The Sigh by Marjane Satrapi

"Whether this tale be true or false, none can tell, for none were there to witness it themselves".

A little book for kids and adults or for the kid inside every adult, with the unique touch of Marjane Satrapi.
The drawings are just simple but intense. I like the cover, the type, the smell.
I feel like I always repeat myself when I talk of Marjane Satrapi, but her graphics novels are all so constantly nice that there is nothing more to add. I think that it is the third time I read this little book and it is still able to touch the right strings.

The girl who saved the king of Sweden by Jonas Jonasson

Nombeko is born in a shanty of Soweto with a very low life expectation. One day she is hit by a not-very-clever engineer driving his car and her life changes, we still don't know if it is for the better.

She will become the cleaner of the engineer who is in charge of a vital project for South Africa’s security. With three Chinese girls, two twin brothers-half-existing and other very absurd characters she will be responsible for saving the king of Sweden and the peace among countries.

It is impossible to not link this book to the previous one, as the structure and the atmosphere are very well kept here, but the story itself stands on his own. The leitmotifis of course is the presence, I actually would call it more obsession of the author for explosives, which are always the true protagonists of his books.
I found an improvement in this second book in the flow of the story; the jumping from one situation to another in every other chapter is easier to catch and the flow is not stopped as in the previous book.

I loved it, it is hilarious, sarcastic...so CLEVER. There are some parts that make you laugh out loud. The historical background of apartheid in South Africa with Mandela and the freedom fighter is seen from such a different and absurd point of view, that it becomes almost funny. 

I think Jonasson is a genius!!!

The hundred year old man who climbed out the window and disappeared -the movie

Today I want to talk of a movie, but of a movie, of course, adpated from a book. The book in question by ‎Jonas Jonasson was released couple of years ago in English language and soon became very famous and appreciated. I found it by chance in a book shop soon after it was released and the cover and the title were just so clever (to see what I am talking about click here). After starting reading it I just felt in love!!!
A old man named Allan on the day of his 100th birthday decides to escape the retirement home by jumping out of the window and, almost by chance, he starts a series of absurd adventures that put him in danger.

The book, and the movie, are set in two different time-line: one is the present of his escape, the other is Allan's past, and his casual involvment in the most important episode of our history.

I had big espetations in the movie, despide the fact that I generally get disappointed by the Film adaptations. I thought this book would somehow fit as a movie, and I was right. The movie doesn't lose the clever comic sense and sarcasm of the book. Of course it lacks of many aspects that shaped the various characters in the book, but at the end the athmosphere of the book is well adapted and the overall is quite successfull. The movie end complitely differently from the book, and this was a bit disappointing, cause in the book there was such a clever end, but overall my review is positive.
I was very surprised that I was among the few to laugh all the time in the cinema, but I noticed the same reaction with people reading the book. I think for both is a matter of love or hate, nothing average.

So if you get the chance go to watch the movie, even if you still did not read the book. You might appreciate the scenario and decide to read the book; for me was one of my best reading in the last couple of years.

I am reading his second book now, almost finished, so next review coming soon...

Don’t fall in love with a woman who reads...

Don’t fall in love with a woman who reads, a woman who feels too much, 

a woman who writes...

Don’t fall in love with an educated, magical, delusional, crazy woman. 

Don’t fall in love with a woman who thinks, who knows what she knows and also knows how to fly; 

a woman sure of herself.

Don’t fall in love with a woman who laughs or cries making love, 

knows how to turn her spirit into flesh; let alone one that loves poetry (these are the most dangerous), 

or spends half an hour contemplating a painting and isn't able to live without music.

Don’t fall in love with a woman who is interested in politics and is rebellious 

and feel a huge horror from injustice. 

One who does not like to watch television at all. 

Or a woman who is beautiful no matter the features of her face or her body.

Don’t fall in love with a woman who is intense, entertaining, lucid and irreverent. 

Don’t wish to fall in love with a woman like that.

 

Because when you fall in love with a woman like that, whether she stays with you or not, whether she loves you or not, 

from a woman like that, 

you never come back…

Martha Rivera Garrido

Scheherazade Goes West: Different Cultures, Different Harems by Fatema Mernissi

Fatema Mernissi is a feminist Moroccan writer. I had the possibility to discover her with the book that had made her famous, Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood, many years ago.
The current book is a discovery of the western world by an eastern female eye. The writer goes to travel around the West world trying to understand why in the western culture there is a happy idea of the harem, seen as an earthen paradise of sex and seduction, while in reality they are places of slavery and submission. This research touches philosophy, art and literature from France to New York, in a very fascinating way.
What emerges eventually is that the west is not the 'women happy world' as it is in the fantasy of every one. Women might not need to wear a veil but they are "forced" to respect a precise beauty standard that prevent them of another kind of freedom: the freedom to appear as they want!!
Of course the matter is not so simple and maybe the book lacks many other aspects that in my opinion define the concept of freedom. However, the broader point of view from the western culture is interesting and brings to discussion.
What is sad is that in 2014, in every country we are still discussion women rights, as something to conquer and not something that should be part of every culture and country.

The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas

We are in Australia where a family is hosting a bbq with friends. The atmosphere is relaxed and joyful, till one of the guest slaps a kid: he is not his son! The scene gets tense and all the guests get affected in a different way from the incident. Or at least this is what they think you should expect from the book.
But there is only one real thing happening in this book: SEX!! But not in a way that fits and adds something to the reading, no, just sex. The most used words in the text, and you don't need to count them to realize, are: fxck, cxck and cxnt; and don't think that things are subtle, NO! They are thrown on your face in a silly and sick way. I finished the book 'cause I was too shocked to think the book would be all like this, but yes, no hope, it is, till the end, where, if possible, gets even worse.

The concept and the idea of the book was nice and also the fact that every chapter evaluates the event in the perspective of one of the guest of the bbq, but the story itself could have been written in 50-70 pages, the other 300 are an offense to the intelligence of the reader.
Let's get things clear, if i want a porn book I buy one (and I am sure there are much better on the market), but if I buy a novel where nowhere is clarified to be a porn, I get pissed.

Dear Christos Tsiolkas I would like to "slap" this book on your face!

p.s. If someone here has read the book and found some deep meaning I didn't see, without rhetoric, I would like to discuss about it, really!

The Family Way by Tony Parsons

I started this book with no expectations; I was going through the phase of opening and closing books after few pages losing interest. This book got me from the beginning so for sure it has the merit to bring me out of my reading block.
The book is about 3 sisters, but is also about 6 men that cross, willingly or not, the life of the 3 protagonists. The 3 sisters have all different personalities but the family bond keep them together to face first youth and then adult life. The thinking and the behaviours of the protagonists are described so much in details that I find it difficult to believe the book was actually written by a man.

It was a nice reading, nothing exceptional; but if you are looking for something light and not demanding this might be the right books

p.s. be prepared to hate a bit the man kind during the reading!!!