Palace Walk (by Naguib Mahfouz) - A review

Palace Walk

Location: Egypt
Author: Naguib Mahfouz
Publisher/Year: Anchor Press (English Translation)/1956 (1990 in English)
Genre: Literary fiction
Theme: The tale of a family led by a tyrannical patriarch, set during a tumultuous period in Egyptian history

Hey. Sorry about this, but it looks like this will be another one of those 'one lazy review' months, thanks to way too much work and also having been ill for most of the month. Still, here's a quick review of a renowned classic that I had never really read before. Nobel Laureate Naguib Mahfouz's Palace Walk is the first part of his 'Cairo Trilogy,' a look at the life of a Cairene family set in the period after the First World War. The series itself is considered one of the defining works of 20th century Arab literature, making it a long overdue read for me.

This first book introduces us to the family at the heart of the series, led by tyrannical patriarch al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad, who demands complete obedience from his wife Amina, his sons, Yasin, Fahmy and Kamal, and his daughters Khadija and Aisha. Despite his focus on certain traditional values and devotion from his family, al-Sayyid Ahmad himself flouts many of the rules he would insist on from others, engaging in various forbidden pleasures (including affairs with other women). Over the course of the book, the family is affected by a number of incidents, chief among them Yasin's marriage to a woman who subsequently cheats on him, Yasin's own secret adoption of his father's less 'proper' habits, and Amina's injury during an accident and her husband's subsequent decision to banish her for having gone out in his absence. The central event, in a way, is Aisha's wedding, where various plot points converge and several revelations are made.

The book is set in 1919, the year the First World War came to an end, and as such the Armistice plays a key role. Post-war tensions lead to political unrest and the rise of a nationalist movement, which Fahmy gets drawn into in opposition to the British occupation, while the rest of the family lives mostly in fear. The placement of a British camp right outside the family's residence complicates issues as well, the juxtaposition of conflicting tensions playing out in an interesting manner.

Not sure exactly what to say about this book. It is terribly interesting as a look at this family, this set of contrasting old and modern cultures and belief sets. The characters are well defined and engaging, with the hypocritical patriarch in particular being shown in his various shades. The writing style is engaging, and 'personal.'

The setting is brought out in a glorious manner, both for Cairo and the time period. Mahfouz masterfully captures a city caught between old and new, East and West, war and peace... If this novel has any failings, it is certainly not in its ability to describe the setting.

I'm not sure why it took me so long to read this book, but boy, am I glad I did! I look forward to reading the rest of the trilogy, and definitely feel this book is worth a read.

[Sorry again about the lazy review. Next month won't be much better, but August should be a bit of a bumper crop to compensate!]

The Hypnotist (by Lars Kepler) - A review

The Hypnotist

Location: Sweden
Author: Lars Kepler
Publisher/Year: Sarah Crichton Books/2011 (in Swedish in 2009)
Genre: Crime
Synopsis: When a key witness to a brutal crime finds himself unable to remember the details of the incident, a detective partners with a hypnotist to break through and find the perpetrator

With the worldwide success of Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy, much interest has been raised in the domain of Scandinavian crime literature. One supposed must read in this category is The Hypnotist, the first of the Joona Linna series from Lars Kepler (in actuality the couple Alexander and Alexandra Ahndoril). Despite my interest in this domain, I have consistently missed out on this series. Nevertheless, better late than never, so I gave it a go in my otherwise busy month of May!

Given my lack of time for this review and overall, I'll fall back on one of my old lazy tricks and give you the Goodreads synopsis:

In the frigid clime of Tumba, Sweden, a gruesome triple homicide attracts the interest of Detective Inspector Joona Linna, who demands to investigate the murders. The killer is still at large, and there’s only one surviving witness—the boy whose family was killed before his eyes. Whoever committed the crimes wanted this boy to die: he’s suffered more than one hundred knife wounds and lapsed into a state of shock. Desperate for information, Linna sees only one option: hypnotism. He enlists Dr. Erik Maria Bark to mesmerize the boy, hoping to discover the killer through his eyes.

It’s the sort of work that Bark has sworn he would never do again—ethically dubious and psychically scarring. When he breaks his promise and hypnotizes the victim, a long and terrifying chain of events begins to unfurl.

While this story maintains the realistic setting and fast pace of many of the better known Scandinavian crime thrillers, it is immediately apparent this is not quite as 'gritty' and 'real' as, say, a book from Stieg Larsson or Gunnar Staalesen. There is an unusual element coming into play throughout, whether it be the involvement of the hypnotist or the characters themselves. Detective Inspector Joona Linna is not your typical quiet genius detective as seen in such tale, but a protagonist happy to point out his brilliance. Bark, on the other hand, is clearly a bit unnerved by some aspects of the situation and how they pertain to his life, but maintains a steady, determine approach. The interaction between characters is interesting, and helps make the tale work.

It is a good work, perhaps less gripping than I anticipated but clearly still a winner. I wish I were in a position to tell you more, but for now all I can say is that it definitely seems worth a shot for those into the genre.

Memories of My Melancholy Whores (by Gabriel Garcia Marquez) - A review

Memories of My Melancholy Whores

Location: Bolivia

Author: Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Publisher/Year: Alfred A. Knopf/2005 (In Spanish, Editorial Norma/2004)

Genre: Realistic fiction

Theme: An old journalist, who has just celebrated his 90th birthday, seeks sex with a young prostitute, who is selling her virginity to help her family. Instead of sex, he discovers love for the first time in his life. [Source: Wikipedia]

There isn't really much to say about this novella. Given how short it is, anything beyond the theme outlined above seems like it might reveal too much. Why did I choose it, then? Well, this is also in part a tribute to Gabriel Garcia Marquez, one of the greatest writers of all time, who passed away less than a fortnight ago. Alas, his most famous works I have already read, and wanted to read something I had skipped over a while back. This book fit the bill.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a legend in the world of literature. In many ways, he elevated Latin American literature and the art of 'magical realism' to entirely different levels, and brought them to the outside world. A Nobel Prize winner in 1982, he is largely remembered for his seminal works, notably One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera, but has a far greater body of work beyond these epics. He was a keen student of writing/literature in addition to being one of its finest exponents, and experimented with various styles. I mentioned in a previous post how Juan Rulfo's Pedro Paramo served as a major influence on Marquez and others, and Marquez built on the solid foundation laid by Rulfo and others to craft a style that will endure and inspire many for years. In addition, he also produced different types of works, novellas to go with his mammoth novels. The one profiled here is the last of his novellas.

In many ways, this is not classic Marquez. Granted, there is an immediate impact from the beginning, with understated elegance that does not take away from the power. That is very much Marquez. But where some of his other works build up, this launches directly into the thick of it (understandable, for a novella). Where his prose often tends to be elaborate and artistic, this time there's an all too real bluntness to it that serves its more contemporary and real setting well. And in a rare move, this novella relies on a first person narrative from a protagonist who is not particularly likeable (though he does find a cause and a way to become a better person eventually). It is hardly the finest work from Gabriel Garcia Marquez's immense bibliography, but it is certainly a good one nonetheless. It's a tale that perfectly captures the essence of a lecherous old protagonist and the circumstances that shape his changes. The simplicity of the storytelling belies an intrinsic complexity of the sort that comes with real life, and this does well to deal with that. The setting, admittedly, is not captured much. Indeed, there were times when I was unsure whether this was La Paz, Bolivia or the smaller town of La Paz in the author's native Colombia. In the end I let Google suggest it to be Bolivia rather than re-read the book. But there is still a personal touch in terms of what matters to the protagonist.

It's a good book, for sure. Read it, whether or not you are well-versed with Marquez's work. But the focus of this post is not the book itself, as much as the man who wrote it.

RIP Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1927-2014)

Rubicon (by Mark Long, Christopher McQuarrie, Dan Capel, Rebecca Taylor, Mario Stilla) - A review

Rubicon

Location: Afghanistan
Creators: Mark Long, Christopher, McQuarrie, Dan Capel, Rebecca Taylor, Mario Stilla
Publisher/Year: Archaia/2013
Genre: Adventure (War)
Theme: A retelling of Seven Samurai in the form of a tale about a Navy SEAL team defending an Afghan village from Taliban insurgents

Seven Samurai, Akira Kurosawa's classic film about a ragtag group of warriors who come together to defend a village from a group of bandits, has been adapted in numerous countries and in many forms, most notably in the form of western The Magnificent Seven. This graphic novel attempts to take the tried and tested story and adapt it to the tale of a Navy SEAL team in Afghanistan, defending a small village from Taliban insurgents attempting to take the village's opium produce.

The story itself is pretty standard, and chances are you've all watched one version of it or another at some point. What matters is how well it's adapted. The parallels are pretty obvious, making it a fairly smooth adaptation for the Afghan setting with straight swaps. The Navy SEALs largely embody the Samurai character archetypes seen in the original, while remaining fairly accurate about how SEAL teams accurate (or so I assume, given that one of the people involved, Dan Capel, was a SEAL Team Six founder). The villagers remain similar, worried about the threat facing them while also apprehensive about the danger these new 'defenders' would attract. The bandits are replaced by the Taliban (who for some reason seem to be cosplaying as Mongols).

It's an effective swap that works well, but therein lies the main problem with this book - it tries too much to adapt the storyline to a new setting without truly giving it any originality. Even subplots that don't add anything to this particular story get adapted, leading to a general sense that it's point for point substitution without any true substance. This is a downright shame, as the elements are clearly there. It's just that they have not extended the bare minimum in an original direction to make the most of the tale. The characterisation is decent, but it never strives to go beyond bare archetypes common in such stories, where most such adaptations use minor modifications to add some specific depth.

The setting is well captured in Mario Stilla's art, as are the local people (with the aforementioned exception of the oddly dressed Taliban fighters). The writing features inputs from enough people with military experience that this comes through in a realistic manner, while McQuarrie's screenwriting experience (he won an Oscar for The Usual Suspects) helps plot the tale in a manner that suggests it would work well on the screen (indeed, a TV prequel was commissioned).

On the whole, it's a solid piece of work that is well put together and is a natural adaptation. My main complaint is that it comes off slightly bland and unoriginal, which is a bit disappointing considering it has all the elements to be a good tale and a strong team working on it.

The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years (by Chingiz Aitmatov) - A review

The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years

Location: Kazakhstan
Author: Chingiz Aitmatov
Publisher/Year: Indiana University Press/1983 (Novy Mir/1980 in Russian)
Genre: Sci-fi
Theme: The story of a man burying a dear friend, juxtaposed with a tale of cosmonauts/astronauts experiencing first contact with extraterrestrials

Not very well known outside the former Soviet Union, this novel by Kyrgyz author Chingiz Aitmatov is a fascinating (if occasionally bizarre) work. Calling it 'science fiction' alone does not do it justice, as that relates solely to a barely linked subplot, while the primary narrative is a retelling of the protagonist's life and the events and people surrounding him.

The primary plot revolves around railman Burranyi Yedigei as he goes to bury his late friend, Kazangap, in a particular cemetery. As he treks in that direction, he recounts his life growing up in the Sary-Ozek steppes and tales from Kazakh folklore, his brief time as a soldier in World War II and the subsequent phase in which he was working at a railway station with Kazangap and other key characters.

The subplot is launched (literally and figuratively) from a site near the railway station, with a rocket taking off for a joint USA-USSR space station with two cosmonauts/astronauts not long before Yedigei gets the news of Kazangap's death. The two cosmonauts arrive at the space station to replace their predecessors and also to investigate their sudden disappearance, only to find a message from them explaining that they had been contacted by an advanced extraterrestrial civilisation, on a world with no war, no differences, and complete unity under one world government. On relaying this message of a utopian planet making contact with Earth (rather, that one space station), the USA and USSR governments temporarily toss their differences aside... to destroy the satellite and cosmonauts and any chance of letting the world know that it's possible to have a peaceful planet without artificial conflict.

It's an intriguing work, in effect two utterly different tales splitting out from one specific location. The Yedigei plot is a very real look at life in those parts over a long period of time. The characters are interesting and well-defined, with emotions and experiences coming through clearly. The Kazakh setting also plays an important part, coming into its own through Yedigei's trek and his tales of life in the steppes. The space subplot, on the other hand, occasionally wanders into surreal and bizarre territory, but also manages to be a satirical look at how we on Earth operate in terms of how the saga ends. It does not seem to add to the primary narrative in any way, but works as a completely different tale. The writing style, while having the same basis, conveys the two different stories with different undertones, which is certainly quite fascinating.

On the whole, an interesting but occasionally bizarre read, and worth a go if one wants to look at lesser known Soviet literature that has been appreciated.

The Lover (by Marguerite Duras) - A review

The Lover (L'Amant)

Location: Vietnam (Indochina)
Author: Marguerite Duras
Year: 1984
Genre: Romance
Theme: Set in Vietnam under French rule, the tale of a clandestine romance between a teenage girl from a poor French family and an older, wealthy Chinese man.

A brief and powerful semi-autobiographical work, this romance novel set in Saigon centres on a passionate affair between a young French girl from an impoverished and troubled background and an older Chinese man of far greater means. There is not much to be said about the plot itself beyond that, with this book serving as an intriguing look at both the romance and a complex family situation, with the protagonist feeling intense love, hate and pity for her harsh, widowed mother and an elder brother who inspires fear on many occasions, as well as great love for her younger brother.

This novella is fairly simple in its premise, but the incredibly personal approach (Duras herself experienced a similar childhood in Saigon) and powerful, intense style make for a strong tale. The characters are intriguing and well-defined, and the events feel natural. The setting is both important and not essential, as this is a tale that could happen anywhere but is still strongly shaped by the environment it is placed in. Duras' style is fairly stark, not altogether common in French literature, but is still an engaging read.

I will admit this book did not interest me as much as some others, but it is objectively an incredibly powerful work, one that is a must read for those looking at the nouveau roman, the modern French novel. It's a novella, yes, but it's packed full of strong characterisation and events that make for an engaging read.

Death and the Penguin (by Andrey Kurkov) - A review

Death and the Penguin

Location: Ukraine

Author: Andrey Kurkov

Publisher/Year: Vintage/2003 (Originally published in 1996)

Genre: Humour; Crime

Theme: A dark and humorous tale of a post-Soviet writer and his pet penguin as they get drawn into an increasingly dangerous world of crime

By and large, literature in the former Soviet states has struggled since the fall of the USSR, largely disappearing into a realm of relative obscurity. There have been some notable exceptions, though, and Kurkov's absurdist and dark satirical tales are in the forefront of contemporary of post-Soviet novels leading the charge. For some reason, I had often considering getting this Ukrainian novel but never actually got around to it until now. Ah, well, better late than never!

The tale is centred on Viktor, an aspiring writer, and his pet penguin Misha. While dreaming of greater success as a writer in his own right, Viktor pays the bills with a job as an obituary writer for a Kiev newspaper, unaware that it's actually a front for an underworld organisation and his obituaries serve as a hit list of enemies. While this is going on, Viktor also ends up having to take care of Sonya, daughter of his late friend Misha (dubbed Misha-non-penguin), and a nanny by the name of Nina (with whom Viktor shares a physical relationship) also gets integrated into the 'family.' All seems to be proceeding in a 'normal' manner, but without any semblance of life, until everything changes all at once. Misha ends up needing a heart transplant, following which Viktor decides Misha needs to return to Antarctica for a decent life. Meanwhile, Viktor also finds himself on the very hit list he had previously written obituaries for, and has to figure a way out. How the adventure unfolds in a series of strange incidents makes for an intriguing tale, one I leave to you without further spoilers.

This is a delightfully amusing read, a satirical and absurdist look at post-Soviet Ukraine and the very real struggles faced by many people. One suspects Kurkov would be dismayed by how reality continued to get darker and weirder (in a bad way) until it lined up with his own ideas, but there is little doubt that the basis was already in place. The settings and characters capture life in post-Soviet Ukraine, albeit extended ad absurdum, and provide a good idea of what it was like for the characters. The characters themselves, particularly Viktor and Misha, are engaging and interesting. And yes, the penguin is key and a well-defined character in his own right, not just a prop for a cutesy approach. The humorous style makes for an enjoyable read without taking away from the darkness at the heart of the tale, something Kurkov does brilliantly.

Overall, this is a thoroughly enjoyable book, and a definite must read for those looking to get into more contemporary literature coming out of the former Soviet Union.