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A Wild Sheep Chase - Haruki Murakami
This is actually a rehashed version of the book review I'd written for the magazine, Renaissance 21. So most of it'd sound familiar to ones who'd read the review back then. (And if you've not checked out the magazine, then do, now! It took many back-breaking hours before the computer and days of frantic phone calls, text messages and emails to bring it out.)
A Wild Sheep Chase was the first of Murakami that I read. And the reason I read it was because you couldn't move an inch in any direction without a dozen people waxing lyrical about Murakami and his writing, the cherry on the icing being a friend, VK, whose taste I can vouch for. And I'm only too happy that for a change I listened to people and picked the book up. The novel, set in Japan of the early 80s, does take its time to gain speed. The protagonist, an anonymous Japanese man, is tricked into a hunt for a particular and particularly mythical sheep, aided only by an old black and white photograph and an array of unusual characters; from his girlfriend with her magically seductive ears to a man dressed in a sheep costume. What comes off is a wonderful amalgamation of urban legends and more traditional myths.
Surely, this novel, like all other books of the magic realism genre, isn't for everyone. From elements of Shintoism to a post modern climax, this is a champion of its genre (I can talk like a real book reviewer! :'D). Translated from the original Japanese, 'A Wild Sheep Chase' is the second book of the 'Trilogy of The Rat' series. But it can be treated as a stand alone book too, which only made me want to read the other books in the series even more.
From the Japanese countryside in Hokkaido to the towering highrises of Tokyo, Murakami excells in his descriptions. Murakami writes lucid prose with the mark of an established writer who can afford to take his time building up the story. All thanks to translator Alfred Birnbaum for making the book read like English was the original language of the novel. Lauds to Murakami for making the storyline, otherwise seemingly outlandish in a three line synopsis, read like a masterpiece in the novel-form. Going with the flow of the words, even the climax seems possible in the world of the un-named narrator.
Despite its slow start, 'A Wild Sheep Chase' is a gripping read, staying true to its title to the last word. While the climax may leave some wondering about what just happened, it is not a disappointing read by any say. Read this one with no expectation of either the ordinary or the extraordinary. A tale of searching of more than one type, it's the perfect companion for a cold evening under the blankets.
A Wild Sheep Chase - Haruki Murakami
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| Isn't the photo giving an optical illusion or're my eyes finally going blind? |
This is actually a rehashed version of the book review I'd written for the magazine, Renaissance 21. So most of it'd sound familiar to ones who'd read the review back then. (And if you've not checked out the magazine, then do, now! It took many back-breaking hours before the computer and days of frantic phone calls, text messages and emails to bring it out.)
A Wild Sheep Chase was the first of Murakami that I read. And the reason I read it was because you couldn't move an inch in any direction without a dozen people waxing lyrical about Murakami and his writing, the cherry on the icing being a friend, VK, whose taste I can vouch for. And I'm only too happy that for a change I listened to people and picked the book up. The novel, set in Japan of the early 80s, does take its time to gain speed. The protagonist, an anonymous Japanese man, is tricked into a hunt for a particular and particularly mythical sheep, aided only by an old black and white photograph and an array of unusual characters; from his girlfriend with her magically seductive ears to a man dressed in a sheep costume. What comes off is a wonderful amalgamation of urban legends and more traditional myths.
From the Japanese countryside in Hokkaido to the towering highrises of Tokyo, Murakami excells in his descriptions. Murakami writes lucid prose with the mark of an established writer who can afford to take his time building up the story. All thanks to translator Alfred Birnbaum for making the book read like English was the original language of the novel. Lauds to Murakami for making the storyline, otherwise seemingly outlandish in a three line synopsis, read like a masterpiece in the novel-form. Going with the flow of the words, even the climax seems possible in the world of the un-named narrator.
Despite its slow start, 'A Wild Sheep Chase' is a gripping read, staying true to its title to the last word. While the climax may leave some wondering about what just happened, it is not a disappointing read by any say. Read this one with no expectation of either the ordinary or the extraordinary. A tale of searching of more than one type, it's the perfect companion for a cold evening under the blankets.
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V has started this blog where you write very, very, very short stories within or around 55 words on a particular theme for that day and mail them to him(vivek dot tejuja @gmail.com) and he puts them all up together, theme-wise. I'd say it's the Haiku of the prose online-world.
Reading these stories together, I come across as a monogamy-screwing, adulterous, relationship breaking bitch, don't I?
Following're the two stories I contributed, the former on the theme of 'Cooking' and the later on 'Monsoon'.
On their anniversary, he cut himself twice while cooking a surprise dinner for her. Tortelli di zucca. He knew her weakness for all things Italiano. She came as night fell and he brought in the ravioli. "We've to talk." The love affair ended when she left him for the neighbour. The neighbour was an Italian.
The rain had drenched her by the time she'd reached his apartment. He was not home, being still stuck in the traffic. She got out the spare key he'd given her. Drying herself, she looked for clothes in the closet. His were a few sizes too large for her. She settled for his wife's instead.
Reading these stories together, I come across as a monogamy-screwing, adulterous, relationship breaking bitch, don't I?
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This was the first book on psychology that I ever read and I remember it was in November 2011 when I picked it up from a second-hand bookshop in Pan Bazaar – my most favourite area in any city, i.e. after Police Bazaar in Shillong and M. G. Road in Bangalore. The book belonged to a H. Das/Dass/Dhas of Dibrugarh who had bought the book for Rs. 3.00 (good old cheap days, I bought the same copy almost 40 years after for Rs. 30). There’s also a seal of the Dibrugarh Library, so it came into the library’s possession too some time before coming to the second hand bookshop’s in Guwahati. The amount of history one second-hand book can’ve! Also, this book had been one of those few Out-Of-My-Comfort-Zone books for me. Definitely Out-Of-My-Comfort-Zone.
The Three Faces of Eve is the real life story of Chris Costner Sizemore, a woman from 50s South Carolina, USA, who was diagnosed with Multiple Personality Disorder, sometime now known as Dissociative Identity Disorder (hail Wikipedia). Her real identity was kept a secret from the public eye, from the book’s first publication in 1957 till 1975 and since my copy of the book is from ’61 (vintage!), she’s referred to as Eve White here, while the two other inhabitants of her mind and body’re called Eve Black and Jane. Eve White is a timid, hard working woman whose most defining role in her life is that of being a mother to her daughter, Bonnie. Her marriage is on the rocks and she worries for her daughter. After complaining of severe headaches and blackouts, she visits a psychiatrist, before whom Eve Black emerges and for the first time let’s her existence known, even though she claims to be existing alongside Eve White since childhood, without ever coming under anyone’s notice. Eve Black is the very anti-thesis of Eve White, a woman in sharp contrast to the later in her confident, flirtatious and frivolous nature. The psychiatrists believe her to be the manifestations of Eve White’s repressed feelings. Both the personalities’re thought to be imbalanced in their own ways, one overtly serious and maternal with her feelings, with no real love left for her husband and the other too frivolous than necessary, one who flirts with unknown and potentially dangerous men with subtle hints of ‘something more’, only to turn them down at the end. While Eve White has no recollection of what Eve Black does when she comes into dominance, she has to clear the many tight situations her twin leaves her in. Eve Black does not think of Eve White’s husband and daughter as her own and hates the restriction Eve White’s conventional life puts on her. After a few months, up to when Eve White has separated from her husband and is working and living independently, the third personality appears. She is Jane, the most well rounded personality of the three. Unlike the other two, she’s ‘born’ just when she appears before the psychiatrist for the first time. While Eve White can’t read Eve Black’s thoughts and access her memories, in turn Eve Black can’t do the same in Jane’s case, while Jane gets to know what the other two’re thinking. What later follows is how the three very different personalities cope with their very unique situation and ultimately who rises triumphant over the complete control of the mind and the body.
This is the first review of the Books of Exile series, books I read during my mini-make-belief exile in Guwahati. The reviews're in no particular order and I hope the publishers/authors of the books notice my reviews and send me gifts for pimping their books for free.
The Three Faces of Eve - Corbett H. Thigpen
and Hervey M. Cleckley
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| Didn't he've a fine handwriting? Was definitely NOT a doctor. |
This was the first book on psychology that I ever read and I remember it was in November 2011 when I picked it up from a second-hand bookshop in Pan Bazaar – my most favourite area in any city, i.e. after Police Bazaar in Shillong and M. G. Road in Bangalore. The book belonged to a H. Das/Dass/Dhas of Dibrugarh who had bought the book for Rs. 3.00 (good old cheap days, I bought the same copy almost 40 years after for Rs. 30). There’s also a seal of the Dibrugarh Library, so it came into the library’s possession too some time before coming to the second hand bookshop’s in Guwahati. The amount of history one second-hand book can’ve! Also, this book had been one of those few Out-Of-My-Comfort-Zone books for me. Definitely Out-Of-My-Comfort-Zone.
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| How did it travel all the way from Dibrugarh Library to a Guwahati second-hand bookshop? |
The Three Faces of Eve is the real life story of Chris Costner Sizemore, a woman from 50s South Carolina, USA, who was diagnosed with Multiple Personality Disorder, sometime now known as Dissociative Identity Disorder (hail Wikipedia). Her real identity was kept a secret from the public eye, from the book’s first publication in 1957 till 1975 and since my copy of the book is from ’61 (vintage!), she’s referred to as Eve White here, while the two other inhabitants of her mind and body’re called Eve Black and Jane. Eve White is a timid, hard working woman whose most defining role in her life is that of being a mother to her daughter, Bonnie. Her marriage is on the rocks and she worries for her daughter. After complaining of severe headaches and blackouts, she visits a psychiatrist, before whom Eve Black emerges and for the first time let’s her existence known, even though she claims to be existing alongside Eve White since childhood, without ever coming under anyone’s notice. Eve Black is the very anti-thesis of Eve White, a woman in sharp contrast to the later in her confident, flirtatious and frivolous nature. The psychiatrists believe her to be the manifestations of Eve White’s repressed feelings. Both the personalities’re thought to be imbalanced in their own ways, one overtly serious and maternal with her feelings, with no real love left for her husband and the other too frivolous than necessary, one who flirts with unknown and potentially dangerous men with subtle hints of ‘something more’, only to turn them down at the end. While Eve White has no recollection of what Eve Black does when she comes into dominance, she has to clear the many tight situations her twin leaves her in. Eve Black does not think of Eve White’s husband and daughter as her own and hates the restriction Eve White’s conventional life puts on her. After a few months, up to when Eve White has separated from her husband and is working and living independently, the third personality appears. She is Jane, the most well rounded personality of the three. Unlike the other two, she’s ‘born’ just when she appears before the psychiatrist for the first time. While Eve White can’t read Eve Black’s thoughts and access her memories, in turn Eve Black can’t do the same in Jane’s case, while Jane gets to know what the other two’re thinking. What later follows is how the three very different personalities cope with their very unique situation and ultimately who rises triumphant over the complete control of the mind and the body.
Sometimes, facts’re indeed scarier than
fiction and this true story is one such example. The book reads like a
technical psychological manual at times, but it’s the personal story of the
protagonists which keeps the interest going for the layman. Joanne Woodward won
her first Oscar for portraying the role of the Eves and Jane in the film adaption of the book, the first for an actress playing three roles in one
movie. What was absolutely funny in the book though was how the authors, who
were renowned psychiatrists themselves, sarcastically write off Freud and his
interpretation of Dreams, vis-a-vis the dreams Jane used to’ve. Among the gems
that Freud’s school of thinking gave birth to is the belief that every little
girl of under 5 thinks of herself as a castrated boy who’s forever thinking of sexual intercourse with
her father and how snakes in one’s dreams represent male genitals (that kind
of reduces the creepiness of a few of the creepy nightmares yours truly had to dreams
of pure comedy) and father issues, all of which the book prawns at the end. Not
a light read at all and DON’T READ THIS IF YOU’RE UNDER STRESS AND LOOKING FOR
A BOOK TO LIFT YOUR SPIRITS TO MULTICOLOURED RAINBOWS. It just won’t happen.
Other than that, a good introduction to psycho-talk literature.
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The move to Guwahati had been good for many things (bad for some), the best being the literary part. The months offered ample time to turn some pages and haunt many bookshops. I think I'd be starting a series of book reviews - Books of Exile - of books read when I was in, pretty much an exile. Also some movie reviews. I don't think I ever contributed so much ticket-money to the great Indian film theatre industry ever before than when I was faced with months of zero access to any TV or my computer. A few reviews from there. The laptop of one of my co-exilites conferred some great movie viewing moments too (merci bien J, you know who you're). And coupled with the many incomplete movie reviews drafts, I may well guess it'd be a reviewing overload. Ciao!
I'm obsessed with this song, Bang Bang by Italian origin, Egyptian born, French singer from the 70s, Dalida since I saw Les Amours Imaginaires a few days back. The sequence is from the same film, and all the slow motion is pretty sexy to my eyes. A review of the film'll be appearing soon.
I'm obsessed with this song, Bang Bang by Italian origin, Egyptian born, French singer from the 70s, Dalida since I saw Les Amours Imaginaires a few days back. The sequence is from the same film, and all the slow motion is pretty sexy to my eyes. A review of the film'll be appearing soon.
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Listening to this, all I can say is that it has been a long journey from Love Story, isn't it, Taylor?
