The Fault in Our Stars

I started reading John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars on Sunday, a cloudy rainy day in London, one of those lazy Sundays characterized by a typical pub roast lunch and the inevitable afternoon roast induced coma :) But somehow, I managed to stay awake and I started reading The Fault in Our Stars that I had just picked up from the book store on the way home from the pub.

Written as a young-adult novel, (for which I am probably not the target group anymore, but then again the term young adult is a stretchable concept I suppose) it is written in a style that reads very fluently and is very accessible. I suppose you’re wondering now why I would choose to read a young-adult novel. Well, I was curious to read this novel because it deals with the universality of falling in love and the ‘abnormality’ of cancer – more specifically it tells the story of a sixteen-year old girl – Hazel – and how she experiences falling in love knowing that she is a terminal cancer patient.  Also, the novel is a #1 New York Times Bestseller, so chances were it was going to be an interesting read.

I really enjoyed the story and finished the novel’s 316 pages in a day, partly because of the never ending downpour and a 4 hour train journey. Nevertheless, the main character, Hazel, and her object of affection, Augustus, are very charming and draw you in with their flirtatious behaviour as well as their brutal honesty and doubts concerning the looming presence of death. 
For example, Hazel is scared to fall in love, well not necessarily scared to fall in love but scared to be loved – she compares herself with a grenade, one that can blow up at any time and hurt the ones loving her. Her going away would not only harm her boyfriend, but also her parents for who she is the centre of their universe. They would be her casualties, and she knows that her parents are inevitably going to be victims, but she wants to minimize pain by not allowing herself to be loved by someone else. But then again, love often doesn’t wait for permission….

I will not reveal more, but I would recommend this novel for its ability to be both realistic and hopeful at the same time. It balances statements such as the dry uber-realistic

'The world is not a wish-granting factory' 

or 

'I (Hazel) guess I had been looking at the encouragement above the tv, a drawing of an angel with the caption Without Pain How Could We Know Joy? (This is an old argument in the field of Thinking About Suffering, and its stupidity and lack of sophistication could be plumbed for centuries, but suffice to say that the existence of broccoli does not in any way affect the taste of chocolate.)'

with lines such as

Dad: ... 'Also it was a bit hopeless,' he said. 'A bit defeatist'

Hazel: 'If by defeatist you mean honest, then I agree.'

Dad: 'I don't think defeatism is honest. I refuse to accept that.'

I do have to admit that sometimes I missed a bit of depth in the characters – I felt they could have been developed a tad more. The book sometimes read as a novel version of a script – a script where you as an actor would really have to work on completing other facets of the character. In my research I have read that the film rights to this book have been sold, so a Hollywood version is on its way. Does not surprise me one bit, and I even suspect this book is almost written to be made in a film. I imagine the film will be of the sorts of The Perks of Being a Wallflower… youth, introspection on the meaning of life and huge portion of drama (and hopefully also a good soundtrack). Curious to see who they will cast as Hazel and Augustus…

I suppose you could wait for the film, but if you’re curious and brave enough, read the book!

Gone Girl

Go out and get Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn!

Go out and get it with your boyfriend, girlfriend, friends, parents, brothers and sisters.

Because when you’ll start reading it, you’ll want to discuss it...

The carefully crafted characters, the witty writing, the strange twists, the familiarity and the craziness of it all.

I am not much of a fan of thrillers. The genre usually does not satisfy me much with its often too shallow and predictable characters. But this book, ‘Gone Girl’ truly gripped me, I could hardly let it go, just had to continue reading. Not only was the build-up of suspense masterful in all its twists and turns, the author gave meticulous care to the development of the characters which you get to know in depth as the story evolves.

With chapters in the book alternating voices and viewpoints between the two main characters, Nick and Amy, you are somehow in the middle of their tug of war in which they vie for your attention and love, screaming at you to hear their side of the story and choosing their camp. But the story is so well crafted that it is really hard to pick sides because your opinion of the characters evolves, you grow to like them, then dislike them, understand them, think they’re absolutely crazy as well – but somehow still understand them…it’s not a black and white story of the good and the bad, and it is definitely not dull grey, it’s an explosion of colour as rich as the emotions that run through the story.

Really, go get the book! You’ll be hooked in no time!

Reading History

Julian Barnes' The Sense of an Ending and Niall Ferguson's Civilization both shared my bed the last months. (Since I was very young I have developed one of those habits where i really cannot fall asleep without reading, as a result my nightstand is a heap of books and magazines to the agony of my fiance who just finds it a bit of a mess and doesn't understand this need to read) Two very different books, the first a work of fiction and winner of the Man Booker Prize, the other a work of non-fiction. But both with some common red thread - history.

Ferguson's Civilization is a historic account of how the "West" ended up being the dominant civilization and questions are raised on whether this will remain the case. The combinations of competition, property rights, medicine, consumer society and work ethic are cited as the catalysts for growth and growth in power. What I really enjoyed about this book was the light it shone on the non-western civilizations - their power, strength and demise. Not only did I enjoy reading about history in China, Middle East, Japan, South America ... (history that really isn't part of the high school curriculum in Belgium, at least not 10 years ago) , it also points out how once dominant civilizations can crumble when bad decisions are made,  and that the equilibrium of power is in that sense a very fragile and sensitive one. 

Barnes's The Sense of an Ending is really one of those books that just engulfed me. Where Civilization took me 3 months to read its 325 pages, The Sense of an Ending just took me two days to read its 150 pages. Of course, very different types of books - Civilization for me was a book that I could more easily put down in the evening - requiring more concentration when you read it, it made me more tired and was hence ideal as a kind of lullaby putting me to sleep - by which i really don't mean that it was boring :), it's just the type of attention that it required. 

The Sense of an Ending drew me in so much that I really wanted to know what was going to happen in the story, and I loved the tone of the narrator in the story and his description of the characters and philosophical notes. 

Tony Webster - the narrator of the story - is a retired man and is recalling events of his youth - the friendships and love affairs he lived through his school and university days - when he is faced with a peculiar letter... What really runs through this story - and what is also the link with history that I want to make here - is that he starts to realize that his memory is imperfect. Not only did he interpret certain events from his own background he also gave them meaning based on his current state of mind, without considering that he did not even have all the facts to come to a 'correct' conclusion...

So is the same with history - which version are you being told? Who interpreted the events? Which facts were taken into considerations and which were knowingly or unknowingly omitted...? I believe that's worth remembering when reading works about history...