by Paddy O'Reilly
This book, by an Australian author is about three people that become part of a modern day travelling freakshow.
Leon needs a heart transplant and his life is saved by a doctor and his wife who give him a mechanical heart, if he promises never to divulge the details. The doctor dies within a year of performing the surgery.
Kathryn receives a treatment for Parkinson's the side effect of which causes lambs wool to grow all over her body.
Christos a performance artist has mechanical parts implanted in his body so that he can have wings inserted in his back.
A woman, with a background in a circus, approaches the three people to be part of an act she wants to call The Wonders. She has a large home and acreage where she rescues wild animals, e.g. monkeys, elephants, etc. Her plan is to have the three wonders do little performances to very select audiences. They become very famous and the celebrity of course leads to papparazzi and security issues. They seem to enjoy living the high life, especially Christos. Kathryn is the most troubled, religious groups seem to target her as an abomination. She had an abusive husband and is recovering from that. The group gets along reasonably well but Christos is a bit of a primadonna and causes some conflicts. Not everyone is happy with what they are doing, handicapped people feel they are exploiting and thus demeaning the handicapped.
Some private photos turn up in the media/internet and this upsets them. They later find out that their publicist has done this to fuel interest in them. They are upset with him, but don't do anything to stop or reprimand him.
Leon always felt a bit weird because of his heart and never thought he would ever be loved. He falls in love with the doctor hired to look after them and they eventually marry. He is so happy to be loved.
The group travels and gets rich over several years. They are planning to wind down the act and go their separate ways.... but they plan few more shows. They are asked to travel out into the desert in Dubai. While they are driving through the desert their vehicle hits a IUD/landmine and their vehicle overturns. They are all shaken up but Christos is quite badly injured. Was this an accident? Or an intentional attempt on their lives? Christos eventually recovers and they plan few final shows.
One day they are walking through a long hallway, in the bowels of a hotel or convention centre and Kathryn is kidnapped. They get a ransom demand and are prepared to pay up but Kathryn has been injured by her kidnappers and dies. This shocks them all to the core. The public reaction is a lot of grief but also some celebration by fundamentalists. Leon has been trying to track down the wife of the doctor who operated on him and eventually she contacts him to tell him that the battery in his chest may run down soon and it cannot be replaced. He is so upset, he assumed he would have a long life with his wife after the wonders.
The remaining wonders are upset at Kathryn's death but decide to continue with a few more performances. It becomes obvious that the fickle celebrity hungry public are losing interest in the wonders and switching their attention to other people. They are at one of their final public performances. A "fan" in the side of the red carpet has come because she is convinced that Kathryn died because Leon wanted her heart. She wants to kill Leon to avenge Kathryn. She makes an attempt to stab Christos, but Leon sees what she plans to do and jumps in the way getting wounded by her knife.
He is happy to have survived with only a minor wound. He feels glad that he has finally done something useful with his life. He and his wife settle down on their new house in Australia. He loves walking around the property and enjoys seeing all the life around him. This he decides is what life should be about. Christos has left to pursue a life of more performance art.
I think the book raises issues of what it means to be human, the meaning of life, to what lengths will we go to be alive/healthy? What will people give up to be healthy? famous? rich? What do you do after the public loses interest in you? Is it worth the loss of freedom/privacy?
Sunday, 24 May 2015
Wednesday, 13 May 2015
Snow
by Orhan Pamuk
Quote lifted from Amazon:
"The reader is exposed to a panoramic view of Turkey's political and religious conflicts and ethnic tensions. His multitude of characters represents every conceivable strand of Turkish society: Ataturk secularism and pro-European modernism on the one hand and various religious factions of Muslim faith on the other. By compressing the events into one locale, a remote, poor and backward town, Kars, in Eastern Turkey, he creates a charged playing field. A major snowstorm has cut off the access roads to the town, bringing the conflicting positions to boiling point. An artistic performance, including a poetry reading by Ka are marred by a "massacre". A couple of murders occur. The mayoral election, which would have been won by an Islamist over a local Secularist, is cut short by a military coup. In addition, the town has become notorious in the Istanbul headlines for several suicides and suicide attempts by the so-called "headscarf girls". The assumption being that the girls decided to end their life because they were not allowed to wear their headscarf in school. Yet, their motivations are more complicated than that.
Within this complex political turmoil, wanders Ka, the protagonist of the story. A recently unproductive poet, he returned from Germany to attend his mother's funeral. He has also reasons for coming to Kars. Presenting himself as a journalist, he claims to be interested in the stories behind the headscarf girls' suicides. On a personal level, he wants to find a "Turkish girl" to marry and take back to Germany."
Ka finds the interminable snow beautiful, probably the only thing of beauty in the town. He later arranges his poems on the structure of a six sided snowflake.
Ka finds the environment, or his experiences, or both, stimulating and he finds his creative juices start to flow resulting in several poems. The characters in the book are quite eccentric, even comical in their behaviour. I have to say that I found Ka infuriating, tremendous things were happening in the town and his main concern seemed to be his puppy love for his female friend. He seemed to be willing to go along with everyone, never challenging them or stating his own position. An avowed atheist he seemed to come to believe in god after meeting some of the mystics in town. What was that about??? I found his behaviour very irresponsible and unforgivable. I wanted to give his shoulders a shake. He did not leave with the supposed love of his life, nor did he deserve to do so. The main character reminds me of a character from Dostoevsky.
This was a very complex and powerful book. The book is not an easy read but the story is certainly relevant in today's world with the controversy about secular and non secular government, etc.
Quote lifted from Amazon:
"The reader is exposed to a panoramic view of Turkey's political and religious conflicts and ethnic tensions. His multitude of characters represents every conceivable strand of Turkish society: Ataturk secularism and pro-European modernism on the one hand and various religious factions of Muslim faith on the other. By compressing the events into one locale, a remote, poor and backward town, Kars, in Eastern Turkey, he creates a charged playing field. A major snowstorm has cut off the access roads to the town, bringing the conflicting positions to boiling point. An artistic performance, including a poetry reading by Ka are marred by a "massacre". A couple of murders occur. The mayoral election, which would have been won by an Islamist over a local Secularist, is cut short by a military coup. In addition, the town has become notorious in the Istanbul headlines for several suicides and suicide attempts by the so-called "headscarf girls". The assumption being that the girls decided to end their life because they were not allowed to wear their headscarf in school. Yet, their motivations are more complicated than that.
Within this complex political turmoil, wanders Ka, the protagonist of the story. A recently unproductive poet, he returned from Germany to attend his mother's funeral. He has also reasons for coming to Kars. Presenting himself as a journalist, he claims to be interested in the stories behind the headscarf girls' suicides. On a personal level, he wants to find a "Turkish girl" to marry and take back to Germany."
Ka finds the interminable snow beautiful, probably the only thing of beauty in the town. He later arranges his poems on the structure of a six sided snowflake.
Ka finds the environment, or his experiences, or both, stimulating and he finds his creative juices start to flow resulting in several poems. The characters in the book are quite eccentric, even comical in their behaviour. I have to say that I found Ka infuriating, tremendous things were happening in the town and his main concern seemed to be his puppy love for his female friend. He seemed to be willing to go along with everyone, never challenging them or stating his own position. An avowed atheist he seemed to come to believe in god after meeting some of the mystics in town. What was that about??? I found his behaviour very irresponsible and unforgivable. I wanted to give his shoulders a shake. He did not leave with the supposed love of his life, nor did he deserve to do so. The main character reminds me of a character from Dostoevsky.
This was a very complex and powerful book. The book is not an easy read but the story is certainly relevant in today's world with the controversy about secular and non secular government, etc.
The Miniaturist
by Jessie Burton
This book is set in the 1680's in Holland. A young girl, 18 year old Nella, arrives at her new home in Amsterdam, having married a successful merchant. She had dreams of a happy family life and children but her husband seems aloof and the marriage is never consummated.
Her husband gives her a cabinet, which is a model of their house, as a wedding present. These types of items would normally be playthings for younger girls. She contacts a miniaturist to obtain some objects for the cabinet and pieces start arriving, some of which she had not requested. These items demonstrate that the creator has an intimate knowledge of the household.
Nella is not really happy in her new home, her sister-in-law nags her husband about her business dealings and is rude to Nella. Nella is befriended by the young woman who cooks and cleans for the household. She was an orphan who was rescued by Nella's husband. He also has a black man servant whom he "bought" to rescue him from a life of slavery.
Nella tries to surprise her husband at his office one day and is shocked and dismayed to find out that her husband is homosexual. There are grave consequences for this in the strict dutch society. As time goes by she gets to like her husband even though he does not approach her. She is distraught when she finds out that her sister in law is pregnant, and when her husband is caught and reported to the authorities. Both the sister in law and husband die, one in childbirth and one drowned for his crime of sodomy. We find out the sister in law was approached to marry but she refused, wanting her independence more than marriage.
The story ends with Nella heading the household with the young girl, black man and the mulatto baby (child of the black man and the sister-in-law). How will she survive? Will she be able to overcome all the shame? Will she be able to assume her husband's business? He did a lot of travel to obtain produce, not something a woman could do.
It was an interesting story but I would have liked to see the main character meet and confront the miniaturist who it seems was impacting many lives in the city. Nella grows up rapidly during the course of the story but you wonder how she will survive in this city with its many prejudices given her husband and sister-in-law's shame. I think a theme of the book is women doing unconventional things in the face of a very staid society.
This book is set in the 1680's in Holland. A young girl, 18 year old Nella, arrives at her new home in Amsterdam, having married a successful merchant. She had dreams of a happy family life and children but her husband seems aloof and the marriage is never consummated.
Her husband gives her a cabinet, which is a model of their house, as a wedding present. These types of items would normally be playthings for younger girls. She contacts a miniaturist to obtain some objects for the cabinet and pieces start arriving, some of which she had not requested. These items demonstrate that the creator has an intimate knowledge of the household.
Nella is not really happy in her new home, her sister-in-law nags her husband about her business dealings and is rude to Nella. Nella is befriended by the young woman who cooks and cleans for the household. She was an orphan who was rescued by Nella's husband. He also has a black man servant whom he "bought" to rescue him from a life of slavery.
Nella tries to surprise her husband at his office one day and is shocked and dismayed to find out that her husband is homosexual. There are grave consequences for this in the strict dutch society. As time goes by she gets to like her husband even though he does not approach her. She is distraught when she finds out that her sister in law is pregnant, and when her husband is caught and reported to the authorities. Both the sister in law and husband die, one in childbirth and one drowned for his crime of sodomy. We find out the sister in law was approached to marry but she refused, wanting her independence more than marriage.
The story ends with Nella heading the household with the young girl, black man and the mulatto baby (child of the black man and the sister-in-law). How will she survive? Will she be able to overcome all the shame? Will she be able to assume her husband's business? He did a lot of travel to obtain produce, not something a woman could do.
It was an interesting story but I would have liked to see the main character meet and confront the miniaturist who it seems was impacting many lives in the city. Nella grows up rapidly during the course of the story but you wonder how she will survive in this city with its many prejudices given her husband and sister-in-law's shame. I think a theme of the book is women doing unconventional things in the face of a very staid society.
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