Decoding Twilight

I promised Amanda that I would spend some time tonight to uncover the reasons why we spent almost the entire weekend, glued in front of the computer screen, reading the e-book version of the Twilight Saga. What started out as a Robsession (on her part) unfolded into 36 straight hours of intense immersion in words, held breaths and the occasional yells of “WTF?!”

So just what was so captivating about a teen-story featuring your klutz of the century and a vampire who will never age beyond 17? Sure, casting Robert Pattison in the role of this old-man stuck in a kid’s body was a good motivation to begin, but seriously, by the time you reach the 3^rd book – Eclipse, the visual image of him starts to fade away. So surely, it couldn’t just have been about the man who played the words coming to life!

We’ve spent the last couple of days, trying to dissect this great mystery cos Amanda is mortified she was pointed in the direction of Teen Reads when she sought to buy the book. Plus, she being a pagan reader these last couple of years, went ahead and shamelessly purchased the books.

Senthil tried to console me by updating that he has discovered a whole load of women our age-group confessing to have read the books as well. I’m not surprised. After all, Mary Anderson a nice Irish friend of mine told me I HAD to read them. And she even added, after finishing the first book, I too, would be willing and wanting to offer up my neck!

And so, after many ponderous moments, with Decode playing on repeat-mode, here’s my two cents on why Twlight – the Series – has taken the world by storm:

1)     The impossibility of the whole storyline

This is probably the one that has got the guys wondering why we girls are utter-nutters. Cos they know that there is no way such a story could exist. But here’s the deal boys – it doesn’t matter that it can never happen in real life. The mere fact that someone else thought about it and wrote 5 whole books on it is enough for us. It says that we’re not the only ones who see the potential in impossibilities.    

2)     The great romance

Most people, regardless of their age, gender and background, crave that they have their very own personal guardian angel. Someone who would go to the ends of the world to make sure that they are never hurting or are harmed. Someone who would fight to be with them, come what may. And we get it here. Chapters and pages of it. From start to end. Even when all the drama is unfolding and death is potentially upon them.

3)     The poignancy of language

This one is my personal favourite. Having made the conscious decision to leave such airy-fairy books behind, reading has become quite stressful. So to come across a book where sentences do not span longer than a comma somewhere in the string of eight to nine words was a nice relief. Add to that Stephenie Meyer’s ability to economically encapsulate every single phrase we have longed for (e.g. Amanda’s favourite - please take care of my heart ... I left it here with you”) just makes it all that more poignant. And lingering.

These 3 reasons itself (forgetting Robert Pattinson for the mo) is surely enough to hold most audiences at the edge of their reading chair.

And while you may think that we are hopeless romantics, I’d have to say we’re not. Having been known to be occasionally dark and twisted, indulging in such a series is only possible when we remind ourselves that it was written with the young audience in mind – before the realities of life and world catches them in its grip!

Perhaps then, I should add a fourth reason – it reminds us of a time gone by…which we know we will never be able to recapture. Ever again.

The Twilight Series

By Stephenie Meyers

You or Someone Like You

As appeared in The Star 27th November 2009.

http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2009/11/27/lifebookshelf/4668871&sec=lifebookshelf

Dear Sebastian

As a parent, I find it hard to sit and put myself in a situation where I would lose either of my children. I can never bring myself to even a foot close to the edge of that nightmare. But I can imagine my children in a situation where I am no longer a feature of their life. OR SO I THOUGHT.

Jordan Ferguson was diagnosed with terminal cancer in March 2008. He was only 35 with a young son, Sebastian, who is only about a year older than Lydia, my daughter is right now. Encouraged by a pyschologist to help Sebastian through the rough months ahead, Jordan was to sit down and pen down his thoughts, words of wisdom and life's lesson in a few short months before he breathes his last. All in an effort to give Sebastian something to hold on to after his father's gone - Very reminiscence of Randy Paucsh's The Last Lecture.

But Jordan Ferguson decided to take it a step further. He wrote to famous Irish figures from all walks of life, asking them to write his son a letter. And now, 18 months later, we have Dear Sebastian, the best seller in Ireland, comprising of letters from individuals such as Gay Byrne (TV Personality), Ronan O'Gara (National rugby player), Shay Given (National Footballer & Manchester City goalkeeper), Christy Moore (folk singer), Brian Cowen TD (current Prime Minister), Joseph O'Connor (Columnist).

Hearing of this book, I can only imagine the determination this man must have harboured, to write to so many people, who undoubtedly receive plenty of letters, telling them his story and his need to do this for his son. All in the midst of losing his strength, being gripped by pains and everything else that comes with dying from cancer.

And I can only imagine as the replies come in and him reading through each of them, knowing that they would be good enough for his son to carry on with life and grow up to be the man his father would not be able to meet and see. Alas, as his disease got the better of him in June 2008, Jordan did not get to write his own letter to Sebastian, leaving only the words of virtual strangers  as his legacy.

As Joseph O'Connor wrote in his letter ~ I suppose that's one thing I've learned, a thing my own father told me, when I was eight or ten, when I was a child of your own age: that we can feel for another and love one another and believe happier times are coming, even when we're in the middle of a hurricane.

I have not had the pleasure of reading the entire book. But in reading Joseph O'Connor's contribution to the book, it is enough for me to know that this is one item I am going to ask my colleagues to carry for me come January. For no matter what age we are at, we could all do with little bits of wisdom passed down.

And I know for a fact that in some of the letters, I will no doubt, hear the voice of my grandfather (who has passed on 10 years now) speaking to me as well. Which just goes to show, whatever it was that Jordan Ferguson was going through without a cure - he sure got the cure right for his son instead.

Book information:

Title: Dear Sebastian

Author: Christine Horgan

Publisher: Hodder Headline Ireland (240 pages)

ISBN No:9780340994801

On Chesil Beach

In our day and age, to hear about about first time sex on the wedding night, is in itself a novelty. We are after all in the era of freedom of choice, actions and motions.

But Florence and Edward are not from our era - they are from a generation past, and even that, they are living on the very inside edge of the 60s: many things are "rumoured" but yet to be experienced. Having said that, on Chesil Beach is where we find them - on the ledge where when they jump off, would signal the start of their lives, having exchanged their wedding vows on the earlier on in the day.

A small, short novel by Ian McEwan, it is quite a laugh as we follow Florence and her fears on the consumation of the marriage. Oh she does like the way Edward kisses and she does indeed love him to bits. But there are some 'bits' of him, she would much rather he keeps to himself. Always.

And this is something Edward finds hard to reconcile - he has seen her after all very much confident and in control so he knows she has it in her. Whether it is limited to the environment of Florence's string quartet only, he has yet to find out. And he's not particularly anxious to - the few times he deign to maneuver her hand into some sexually pleasant position, he has had to pay dearly for it.

It is with these thoughts that we find the young love-birds coming to a point, on the beach of their honeymoon hotel. Where mutual expectations come to a head  and discovering that sometimes, things have a funny way of setting themselves in motion, you would perhaps wish you could just let go of expectations.

Book information:

On Chesil Beach

By Ian McEwan

Publisher: Vintage (228 pages)

ISBN: 978-0307386175

Bone China

 I made a new friend this weekend. An unlikely match but I suppose that is how fate works. It was a busy Saturday morning and we bump into each other just as I was checking some purchases through at a book store. And somehow, we ended the weekend in each other's company.

Her name is Anna-Meeka. Like me, she's a single mum, except that her daughter is all grown up. As she told me her life story, we sipped Ceylon Tea from her grandmother's bone china teacups. I was awed that they were still in pristine condition, considering that Meeka's mum brought them with her when they left Sri Lanka yorns ago.

While coffee is normally my beverage of choice, I really couldn't say no - after all Meeka's grandma - Grace De Silva's family once owned vast estates of tea in pre-independant Ceylon. Needless to say, they lost all this - through Grace's husband's indulgance of the drink and cards. Plus, it was a fuzzy time - the war - When your colonial masters wanted something you owned, you really couldn't say no. 

Meeka's dad - Thornton, was Grace's 2nd son - after eldest aunt Alicia (a gifted concert pianist), Uncle Jacob (a morose soul who felt life cheated him out of a whole lot of things, but education primaryily), Aunt Frieda (she was quiet, shy, bursted into tears at the slightest of drama but she could bake and cook!) and youngest Uncle Christopher (the 1st one to step foot on English soil).

Earlier on, I said that Meeka and I forged an unlikely bond and I say this because Meeka is a emmigrant from Sri Lanka to Britain. Her dad, once a happy-go-lucky poetry-sprouting Casanova, was worried that the growing tensions post-independence would make their city of Colombo unsafe for Meeka to grow up in.

But apart from this slight geographical issue, we do share a fair bit of commonalities. For like her, I grew up with a grandmother that was a silent but a force to reckon with. Like her, we have cupboards full of items, treasures that our grandparents accumulated in their setting up of house and home, but they are left there - at the back of the cabinet. Like her, I fought during my youth to find my identity and made the mistake of thinking love would last forever. And like her, grew up with a family of colourful characters, each having their own twisted story.

I cannot help but admire Meeka's teacup set. Now bone china is the toughest of porcelains and does indeed contain bones. It became an item of prized possession status in the 18th century because its resulting material - hard, resilient and ivory white in colour - is also fragile and requires gentle care. Generations after generations pass them down, more often than not because of the high value these possessions could fetch (Grace sold a set to raise the passage fare for her Aunt Alicia to go to England), but because of the silent message each hand imprints into the sets as they are passed on.

Now if you have yet to realise, Bone China was a book that kept me company over Saturday and Sunday. Written by Sri Lanka author, Roma Tearne, it was so rivetting that as I closed the last pages, I felt as if I had known the De Silvas of Colombo all my life and that Meeka was indeed a friend of mine.

This second novel by Tearne will take you on a journey back in time, but whose lessons are still very real and applicable in our day and age. For those who have ever wanted to 'run-away' from their own home-soil, this book would make you think twice or even thrice. And for those who had indeed called another nation their home, this book would make you wish for the smells and sands of your own shores.

But more importantly, I think the message that Tearne is trying to get across to her readers in this book, is the one that is the key to owning a set of bone china heirlooms - tiny chips, crazing, cracks and breaks all will affect the value and beauty of your bone china, but it does not render them complete value-less. And the same can be said about life and family - moving away, living away, forging your own lives - all these are the tiny chips, cracks and crazings to the extended family concept - but it does not mean that they are completely useless. For there is no greater bond than those that run through your veins.

I hope you enjoy Bone China as much as I did with your favourite flavour of tea in your favourite cup!

Book information:

Bone China

by Roma Tearne

Publisher: HarperPress (1 April 2008)

ISBN-13: 978-0007240739

Remembering 9/11

Time flies... another year has passed... it's really hard to believe that 8 years have gone by.

Sometimes things happen that we have no wish to be apart of. And 9/11 is one of them. 

I’m sure the thousands of souls who perished when 4 planes got taken over and turned into deadly killing and destroying machines would have chosen to not be a part of that infamous day of 9/11. I’m sure their families, friends, wives, husbands, children – born and those yet to be born would have strongly elected for them to be excluded from the cast as well. But there are times when things happen that are beyond our control. And for some, this loss of control is easy to handle.

While I may not have been directly involved or connected, my life has been affected one way or another for it has and will continue to go down in history as the day the world changed.

We can remember this day, 8 years later, by reflecting on where we were, what we were doing, watching the telly for the anniversary ceremony at ground-zero.

Or we could move out of the box and read a post-9/11 book. Which, while may most likely be a fictional book, will also probably bring us back to that day, that place, in a dimension that has not be televised the world over.

Here's my pick of my favourite post-9/11 fiction, in no particular order:

1) Saturday ~ Ian McEwan

Set on one particular day, 2 years after 9/11, London is thrown into chaos as the Brits protest against their nation's participation in the ensuing wars. And this disrupts the day of neurosurgeon, Henry Perowne. Not that his day is not already ruined - having witness at 4 a.m. the tell-tale signs of a plane on fire, descending beyond his neighbourhood into Heathrow. Flashbacks come without his beckoning. Was it a terror attack? Or plain machine malfunction? With these and navigating the vast number of foot-protesters, he also has to deal with Baxter, a sufferer of Huntington's Disease and a thug - just cos their cars had a kismet moment. 

Saturday re-amplifies that what happened many thousand of miles away will still find a way of changing your life.

2) The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Mohsin Hamid

Set against the backdrop of a bazaar in Lahore, Pakistan, we follow this monologue of Changez, a Pakistani in his late twenties and an unnamed American whom as he chanced upon,  looking lost and in need of a soothing cup of tea. Author Mohsin Hamid spins an engaging tale of Changez’s background; his education at Princeton, his post-university life in Manhattan, balancing working for top-notch international valuation firm and a budding relationship with a beautiful American girl, and how his world changed simply with 9/11 by virtue of the he looked the way he did and the origins of his passport.

(Full review available below)

3) Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer

Oskar, a nine-year old boy living in Manhattan who finds a key in a vase - belonging to his father, who unfortunately was one of the persons who was in one of the World Trade Centre towers. Without his dad there, he sets out on a journey to find what the key opens. Written in a first-person voice, this book also touches on his paternal grandparents, their courtship, their marriage and their separation. I like to think of this book as addressing the white elephant in the room - we all know what happened, we all know how it happened, we all know why it happened, and we also know the who who done it. Yet, the mystery remains on the Where of the person who did it. Which is the theme of Oskar’s adventure.

And Oskar will paint a vivid image of all the children who had lost a parent that day, and the questions they will continue to ask till the end of their time.

There maybe plenty of other post-9/11 fiction out there but I feel that these 3 would give you a varying perspective on the day the world changed.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

Two men. Two cities. One conversation.

Do you remember the day of 9/11, when the Towers fell down? And how much exactly did it change your life?

Those were the thoughts that cannot help but run through a reader’s mind as they become the unseen and unheard third party in an afternoon of food, lounging and conversation between Changez, a young Pakistani and an unnamed American.

Set entirely in a monologue by Changez, the way the story unfolds is brilliantly done by Mohsin Hamid. So much so, you cannot help but feel that you are right there in their midst, sitting in the bazaar in Lahore and listening to Changez’s life story.

A smart young man, he was given all the opportunities in the world beyond his homeland. Educated at Princeton, shortlisted for an interview with a top-notch international valuation firm (and eventually gaining the coveted employment), Changez was in all sense of the phrase – Living the American Dream. He even had an American girlfriend, also from Princeton who lived in the penthouse of a downtown apartment building in New York, although as the book unfolds, we find that even the pretty, intelligent and rich ones don’t always lead a life on a bed of roses.

He was good at what he did, and his somehow misplaced lack of self-confidence made him go further than anyone else. Yet when 9/11 happened, his world changed simply because he looked the way he did and the origins of his passport.

One would think that because he had it all, he would have gone all out to ensure that the misconception of a certain race of people post 9/11 did not touch him. Yet, in the ensuing divulgement of thoughts, the reader cannot help but paint Changez as somewhat ‘ungrateful’ to the land that bestowed upon him golden opportunities.

As the world’s larger nations wielded its strength (and modern swords) in the aftermath wrath on his home country, Changez starts unravelling the threads that held his American life together; marked by his wilful act of growing his beard as a form of protest and progressing on to alienating himself from his colleagues (who were not very warming to him in any event). In essence, because of his semi-conscious rage at the looming atrocities that threatened Pakistan, and his pride that someone dared to take a stand against his adopted country, Changez allowed his career suicidal thoughts to take shape and form, which ultimately leads to him being fired from his job, and his right to live in America.

An expatriate acquaintance of mine had once remarked that no matter how many generations removed one is as a migrant, you would always hold strong to the roots of your origins. And this rang true in the case of Changez. While it may appear that Changez was no longer welcomed in America, in truth, America was no longer welcomed in his heart instead.

It was most difficult for me to categorise this book, where did it belong? And what would I say would be its main theme? A patriotic tale of a young man finding his roots after living abroad? A morose recounting of a victim of preconceived notions and generalisation?  Or simply a marriage that never should have been in the first instance?

After four hours of flipping pages (yes, this book is that short!) I can only come to one conclusion: The Reluctant Fundamentalist is indeed a love-triangle story akin to that of a young man, his arranged bride and his true love. As with all love stories, true love does indeed prevail but not before leaving a bitter aftertaste at the back of the throat for the one who was caught in between.

Shortlisted in 2007 for the Booker Prize, and winning in 2008 both the South Bank Show Annual Award for Literature as well as the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, it is no surprise that this second novel by Hamid is a shortlist contender in the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for 2009.

Book information:

The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Author: Mohsin Hamid

Publisher: Penguin Published (192 pages)

ISBN: 9780141036021