Random Things Tours: A Tidy Ending by Joanna Cannon

´(...) there are always two yeas to interpret everything in life. All ylou need is to pick the version that suits you better´.

Linda sounds like a very normal housewife, without any sense of adventure or courage. Just a plain 40 something, working in a charity shop, married, with an equally ´normal human´. Until the suburbs where she is living is recording a high number of women killed. Should she be afraid about ?

A Tidy Ending, Joanna Cannon´s third, is a complicated, character-driven thriller. It starts and continues for a long time into the book on a very quiet, slow-paced note, until it hurries up stumbling from a surprising twist to another, at the very end of it. 

From the very beginning though, there is a discrepancy between the familiar, quiet, uneventful ambiance of the suburb and what you feel it´s boiling underneath the story. Similarly, the good Linda is far from being the boring kind of person one may misjudge at the first sight. She has desires and wishes to live in a more glamorous world, thus her quest to find Rebecca, the previous owner of her house, a subscriber of glossy magazines delivered to Linda´s address instead. Linda is kind of moderately obsessed with Rebecca and I muss confess that for a couple of pages was about to bet that she is into something more serious than her curious intentions.

The book have a relatively rich cast of characters, but Linda is by far the most memorable one. So memorable that you can easily create a very relatable mental representation of her, that may stay with the reader long after finishing the book.

Cannon is a skillful writer, with an unique art of creating suspense, literally out of the most anodine situation. The game of suggestions and allusions is comes to hand when you are almost about to lose any chance of expecting a real change or eventful occurence. 

A Tidy Ending is a fine piece of thriller work with characters with a complex yet purely human psychology. I enjoyed the suspense and how the story evolved, as well as the human questions outlined.

Rating: 4.5 stars

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

Book Review: The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara

Reading The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara reminded my of the times when I was capable of immersing into reading without acknowledging any other external occurences. At a great extent, our moods and current situation affects our perception of a book. Therefore, reading is subjective, and subjective is also the reading of a fragment of reality.

It is clear for me that Yanagihara, who assesses her right of writing ´about whatever´ she wants, loves writing and takes all the time in the world for doing it. It is an act of restoring both the right and the pleasure of the reader. Why to accept some ready-made novella when the writer can gift you the pleasure of a long dense and interesting novel.

There are ´real´ facts The People in the Trees is based upon: the case of Nobel Prize winner Daniel Carleton Gajdusek convincted of paedophilia - who inspired Yanagihara to write her second novel as well, A Little Life (soon to be reviewed), the fascination for Amazonian tribes and the different experiments - of medical and intellectual nature - they were exposed to. But the rest of the book is the pure result of interdisciplinary and intertextuality.  

Dr. Abraham Norton Perina is authoring his memoirs from the isolation of his prison cell. Condemned for abusing his own adopted children, he is recalling his encounters with the imaginary group of U´ivu. The encounters are nostalgically remembered as slices of a lost paradise, and the eternal search for the immortality - or at least hundred-year survival on earth. 

The reader may be so caught into the anthropological journey that one will completely omit the circumstances the memoirs are written, outside any ethical outline of the character. There is always surprise once we acknowledge the evil, especially when this occurs in intellectual places on which we actually project our intellectual expectations. We expect science to work for good, and scientists and intellectuals in general to dedicated their life to the general´s good.   

It is a fascinating read, especially if you cheat a bit and knew what will happen in the end. It makes you expect when it will happen and when there will be a turn of page into the opposite direction of good. But even this ´moral´ layer is less relevant: writing literature does not need anyone´s approval and evaluation anyway, and this freedom is such an important asset of Yanagihara´s writing. It desinhibits and inspires in a way that not too many writers do nowadays.

A special note to the beautiful cover too, which perfectly illustrates both the beauty and the strange distraction of nature.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Random Things Tours: The Secret of Karabakh by Fidan Bagirova

 

Rarely the meeting between historical fiction and thriller is a happy one. Set sometimes in different timelines and at different paces, the two genres may work in opposite directions and require a different narrative. But when such a wondrous encounter happen, the reader that may happen to be passionate about both, is left delighted.

The Secret of Karabakh by multimedia artist and writer Fidan Bagirova was my latest happy reading experience in this respect. The main hero of the story is Alana, an academic starting a career in archeology at Cambridge. She has the support of her wealthy family allowing her to focus on her career. But suddenly, things are getting worse and worse, as she is faced with a reality she was not aware of. She is faced with truths she was not aware of, shaking dramatically the base of her life itself. Fate seemed to have a different call for her and there is no way to escape. Sometimes, discovering who you really are is rooted in despair and life-threatening situations.

I loved both the idea and the execution, as well as the fact that it brings into the attention of the English-speaking reader the history and culture of Azerbaijan, which are rarely, if ever, portrayed. Interestingly, the book opens a door not only to the characters of the story, but to the reader itself, towards new worlds and new perspectives. And, as usual, knowledge is life-changing as it overcomes prejudice while acknowledging the human basis of us all.

The Secret of Karabakh is a captivating novel impossible to put down, with a strong cultural take. Definitely the kind of book that will make you curious and humble at the same time, because one may realize how big and diverse and challenging our world is.

Rating: 4 stars

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

My April Movie Selection

There are only a couple days from April left, and - at least for me - looks like time speeds up. In a way, it makes sense, after two years of slow down, it was about time. This month I had my first out-of-Berlin holiday and decided to spend a lot of time learning (even) more languages, or improving some, therefore the purchase of a lifelong Rosetta Stone plan made sense. May I have a long life, long enough to go through all the languages of the app - ok, not all, as I am more than familiar with at least 7 of them, but still...

In movie terms, the month went smoothly, but I may confess that I watched a lot of crap. I have a ´tradition´ of paying once the month a Netflix subscription, in order to watch all those movies everyone and their pets are talking about. And it happened but, well...I got the crap too. Most of the other movies I´ve watched this month were as bad as Netflix, but the month got saved yesterday, as I watched Django by Etienne Comar which is excellent both in terms of story and play.

I need some good, intellectual, smart movie detox for the next month or no movie at all. Also, I wish to watch more movies set in the languages I am trying to learn and improve therefore, maybe I will be luckier this time. At least, there are some linguistic gains...

Here it is, my curated selection of movies for the sunny month of April.

Netflix Selection

One month paid Netflix subscription is not the best money investment, but my mentalities studies do need some insights into what people really watch. Or, in a more honest vein, I do like trash sometimes. 

My visual fastfood included two ´popular´ series and a movie, featuring a con-character of our times...

Inventing Anna

There is a maladive fascination with this person, Anna Delvey/Sorokina but unfortunately the missing point in my opinion is the psychiatric help this person needs. I´ve previously read the book wroten by an ex-friend and in a way it was enough. She went to prison, paid the debts, is about to be free...etc. Why so much glamour around her? Why turn her into a Robin Hood whose path to startdom was allowed by the fake rich white elites? Is stealing money - from the rich - faking being rich a social bravery? And fictionised or not, this person needs help, not for coning more people or becoming a popular victim of immigration policies eventually...But because it is the only way to empathize with such a case.

Tinder Schwindler

If you ever been on Tinder - been there and, with no exception, I only dealt with douchebags - you want to figure out persons like Simon Leviev, the character of the reality show Tinder Schwindler. If there is one single point Inventing Anna is outling, there is that con-women may be more exposed and subsequently punished than men. Leviev belongs to the same category, but his time in prison was shorter and right now is playing the crypto expert and has a model gf. Meanwhile, he left bankrupt a bunch of women he met on Tinder where he was displaying high-end billionaire credentials. Anyone into online dating should see this movie, because, you never know when you can become a victim. 

My Unorthodox Life

I am interested in story featuring the phenomenon of OTD therefore My Unorthodox Life featuring entrepreneur Julia Haart and her family sounded as a great way to spend some binging days. In her early 40s, she left her Orthodox Jewish family in Monsey and started her own business in the modelling industry. Three of her kids followed her and are more or less religious, while the youngest remained religious and with his father. She eventually remarried with an non-Jewish entrepreneur with whom she looks like the match made in Heaven in the reality show. In fact, shortly after the movie finished, she requested a restriction order for him. Her other daughter, Batscheva, also divorced after the end of the reality show mini-series.

Although I appreciate Haart´ strength and motivation and her unique achievement of ruling the dice in a very exclusivisitic business environment, and doing it in only a couple of years, I was appalled by the vulgarity. I understand the hate some - especially women - may have after leaving a very insular world - however, her family is not purely Hasidic, just yeshivish - particularly for the time spent within communities not encouraging education and a certain conservative lifestyle, but there are always human limits of honesty going beyond any religious background. Publicly discussing about her son-in-law sexual clumsiness or going in the conservative Monsey for shopping in a kosher store, in the middle of the day, dressed as for a night clubbing in a sex club is a matter of (self)respect, Or lack thereof. 

Also, it looked so fake the difference between what you see - the happy mixed family - and what really happened in this family. Haart just launched her memoir but although I devour this kind of stories, I am not sure I really want another portion of vulgarity into my life.

NOT RECOMMENDED

As I mentioned before, I had a lot of disappointments in terms of movies this month. Disappointments as of the very time-wasting kind.

Here are the movies that I don´t recommend at all:

Don Quichote featuring Carmen Argenziano. It is introduced as an adventure movie but it makes Don Quichote looks like he is a mentally confused person trying to escape an old home care facility. Over and over again. 

A Brother´s Love (La Femme de Mon Frère) a Canadian movie by Mona Chokri featuring a maladive dependency between an unemployed girl with academic credentials and her charmeur brother who fell in love with her obgyn doctor, while he accompanied her for an abortion. The only win is that I´ve heard some Canadian movie.

Mossad, the film - A parody featuring Tsahi Halevi from Fauda, is probably the worst Israeli movie I ever seen. Halevi is a good actor and also an interesting person, but this movie makes everyone looks like has a kind of mental limitation in understanding the world...Not the kind of Israeli Bond one may dream of anyway.

But there have been at least two movies that are worth watching those days

M. Butterfly

Based on a true story that shaked the French diplomacy at the end of the 1980s, L´Affaire Boursicot M.Butterfly is a story of betrayal, spying, love and diplomacy. Jeremy Irons plays the Boursicot with a kind of theatre emphasis that I´ve found sometimes too emotional, but good nevertheless. It also made me think a lot about how easy love lit by passion make people blind, and in this case, blindness is lethal. A hard to believe but real story.

Django

There are not enough movies featuring Roma, and Django by Etienne Comar with Reda Kateb from A Prophet is one small contribution. Kateb, which is Franco-Algerian, plays Django Reinhardt, during his episode while he was trying to escape from the Nazi-occupied French to Switzerland. His efforts were unsuccessful and he had to play few times for a Nazi audience in exchange of his survival, although his people was deported. The movie, and the play reflect the ambivalence of the times and of an artist´s choice in general. Also, there are some details to follow about playing music during the Nazi times.

Pathological by Sarah Fay

 

Pathological. The True Story of Six Misdiagnosis, the unforgettable memoir by Sarah Fay  describes with accuracy the drama of the modern health system, in the US, when it comes to mental health. It is a drama of misdiagnosis and overmedication, part due to the institutional inability, part to the pervasive pharma network.

At first, I was tempted - by reason of mental simplicity - to compare it with Prozac Nation, but it is more than that. The fact that over the course of three decades she was misdiagnosed with six different psychological conditions and administered the medication recommended with is not the end of the book, but a permanent desperate search for the real cause of her personal distress. 

I am an advocate of always asking the help of a mental health specialist, when it comes to mental problems. But in America - as well as in Germany and elsewhere - the symptoms are classified according to standards that sometimes do not correspond to a complex reality, such Fay´s. In the US, for instance, the diagnosis is mostly following the standards set by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders which seem to be a disorder in itself. 

Diagnosis is a cultural act, based on social acception, scientific limitations, plus a certain percentage of pharma industry affiliation. It is sometimes more a matter of perception than on cold scientific evaluation. In the end, the person in need of a diagnosis is twice of victim: of medical incompetence and of social stigma. No wonder that many people may actually give up and chose refusing medication and diagnosis or just committing suicide or eventually find some placebo-hippy solutions or maybe follow a mindfulness kind of ´therapy´. 

By the way, there is almost no discussion about the side-effects of yoga and meditation and all the shining positivity. Sarah Fay does it and, indeed, people affected by a mental health issue may be negatively influenced by some - or all - of those emotional juggling.

I wish there is more empathic writing about the struggle of mental health. In a way helping us to understand not necessarily what really happens when one faces the struggle, but the many layers involved by the political-institutional approach of the medical/health establishment. And there may be non-Americans considering that this is a Made in USA kind of issue, I have a bad news: Germany is having serious problems when it comes to diagnosing mental health, and the overdosing of the wrong medication is not an isolate situation.

Pathological is a balanced and direct testimony - although the narrative sounded at times less organised and structured - of the many aspects regarding life with a mental health problem, particularly after facing the institutional misdiagnosis. The struggle is particularly dramatic because one may feel that instead of receiving a hand to swim until the shore, rather receives a push to drown instead. The power of words and of a memoir may one day change all of this.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Random Things Tours: The Shot by Sarah Sultoon

 

There are not enough (good) books - novels - featuring the brave and challenging work of journalists, particularly those dispatched in the Middle East. The Shot, published this month by the intriguing Orenda Books makes a noteworthy difference.

I am tempted to believe that journalists with vast experience in the field are the best suited to write literary renditions of their eventful daily lives. More than in other kind of jobs, journalists do have their own codes and deep understanding of things that otherwise would be completely out of sight for an outsider. Sarah Sultoon, ex-CNN news executive do gathered enough experiences to write at least one good book. The Shot is her second but my first and I may confess that could not leave it until the end. With a big sight that it´s finally over and I may wait a bit until a next book by her.

Samira, a TV journalist, and Kris, a star photographer, found themselves entangled in a complex web of circumstances, from the US invasion of Iraq to Afghanistan and the genocide in Darfour. A up-and-coming journalist before taking this vital assignment for surviving her career, she is facing morla challenges and dilemma, following her encounters on the ground. Her character is one of the best in the book, evolving smoothly from a relatively office journalist to a courageous conflict reporter. 

Instead of making ideological statements and displaying openly a political stance, Sultoon created circumstances and a dynamic cast of characters able to display the complexity of various situations created by political decisions. Journalists are not neutral pawns in such games, but communicators of both global crisis and individual human stories.

The prose is engaging with a good balance between dialogues and the storytelling framework. The pace is alert, with surprising twists turning the reader into an excited journalist keen to be part of the story as well.  Both the idea and the execution are good arguments that journalists can write excellent literature as well. 

The Shot is an intense geopolitical thriller from the kind I wish to see more published. Journalists from all over the world, especially those working in conflict zones do deserve a better and frequent representation.

Rating: 4.5 stars

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

Random Things Tours: Welcome to Your Life by Bethany Rutter

 

It takes a lot of courage to decide the day of your wedding to give up a 10-year relationship. In addition of the break-up, there is the organisational mess left behind and the discontent of all the relatives and guests getting ready and investing emotionally and financially in the big event. However, Serena Mills, the main woman characters of Welcome to Your Life by Bethany Rutter.

Some relationships are not supposed to happen, no matter how time and emotions we invested about. Time cannot solve the riddle of feeling in the wrong place, with the wrong person. Therefore, I can fully understand Serena´s decision. Alistair may have been heartbroken for a long time, but after a while, all will be back to ´business-as-usual´. Dating business, to be more precise.

Serena´s next move is to settle in London, into a new, better paid job, and start a journey of - at least - 52 dates; one for every week of the year. Would she succeed? Will she find The One? At least, will she have some great dating fun? Actually, a little bit of everything, as she is seriously delving, with an open heart, into the complex jungle of (mostly) online dating. It looks like it was all for the good.

Selena is playing a different London game, with grace and curiosity. She is a likeable character, although she sounds sometimes superficial - but she is not supposed to be. Dating is for her not only an opportunity to find new men, but also to discover herself and what kind of person she is meant to be. I also loved the natural women solidarity and easygoing relationships. It may be just a literary projection but it sounds good to read about such a possibility anyway.

Welcome to Your Life is a well written easygoing book, that may help anyone looking for some dating fun and inspiration in a big city. Besides a very noncommittal way of approaching dating and relationships, it also encourages body positivity. Reading this book is a pleasant experience, worth giving it a try as a relaxing weekend lecture. Some characters are maybe too inconclusive or just unconvincing, but the dating game is open and worth giving it a try.

Rating: 3 stars

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

Based On a True Story

 

Is Based on a True Story/D´après une histoire vraie by Delphine de Vigan a memoir or a work of fiction. Does L. really exist? Is her character based on someone De Vigan knows in real life? What is real? Real life, to be more precise?

The times we are living are redefining reality. Reality seen as what you can personally check, through snippets shared on social media, reality shows - the voice of the novel is interested to write a novel taking place within the realm of a reality show - ´live´. We want the proof that the things we are told about, ´really´ took place. The discussion about how much personal inspiration is in a work of literary ficiton is old and will never completely get away from the list of critical topics included in a literary overview.

De Vigan´s book pushes the limits of creativity, with an eclectic mix of genres and a prose - I´ve read the book in the original French language - that is alone entincing. The topic adds to the literary fascination that kept me interested until the very end - ´Fin´ with a star. Actually, almost forgot what does it mean to read a book where one keep asking questions all the time, a book that from one chapter to the other is unclear what really happens - how far L. will go, why she accepted her into her literary life, will a confrontation finally take place? -, what is the ´reality´ of the book, where the story goes. At least, it is a first person story which means that at least the author will survive until the end of it.

Literature should not leave us indifferent towards life, but no matter how ´real´ the experiences we based our writing on - after all, there is always some research involved while writing a novel, and this research is the ´real flesh´ of the story - fiction rules. Our ´real´ lives are mostly based on memories which are filtered fragments of reality. Also a kind of fiction.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Random Things Tours: Lost Property by Helen Paris

 

I always find fascinating the possible stories of the objects exposed at the Lost&Found thus reading Lost Property, the debut novel by Helen Paris, had partly satisfied my literary curiosity. After all, how one can be drawn to a book, other than by suggesting possible intellectual adventures that may sound familiar to the brain? Dot Watson, the hero of the book, is sharing a story through snippets of lost objects she is carefully taking care of while working at Baker Street Lost Property in London.

But what really kept me interested in the story, is more than my curiosity towards her assigned workplace: it had to do with the way in which the real-life environment moulds into the narrative, involving characters and events, in other words, creating an unique literary world.

Dot Watson has a story, which is parcimoniously revealed from one chapter to the other. Most importantly that her present, she used to have a completely different way of life, living in Paris, planning to take over life with the young age enthusiasm of a surfer dancing on water against the powerful waves. But life rarely follows our beautiful projections and Dot Watson is living her life with the intensity of the moment, no matter how estranged it is from her earls dreams. It takes a lot of courage to swim through life with such a wise attitude despite the broken dreams and hearts. 

Helen Paris went to the source in order to do her research for this book, and shortly worked in a Lost Property Office as well. Having a direct contact with the people and their lost objects - including their lost significant others that disappeared without a trace - helps to understand what life looks like on the other side of the counter. But what no research can guarantee is the unique art of navigating through human emotions and feelings without feeling entangled. 

Lost Property is a literary chiselled kind of a book, the perfect companion when you are looking to read a story with an inquisitive and unforgettable cast of characters. My fantasies about Lost&Found stories are partially content with. 

Rating: 4.5 stars

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

Random Things Tours: No Way to Die by Tony Kent

The victim of a murder in Key West displays signs of radioactive contamination. Agent Joe Dempey and his team should trace the culprits, as soon as possible, as it seems America is under the threat of a local terrorist attack. No Way to Die by crime thriller author Tony Kent is a master of building up a story that once you are invited to take a look at, but it´s hard to leave until the mystery is solved.

The events are built with high accuracy, no details being out of place, but allowing the story to unfold. The suspense is progressively created, and likewise the characters reveal their personality and interests. The elements of actuality - alas, the story is set in 2021, in the pandemics´ time - intertwin smartly with the fiction making the account even more relatable. After all, so many months of lockdown and isolation may push us towards longing for stories; we want/hope to know that even though the population of the Planet was stuck at home, at least there were some events taking place, no matter the dramatic touch.

No Way to Die is a book for informed readers, passionate about contemporary politics, especially in America, mature enough to understand the complexities of today world. Inspired by his everyday life encounters while working for 20 years for the Criminal Bar, Kent convenes perfectly the challenges of nationawide investigation and the terrorist threats. I would definitely be very curious to read more about this author and delve more into his literary style as well as contemporary topics.

Rating: 4 stars

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

Random Things Tours: The Coffin Club by Jacqueline Sutherland

 

Recently widowed, Kat decided to start a new life. Through an imaginary permanent dialogue with her late husband, she is sharing with him trusthfully the details of her everyday searches for a second chance. She wants not only a husband, but is longing for motherhood, a wish she will not be able to fulfill. Maybe this motherhood part is too obsessive, I dare to say.  

Jacqueline Sutherland´s debut novel The Coffin Club may start as a ´feelgood´ kind of novel, but it continues on a very tensed note, the mystery and thriller insidiously interfering into the story in a slow crescendo. As Kat meet the equally widowed charming Spaniard Nico, the single father of the 5 years old Midge, it seems like her dreams are about to come true. But take care what do you wish for...

Nico may not be he is supposed to be, this is predictable after all, but he is not the only one. As we are approaching the end of the novel, things are becoming more and more strange, and the smart story twists make it - finally - into a great everyday life kind of thriller. The end is cruel yet suspenseful, nothing one would have expect - except her childloving-at-any-price obsession.

I may confess that for almost the first part of the story I did not know what to expect. It sounded like one of those stories where the main - woman - character set for a new life and by the force of her will, it really happens. But when hints are about to spread all over the story, my sleeping interest woke up suddenly and could not leave it until the very end.

Kat is by far the most important and better portrayed character in the story. She is smart and perceptive and moving smoothly through life, with the coldness of a killer. I would have expected more vivid representations of the other characters though.

If you are looking for a an intelligent plot of otherwise a very slow paced book, The Coffin Club is an eventful choice. 

Rating: 3.5 stars

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

Stories from Morocco

 

Arabic- and French-speaking storyteller collector Halima Hamdane gathered a couple of songs and children collection in French - with intercalated mentions in Darija, the dialect of Arabic spoken in Morocco, sharing similarities with the version spoken in Algeria, Mauritania and Tunisia. In the audio version, also read by Hamdane, the main three stories are read fully in Darija.

There is a certain cruelty in children stories, not only those ones, but in general, folktales that we read to children. One may be clearly horrified, according to current standards of humanity, anyway, by the terrific cruelty of Brother Grimm´s and this is because the primary function of those stories, at the time they entered the patrimony of humanity was not to entertain, as we do today when we read stories to our children, but to warn, educate and prepare children for life. A life that in some societies started to be real from 6-7 years old. 

Therefore, the story of the family leaving their baby in the care of a ghoula - ogre - desguised as a welcoming old lady, and the insistence of the father that the mother should not pay attention to the worrisome signs she spotted in the child upon returning home. When the father will be eaten by the ghoula, disappointed that the mother ran away with the baby is a warning of not paying attention to a woman´s wisdom.

The other story, of a mother completely out of herself with a very picky eater son, may be unacceptable by our Western standards, as the mother begs a rod to hit the son and when the rod does not comply, there is a row of other events and beings that are conjured to listen to her - after all, who will not listen to a enraged mother?. 

Last but not least, the wise Mahboul, whose successful outreach to Jamila, the most beautiful girl in the village starts with a burned almond randomly found on the street, follows a pattern one may encounter in some 1001 stories, when one situation leads to another, sometimes fully acknowledged and used in its advantage by the main hero of the story. 

This collection of stories and children songs, which I´ve read in the French version and listened to the audio in Darija, is a precious testimony of the richness of world stories. I would have been grateful for more anthropological context about the children songs which at the first and second sight do not all make too much sense. 

The illustrations of the book are inspired and colourful as well, catching up the mindset of the folktale and the local timeless ambiance.

Reading those stories to children, eventually with the additional original Darija version, may enlarge the first hand knowledge of the little ones about the diversity of cultures and languages. Hearing the intonations of a different language could be a small yet firm baby step towards acknowledging diversity and maybe killing intolerance too.

Rating: 4 stars

Book Review: Matrix by Lauren Groff

´Marie is almost at her best when there is someone to fight´.

I love the sharp nuanced writing of Lauren Groff and when you have such a rare talent, even among the best praised writers, I could not miss including her latest, Matrix, on my reading shelves. 

Set in the second half of the 12th century, it was inspired by the personality of Marie de France, innovative poetesse and extraordinary abbess. If we are familiar with her poetic works, although scarcely through her Lais, her ´professional´ career is less known therefore it allows Groff to knit her story where Marie is a fearful leader, able to juggle games of power and influence. In fact, in the vein of our times, this assumed role is more important than her literary achievements. Marie is a women of strength and together with her women nuns she made it into a pack to be afraid of.

I was not sure what exactly to expect from this book, except the extraordinary writing which happened. Each word has its place and convenes deep human encounters. But although there are many Latin references and historical ambiance elements, I haven´t feel any moment that I am in a Middle Ages realm. The pace, the structure of the conversations, the interests all sounded for me too contemporaneous to be believable. In those moments, I would have love at least some Lais to read to make me feel at least a bit into the real timeline. 

It happens to study for one full year Middle Age history and literary beginnings and therefore I felt so estranged by the supposed temporary realm of this book. 

I can understand and I full agree with the importance of featuring strong women and encouraging and empowering women. Religions were always a deterrent of allowing women to grow and until very late in the human history, sometimes were at the forefront of blocking any society efforts to be offered the chance of assuming historical roles. Despite the fact that all those men so praised by religions came from a woman. Without Eve there was not the rest of humanity. However, forcing stories of women role-models do have some limited historical availability and does not need to be made at all price. 

Matrix - reading as The Mother -  could have been different. I would have love to read a book about a woman like Marie, but not set in an abbey and not inspired by Marie de France. Somehow, the circumstances are too complex and the details do not always match our natural desire to see our role models even in the faintest resemblance with the truth.

Rating: 2.5 stars

Random Things Tours: Home by Mark Ballabon

 

As sometimes I happen to be a teacher of foreign languages to teenagers, I am often surprised about the deep human knowledge as well as of the extent of concern about everyday topics we, adults, are rather tempted to hide under the carpet, such as global change. Therefore, I was not surprised by the level of maturity and philosophical approach to life by Leah, the main character of Home, the debut YA novel by Mark Ballabon. 

Home is the first volume of a projected trilogy, with an inspired beautiful illustration by Grant MacDonald. 14yo Leah is trying to answer questions about what does it mean home as someone´s place in the huge universe, but also discovers and observes human behavior and diversity. 

Through dialogues, journaling and philosophical observations, Leah is building up her home of the mind. With the pure heart of the curious, she is writing her own home through interpretations and worldview discovery. There is always place for understanding instead of hate and violence, although familiar and fascinated by survival stories and experience that may teach you the lessons of the survival of the fittest. But when you realize that world is your canvas where you write your own story, there is no other choice but to be good and kind and understand the sadness of the bully. 

Home can be easily considered a book for this generation as it reflects the topics and worries typical for young people this age. It is also a story of getting strong and empowered while nurtured by the life in the middle of the nature, trying to understand and respect its rules. I am very curious to read Leah´s next adventures that although may be suited for YA readership, can be equally inspiring for the parents of young readers as well.

Rating: 5 stars

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

Random Things Tours: You´re Always With Me by Andy Maslen

 

A woman in shock. Her therapist. The husband. A dead child. Who killed the child? Why? 

You´re Always with Me by Andy Maslen is hard to put down. It is not just your regular psychological thriller recipe, actually any kind of thriller recipe, when the reader couldn´t wait to finally find the culprit. The book is much more and although I will refuse to disclose too much about the story itself - finding the killer while trying to figure out who exactly was involved in the murder and what was the actual motivation - I will make some observations regarding the structure of the book and the techniques.

The tension is mostly created through the dialogues, one of the strongest assets of the book. Through the dialogies between the characters details are revealed and actually the story advanced. The author maintains a hidden control of the story, but in a more elaborated smarter way. 

Not less important is the switch between the points of views of the different characters. In this case, it builds depth into the story and creates a diversity of perspectives which may be confusing, taking the reader sometimes far away from really guessing the possible solution(s), but those smoking mirrors are part of the very elaborated thriller ambiance created with so much care for detail by the author. 

You´re Always with Me is taking the reader out of the reading couch into the middle of an intense psychological riddle. Reading this book is an exercise in tensed focus, which will shake you until the last word on the page. An intellectual experience worth every second of it.

Rating: 4.5 stars

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

Book Review: Elbwärts by Thilo Krause

 

A family of three - father, mother, child - return from Switzerland to a village in the Sächsische Schweiz/Saxon Switzerland, the home of the father. He will revisit the places of his childhood, through traumatic personal and historic episodes. The debut novel of the poet Thilo Krause - currently based in Switzerland and originary from this part of Germany - is built around a relatively simple idea. 

What makes this book special is the poetic intertwinning of the memory reverberations. The search for the past, as inaccurate as it may be, sounds like a desperate musical score made up of flashes of memories. Those flashes reproduce the normal chaos of the ways in which memory is built, and the desperate search of the main characters to reassess his past reproduces the shock that we may be faced with when we try to build up a narrative based on fragments of memory. Which is an approximation dictated by the memory itself but we are sometimes desperate to know/remember the ´truth´.

Elbwärts is evocative and tragic, as tragic of the fate of the one-foot Vito, but it does use a very innovative memory exploration technique. It may not be the kind of novels matching my enthusiasm, but from the point of view of the evolution of the contemporary German-speaking literature it plays an important unique role.

Rating: 3 stars

Book Review: Baba Dunja´s Last Love

The Russian-German author Alina Bronsky is considered one of the most promising women authors her generation. Her books are always well welcomed by the critics and often nominated for local prizes. She come to Germany when she was 13 and in less than 5 years she was already writing in German for a local publication. 

Her books are often placed in a post-Soviet past, mostly with women characters with a tragi-comical view on life. This is the case of Rosa Achmetowna, the main character from the widely acclaimed - and translated into English - The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine, or with Baba - the slavic word for grandmother - Dunja, the character of Baba Dunja´s Last Love (which I´ve read in the original German version - Baba Dunjas letzte Liebe). 

Dunja returns in a village contigous to Chernobyl, refusing to leave the contaminated area. Together with some other tragical, dying characters, she is about to take control of the situation and organises with a velvet glove the emptiness of a deserted place. Her encounters with modernity - aka Internet, ATMs etc - are hilarious and her voice sounds genuine and has an authenticity that is so much appreciated in the non-Soviet/local readership on such books. 

In a dying lanscape, surrounded by people about to die as well, she found peace in reading the letters from her daughter Irina living in Germany and her granddaugher Laura she never met and whose letters she cannot read because in a language she doesn´t know (German). Thus, the German-speaking readership finds a convenient connection. 

Personally, I wish I would have read this book many time ago. Right now, when it comes from Ukraine, my mind cannot fathom beyond the horrific images of the Russian massacres. I think those horrible crimes will influence from now on everything we can write about Ukraine. In the same way one cannot write about former Yugoslavia without mentioning the genocide commited there. Or about Syria without thinking about the crimes committed there. Or about Yemen, without thinking about the crimes committed there.

 Rating: 3 stars

My February and March Movie Selection

Long time no movie reviews. February was a very movie-dry kind of month, with a lot of books to read and other professional obligations, therefore, after a relatively good start in January I took a long break until March, that was very intense. As I just paid one month subscription for Netflix, in order to catch up with some popular series, April announces a long list of film recommendations. And it is not April Fool´s.

Berlin Syndrome by Cale Shortland

A teacher sending confusing signals to young students, literally kidnapps an Australian tourist wandering the streets of Kreuzberg´s Berlin. The psychological tension and the horror of the violent events is very well played, until the end which is confusing and clearly below the expectations. In any case, I would figured out completely different a movie called Berlin Syndrome - maybe because I lived for way too long in this city...

Bridge of Spies co-produced by Steven Spielberg

Long before the Jewish-Russian dissident Nathan Sharansky was walking to freedom on the bridge in the Glienicke area of Potsdam, the Bridge of Spies was long use for Soviet-American exchange of prisoners. Set at the peak of the Cold War, it is inspired by the first such swap, when the convicted Russian spy Rudolf Abel was exchanged for the American pilot Gary Powers, caught during a mission of driving a U2 spy plane. Tom Hanks plays a very good role of the defense attorney for Abel, and the movie is less focused on ideological reasons, but on the chain of events and the general context. 

Movies by The Sudanese Film Group

The Sudanese Film Group refers to a group of young film directors from Sudan, whose movies were produced in the 1970s-1980s. They were educated either in Cairo or in Europe - particularly the GDR´s Babelsberg or Moscow. I have no idea about what is the state of the art of the Sudanese cinema, but the short movies by Eltayeb Mahdi, Suliman Elnour or Ibrahim Shaddad are very important to understand not only the different influences brought from their studies, but also the focus on local topics and stories.

Dieses Jahr in Czernowitz - This Year in Czernowitz

Part of my mother´s family comes from Czernowitz and many years ago I had the chance to pay a visit to the city. Now, with the destruction of the war, even the memories of the memories are erased. The film is following various US-based intellectuals originary from there, such as Norman Manea. I watched it while the Russians were attacking all over Ukraine, including historical Jewish heritage, and history feels wrong again. 

Babylon Berlin

The iconic Berlin-based series Babylon Berlin featuring the police inspector Gereon Rath kept me busy for at least one week. The turmoil of the last years of the Weimar Republic with all the changes brought to the mentalities and the political and social incertainties are very well portrayed, through the complex cases the inspector is supposed to solve - Berlin Alexanderplatz by Döblin is even better though - but personally I felt that some of the characters do have too many lives. It is good that they were continue to further play in the movie, but it is not Paw Patrol anyway...Also, the hats worn by the ladies in the movie are really really hot...

Synonymes by Nadav Lapid

The Berlin Golden Bear recipient, Synonymes was on my list of movies for a long. With a Larousse in his hand, a young Israeli refuses - at least for a couple of month, for the duration of his visa - to speak Hebrew and psychotically is trying to deconstruct and deny his identity. Although the topic is worn out, it is well played and is worth spending the time in the heavily nervous ambiance.

Honey Cigar by Kamir Ainouz

Selma (Zoé Adjani), 17, is stuck between the traditional world of her educated Berber Algerian parents and the temptations of the French life. The war in Algeria as well as her own growing up process are exerting even more pressure on her. An interesting story well played, by a non-conformist voice of the Algerian cinema.

Friesland

Second immersion within a month into popular German series, Friesland features a police working team operating in a small village in the Friesland region of Germany. She is of Turkish origin, and a woman in the police forces - long live multi-kulti - and the two of them operate sometimes at the very low limit of the law - didn´t expect it, Germany. It is not so bad, but definitely worth it if you are looking to improve your level of German and even catch some funny Frisian accents.