Living on Mars

After so much coffee, spaceships, Martian tea, Martian potatoes, physics, chemistry and botanics, I am finally done with you Martian by Andy Weir! They say the film is better, we'll just have to wait and see!

Reading now: Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

"When David meets the sensual Giovanni in a bohemian bar, he is swept into a passionate love affair. But his girlfriend's return to Paris destroys everything. Unable to admit to the truth, David pretends the liaison never happened - while Giovanni's life descends into tragedy.

United by the theme of love, the writings in the Great Loves series span over two thousand years and vastly different worlds. Readers will be introduced to love's endlessly fascinating possibilities and extremities: romantic love, platonic love, erotic love, gay love, virginal love, adulterous love, parental love, filial love, nostalgic love, unrequited love, illicit love, not to mention lost love, twisted and obsessional love." (text from the cover of Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin, Penguin Great Love, August, 2007)

Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin:

I told her that I had loved her once and I made myself believe it. But I wonder if I had. I was thinking, no doubt, of our nights in bed, of the peculiar innocence and confidence which will never come again which had made those nights so delightful, so unrelated to past, present, or anything to come, so unrelated, finally, to my life since it was not necessary for me to take any but the most mechanical responsibility for them.

Another book I've just finished this week is Giovanni's Room written by James Baldwin in 1956. It is a novel that focuses on the life of an American expatriate man, David, living in Paris and his feelings and frustrations in his life, particularly in his relationship with Giovanni, an Italian bartender he had met in a Parisian bar.

James Baldwin tended to write controversial novels, in which he explores different themes such as social alienation, homosexuality, race and class distinctions. Narrated in first person singular, the novel is deep and dark, making the reader feel David's emotions and passions.

Giovanni's room is about a man, David, who lives in Paris. He and his girlfriend Hella are at the point where they need to figure out whether they're going to get married or not. He proposes to her and instead of saying yes right away, she leaves him and goes to Spain. While she is gone, David meets an Italian man named Giovanni and they have an affair. This is not the first homosexual experience David had. He had one when he was younger and this caused a lot of problems in his life, he seems to be denying that part of himself.

The best part about this book is that it was published in the 1950's. The book stirred up a great deal of controversy when it was released. As an African American writer, Baldwin was already rebelling against social prejudices of his time. Now, by writing about his sexuality, Baldwin's publisher feared that he would even further alienate his audience/both black and white.

In Giovanni's Room, David feels ashamed of being gay. It's the 50's and his family and society are not ready to accept his sexual orientation, and neither is David. The fact that he is gay is obvious, yet he manages to trick himself over and over again until everything becomes public and he is forced to confront the truth. This is not a gay novel, it is a story about love and feeling, about loneliness, homelessness and the burden of our own choices. Most of all, it's a book about how really difficult it to live and enjoy freedom, without feeling always wrong and always in need of an escape. There is a passage that I liked very much: “Do you know how you feel?” (Giovanni asked David). And to this David answers: “I feel nothing now, nothing.” David's inability and unwillingness to be honest about his feelings undermine his relationship with others and ultimately leaves him profoundly alone.

The novel suggests more hopefully that the loss of innocence, if accepted, can be the beginning of a journey that leads to knowledge.

The story takes place as a flashback over the course of one evening in a rented house in the south of France before David will take the train back to Paris the next morning. Drinking by himself in the large, empty house and looking at the window, David recalls a statement from a friend named Jacques: “Nobody can stay in the Garden of Eden.” This is an idea which frames the novel and perhaps offers David one way to understand his life.

When the world comes to an end...the dystopian novel

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

"We slept in what had once been the gymnasium. The floor was of varnished wood, with stripes and circles painted on it, for the games that were formerly played there; the hoops for the basketball nets were still in place, though the nets were gone. A balcony ran around the room, for the spectators, and I thought I could smell, faintly like an afterimage, the pungent scent of sweat, shot through with the sweet taint of chewing gum and perfume from the watching girls, felt-skirted as I knew from pictures, later in miniskirts, then pants, then in one earring, spiky green-streaked hair. Dances would have been held there; the music lingered, a palimpsest of unheard sound, style upon style, an undercurrent of drums, a forlorn wail, garlands made of tissue-paper flowers, cardboard devils, a revolving ball of mirrors, powdering the dancers with a snow of light."

One of the latest books I have just finished reading is "The Handmaid' s Tale by Margaret Atwood. Since I did not have too much time to read it, I've downloaded the audio version and listened to it on my phone. The story is read by Joanna Davis, a British actress best known for her television work: Sense and Sensibility, Bleak House, or the 1995 BBC TV series Pride and Prejudice. Listening to Joanna Davis (one of my favorite actresses) added so much credibility to the novel. I've decided to read (listen to) this novel first because it is a first-person narrative (and I love this kind of books) and secondly because I am interested to read more about dystopian novels, after reading “Never Let Me Go” by Ishiguro.

This story if one the best examples of dystopian novels, similar to George Orwell's 1984, or Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Novels of this type present imagined worlds and societies that are not ideal, but instead are terrifying and restrictive. Atwood wrote this story in the mid 1980's after the elections of Ronald Reagan in the USA and Margaret Thatcher in Great Britain, during a period of conservative revival in the West, influenced by the so-called movement of religious conservatives who criticized what they thought were the excesses of the “sexual revolution” of the '60s and '70s.

In the novel Atwood explores the consequences of a reversal of women’s rights. In the new Republic of Gilead (former USA), a group of conservative religious extremists had taken power and a new society is founded on a “return to traditional values”.Women in Gilead are forbidden to vote, to read or write. It is a picture of a totalitarian society world undone by pollution and infertility.

It is the story of a handmaid named Offred (which means “of Fred”) who is the main narrator of the book. We never find out her real name but we have detailed descriptions of how she went from a partner (married to Luc) and mother to a surrogate, controlled and repressed by an extreme religious and patriarchal ruling elite. The handmaids are the class of women used solely for their reproductive functions.

What I have found very intriguing about this book, is the way the author makes use of biblical allusions and how she plays on the idea of basing a society's morality on the morality of the Bible. Gilead (coming from Genesis 31:21) is used in the Bible to refer to a mountain region east of the Jordan River. The handmaids were sent to the Rachel and Leah Re-education Center to train for the position of handmaid and it becomes clear that this Gileadean story of the handmaids comes from the story of Rachel and Leah found in Genesis 29:35. Rachel and Leah, the two wives of Jacob, give their maids to Jacob so can have more children through them. This biblical story is read by the husband to his wife and handmaid before they all engage in a strange fertility ritual (how ackward is that?)

So the book takes ideas from the religious right- that women should return to the home, that men are the rightful “head” of a household, that women shouldn't have access to birth control and that women’s right of an education and career are to blame for a declining birth rate and the corruption of society.

Offred serves the Commander and his wife Serena Joy (another symbolical name), a former gospel singer and an advocate for “traditional values”. Every month when she is near her menstrual cycle, she must have impersonal, wordless sex with the Commander, while Serena sits behind her, holding her hands. Offred's freedom is completely restricted. She can leave the house only on shopping trips and the Eyes (Gilead's Secret Police Force) watch her every move. Even her name consists of the word “of” followed by the name of the Commander. Another important detail about Offred is about her dress- she wears all the time a heavy red dress-a fact that denotes her rank in society.

The novel ends with an epilogue from 2195, after Gilead has fallen written by Professor Pieixoto. We find out that Offred managed to escape, but we are not given any details as to where she had gone or what she had done after her escape.

It is amazing how after more than twenty years after its publication there are elements of the story that have become true. The most obvious connection is with many issues regarding women's rights and religious fundamentalism that take place in the Middle East.

It was a heavy book, not a very pleasant one to read or listen to. It took me a while to get used to the narrative line. However, I strongly recommend it if you like dystopian novels and also because it is one of the fewest dystopian novels that actually depicts real life.

Reading now: "Life Before Man" by Margaret Atwood

"Life Before Man explores the lives of three people imprisoned by walls of their own construction and in thrall to the tragicomedy we call love.

Elizabeth, with her controlled sensuality and suppressed rage, has just lost her latest lover to suicide. Nate, her gentle, indecisive husband, is planning to leave her for Lesje, a perennial innocent who prefers dinosaurs to men. Hanging over them all is the ghost of Elizabeth's dead lover, and the dizzying threat of three lives careening inevitably towards the same climax." (text from the book cover of "Life Before Man" by Margaret Atwood, published by Vintage Books, 1996, 320 pages).

Waiting. Like it or not, it's a skill all spies have to master eventually

The Winter Palace by Eva Stachniak

"The spies you learn about are either those who get exposed or those who reveal themselves. The first have been foolish enough to leave a trail of words behind; the second have reasons of their own. Perhaps they wish to confess there is nothing else they have but the arid memories of their own importance. Or perhaps they wish to warn."

Eva Stachniak is a Polish writer who has been living in Canada since 1981. Her debut novel Necessary Lies published in 2000 won the Canada First Novel Award. Most of her novels are based on historical fiction.

The Winter Palace is a novel set in the mid 18th century Russia, mostly Saint Petesburgh. What makes this novel unique is its different perspective. The story is told by Varvara, a young Polish woman who rises to influence in the Russian Court of Thsarina Elizabeth as a spy. Varvara is the daughter of a bookbinder, who moves to Russia and restores a volume of prayers for Elizabeth, the future Empress of Russia. When Varvara’s parents die, she becomes a “ward of the Crown.” At first, she is set in the Imperial Wardrobe where she is cold, abused , hungry and lonely. Wandering the palace at night, she met Count Bestzhev, the Chancellor of Russia and he teaches her to become a spy. Thus, Varvara becomes very much involved in Palace and Court life: she meets the Empress Elizabeth and report sto both her and the Chancellor. Elizabeth has vowed to rule alone, planning to make her sister’s orphaned son Peter, the Crown Prince. She arranges his marriage with Princess Sophie, who later becomes Catherine. Catherine arrives at Court at the age of 14, a German Princess who becomes the Grand Duchess Catherine Alexeyevna. There are lots of affairs, marriages, crimes, sadness and plotting in the Court life where Catherine struggles to find her place. I did not know much about Catherine’s life before she was crowned Empress, so I really enjoyed learning about her trials and small triumphs at Court.

All along the way, Varvara becomes conflicted oveer her dulie as she finds herself truly liking the naive Grand Duchess and instead of helping the Empress, she begins to help Catherine become a power player in the Russian Court. While the story told is powerful and entracing, I found that it was more about Varvara and her life than about Catherine. In the novel, Catherine becomes a side note. We see Catherine change from a frightened, lovely young woman to a confident manipulator of her surroundings. However, all thoughts and emotions are Varvara’s. For seven years, after she displeases the Empress and is forcefully married off to one of the Court soldiers (Egor), Varvara is banished from the Court and the novel focuses on her time spent with her husband and daughter. At such, we hear about the actions of Catherine, who is supposedly meant to be the main thrust of the novel, from tertiary sources-letters, reports, rumors-passed on to Varvara. If this is a book about Catherine, why is Varvara the one we sympathize with, suffer with, ride along with? Shouldn’t it be Catherine? Maybe the book should have been entitled A Novel set in the Court of Catherine the Great.

Reading right now: "The Winter Palace" by Eva Stachniak

"When Vavara, a young Polish orphan, arrives at the glittering, dangerous court of the Empress Elizabeth in St Petersburg, she is schooled in skills ranging from lock-picking to love-making, learning above all else to stay silent - and listen.

Then Sophie, a vulnerable young princess, arrives from Prussia as a prospective bride for the Empress's heir. Set to spy on her, Vavara soon becomes her friend and confidante, and helps her navigate the illicit liaisons and the treacherous shifting allegiances of the court. But Sophie's destiny is to become the notorious Catherine the Great. Are her ambitions more lofty and far-reaching than anyone suspected, and will she stop at nothing to achieve absolute power?"
(text from the book cover "The Winter Palace" by Eva Stachniak, published by Black Swan, 2012, 512 pages.)

Fragments from "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn

"When I think of my wife, I always think of her head. The shape of

it, to begin with. The very first time I saw her, it was the back of

the head I saw, and there was something lovely about it, the angles

of it. Like a shiny, hard corn kernel or a riverbed fossil. She had

what the Victorians would call a finely shaped head. You could

imagine the skull quite easily.

I’d know her head anywhere.

And what’s inside it. I think of that, too: her mind. Her brain, all

those coils, and her thoughts shuttling through those coils like fast,

frantic centipedes. Like a child, I picture opening her skull,

unspooling her brain and sifting through it, trying to catch and pin

down her thoughts. What are you thinking, Amy? The question

I’ve asked most often during our marriage, if not out loud, if not to

the person who could answer. I suppose these questions

stormcloud over every marriage: What are you thinking? How are

you feeling? Who are you? What have we done to each other? What will we do?"

 

 

"‘Treasure hunt,’ I said.

My wife loved games, mostly mind games, but also actual games of

amusement, and for our anniversary she always set up an

elaborate treasure hunt, with each clue leading to the hiding place

of the next clue until I reached the end, and my present. It was

what her dad always did for her mom on their anniversary, and

don’t think I don’t see the gender roles here, that I don’t get the

hint. But I did not grow up in Amy’s household, I grew up in mine,

and the last present I remember my dad giving my mom was an

iron, set on the kitchen counter, no wrapping paper."

 

 

 

"I am fat with love! Husky with ardor! Morbidly obese with

devotion! A happy, busy bumblebee of marital enthusiasm. I

positively hum around him, fussing and fixing. I have become a

strange thing. I have become a wife. I find myself steering the ship

of conversations – bulkily, unnaturally – just so I can say his

name aloud. I have become a wife, I have become a bore, I have

been asked to forfeit my Independent Young Feminist card. I don’t

care. I balance his checkbook, I trim his hair. I’ve gotten so retro,

at one point I will probably use the word pocketbook, shuffling out

the door in my swingy tweed coat, my lips painted red, on the way

to the beauty parlor. Nothing bothers me. Everything seems like it

will turn out fine, every bother transformed into an amusing story

to be told over dinner. So I killed a hobo today, honey … hahahaha!

Ah, we have fun!"

 

"It is our one-year anniversary and I am fat with love, even though

people kept telling and telling us the first year was going to be so

hard, as if we were naive children marching off to war. It wasn’t

hard. We are meant to be married. It is our one-year anniversary,

and Nick is leaving work at lunchtime; my treasure hunt awaits

him. The clues are all about us, about the past year together:

Whenever my sweet hubby gets a cold

It is this dish that will soon be sold."

 

photo source:http://www.cineticstudios.com/blog/2014/10/finding-gone-girl-a-technical-breakdown.html

Where does love begin and where does it end?

Where does love begin and where does it end? "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flyn

The perfect couple: Amy and Nick have been married for five years. So far, so good. Yet, there is not much harmony left. Then, all of a sudden Amy is missing on their 5th Wedding Anniversary. From here, more surprising and devious plot develops, cleverly put together by the writer.

This is a book about love and marriage and at the same time a thriller. However, not a conventional one, if I think about the ending of the novel, which I totally loved. There are surprising developments, uncoventional truths, we get manipulated and lied by both protagonists.

In spite of its length (more than 600 pages), it was hard to put down. The novel is made up of twho parts. The first part contains two voices, two points of view. The book begins with Amy's disappearance, and her diary entries. Then chapters alternate between Nick's narration and Amy's diary, dating back from the day the two first met years before, and gradually arriving at present.

The second half becomes more like a psychological crime thriller. It made me question what I know about the characters, their lives and secrets. Everyone is unreliable and everything is questionable. The surprises and twists kept me (as a reader) guessing up until the final page and my first thought upon finishing the novel was that I wanted to read it a second time.

It is definitely a book I recommend.

 

 

Something about Gillian Flyn: It is the first time I discover Gillian Flyn, the author. She is an American writer and television critics, born is Kansas City, Missouri. In 1989, she received a degree in English and Journalism. She also wrote two other novels: Sharp Objects (2006) and Dark Places (2009).

(photos taken from http://gillian-flynn.com)

 

 

Reading now...

"Who are you?
What have we done to each other?

These are the questions Nick Dunne finds himself asking on the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary, when his wife Amy suddenly disappears. The police suspect Nick. Amy's friends reveal that she was afraid of him, that she kept secrets from him. He swears it isn't true. A police examination of his computer shows strange searches. He says they weren't made by him. And then there are the persistent calls on his mobile phone. So what really did happen to Nick's beautiful wife?

Biographical Notes

Gillian Flynn was the chief TV critic for ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY and now writes full-time. Her first novel SHARP OBJECTS was the winner of two CWA DAGGERS and was shortlisted for the GOLD DAGGER. Her latest novel, GONE GIRL, is a massive No.1 bestseller. The film adaptation of GONE GIRL, directed by David Fincher and starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike, won the Hollywood Film Award 2014." (Text from the book cover, "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flyn, published by W.&N. Publishing House)

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

"At night I would lie in bed and watch the show, how bees squeezed through the cracks of my bedroom wall and flew circles around the room (...)The way those bees flew, not even looking for a flower, just flying for the feel of the wind, split my heart down it seem. The bees came the summer of 1964, the summer I turned fourteen and my life went spinning off into a whole new orbit, and I mean whole new orbit. Looking back on it now, I want to say the bees were sent to me."

(The Secret Life of Bees, Chapter 1)

The Secret Life of Bees draws on Kidd's personal experience as a child growing up in the segregated South and on American history. Even though slavery was outlawed in the USA in 1865, several laws known as the Jim Crow Laws were enacted to limit the civil liberties of the newly blacks in the American South. These laws ensured that blacks were treated as second-class citizens. Under Jim Crow, blacks and white were forced to attend separate schools, were not allowed to get married, were not able to use the same library books, etc.

It is a truly charming book, wonderfully written, and heart-moving. The main character is Lily, a motherless teenager who has been brought up by her bitter and angry father, T. Ray. Lily's journey to find something or someone, to answer the questions and fill the gap that her mother'death has left within her takes her to a mesmerizing place in the American South (Tiburon).

The descriptions and beautiful, you could even smell the honey, hear the bees and feel the heat. The characters are full and August Boatwright is one I wish I knew in real life. Lily's thoughts and her anguish are written so well I was reading through tears. It is a moving story, uplifting, full of heart and inspiration. The casual references to racial attitudes in South Carolina in 1964 are shocking and the unique beekeeping sisters she finishes up with, stay with you and haunt you long after you finish the book.

Reading about bees and not only

"Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted black stand-in-mother, Rosaleen, insults three of the deepest racist in town, Lily decides to spring them both free. They escape to Tiburon, South Carolina-a town that holds the secret to her mother's past. Taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeping sisters, Lily is introduced to their mesmerizing world of bees and honey, and the Black Madonna. This is a remarkable novel about devine female power, a story that women will share and pass to their daughters for years to come." (Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees, Penguin Books, 2002)

Different levels of life

"Every love story is a potential grief story. You put together two people who have not been put together before. Sometimes it works, and sometimes new is made, and the world is changed. Then, at some point, sooner or later, for this reason or that, one of them is taken away. And what is taken away is greater than the sum of what was there. This may not be mathematically possible; but it is emotinally possible." (Levels of life)

"Levels of Life" is a heartbreaking personal meditation on the ceaseless grief of an affectionate and devoted husband (Julian Barnes) upon the sudden death of his wife (Pat Kavannagh). It is also a book of linked narrative-a historical essay on ballooning and photography, etc. It is not until halfway through the book that J. Barnes introduces his own story (The Loss of Depth). In 2008, after an illness of five weeks, Julian's wife Pat dies leaving him a widower at the age of sixty-two. The novel is a sharing of his experience of grief and mourning.

It is not an easy-reading book. I must confess I had to restart reading the first chapter a few times. After reading it, I admit I found myself in front of two different stories: the first two chapters represent the first story and the last one the center of the novel. This novel touches on aspects of grief that most of us will have faced at some time or are still going through. Each chapter is a metaphor in itself.

At first glance the stories seem loosely linked. However, reading the beginning of each chapter we find a linking pattern: (1):"You put together two things that have not been put together before and the world is changed."(2)"You put together two things that have not been put together before; and sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't." (3) "You put together two people who have not been put together before. Sometimes it works, and sometimes new is made and the world is changed." Barnes is interested in how things are put together and what happens when they are apart.

Time to have some tea with Jane Austen

"No coffee, I thank you, for me/never take coffee.-A little tea if you please, sir, by and bye,-no hurry-Oh!here it comes. Every thing so good!" (Miss Bates in Emma)

Since I am a Jane Austen fan I wanted to begin my New Year reading list with a book about her. Thus, Tea With Jane Austen by Kim Wilson became the first book I read for 2015. It is quick and fun reading. It is also a portrayl of Austen and her era (the Regency), of how she acquired her tea, what type of tea, how she served her tea...This book has everything you need to know about tea: tea in the morning, in the afteroon, and in the evening, at tea parties, balls, and so on. I particulary enjoyed reading extracts from Jane's novels and letters to her sister Cassandra.

This book has recipes of the time for cakes, biscuits and drinks. However,  I would not classify it as a recipe book. I have learned lots if interesting things about the history of tea. Did you know that coffee appeared first before tea in England? But since tea had become a more fashionable drink of high society and royalty, coffee was soon forgotten. In Jane's time, tea was a valuable commodity and was kept under lock and key. The preparation of the tea was made by the lady of the house. In the Austen household Jane was the keeper of the keys to the tea chest.

Another thing I liked about this book was the type of paper used and the illustrations included.

So, it's time to sit down with one of your favorite Jane Austen's novels and a cup of tea! Enjoy it!