Sofia
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bookshelves: fantasy, graphic-novels-and-comics
I picked up the first volume of this collection because I had heard good things about it. The premise of taking the world of fairytales and blending it with our own seemed interesting enough, and I was curious to see how it would be approached.
I have to say I wasn't terribly impressed with it. The artwork is decent, and I liked the back story about the exile of the fairytale characters from their homelands. In fact, if I ever get another book in this series, it will be because I'm interested in knowing more about that story, because the plot for this one certainly didn't cut it. Basically you have a mystery that is neither complicated, unexpected or, in my opinion, as relevant as the characters make it out to be. I finished reading this and pretty much thought, "Who cares?". And the way it was presented wasn't particularly interesting either. The overall feeling was one of underwhelming.
Still, I will probably read another one from this series, not only for the reason I have explained, but also because I want to understand why everyone seems to like it so much. ]]>
by Neil Gaiman
Existem duas versões em inglês, a que eu li é a mais recente e é a "author's preferred version", que inclui texto que foi editado da primeira versão. Digo isto porque não sei se a tradução foi feita da primeira ou da segunda versão...
De qualquer maneira, recomendo ler os livros dele em inglês. Tenho algumas das bandas desenhadas do Sandman na língua original e em português, e a tradução perde muitas das nuances de linguagem que ele usa, e presumo que nos livros de texto aconteça o mesmo. ]]>
bookshelves: currently-reading
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bookshelves: crime-and-mystery, fantasy, thriller-and-horror
Before I begin, I should say this is one of those books which have made such a deep impact on me that I find it difficult to talk about them. you have been warned.
If I had to choose one word to describe this book, it would be "epic". It manages to explore so many themes that, at times, it gets a bit overwhelming. It mixes religion, love, faith, society, technology, friendship, and it does it in such a seamless and clever way that is truly impressive. It is a novel about old gods, and the way they changed when they came to the New World, the new gods that have appeared. It's a novel about what exactly it means to be a god. It's about America as a land of opportunities, of possibilities of escape and new beginnings. It's about the darker side of people. The story is very interesting and intricate, but it's not the focal point of the book. For me, this book was more of a reflection than an actual story.
However, what I liked the most about this book was the way it explored faith and belief, the pillars of any religion. If I was really nit picky, I would complain about the fact that Neil Gaiman chose to include only the very old and the very new gods. Christianity is the most notorious absentee, with Christ only being discussed once (that I remember) and very briefly. But honestly, I didn't miss it all that much. I was just curious about how it would be approached if it had been included.
I feel like I am already failing to say what I wanted about this book. I will say though that it was deeply entertaining, interesting and thought-provoking. I recommend this to everyone. ]]>
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bookshelves: graphic-novels-and-comics, historical
Personal tales of survival from the Nazi concentration camps have appeared everywhere in literature. Historians have been able to piece together the reality of the war, of Auschwitz, Dachau and the other camps, of the horrors that went on, of the suffering that people went through. And still, for me, they continue to be incredible.
Like I said when reviewing Primo Levi's If This Is a Man / The Truce, these stories interest me because I can't bring myself to understand why things happened the way they did, and how it is possible for human beings to convince themselves that they need to exterminate other human beings as if they were vermin. This is the first striking thing about this book - the powerful visual metaphor the author uses with humans being depicted as animals. The Jews are represented by mice, which works really well to show just exactly how the others viewed them - as lesser, disgusting beings that should be eradicated. As a natural consequence, Germans are portrayed as cats (though I have to say I wasn't too happy about that, since I'm a cat person). Non-Jewish Poles are portrayed as pigs, Americans as dogs. It adds a whole different dimension to the story, since we see them as they saw each other - different categories of species.
And yet, this is more than a memoir in the form of graphic novel. It also explores the dynamic between father and child, the ambivalence of the author towards his parents, whom he both loves and resents, and the way he comes to terms with the history of his family, including feeling guilty for having had everything too easily compared to them, and feeling that his own life story could never come close to that of his parents. It also explains how difficult it was for Mr. Spiegelman to grasp the true meaning of what their parents went through, and his efforts to tell the story we are reading.
The artwork is simple but poignant, and the animal metaphor quickly disappears into the story, which makes it even more piercing when we see real photographs of the people depicted throughout the book. The photograph of the author's father wearing the prisoner's garments is especially touching.
For me, this was different from other Holocaust memoirs I've read, not only because it's in graphic novel form, but also because it's told in the point of view of someone who isn't a survivor, but a descendant, and so can explore the effect that the Holocaust had on those few who survived it. Surviving it wasn't enough. These events affected profoundly whole countries and whole generations of people.
A must-read classic, and deservedly so. ]]>
bookshelves: classics, dystopia
Humanity is doomed. At least that's what goes through my head every time I finish reading a dystopian novel. Obviously, that's an overstatement, and generally I don't believe the world is as bleak as this sort of novels portray it, since what they do is follow the ideas of what is considered "right" to an extreme and show that everything can be perverted. But still.
This book deals with violence as a moral choice. The protagonist, Alex, knows that what he does (rape, burglary, murder, violence in general) is wrong, but chooses to do it anyway. The book's central question is with regards to free will. Alex gets arrested and submits to a reforming program that involves conditioning him to be repulsed by violence. This is generally regarded as a terrible thing. And this, for me, is where the book looses its strength. I could appreciate the problem of submitting people to a conditioning process that is entirely in the hands of the government, and the potential problems that could arise from that. And I certainly appreciate humanity's free will. Of course the therapy doesn't change Alex. Of course the "good" person he becomes is nothing but an artificial machine (a "clockwork orange"), and not a person. But, in all honesty, I couldn't care less what happened to Alex. All the characters (and Alex himself) who were worried about his free will, about how the government was taking away his freedom of choice, who went on and on about how cruel what he was being subjected to was, sounded to me almost ridiculous. What about the freedom of choice of the girls he raped? Should his choice to rape them be more important than their choice not to be raped? He never seemed to think about their suffering. Why is everyone caring about his?
Of course, this is merely my opinion, and maybe that's just the cynic in me talking. I still enjoyed the book, since I was interested in its exploration of the way street violence was manipulated by politicians, and how the different people reacted to violence. I also liked the language used. The slang is difficult to understand at first, but as the book progresses you get used to it, and I actually almost ceased to notice it.
******* SPOILER ALERT *******
I haven't watched the movie by Kubrick, but from reading the introduction I know that it ends in a different, bleaker way. The book's ending didn't convince me. Blaming the violence on youth? Suddenly not wanting to rape or kill anymore because you're growing up? Sounds like a rather poor excuse (not to mention just a tiny bit insulting to young people).
******* SPOILER ALERT *******
All this aside, I still thought it was a good book, and well worth the read, provided you're ready to tackle with the slang and (especially hard for me) the very graphic depictions of violence. ]]>