This book by Marguerite Duras tells the autobiographic story of a 15 year old girl, living in South East Asia, who becomes some kind of mistress for the son of a Chinese business man, who fells in love with her when he first meets her on a ferry. At first, they only meet on a social basis, going for dinner, for a walk... One day he takes her into a flat somewhere in the busy streets of the town, and makes love to her. She more or less becomes addicted to him, firstly because of experiencing an immense sensation of lust, secondly because he can provide her with the money her family no longer has.
But the "love" story is not the only part of the book (contrary to the movie), instead the main focus is on her family, with her crazy mother, her younger and her older brother, the problems they face due to the depression her mother suffers from, the problems that occur because all the money is gone.
She also is confronted with racial problems, her being white, him being a Chinese.
The story is told in a very strange way... Sometimes it is a first person narrative, sometimes Duras speaks about herself in the third person, the plot is not told in a linear way, but jumps from here to there, from this time to that time. Hardly any names are told (apart from a school friend), she only refers to "him", "his father", "her younger brother", "her older brother" All that made the book a rather hard one to read.
I had high expectations but they where not met. I am actually quite disappointed by the book, which can be reasoned because I like the movie very much, and well, the movie focusses on the love story, the book focusses on her family, which characters are strange, and not really like-able.
All in all... I am not going to rate this book. Please feel free to post your opinion!
Coming up next "Kai Meyer: Arkadien fällt"
Friday 28 October 2011
Monday 17 October 2011
No et moi
After a few dime novels I started "No et moi". I read it in German, as my French is not good enough.
No and me... Me, that is 13 year old Lou, living in Paris with her parents who suffer from the loss of Lous baby sister a few years ago. She is very intelligent and skipped therefore two classes. As a result, she is the youngest in her class, but being as bright as she is, she is still the best. Feeling quite isolated (not one of her classmates, wants to be friends with her) she goes to the trainstation after school in order to watch people. One day, No, a 18 year old homeless starts to speak to Lou. She just needs a person, who talks to her, so Lou gets to the trainstation each daym, gets to know Lou, and even holds a speech at school about homeless women in France, Paris in particular.
Lou`s only "friend" is Lucas, who repeats the class, does not pay attention to what the teachers say, and is a rebel in each and every way.
Lou starts to think, that when each person took one homeless person and took care of them, therefore she wants to convince her parents to take No to live with them. No, being as down as down can be, is being washed and newly dressed at Lucas flat, and then starts her new life with Lou and her parents.
At first everything is perfect, No takes her time to recover, becomes a valueable member of the family and even gets herself a job. When Lou and her parents have to leave Paris for a few days to meet Lous aunt things turn into a different direction...
I have to say, that book is really a pageturner! One always wants to know what happens next and one feels the drama rising... Despite knowing, that there cannot be a happy ending, one cannot stop reading, one is happy when Lou is, one is sad, when Lou is. I started crying in the train again.... So, I think No et Moi is the perfect book for everyone who really likes to be "inside" a book.
I award 10 out of 10 for an outstanding reading experience!
Next one to come is Marguerite Duras` "the Lover"
No and me... Me, that is 13 year old Lou, living in Paris with her parents who suffer from the loss of Lous baby sister a few years ago. She is very intelligent and skipped therefore two classes. As a result, she is the youngest in her class, but being as bright as she is, she is still the best. Feeling quite isolated (not one of her classmates, wants to be friends with her) she goes to the trainstation after school in order to watch people. One day, No, a 18 year old homeless starts to speak to Lou. She just needs a person, who talks to her, so Lou gets to the trainstation each daym, gets to know Lou, and even holds a speech at school about homeless women in France, Paris in particular.
Lou`s only "friend" is Lucas, who repeats the class, does not pay attention to what the teachers say, and is a rebel in each and every way.
Lou starts to think, that when each person took one homeless person and took care of them, therefore she wants to convince her parents to take No to live with them. No, being as down as down can be, is being washed and newly dressed at Lucas flat, and then starts her new life with Lou and her parents.
At first everything is perfect, No takes her time to recover, becomes a valueable member of the family and even gets herself a job. When Lou and her parents have to leave Paris for a few days to meet Lous aunt things turn into a different direction...
I have to say, that book is really a pageturner! One always wants to know what happens next and one feels the drama rising... Despite knowing, that there cannot be a happy ending, one cannot stop reading, one is happy when Lou is, one is sad, when Lou is. I started crying in the train again.... So, I think No et Moi is the perfect book for everyone who really likes to be "inside" a book.
I award 10 out of 10 for an outstanding reading experience!
Next one to come is Marguerite Duras` "the Lover"
Monday 10 October 2011
Anthem for Doomed Youth
I just finished the 19th Daisy Dalrymple mystery, Anthem for Doomed Youth, and I am delighted.
This time, 3 burried bodies, in various states of decay, are found in Epping forrest.
Due to his investigation, Daisy`s husband Alec has no time to take part on his daughters school sports day. But as Daisy loves Belinda very much, she, together with her friends Sakari and Melanie - mothers of Lizzi and Deva, close friends of Belinda - drive over to Saffron Walden where the girls boarding school is situated.
On the day after the sport event, the six of them go to a local garden and the three girls go off into a maze... when Daisy hears a piercing scream her heart misgives her... surely enough, one of the girls has found the body of one of their teachers. With the help of a tight-lipped local gardener Daisy goes into the maze and discoveres both the girls and the body...
Alec, in the meanwhile, is busy solving his case. He has 2 possible links between the 3 Epping forrest bodies and tries to find out which one of the theories will hold. When he finally finds out who committed the crimes, it is to late - as the person commits suicide when he finds himself surrounded by the police.
Daisy and her friends are questionned by an incapable officer... that`s why they give him a pretty hard time, resulting in him accusing the harmless gardener. Well, as usually Daisy can prevent unguilty persons to be charged and things turn out a little different as one would expect (but don`t tell Alec!).
I am now reading the Daisy Dalrymple mysteries for more than 10 years. I was delighted, when Daisy and Alec became a couple and married, but was devided when they got the twins and to be honest, I did not like the last books. But in this book, Daisy is her cheery old self again, Sakari being a very good side kick, and the children being involved being rather funny.
Therefore I award a full 10 out of 10.
As I have 2 more dime novels to read I have not yet decided which book comes next. Perhaps "Arkadien fällt" by Kai Meyer
This time, 3 burried bodies, in various states of decay, are found in Epping forrest.
Due to his investigation, Daisy`s husband Alec has no time to take part on his daughters school sports day. But as Daisy loves Belinda very much, she, together with her friends Sakari and Melanie - mothers of Lizzi and Deva, close friends of Belinda - drive over to Saffron Walden where the girls boarding school is situated.
On the day after the sport event, the six of them go to a local garden and the three girls go off into a maze... when Daisy hears a piercing scream her heart misgives her... surely enough, one of the girls has found the body of one of their teachers. With the help of a tight-lipped local gardener Daisy goes into the maze and discoveres both the girls and the body...
Alec, in the meanwhile, is busy solving his case. He has 2 possible links between the 3 Epping forrest bodies and tries to find out which one of the theories will hold. When he finally finds out who committed the crimes, it is to late - as the person commits suicide when he finds himself surrounded by the police.
Daisy and her friends are questionned by an incapable officer... that`s why they give him a pretty hard time, resulting in him accusing the harmless gardener. Well, as usually Daisy can prevent unguilty persons to be charged and things turn out a little different as one would expect (but don`t tell Alec!).
I am now reading the Daisy Dalrymple mysteries for more than 10 years. I was delighted, when Daisy and Alec became a couple and married, but was devided when they got the twins and to be honest, I did not like the last books. But in this book, Daisy is her cheery old self again, Sakari being a very good side kick, and the children being involved being rather funny.
Therefore I award a full 10 out of 10.
As I have 2 more dime novels to read I have not yet decided which book comes next. Perhaps "Arkadien fällt" by Kai Meyer
Sunday 9 October 2011
Good Omens
Finally I have some time to blog about Good Omens, a Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett Cooperation.
The book is about the nice and accurate prophecies of Agnes Nutter, who was a witch, and wrote a book about the things happening in the future. She happened to be quite good in forward-looking statements but nobody wanted to buy her book, as most prophecies were not really spectacular, so the only copy left is the one she kept for herself.
A couple of hundred years later... Crowley (a demon) and Aziraphale (an angel), who are good friends and quite used to living on earth come to know of the nearing apocalypse. They decide to work together in order to postpone the end of the world.
So Satan's son is born, and Crowley and his friend decide to have an eye on the Antichrist. They want him to rise in a very normal way, so he will not be in favor for each side.
Due to some misshandling of various children in the hospital, the child everyone believes to be Satan's son (Warlock - named because on of the nurses wanted the Antichrist to have a proper name) is a very normal boy.
The real Antichrist is Adam Young. He lived a perfectly normal live so far, and has no idea about his true powers. When he starts thinking about the perfect world, his ideas become true, and so the nice and accurate prophecies of Agnes Nutter become true...
I really liked the book! It was something completely different from the stuff I usually read. It was fun, trying to find out, which author wrote which part, and I am sure, I did not always succeed. I had to laugh a lot, sometimes very hard (very embarassing, sitting in the train...), but I think, the end came a little to fast. All in all, I award 6 out of 10.
Coming up next is Carola Dunn's Daisy Dalrymple: Anthem for Doomed Youth!
The book is about the nice and accurate prophecies of Agnes Nutter, who was a witch, and wrote a book about the things happening in the future. She happened to be quite good in forward-looking statements but nobody wanted to buy her book, as most prophecies were not really spectacular, so the only copy left is the one she kept for herself.
A couple of hundred years later... Crowley (a demon) and Aziraphale (an angel), who are good friends and quite used to living on earth come to know of the nearing apocalypse. They decide to work together in order to postpone the end of the world.
So Satan's son is born, and Crowley and his friend decide to have an eye on the Antichrist. They want him to rise in a very normal way, so he will not be in favor for each side.
Due to some misshandling of various children in the hospital, the child everyone believes to be Satan's son (Warlock - named because on of the nurses wanted the Antichrist to have a proper name) is a very normal boy.
The real Antichrist is Adam Young. He lived a perfectly normal live so far, and has no idea about his true powers. When he starts thinking about the perfect world, his ideas become true, and so the nice and accurate prophecies of Agnes Nutter become true...
I really liked the book! It was something completely different from the stuff I usually read. It was fun, trying to find out, which author wrote which part, and I am sure, I did not always succeed. I had to laugh a lot, sometimes very hard (very embarassing, sitting in the train...), but I think, the end came a little to fast. All in all, I award 6 out of 10.
Coming up next is Carola Dunn's Daisy Dalrymple: Anthem for Doomed Youth!
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