The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho

"Because when we love we always strive to become better than we are." 

I am really confused about how I feel about The Alchemist. On the one hand the story and its repetitiveness irritated me. On the other hand, I am not ignorant enough to think that this is a simple story about a shepherd and his adventures. 

An Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago dreams one night of a treasure that he knows in his heart is his destiny. Affirmation from a gypsy and a meeting with an extremely knowledgable king confirm that his dream was in fact a premonition, and he sets off in search gold. What he acquires on the way turns out to be much more valuable than what he seeks. 

If you're a spiritual person, this book might affirm your belief. It might encourage you to look for signs and whisperings in your own life about destiny and fate. At the same time you might become frustrated with it in the same way that you might become frustrated by your religion. It will cause you to question why we bother doing anything if everything is written and decided for us anyway. It might give you an excuse to plod along with your ordinary life, safe in the knowledge that what is meant to happen will happen. Or, it might just encourage you to go out in search of a more exciting destiny. 

What I loved the most about it was its tolerance of the three faiths. Judaism, Christianity and Islam all feature, and its characters, when they battle, do not fight over religion. In fact, they all accept each other despite their differences in belief, and appear to accept each other's Lords in the presence of one another. It's as if they all accept that they are worshipping one creator. 

The Alchemist is less than two hundred pages, so can be read in under a day, and I think it is well worth investing that time in it. It is a story of self discovery and God. If you're an atheist I don't think you will like it. If you're contemplating religion or are spiritual, then I think you have things to gain from reading it. It might encourage you to listen a little harder to life's omens. It will certainly give you a renewed optimism. 

Recommended. 

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis de Bernieres

“After the war...”

Whilst reading Captain Corelli’s Mandolin there stirred in me as much surprise as when I read Birdsong. It is a book about the devastating impact of war on young people in the early 1900s.

Pelagia is a beautiful teenager living on the island of Cephallonia. Brought up without a mother, her father has turned her into a forward thinking, intelligent young woman. Still, she falls easily for the charms of a local fisherman. When war tears them apart, she allows herself to become obsessed with his lack of response to her letters. Convinced that he has forgotten her, she forces herself to forget him.

Later in the war, after her fiancé has returned, admitted he cannot read and write and then disappeared to fight again, Pelagia meets Captain Antonio Corelli, who is placed within her home as part of the Italian occupation of her island. He is a man so full of charm that the locals refer to him as the ‘crazy captain’, and he falls absolutely in love with her.

When the Italians turn on the Germans and the British fail to evacuate them, Corelli and Pelagia are faced with their own mortality. The war brought them together and it is about to tear them apart. In a world in which war is everywhere, they are just one couple in millions trying to navigate their love through a world of destruction.

This book is, at heart, a love story. I fell in love with it almost immediately. The beginning is reasonably slow. You will find yourself waiting for Corelli to arrive and he doesn’t until almost a third of the way through, but towards the end it becomes entirely obvious why we needed to read about a time when Corelli did not exist in Pelagia’s life. It is so that we can fall in love with her father, with the gentle giant in the village, with the pets that she takes care of and the olive tree in her garden. It is necessary for us to fall in love with these things so that we can be devastated when everything is ripped apart.

I fell in love with Antonio Corelli and I think that it is very important that this happens when a woman reads a love story. I also found myself remembering those who were both young and old during the war, the alternative impact it had on their lives in relation to their age, the experiences they shared and the events that they witnessed. I cried and I laughed when I read it.

At the end I had learned some lessons. Like how important it is not to waste time. And how detrimental it can be not to tell the truth about the way that you feel. And how stubbornness can ruin lives. And how, even though we might grow old, we are always going to be the exact same people. Thirty-two pages before the end I started crying, and I didn’t stop until there were just two pages left. On those two I laughed. 

I recommend this book if you love Birdsong, romance novels or war literacy, but to be honest I think it’s a great book for anybody. I learnt stuff and felt stuff. I don’t know what more you could want from a novel. Highly recommended.

The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Whenever you feel like criticising anyone, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the same advantages that you’ve had.”

I prefer to read books without knowing anything about the story. I like to be surprised. I was very surprised by The Great Gatsby.

Firstly, I though that this novel would be written in the first person and from his perspective, or third person omniscient at the very least, but its written in first person and from the perspective of a gentleman called Nick Carraway.

Carraway was born into a wealthy family. He had a top class upbringing and was given a fine education. As a result, he has accumulated a gentlemanly attitude and an array of equally wealthy friends.

After a stint in the army, Carraway moves to a suburb of New York. His neighbour there is the incredibly rich and insatiably sociable Jay Gatsby, a man who earned his own money in a manner that nobody is quite sure of. Every weekend Jay Gatsby’s house is privy to a party lasting from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon. It is here that they meet for the first time. An unlikely and unconventional fondness brews between the pair.

Gatsby turns out to be nothing like Carraway imagined. He is a man tortured by a lost love. A love that Nick happens to know.

The Great Gatsby is a story of high society, wealth and the American dream. It is an easy read and, if you pay a little bit of attention, it contains some important life lessons. Having money doesn’t mean you can have everything you want, nor does it necessarily make you happy. As long as you are willing to do whatever it takes to get it, you can earn more money than you could ever imagine, but you would still not be able to buy the heart of somebody else. And, on top of that, even rich people are miserable a lot of the time.

This is a good, easy read. There is very little suspense and, as my good friend Jade said, it isn’t exactly a page-turner, but the story is good, the characters and vibrant and the end, whilst not being favourable, is at least conclusive. Well worth your time!

The Catcher in the Rye - J. D. Salinger

“Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.”

How on Earth do you write a negative review of a book that everyone tells you is a classic – even the people who haven’t read it?

I turned the first twenty or so pages of The Catcher in the Rye with eager anticipation. It had been on my ‘To Read’ list for a long, long time. I was bitterly, bitterly disappointed.

Holden Caulfield is a troubled teenager. A student at a prestigious school called Pencey, his story begins shortly after he has been thrown out for failing every one of his classes except for English. Holden only has a few days left before will need to break the news to his parents. He is so frightened about it that he can barely stand it.

Holden hates everybody he goes to school with. He thinks they’re all ‘phonies’. He decides to leave earlier than he should and travel to New York, where he plans to take some time for himself before he has to tell his parents that he’s been excluded. The problem is, Holden is lonely and depressed. He wants to be around people constantly. Even people he hates.

Over a few days he arranges meeting after meeting with people from his past, but they only ever make him feel better for a little while. Mostly he just ends up hating them more than he did before.

Nothing much more happens in this book than that.

Before I read The Catcher in the Rye I felt sure there must be a movie of it out there somewhere, and I was surprised I had never heard anything about it. There isn’t a movie as far as I can find. The reason for that is that nothing happens in this book. Not really. There is no definitive beginning, middle and ending to Holden Caulfield’s story, and there appears to be no real resolution to any of his problems. It is merely a depiction of a small period in a troubled young man’s life.

I will say this though, Salinger is a master at writing a character. I knew Holden Caulfield so well towards the end of this book that I could predict what he was going to say next. Impressively, even though he was totally weird, I could identify with him. His teenage angst was written perfectly. I remember feeling that lost and alone when I was younger.

Reading The Catcher in the Rye feels like being stuck inside the head of someone who is borderline bipolar. It is an exhausting and unsettling experience, and you will most certainly spend the majority of it anxiously waiting for Holden to go on some sort of killing spree or end his own life. I understand why there is no movie now – there is no way that anyone could effectively portray this character without some sort of corny voiceover revealing what is happening inside his head, because his actions never correspond with what he thinks. He is one of those characters who is so complex that only cleverly constructed written words can effectively portray what is happening in his mind and in his surroundings simultaneously and in a believable way.

Read this if you like ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’. The tone is very similar. Somber, thought provoking and frustrating in an enticing way – the type of frustrating that keeps you reading.

  

The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

"Zendagi migzara - Life Goes On"

This is nothing short of a beautiful book. But it is far from a beautiful story. Khaled Hosseini’s ‘The Kite Runner’ depicts the ugly side of the Middle East through terrifying storytelling.

At the age of twelve years old, Amir witnesses something on the streets of Afghanistan that will change him forever. He will never forgive his twelve year old self for being gripped with the fear and selfishness that stopped him intervening. Even the Russians invading his country does not leave Amir as psychologically scarred as the things he let happen that day. He moves to America to start his life again, but he never forgets the horror, even in adulthood.

Through every milestone in his life, Amir wonders about the harelipped kite runner he used to call his best friend. Hassan and Amir had once been inseparable. Now, because of Amir’s cowardice, they were thousands of miles apart. He had let his friend suffer a terrible pain and humiliation, and would never be able to make it right. Amir believes his punishment is to live with the guilt for the rest of his life. But fate has other ideas. Blissfully, Amir is given an opportunity for retribution. 

The Kite Runner is epically sad and thoroughly addictive. I was constantly surprised by it. When I was sure there was going to be happiness it was cruelly snatched away. Then, concerned about getting my hopes up and resigned to reading in sadness, there would suddenly shine a well-earned glimmer of hope.

When I love a book, I want to lend it to everyone in the world. I have already tried to force this one upon most of my friends. I have promised my copy out to countless people.  Seriously, I am going to have to develop a borrowing system because of this book. I want to recommend it to everyone, and I insist that you add it to your bedtime reading list.  It might be a bit morbid for a holiday read, but snaffle up every word of this on the beach if you aren’t as emotional as I am.

The Heart of the Matter - Graham Greene

"We'd forgive most things if we knew the facts."

I picked this book up for a little bit of light reading. It was on the bookshelf in my living room, and is the favourite book of my friend’s mother.

 

Published in 1948, The Heart of the Matter tells the tale of long serving police officer Henry Scobie, who is

working in a British colony on the West Coast of Africa during World War II. Scobie is a respected professional. He is equally liked by the black and white communities living in the area, and has built up a reputation as a fair and just individual.

Scobie is married to Louise, a woman who tries desperately to fit in but cannot seem to make a single friend. Louise hates her life in Africa. She knows she makes Scobie miserable and begs him to find the means to send her away. Scobie believes that he loves Louise, and that his own misery only exists because she is upset. He vows to do everything he can to make her happy, even if that involves borrowing money off a Syrian diamond smuggler.

Louise’s departing coincides magically with the arrival of young Helen Rolt, a woman who, like his wife, needs protection and craves his love. Far from finding himself happy, Scobie is suddenly tempted and in turmoil. A strict, Catholic man, he believes whole-heartedly in the threat of damnation, but cannot resist the urge to sin.

The Heart of the Matter is an old English love story set on exotic shores. The characters are stereotypical of the time, but the story is not a happy one. It contradicts all romantic belief that affairs are exciting. Scobie’s wife is thousands of miles away, but his guilt is as strong as if she were still living with him in their house. This story explores the ugliest side of the most complicated aspect of any human’s life: Love.

Don’t read this book if you aren’t willing to concentrate, but if you are it’s a great bedtime story about a likeable old Englishman loving with a heart he didn’t think he had. 

The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky

Dear Friend - Read This Book

If you are looking for an easy read then give The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky a go. It is written from the perspective of a teenage boy, so the writing is simple and gentle. The story is simple, too. But it is very entertaining. It’s the perfect book for those looking for something that doesn’t take too much brainpower to read.

Main character Charlie begins writing letters to an unknown person. He refers to this person only as ‘friend’. Through these letters, Charlie tells ‘friend’ about his life as a freshman. He is awkward and shy. His one true friend has killed himself. He doesn't really have anyone else.

Then Charlie meets older, cooler kids. They take him under their wing and they call him a wallflower. Charlie feels like he has found his place.

It is obvious right from the very beginning that something is not right with Charlie. Why is he writing to someone who he does not know? Why is he so anxious and quiet all of the time? What happened to him to make him this way? Why doesn’t he remember himself?

From the very beginning you will know there is going to be a twist. It is just written that way. Still, I didn’t manage to guess what it was successfully – though some people I have spoken to did. Reading the twist is like watching the last few minutes of a tense episode of Eastenders. As all becomes clear all the little hints from along the way suddenly slot together, and no one is particularly surprised by the overall outcome.

If you are anything like me you wont be satisfied with the overall ending. I felt like it hadn’t come to enough of a resolution. I wanted to keep reading about Charlie and his life, because I didn’t feel wholly satisfied that his story was over. I am not sure whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing. It is important, I suppose, for a book to invade your life enough that you feel a bit lost when you finish reading it. Still, I am not sure it is positive to leave your audience feeling that they don’t know enough.

Still, I am happy that I read it. Recommended for bedtime and holiday reading. 

50 Shades of Grey - E.L James

No more for me. Thanks.

Maybe it is because I am not a mum, but I didn’t like 50 Shades of Grey. In fact, I don’t think I have ever been more irritated by a book in my entire life. I didn’t find Christian Grey sexy, nor did I find Anastasia Steele to be the empowered, independent, intelligent woman the other characters seem to say she is. What kind of independent woman decides to give it a go with a rich, handsome man despite the fact that she is terrified that he will seriously hurt her in the bedroom? A desperate ‘independent’ woman, that is who. The type of woman who annoys me enough on my Facebook news feed without having them rammed down my throat now as some sort if literary heroine.

I might have been able to excuse the characters had the story been unusually imaginative and properly structured, but I didn’t think that it was. One day, when I have run out of other things to procrastinate from cleaning my bathroom with, I am going to go through the book and count the number of times the word ‘deft’ is used to describe Christian Grey’s fingers and Anastasia Steele uses the phrase ‘holy shit’ in response to something that he does to her.

And it wasn’t just words and phrases that were repetitive. By the end of it I felt like I had read the same sex scene a dozen or so times. I believe it is this repetition that is causing people to skip over the sex scenes in favour of the rest of the story. In case you haven’t read it, I will give you a small, predictable taster. Christian says something kinky, Anastasia is turned on but apprehensive, eventually he persuades her (using his ‘deft’ fingers, usually), they have sex, Anastasia thinks ‘holy shit’, she has an orgasm (that is another thing that annoyed me, by the way. She apparently has an orgasm the first time she ever had sex. Huh?!). They are both happy. Then Anastasia suspects she might be weird and gets upset. She contemplates calling it off. Christian Grey turns up to change her mind and the whole thing starts again.

I cannot fault E.L James for her ability to tap into a marketplace. I wish I had thought of it first, actually. She has written a book about two hot, young people and made it story-worthy by making one of them very weird. I cant say why it appeals so much to the older generation as I am not one. I could ask my mum if she had read it, but she probably wouldn’t tell me the truth. As for people my age reading and loving it, I would be intrigued to know what it is particularly you like about it? Personally, I was not impressed by the story. I was impressed by the fact we had been mass marketed a tacky erotic novel as some sort of literary break through though! Hundreds of novels similar to these have been sitting on our shelves for years. What makes 50 Shades different is that it has been marketed as cool.

Can I also say, as a marketing officer myself - whoever was in charge of promoting this book deserves some sort of award. Whether you fell into reading it or you read it because everyone else was, I can’t take away from the fact that 50 Shades of Grey is the UK’s most purchased book (I say purchased and not read because reportedly quite a large percentage of people who buy the book don’t finish it). It has taken over my social networking feeds and everyone, whether they have read it or not, knows what it is.

There are another two books. I wont be reading them. My housemate heard from her colleague where the story goes, and it was pretty much everything I had already guessed. A film version will no doubt be in our cinemas before the book has even disappeared from our twitter feeds. It will involve a host of mega-stars, who will be offered a fortune because their names make the franchise yet more appealing. The last one will probably be split into two parts, just to drag it out a little bit more. And so, we will all continue to be bored with 50 Shades of Grey long into the next few years.