The Smurfs are back this Summer

I am so excited that the Smurfs are back on screen this Summer. Cannot wait I tell you. Every evening after school, the Arab country we were in at the time would run episodes of The Smurfs and us children (although by now I was a wee bit older than the rest) would gather round and watch with eager anticipation for the episode to start while reciting the introduction (in Arabic) and thinking that this must be the best show on the planet.

When one of my cousins ridiculed them for being 'tiny' and 'short dwarfs' and what was the fuss all about anyway? it was the first time I heard the saying "precious things come in little packages" for the first time from an adult in the room. So engrossed was I with the show that the identity of the adult never stuck with the saying.

And now they are not only back but Hollywood-big and in 3D. However, this week a book entitled Le Petit Livre Bleu: Analyse critique et politique de la société des Schtroumpfs is causing an uproar from Smurf lovers around the world. It accuses the show of anti-semitism and racism. How bloody awful. Has everything now have to be politicized even children's shows that preach love, caring, looking out for one another and doing good for Good's sake?

Anyway, if you don't know who the Smurfs are here are a few things to get you by: They are all blue (not to be mistaken with Avatar blue), dress in white trousers and white cap and are mainly male except for Smurfette (actually created by the evil wizard Gargamel so she really isn't a Smurf anyway) with her golden locks and sassy white dress. They all have an accessory to identify their personality. My personal favourite is Grouchy Smurf  and Brainy Smurf (something about hormones and books that I must have had since childhood).

In those days our house was surrounded by lush woodland where we would play for hours and hours. As much as it meant to us before the Smurfs as much more magical it became after the episode ended. Our imagination ran rampant searching for the smurfs living under OUR mushroom patch and hoping that we would be the chosen humans who would be led to the village where we would greet everyone and maybe sit down to tea with a bowl of sarsaparilla.

This Summer I can hopefully introduce them to my own child and maybe just maybe we can go out to the woodland and search for them together. Lucky this time around? Who knows?

My Father's Notebook by Kader Abdolah

This is the story of Ishmael and Ishmael's father Aga Akbar. They come from a land that may as well be far far away and from a time that may as well be long long ago. From Persia. Ishmael's father is the deaf, out-of-wedlock son of a very important man. He is raised by his junkie uncle, Kazem Khan, who lives in the Saffron mountains.

Akbar is taught to write using his own form of cuneiform symbols introduced to him by Kazem Khan who one fine day hands him a pen and a journal, takes him to the holy cave of the village, and explains to him that he must write in cuneiform as they are letters etched into the stone "by a great King". Aga Akbar is hooked and after his death, this journal finds its way to Ishmael who by now lives as a political exile in the Netherlands who decides to translate the journal as a  tribute and final act of love and atonement for his dead father.

The story is told by Ishamel Mahmud Ghaznavi Khorasani who now safely lives at 21 Nieuwgracht not Amsterdam but in the Flevopolder - the reclaimed ground that the Dutch have wrested from the sea. He is battling feelings of loneliness, home-sickness and guilt at having left not only his country but his family behind particularly his father and sister Golden Bell. The revolution that had taken shape in his homeland Iran and in which he played an integral part robbed him of all that he loved and he carries with him a sense of being cheated and unable to make amends with himself for the decisions that he once took.

This is a story of exile, politics and love between family members. It is about the bravery of women and their own battle for recognition in a very harsh environment. It spans different times in Iran's history from the Shahs to Khomeini and the mullahs. It is a great introduction to anyone who does not know much on the subject. Suffism conotations are rampant and the writing is lyrical and poetic.

This is not an autobiography although the writer chooses a protagonist who like him is exiled from his country Iran and lives in Holland. This is may not be a true story in one sense but its interpretation of reality cannot be more real or vivid.

For more on Kader Abdolah, click here.

Weekend Book News!

• This week marks the 40th anniversary of Frederick Foresyth's thriller novel The Day of the Jackal about an assassin from a French terrorist group hired to killed the French president Charles de Gaulle. The novel has won many an award since its publication in 1971 and although the opening scene supposedly re-enacts a true assassination attempt on the life of Charles de Gaulle, the rest of the novel is pure fiction. As I mentioned I have not read it yet but know enough about it all these years to finally have allocated the time to crack on with it. Will let you know how I get on with it as soon as its done.

• It is so strange how when old people rant and rave we take it as humour just because of their age we think, and that they have reached a point in their lives when it doesn't matter what they say and so they shall say it. The more absurd the rant is, it guarantees that at least if nobody agrees then at least they'll be heard and noticed amongst the chaotic noisiness of today's youth. So, OK not only do I get VS Naipaul's rant this week regarding women writers reported by the Guardian. To see the article, click here.

• It has been a real pleasure this week on Sky Arts HD to have four episodes of The Book Show staged at the Hay Festival. Mariella Frostrup's guests were genuinely into it although by far my surprise favourite was Elif Shafak (author of The Bastard of Istanbul). A truly inspiring, gifted woman and it was wonderful to hear how although raised in Turkey for most of her young life and then in Britain she "thinks in both English and Turkish" and her comparisons between the two languages and their use in literature were a true eye-opener and something to consider. I look forward to reading her new book The Forty Rules of Love which is out now.

When God was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman

Another great summer holiday read!

This is a story of love between a brother and sister (not in the crude sense you filthy minded person :) ) but how sibling love carries with it all the secrets, pain, and joys of youth all the way into adulthood. It is all about the strong bond between older brother Joe and his sister Eleanor (Elly) really cemented in early childhood when Elly entrusts her brother with the biggest and most horrifying secret of her childhood. It is this secret that casts its shadow on them throughout the book and shapes them into the adults they turn out to be.

The book is set in London, Cornwall and New York and spans a generation growing up in 60s-70s Britain and then spending a stint of their adulthood lives in New York at the time of 9/11 . But make no mistake this is not a story about 9/11 or a religious book as the title may at first imply, it is more about people coping with life and whatever it throws at them and forces them to cope with from cancer to terrorism, this is a raw study of the fragility of life and yet the strength that individuals find in themselves when strength and understanding is all that one can do.

The story's fluidity is fantastic and mind you this is a debut novel but the writing is confident, rhythmic at times if also mystical, whimsical and magical. Personally, I thought the strength of the book was in its first part and all the childhood trauma that happens there from abuse to first love whether heterosexual or gay. This is a family growing up in 70s Britain when gay rights and feminism were thrust at the forefront of social and political mainstream. The theme is rampant throughout the novel and the parents of Elly and Joe, particularly their mother are trying to adapt to the changing times by reading up on new parenthood and psychology material on how best to deal with their offspring.

This is a book of hope and the writer is very reluctant to keep her reader in darkness and despair although she succeeds in taking them to the brink. There are certain over-long descriptions at times and it's a roller coaster keeping up with Elly and her emotions. Is she a likable character though? That I will leave for you to judge and maybe let me know?