Distant Heartbeats

Book #65

“The poet shouted that freedom was poetry’s duty, and that even a metaphor was worth fighting for.” — Milan Kundera, Life is Elsewhere 

Almost surprisingly for a Kundera novel, I can actually summarise this one quite neatly. It’s the story of Jaromil, a boy growing up in Czechoslovakia (true fact: I had to check my history dates in order to know whether to say Czechoslovakia or the Czech Republic), his parents, especially his mother and the influence of social change, love, and family on our lives. Jaromil is from the very beginning announced by Kundera as a poet, before he is born, before we have gained an impression of him, before we are allowed to decide for ourselves whether he is fit to hold the title of poet. This means that even while he is going through a painting phase, you are waiting for him to put down his brush and pick up his pen, you want to read his poetry, you want to know what makes how he sees the world so different from everyone else. 

The book is split into seven sections that flow into each quite well, and I enjoyed it immensely from the very beginning, although when Xaiver was first introduced I went through the pages in a state of confusion (which was cleared up later). Kundera gives us a first-hand account of how someone could so fully support a doctrine, even when it is clearly creating causalities, and that is both disturbing (when you like the character) and enlightening. That said, though, the political aspect of the book did not drown out the emotional and human aspect of it, which was by far the more dominant. I enjoyed reading through Jaromil’s life, even when I completely disagreed with him, even when I thought he should get his head checked, even when I found myself liking him.

I remain a faithful fan of Milan Kundera, and I can’t wait to pick up another of his books. 

I’m getting really tired of concert tickets being so damn expensive. For you US$ folk, that’s 85 bucks. That’s the cheapest available! I’m sorry, that’s mental.

Book #64

Kiss Kiss is a collection of short stories. Roald Dahl actually wrote quite a lot of them, although they tend to be overshadowed by his children’s novels. I am one of the biggest Dahl fans there is, the man was one of the best children’s writers the world has ever seen. The only thing I’ve read by him (apart from his entire catalogue of children’s books) is his autobiography, Boy and Going Solo, both of which I absolutely loved.

I bought this a couple of years ago, and I’m not sure why, but it remained on my shelf for a while. I’ve recently been on a huge short story kick. I’d never really read many, apart from in magazines (The New Yorker etc) and online zines, and this year woken me up to the amazing talent there is. Credit where credit is due: this was largely thanks to Eugenides’ astounding collection, My Mistress’s Sparrow is Dead, followed very shortly after by Dave Eggers. Since, I have read various masters of the craft and when I saw this on my shelf, I knew I had to read it.

The stories are disturbing. There’s a short about a man who, after he died, got his brain taken out and hooked onto a machine to continue pumping blood through it, so that he would remain ‘alive’. All that was left was a brain and two eyeballs that would float in a basin. Please visualise that, and then continue. There’s a short about Hitler’s parents. There’s a couple I didn’t prefer, that bored me slightly, but for the most part, I really liked the collection. They’re all well written, of course, but the combination of a very British sensibility combined with utterly bizarre, disturbing stories does make you pause.

But when you resume, you realise: Roald Dahl was not only a master of children’s literature. He was a master.

Interviewer: Who else do you like right now?
Brandon Flowers: I love the National. I don’t get bored of [new album High Violet]. I would have killed to write “Bloodbuzz Ohio”. It’s amazing. 

Isn’t it great when one of your favourite artist loves another one of your favourite artists?

This week I’m recommending the very lovely Philippa. She doesn’t post half as much as you wish she would, but she reads good books and reviews them, and is a wonderful person to boot. So go forth and follow her! 

And, as always, if you like what I do at all, you can recommend me. I’ll appreciate it and I will say things like you are the apple of my eye. 

Book #63

“It’s never the changes we want that change everything,” — Junot Diaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

This is one of the books where I feel like leaving you all with a two-word review: Read it. I won’t, I’ll elaborate, but just know — those two words are sufficient. 

For a book that is so widely acclaimed, I actually managed to remain totally unspoiled, to the point where I didn’t even know what the book was about. I knew it was about an overweight nerd who wanted to be the next Tolkien, but if you’ve read the book, you know that’s not really an accurate summary of it at all.

I also wasn’t aware of Diaz’s style. He unapologetically mixes Spanish with English, to the point where got my Spanish dictionary out for a couple of words. For the most part, though, a dictionary is unnecessary, as the story line and sentence structure inform you of the meaning pretty quickly. I did wish, repeatedly, that my Spanish was better, though. I think it would’ve heightened my enjoyment of the book, although I can scarcely imagine loving it more than I did.

Finally, I thought the story would focus on Oscar the entire way through, but it went back and forth through different generations and characters, although it retained the same narrator (this helped retain a sense of consistency). I love every single part.

My ignorance of the terrible situation the Dominican Republic went through came to light. Obviously I knew they went through a tremulous time, but I had no idea of the actual events and I was a little ashamed of my ignorance. I looked it up afterwards and read up on it, but it actually made the book even more obscure — I didn’t know where fact stopped and fiction began, and that made it kind of poetic. 

It is so beautifully written. My only qualm with Diaz is that he doesn’t have a bigger catalogue for me to work through while I wait for his next novel. Drown is already in my Amazon wishlist and will purchased very soon, I’m sure.

readingavidly:

Since I won’t have a book review up for awhile, I’ll just suggest some other book/writing related Tumblrs:

Laala - She’s 20 years old and lives in Scotland. She reviews books and takes photographs. She has her own personality and embraces it. Laala reads more than anyone I know and willing to answer most of your questions and recommend books. I greatly admire how driven and intelligent she is.

Oh, Elphie, this is really sweet. Thank you. Thanks also to: quicksoup, plumfield and ricktimus, all of whom have personally recommended me/talked about me on their blogs. You are all very very lovely. 

[PS- quicksoup, I would happily peruse a bookstore with you.]