High Browse Online

Revolutionary road
By Richard Yates
New York : Vintage Books, 2009.
Call No.: YAT -[MO]

To be frank, I had never heard of Richard Yates, and Providence somehow had contrived to keep me from the “Y to Z” section of the library shelves. Okay, maybe I should not have invoked religion by using ‘Providence’ – let me attribute it to my laziness to walk.

So when I first picked up Revolutionary Road by Yates, it was due more to my reading a glowing review of the film in the local entertainment rag, 8 Days. My capricious literary inclination for the month was veering towards something more serious and literary – and the premise that the film Revolutionary Road was based on, seemed interesting. So I thought that since my predilection was more towards the written word than celluloid, I might as well pick up the book and take a look. Besides, a trip to the library costs nothing and since times are hard, I would rather save the $10.50 for the Transformers sequel.

Enough about my dubious movie taste and ramblings, and let’s us get on to the meat of this posting – which is basically a book review. Revolutionary Road, the Gutenberg-version, BLEW ME AWAY. The capitalization is necessary as my eyes were glued to the pages like magnet. I read it on the train rides to and from work; I read it in the bewitching hours of the night and nascent hours of dawn – I couldn’t wait to finish it. It was that ENGROSSING.

To put it simply, Revolutionary Road is about a young American family with their two kids living in suburban America and trying to realise their dreams amidst the mediocrity all around them. The Wheelers are mediocre too, but too deluded to think that they are a pedestal above their mediocre neighbors and colleagues. In the end, their aborted decision to flee away to France and build a new life resulted in catastrophic consequences.

Yates’ writing is crisp and he crafted sentences that are full of heart and soul. Some of the dramatic scenes are gripping and edge-of-the-seat stuff. His characters are well-delineated and fleshed out. The pace of the book is never slow.

I will try and get another book from his limited opus, but most of them are on loan. However, unearthing Yates now means that the road to the “Y to Z” section of the library should not be one that is too far for me in the future.

Would you like to send us your contribution?
Post your comments, or email to HBeditor@nlb.gov.sg

Love and Death
Jack Rollins and Charles H. Joffe production ; produced by Charles H. Joffe ; written and directed by Woody Allen
Santa Monica, CA : MGM Home Entertainment, c2000.
AV English 791.4372 LOV -[ART]
Available at EPPL only

I never fail to cry at Woody Allen movies; cry from too much laughter, that is. With “Annie Hall”, it was considered his best cinematic work and helped create a romantic landscape that exudes the classical New York style. It also helped to initiate the wonderful collaboration between Allen and Diane Keaton. Taking on modern love and lovers, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” presented a hilarious plot that rings true with the current generation of “mobile relationships”. With “Love and Death”, which was filmed before “Annie Hall”, it succeeds in translating the philosophical debate over what exactly love and death are, in Allen’s own unique style.

With a Russian landscape setting, Allen plays Boris Grushenko, a bespectacled Mama’s boy with an obsession with death that begins after a surreal dream of coffins and waiters. The odd duck in a family with the typical brash and brave brothers, Boris is happy with his aimless musings and wanderings in the forest grounds. The only person he can connect with is Sonja, his cousin, who is equally well-versed in philosophical debates, e.g. “Sonja: But judgment of any system or a priori relation of phenomena exists in any rational or metaphysical or at least epistemological contradiction to an abstract and empirical concept, such as being, or to be, or to occur in the thing itself or of the thing itself.
Boris: Yes, I’ve said that many times.” Unsurprisingly, Boris is heavily infatuated with the lovely Sonja. But alas, it is doomed an unrequited love when Sonja chooses to marry a herring tradesman to spite Boris’s brother.

When war arrives at Russia’s doorstep, Boris is forced to join the army as an unwilling and terrible soldier. Through a series of mishaps, he becomes an accidental war hero and comes back home where he tries again to court Sonja. However, driven by the futility and emptiness of her marriage, Sonja has resorted to several extramarital affairs and is not ashamed to admit it, e.g.
“Sonja: For the past weeks, I’ve visited Seretski in his room
Boris: Why? What’s in his room? Oh…
Sonja: And before Seretski, Aleksei, and before Aleksei, Alegorian, and before Alegorian, Asimov, and…
Boris: Okay!
Sonja: Wait, I’m still on the A’s.
Boris: How many lovers do you have?
Sonja: In the mid-town area?”

Through much hilarity and misinterpretation, Boris and Sonja somehow come together in marital bliss. And in order to preserve their marital happiness, this unlikely couple arrive at a most astonishing conclusion – assassinate Napoleon Bonaparte! With their clumsy antics and wild impersonations, will this scheming duo achieve their aim and be enlightened on love and death at the same time?

“Love and Death” is laden with Allen’s inimitable personality and witty scriptwriting. Though set with many Russian influences and culture, there’s still a heavy tinge of New York flavour that Allen likes to add, e.g. a vendor with a New York accent and attired as if at a ballpark remarks, “Hey, you got anything smaller? I just started!”

Characters with flaws and neurosis add on dimensionality to their development, which seem to be a trademark in Allen’s films, e.g. Javier Bardem’s Juan Antonio in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” and Allen’s Alvy Singer in “Annie Hall”. In the end, you find yourself wanting to know more about these characters, complicated and crazy as they are. If ever you are looking for an afternoon delight of laughter and thoughtful philosophizing, then look no further than the gem that is “Love and Death”.

By Elizabeth Lee San Bao, National Library Board

Would you like to send us your contribution?
Post your comments, or email to HBeditor@nlb.gov.sg

National Day Celebrations Loan Promotion

Borrow FOUR items* for a chance to win NDP Preview tickets

Terms & conditions:

·  Loan receipts for 4 items must be dated 4th – 26th July 2009.

·  Draw date will be on Monday 27th July 2009. Winners will be notified by phone. NDP 1st August 2009 Preview tickets are to be collected at Woodlands Regional Library.

·  At least one Item must be from the Singapore Collection [SING].

· Write down your name, contact no. and NRIC / Birth Certificate no. / FIN no. behind the loan receipt

·  Loan receipts cannot be used in conjunction with other reading promotions.

· Combined loan receipts are allowed but must be under the same borrower’s name.

·  The Library reserves the right to amend any of the above terms & conditions.

·  There is no limit on the number of entries submitted.

Dear friends
For June, we are discussing a powerful novel by John Steinbeck “Of Mice and Men”.  The details:

Dare/time:  4.00pm, Friday 26 June 2009
Venue:  The Activity Room, Bukit Batok Public Library
Facilitator:  Mr Lawrence Chew
Title of book:  “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck

About the Author:  John Steinbeck (1902-1968), born in Salinas, California, came from a family of moderate means. He worked his way through college at Stanford University but never graduated.  Steinbeck’s novels can all be classified as social novels dealing with the economic problems of rural labour.  He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962.
(Taken from the Nobel Prize website:  nobelprize.org)

About the Book:  Brusque, friendless George Milton has been taking care of big, strong, slow-witted Lenny Small for so long that each has become as brother to the other. Lenny’s great physical strength, coupled with his childlike innocence, has gotten him into trouble in the past. George has always been quick to save him, later threatening to deprive him of his share of their longed-for land, their own little place where they will be beholden to no one.
(Taken from:  /www.enotes.com/of-mice-and-men-salem/mice-men-0089900308)

Have you read these books? Do you have something else to recommend?
Post your comments, or send a longer book review to HBeditor@nlb.gov.sg

The Language of Others
By Morrall, Clare
London : Sceptre, 2008.
Call No: MOR
 

Switching between different periods of Jessica Fonatine’s life in The Language of Others, this book gives the reader the benefit of exploring Jessica’s mind, where throughout the book, she fails to understand why she found people difficult to connect with. From how she was vastly different from her outgoing sister, Harriet, to how she found it difficult to connect with her mother who was trying too hard to act like a teenager, she always found that she was happiest spending time alone.

Jessica finds solace in music, the piano in particular, and she finds joy in practicing obsessively, especially scales, which totally annoys her mother. Authored by Clare Morrall, who studied music at the University of Birmingham, this story is peppered with many references to classical music, which music lovers will find it easy to connect with, seeing how she fits the context of the surrounding circumstances to the music that the characters in the story play with such ease.

The story features many her multi-faceted relationships with many people, including her family, her good friend, Mary, her husband and her son and daughter-in-law. Stringing these themes together is the underlying theme of her need to be alone which results in a failed marriage, her desperate need to mend the relationship with her son, Joel, which was salvaged when her son got married to a girl, who was the only one who knew why Joel behaves the way he does.

This book is neatly paced, in a way the reader can sufficiently understand the inner world of Jessica, where she embarks on a process of self discovery, coupled with a few subtle twists in the plot. 

~ Contributed by Lim Ruo Lin

Would you like to send us your contribution?
Post your comments, or email to HBeditor@nlb.gov.sg

The author, widely credited with reinvigorating the fantasy genre, has passed away. He is most famous for his Belgariad and Mallorean series, about a orphaned farm boy, Garion, who goes on to fulfill an ancient prophecy. Many of his books were co-written with his wife, Leigh Eddings, who had passed away earlier, in 2007.

David Eddings was also known as a humble and self-effacing author, who said,

‘I’m never going to be in danger of getting a Nobel prize for literature, I’m a storyteller, not a prophet. I’m just interested in a good story’.”

He was quite happy, he added, if readers moved on to more serious works after they were done with his books. Interestingly, Eddings’ inspiration for moving into the fantasy genre came from spottinng an old copy of Tolken’s Lord of the Rings in a bookstore window.

(Image source: Reed College magazine)

Some notable works:

Pawn of Prophecy
Call No.: Edd-[fn]

Elenium
Call No.: Edd-[fn]

The Younger Gods
Call No.: Edd-[fn]

The Treasured One
Call No.: Edd-[fn]

The Crystal Gorge
Call No.: Edd-[fn]

The Elder Gods
Call No.: Edd-[fn]

Have you read these books? Do you have something else to recommend?
Post your comments, or send a longer book review to HBeditor@nlb.gov.sg

Eragon
By Christopher Paolini
New York : Laurel-Leaf Books, 2006.
Call Number: Y PAO

Christopher Paolini wrote Eragon when he was just fifteen years old. While it is certainly an accomplishment given the book’s successful sales record, be prepared for the usual clichés you’ll find in fantasy and science fiction. And of course, it has to be a trilogy.

It starts with a simple farm boy, Eragon, whose greatest wish is to continue his simple farming life  with his brother and adopted father. His dreams are shattered when his brother decides to leave the family and he subsequently finds a polished blue stone that turns out to be a Dragon Egg. The egg hatches a sapphire blue dragon, which Eragon develops a telepathic bond with. After naming the dragon Saphira, Eragon’s troubles starts as minions send by King Galbatorix kills his adopted father and destroys his home.

The story starts to spiral into predictable clichés from here on as Eragon starts to wonder who were his real parents and goes on a quest to track down the killers. On his journey, he meets a mysterious aged storyteller, Brom, who tells Eragon that he is the last of the Dragon Riders. Brom mentors Eragon in the ways of the Dragon Rider and eventually gets killed while protecting Eragon. With his dying breath, Brom reveals his “true identity” to Eragon including the fact that he is part of a Resistance Movement. Fans of Star Wars will not doubt find this story arc strangely similar. Thus, Eragon embarks on a quest to find the resistance movement and topple the empire!

In spite of the clichés, this book makes for a surprisingly good read with its flowing language and non-stop action. However, the author had devoted a little too much of the book on the growing relationship between Eragon and Saphira resulting in several unresolved questions. The supporting characters suffer from not being given enough time to be fleshed out properly. Be it a deliberate development or not, this works well for the book as you’ll eventually find yourself searching for the second title in the series to get more answers and learn more about the characters in this epic dragon fantasy!

~ Contributed by Lim Han Sen, National Library Board

Have you read these books? Do you have something else to recommend?
Post your comments, or send a longer book review to HBeditor@nlb.gov.sg

Ghost Music
by Graham Masterton
Great Britain : Severn House Publishers, c2008
Call No.: MAS-[HO]

There is lesser blood and gore in Masterton’s recent novel, Ghost Music. Unlike his previous “creep-you-out-of-your-skin” novels such as Prey, The House That Jack Built and A Terrible Beauty, Ghost Music is without much gory descriptions and is rather bland.Gideon Lake, a film composer, moves in to a high-end apartment, and meets a married woman, Kate Solway, who lives below him. Deeply intrigued by Kate, he begins an affair with her and flies to Europe for a rendezvous, without her husband’s knowledge.

Seems like a romantic novel with scandalous elements, but it is not. Gideon soon finds out that some things are just strange in Kate’s world. In Europe, he is introduced to Kate’s friends, the Westerlunds, and he has a déjà vu moment with the Westerlund children, when he sees them in two places at the same time. He continues seeing characters being tortured all around the house. With so many questions to ask, and Kate’s avoidance in answering them, it gets frustrating for Gideon. Soon however, Gideon finds out that his musical sensitivity makes him sensitive to ghosts, as he can experience incidents in the past, but whose resonance remains.

So there you have it, ghost music.

Still, the novel moves at a good pace, and Gideon is likable as a narrator. Through his confusion and frustrations, his personality helps to propel us through the story. The ending is quite predictable, but still with a few surprises in store. I think Masterton’s fans may enjoy this, but it is definitely not his most fantastic novel.

~ Contributed by Yasmin Ally, National Library Board

Have you read these books? Do you have something else to recommend?
Post your comments, or send a longer book review to HBeditor@nlb.gov.sg

The 77-year-old writer Canadian short story writer has claimed the £60,000 prize.

The prize is awarded not for any particular work, but rather, the author’s ”bodies of work” and the contribution made to “fiction on the world stage”.

The Guardian described her stories as “unexpected in unexpected ways”, and her writing, while spare,  contain “knots of great complexity and beauty”.

Her sharply written, precisely observered stories of small-town life, particularly rural Ontario, have made her a perennial favourite. She is the third receipient of the prize, following Ismail Kadare in 2005, and Chinua Achebe in 2007. It is also said that she has been a contender, though she has never been awarded, the Nobel prize for literature.

Some of her works include:
Away from her
New York, N.Y. : Vintage Contemporaries/Vintage Books, 2007.
Call No.: MUN -[MO]

Carried away : a selection of stories
New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2006.
Call No.: MUN -[SH]

Hateship, friendship, courtship, loveship, marriage
London : Vintage, 2002.
Call No.: MUN -[SH]

The love of a good woman : stories
New York : Knopf : Distributed by Random House, 1998.
Call No.: MUN

(image source: New York Times)

Have you read these books? Do you have something else to recommend?
Post your comments, or send a longer book review to HBeditor@nlb.gov.sg

Dear Friends,

For May’s bookclub meeting, we are discussing the short story “My Cousin Tim” by Simon Tay, one of this year’s READ! Singapore titles. Guest author Wena Poon is joining us and together we will also compare her stories from “Lions in Winter” with Simon Tay’s story.

The details:

Date/time: 4.00pm, Friday 29 May 2009
Venue: The Activity Room, Bukit Batok Public Library
Works to be discussed: “My Cousin Tim” by Simon Tay and “Lions in Winter” by Wena Poon.
Format of discussion: After discussing “My Cousin Tim” for the first half, we will proceed in the second-half to compare this story with the stories from Wena’s book “Lions in Winter”.

Guest author: Ms Wena Poon
Facilitator: Ms Nasreen Ramnath

About the story: In Simon Tay’s ‘My Cousin Tim’, Ek Teng’s reminiscence of past times with his cousin vividly captures the nostalgia of his boyhood era. This story reflects this year’s READ! Singapore theme of Dreams and Choices.

About the author: Simon SC Tay LLM (Harvard) LLB Hons (NUS) is a teacher and activist and focuses on international and public law, especially on environmental issues in Asia. He has published in leading law and other academic journals in the USA, Canada, Australia and Europe and, in 2001, edited the work, “Reinventing ASEAN”. In addition to his scholarly work, he concurrently chairs the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, an independent think-tank, and the National Environmental Agency (from 2002 to 2008), the government authority tasked to foster environmental protection and sustainability.

He has advised international and regional governments and spoken at many international meetings, including the World Economic Forum (Davos). He previously initiated the Singapore Volunteers Overseas, the country’s equivalent of the Peace Corps. He is also an award winning author of stories and poems.
(Source: www.spp.nus.edu.sg/Faculty_Tay_Seong_Chee_Simon.aspx)

About the author: Wena Poon was born in Singapore in 1974. Her fiction was published in 2002 by Penguin in The Merlion and the Hibiscus: Contemporary Short Stories from Singapore and Malaysia. In 2007 MPH published a collection of her short fiction Lions In Winter, which was listed for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award and shortlisted for the Singapore Literature Prize 2008.

About the book: “Lions in Winter” surveys the characters’ handling of their situations when they were abroad in various social settings. The stories reflect the theme of Home and Away, last year’s READ! Singapore theme.

By having the opportunity to discuss and compare the stories by Simon and Wena, it should be a rich amalgam of examining the challenges of pursuing one’s dreams whether you are at home or abroad.

If you are interested in participating, please email Soon Huat at Soon_Huat_KWEH@nlb.gov.sg.