Lists for my SE Asia trip:
Makes me laugh out loud several times. The story is fantastic but not too far off... But sadly, it's a bit like a "Burger King " King size menu when you're really, really hungry; It might even taste sweet and good, you might feel full at first, but after an hour, you'll feel hungry again... The ending is the weakest point - Sort of; "Ups, Maybe it's time to end this mess!"... But never mind, Shteyngart has soooo many bright ideas, great story line and a very sharp eye for the absurdities of both the Western and Russian world. All in all a great read if not expecting too much...
Looking forward to read his " The Russian debutante's Handbook"...
No matter how hard I tried to finish this book.... I never really succeeded...
Not as "shocking "as advertised, but still... Jones knows how to tell a good story.. And the setting of the Pacific island of Bougainville and how life is lived there, is completely new to me.... He has some great psychological insights!
The first book, I've read, from Bangladesh - Former East Pakistan. I did find it bit on the soppy side at times, in spite of the violent times it portrays.. ( The war of independence with West Pakistan) A topic, which I know nothing about!
Talking about spilling the beans... Gee, Does this guy have any old friends left? Wearisome at length and reads more like a faked CV In various moments of crisis, he only very superficially touches the subject of what he or anyone else might have felt and then only in worn out cliches
It leaves the reader to wonder about emotions at critical moments and is this guy actually capable of feeling anything at all...??? Maybe it's a culture thing? A case of the famous Welsh attitude in life; The Stiff upper-lip?????!!! Or maybe he's smoked so much, that he's catatonic? (",)
Set in seventeenth-century Persia, (Iran) about a young girl; Servant in her uncle's house.. she blossoms as a brilliant designer of rugs... I'm not finished yet and so far it's okay, but not fantastic...
I reread this small masterpiece, while in Cambodia... American Baptist missionaries, their lives and their demise in Belgian Congo, at the time of independence in the early '60's.
The minds and souls of a mother and her daughters (and a unforgiving husband and father playing at God) is being unveiled with the very distinctive voices of each women/girl. This book made me cry and smile in the company of strangers, which is no small feat! It's a brilliant achievement of a novel and I simply can't praise it enough...
-I'm certain, that I've read some more books, but cannot, for the life of me, remember which ones... So maybe they were not that memorable ?Anyway; Most (99,9%) of the time, reality was far more exiting and far out, than any imaginary, concocted tale could ever hope for......... Every night I went to bed; saturated and exhausted. All my senses having been bombarded, every conscious second... Oh, Now one of them is coming to me; "The mulberry Empire" by Philip Hensher: A historic novel about the British and the Russians in 1830's Afghanistan... A great canvas for telling a good story and it is a easily read book. I was quiet entertained for the duration. But not a memorable one, at all!
The only movie I saw in full, was: "There will be blood"
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
It now ranks in the top ten of my all time favourites... It had to be a interesting flick, to survive and actually keep our attention in the midst of the "Anti - enjoy your film" conditions in which we ( 5 of us) saw this; Our Finnish friend, bought the movie in China; The "The 10 top flicks of the moment" copied on one DVD for 2$ kinda deal...
We; Jemma & Gerry from Manchester, Big Finnish Markus ( The professional storyteller) and I sat in Tad Lo, Laos...
In a cafe/restaurant with a sign; Inviting you to bring own music or DVDs.... The restaurant, was a big open terrace affair with the choice of two kinds of settings; Either "the lounge" part- low tables with pillows for a Roman kind of dinner (Very popular around SE Asia, catering to the taste of cool, chill out cats from Europe) or a more Tirol'ish type of big, heavy dark wooden tables with ditto benches...
The owners were young and very nice; He was build like a barrel, a short barrel and local, she was the prettiest, dainty little porcelain doll from Vietnam... Her sister lived there too, to help out.. She was just as, over the top beautiful!
A daughter of 4-5 years, had her swing at the middle of the room and loved to run around in front of the rather big TV screen...
They finished their dinner, sitting at the table next to the screen, and all lights - lots of lights were kept on during business hours- incl. the blinking green,red and yellow light chain around the TV.
- The other customers were not in slightest interested in our choice for the evening, so they kept talking, rather loudly! We were under constant attack by mosquitoes and other unidentified flying objects, size of small aeroplanes.
No one really minded; we were riveted by the story unfolding on the screen... Not even a big-ish rat running across the DVD machine and thereby activating the on/off button and then having to wait for George to come back from ??(Who knows, it was pitch black outside) to put the film back on, could turn us off.... or out, as it turned out later... The guys ordered another BeerLao and I a Mango shake... Not even the horrible noise of a cheap blender could rock the boat...
We'd started a bit late, but we thought we'd be safe, as the sign by the entrance stated the closing time to be 23:00..in big, bold letters...
At 21:30, the hosts started to yawn very loudly and baby girl's usual shrieks were turned op a notch, to the threshold of pain... But we kept our cool and didn't let nothing disturb our concentration...Actually, that sounds rather rude, but the fact is; We only had eyes for the screen, and didn't really notice any of these goings on around us...
But at 22:00 hrs, Old George had enough and informed us; " That, the village chief had decreed; all lights out at 22:00!" - Said, he "was really sorry about us not being able to see the ending - But.... So sorry, but couldn't contradict the Chief! So very, sorry about us missing the last 20 min or so, too bad, but that how it is with the old chief, nothing could be done, if only George, himself, were in charge, he'd let us see it, but... so, so, so sorry..." We were flabbergasted, if you were standing outside, you'd see 4 persons walking backwards, with their mouths open, while trying to watch past his shoulder. One of them nodding and mumbling- "Never mind, never mind" Trying to prolong the act of paying the bill- and almost tripping over our own feet, not quiet believing that we would actually MISS THE ENDING!!
- He turned the TV off, turned off the lights and were probably in bed, before we even had gotten our Flip-flops on.. I almost tripped over a newly painted sign; George had made a big fat line crossing out 23:00 and changed it to 22:00 - So that's where he was at, while the house rat tried to help him out by turning the DVD off..
It took us two full days to seize the DVD back again, to finally, at long last, see the fantastic ending.... By then the guessing had become wild and far out.
The only thing of which, we were absolutely certain, was that it would end really bad... There will be blood.....And it did.......
Still don't know, what that movie is about, besides the obvious;
Ambition Vs Faith, both at their most pure, fanatical and single minded form -
Maybe there's a parallel to e.g.:
Or the mental but at times, very tangible "War of the worlds", which fundamentalists (East and West) are doing their damnest to keep going interminably. "War on Terror" could perhaps be narrowed down to Ambition Vs Faith, - Ambitiously trying to keep the leadership of free world of the righteous CONTRA the wrath of fanatical and righteous (Yep, there's that word again, despite the differences!) -men, claiming ownership of the universal truth/faith...
Or would this be over- simplifying a very complex matter and really not for kids?
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