tends to root for one side or the other, but HSF had me sympathising with both sides, and biting my nails (figuratively, of course!) as to how the tussle for the house would resolve itself.
The story is told from Behrani, the disposed Iranian Colonel who flees Iran to seek a better life for himself in America, and Kathy Nicolo, a recovering drug addict, whose house has been taken from her due to a mistake by the authorities. Behrani seizes the chance to better his life by buying the house at a low price, which starts the struggle for who has the rights to the house. The tussle drags in the whole Behrani family and Lester Burdon, a police officer.
I won't spoil the book by talking about the ending here because half the enjoyment of the book was wondering how this Gordian Knot would resolve itself. I confess I was still hoping for a happy ending, but really, as the book progresses, one really realises that things often have a way of evolving until it is all but out of control, and careening towards the one sure path of tragedy. And only when it is too late, did one realise that maintaining a stand actually costs so, so much.
How tragic human life can be, that only with hindsight is it 20/20. How apt the book title, literally "sand and fog".
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
(P.S.: No picture of the book, not for lack of trying. A search did not carry the version I read. :P)
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