My June Movie Selection

Although I had an impressive movie stack waiting for my, this month I was relatively disorganised in this respect. I had a consistent menu of political documentaries that will probably use on different articles regarding the Middle East and therefore my interest for artistic takes was rather limited. However, I succeeded to watch some good/interesting ones, out of which I am happily sharing a very limited selection:

Ana, mon amour by the Romanian film director Călin Peter Netzer sounded very foreign to me. At first, as in fact I knew what it is all about. Only that the name of the book it is based on has a more local-sounding female character - Luminița, less fancy for an international audience - as it is based on the book by the Romanian author Cezar Paul Bădescu.

It´s about a young love, between two young people coming from very different geographies and social backgrounds, with a noteworthy psychoanalytical take. The main actors play very good, representing the naive innocence of the youth and all is interesting until the characters, all of them, are talking like vilains. A reminder of why I mostly refuse to read Romanian young literature: the language is so dirty and gratuitous that I don´t feel any interest in proceeding further to read and understand the story. I understand the catharsis of such an approach to language, but why do people need to behave kin such an aggressive way, especially parents and children? No idea if this is how really people talk there with each other, but such an exchange, in artistic terms, does not bring anything to the story. Also, it got lost a lot in translation because - thanks Gd - there are no equivalents for some of the curses and swear words. 

 

With a foot further in the former Communist world, I recommend an excellent documentary by Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker: Karl Marx City. Two decades after her father committed suicide, Petra Epperlein is back to the nowadays Chemnitz - once Karl Marx City, although the philosopher never put foot there - to search the truth about his past. Was is a Stasi informer, as some anonymous letters he received after the reunification assummed? Why exactly did he killed himself? Was it somehow connected with the dramatic political changes taking place in Eastern Germany, especially in relationship with the infamous secret police?

It is a very honest and direct search for a truth, reading between the lines of the political oppression, the family credo and realities created by the secret police.

Although the characters and the story was very much out of my comfort and intellectually pleasure zone, I can´t refuse myself the pleasure of watching a Fatih Akin movie. Gegen die Wand/Head-On is a tragi-comical meeting between a 40-year old alcoholic loser and a young lady with suicidal tendencies. She marries him to get rid of the family pressure. He´s accepting because life cannot go any better anyway, but she gives him that sparkle that will make him alive again. As all Akin movies, it offers a more diverse sight into the Turkish community in Germany while it resonates with universal longings and stories of hope and survival.

Hopefully, will be able to make soon a richer movie wrap-up, but that´s happening when the weather is gorgeous and I live in a place where sommer does not last more than 2-3 full months. Need to catch up with life a bit, that´s it!

Random Things Tours: Small. On Motherhoods by Claire Lynch

 ´How odd it is, to feel grateful that a man you haven´t meet has produced exemplary sperm´.

Writing about motherhood is underrated. Indeed, why one would love to write and find people to read about such a private, life-wrecking experience? My honest answer is because motherhood(s) are so different, as different as the humans writing their own motherhood stories.

This story starts with the moment a woman decides - consciously or not - of having the baby. All the adjustment taking place into her life and her body, the interactions and even the smallest life decisions - like what to eat, wear and buy - are from now on preset. We may not know or talk too much about it, but that´s how it is. Motherhood follows its own secretive ways. Always.

Small. On Motherhoods, the outstanding debut by Claire Lynch was for me such a literary revelation. I rarely think or write about my own motherhood. Not because I don´t think it is worth doing it, but because I am so much stuck into the process that I cannot see clearly out of it. I am still lacking that clarity for making assumptions and uttering whole paragraphs about it. But books like Small can do it.

Written in a poetic modernist style, the book reflects the long journey that Lynch started, together with her female partner for having their own baby. From finding the right donor to adjusting to the life after, all is done in small steps. Everything is small first. The babies too. 

Besides the particular experience she is sharing - which is not necessarily singular, as there are so many single women or female same-sex couples being in similar situations - the writing itself is the best choice for reflecting such a complex phenomenon. It genuinely embraces the complexity of the phenomenon, without failing in the dramatic trap. It is as natural as the life flow but without diminishing the complexities. 

In fact, you don´t even have to be a mother to understand this book. You just need to be open to embrace the story of a different experience and learn from it. 

Small, indeed, but so relevant and poignant.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered part of a book tour, but the opinions are, as usual, my own

A Man Just Left His House...

 

One man called Thomas, after spending a relatively successful holiday with his family - wife and two children - went out of the door of his house and disappear, with no traces. Well, actually he left some traces, some credit card payment his wife will discover a couple of days after: he paid in a brothel, at some restaurant, a motel, a sport store. 

His wife, Astrid, is at the beginning worried, she is asking the help of the police, tries herself to find him, by tracing his account operations, but in the end, she gives up and shortly will made a proper funeral for him. 20 years after, the children are fine, with a relatively stable social and financial situation. Astrid is also fine. As for Thomas, he keeps running around Europe, got a fake ID and never returned to his previous life in Switzerland.

Peter Stamm is considered one of the most successful Swiss writers. He writes in German - I´ve read Weit über das Land (in English translation, To the Back of Beyond) in the original version - and is multi-awarded. I wanted to add his books for a long time to my reading shelf but maybe starting with this book was not a great idea - it was a random choice, based on the availability at my local library. 

In full honesty, although I liked the writing - minimalistic, concise - the execution was largely inadequate. The fact that a man left his family and never come back is not something extraordinary. That he kept wandering from a place to another, thinking and working only for himself, is also relatively common. But besides some outburst of awareness from Astrid, there is hardly any serious chain of events that may make this runaway better, special, outstanding, unique...than any other similar story you can read in the yellow press.

The book is short and can be an useful companion for those looking to improve their German vocabulary, but was largely deceived by its literary approach. There are lots of topics that can be discussed or implied in such situations, but Astrid and Thomas rather lived from a day to another, a cartoonish kind of life, that the writer himself seems to be tired and bored to tell it. Half through the book the story is hurried up to the end - which is not as bad, actually - but this run towards the end made the book even more superficial.

In short, would try to read another title by Stamm, maybe another time. As for now, it helped my vocabulary but was a displeasant - read boring - reading experience.

Rating: 2 stars

Book Review: The Good Life Elsewhere by Vladimir Lorchenkov

´Finally, they´d made it to Italy. Finally, life had become clear and simple. Just like it used to be, like it was in their childhoods´. 

I have no idea when was the last time when left on my own reading, I kept laughing loudly for a couple of good hours. Genuine loud laugh - partially in sync with the bergsonian philosophy of it ! Given that in the last days my reading time is either between 5am and 7 am and past midnight, my neighbours may assume that something is wrong with me. 

But, seriously, anyone with a middle to advanced knowledge in Eastern Europe should read The Good Life Elsewhere by the Republic of Moldova-born Vladimir Lorchenkov, translated from Russian by Ross Ufberg. Why? Because after unwrapping the many layers of irony, sarcasm and hilarious absurd situations, there is a reality that people living at the Eastern extremities of Europe do live with every day: poverty, impossible future, corruption, inaccountability of politicians, religious fanatics and kidneys on sale. 

In the village of Larga, the vast majority of the 523 citizens want to go to Italy, dreaming about fat paychecks waiting for them. Those who don´t want to go is because they don´t believe this Italy exists. But before going there, they need to get the 4,000 euro to be smuggled. Many are left without money, took on a tour around the country and left close to the capital-city of Kishinev. Serafim Botezatu, the most resilient in accomplishing his Italian dream, was defeated one, maybe three times, but he will keep trying again and again. He waited already 20 years, time in which he learned the language from an Italian book he got from the library. Or he thought so. In fact, the book was missing the cover and a couple of introduction pages where it was written that, in fact, the language thought was...Norwegian. 

There is a tragi-comical feature of The Good Life Elsewhere that I´ve mostly encountered by modern Russian writers which I find irresisible, because it looks like a perfect weapon against the everyday nonsense. It transfigurates the historical abysses and the political trauma into a chronical laugh, as when you are tickled and you laugh, although you have no reason to. But, you feel good in the end, because laughing is good for the broken soul. 

Take, for instance, this sentence: ´And when the sun come up, Eremei strangled his daughter and burned her body in his mightiest stove, where he usually forged tools for the machinists. He burned not only her body, but her ashes, too´. All the histories about kidneys trading are tragical in their essence and disturbing, but contextualized and storified they can be enjoyed as literary fictions written in a mythical-comical vein.

Although the book has universal references which make the story of Moldavian migration to Italy - where even the then president, Voronin, wants to go; one plan to leave the hotel in Rome at night while on an official visit and get lost, for returning later as an assistant cook working in an obscure restaurant - only an episode of a human saga of uprooting - Mexico could be a good comparison there is a very local pattern that Lorchenkov features. And it is nothing wrong with it because, indeed, stories are made by people, born in places that do have histories. The authentic universalism is created while respecting the very individual accounts. 

I am looking forward to read soon more authors from Republic of Moldova (I do have another one in waiting on my library shelves), which is also a reminder of one trip I made there a couple of years ago and the fantastic warm welcome of the people on the streets who helped me more than once, despite the visible linguistic barriers. I feel intellectually at home in Central and Eastern Europe too, no matter how far I go - as a reader or as a traveller.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Random Things Tours: Let´s Fly by Giles Fraser

´All I wanted - ever wanted in fact - is to love and be loved - and not to worry that it could be taken away. Simple as that´.

Set between 1979 and 2017, Giles Fraser´s debut Let´s Fly is a story of love and friendship, inspired by both the volatility of the end of the hippy years and the recent years of expansion of the online bubble. Both periods of time are characterized by a high mobility of both persons - elite-wise - and money, therefore are a good reservoir of literary inspiration.

The successful CEO of a dot.com business, Nick Hunter found himself overnight ´jobless, wifeless and homeless´. His source of income though was a successful song Let´s Fly that he sold as a young lad and as his career is about to crumble as a game of cards, the time has come to pay - at least - its debt of honour towards a past that he tried to avoid thinking about. 

The book starts in an alert pace, with short sentences and action verbs inducing the reader into a world of secrets and betrayal. The first pages are a succession of events and characters that will slow down in the next 100 pages, but from the very beginning one remains under the strong impression of an almosgt neverending run. On paper, the book description sounded appealing. Reading it was a much greater experience, as there are so many plot twists that create suspense and expectations. It starts as a cold shower of words and will continue like that until the end of the book. 

It is true that sometimes the plot is faster that the space allowed to the characters to develop, but you don´t feel it very often, as the succession of various episodes within the stories are complex enough to require a lot of attention. Personally, I was not such in awe with Nick Hunter, and I could not see him clearly either, but maybe he was just a man of his times. He is not the perfect vilain, but not the reliable character either, with more weaknesses than strengths. Human, oh so human. 

An important line of the story that made me think about a lot refered is a book-long meditation about success, especially of the unexpected type. and how it changes personalities and friendships. Also, at what extent when it is replaced by failure. Both the cultural realm and the start-up, online one do have a high probability of both and the human experience they create and mold belongs to our times and the type of personality represented by it. The book also finely catch up the inter-generational differences, including between the members of Nick´s family, aspects which confer a relatable social and political context. 

Let´s Fly was a thoughtful read with a creative plot. I enjoyed the time spent reading it for several good reasons and although I was lacking any empathy for most of the characters, it was a good intellectual experience that inspired me to think a lot about success and its enemies. 

Rating: 3.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own

 

Quick Reads: The Baby is mine by Oyinkan Braithwaite

 

By the author of My Sister, the Serial Killer, The Baby is Mine - that I had access to in the German translation by Yasemin Dinçer, as audiobook read by Markus Bachmann, is a concise work of literature, with subversive plots.

Set in Lagos, Nigeria, in the eve of the Corona lockdown, it reiterates an old Biblical story in the chaotic context of 2020. As the pandemic was not enough, Bambi, a local playboy is threw up by his boyfriend ending up by his auntie Bidemi. Shortly, there is a baby added to the list of residents, Remi, whose maternity is contested by two women. Paternity is not relevant at all for the story.

The baby has no idea how much fuss is made around him for winning him as a part of a new family.

I enjoyed the diversity of characters and of the plot turns, all taking place in a relatively limited amount of words. Braithwaite´s talent in creating a story in a journalistic style which has a realistic touch in a completely fantastic realm. Out of a mundane story, she created a tale which although takes places during the pandemic and in Nigeria, has a lot of universal features.

The novella was written for the Reading Agency´s adult literacy initiative, a British project aimed at encouraging adults, with or without learning deficits, to approach literature and books. The German translation makes it into a good reference for those looking to improve their language skills while listening to an interesting story. When you are really bored by all those language lessons and nonsense sentences from the language learning books, such an immersion is very useful and helps advancing the language skills.

I can only wait more books from Braithwaite as I adore her style. I really do.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Audiobook in German Review: Die Malerin des Nordlichts by Lena Johannson

 

For anyone trying to improve his or her language skills - no matter the language - listening to audiobooks is very helpful. For the next months, I am set to hone my German vocabulary and language in general therefore expect a lot of reviews of German books, particularly those in audio format. 

A novel with a historical-artistic plot is a good start of my plan. Die Malerin des Nordlichts - The Painter of the Northern Lights - by Lena Johannson follows the life of Signe Munch, a bohemian young Norwegian painter, whose uncle is the famous Edvard Munch. In her circle of acquaintances there are people close to Ibsen or Hamsun and herself, she is in the forefront of the new type of women: one who is ready to fight for her freedom and independence, for her right to express herself as an artist, a woman artist.

The story starts in 1922 and continue through the War years, especially the German occupation. As Signe´s husband was involved in the Resistance and she had Jewish friends, there is also a political take on the entire situation which develops altogether with the fine debates about the struggle and tension between the society pressure and individual woman artist vows.

As a historical novel, the plot is complex and so is Signe, although I´ve rather found the other characters in the book developping mostly in her shadow, without a particular profile of themselves. The family conflicts were, in my opinion, the most interesting, with, on one side, Signe´s elegant relationship with her famous uncle, and, on the other side, the dramatic story of her mother, a writer who equally paid a price - but much higher - when under pressure to make a choice between art and family.  

The social, historical and political backgrounds are important for the story, especially by the emphasis on particular episodes - women struggle, the resistance against the Nazi occupation etc. 

The book is read by Christiana Puciata, an overall pleasant audio experience.

Johannson is a well known character among the knowledgeable history novels in German and I will be tempted to read more of her books, both for the topics as for the language. The language is accessible, which makes the book a recommended read to the non-speakers with an advanced knowledge looking to improve their vocabulary. Just like me.

An extra point goes to the book cover: relatable, pleasant and in sync with the overall book message. Maybe one day I will be able to write a good post about why German edition houses invest so much on creating beautiful book covers.

Rating: 3 stars

Movie Review: Where To directed by Georges Nasser

A couple of days ago I was browsing through the thread of a discussion involving various Lebanese journalists and social media users about why to leave the country or rather stay. Almost one year after the terrible explosion that left 300,000 people homeless, another episode in the never-ending story of corruption and foreign interventions on Lebanese soil, people are losing hope. A country isolated and made hopeless by its own rulers, with a little deadly help from abroad. Years of economic crisis and mismanagement of public funds left many citizens of Lebanon, especially young people, with no other choice but immigration. Some still want to stay and are optimistic about the chances of a change as long as they are the vectors of change.

But the immigration trend in Lebanon is not new. It started early on, at the end of the 19th century and continues until now. They left for America, Mexico, Brazil, France or Canada, some went alone - particularly men - sent money back to family and eventually returned to bring their families or to build up a better life back home. It is quite a normal phenomenon that affected many countries in Europe and elsewhere as well. Ireland, Spain, Romania, Poland, Hungary, Portugal are among the European countries whose citizens decided to leave for a better future, creating double identities while contributing to the multi-ethnic and -linguistic identities of their new countries.

Vers l´Inconnu?/Ila Ayn/Where to?/Towards the Unknown directed by Georges Nasser  is the first Lebanese film featured at Cannes. Nasser is considered until now one of the most famous Lebanese film directors. The black-and-white movie is a simple immigration story: the family father leaves his wife and two children, convinced by a neighbour that in Brazil he can find better work and build a better future for his children. But 20 years later, the mother - brave and courageous and strong in her fragility - is frailed for the years of waiting and growing up the two sons all by herself. The oldest one assumed the traditional role of head of the household even at the risk of abandoning his studies, while the youngest was able to build a career, but it´s impatient to go search for his father and leave his village and country for good. ´I have to go!´ he says several times, with the pathos of those who cannot wait.

Then, out of nowhere, a stranger in a worned suit comes in the village, trying with bitter words to warn that ´Immigration is a hard path´. Who is the man? No one has time to ask him properly, as the family is preparing to adjust to the absence of the younger son and the younger son himself is too inebriated with the excitement of his future prospects. 

Ila Ayn is a movie of few words and a suggestive musical background. There are no philosophical discussions or extra symbols that may load the narrative. We, the viewers, are invited to watch a country and a family on the move. The notion of time is vague maybe also because the landscape stays mostly the same, the frame is the same. Only people change. They grow up or grow old and that´s the nature of things. Then why going out and looking for something else that in fact you might never found? 

Where to? As someone who left at least three times in a very short life, simply heading to a new country with different cultures and languages than mine, just because was not feeling well in the comfortable place I was living and felt suffocated and hopeless, I may confess that moving is not easy, but for some it´s an urge. You cannot explain it clearly to anyone but yourself and if you want to do it, you don´t need logical explanations. You take a risk, which does not mean that your life will be better. You have your own reasons to feel better. You may fail. Some people can fail just to build their glorious come back. Some never. As I was about to move to my latest wandering destination, someone very intellectually dear to me told me that ´You know, some may start small, by washing dishes, but will never go really big again´. A concern I was very much aware of, but that impulse of leaving everything behind and starting again was stronger than the idea of washing dishes - nothing wrong with it, as long as you really know how to do it.

A movie set and made at the end of the 1950s still resonates today. It has a national meaning, but also inspires those wanderers from all over the world. Often, the answer to ´Where to?´ is relevant as delving into the unknown is much more exciting than really having your own recipe for success. What is success after all? Why evaluate your success - and failure - based on objective society standards and expectations? 

Ila Ayn is a perfect case study of further discussion about the for and against arguments of leaving or staying, or searching for a better future and how to define this ilusory better future. It is a movie of ideas without explicitly being an ideological, thesis-oriented film. It is definitely worth the thoughts, both as an artistic production and as a cultural artefact.

Random Things Tours: Into the Mouth of the Lion by A.B.Kyazze

How do you like your thriller? Fast-paced, mysterious, with change of fate every single page, or even twice the page? Or rather slowly, as a bud opening little by little, one small pace at a time, but what a full bloom offered at the end, as the price for the patience of following the journey?

Most of the time, I am for the fast-paced adrenaline fueled books. I am in awe of the books that take my breath away and keep me on my reading chair hours after hours, with a coffee break or two in-between, until I am done. Most of the time, indeed. But I do have my weaknesses too.

I was enticed by the original description of Into the Mouth of the Lion by A.B.Kyazze. Most likely, I was expecting some usual roller-coaster action requested by this type of novels, but I was pleasantly surprised to be offered rather the opposite - at least in terms of story rhythm, but despite being the opposite of my regular expectations, this political-humanitarian thriller is of a different, more refined literary kind.

First and foremost, I was curious about a book being mostly set in Angola during the civil war, an event which I don´t remember to ever been mentioned in any noticeable work of English-speaking work of literature. The conflict took place between 1975 and 2002 and created a mass displacement of people of almost 4 million persons. Another dramatic consequence of this war was the high number of amputees - around 90,000 people - due to the intensive use of landmines. 

On this background, two estranged sisters of Portuguese origin, are lost. DJ disappeared during an explosion while doing humanitarian work and her sister, Lena is coming from London to find her. But was DJ still alive ? Did she disappear? Where to? And how? Why there is no sign of life from her or her kidnappers? 

I am used to ask questions after questions and this book provoked my avid brain more than ever. However, the action in itself is enfolding sinously, with partial revelations every couple of pages. Traces are left here and there, the reader just need to pay attention and not give up the search. It´s not the fast pace that keeps you glued to the book but the stirred curiosity of finding out through the game of words. It creates interest not only for the individual story, but also for the larger regional context it is set, based on the simple human curiosity and empathy. ´This is what DJ faced every day, Lena realises. Stories of executions, kidnapping, rape and forced marches. How did she bear it?´

A.B.Kyazze, herself familiar with humanitarian crises from all over the world, created a literary realm offering to the reader a quality endearment that results not necessarily from the genre but because you cannot stop from reading the book. The plot is skilfully created, but the dialogues bring that sparkle of life needed for creating an authentic story. 

The book has many Portuguese expressions and words, which offers a local authenticity to the story. However, the non-Portuguese speaker - not me, as I love this language and can´t have enough of its musicality and romance - would have need eventually require a short translation or dictionary.

Into the Mouth of the Lion is Kyazze´s debut novel which is a pity for me, as I would have been very much interested to delve into more books by this author, one after the other. Hopefully, it will not last too long until her next book.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered part of a blog tour, but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Book Tour: The Problem with Poppy

 

Poppy the Porcupine who was struggling to make friends is the hero of this story. Literally a hero because will be brave enough to save Rory, the tiger friend, from his cage where a human took him away. Thus, despite the reluctant start of their friendship as the spikes of the porcupine are rather discouraging the friendship. But those are the appearances and genuine feelings are stronger than any external inconvenients.

Cheshire-based Emma Sandford created a relatable story with very empathic characters. Read to pre-school and first-class children, it creates that tension and excitement that the little ones are always looking for. I´ve read the story to my 5yo son - my first audience for children books - and he was really excited about the turn of events, while asking questions after questions about the characters - how did the porcupine freed the cub? what did the porcupine say? are they friends again?

The Problem with Poppy is the kind of soul-to-soul kind of story, not only through the bridges built among the characters, but equally due to the bridges it creates between the characters and the audience. The writing is accessible without being simplistic and the illustrations - by Olena Osadcha - are relatable enough to add that pinch of colour and enjoyment one needs when reading a children story. 

Indeed, the real problem with Poppy is that it´s such a cute character in a very pleasant good night story that the little ones will need to hear more about soon. As this is the first book from The Sumatran Trilogy, can´t wait to hear more about Poppy and her rainforest world. Extra points for teaching the little ones about rainforest and its animal realm. 

Rating: 4.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered part of a book tour, but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Poetry Book Review: Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong

´America. America a row of streetlights flickering on his whiskey´.

 

A memoir in verses can be much evocative than the usual prose. Ocean Vuong strong debut Night Sky with Exit Wounds that I´ve read in the bilingual English-German edition translated by Anne-Kristin Mittag as Nachthimmel mit Austrittwunden is my proof.

Vuong, mentored by poet and novelist Ben Lerner, collects his memories and the memories of his people, about love and being in love. Abous his mother and the corpse of his father. About heart beats and bodies. (´There´s nothing more holy than holding a man´s heartbeat between your teeth, sharpened with too much air´). Shadows of missiles and 9/11. 

The strict rule of prose do not apply to poetry. Or maybe I am not ready to apply it. Or to apply any rules at all for poetry for the time being. I am, after all, just a beginner in reading and judging and criticizing poetry. I prefer to simply immerse into the words and go with the flow. Poetry is a fine jewellery art, especially compared to the moment when one needs to check the clarity of a diamond. Wordsmitting is the poet´s work. Mine is to take a big gulp of words and enjoy every bit of it. 

Night Sky.. is not an easy journey. As a reader, you are took into someone else´ story without a clear destination. Even the author himself is not sure about it. Someday I´ll love Ocean Vuong he writes. 

I love bilingual poetry, as it helps the best learning languages. When both languages are not your mother tongue it operates at a double level, enriching both languages or at least revealing new meanings. In this respect, poetry can do much better than any other genre. 

Book Review: Mathématiques Congolaises by In Koli Jean Bofane

´ Après tout, l'Afrique ce n'est pas seulement de beaux paysages, un people chalereux, il existe d'autre realités aussi´.

Filled with hilarious people and situations, Mathématiques congolaises by In Koli Jean Bofane is part of a larger literary genre which is generously inspired by local political and social realities. Definitely, American or French or German everyday life are a source of inspiration for the local writers too, but in some parts of the world reality is grotesque enough to invade every single aspect of the creative life. In Germany, for instance, you can let your creativity fly and write about bees and the movement of the moons. When you live in a country where corruption and political oportunism are partners in real time crime, you cannot fantasize. As a matter of fact, the cover of the book - an example of naive art is very much in sync with the story.

Which story is following a pattern that suits well countries coping with endemic corruption and disfunctional political systems, not only in Africa. Célio, in love with mathematics, is starting a stunning career from the streets to the heart of the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo. He has some ideas, some people are looking for practical minds to deter their opponents and eventually the too curious international community. Everything is openly on sale, money is changing hands, there are also some witchcraft is needed but the plans are not always following a clear and coherent and ´happy ending´ pattern. Because, believe it or not, Célio was about to have a moment of moral awakening and he is changing camps. Not a dramatic end, actually, as the well-placed official that needed his manipulations will end up first as an ambassador, and after that as a refugee in Europe. 

I was glad to read In Koli Jean Bofane - in the original French - and to get first acquainted with the Congo literary tendencies. I laughed a lot but also felt sad in a non-condescendent, human way because other people´s fate may sound tragi-comical from afar, but experiencing it every day is just drama. The writer has humour and the story has many funny turns allowing the reader to enjoy literarily the facts and events.   

Rating: 3 stars

Movie Review: ´Where is the Friend´s Home?´ by Abbas Kiarostami

I haven´t watched for ages a Kiarostami movie, but felt that Where is the Friend´s Home? may be an inspired return to the works of this symbol of Iranian cinema. 

Where is the Friend´s Home? (Khane-ye dust kojast?) is the first from the Koker Trilogy, featuring stories set in the small mud-bricked village situated in Rostamabad, Gilan, in the Northern part of the country. The other two movies from the series are Next Life, and Nothing More and Throught the Olive Trees. The movie is dedicated to one of the founders of the modern Iranian poetry, Sohrab Sepehri. 

Unfolding within one single day, the movie follows Ahmad´s efforts to return the homework notebook to his colleague, living in the village over the hill. The eight years old should though to find where exactly his friend lives and this innocent search makes the bone of the movie. His interactions with the adults and sometimes their random musings about childhood and education are such a rich resource of understanding how distant our adult world is from that of children´s. From the severe teacher who sticks to the rules to the parents who are considering often their children as just another category of adults that should assume chores and home responsibilities, there is so much to think and learn about how childhood is perceived. 

Within this larger framework, there is another layer that deserves more attention: language. Not in the sense of understanding a language, but as one-on-one communication. Ahmad repeats over and over again - I felt a bit too ostensibly though - his questions to the adults. They either do not hear or are immersed in their own conversations and thoughts. Or they just don´t care or don´t want to hear. 

For me, the most beautiful part of the movie is about the purity of heart that we may lose it when we advance in age. We are becoming selfish and cynical, that is. Ahmad knew that when his friend comes again without homework done he will be probably expelled. He does not think as we, adults, may think, that it was his fault for now checkin if he has the notebook with him. The solution to the problem, after crossing the hill twice and still not finding his friend, was so dear to my heart. 

Relevant for the movie is also the social context. The movie is set in 1987 and the village where the events are taking place, Koker is a poor village and besides being given the name of Kiarostami trilogy, the other reference to it is a devastating earthquake that took place there in 1990. The place is simple, people are simple, their lives seem to lack the complexities of the city life, still they offer a canvas for so many stories and interpretations. A perfect environment for the usual Kiarostami´s minimalistic artistic goals.

And after all, children are an expression of this normality and complex simplicity. Maybe this is how feelings and empathy are preserved after all.

Random Things Tours: Conversation with James Quinn, author of Berlin Reload

James Quinn, author of Berlin Reload, brings back spy stories from the far Cold War inspired by the present day challenges. Set in the ´capital of spies´, with characters with shady histories, the book is an entertaining read with a touch of history.

Part of my Book Blog Tour, I was offered the opportunity of a short interview with the author. Stay tunned for the book review in a couple of days as well.

What was the most challenging part of writing this book?´

Berlin Reload was my absolute labour of love.  I already had the story in my head many years ago and was planning to start it sometime in 2022.  In the interim I was away overseas on a project and that time away seemed to stimulate me creatively, so much so that when I came back to the UK I completely scrapped what I had been working on and threw my weight at finishing Berlin Reload.  I worked on it every day for three months until it was finished.  So if anything it was that intense writing experience over a short period that was the most challenging for me.

What was your inspiration for the story?

 

At its heart, if you put aside all the espionage and action, Berlin Reload is a love story.  It’s a tragic love story, but still a love story.  It’s about a man that has lost so much – his lover, his children, his life and how, when they are threatened, he does everything in his power to save them.

 

As a father myself, it was something that I could completely relate too, and it’s the driving force behind the narrative.

What documentary sources did you read while writing the story? Did you travel to Berlin as well? (As a Berliner by choice, I am always keen to read about other people's experiences in my city!)?

 

As you know 2020 was a difficult year for everyone.  I had planned a trip – flights, accommodation, contacts – to meet in Berlin for a few days late last year, but with the lockdown that obviously had to be cancelled, which for me personally was a crushing blow.  I wanted to go there to get a feel for the city and work that vibe into the novel.  I’m booked to go later this year (hopefully), so this time rather than it being a research trip it will be more of a “did I get the details correct” kind of trip.

 

I am lucky enough to have a few contacts of people that have lived and worked there over the years so that helped with the research, certainly regarding the intelligence situation during the Cold War.

 

The one book that I devoured, in fact it became my Bible, was a book called Checkpoint Charlie by Ian McGregor.  It’s a highly recommended book full of stories from the people on the ground and not just the politicians.

 What are your next writing plans?

I’m currently working on a short story anthology entitled Clandestine.  It will cover the subjects of espionage, deception and intrigue.  I’m a bit of a secret short story junkie; I love reading them and I love writing them, so this is like a dream come true.  Clandestine is 85% finished and I’m hoping it will be available later this year.

After that I will be introducing a new character in a book called The Fisherman.  He’s a covert intelligence operative that is involved in stopping a series of international conspiracies.

Beyond that…..let’s just see where the Fisherman takes both me and the readers.

Random Things Tours: The Murderess by Ivan Jenson

´80-year-old New York media mogul found dead with his throat slashed in a bathtub in the Amway Grand Hotel in Grand Rapids. Foul play is suspected´.

If you are looking for a suspenseful short yet entertaining read this weekend or another, The Murderess by Ivan Jenson is a good choice.  

Written at the first person, as an account by the sex-obsessed Becca who is trying hard - and without any visible success - to be a suburb housewife, the book is at certains extent hilarious but also induces a healthy adrenaline rush. Filled with various more or less casual encounters - Becca used to be one of those ladies with a side drug addiction before pretending she settled down as a housewife that loves book clubs and is obsessed by local tv news anchors - the book has some exciting twists. Unfortunately, the characters in the book do not matter too much and are largely present as part of the stories, without being allowed too much time to develop. 

I also found that there was way too much space devoted to the sexual encounters instead of going straight into the story itself - the book is less than 200 pages anyway. But when it happens, it is worth following it and it´s hard to predict what will happen in the end. Until then there is quite a bit of motion - and some girls´ fight as well - and it suits very well the reader looking for some suspense without the need to overload him/or herself too much with overthinking.

Disclaimer: Book offered part of the book tour, but the opinion are, as usual, my own 

A Fine Selection of Graphic Novels in French

I am a very big reader of graphic novels, searching for the happy meeting between writing and images. In the last weeks I had the chance to read some good ones, mostly in French, and I am happy to share my latest recommendations of this genre.

Les Danois is my least favorite on this list. Set in Denmark, it is about a mysterious virus affecting the immigrant Muslim population, with women starting to give birth to blonde children. It is the kind of genetic conspiracy with a hint of science fiction which is not my cup of tea. I didn´t fancy the idea either and was not too impressed by the illustrations.

Servir le Peuple - Wei renmin fuwu - is based on the homonymous novel by Yan Lianke. It is a massive volume actually, populated with grotesque characters and their open sexual encounters in the time of the Cultural Revolution. The small Wu is following his Maoist future in an openly hedonistic way and it was hilarious to see such an alternative undergroud kind of experience inspired by the Commander´s Little Red Book.

Writing that Les Cinq Conteurs de Bagdad has a 1001-Night kind of inspiration, is an example of thinking laziness. In fact, stories is a word strong enough to make you dream, inspire and create life stories. I also loved the lettering of the graphic novel and the graphic.

Hannah Arendt is a philosophical graphic novel. It resumes adequately the life of an unique woman philosopher and her loves in the trouble years of the WWII. The story is articulated and the illustrations are on point. Actually, there were a lot of information I will be curious to read more about, especially Arendt´s involvement on behalf of various interwar Zionist organisations, which I am only vaguely familiar with.

Curious to explore more graphic novels with a philosophical topic, I continued with an account of Sartre´s life, adventures and philosophical stances. In parallel, her lifelong companion, Simone de Beauvoir, is also featured, but she is relatively kept in his shadow - which is often who their relationship dynamic is present in various literary accounts. The novel is long, with a poetic vein and a good writing pace, but felt sometimes lost between existentialist discussions and love escapes. Maybe because Sartre was exactly so?

 As I struggle to return to my travel writing - both in terms of writer´s block as of reinserting travel back into my daily routine after a terrible year from all the non-travel points of view, books like Bangalore suit perfectly my rehab. A graphic novel based on the author´s 3-year experience in the city, it explores through black and white graphics the busy life, around various times of the day, customs and its people. It is a visual testimony which combines both the visual and the written word and I hope to find out more such books soon for a helpful hand in my struggle to return to a curious life on the road.

Book Review: The Pear Field by Nana Ekvtimishvili

I never hear about something special about a pear field, actually I never in my life probably was curious about it and I also don´t remember to ever have visited one. I did some quick Google search ´pear field´, ´special pear field´ but nothing noteworthy came out. I suppose it´s just a matter and question of context.

In full honesty, I have mixed literary feelings about The Pear Field, the debut novel by the film director Nana Ekvtimishvili - translated into English from Georgian by Elizabeth Heighway . It didn´t happen in a long time to be so enthralled by the story while disappointed by the unclarity and versatility of the characters. I know that the conclusion should have been rather said a couple of paragraphs later and definitely not at the very end of my review, by I feel to write it over and over again. Maybe because I am also vain and excited of having noticed this...

The characters of The Pear Field - shortlisted for the latest International Booker Prize edition ; this was my second book from this year´s list and I have another in the reading - are the children from the ´Residential School for Intellectually Disabled Chidren´ situated on Kerch street in Tbilisi - introduced as ´a town in Crimean Peninsula´. An institution also known as the ´School for Idiots´. Those children, some of them abandoned, some of them with one or two relatives visiting once in a while, are tied to their present. They cannot go anywhere and when they disappear later in their life, as adults do, it´s like they never existed. No one really care for them, unless they are useful in a very peculiar way. As the girls who are sexually assaulted by neighbours or teachers.

It is a story about a country not fully dislocated but still shaked by the Soviet past, one of those many accounts about abandoned children with disabilities so popular in the local and especially international media. Yes, there is an American family which is ready to save one of them too, but the chosen one does not cross the ocean to become eventually a famous scientist praised by his small country of origin - Georgia, the country. At least, the young Irakli who was still longing about his mother that disappeared in Greece where she was looking for work, learned some English, while preparing for his American adventure that never happened. An aggressive language which reflects in fact his everyday life. His list includes curses, the words that you need to defend against someone, ´(...) how can I ask someone not to kidnap me?´

The lack of proper words is what Lela suffers when she is dragged by Vaska to have sex. She cannot describe what happened other than by the pure description of the actions, without grasping the meaning of it. 

Lela is actually the most powerful voice amongst the children from Kerch street but I felt that she is least authetic exactly because she was assigned this role. The other children are also unclear characters, sounding often like ghosts walking in groups unable to let themselves separated from each other´s. 

Definitely, I have completely different expectations from this book but reading it was a pleasant surprise of discovering a new author and putting on trial my literary critique skills. Thus, was a great choice of a book, although not the one who in the end was awarded the Booker. 

Rating: 3.5

Random Things Tours: Matilda Windsor is Coming Home by Anne Goodwin

But until she is back home, there is a very long road to take, which crosses decades of change in terms of mental health policies and public awareness.

Books like Matilda Windsor is Coming Home by Anne Goodwin are a noteworthy literary contribution to a topic which deserves a serious reconsideration, not matter the country and the context: mental health, particularly mental health policies. 

However, the book is not a nonfiction account of various mental health policies in England. It has a story and lively characters and also a pinch of humour which makes both the story and the characters widely relatable. The book reminded me a lot of old good English literature, with old ladies stuck in the past or/and forced to isolate by their families since their early youth due to some random morality and emotionally misunderstood issues. 

Matilda Windsor, the once glamorous lady who is now rewinding over and over again her glamorous memories is one of the kindest and interesting characters in the book. Janice, the social worker who is not only doing a job, but also is involved emotionally in the fate of her patients, is another relatable character keeping the reader a good company alongside the story. The other important character in the book, the brother, Henry, who last saw his sister as a little boy, seems less profiled and is not necessarily a coherent presence into the story.

As the story takes place mostly in the very far away past, in the 1930s and in the 1990s, the context and the ambiance are very important. The book is well placed in the then social and political realm which gives authenticity and a specific life zest to the story.

Anne Goodwin writes extensively about topics related to mental health and I am curious to read out more by her. Matilda Windsor is Coming Home is a recommended read for anyone with an interest in such a sensitive and very painful social topic, seen from the perspective of a relatable kind story.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered part of a book blog tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own.