Book Review: Mr. Rosenblum's List by Natasha Solomons

Mr. Rosenblum's List has been working on my mind for some time, but I couldn't quite commit to reading it. It's one of those strange cases, when you read a novel by an author, and love it so much, that you know reading any of their other works would inevitably lead to disappointment. I read The Novel in the Viola (or The House at Tyneford) a while back, and it instantly became one of my favorites. Could any of Natasha Solomons' other novels measure up? In short, the answer is yes.

Mr. Rosenblum's List seemingly has a similar set-up to The Novel in the Viola: European Jewish refugee travels to England at the dawn of WWII, and deals with displacement and homesickness while adapting to the English way of life. This short description may encapsulate the core issue at the heart of both novels yet they couldn't be more different. The Novel and the Viola is what is often called a 'big house novel', centered around the idyllic manor house of a British family, and could also loosely be termed as a romance. While these descriptions do not do this wonderful book justice, they do differentiate it greatly from Mr. Rosenblum's List.

The main characters of the book, Jack and Sadie Rosenblum, are an aging couple, long past their days of romance and excitement - yet their relationship and the difficulty of connecting to each other after decades spent side by side, is real in a way that no romance novel can truly be. The difference in attitude towards their new country of residence is at the core of the novel's conflict: is assimilation equal to forgetting? While Jack endeavors to live very much in the now and tomorrow, Sadie is stuck in the past - each resenting the other for their way of coping. While I initially very much agreed with Jack's can-do attitude, as the novel progressed, I developed a deeper sympathy towards Sadie. Solomons built on the layers of her past and her character, like the layers of the Baumtorte she bakes in the book (which also made me crave previously unknown German baked goods). Themes of remembrance were also fittingly combined with aspects of the Jewish religion, which are very much about honoring the past and cherishing age-old customs. 

As a foreigner living in England, the themes of displacement and alienation in this novel really hit home for me, while I greatly enjoyed the beautiful descriptions of the Dorset scenery, which I had come to love in The Novel in the Viola. 

Buy the book online here.

Visit Natasha Solomons' website here.

Review: Oedipus and Antigone

Cred: Johannes Hjorth

I recently had the opportunity to review the Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club's performance of Oedipus and Antigone for The Cambridge Student.

You can read the article here!

The Book Cover Debate

Last week I was asked to argue 'against' the importance of book covers for an article in The Cambridge Student. This seemed to be a difficult task at first, as I actually quite enjoy purchasing books with pretty covers, and collect series that are especially beautiful (e.g. Penguin Clothbound Classics) - yet I found that there were some convincing points on both sides.

Here is the full article, with my 'against' unfairly outnumbered by 'fors'.

And here is an article about the controversial Roald Dahl book cover that started this whole debate.

Review: Much Ado About Nothing at the ADC

I recently had the opportunity to review the Cambridge American Stage Tour's performance of Much Ado About Nothing for The Cambridge Student.

You can read the article here!

Book Review: Quiet by Susan Cain

True to its subject, Quiet is the kind of book that does not rely on a flashy, colorful, in-your-face cover to grab your interest. And like the introverts it discusses, it can sometimes be overlooked. I've been reading it chapter by chapter for quite a while, but it's finally made it from my bedside stack back to the shelf where all the happily read books are perched.

While I found the book insightful and interesting, I would like to disclaim, that I generally do not like to divide people by labels such as introvert and extrovert; and Susan Cain herself states that it should be viewed as a spectrum. Yet for the sake of her argument, and for my post, these terms will provide a basis.

Like many non-fiction books of it's kind, Quiet relies heavily on well-presented anecdotes, rather than straightforward facts. While this can often be a difficult balance, I believe Cain pulls it off well. It has enough scientific research to legitimize the project, while remaining accessible to the average reader.

For readers who are self-proclaimed introverts, the book will reaffirm beliefs and reassure them of the normalcy of their social habits. I would be surprised if many extroverts picked a book subtitled "The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking", yet it is here that the true power of the book lies. It may provide useful insight for introverts, and perhaps a little ego-boost, but in order to be truly useful, it would have to reach the other side. For extroverts to understand more of what goes through an introvert's mind in social situations, would be useful in many settings. Parents with introverted children, co-workers, who may not value the quiet power sitting at the next desk, and friends, who take offense at an introvert's different social preferences.

The book mostly focuses on an American setting, yet there is an interesting chapter on cultural differences, and the estimation of introversion in some Asian countries, which shows that extroversion is not an international norm. Cain may be somewhat out of her depth at this point in the discussion, but it serves the purpose of upsetting the status-quo in our minds.

Overall, it was an enjoyable, easy read and I recommend it, above all, to the extroverts out there.

See Susan Cain's TED talk on the same subject here!

Buy the book online: US & UK Amazon

Visit Susan Cain's webpage here.

Retrospective: My So-Called Life

A high school TV drama from the 90’s that got cancelled after one season. Doesn’t sound like something you’d want to watch, right?! Yet after watching one key scene from the show My So-Called Life, I knew I had to see those 19 episodes. I’ve seen many a high school drama in my day, yet this one stands out. Not only is it a brilliant time-capsule for the grungy, Cranberries-listening, angsty 90’s, but it’s also got some surprising depths beneath it’s after-school special surface.

Angela, our plaid-clad heroine, spends a lot of time mooning over the local pretty-boy Jordan Catalano, but along the way, she offers some truly insightful tidbits about a teenager’s inner turmoil. She explains away her timidity in making actual contact with her long-time love: “if you make it real, it, it's not the same. It's not...it's not yours anymore. I don't know -- maybe I'd rather have the fantasy, than even him.” I believe most teenage girls would beg to differ. Yet there is profoundness in the idea that our inner lives have the possibility to be more fulfilling than reality.

It follows that for most of the season, not much actually happens to the characters. This is perhaps where the problem with ratings might have come in. There were no real cliffhangers in the first half of the season, yet if you understood Angela’s musings, and those scenes with unsaid words hanging electrically in the air, you would be hooked. I would venture as far as to say that the second half of the season, when, no doubt, the writers were under pressure to keep their show on the air, was much less interesting. There were ghosts and drug-problems, and Jordan Catalano finally spoke more than two words. Yet the show lost something by gaining a bit more momentum. It’s charm lay in the fact that it portrayed a somewhat normal teenage life, where not everything had to be a lesson learned, and high school students often wore the same clothes several times.

The show is also underscored by a truly wonderful 90’s flashback soundtrack with the likes of The Cranberries, Buffalo Tom and R.E.M.. The following video exemplifies how the creators were able to set a perfect scene with the right song and a few meaningful looks.

Though the life-span of My So-Called Life was cut short, if there is one thought to take away from the show it is one that Angela articulates in a characteristically cartoonish teenage slang: “People always say how you should be yourself. Like yourself is this definite thing, like a toaster or something. Like you know what it is, even. But every so often, I'll have, like, a moment when just being myself, and my life, like, right where I am, is, like, enough.”

The Best Harry Potter Book

The other day, as we were out on the town with a couple of friends, the conversation inevitably turned to Harry Potter (inevitable mostly because I was there). A girl I had recently met stated with confident simplicity that the third book was the worst, and the second was the best. Normally, I try to accommodate other people’s opinions, but this statement literally left my mouth open. The Prisoner of Azkaban has always been my absolute favorite and I never even considered that there could be a person on the planet who would place it at the bottom of their list. I mean, Deathly Hallows? Sure, some people might be missing the Hogwarts scene. Chamber of Secrets? Definitely possible, I mean it did introduce some of the most annoying characters of the series (Colin Creevwy, Moaning Myrtle, Gilderoy Lockhart etc.). But I do love all of the books, so rather than pick faults with the above-mentioned; I’d like to defend my choice.

Here is why Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban is the best book in the Harry Potter series:

1.    The idea of the Animagi is first introduced in this book, which is one of the coolest things a witch or wizard can do in the Harry Potter universe. My only regret is that Harry and the gang didn’t embark on the difficult journey of becoming shape shifters themselves. Yet another reason why Harry’s parents deserve a spin-off.

2.     Not all the good things about HP3 are jolly and warm, some plot elements are horrible, but in a good way. Dementors first appear on the Hogwarts Express at the beginning of the book, in one of the most chilling and exciting scenes of all the books. The concept of Dementors is basically a great metaphor for life. When life/people/scary hooded figures, suck the life and happiness out of you, recover with chocolate and strike back with happy thoughts!

3.     Dementors and Patronuses go hand in hand, and with the latter Harry is finally shown to have a skill that is above average. Sure, Harry as a character is intentionally mediocre, and it is never stated that he himself possesses any extraordinary talent that would equip him for his struggle against Voldemort. Yet as a reader we like to think of the hero as, well, a hero. Harry’s kick-ass Patronus charm shows us that he’s no ordinary wizard.

­*Added tearjerking factor: Harry’s Patronus takes the form of a stag, his father’s Animagus. Sigh.

4.     Throughout the series, Harry has several father figures to guide him and give him some much-needed parental affection, yet arguably the most important of these figures is Sirius Black, around whom this book mostly revolves. As Harry’s godfather, and James Potter’s best friend, they provide each other with some comfort in their loss. The revelation of this link to his parents is one of the best things about the third installment.  Not to mention the fact that Sirius is pretty badass, riding around on his flying motorcycle, escaping from Azkaban, turning into a big scary dog whenever he pleases…

5.     Leading up to the discovery of his godfather’s true nature, Harry has another male mentor to guide him through this difficult year: Remus Lupin. Calm, kind and wise, yet approachable (apart from those unfortunate moments of werewolfiness), Lupin is arguably an even better father figure for Harry than Sirius or Dumbledore. But Lupin is an interesting character on his own, struggling to hide his “sickness” and lead a normal life. He’s also the only competent Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher Hogwarts ever saw, and a relief after the mess that was Gilderoy Lockhart.

6.     For readers who revel in the smallest details of life as a wizard in the Harry Potter universe, discovering Hogsmeade in the third book is a real treat. It is said to be the only muggle-free town in England, and is full of amazing places that we would love to visit, like The Three Broomsticks, Zonko’s, Honeydukes and even the Shrieking Shack,

7.     Hogmseade is also the first place we encounter the delicious (albeit fictional) drink butterbeer! Warm, frothy, sweet and likely containing a bit of alcohol, it sounds like the perfect antidote to a bitter cold winter day.

8.     Thanks to Fred and George’s kind heart, and the fact that Harry is initially banned from visiting Hogsmeade, the Marauder’s Map is introduced in this installment. Thankfully the books do not subsequently explore Harry’s slightly creepy tendency to check when Cho Chang goes to the bathroom and whatnot. Instead, it becomes a magical link to his father’s gang, often providing invaluable information and comic relief at the same time.

9.     It is the only book in the series that does not feature supervillain Voldemort. Now you may be asking yourself, why is this a good thing? Well, we all know that the series moves towards an ultimate resolution between Harry and Voldemort a.k.a. Good and Evil, but sometimes this gives the books a kind of pressure. You know that the book will end with some kind of confrontation with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, and this can become predictable. In the third book, this dynamic is switched up, and instead it revolves around the ambiguous nature of good and evil. It begins to question the events surrounding Voldemort’s fall, as well as some other aspects of the seemingly perfect wizarding society.

+ 1. The introduction of Professor Trewlaney, who seems like a useless nuisance most of the time, yet the character really comes into her own in Emma Thompson’s hilarious rendition. One of the very few instances when the movie enhances the book.

+ 2. This is a reinforcement of my opinion rather than a reason, but. J.K. Rowling has stated: “Out of the five books I've published [so far], writing Azkaban was the easiest, and in some ways I think that shows.."[1]

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[1] http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Harry_Potter_and_the_Prisoner_of_Azkaban

Book Review: Elements of Eloquence by Mark Forsyth

As I browsed through the books at my local Waterstones, a striking green book caught my eye. Not only did I find its luxurious cover inviting, but the subtitle ‘How to turn the perfect English phrase’ gave me that momentary flicker of hope that only self-help books can afford, with their unrealistically positive titles like ‘How to be rich’, and ‘How to be popular’. I sincerely hope I’m not the only one whose unwavering trust of book-knowledge momentarily leads them to think that these things can actually work. And although my brief lapse of judgment never results in actual purchase of said self-help books, I decided this doesn’t fall into that category. After all, rhetoric is the “art of discourse” and it’s not a long shot for a writer to know about methods of writing…

I know a book on rhetoric sounds like a bit of a snooze, but hear me out! Mark Forsyth blends literary devices with anecdotal humor seamlessly, and the result is a surprisingly fun book. It’s an easy read, despite having scary chapter titles with unpronounceable words such as ‘Epizeuxis’. Each chapter takes you through the use of a rhetorical figure, peppered with plenty of examples, from Shakespeare to Hollywood movies. By nature, this book is never going to be the type you just can’t put down and have to read in one sitting, but I found it was the perfect book to have on your nightstand, to read a chapter or two before going to bed (and no, not because it puts you to sleep).

And did I mention it’s really pretty?