Book Review: Weather by Jenny Offill

 

Maybe the Millennials books are not my thing? Maybe my passion for books made up of paragraphs made of nicely - or even beautifully - written sentences with the above mentioned paragraphs looking like decks of cards randomly threw up in the page, is just a thing of the past? I have not the single idea and I wish there is a therapist, or even two, which can properly deal with book delusions and heartbreak...Yeah, I am heartbroken, again, but this time because of a book. 

Weather by Jenny Offill broke my heart. It is not the first book in the last months, and I bet not the last. Like in a relationship not meant to be things sounded good after a couple of pages, irony was philosophically great - I mean, how not to hahaha in waves when Ben, the husband of Lizzie, the librarian with no proper biblioeconomy educationt reads Stoics before breakfast - therefore a bit of chemistry was in the air too, but before reaching the half of the book I gave up of finding any sense. Of course life has no sense and is not going anywhere and we, humans, we are creature of boring habit and of course the American politics and newsreel turn the same humans into senseless creatures with no coordination between the right and the left sides of the brain. 

The insertions of environmentalist issues were a relatively new and interesting add on as a literary subject, and I feel the need to mention it because I haven´t read too many books with such a repertoire of topics. But, again, it was not enough to like Weather. I couldn´t do anything and my (reading) experience thought me that some books - as relationships - are not meant to be. 

Rating: 2 stars

Tunisian Book Review: Du Pain et Du Jasmin by Monia Mazigh

I am so grateful for my French Institute library card, as it allows me to discover authors from the French-speaking realm that are not easily available or made known outside the French area. It has a touch of colonialism, I know, but for the avid reader in me, keen to know other literatures from around the Globe, this access is a tremendous source of inspiration and of books that I can happily review on my modest blog.

Two diaries, a mother´s and a daughters´s. Two events with a revolutionary potential. One country: Tunisia. 

I am always curious about Tunisia - its history, culture and politics - and one of my very close friends is Tunisian-French therefore until being able to visit the country, I wanted to know more about its literature. 

Monia Mazigh was born in Tunisia but emigrated to Canada where she writes novels mostly based in her home country. Mazigh believes in fiction as a political art and is well known for her political activism, mostly on behalf of his husband deported by the American immigration authorities to Syria on suspicion of terrorist links. I may not agree with all the causes an author supports nevertheless I will be curious to read his or her books because I believe in the power of words, even they do oppose mines.

Du pain et du jasmin builds a bridge between two revolutionary events in Tunisia´s history: the so-called Bread riots between 1983 and 1984 and the ´Jasmin revolution´ in 2010. First, it´s the account of Nadia followed by her daughter´s, Lila, who is visiting, trying to improve her Arabic and reconnect to her roots. The diaries are intertwined, as short everyday accounts of people, events and the overall situation in the country. For Lila, it´s a moment when she is growing up, learning about life and values, in the same vein Nadia did when she was almost the same age. Out of her pampered life in Canada she is able to experience the difference between good and bad and how in some parts of the world, there is a different emphasis on values. Freedom, including freedom of speech, may turn sometimes into life-threatening situations, and being rebel in those countries do have a completely different meaning which may lead to years long of emprisonment. 

Although the book is more focused on the message than on the literary skills and composition, it was a good reading. As someone who loves politics - maybe too much - it was an interesting experience and I am looking forward to enrich my journey through the Northern African literature, one French book at a time (as for now, as my Arabic is hilarious on all possible accounts).

Rating: 3 stars

Movie Review: Caotica Ana

 

Hypnosis may turn into a traumatic experience, no matter how well prepare for the encounter with your inner soul and deeply burried memories. I did it once completely by curiosity and even I prepared the event for long months and also was in best hands, it took me almost one year to get rid of the uncomfortable feeling of brokeness. Entering your psychic underground does leave traces into one´s daily life in the way in which one may feel when being unwillingly shared a terrible secret. You want to - at least I did want it to - forget it, but somehow it remains sticked on your mind no matter what. It´s like the experience does have its own availability and will get out of your mind only after its expiration date, even if you struggle with all your might to forget it. The demons are out in the free and out of your control.

Caotica Ana by the Spanish film director Julio Medem is chaotically dark. An induced exploration of the mind of a young artist living a bohemian, non-conformist life in a hole in the mountains in Ibiza, it is set as a sequency of various episodes in a descrescendo counting typical for the hypnosis sessions. The movie was made following the tragical death of his younger sister, Ana, also an artist.

Meeting her thousand of year-old selves, in a journey through mostly native cultures and tongues, once returned back to her everyday life, she is asking: ´Who I am when I am not dreaming?´ Her encounters with the subconscious are progressively turning from political stories of militantism to dark comedy kitsch. It was not the sheer brutality that bothered me, but the effort to bring on too many symbols and meanings from Freud to Jung, which complicated and overloads the visual story. Which is a pity because there were some good premises for a more relaxed narrative, especially when it comes to the hidden connections between subsconscious layers and the artist self. 

In the end, I may honestly say that I was not impressed at all, although the journey through the maze and the symbols and the genuine naive enthusiasm of the Ana character did have some appeal.

Rating: 2 stars 

A Sea Prayer...

´I wish you hadn´t been so young.

You wouldn´t have forgotten the farm house,

the soot of its tone walls,

the creek where your uncles and I built

a thousand boyhood dreams´.

´But that life, that time,

seems like a dream now,

even to me,

like some long-dissolved rumour´.

Sea Prayer by Khaled Hosseini is an illustrated poem dedicated to all the father, mothers and children who tried to escape wars and famine and prosecution by taking the way of the sea towards the shores of the European freedom. The watercolour illustrations by Dan Williams are the perfect visual match, which outline the emotional environment and take the reader into a dream-like realm. This is how, mostly, our dreams appear to us, wrapped in the pastel-like unclear shapes. 

In few inspired words, Khaled Hosseini convenes the heartache of leaving one´s home, family and childhood memories, going to face the unknown where most probably their misfortune is never welcomed. Alone while craddled together in the boats taking them away be night, they pray but this is for soothing their souls. Fate has not always have been merciful to them.

This was the case of the 3yo Syrian boy, Alan Kurdi, to whom and other thousands of refugees the book is dedicated to. In 2015, he drowned in the Mediterranean Sea trying to reach safety. His story, widely mediatized was for a while a topic of international discussion, but it did not change tremendously the situation as many many other unknown victims were eaten alive by the sea while trying to escape the war-torned regions of the world. The Afghan-American Khaled Hosseini, the unforgettable storyteller of the Kite Runner, is an UNCHR Goodwill Ambassador. 

Sea Prayer is a moving tribute to the fate of those people who did not make it safely to the freedom shores and a mind-opener aimed to renember humans all over the world, but particularly in charge to deciding the fate of the refugees that they should be first and foremost empathic human beings.

Rating: 5 stars

Book Review: Orhan´s Inheritance by Aline Ohanesian

´Once there was and it was not...´

´Places and things stay with us, and sometimes we stay with them...´

When Orhan´s grandfather left their house to an unknown woman living in California, he is sent to convince her to give up her rights. A photographer whose political opinions were abandoned after being arrested and having pushed into partial exile out of Turkey, Orhan will have to face the past his grandfather never shared with, but also well hidden family histories.

In writing Orhan´s Inheritance Aline Ohanesian was inspired by her own grandmother stories of the tragedy of the 1,5 million Armenians murdered by official order of the Ottoman Empire. The Armenian genocide commemorated today, the 24th of April, never acknowledged by Turkey, was finally declared as such today by the Biden administration, the first American president to openly recognize it, a political gesture of acknowledgement of a documented historical fact. The trauma of the genocide is part of the Armenian collective and individual history. I remember how back in the old country, we always felt safe and at ease in the company of the children of the many Armenian friends of my parents - all refugiated there after the genocide - because we both shared the silences of our historical curse. In their company, we felt normal in our sad anormality and overwhelming weight of memory.

Orhan´s Inheritance is far from being an apologetic book and through the back and forth of historical timelines it creates an emotional story, of a forbidden love and individuals for whom race and religion are less important than saving a human life endangered by political blindness and cruelty. What unites the characters in this book is the power of words and the trauma that words can further challenge. One of my favorite idea of the book was to connect between the power of speech, or rather the refuse to use it, with the traumatic experiences. Indeed, witnessing overwhelmingly dramatic events can supress temporarily or permanently the capacity of organising that experience into words. 

Aline Ohanesian created an inspiring story with a few - unfortunatelly not all of them are created complex - powerful characters. In this case, the story is stronger than its separate parts and this is what how the book will be remembered, by the uniqueness of the narrative.

For me, this book was also a gentle reminder that I don´t have to wait for another year until I posting a blog on Armenian literature related topics. Here is a short introduction to a couple of Armenian women writers in English translation. 

I had access to the book in audiobook format, narrated by the distinct voice of Assaf Cohen, actor in movies like Fauda and When Heroes Fly. 

Rating: 4 stars

 

Book Review: Marzahn, Mon Amour

Dresden-born published author Katja Oskamp decides in her mid-40s to make a professional turn: with her husband chronically ill and her daughter out of the nest, at the end of a training course she will become a podiatrist working in a small office in the Eastern part of Berlin, a neighbourhood called Marzahn. Her everyday interaction with her clients - mostly old retired men and women whose most of their lives were spent in the German Democratic Republic - inspired her to write a collection of short stories, published in 2019 - Marzahn, Mon Amour.

Although I am living in Berlin for over a decade and I am quite acquainted with this city´ secrets, I haven´t been to Marzahn more than twice, and at least once it was completely by accident. I had not a single ounce of interest to walk the alleys bordered by 10+ storey blocks of houses which remind me strongly of urban planning whose spirit I have no interest to be part thereof. At the first sight, there can be easily qualified under the larger category of ´communism architecture´ and one can spot it all over the former Eastern block, from Lithuania to Romania, but in fact, a more educated eye will see it in the French suburbs as well, as a tribute to the urban philosophy of Le Corbusier, aiming to answer the overpopulation and the increasing social mobility.

I´m personally familiar with the stories shared between women at the beauty parlor or at the hairdressing salon, but in Marzahn, Mon Amour there is a whole world which unfolds - literally - at the author´s feet. All of the characters featured in the book do have a GDR common story thread, from Friedrichstadt Palast memories to work in various factory and mostly dramatic post-unification memories. There is the average Eastern experience without the expected nostalgia. The author, herself growing up in the GDR, is taking notes and later turn their stories into her written story. The combination between memoir, journalistic realism - which reproduces even the accents and special way of talking used by its subjects - and literary talent creates unique life accounts through which the portrait of a neighbourhood - Marzahn, is created. 

Oskamp herself does not live in this part of the city and it is rather a visitor on the alleys of the residential area inaugurated in the 1980s. While at work, she observes her clients that for the price of 22 euro pro treatment are a perfect source of literary inspiration. The notes are related not only to the people, but also of their environment, including their key social meeting points, such as the cemetery of the church. But there are also 11,000 dogs registered in this part of the city, maybe because old people may need a 4-foot trustworthy companion too. (Now, there is a bit of sociological approach too).

I enjoyed Marzahn, mon amour in the original German language, in one long sitting. It´s a great linguistic experience as well, besides the human traces as well. Although it did not change too much my thoughts about this part of the city, it has accomplished to reveal a way of documenting and approaching a topic therefore, I take it as a relevant writing inspiration as well as a reference for contemporary Berlin-based German literature. 

Rating: 3 stars

About American Dirt

Something happens to me this year: I am becoming a very picky reader. This means often that I either give up on books that seem to do not go anywhere - in terms of story, quality or any other high literary criteria - (and this very recently happened to me in the case of the critically praised Writers&Lovers that after over 100 pages haven´t stirred any of my many literary feelings) or in the case of those that I am stoic enough to finish, I will not award them more than two palid shining stars. This happened with the very controversial American Dirt that I´ve (finally) finished yesterday evening.

At this point, I will not enter into the contextual controversy around the book. It´s over a year old and much has been said about it. I don´t have too much to add to it anyway to what was already written. This article summs up the most important points about this book.

My curiosity is to try to see what the book has to offer from the literary point of view. At the end of the last year, somewhere in October, I´ve started to read the book. To be honest, at the very beginning of it, I was really caught in and I kept being so for a bit over hundred pages. The thriller lover in me was curious about what really happened to the main woman character Lydia and why her family was murdered by the mafia. The spooky platonic soul connection between the same Lydia, bookstore owner in Acapulco, and the narco-mafioso who ultimately killed her family sounded also worth giving a try. Overall, at the beginning, the writing was also good.

But, as I was advancing into the book and Lydia´s run out of the reach of narco-maniac, together with her geography gifted 8 year old son, towards el norte, to Estados Unitos, my interested dimished little by little. All that road across Mexico, trying to escape the mafia people tracing her, sounded so artificious and like taken out of a badly documented post about ´Things to be aware of when visiting Mexico´. Those kind of listicles that I bet no one is really taking serious any more those days.

I´ve abandoned the book for months with no clear plans to return to it, until a couple of days ago when my mental spring cleaning set as one of the top priorities trying to finish some of the books I had on my TBR for very different reasons. 

Once returned to the book, I haven´t feel that I really missed it, but tried at least to give it a try until the very last page. As the writing in itself is not that bad and there is a story, I didn´t need to convince myself to further read it.

However, this second part - I´ve left the book just in the middle - required on my behalf a steady resilience. Every couple of dialogues, I was becoming more and more annoyed with the grotesque voice given to a 8 years old which no matter how gifted he might have been, was talking with a voice of an adult. One example of his misfit wordings: ´Machismo will get you killed´. A 10 years old old joining later the group on their journey to America is talking on the same voice. Although he is assumed to have spent time with the lawless, still the voice he was assigned is largely inappropriate. I never thought this kitsch can be so annoying but now I know. It´s such a missed opportunity for the writing quality to fail finding the right child voice. Therefore, it fails to bring diversity of points of views and perspectives as, in the end, all the characters are talking on the same tone, repeating over and over again the same discourse the writer wants (you) to hear. 

There are some successes, although small, of the American Dirt, namely the portrayal of human connections, empathy and solidarity, particularly women solidarity, in moment of dramatic distress. 

On the other hand, I couldn´t place any of those encounters in a larger literary geography. I may understand the contemporary references to the anti-migration policies under president Trump and the helplessness against a very corrupt state, but this book is a very light - and largely stereotypical - try to offer a fictional approach to the topic. Gd knows that I really tried to get into the book, many months in a row, actually. Which only made things worse.

Rating: 2 stars

Documentary Film Review: Aquarela

 

There is a terrific truth about nature that only real nature lovers, I suppose, are aware of: its blind strength. If one ever witnessed a tornado or a storm for instance would thereafter rarely depict nature in the pastel glamorous colours that may happen to be used from a completely outsider viewpoint. After surviving an episode of nature outrage, no one will think about nature other than with contempted fear. 

In this vein, Aquarela, a 2018 documentary film by the Russian film director Viktor Kossakovsky ís a one hour and a half sequence of episodes potraying the presence of water in the life of humans, mostly in its overwhelming power-driven aspect. The images are from all over the world and we rarely acknowledge the geographical location - some English words over there, some Cyrillic-written words on the working overall there - which is largely irrelevant. The camera is moving slowly, always passive observer of the unchained forces of nature. 

Underwater there is a silence that you can hear. Outside, the waves are brought by the wind out of the sea, breaking out trees and splashing the human houses. Even as an outside watcher, a nature voyeurist, one will acknowledge how insignificant humans can be facing the force of nature. 

As a frequent nature lover and photographer - especially in my pre-Covid19 life, I appreciated the silent discourse of the images and the techniques which are outstanding. Kossakovsky authored other documentary movies, one in which he is quietly observing the passers-by in Sankt Petersburg. I would definitely love to know more about the specific techniques used in filming Aquarela. 

The musical background is matching often the images when it does not outline directly specific water-related contexts. 

Indeed, this film is first and foremost about water. Not necessarily in the everyday life interpretation - which is so important for the humans, as a source of life - but equally as an autonomous source of destruction, as a terrifying poetry of natural freedom. 

Aquarela is one of those movies that I can watch over and over again without ever getting bored - which is a high occurrence when it comes to reading a book or watching a movie twice. Its beauty is so natural and unassuming that I will hardly be sure that I really understand everything even after at least ten more watchings. 

Rating: 5 stars

And Zarathustra Kept Silent...

 Contrary to the general - philosophical - assumption, this time Zarathustra remained silent...

Nicolas Wild is well-known in the world of serious graphic novels lovers by his series of Kaboul Disco, a visual account of his time spent in Afghanistan, where he was invited to draw an adaptation of the new Constitution. His portfolio is widely inspired by his direct contacts with the humans he encountered during his travels and works from all over the world, from Nepal to Ukraine and Lebanon: the opium smokers, the migrants, the students or the vegetable sellers, among many others.

Ainsi se Tut Zarathoustra - an ironic change from the Nitzschean Thus Spoke Zarathustra - outcome all my expectations from the point of view of both the story and the illustrations. It has so many details by creating a realistic story, while at the same time offering an extensive nonfictional background.

The illustrated story is a mixture between history of Iran, religious information, political thriller, socio-political history and travel blogging. Meeting through a game of random circumstances the daugher of a murdered Zoroastrian expert, the author is getting to know a group of Iranian-born Zoroastrians and the everyday life struggle and the intellectual underground in the Islamic Iran. 

There are so many characters to meet along the journey, from curious Europeans visiting Iran, to Revolutionary Guards, crocked politicians, Afghan refugees in Iran and Europe, and fine exiled intellectuals. Set in Iran, Paris and Switzerland, this book is a an intellectually rich journey which is interesting not only for the detailed information and the story in itself - an investigation into the murder of Cyrus Yazdi, an activist on behalf of the Zoroastrians - an ancient religious group based mostly in Iran where it counts around 26,000 members and India, where they contributed to the creation of the city of Mumbay, among others - but as well for the illustrations, that reminded me - in terms of style and black-and-white touch, of Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi.  

I was really impressed about how smart the relatively modest resources of the graphic novels can be used. Wisely employed, all those information and points of view were brought together through words and images creating a story like no other.

Rating: 5 stars - but most likely a generous 10

Book Review: The Subtweet by Vivek Shraya

 

I can count on the fingers on one hand the number of books featuring musician characters I´ve read. The latest I can surely remember is The Ensemble by Aja Gabel. The Subtweet, the latest book by the Canadian multidisciplinary artist Vivek Shraya is a story with a more complex context.

The main topic of the book is the exploration of the relationship between a couple of brown Indie musicians in the digital age. Neela´s songs are discovered by the Internet artist RUK-MINI with whom a friendship is born. Until a subtweet created an online storm that disrupted not only the relationship between the two, but also raised important questions about the position of brown musicians in the white world. How exactly they are supposed to create music? And for whom? Is the white praise important for the success? Should it be requested, after all?

Altough the story in itself is relatively simple the dynamics between the characters and particularly their different identities they are becoming aware of during the enfolding story are very complex. The approach of race and identity and the creative act is not necessarily new but outlines aspects that are less outlined by both writers and musicians themselves. By introducing the social media pressure that is so genuine nowadays to all the creative streams of life - what happens when someone stops tagging you, what is your ´Likes´ count situation from a day to another, how to create and attract an audience through social media targets - Shraya is exposing the everyday struggle of an artist. For female brown artists though, it´s just one part of the general complicated story.

I had access to the book in the audio version, read by the multidisciplinar human Nisha Ahuja. The Subtweet was a finalist of several international literary competitions, such as 2021 Dublin Literary Award, Toronto Book Award or Lambda Literary Awards For Transgender Fiction.

A short praise is deserved for the cover, which convenes the Indie spirit of the book in a very inspired way.

Although music-related topics are not necessarily my area of interest right now, The Subtweet helped me to understand the complex relationships that do cross in the music creative acts. Hopefully in the next weeks and months I would be able to read more in this area and expand a bit my relatively limited knowledge in this respect.

Rating: 3 stars

´Forget Me Not´

 ´Too late´ are sooner than we think.

A grand-daughter is taking (literally kidnapping) her granny out of her nursing home to a journey to her childhood home. Clémence, the daughter of a single mother, is reconnecting through her Alzheimer-suffering grandmother not only to a past which remains at certain extents hidden, but with emotions and the family beyond the everyday dry family conventions.

I´ve read Ne m´Oublie Pas/Forget Me Not, a graphic novel recently published by Europe Comics, authored - both in writing and illustrations - by the Belgium artist Alix Garin in just one sitting. The content story and the way of expressing it is highly emotional. There are so many topics that are covered graciously in this novel, mostly as a gentle conflict between values and their social reason to be followed. 

The 85 years old grandmother suffering of Alzheimer may be stuck in a very distant past, and overwhelmed by the present realities, but is the bureaucracy of the medical system entitled to treat her as a body that rather should be controlled - through heavy medication - instead of being allowed to further enjoy a dignified life?

How the relatives of a person affected by this terrible disease may behave when they realize they are just obliterated from the sick person´s memory?

What is really worth in a family life? Connecting with your close relatives - parents, grandparents - in the spot of the moment, and considering fully the uniqueness of every second shared together?

What is life in general worth, after all?

Happily, this comic books is not a (boring and senseless) soliloquy about the meaning(less) of life, but a story where there is a bit of funny action taking place too - as granma haven´t forgotten to roll the dice though. 

The graphic is quality too, with pastel backgrounds and effable silhouettes. 

There is something I keep asking myself after reading this book. Indeed, I was emotionally involved in the book and was scribbling my own impressions, but I became aware that those impressions, in fact, were mostly connected with my own experience - extremely limited although - in dealing with coming to old age. I haven´t know any grandparents and my parents died fast. I did not grow up watching someone close to me losing their senses and being alienated from and expelled from their memory. Thus, my thoughts were in fact my effort - through reason and feelings - to understand what does it mean to be in such a situation and I bet it´s rather a kind of figurative set-up. The world of literature has this power that I am grateful to be part thereof.

I had access to the English translation of the book (originally published in French).

Rating: 4.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Everyday Bookish Problems

A gift might come with a curse. 

For instance, my much praised capacity of doing hundreds of things before breakfast: which includes, in a random order, preparing breakfast for the family, cleaning a bit the house, updating my social media accounts, answering various questions about the day before projects, reading a couple of pages, learning at least 10 words in a new language, communicating in a couple of languages, writing a small yet inspiring blog post. Sometimes I can do even more. Some days, like the days of this week, I am just foggy.

I´ve read yesterday - while on my way to a well deserved hairdressing day - a fantastic article about brain fog in times of isolation which at a certain extent is relevant for the times we are living but in my case may be not necessarily the case. Isolation is sometimes a lone dream as I am hardly on my own for more than 4 hours the day. Sometimes even less or never.

On a day by day basis I can properly operate within this frame of the controlled chaos - which includes also answering 100 5yo questions while trying to find the right word for a translation in an exotic language or keep a normal phone conversation. I can´t hardly remember my life being any different so I have no idea how it is to live completely alone day in day out. 

Until, like in the last days, I am simply losing any interest. My daily projects are just annoying - and most of them right now are, but business should go on because I have to do my bank account happy - none of the books - many of them - I am reading are not appealing enough to finish them at once, I have a long list of movies to watch but none sounds too exciting for my brain. For at least seven days, every single free time I spent playing with my Duolingo Yiddish course, which is far from perfect, but at least keeps my brain busy with some intellectual activity. (I hope to finish it soon and review it one day). At least once the day I am watching or taking part to some online discussion on my history and politics topics of interest. Meanwhile, my books for review are accumulated in my Kindle or on my writing desk, while I am fighting hard with my lack of concentration and writing laziness.

But despite my panic signals sent by my other part of the brain that I should really start being productive again - you see, I cannot be out of my capitalist paradigm, no matter what - I am perversely enjoying those confused moments. I don´t remember when I went through a similar situation the last time, but I suppose as we change along our life journey, the challanges and situations we cope with are changing too, therefore there is an uniqueness in our personal encounters. 

Many years ago, I was very impatient and frustrated that I simply could not pray at all. I was able to spent many many hours with the prayer book in the front of my, but I was lacking any interest, motivation and pleasure too in opening my mouth and saying the words. It was just a spiritually inert me with a heavy book in her hands that stayed most of the time closed. Then, I´ve read about how the Vilna Gaon used to say that even you don´t have the kavanah - the devotion - for praying, one must keep reading the words of the prayer, as an everyday practice, and the right feelings will come eventually. 

This is such a great advice, as it works - in my case, at least - with reading, writing and...workouts too. But all those activities do make good to both the brain and the soul. Therefore, from my bookish dry cave, I am forcing myself to read and write and do workouts, although right now, I can just spend time in the garden, listening to the birds and doing absolutely nothing. 

That´s all. That´s how life can be sometimes.

Jeune Fille en Dior

´C´est beau, l´après-guerre´.

I am fascinated about fashion history and histories, not only because I love high-fashion but because of the fantastic social and human stories they connect. As I´ve learned in my beloved history of mentalities originated by the Annales School of Historiography, fashion is part of a wider manifestation of the patterns of a long historical period. Together with manifestations of the material culture as well as spiritual achievements of all kinds - which includes randomly media, theatre, film, literature - fashion is one small yet important piece of the everyday social mirror of an era.

Jeune Fille en Dior by the late multi-awarded Annie Goetzinger with a foreword by Anna Gavalda accounts the post-war fashion environment in France, through a story of a fictional character Clara Nohant. A former journalist, she will become a model for the newly wordlwide successful Maison Dior. 

The fashion is becoming the new war, with dramatic inter-continental frictions and internal ironies and inimities within the French front. Actually, it´s mostly French the language the fashion is speaking at the time. Dior himself is the product of those years. Born in a middle-class family, he graduated Political Science (SciPo) and was expected to be a diplomat. However, he turned his career towards the arts and after the military service he is back in Paris working hard, among other fashion icons of the time like Nina Ricci or Coco Chanel, to design dresses for Nazi wives accompanying their husbands in the occupied Paris. Meanwhile, one of his sisters - who inspired his first Miss Dior - was part of the Resistance movement and will be liberated from Ravensbrück concentration camp at the very end of the war. With his beautiful - as a Greek perfect ratio of proportions - elegant dresses made of fine fabrics and shaped expansively for thin yet normally formed bodies, Dior was the hero of an era looking for his new system of values. In the year of his death - 1957, of a heart attack while playing cards while vacationing in Italy - he appeared on the cover of Time, that in 1938 had on its Man of the Year Edition the criminal Hitler (may his name be erased).

Jeune Fille en Dior is first and foremost a pleasure for the eyes. The illustrations are in full sync with the style and class of fashion illustrations. The story is clear and although focused on the fictional character it connects smoothly to the larger story which, at a general extent, belongs to the European history in itself. The author´s approach both in terms of text and visual makes it a perfect and informative take on the topic. My only objection was the style of the lettering which was a bit annoying for the eyes, my eyes, at least.

I was fascinated by this short lecture as I realized how limited is my knowledge of the details in the field of fashion history in France and elsewhere - besides being able to recognize some top brands. Thus, I am trying to correct this mistake this year, and my next installment of the educational program is a movie about YSL. To be reviewed soon, on a blog near you!

Rating: 5 stars

Book Review: A Cuban Girl´s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow by Laura Taylor Namey

I am easily convinced to read a book because of its popularity. I am experienced enough to know that there is always a risk to be just the victim of wise PR and communications campaigns, but no matter what, my curiosity is always stronger than any kind of reasonable explanations. You have me always at books´ buzz...

A Cuban Girl´s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow, a YA novel with a multicultural background by Laura Taylor Namey, is my latest disappointment. Read it over the long Eastern weekend, it first caught my attention for the beautiful cover. Also the lettering choice is inspiring for the topic and age range it aims at.

Lila Reyes is 17, an active baker of Cuban origin in Miami. In just a couple of month, she experienced the sudden death of her dear abuela - grandmother, in Spanish - the break-up of her 3-year boyfriend (who needs a break to find himself) and the separation from her best friend, Stephanie. Worried, her parents are sending her on the other side of the pond, to join her aunt, living in the medievalesque city of Winchester. There, she will fell in love with a local guy named Orion and will decide to follow her destiny in the footpath of her sweet abuela. 

At the first sight, it sounds as a very cozy YA, the kind you may want to read in one sitting while sipping a cuppa or a coffee. But I may have a couple of observations and criticism on the book in its entirety.

Let´s start with the good things: I was really impressed by the way in which mental health issues were addressed in the book. Her triple incidents were a risk for her mental wellbeing, therefore the prompt decision of her parents to buy her a one-way ticket and sent her away from the causes of her heartbreak. It´s a topic less approached - if ever - in YA therefore it is worth outlining the approach in this case.

Another aspect that I appreciated is the fact that the Spanish words are scattered into the conversation. It makes the dialogues so authentic and creates the proper ambiance of a multicultural novel. From the same category, I loved the references to Cuban food, a chapter my information is very precarious. I love guavas and the thought of guava filled pastry has an instant mouthwatering effect. Hope to have the chance soon to try some Cuban delicacies.

But there are so many flaws into this story. For instance, most young characters are under 18 yo. Lila and Orion and her sister and Orion´s sister - which is only 15 - are assigned voices that are so serious and mature that one may think they are at least 30. Their drinking tastes are also so casual and mature as they started to drink alcohol mixed with their mother´s milk. 

Another weakness: the so-called love story between Lila and Orion is so awkward. Not because it is not romantic at all, but it starts as his invitation to keep her busy and bring her to events. Kind of charity companionship. Again, it does not suit the age expectations and the way of life in general.

A Cuban Girl´s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow started for me on a very optimistic note, but 80 pages into the book I got first annoyed and kept being more and disappointed every couple of pages. Reading the book was for me an exercise in literary analysis and criticism but wish it was more than that...

Rating: 2.5 stars 

 

Freiheit! A Graphic Novel about The White Rose

´Do not forget that every people deserves the regime it is willing to endure´.

´I would do it all over again. Because not I but you have the wrong view of the world´.

The White Rose movement operated between 27 June 1942 and 18 February 1943 in the South of Germany. Through its representatives, among which Hans and Sophie Scholl, Alexander Schmorell and Christoph Probst, they distributed manifests encouraging ´passive resistance´ against the National- Socialism and expressing their suspicions regarding the ideological relevance and values of the Nazi regime in general. Caught by the Gestapo while distributing the manifests within the Munich University on 18 February, Hans and Sophie Scholl, together with Christoph Probst are condemned to death three days after. Freiheit! - Freedom, are among the last words written by Sophie Scholl. The movement is considered as an example of German resistance against the Nazi regime, with institutions and steets all over Germany being given the Scholl name. The members of The White Rose were middle class, on different religious and sexual orientations. Some of the texts wroten by them were used by the British Army when was spreading from airplanes the anti-Nazi manifestoes. 

Freiheit!, the graphic novel by Andrea Grosso Ciponte concentrates in 113 pages the profile of the movement, in its historical and intellectual context. From the visual point of view, the dramatic pastels and the predominantly black graphics create the perfect effect expected for a graphic novel treating this very serious topic. Published by Plough Publishing House this February, it offers basic information about the movement through the graphic story, as well as the content fo the manifestoes, part of the annexes. 

If you are completely ignorant about this episode of German history, and of the WWII politics and stories in general, this book helps to figure out the basics. Written in English, it offers a good information support to a wide range of readers, from teenagers to adults looking for an entertaining approach to history.

However, if you are knowledgeable of the topic, there may be at least a couple of objections to the approach. There are references to the concentration camps and the deportations of Jews - the fact that the average population was not familiar with is a horrible lies, given that there were many concentration camps in the near vicinity of populated areas, as it is the case of Sachsenhausen for instance, among others. However the general references and dialogues attributed to the characters are very basic, robotic and vaguely philosophical sometimes. I had the feeling of just reading some texts that are there because expected to include them, without any clear personal human touch and fiction add-on. The topic may be overwhelming, indeed, but the role of the story-teller is to find the right narrative and wording which make your story different from all the other stories and unique. Unfortunately, I felt through the over 100 pages of Freiheit! as exposed to a standardized historical account, the only difference being made by the visual form - which, again, is appropriate to the topic and aesthethically successful. 

Rating: 3 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Book Review: The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw

This year I´ve read more short stories collections than ever, and I am glad to finally have the chance to explore and better appreciate this genre. From a book and author to another, I discover how important is to balance good concise writing with a story that should develop within a relatively short amount of time. By far, my favorite short stories collections do have a common topic explored in different short installments.

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw is one of those volumes which offers a glimpse into the everyday existence of black women that are regular church goers while creating their own private world, sometimes in opposition with the religious expectations. They are rebelious, naive, trying to please their elders while carving a path of their own, victims of men´s expectations and physical needs, betrayed and abandoned. The nine stories included in the volume do offer the reader glimpses from the secret lives. 

Some of the stories are told in the first person, some are just accounts, but every time the reader feels like a voyeur. The stories develop autonomously and the characters are not related. Their identity as women of colour, church goers for different reasons, particularly of social nature, is diversified and magnified from an account to another. They do have an active inner life, expressing their desires and the pleasures of the flesh in a very straightforward way, as a personal statement of their personality. In this world widely populated and animated by women, men are the bad characters, as bigamists, uncertain or oppressive figures. Women though can go beyond the men they share sometimes and create spaces of communication and solidarity.

The language is very clear and direct, with colourful references and a intimate wording. The narrator - as I had access to the book in audio format -, Janina Edwards has a valuable contribution in creating an authentic world, with a Southern flavor. I am sure there are many Biblical references I´ve certainly missed, but there is always a special religious women intimacy that is common no matter the language and content of the prayers. My favorite story - in terms of the writing and the approach of the topic - is How to make love with a physicist (I must confess I´ve listened to it twice and maybe I will come back to it again one day).

Although not all stories are equal, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies - among others, a 2020 National Book Award Finalist for Fiction - is a pleasant reading voyeurist experience. You are invited to take a look into those lives and that´s all you got. Some experiences cannot be fully shared, anyway. 

Rating: 3.5 stars