Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Revisiting The Great Gatsby!

I first read 'The Great Gatsby' by F. Scott Fitzgerald over a gazillion years ago. I did love it. How could I not? Jay Gatsby was young, rich, powerful and mysterious. Girls adored him, men feared and envied him and his parties were the subject of dreams. At the tender age of 16, Fictional Gatsby was the prince I wished for my inner princess.

Forward a few light years into the future and here I was again this weekend wiping away the cobwebs, fluffing out the pages of this most memorable and loved book of my teens. Settling down into the sofa I began to read the first page. If I am to be honest with myself it all felt different right from the start. Had I even picked up the right book? I remembered this as a romance novel, was my memory failing? The initial disturbance over, I sailed through the pages but the nagging feeling would not go away. It dawned on me later what it was that was irking me; Dammit I thought, I had succumbed to age. My trusted old friend was confirming I had grown up! How? I could now see beyond the love story.

I have always been an advocate of revisiting old books and feel in a sense the experience is like meeting up with old friends. You will try to visit ones you've missed and will avoid those you never particularly liked. Old friends ground you, they remind you where you started and how far you've traveled. Personally, it is a relief, even a good thing, to know that old friends carry pieces of me with them. Floating memories of a self that I will never re-live again but will be immortal in those who have known me.

Back to The Great Gatsby, I realized the story was as beautiful as I remembered, the characters fascinating, and the writing sublime but the person holding the book was the tangent that had changed. I was no longer 16 no matter how young I tell myself I feel inside, and whether I like it or not, time works its magic on the best of us. Youth is a melodramatic magical wondrous state that is sadly only appreciated by those who have lost it and yet for those few hours visiting with my 'Gatsby', with Daisy, Tom and Nick I smiled fondly remembering a younger version of myself who had wept at how romantic Gatsby was and burned with fury at how self-righteous and boring Nick was. All that while being frowned upon by the new 'me' who could see through the shallowness, the superficial beauty, the social malaise and the sinister ugliness that seemed to pervade the entire novel. This is a story that to my eyes now is more about shattered dreams, perseverance, honesty, decency, and eventually the meaning of true friendship. The romance was gone!

Thankfully a few things remain unchanged and that is the lyrical beauty of the words that make up this novel. The first and last paragraphs still hold a firm power over my heart and one could do worse with one's time than simply to re-live them for a few hours on a quiet Sunday afternoon.

The Great Gatsby starring Leonardo diCaprio, Tobey Maguire & Carey Mulligan is out this Christmas. See trailer HERE.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Read These Books Now!

My biggest fear is losing my memory. That one day I shall wake up to find that I have forgotten who I am. That all I have worked to become has dissolved into nothing. Just a void where once I could list my life in chronological order replaced now by an ocean of nothingness. Words cannot begin to describe the tantamount fear that grips me whenever I think that it may/could happen at any time and to any one of us. I could have an accident, get knocked on the head or run down by a moving car and voila, memory deleted. So why am I bringing this up? Because I have just finished reading 'Before I Go to Sleep' by SJ Watson. This is a fascinating thriller and is the best thing I have personally read in a long time. Watson is famous  for being one of the first people to sign up for the Faber & Faber writing projects and all that hard work has paid off. This is a deliciously meaty novel that will stick with you for a long time. The writing is exquisite and the plot is so intricate and finely woven, the sort that makes one jealous that one had not written it. Read it now!


Still ploughing my way through 'Jerusalem: the Autobiography' by Simon Sebag Montefiore. And I must say 'ploughing' is a harsh verb to use as Simon Sebag Montefiore has written a book that EVERYONE can read. You don't have to be an academic or historian to get this, in fact to get it about the Middle East, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and what the big deal is about Jerusalem this is the book you should be reading. I haven't finished it yet and it might be a while but truly a delight so far.

Another book I have really enjoyed this week has been 'In Leah's Wake' by Terri Giuliano Long. For any parent who is raising a teenager in this day and age, this gives a glimpse into their lives and thoughts. It offers no solutions but it does highlight the confusing world surrounding young people and how easy it is for them to come face-to-face with the dangers parents spend their whole lives trying to shield them from. Even with parents' good intentions things can go wrong and the cliche that love is all you can offer your children rings truer than ever. Leah is a high achiever with everything going for her: football, cool friends, great grades, and a family that loves her. But when she meets her boyfriend things start to take a different turn and the dynamics of  Leah's family as they have come to know them disintegrate forcing the entire family to re-evaluate its priorities. A beautiful read and kind of like a new age 'Catcher in the Rye' sort of thing. For a complete blurb on what the book is about, click HERE

Friday, May 04, 2012

BOOKFABULOUS! Ramblings

I am writing this after completing my morning run (smug smug!). Why is this a big deal and worth a mention? Because although running may come naturally to some, for years I have struggled with issues related to running. I start with good intentions and then slowly I lose interest, feel despondent and end up where I always do: the couch!

But, (and this calls for a capitalised BUT) things have changed. Since February I have diligently stuck to my running program missing not one scheduled run come rain or shine (except for the week I had my mouth and eyebrows tattooed with permanent makeup but that should be self explanatory) and wait for this... I am actually having a good time.

So what happened? Well, a friend at school recommended reading Run Fat Bitch Run by Ruth Field and I tell you with hand on heart if you are seriously thinking you'd like to take on running and are hesitant and keep putting it off then this is the book for you. Field had me from the title. This is a no-nonsense approach to get out there and just do it. No ifs, no buts but lots of whys you should. I used this as a bible and have now managed to hit my 10k, a feat I never imagined possible. Go Me!

Running aside, this week I've enjoyed reading Michael Morpurgo's Letter for Carlos, a short story published in The Guardian. Please take a look at this and do read it to your child. It is an opportunity to teach children and remind ourselves in the process to think outside the box and to always look at the world from different angles. My 9 year-old really enjoyed it and since he read Warhorse last month, he thinks Michael Morpurgo is "awesome!".

Wednesday, May 02, 2012

The Night Counter by Alia Yunis

The story starts with the central protagonist Fatima Abudullah, on her way back from a friend's funeral. Bordering on 86 years, just divorced from her husband of sixty five years, with ten grown up children and now with children of their own, she feels that her life is at its end. This pessimistic prediction is further confirmed by the appearance of Scheherazade who has started to visit with Fatima at her Los Angeles home that she shares with her gay grandson Amir.

Scheherazade, the beauty known for her spinning of tales, finds herself in the reversed role of listener rather than story-teller as Fatima relates to her the events of her own life from the days she left Deir Zeitoon in Lebanon in 1936 to emigrate to America to the story's present year of 2011. She feels that once the tales are done in the 1001 days she will spend recounting them to Scheherazade she will die. With utter belief of her end Fatima starts to sort out the major dilemma of who to leave the house in Deir Zeitoon to when she dies, the house from which she bid her mother farewell on that last day she set out with her first husband Marwan to America, not knowing that the two would never meet again or how dramatically her life would be shaped from events to come.

The novel reads like a brief history in the life on an immigrant, here Fatima Abdullah. She is an Arab, illiterate woman who finds herself in a foreign country, with a people whose language she cannot speak and a husband she barely knows. It is a tough start by all means made even more so when Marwan dies early on leaving her alone and pregnant. Cue Ibrahim (Marwan's best friend) who she thinks marries her out of duty and obligation. Believing that his wife left him for another, Fatima agrees to the wedding but is forever convinced that this was and remained a marriage of convenience devoid of the notion that Ibrahim could ever have loved her. Once the realization sinks in though, it is too late and the last scenes of the book when we all realize what he has done as proof of his love brings a tear to the eye and is one of the most emotional parts of the book.

Fatima's ten children are first generation Americans of immigrant parents. They are children born to parents who although want their children to thinks of themselves as Americans, yet would have liked them to retain some of their Arabness as well. Fatima's daughters by her own admission are girls who do not date, but marry and her biggest regret is that all showed no interest in learning Arabic except for Nadia who decided to learn it at college further frustrating her mother who thought it ridiculous that they had to pay for her to learn a language that she could have learnt for free at home.

Fatima's children, all eight of them, lead very different lives and are totally alienated from each other. The glue binding them together throughout the novel is Fatima even if most of the time they are unaware of it. She is their anchor in so many ways that everyone including Fatima herself take for granted. She is the true personification of an Arab saying "il om bitlom" which literally means mother is the binder. The other thing that binds them is the weather.

Many readers who are themselves children of immigrant parents will relate so much with this story. The parents struggling to cope with their new foreign environment clutching at straws (in this story keys) to stay attached to a past they fear that if they lose their identity will be lost with it and the children not knowing any other country except the one they were born to. This struggle is very evident in the stories of all the children who Scheherazade takes the time out to show us when she takes a break from being Fatima's listener.

The  book has a mystery that is revealed at the end and is one of the many reasons that the Abudullah family come to realize is part of the reason why they have become what and how they are as adults. Each in his own turn has not had a very easy life and has had to fight their own demons to come out battered but not totally broken the other side. There have always been prices to pay but there has also been moments of happiness as well. The characters are believable, funny, witty and highly intelligent yet confused and lacking in self esteem. But the story is not doom and gloom and I am sorry if I have made it out to seem like that, in fact it is highly comical, and there are laugh aloud moments in the book particularly where Fatima is concerned and Amir's antics which I found quite endearing.

This is a very interesting read, and a book that I have so enjoyed that I will be reading again in the near future. I haven't been as sad to have a book end in so long. This is movie material for sure!

To learn more about the author click HERE.