Once again
I’ve been too busy to blog on a regular basis, so it’s time I wrote a few lines
about the books I’ve been reading lately. The books I'm briefly reviewing here are all funny and excellent reads. So don't let my very short reviews stop you from devouring them!
Jacob’s
Folly by Rebecca Miller
Who
wouldn’t like to be a fly on someone’s wall? But is it as lucrative to be
reincarnated 300 years after your death as a fly? Jacob is delighted to find
that his reincarnation has wings, but he is less enthused when he realises he
has come back to earth as a fly rather than an angel. Jacob can see into the
lives of the people he “stalks”. Leslie is middleaged, married, and desperate
to be everyone’s saviour. 21-year old Misha is in need of saving. Her family
are conservative Jews, so Misha’s dreams of becoming an actress don’t exactly
fit. Since Jacob is now a fly, he’s not feeling particularly happy about his
maker, so he decides to play with Leslie and Misha’s lives, and give them a bit
of a push in the right/wrong direction.
As Jacob
nudges Misha and Leslie closer together, we also learn about Jacob’s life as a
Jew in Paris in the 1700s. Jacob goes from being the miserable husband of his
“touched” child wife, to the servant of one of the French nobility. After
becoming involved with his master’s mistress, Jacob is thrown out, only to find
his real path as an actor.
Jacob’s Folly is a delightful read. At times laugh-out-loud
funny, at times tear-jerking sad, it gives insight into life for (Conservative)
Jews then and now. Furthermore, it is an intriguing story where we’re
constantly wondering where it’s all going and what the whole purpose really is.
Kind of like in real life.
Lolito by Ben Brooks
Lolito is a modern reimagining of the Nabokov’s
classis Lolita. The main character is
a 15-year old boy who has just found out that his girlfriend cheated on him. In
an attempt to deal with his pain and confusion, he enters an online adult chat
where he becomes involved with a woman in her 40s. Pretending to be older than
he is, their chat soon escalates to cyber sex and from there to them meeting in
person in London.
The
teenagers we meet in Lolito are
highly sexualised and at the same time extremely desensitized. The drink and do
drugs without it seeming in any way to be a big deal. Our protagonist watches
videos of cats being killed on youtube without any emotional reaction. Facebook
statuses and newsheadings just filter right through him. However, there is a
strong sense that he is really not able to deal with his current emotional
state. I strongly feel that the book is asking the question “in today’s digital
world, where any image is accessible at the push of a button, are children
really children anymore?”. I’m not sure if the book provides a lot of answers,
but it sure makes me stop and think.
Lolito is funny and well-written, and brings up
important topics about teenages in today’s world.
Let the
Games Begin by Niccolo Ammaniti
Outrageous,
crazy and hilarious, Let the Games Begin
is truly something else. The party of the century is happening in Rome, and
everybody is going. We follow a failed Satanist and a confident author as their
make their separate ways to this party of parties. The Satanist has decided to
make his final stand, and use the party to sacrifice a former Metal-singer who
turned Pop. The author is convinced that someone is out to get him (possibly
the Finnish Tree-Mafia!), so he spends his time at the party jumping from woman
to woman to elope with. All is going well until the hunt begins. Who is hunting
who?
Mr
Penumbra’s 24-hour Bookshop by Robin Sloan
This novel
successfully brings together the physical book and Google’s power and
awesomeness, if I can put it that way. It’s very much a book for our generation
of late-twenties who are “going nowhere” careerwise due to the recession. Our
protagonist Clay is stuck working the night shift at Mr Penumbra’s 24-hour Bookshop
after being retrenched. But nobody seems to be buying books anymore, and our
hero soon start suspecting that the shop is merely a front for a very strange
bookclub. In an effort to understand what this “bookclub” is all about, Clay stumbles upon a much more complex mystery than he could ever have
imagined. And as chance would have it, even the code breaking machines of
Google are unable to decipher it.
A
thoroughly enjoyable read with lots of humour and heart. Perfect for passionate
lovers of books – and Google. Here is something for the fantasy lover as well,
and if you have a nerdy bone, that’ll be tickled too! Loved it.
No comments:
Post a Comment