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July 10
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Simon
gave
 
to:
Lessico Famigliare (Paperback)
by Natalia Ginzburg
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in January, 2008
Simon said:
"Starts off well, and with an original approach to the subject mater - family relationships seen through the prism of its own peculiar language. The words, phrases, references, and songs specific to a close-knit group of people. Characters are vivid a...more
Starts off well, and with an original approach to the subject mater - family relationships seen through the prism of its own peculiar language. The words, phrases, references, and songs specific to a close-knit group of people. Characters are vivid and memorable, but as the book goes on it doesn't really develop beyond a series of character sketches - plot developments, such as they are, are perfunctory and secondary in importance. Worth reading the first 50 or so pages, though....less
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July 09
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New comment on Pierce's review of
A Spot of Bother
(see all 3 comments)
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New comment on Simon's review of
A Spot of Bother
(see all 2 comments)
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Simon
gave
to:
A Spot of Bother (Hardcover)
by Mark Haddon
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in July, 2008
Simon said:
"I was really in the mood for this. Most of the books I read are about extraordinary people doing extraordinary things, so it felt refreshing to read about "normal" people drinking cups of tea and worrying about their health and having minor...more
I was really in the mood for this. Most of the books I read are about extraordinary people doing extraordinary things, so it felt refreshing to read about "normal" people drinking cups of tea and worrying about their health and having minor disagreements, like watching a Mike Leigh film after a string of Hollywood superhero blockbusters.
And for a while that was enough. Some gentle humour, mundane pop culture references, easy to read.
The thing is, you either get this sort of thing over with in a couple of hundred pages, or you make it into something deeper and more penetrating in order to justify 500 pages. Haddon, however, chooses to keep things fairly superficial yet still pads it out to Proustian length. The sections dealing with George's breakdown were the most interesting to me, and suggested a much darker, more interesting book (the chapter halfway through where he picks up a pair of scissors had me literally squirming in my seat), but this is an ensemble piece, so we have to keep cutting back to less interesting supporting characters. And the climax, while emotionally satisfying in some ways, still feels a little pat and too tidy....less
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July 03
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Simon
read and liked
Yulia's
review of Shutting Out the Sun: How Japan Created Its Own Lost Generation:
"This book provides essential insight into Japan's mindset as a country of largely homogeneous citizens who still trust only those in their closest circles and its younger generation's struggle to find their place in a banquet with too few seats and t...more
This book provides essential insight into Japan's mindset as a country of largely homogeneous citizens who still trust only those in their closest circles and its younger generation's struggle to find their place in a banquet with too few seats and too strict a dress-code. What happens when democracy is forced onto a nation that has not fought for its rights? What happens when bullying becomes an accepted form of social feedback and women are given the same tests as men, only to enter into an adulthood of limited choices? What happens to a country founded on stable employment when the jobs no longer last a lifetime?
Zieelenziger does confront intriguing and necessary questions about a nation in turmoil that insists on maintaining a placid front. I only wish the book were better organized and less lumped together, as it often seemed, that Zielenziger had laid out in the beginning why boys and girls have tended to take drastically different solutions to the crisis in their schooling, and perhaps even begun by giving us the historical foundation for the current social crises he reports, instead of leaving this analysis to the end. The answer of how to weave together the present dilemma among Japan's youth and adult population and the historical underpinnings of the crisis remains uncertain. Most books provide a glimpse of the crisis, then provide the history, then delve back into the individual cont4mporary issues and the people they affect. Zielenziger perhaps wanted to do things differently by ending on a historical note, but I don't know if this made sense narratively. And certainly he should have confronted directly the obvious gender divide in the youth's response to tremendous pressure in school.
A lumpy but fascinating read. ...less
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July 01
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Simon
gave
to:
Shutting Out the Sun: How Japan Created Its Own Lost Generation (Hardcover)
by Michael Zielenziger
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in June, 2008
Simon said:
"Or "Dude, the Japanese are SO fucked up!"
A fascinating analysis of the hikikomori phenomenon (young Japanese men who shut themselves in their rooms and refuse all contact with the outside world), and how it relates to (and illustrates the...more
Or "Dude, the Japanese are SO fucked up!"
A fascinating analysis of the hikikomori phenomenon (young Japanese men who shut themselves in their rooms and refuse all contact with the outside world), and how it relates to (and illustrates the problems of) Japanese culture and society as a whole. There's also an interesting chapter on "Marriage in a homosocial society", but later in the book he lost me a bit as he widened his scope to include more economic theory and history. It's also, despite the occasional "No, really, I love Japan", quite a negative book as a whole, arguing that Japanese society is fundamentally flawed and needs to be radically reinvented.
A couple of his "Only in Japan!" comments make me think that he needs to experience a few more cultures so that he can make better comparisons, but on the whole this is an intelligent and revealing book....less
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June 20
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Simon
gave
to:
The Earthsea Trilogy: A Wizard of Earthsea; The Tombs of Atuan; The Farthest Shore (Paperback)
by Ursula K. LeGuin
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in June, 2008
Simon said:
"I find it strange that this has ever been considered to be a children's book. It has a toughness, and austerity and some genuine darkness (as opposed to the superficial Harry Potter style "darkness") to it. The stories themselves are fairly...more
I find it strange that this has ever been considered to be a children's book. It has a toughness, and austerity and some genuine darkness (as opposed to the superficial Harry Potter style "darkness") to it. The stories themselves are fairly straightforward, but LeGuin fills them with atmosphere (especially the stifling claustrophobia of Tombs of Atuan) and subtly weaves in elements of eastern philosophy. Despite the small scale of some of the action, it acheives a real sense of grandeur and weight....less
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May 22
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Simon
gave
to:
The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon (Paperback)
by Sei Shonagon
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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Simon said:
"Did you enjoy the parts of Memoirs of a Geisha which described the Japanese rituals, behaviour, attitudes, fashion, etc, but find yourself, like me, less than enthralled with the plot and characters? Then this is the book for you.
A collection of no...more
Did you enjoy the parts of Memoirs of a Geisha which described the Japanese rituals, behaviour, attitudes, fashion, etc, but find yourself, like me, less than enthralled with the plot and characters? Then this is the book for you.
A collection of notes, lists, stories and reminisences by a court lady in Japan during the Heian period, it comes across essentially as a kind of 10th century blog, with both the strengths and weaknesses that implies. It's formless, rambling and self-indulgent, yet full of fascinating detail, painting a vivd picture of a particular environment and time, revealing its' attitudes (the poor are there to be laughed at) and habits (they're obsessed with quoting poetry at each other)....less
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April 21
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Simon
gave
to:
Third Culture Kids: The Experience of Growing Up Among Worlds (Paperback)
by David C. Pollock, Ruth E. Van Reken
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in April, 2008
Simon said:
"I bought this becasue my two children have parents from two different cultures (UK and Italy) and live in a third (Belgium, which is, itself, a lumping together of two cultures - Walloon and Flemish...).
It's probably of less practical use for them...more
I bought this becasue my two children have parents from two different cultures (UK and Italy) and live in a third (Belgium, which is, itself, a lumping together of two cultures - Walloon and Flemish...).
It's probably of less practical use for them (or me) than I anticipated, as it focuses more on people who regularly change country (military brats, missionary and diplomatic kids, etc), and who therefore have to learn to re-make their world every few years or so, rather than those who, like us, are pretty settled in their new country.
Still, there's a lot of interesting stuff here which is also of relevance to anyone who's ever lived abroad for an extended period, and expats will empathise with much of the stuff about forming friendships, relationships to the "host" and "home" culture, and so on....less
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April 17
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New comment on Pierce's review of
Identity: A Novel
(see all 3 comments)
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