this is a required reading for those taking literature in english 2205. fortunately for my students, i have decided to use Holes by Louis Sachar in my teaching. but unfortunately for me, i have to read all the texts in the current cycle for literature in english.
last year, the literature in english teachers had to watch the movie version of this novel. i slept. so you can just imagine the dread i felt when i had to read the book.
it's supposed to be a science fiction. setting: somewhere in the US (as usual), sometime in the future, when firemen do not put out fire, but actually start a fire on the house of those who misbehave by hiding books. so it's a story of ignorance and the quest for enlightenment and knowledge.
nice concept, but not a smart way to write.
Ray Bradbury is poetic. i can see that in the diction he uses. however, it is well-suited for a more genteel? type of genre. science fiction requires hard facts. the coldness and the precision of the language. but not the artsy, flowery, poetic language.
oh, just to tell you. i slept twice just to read 24 pages. in the matter of 2 days!
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Sea of Poppies: a review
this is another book shortlisted for the 2008 Booker Prize. written by Amitav Ghosh, the story is about a schooner bound to Mauritius - and the lives of the people who, by destiny, became the crew and passengers of the ship Ibis.
the story could have been well-understood if the the writer didnt resort to many Hindustani words as well as pidgin language used by the sailors. i think the overuse of the words killed the effect. i had expected to be familiar with the words as i went along, but there are too many foreign words. having said that, however, i salute Ghosh for using a lot of dialects, and also portraying the difficulty faced by Paulette Lambert, as she struggled in using English, thus making the struggle in the using other languages other than the native language more authentic.
however, Ghosh did a good job in portraying the suffering of the characters. the cruelty bestowed by the colonisers upon the colonised was well-portrayed, as i cringed when i read about the punishment the convicts had to endure.
however, i think that the story ended too abruptly, i feel that the story is unfinished. i'd give this book 7 out of 10.
the story could have been well-understood if the the writer didnt resort to many Hindustani words as well as pidgin language used by the sailors. i think the overuse of the words killed the effect. i had expected to be familiar with the words as i went along, but there are too many foreign words. having said that, however, i salute Ghosh for using a lot of dialects, and also portraying the difficulty faced by Paulette Lambert, as she struggled in using English, thus making the struggle in the using other languages other than the native language more authentic.
however, Ghosh did a good job in portraying the suffering of the characters. the cruelty bestowed by the colonisers upon the colonised was well-portrayed, as i cringed when i read about the punishment the convicts had to endure.
however, i think that the story ended too abruptly, i feel that the story is unfinished. i'd give this book 7 out of 10.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Netherland: a review
they havent announced this year's Booker Prize winner, but they did give a list of the novels that are shortlisted for the prize. this book, written by Joseph O'Neill, is one of those shortlisted.
because i had nothing to do, i finished the book in a day. well, actually it took me 10 hours to read from the beginning till the end, stopping only to do the necessary stuff.
James Wood from The New Yorker has written that this book is "one of the most remarkable post-colonial books i have ever read". though i beg to differ with his opinion, i must say that the main reason why i chose the book was because of the word "post-colonial" there. yes, O'Neill brings the postcolonial issues in the form of the protagonist, Hans, a Dutch who followed his English wife to work in NY (in upper class Manhattan, naturally). but the only postcolonial element i see is the displacement suffered by the immigrants - the pakistanis, the indians, the West Indians, and Hans. O'Neill attempts to bring in the postcolonial issues by teaching Hans to respect his past, as the Dutch were the first settlers in New York, and also the legacy of cricket, that very English game, a legacy by the British, now played in Commonwealth countries. i would have liked it if 'O Neill had delved in it more.
the diction used was very articulate and vocabulary is wide-ranging, from very American to West Indianised English. however, i find O'Neil's time switching a bit disconcerting, as it's confusing to know whether a certain event happens after another or whether it comes before.
all in all, a good read. reading this should be smooth sailing, and not as daunting as Tolkie's LOTR.
because i had nothing to do, i finished the book in a day. well, actually it took me 10 hours to read from the beginning till the end, stopping only to do the necessary stuff.
James Wood from The New Yorker has written that this book is "one of the most remarkable post-colonial books i have ever read". though i beg to differ with his opinion, i must say that the main reason why i chose the book was because of the word "post-colonial" there. yes, O'Neill brings the postcolonial issues in the form of the protagonist, Hans, a Dutch who followed his English wife to work in NY (in upper class Manhattan, naturally). but the only postcolonial element i see is the displacement suffered by the immigrants - the pakistanis, the indians, the West Indians, and Hans. O'Neill attempts to bring in the postcolonial issues by teaching Hans to respect his past, as the Dutch were the first settlers in New York, and also the legacy of cricket, that very English game, a legacy by the British, now played in Commonwealth countries. i would have liked it if 'O Neill had delved in it more.
the diction used was very articulate and vocabulary is wide-ranging, from very American to West Indianised English. however, i find O'Neil's time switching a bit disconcerting, as it's confusing to know whether a certain event happens after another or whether it comes before.
all in all, a good read. reading this should be smooth sailing, and not as daunting as Tolkie's LOTR.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
The Could've Been
In the sadness of my heart,
I will always think of you
Never mind that you cut me so deep.
I will always think of you
Because I'm my true self in your company,
Delighting in the freedom of minds.
And yet the cut bleeds torrential rain of anguish,
As I face rejection.
Humiliated, I try to escape and live.
And all I could think about,
Was our rudely interrupted chat that day,
The promise of something more,
The could've been.
I will always think of you
Never mind that you cut me so deep.
I will always think of you
Because I'm my true self in your company,
Delighting in the freedom of minds.
And yet the cut bleeds torrential rain of anguish,
As I face rejection.
Humiliated, I try to escape and live.
And all I could think about,
Was our rudely interrupted chat that day,
The promise of something more,
The could've been.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
One Hundred Years of Solitude:a review
written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, one of the Nobel Prize for Literature winners, this book is hailed as one of the finest novels of the 20th century. i cant agree more.
i was interested to read Marquez because when i was writing my MA dissertation on Rushdie's novels, there were a lot of critical essays comparing Rushdie to him. it was more of a curiosity on my part, as Rushdie is my favourite writer. i really wanted to find out their similarities.
the book sat on my shelf for a few months, because i have the habit of buying books for my collection (with every intention of reading each of them). what's more, literary texts arent the kind of novels that you can just read and watch tv at the same time.
and so, i brought the novel along with me when i was on the flight bound to kl, and i was surprised that i enjoyed reading it.
it is a story of a prominent family set in South America, from its first pioneering ancestor with the ambition of an alchemist, to its last descendant who commits incest and therefore brings the downfall of the family. each generation has its great moments, and also suffering. a lot of things happening at once that i was overwhelmed, and confusion arose as the descendants were named after their forefathers, so i lost track of who's who. but Marquez did a good job of weaving the story, and i found the similarity between Marquez and Rushdie. both employ magic realism in their writing, and the ending of this book is almost similar to that in Rushdie's Midnight's Children, as both protagonists are overwhelmed by the multitude and let themselves be "swallowed".
i thought about the book for more than a day. that's a great compliment, because the only other book that affected me that way was Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance.
thumbs up.
i was interested to read Marquez because when i was writing my MA dissertation on Rushdie's novels, there were a lot of critical essays comparing Rushdie to him. it was more of a curiosity on my part, as Rushdie is my favourite writer. i really wanted to find out their similarities.
the book sat on my shelf for a few months, because i have the habit of buying books for my collection (with every intention of reading each of them). what's more, literary texts arent the kind of novels that you can just read and watch tv at the same time.
and so, i brought the novel along with me when i was on the flight bound to kl, and i was surprised that i enjoyed reading it.
it is a story of a prominent family set in South America, from its first pioneering ancestor with the ambition of an alchemist, to its last descendant who commits incest and therefore brings the downfall of the family. each generation has its great moments, and also suffering. a lot of things happening at once that i was overwhelmed, and confusion arose as the descendants were named after their forefathers, so i lost track of who's who. but Marquez did a good job of weaving the story, and i found the similarity between Marquez and Rushdie. both employ magic realism in their writing, and the ending of this book is almost similar to that in Rushdie's Midnight's Children, as both protagonists are overwhelmed by the multitude and let themselves be "swallowed".
i thought about the book for more than a day. that's a great compliment, because the only other book that affected me that way was Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance.
thumbs up.
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