Three Women

I should've posted these thoughts last month, March being women's month if I remember correctly. But time slipped from my grasp and I never got around to it until now. Then again, being a woman should be celebrated daily the same way that I think Earth Day should be everyday. Or something to that effect.

Today I bring you three women. Even four. Or more. But I'll stick with three women who are the main characters in the three books I'll be rambling about in today's pocket reviews.

The Patron Saint of Liars
Ann Patchett

First there's Rose. At a time where unwed mothers leave their houses for the safety of homes set up like that of St. Elizabeth's in Habit, Kentucky to cater to their needs; Rose, married and pregnant, left her husband without saying goodbye and ended up in the home as well, recreating a life she wanted to live, away from echoes of her past. How do I explain this? Rose is a strong yet stubborn woman. She married her husband because she thought he was the answered prayer for her good future. In the end she felt empty and devoid of feeling. When she found out she was pregnant she knew she couldn't live like that and even if her husband loved her, she knew she had to leave.

The book is divided into three basic stories: Rose, Son and Cecilia. In Rose's chapters, she doesn't ask for pity or understanding. She just did what she had to do, what she thinks as right, and obviously people got hurt. She left behind a mother who already lost a husband, and a husband who didn't know she was with child. And yet it was a choice that empowered her for the first time in her life. A choice she stuck with even as she gave birth to Cecilia and remarries again without even mentioning a single thing from her past. A choice that made her stronger and yet made her walled and defensive just the same. Still, it was a choice that, while unfair and hurtful, brought her into St. Elizabeth's and into the lives of the other women there. Not to mention Son, who needed her and who later married her.

I liked reading this book. I'll digress for a bit. I have a penchant for buying books by authors I haven't read yet but feel that I might enjoy them. This is the case for Ann Patchett. I've had Bel Canto in my shelves for so long I could practically hear it screaming "Read me already!" everytime I pass by the shelves. I also have The Magician's Assistant hidden somewhere here. This, I think, is her first book and I 'm glad I enjoyed reading it.

It is a story about healing, rather of whether we allow ourselves to heal. Juxtaposing Rose, Son and Cecilia's stories we see their choices affect the way they live their lives. Rose is the strongest of the three and yet at the same time, the weakest because if all else fails, she runs away. She never allowed herself to be touched by the love of those around her. She was only ever mindful of that one fact she considered as her bargain with God. That's why she'll never completely heal. She didn't allow herself that chance.

Oh and is that a spoiler? Sorry! Anyway, this is such a lovely story that span from the late 60's to the uh, early 80's, I think. If you were Rose, would you have stayed or ran away also when you realized that you weren't living the life you wanted to live? Rather, what would you have done differently if you were in her shoes?

The Mermaid Chair
Sue Monk Kidd

The word that comes to mind when I think of this book is lush. Define lush? According to the pocket Webster I have here, lush is "a habitual heavy drinker." Oh wait, I mean "having or covered with abundant growth." That's what I imagine when I think about Jessie's fictional island: I can see it clearly; a pier with a dog waiting for you to disembark, the monastery covered by trees and flowers, the quaint shop selling mermaid pictures and stuff, the smell of the sea, the sound of birds flying. Isn't it great to have an imagination that brings you to places such as this? And I tell you, Sue Monk Kidd imagined this place vividly.

But it's not just the place that is lush. I fell in love with the writing. It's also lush. But I'm not making sense now, am I?

It's easy enough to say that it's a story about a married woman, Jessie, falling in love with another man, a monk at that, at a very difficult time in her life. It is that, yes, and more. It's not a story condoning an affair but a story about being truthful to one's self, to one's feelings. And of breaking free. But let me summarize it somehow. Jessie leaves for the island of her childhood to be with her mother who, in a psychological episode, cut off her finger. There she met Brother Thomas, a monk contemplating whether or not to take his final vows. They needed each other at that point in their lives, in what Brother Thomas said as the two of them being both "damned and saved" by the affair.

It's not just Jessie's story though. It's a story also about secrets and their revelations, about mothers and their children, of friendships that lasts, of letting go of the past, and also of marriage. It's a story about a marriage and what would happen if we allow things to fall through the cracks. Do we let things be? Do we break it off? Or do we start over seeing the spouse in a new light?

It feels like a summer book. You know, summer is that time of the year where you somehow take a break and start over. And when it's done you go back to your old life with new eyes, with better understanding, renewed sense of self, hopefully. Particularly if you're a student, hahaha. Then again, we're all students of life. Hahaha. It's summer here in the Philippines so maybe that's why I'm likening it to a summer book. It's so damn hot here I'd rather be in that island playing with the dog or waiting for the majestic sunset to show its face at the end of the day.

This is my first book by the author. I'd very much pick up her other books after this.

Reading Lolita in Tehran
Azar Nafisi

This might seem out of place considering that the first two books are fiction and this one is as true to life as it gets. In a strange twist of my reading moods however, it somehow fits into the healing as well as damned and saved by one's choices theme of the previous two books. Here's why.

The Iran of Azar Nafisi's childhood drastically changed with the revolution and coming back from her studies abroad she found herself having to live with the new government's strict impositions based on faith. This is her story, told in chapters that sing praises of the powers of fiction and yet at the same time drench it with the blood of those violent years.

Among the four main authors she chose to teach and share with her students (both in the universities as well as her secret class ), I am only familiar with Jane Austen. I haven't read the other main novels mentioned therein. Oh yes I know Nabokov of the titular book mentioned (and I'd even go as far as saying I have the book and a collection of all his short stories) but I'm one of a handful of people turned off by Humbert Humbert from the get go I did not bother finishing Lolita. Oh dear. It would have been lovely spending time discussing those books with her; she cared a lot about the subject matter and I would have been awed and inspired by her classes had I been one of her students. I probably would have finished Lolita if I were taking it under her class!

But this book is not just another book discussing the merits of say, Austen. Definitely not The Jane Austen Book Club, for sure, and I don't mean that the latter book isn't good. It is in fact and I enjoyed reading that one years ago. But Karen Joy Fowler's book is anchored in the safety of suburban, everyday living. You don't exactly brace yourself for the stories between the pages of that book. It's different with Nafisi's real-life account. You recognize Jane Austen, you find yourself smiling at the thought of the dance between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth and yet at the same time you are aware of the stories of the ladies in her class, aware of the war going on between Iran and Iraq, worried in hindsight and immensely inspired by Nafisi's ability to see fiction's relevance in view of what she was going through then.

I'd say that she was both damned and saved by her choice to teach the ladies in her class. I think it was in the last two or three chapters, when she was relating that story about her magician and her eventual decision to leave Iran that tied her with the earlier fictional characters of Rose and Jessie. To me it felt like the classes saved her, made her realized what she is capable of as a teacher and yet at the same time damned her because she had to seek it outside her own country. Like I said, the themes of that and healing run through the three books I picked to post about today.

Of course I do hope you read this. Then again, I think I'm one of the last few book bloggers who did.

Happy Earth Day, everyone!

Unloading Backlog #1

It's been two weeks since my last post. And I have read quite a lot more books from the past couple of months that posting about them one at a time will probably create a backlog worthy of my TBR. Well, that's being dramatic. I think my main problem about the whole thing is that I do have a tendency to leave books at home when I'm done with them. So in terms of quoting favorite passages, there are around ten or so books I've yet to post about and I left them all outside the metro. Hence, I'm starting something new here I'm calling pocket reviews, mainly about what I remember about the book now that I don't have notes, quotes, what-have-you's with me. It's not really new as I've done a couple or so two or three reviews in one post. In the end I'll give a short recommendation, or not. I think this will be the norm until I get my reading life (as well as my life in general) straightened. Not my hair. Hahaha. I adore my curly, unruly locks.

The Holy Thief: A Con Man's Journey from Darkness to Light
Mark Borovitz

Let's start with this. Mark Borovitz was a con man. His life changed when his father died back when he was a young boy. Since money was hard to come by, he offered his services to fence some items while he was still in high school. And earning a bunch of cash from the mob spurred him to do more. After eluding the law for quite sometime he was finally captured and spent some time in prison. It's where his conversion to being a con man to being God's man took place.

Mark isn't exactly a hardened criminal. Well, he is in one sense when it comes to his specialty: bouncing checks. He caused a lot of damage in other people's financial lives but you know, he never killed anyone. He has a glib tongue. It's his gift which made reading this book easy. It's easy enough to like him: a big guy whose heart got broken when his father died. Imagine a boy saying Kaddish for his father every week at a temple. That being said, he knew what he did with all the con jobs were unexcusable. Of course he had to be captured for it before he came to that understanding. Haha. Because at first he thought, like all criminals, probably, that he could get away with it.

For a swift read about a likeable man in an unlikeable situation, it was an ok read but the overall feeling I got after closing this was that, despite everything that happened to him, it was somehow all too easy. I recognized that it wasn't easy for him and the people around him, his family, his friends. He did hurt a lot of people, particularly his first wife and daughter. Maybe because there are more heartrending stories of convicted felons atoning for their crimes out there. But Borovitz' story is still remarkable in the sense that here's a normal, regular guy who's had both good and bad influences in his family (he could've been a partner in the Ben and Jerry ice cream company since he's a cousin to both Ben and Jerry, and yet he has an uncle who's also a mobster whom he was fond of) and right now he's doing what he thinks is right: helping those like him who stumbled along the way and now trying to do good to atone for previous mistakes. Now, he's a role model.

Codex
Lev Grossman

I picked this up because of Lev Grossman. I mentioned before that I liked reading his reviews on Time. And while I never adored a single character in The Magicians, it was a book that affected me and made me react at the seeming numbness and lack of responsibility of those characters because they somehow represent people in our society and gee, I'm sounding like a preacher. Haha.

This book is different but not quite. There is still boredom as the main character, Edward Wozny, an efficient investment banker, has probably reached the pinnacle of his success. Or is about to. He's been promoted to the bank's branch in London and a month before his flight, his client asked him to look for a book that may or may not exists. Think Da Vinci Code without the albino monk. Then add the element of game addiction and you're probably in this for a good ride.

Not quite. While I can visualize the game and understand being lost in a game (I used to sit for hours playing RPG and even to the point of being a backseat gamer while I watch my brother play a lot of PlayStation titles) in the end there wasn't much of a pull. I finished the book just to finish it but I practically skipped or speed read my way into it. There wasn't any emotional attachment nor any surprising twists, to me. Well, things happen to the characters but I was just like "Oh" or "Duh' without much feeling into it. I do appreciate the created, imagined history. I think those who follow royal bloodlines and all the drama and scandal that goes with it will find this engrossing. I didn't.

Looking for Alaska
John Green

John Green is a much adored author in the book blogging world and now I understand why. He makes you want to look back and remember your young adult life and imagine it peppered with characters such as Alaska Young, a spunky girl who knows the rule book in school and is probably vent on going around it to prank people off. Or of Miles Halter who knows the famous last words of famous dead people by heart. Among other things. I'm probably the last person to have read this and so I'll skip the plot and go straight to the recommendation: Read this. For a short read it packs a punch, literally. The back cover says it all: a book about firsts. You're bound to remember who you were way back when you were dreaming your own "Great Perhaps" or wish you could redo the person you were back then because gee, I wasn't that smart or adventurous or inset-any-other-insecurities-that-Alaska-never-had. Then again, the "Great Perhaps" is a neverending challenge to one's self. But back to the book. Funny how the characters make you think of your friends from way back and your own personal experiences of living away from home for the first time, making new friends, keeping secrets, defying authorities, remembering loved ones. A bittersweet experience actually, whether you're reminiscing or reading the book. It's easy to relate to the language and get affected by the emotions carried by all the characters. And while it's a book about firsts, it's also a story about letting go and realizing early on that sometimes the answers we seek aren't granted. Sigh.

Want Some Ink?

Bangkok Tattoo
John Burdett

I can be a bit loopy at times and pick something up without knowing it's a sequel. That's what happened when I chanced upon this book. I wasn't planning on buying it but a part of my brain cells remembered Jessica Zafra mentioning this series once in her blog. If you're Filipino you probably know who Jessica Zafra is. I adore her. I worship the ground beneath her feet. And if she liked the series I might as well try it. That being said, I was scared to even approach her and say "I'm a big fan" when I saw her once (twice, three times a lady) in Gateway. But I digress.

This is the second book in the series. That notwithstanding, you're never going to get lost in a crime novel. I haven't read the first because it wasn't available on sale at that time, hahaha! I picked this up from my favorite Book Sale, that haven for book lovers with stacks and stacks of previously owned books that are way, way cheaper than crisp, new ones. Plus, it's not exactly new for me to read books (and comics) out of order. I started Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series on the third book until such time as the first two books became available again here. And if you're one of my regular three readers, you know how I jumped from one Fables volume to another. Again, I digress.

A crime novel starts with a crime and in this one we discover the body of an American in a hotel room with his severed penis placed like an offering on top of a table, and the skin on his back peeled off. The dead guy is not just another tourist. He was CIA. His suspected killer, Chanya, is the best sex worker in The Old Man's Club, a club owned by Detective Sonchai Jitleecheep's mother. Oh and Sonchai loves Chanya too, but that's just one side of this story that takes the readers from the rice paddies of Thailand, the escort girls of Washington, D.C., Japanese tattoo artists, transgender sensibilities, Yakuza and Triad connections (which somehow reminds me of Mafia Wars, hahaha), back to the borders between Thailand and Indonesia where extremist groups are said to proliferate. Or something to that effect. Forgive me, I read this more than a month ago and I may have forgotten a couple or so things.

The great thing about this book is the narration. Sonchai takes you to the heart of a third-world country like Thailand and makes it familiar. Speaking with a voice that sounds local, Burdett weaves a tale of murder, politics and corruption, religion and social commentary about how foreigners, Westerners, look upon their counterparts in the East and how the latter are as shrewd if not moreso than them. Burdett also observes, through Sonchai's eyes, the lives and loves of Thai's sex workers. It's a glimpse that sheds some light to the business nature of the aspect of sex trade from the women's points of view. Or at least from Chanya, and Sonchai's mother, on the one hand. Like this conversation between Chanya and CIA agent Mitch:

"But you prostitute yourself for men. So you're a slave for money."

"When you say money, you give it a farang meaning. When I say it, I give it Thai meaning."

"What's the Thai meaning?"

"Freedom. I turn trick lasts maybe an hour, two hours, if I want I can live on the money for the rest of the week. I'm not dominated by man, and I'm not dominated by the system. I'm free."

"You're still prostituting yourself. You're still working."

"Ah, you see you contradict yourself. I'm working just the same as other women, you just said it."

"But you sell your body. How's that being a good Buddhist?"

"You don't understand. I only prostitute part of the body that isn't important, and nobody suffers except my karma a little bit. You prostitute your mind. Mind is seat of Buddha."

Immersed in the Thai culture from the first page on, readers can taste what it's like to live in Thailand and see how people go about their business, of course if you exclude the murder part and the apparent corruption that Burdett states from the start as fiction.

And there's one thing I learned about the whole book, among other things Thai for that matter. It's about the full body armor. Donburi. You know, the full body ink? I mean, the book is titled Bangkok Tattoo for goodness sake! But the thing I didn't know about previously is actually part of the plot so I won't reveal that. Hahaha! Thing is, just last week I saw on the History Channel on cable an actual full body ink donated to a Japanese medical school and it reminded me of that plot part I won't reveal and actuall sent shivers down my spine.

So it's a good thing I discovered this book among the bargain bins. Sonchai is a wonderful narrator. Maybe because I'm from a third-world country myself and most of the times I could relate to what he's saying (again, if you take away the crime aspect of the book). Maybe because the story is compelling as it shoots in different directions: one minute it's about the dead CIA, next minute you're dealing with terrorists, and then yet again with the mafia, and then with Chanya and being a practicing Buddhist. You can read this in one sitting and be totally lost in the sights and sounds of another country. Ah, now I wish I could read the first book and then hopefully the succeeding books after this. I now have another crime novelist to watch out for!

And all this talk about Thailand is making me want some pad thai. Or mi goreng. Plus curry and naan bread. Excuse me while I find a suitable substitute.