Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

Before I begin my review - which I may as well say from the start is not good - let me begin with what I do like. Firstly, Ms. Niffenegger is a gifted writer. I hope she does not get discouraged by some of the negative responses to her sophomore novel. The Time Traveler's Wife was unlike anything ever written, and if she never puts pen to paper again, she would still have secured herself a place in literary history with that wonderful book.

Ms. Niffenegger is creative (a former art student, her drawings decorate the pages of Her Fearful Symmetry). She is unafraid of strange plots. She is brilliant at character development and can craft sentences that should be taught to creative writing students around the globe. And yet....

Her Fearful Symmetry tell the story of two sets of identical twins - two sisters and the daughters of one of those sisters. From the word 'go' it is hinted that the mother/aunt set have some terrible secret they are hiding. When this secret is revealed it is anticlimactic - not to mention obvious - and also adds nothing to the story. It's an uninteresting and unbelievable subplot overshadowed by an uninteresting and unbelievable main plot.

One of the elder sisters, Elspeth, dies and leaves her London flat to her nieces, the twin daughters of her sister Edie. In her will, Eslpeth dictates the girls must live there for a year - why this is her wish is unclear. The twins' new home is adjacent to a cemetery, which proves useful later on, as the story takes a madcap turn. When the girls move in, they soon discover three things: One, their neighbors, Martin and Robert, are both interesting men with whom they form relationships. Two, the apartment is haunted by the ghost of their aunt. And three, the quasi-incestuous, too-close-for-comfort sisterly bond they share is threatened by the newly found independence of one of the twins. Julia, the more dominant twin, wishes to have her sister by her side all the time and never do much except hang out together in the apartment. Valentina, the seemingly more meek twin, finds that it is impossible for her to form her own identity or assert herself in any way as long as she is joined at the hip to her sister. She therefor concocts a very, very ill advised plan for how she can ditch her sister once and for all.

It is at this point that the tale goes form being somewhat dull and a little uneven to being so incredible one cannot get past the oddities and enjoy the story. The sequence of events calls for a suspension of disbelief that I simply could not handle - and i didn't care enough about the characters to even want to. Valentina behaves in a way that is so selfish, thoughtless, juvenile and absurd it defies description. And the scenes during which she is with Robert in her "altered" condition are painful and twisted.

Believing that a man suffers form a condition which causes him to time travel is easy. Believing what Ms. Niffenegger asks us to believe in Her Fearful Symmetry is not. Having said that, there is a lot of beautiful writing here. The book evokes a mood and feeling that is distinct. And the story - flawed as it was - gets points for originality. The characters, while not likable at all - with the exception of Martin, who seems superfluous to the story - are well drawn. When Ms. Niffenegger's next book is released I will read it because I am still a believer in her talents. Nobody can pitch a perfect game every time.

A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

This is one of those books that I have been wanting to read for about twenty years, have started a few times, have been somewhat uneasy about my ignorance of - and now, finally, I did it. Was it worth the long wait? Did I spend my time wondering just what on earth had been the delay, delighting in a classic that had almost gotten away from me, ready to pass it on to friends and review it glowingly for you, my trusting public?

Not quite.

A Brave New World is, in my opinion, one of the most overrated books I have ever read. There are so many flaws in this story and silliness in the writing I scarcely know where to begin. It isn't that there are no redeeming factors to it - although there are few. However, to have this book anywhere near a list of classics or must reads, or (I can hardly believe it) greatest books of the twentieth century, is laughable. Yes, I do realize that sometimes a good book can suffer because of it's lofty reputation and often will not quite live up to what the reader expects. With that in mind, I tried to be objective and shelve any preconceived ideas I had about it. Even taking this rather liberal view, though, I just did not like it.

To start, my first objection is the lack of depth to this new world. The picture Huxley paints is incomplete. At no time does one lose oneself in this society, feeling the air the characters breath and tasting the food they taste. One doesn't cry when they cry or laugh when they laugh. It all remains sort of cerebral. The characters are weak, perhaps intentionally so. There is nobody to like or dislike, there is no protagonist. The whole thing reads like a first draft that desperately needs to be fleshed out a bit.

Furthermore,the one thing that Huxley seems to really want to hit us over the head with is sex. The characters all "have" each other all the time, having another person being as routine as going to coffee with them. The problem is this is quite literally the overarching idea of the whole book. If one can recall anything of A Brave New World weeks after reading the book, it is that sex is readily available (as are drugs). Apparently, if you glean nothing else from this book, you really, really need to glean that much. This free love is celebrated very easily because the theories of Freud have been manipulated and adapted to the point that the notion of mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers is obsolete; birth control is carried on a woman's person all the time and everyone is completely autonomous. It is an interesting subject and one that could have been explored much better if Huxley had wanted to; but he seems satisfied with an almost adolescent preoccupation with highly attractive women armed with birth control and ready to fornicate all the time. The concept never gets much further than that.

The world Huxley imagines is one where all languages except English have ceased to exist (although there are different castes of peoples which bear such titles as Alpha, Beta, etc.) This inconsistency is never addressed. What Huxley must have thought was a clever play on words in switching "Lord" (God) for "Ford" (creator of the assembly line) is repeated ad nauseam throughout the book. Laboratories produce scores of identical twins all designed to enjoy factory work, and children are reared in state-run nurseries where they are brainwashed in their sleep and - Huxley never avoiding a chance to mention sex - they are encouraged to engage in erotic play with another. These amateurish ideas are littered throughout the book and make it more of a comedy than a commentary. Further reducing the book's sophistication is the amazing coincidence of the main characters running into a "savage" on one of their trips who just happens to be the spawn of one their own kind (a civilized person). The odysseys of this savage into the modern world is a storyline for which I simply had difficulty drumming up enthusiasm. It revealed nothing of human nature other than pat, simplistic assertions that it is better to live life properly, pain and all, than to spend it having random sex and taking drugs. Which I do not find to be an earth shattering theses.

To compare this book to 1984, which many do, is an insult to a book that I consider to be a masterpiece. I have re-read 1984 many times and never fail to enjoy it; I had difficulty reading A Brave New World even once. While there is some enjoyment to be found in the ideas put forth in this "classic", it is about the same amount of enjoyment one would get from reading a paper written by a junior in high school entitled, 'What I think the Future Would Look Like,' - a paper that would, no doubt, be censored by her teacher for being too preoccupied with sex and excessive in uninteresting puns.

image from amazon.com

The Count of Monte Cristo

Part of my plan for this blog is to review work I've read awhile ago. I am doing this for two reasons: firstly, it'll help me out if a book takes me a few weeks to read...in other words, if I get lazy, I'll just talk about something I read ages ago. Secondly, I have plenty to say about books I've already read, and I don't want to simply focus on what I am reading now. And it's my blog, so I can do what I want!
It was a tough decision whether to review The Cont of Monte Cristo or The Three Musketeers first. They are both by Dumas and both are so stinking amazing. But I guess Monte Cristo wins by a sword (ha!) This book is the definition of swashbuckling. I mean if someone said, "what does swashbuckling mean?" I would look slightly puzzled, scratch my head, then brighten up and declare, "Aha! Read, The Count of Monte Cristo"!
The "Count" is an young gentleman who, because of his favor with his superiors and the love of his girl, arouses the jealousy of a few of his acquaintances. They decide to get even with him, arranging circumstances that lead to him being arrested. In prison, things seem bleak, but the Cont has some good luck come his way. He also uses his smarts and makes the best of a bad situation. Finally, he re-enters society, disguised as the mysterious Count of Monte Cristo. I don't want to spoil it by telling you all the particulars because they are really wonderful, charming details and I would hate to gyp you out of discovering them for yourself. All I can say is, he is bent on revenge on has the means to get it.
I suppose I love this book so much because of the Count. He is devastatingly attractive. What woman wouldn't like a mysterious, brilliant, dangerous, wealthy Frenchman? The passion that he feels is contagious, and while reading this I was rooting for him on every page. As an author, Dumas is a genius. His dialogue is excellently crafted, his plots are airtight, his sense of time and place are perfect. Even Though his books are considered "classics', I can't help but feel he does not get the credit as a writer that he deserves. Few authors whom I have read are in his league. He just can write a good story with good characters that you'll stay up 'til 3:00 a.m. reading.
And I must say, if one were ever inclined to embrace the technology of the Kindle and other similar devices, this book would be great for it. The story is long, and lugging the big book around is a pain. Actually, I put off reading this for years because a friend had bought it for me and it looked like too much of a time investment.....I mean, the thing was so thick. Then I decided to try a smaller version with smaller print, and it was just easier to handle and easier to read. So, lesson learned; if a book ever intimidates you by it's size, shop around for another size that fits you more. Nobody wants to go read poolside with a book double the width of the Bible.
This is far and away one of my favorite books. It is engrossing, exciting, romantic, funny. it is worth noting that the author lived a thrilling, adventurous lifestyle, so "knows about which he speaks." Hope you like it as much as I did.

Bombay Time by Thrity Umrigar

Bombay Time is the debut novel of Thrity Umrigar, Indian ex-pat and professor at Case Western Reserve University (in my hometown, Cleveland!) I am only recently discovering her work and I am devouring it. She's wonderful. Umrigar really knows how to create characters; their pathos, their idiosyncrasies, their train of thought. She knows how to weave the inner workings of a character's mind with what other characters are thinking about them. She knows how to create relationships - real and complex relationships. My only complaints about her are she tends to get a little one-dimensional when she is describing characters' courtships (usually, she sticks to the standard 'man crazily pursuing woman' plot) and she can be a bit of a downer. But really, that's not even a complaint, because what can I expect, that every author is going to pull a a Jane Austen and serve us up a wedding at the end, neatly tied up in a bow? So, I suppose I retract that complaint and take it as the price one pays for reading fiction.
Bombay Time is a truly wonderful, real book. Several residents of an apartment building in Bombay have gathered together for the wedding of one of their own. They are middle-aged Parsis, all of whom have essentially grown up in and out of each others lives, business, kitchens, relationships. Some are happily married, some are unhappily. Some have lost the loves of their youth. Some were orphans with nothing promised to them, some have not lived up to their promise. Umrigar takes us in and out of the wedding, puling us aside with each character to walk down the corridor of their past. The rituals and customs of India are present on every page, which is to say, all sorts of customs are represented. From arranged marriages to forced sex, from dowrys and in-laws to torrid love affairs, there is no "typical" Indian courtship, career path, or lifestyle. The stories are vastly different, yet could only occur then and there, in India, in the Parsi minority. Umrigar's dialogue is peppered with Indian phrases, and she provides a somewhat incomplete glossary at the end to help the reader. My favorite characters are probably Coomi and Adi. Coomi is an unhappily married woman with a grown daughter who lives in England. She spends most of her days gossiping with a neighbor, often about her own husband. She is an extremely imperfect character, as evidenced by her caustic tongue she unleashes on her husband and her somewhat meddling-but not that bad- mother-in-law. However, she has redeeming qualities, and is likable. She has reached a point in her life where she as mellowed a bit and would like to regain some of the intimacy she has lost with hr husband. Adi is a young man who, while barely out of his teens, did something he regrets. He is a hauntingly sad character, I think for me, because he represents how often one bad decision can color the est of your life. Although I didn't exactly approve of him, I longed for him to forgive himself.
The final chapters of this story are kind of lame, almost like the characters - so loud, so deeply lined and sweaty and just alive- have leaped back onto the page and now are merely written words. Perhaps that is the effect the author desired, since the book wraps late in the night after a long day at the wedding. In spite of the somewhat tired ending, however, I really enjoyed this book and recommend it.

Our Last Best Chance by King Abdullah II of Jordan

King Abdullah has interested me for awhile for several reasons. As the son of the Jordanian King Hussein and British-born Princess Muna, I've been curious about this western educated (he even went to school in America), moderate Muslim. That curiosity was piqued after I read the memoirs of his step-mother, the current Queen Dowager, Queen Noor, several years ago. (Leap of Faith, Miramax) While I definitely enjoyed that book and learned quite a bit about her life, her husband and the region, I also couldn't help but feel that the book was cold. It felt like a press release. Queen Noor gave us the story she wanted to present to the world, consistently painting herself as disinterested in power and the trimmings of royalty. That is her right, of course, but I was hoping for something with a little more blood in the veins. She touched on some of the fascinating family dynamics that were going on behind the scenes, but again, one had to read between the lines to understand what was happening.
So, I was eager to read this book by her step-son. Before I continue, perhaps a brief primer on Jordan's royal family will help those who haven't read up it. King Hussein of Jordan reigned from 1952 until his death of cancer in 1999. He married four times; he divorced his first wife, then married the mother of the current king, the British born Princess Muna (formerly Antoinette Gardiner). After they divorced, he married Queen Alia, who died in a helicopter crash. Finally, King Hussein married his fourth and final wife, Queen Noor (formerly Lisa Halaby). Many people believe Queen Noor was pushing hard for her son, Hamzah, to be named the successor to the throne in the final days of King Husein's life. Why anyone would think the King would pass over his eldest son, who is well educated and military trained to give the crown to one his younger sons is beyond me. Queen Noor denies this in her book, claiming that she wanted Hamzah to have a chance to continue his education. Whatever the truth, in the end, Hussein named Abdullah his successor, and when the King died, Adbullah took the throne.
This transitional period was, to me, the most interesting part of the book. Abdullah spent most of his life in boarding school and in the military. He had no real apprenticeship with his father, and when he took the throne, he admits he barely knew many of the people with whom he would now be working closely. He hints at the fact that there was quite a bit of drama behind the scenes, as many of the people at court were loyal to Queen Noor and, it stands to follow, Prince Hamzah. Others were closer to Prince Hassan, the former Crown Prince. Simply put, the new King Abdullah was a little unprepared for the role, although a lifetime of travel, being educated abroad and many conversations with his father over the issues facing the region had prepared him better than he realized. In my opinion, he also had a healthy does of just plain common sense and is a good, decent man, something that all the preparation and education in the world could not provide.
This book is more a memoir than a dissertation on our "last great chance" for peace in the region. Although King Abdullah does discuss the issues at hand and even addresses the Israeli people directly in this book, he focuses much more on his life story. There are some amusing anecdotes in the book, especially one about his trip to North Korea. The book also provides a fascinating inside look at America as seen through the eyes of this Middle Eastern leader. For example, while King Abdullah definitely seems to like George Bush as a person, he has some beefs about Bush's policies, plus a few funny tales about comments made to him over the years by Bush and some members of congress. Fortunately, for any American reading this book, the imperfections of America are seen through the affectionate eyes of a man who was educated here, has many friends here, and travels to this country extensively. So they aren't annoying in any way, at least I didn't think so.
The King talks about his beautiful and intelligent wife, Queen Rania, and their four children quite a bit. He is clearly very much a family man, and while he has a tremendous amount of respect for his late father, I got the impression that the King did not appreciate the way his father often changed wives. This King, I believe, will not be making the same mistakes, especially given the frosty relationship he now has with his step-mother Queen Noor. He also has named his son Crown Prince, something King Hussein did not do until his deathbed which caused a lot of scheming in the Jordananian court for several months. So while King Abdullah clearly honors his father's legacy, he also is not repeating some of the mistakes that were made.
All in all, this a great read if you like biography and are interested in the region. Since I fall into both of those categories, I enjoyed it quite a bit. The writing is very good, and feels extremely fresh - many of the quotes used were taken from notes of meetings with world leaders and one can almost hear those people saying those things. And since the story goes well into the Obama administration, it is very current and dynamic. Complete with photographs (alas, in black and white) and a very touching acknowledgements section, this is an excellent book too for anyone who is unfamiliar with Jordan or Middle Eastern politics. It's somewhat basic and easy to read, so if you're a newcomer to this area of the world, you won't get lost.

Welcome to a new and exciting blog - well, new anyway.

Welcome to Booksheflish, an admittedly odd title, but given the difficulty of finding an available web domain these days, it'll have to do. And actually, I kind of like it. It is at least unique. Perhaps tough to spell and a little unclear on the meaning - but whatever. It's mine and it's going to stay.
So, what is Bookshelfish? It is *ahem, ahem* "Amateur book reviews from a champion reader, recommendations on what to read, a whole assortment of lists (lists of favorite authors, lists of best books for certain moods, lists of best pizza toppings"....Well, maybe not that one. But oh, how I do love a list.)
Anyway, it is all things reading, an homage to the printed page - printed, not downloaded. Unless you prefer downloaded. Then that's cool, because, you know, I do need followers. So whatever makes you happy. The point is, if you've ever ran out of room on your bookshelf, if you've ever began a sentence with the words, "Remember in Ghandi's memoirs, when he addresses..." if you've ever spent the food money at the used book store just because your copy of The Color Purple is worn out and you are a WHITE person, for Pete's sake - then this is the spot for you. If you spend your free time on the Wii, move on. I won't be offended.
NOTE: I am aware that book titles are supposed to underlined. However, I have no idea how to do it on my computer. So they will be in bold. And judging by the grammar and punctuation I see from most of my friends on Facebook, nobody will be too concerned about it. I mean really, was Facebook invented just to showcase the utter illiteracy of an entire population? Your dog, you're going to the movies, they're late for dinner, there is my cat, that is their Yani CD. Geez, people. I mean, what were they doing in the fifth grade? Actually hanging around with your friends and having fun, not studying how to diagram a sentence? Okay, back to the topic at hand. Which was....well, I cannot recall. But one more thing: a lot, not alot. Thanks.