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.)

Flashman by George MacDonald Fraser

Flashman
Flashman's lady
Flashman and the mountain of light

I realise I like to start off with how I come across the books I reviewed. For me, I find that I have a rather random way of selecting books to read, not unlike how I choose music. At the store, I stumble around a lot, scan what's available, and pick up books at random. I read the back of the cover, and the punchy accolades from reputable sources that go: "Stupendous!...beautifully written!" before I make the decision to buy the book or put it back on the shelf.

It's not the best process, but it works for me somehow.

I came across the Flashman series that way - at AMK library, I was wandering the book stacks when this series of brownish worn out books caught my eye. I picked one up, looked at the cheesy cover illustration, and was about to dismiss it as B-grade fiction when I noticed an accolade on the bottom: 'If ever there was a time when I felt that watcher-of-the-skies-when-a-new-planet stuff, it was when I read the first Flashman' P.G. Wodehouse

That changed my opinion immediately, I mean here is one of my favourite, and quite possibly the funniest, authors saying that he likes this Flashman book! (I figured he does, although I still don't quite understand Wodehouse's sentence)

If you click on the wikis, you'll understand that the Flashman series is a fictional retelling of Harry Flashman, a rather slimy English hero in the 19th century. Slimy in the sense that he is a coward, a bully (to those weaker than him), and a whoremonger.

But after the initial discomfort of a story based on an antihero main character, I started to really enjoy reading the Flashman series as Fraser writes the stories based on real events and people. The notes provided at the back give additional historical information on the events described, and I'm fascinated by some of the colourful history of the British empire and the characters in that time. Through the first three books I've read, I've learnt about so many fascinating historical events: the disastrous Anglo-Afghan War, stubborn Borneo pirates, the cruelty of the Queen of Madagascar, and the ferocious First Anglo-Sikh War.

I'm pacing myself now (I just started on a new one), I don't want to finish this marvelous series so quickly.
8.5 out of 10 ninja stars.

World War Z by Max Brooks

Wiki zombie attack!

I've been eyeing World War Z on the shelves for some time now, before I took the plunge earlier this month. My initial thoughts were: "How can zombies make for interesting and thought-provoking reading?"

Well, these thoughts were banished once I got into the novel, which is told from short interviews of various survivors of the worldwide zombie war - these were interviews from soldiers, generals, politicians, guns-for-hire, your average joe, doctors, the list goes on.

And that's what made the story so realistic (to the point I had quite a few funky dreams of zombies). By telling the story as an oral history of the zombie war, Brooks manages to take zombies, which are (mostly) fictional and incredulous, and make them chillingly believable. As the interviewees recount their fears, their actions; the mass panics and sacrifices; how they survived; and how naive and inept governments worsened the crisis - I felt that this was not only the author's commentary on issues that face the world today, I could also imagine that people and governments would react that way should such a crisis occur.

7 out of 10 zombielicious brains.

"Revolutionary Road" by Richard Yates

I was first introduced to the "American Dream" theme as a student studying for my A'levels (yes, that's how long ago!). My prescribed reads were, "The Great Gatsby" and "Catcher in the Rye".

Then, I thought that I hated the genre/theme because I had to prepare for it as an exam. In dissecting the emptiness of the American dream, there was a sense that the American Dream was a chimera, and it inevitably led to desolation, loss and despair.

After school became a thing of the past, I picked up novels that carried the American Dream theme from time to time. I discovered that notwithstanding the absence of the exam mallet that figuratively hung above me, I still found such books a depressing read.

"Revolutionary Road" is no different, but I think it transcends the genre. That said, it is no less sad, in its ability to draw out the loneliness of the Wheelers, the tragedy that percolates through their everyday lives. It is my first time reading Yates, but I thought he did a fine job putting through a cast of characters that are all living in their own tragic worlds.

The Wheelers live a lie, one that started with April Wheeler saying how much she admired Frank and ended up in a tragedy of a botched abortion and death for April. Frank grew up believing that he is destined for bigger things but never daring to take the leap. Touched by April's tragedy he finally becomes the very person he abhors: a boring salaryman in pursuit of professional success.

I think the only character that is true to himself would be the Givings' son, the man deemed "mad" and confined in a psychiatric hospital. IMO I think he is the person that tore off the last veil of delusion in the Wheelers' life, sparking off the start of the tragedy.

Wiki on plot.

Geek rating: 4 out of 5

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

The Lost Symbol is the latest offering from Dan Brown, which I picked up cos my brother lent me the hardcover book. As hefty as the book is, the chapters are split into bite-sized morsels of 4-5 pages on average, which makes for easy reading.

I pondered whether my first post of 2010 should kick off with Dan Brown. I've read a lot more since I was first genuinely wowed by the Da Vinci Code years ago, and being exposed to an array of good writing, perhaps I feel that Dan Brown should be relegated to Christopher Pike - "just an early phase of my reading journey"

But I have to admit, he has a knack for writing an exciting thriller. He seems to write these stories like an action movie, and like any exciting action movie, you can't just turn it off when stuff is blowing up and the bad guy is going to kill the hot chick can you?
This time around though, the controversial facts and history bit, Brown's forte, was fairly boring. I found my eyes glazing over some paras as the characters turned into scientific/symbological/mystical encyclopedias.

Enjoyed it while the excitement lasted.
6.5 out of 10 mystical symbols.