A Little Life

""5""/5. 

I highly recommend leaving this book alone.

Short version: it's like watching Requiem for a Dream, but instead of the story crescendoing in 2 hours, it just keeps going, darker and more devastating.

I will avoid mentioning any details about the story itself or the characters, and instead, I will just review the process of reading [book:A Little Life|22822858].

Goodreads gives its rating scale the following labels: “1: did not like it”, “2: it was ok”, “3: liked it”, “4: really like it”, and “5: it was amazing”. After finishing this book and sitting on it for a while, I couldn’t rate it on this scale. None of the labels really resonated with the experience of reading it.

On one hand, the book is excellently written. The roster of characters is rich and they are individually well fleshed out, each with their own motivations, their own calling, their own demons. The narration is so rich in detail about their passions (art, architecture, cooking, law, mathematics..) that it quickly tricks you into believing in their existence, into caring about them. The prose is beautiful, painfully so at times. There is a deceitful warmth in the way small moments are tenderly and exquisitely told that it may lull you into believing that everything will be alright in the end. The writing in general is almost good enough to be worth the price of admission alone.

On the other hand, I <b>hated</b> reading this book. 

I don’t believe that every book should be “enjoyable” to read ‒some of the most edifying reading experiences I had were about those corners of human experiences that are uncomfortable, even vile and unhinged‒ but boy, does this book feel like an exercise in sadomasochism: masochism because reading some of the passages feels physically and mentally painful, and sadism because you keep reading still, almost knowing with some guilty assurance that the pain isn’t going to stop any soon.

[author:Hanya Yanagihara|6571447] spent the 700 pages of this book being a malevolent god: she taketh as soon as she giveth. Although she positions each of her characters somewhat obviously on the Good-Bad spectrum, letting you develop empathy for the good ones, every single one of them suffers. And suffers again. Especially the most vulnerable ones. And when you think they may get a second chance ‒a little life, one might say‒, they suffer some more. There is no light, just the tunnel. No retribution, no respite, and absolutely no catharsis. 

I started reading <i>A Little Life</i> because I wanted to read a novel about friendship, as there aren’t sadly many of those around. And while the novel starts there, exploring a beautiful friendship for 4 boys coming from different walks of life, it morphs into a psychologically rich exploration of the concept of belonging, of pain, of worthiness, of unredeemable destruction. The internal monologues of each character uncoiling their trauma, especially as the book progresses, are all written in sublime pathos, which made it so uncomfortably relatable that I started wondering if reading more would make it rub more deeply into my soul, never to be cleaned again.

While I hated the experience of reading this, I cannot say that I regret it. I know I will never read it again, and I will never recommend it to anyone. But like one of those realistic nightmares that weaves itself into your waking life, I don’t see myself forgetting about it any time soon.

Catch-22

 This is one of those rare books that introduced a concept that is used in common parlance. A "catch-22" is, according to Wikipedia "paradoxical situation from which an individual cannot escape because of contradictory rules or limitations". 

Without giving much away, this book relishes in amping up the tickling sensation you get from grinding your brain on the edge of a paradox. One may think that it will run out of ways to make use of the concept, it only get better as one reads on. 

While there is so much fun to be had of the many absurd paradoxes the characters of the book bring up (and usually accept in resignation), the true joy of reading Catch-22 comes from its highly memorable characters roster of varying questionable sanity, the names of which make up the titles of most chapters. So much hilarity ensues from their absurd and whimsical existences. I don't think I will ever forget Milo, Major Major (his introduction was one of the funniest things I've ever read), the chaplain, and definitely not Yossarian, who is the heart of an otherwise purely absurd exercice in trying -and intentionally failing- to make sense of the toils and trappings of war. 

While the tone-perfect humor is the biggest selling point of this little novel, what elevates it to a Classic are the little moments where Heller chooses not to be funny: the stark contrast making so strong a point that it rivals other serious anti-war novels in depth and impact. This is book is also infinitely quotable, and what it lacks in "character development" more than makes up for in deftness of narration, description, dialog, and characterization. 

5/5. Perfect, absolute madness.

39. The Name of the Rose

Name : The Name of the Rose
Writer : Umberto Eco
Publishing year :  1980
Language : Italian (Translation to English by William Weaver)
Type : Novel
Main themes : Knowledge, Faith, Sanctity, Literature, Language, Symbolism..
Recommended for : Readers with patience for meta-narratives, anti-meta-narratives and stories that don't resolve to answers.
The book in a few words : A murder mystery turns into a philosophical, theological and existential quest.
The synopsis : William of Baskerville, a sharp and wise Franciscan friar and ex-Inquisitor, comes to an abbey to fulfill a political task and solve a murder mystery, but as the murder turns into a series of homicides, the mystery extends far beyond the extent of the secluded abbey.


The Rating : Excellent 9.5/10

The Review : (some spoilers ahead!)

It took a book about books for me to go back to book-reviewing after a long, long hiatus.

I have been reading quite a lot lately (compared to almost nothing before that) and having so much fun doing so, but The Name of The Rose was one of the densest book I've ever read, almost prohibitively so: layers on top of layers of meaning and a hefty tapestry of references, quotes, allegories and symbols meshing into a sprawling plot of mysteries. A book that is not self-referential yet very aware of its own internal machinery. Calculated, yet not mechanical.
There is no way I can do this book justice after one read and without having taken any notes (and I started reading this book a month ago, so most of the initial conflicts of the plot sit there in the back of my memory by now), but I'll do my best still, reviewing the most salient aspects of the story, and mostly its main conflict and intentionally (and brilliantly) disappointing ending.

Before delving into the praise, I must start by saying that it is a flawed masterwork. For one, the irregular pace, especially as the story explores the political dimension of its temporal setting, forced me at times to disconnect from the events. Secondly, the hand of the author was visible throughout the story, foreshadowing most of the story dynamics from mere characters descriptions, simplifying an otherwise intricate roster of personages and motives (the moral was pretty heavy-handed, but to the credit of the author, was still cleverly evoqued throughout). Finally, -and this may just be my edition-, all the goddamn Latin passages and phrases that were not accompanied with some English translation. I understand that language is a strong element in the story itself, but a nice footnote would have made reading this much more enjoyable (I mostly had to stop the reading, type the sentence(s) into Google and see what each of them meant .. an unnecessarily tedious endeavor).
But all of this pales under the sheer radiance of the story.

Our narrator, Adso of Melk, is the young novice of William of Baskerville, a friar of the Franciscan order who moonlights as a medieval detective. Through the admiring eyes of Adso, we see William as sharp-witted, bright, wise and nearly invincible.

Although we hear the story from Adso's perspective, it's William who carries the voice of the author. Painted as this impossible-to-dislike character, William represents all the goodness of someone who understands the concepts of Truth and Power so deeply that he is ready to give up any claim to either (ex-inquisitor as he was), a man's whose wit and knowledge is only surpassed by his questioning of their very nature and use, a man with a honest, deep faith and honest, deep doubts. Adso, on the other hand, is our trustee narrator: pious, shrewd and modest. Rarely opining on things, he, once an apprentice of tender age and now a reminiscing monk, has the memories of a guileless man and the brand of wisdom that only comes with hindsight.

Their journey starts with an very Sherlock-Holmesian episode that introduces us to the brilliance of the main character, and to a main thread in the story's net: reading signs. Right after his deductive feat that revealed the truth about a lost horse, William immediately explains to Adso why the reasoning he applied, albeit apparently flawless, could have yielded wrong results, led to falsehoods. Signs, such as the hoofprints on a snowy landscape, are just that: impassive, faultless signs. Once endowed with meaning and interpretation (by the human mind), they can become prone to error, misleading.

This is basically the whole plot (and the moral?) of the novel, told in its very first pages.

The story goes on to introduce a kaleidoscope of characters. A series of deaths (or murders?) starts taking place in the holy edifice, as our detective and his sidekicks go around collecting evidence and solving puzzles all related to the mysterious Library, protected by guardians, ghosts, secrets and spells. This part was especially well-written, as the two layers of the story and the symbolism start to suffuse into one another. The Library, itself a compound symbol of many concepts and symbols, hosts a mysterious volume, so irresistible that it seems to be the thread tying all the mysteries witnessed at the abbey.

The egg hunt eventually leads our two protagonists to the soon-to-be antagonist, Jorge. Jorge de Burgos, an old blind monk, is the basically the antithesis of William: uncomely, unpleasant and unapologetically morose. We get introduced to him through a scene where he, vehemently and with utter disdain, opposes the concept of .. laughter. Eco proves unwanting of neutrality, as he deliberately assign the colors of Good and Evil to his puppets: one a brilliant, convincing, dashing tall English gentleman and the other an ugly, intemperate, intimidating and patronizing elderly. As they clash, we hear the lamentations of Eco, through his narrator, of ideological extremism, as Adso struggles to find a middle ground between his increasing admiration of William's mind and methods, and his devout sense of ownership towards a legacy of teachings, traditions and wisdom.

Even though detestable throughout, Jorge by the end does voice some sound arguments about the idea of forbidden knowledge: a knowledge so corrosive that if not handled with the utmost care (maybe a pair of gloves :) ?) it consumes everything, holy and hollow tantamount. His fear of the decay of Truth, and his self-assigned mission to protect it, leads him to committing absurdities no less devilish than everything he stands against. Like any fanatic, he eschews any guilt by submitting to the all-too-convenient argument that he, too, is an instrument of God. The evident irony is that William too has expressed the same concerns about the misuse of knowledge beforehand, albeit in a more practical sense (an echo to the author's concerns about the modern scientific progress not being stricting a good thing), but arrives to diametrically opposed conclusions.  The ultimate clash, although violent and striking, manages to blend many a subtle philosophical question: Good and Evil, Faith and Reason, Destiny and Free will, Absolutes and Relativity, Legacy and Progress, Word and Interpretation.

Eco takes William's side explicitly and comfortably, yet he chooses to end his novel on two interesting notes: William, with all his wit and shrewdness, fails to stop every murder, and the Book he so long sought after turns perennially into ashes. And the reasoning that led him to Jorge in the end was both very sound yet completely wrong. It was luck, of all things, that gave way to the truth. The smoke he followed led him to no fire, and the fire he was tracking burned silently and pestiferously on the side, with no smoke and no trail: logic can only take you so far. Eco even felt it justified that the closing notes by Adso, amid deep adoration, sinned William for being intellectually vainglorious (the original sin itself). That, for me, was a perfect ending.

With that being said, I must confess that I was a wee bit disappointed in the revelation regarding the book's content. As much as I see it fitting the general arc of the story and its conclusion, it didn't live up to my expectations (what expectations I don't know, exactly, but I know they were higher). Given how wide Eco's knowledge of occult books and esoteric mysteries, I was expecting something .. more sinister? I need to think this one through.

While interesting in their own right, William's first mission (weighing in on the theological debate regarding the poverty of Jesus Christ) was not as interesting as his second one (investigating the murders in the Abbey). There was a commentary galore regarding the attachment to wealth and earthly belongings (there is even a word for it: sybaritic) and how it got appropriated by the clergy, but maybe too much commentary, to my taste. Though it was a paramount argument within the religious atmosphere of that era, I felt as if that question itself didn't lead anywhere, at least in the context of the narrative, which was particularly disappointing given that what felt like 40% of the book was dedicated to this affair. Maybe for someone more learnt about the history of Christianity and the magnitude of this debate within it may find the historical account riveting, but I couldn't help but feel detached and slightly lost.

Let us not forget one of the most eminent qualities of the text, that is its heavy use of symbolism and symbols, both overt and implicit: the library (human knowledge, of course built as a labyrinth), Finis Africae (forbidden knowledge, occultism), manuscripts and books (signs towards truth, fractions or reflections of truth), poison (lust), magic (misunderstood knowledge), and so on. My favorite, however, were William's glasses: science, useful technology, sight, learning and legacy. When Adso said that he's still wearing the glasses his Master gave him at their tearful farewell, I sighed deeply and thought I finally understood the point of this tale.

There are so many other threads that the novel weaves through its main plot: arcana, elitism, love and lust, Indulgence, politics and many more, but this review is long enough already. Maybe I'll update it on a second read!

Finally, the Name of the Rose. The title is both mystifying and beautiful. When I picked up the book I thought it would be a reference to Shakespeare's famous "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet" (the uselessness of a name, basically), but the only reference in the books addressing it came as Adso was finishing up the narration, wondering who would read it and why it's written at all."Yesterday's rose endures in its name; we hold empty names."
One of the recurring themes in the books is the idea of signs and symbols. As would William put it, these signs and symbols are not the truth, but mere pointers to it. The name of the rose is the everlasting sign of its existence, a proof of a being that is bound to perish, or yet to exist. It's why books should be written, it's why any effort to preserve and spread knowledge matters at all. 

PS: Since I was reading this in my commute, I found out that reading while listening to music without lyrics helps a lot to tune out distractions and loud conversations, and it inevitably added an extra layer, an atmosphere to the novel that maybe made it even better. "Dane Caine - Solace" (the entire album, but the eponymous track especially) will now and forever be the soundtrack of the Name of the Rose in my head.


Favorite Character : 
William of Baskerville. A wonderfully likeable character who is ridden with the profound realization that he may be wrong about everything. While holding a strong faith and a equipped with a strong intellect, he is lost in the sea of contingencies and potentialities. A man so versed in heterogeneous studies that he can no more ideate a hypothesis without immediately consider its antithesis, seeing the truth in both. A man fair to a fault. A man torn between the capacities of his mind and the ironclad, unshakeable institute he's devout to. A man helplessly curious and questionning in a clan where curiosity can be synonymous with heresy.


Favorite Quotes :
For the first time on this blog, I had the opportunity to highlight all the passages that I liked thanks to my wonderful Kindle <3 (instead of looking up quotes from the internet).  Here is a selection !


"Because not all truths are for all ears."

"If a shepherd errs, he must be isolated from other shepherds, but woe unto us if the sheep begin to distrust shepherds."

"He who laughs does not believe in what he laughs at, but neither does he hate it. Therefore, laughing at evil means not preparing oneself to combat it."

- "A theft?
- A loan, to the greater glory of God."

- "Will you tell me, William, you who know so much about heretics that you seem one of them, where the truth lies?
- Nowhere, at times," William said, sadly.

"Then we are living in a place abandoned by God", I said, disheartened. "Have you found any place where God would have felt at home? William asked me, looking down from his great height.

"How beautiful the world is, and how ugly the labyrinths are", I said, relieved. "How beautiful the world would be if  there were a procedure for moving through labyrinths", my master replied.

"Mind how you speak, pig, son of the whore of Babylon and other strumpets as well!"

"I sinned without malice."

- "Do you know you're risking your life?
- So be it," Michael answered, "better than risking my soul."

- "I saw the skull of John the Baptist at the age of twelve"
- "Really?" I exclaimed, amazed.

"Isn't affirming God's absolute omnipotence and His absolute freedom with regard to His own choices tantamount to demonstrating that God doesn't exist?". William looked at me without betraying any feeling in his features, and he said, "How could a learned man go on communicating his learning if he answered yes to yours question?"

"Non in commotione, non in commotione Dominus" (Not in chaos, the Lord is not in chaos.)

38. A Confederacy of Dunces

Name : A Confederacy of Dunces
Writer : John Kennedy Toole
Publishing year :  1980
Language : English
Type : Novel
Main themes : Classes, Education, Luck, Society, Genius..
Recommended for : Those who don't mind reading an odd story that doesn't really have a structure ..
The book in a few words : A one man quest against a world of corruption, stupidity and obedience.
The synopsis : Ignatus is a bright man. So bright, in fact, he can't find his place in society, or society finds a way to reject him whenever he tried to fit, or rectify it. Surrounded by a confederacy of dunces, our hero needs a plan to survive, and change the world.


The Rating : Excellent 9.25/10

The Review :
I haven't read enough books in my life to claim this to be unlike anything that you've read (I have actually discovered that it falls under the "Picaresque novel" category of which I've never heard before), but to me, these were completely new grounds.
I've been keeping up with the terrible habit of not taking notes while reading fantastic books which, in combination with my super memory, leads to the writing of lacking reviews. I'm doing this book a grand injustice by not going through it again (something that I intend to do one day, definitely) to recapture the glimpses of utter genius sprinkled throughout, but in the mean time, I'll just review the experience of reading A Confederacy of Dunces.

First things first, I have no idea how I ended up reading this book, no recollection of where I heard of it and why I decided to read it. Something about the title and the ugly cover made it as attractive as unhygienic, good-smelling fast food. The kind Ignatus chews with joy. I decided it would be the next read for my commute (only made possible by its lack of action in the plot). This book made me laugh out loud many times publicly in the bus, and I wasn't even ashamed.
Because when this book wears its funny hat, it's potently so, and I'm not even the kind to laugh while reading. This lovely work would have held its merit if only for its chuckle-inducing passages. However, this book should not be mistaken for a comedy, because beneath the blanket of twisted jokes and near-slapstick routines, lies an undeniable drama. John K. Toole makes fun of reality by molding a set of eccentric, larger-than-life but ultimately mundane characters (except for Ignatus), that don't really venture away from their beaten tracks (the drunk drunk and the black black and the gay gay and so on ..), yet still deliver a powerful satire to the many "dunces" the author wanted to portray.

But the genius of the oeuvre comes from the weaving of its elements, a whole far more superior than its shiny individual parts, each being one of Ignatus' adventures, and how it lands a new puzzle piece that ties the story together. It's strange how nothing goes to waste: every detail, every character mention, every apparently offhanded comment are used to paint the final picture : sometimes revealing, often times foreshadowing, and other times misleading. But the perfect setting and the studied interactions and the game of hide-and-seek makes this story unique in its storytelling : it literally unfold. I mean, literally. There is no other way to put this. You star with very little information : an unconventional introductions to the protagonist and his mother, a relationship already dipped in trouble. One very small detail leads to another, and every revelation links back to a previous detail or a prop that you didn't pay enough attention to when it was mention, but it's always entertaining when the reveals happen and you see how the different pieces fit in perfect, clockwork fashion. Some of the evolution is fairly predictable (especially once you get used to the world our characters live in, such as the inevitable fact that Ignatus will find a way to make things worse), but at no point of the tale you really know what's going to happen next, and once it happens, you can't see how things could have happened otherwise. It really is a meticulous work the weaves the fates of the unsuspecting cast with the threads of misfortune, coincidences and comedy.
The style of the narration takes on three tonalities : the fairly unflourished (yet amazingly perceptive) narration, the over-the-top, almost theatrical performances of Ignatus, and the New Orleans dialect used by the less educated members of the cast. This translates to three plans of existence the author presents : a neutral, intricate reality that sees things for what they are, a distorted, grotesque interpretation of this reality by the smart yet delusional Ignatus, and the trivial, mundane life of the careless crew.

As for the plot, it only evolves through mutation of state rather than evolution. Aside from Ignatus' mom, none of the wicked characters change their ways. Ignatus being the central star of this constellation of characters (a more fitting metaphor would be that of a black hole, sucking up life and joy from his surroundings), gets the most interesting case study, and is definitely one of the best characters I've ever got to meet in a book. Despite his otherworldly vision, his unique behavior and his bizarre conclusions, Ignatus is not a passive character, and more often than not, succeeds in seeing the wrong in the world and does his best to fix it (the irony is that he doesn't extend this critical analysis to himself). I found myself not disagreeing with him on many occasions (he makes some excellent points sometimes, but then proceeds to act upon his self-righteousness to always make the situation worse).
The rest of the cast is somewhat obviously stereotypical. The careless rich husband, the whiny trophy wife, the clueless old woman, the scheming femme fatale, the star-wannabe youngster, the racially-abused vagrant, the alcoholic widow, the sole rich man, the nymphomaniac activist, the flamboyant homosexual .. all act and talk in ways you'd imagine their respective stereotype would. But all of them get minor twists that make them interesting. The trophy wife is also a self-appointed psychologist, the careless heir is also a child living in the shadow of his father, the black vagrant is also the smartest character in the story, and so on. Every character is well-drawn and the kaleidoscope of faces and background is colorful and vibrant. What really makes them work is an air-tight plot line that succeeds to makes them all interact in unpredictable ways, driving to the story to its wonderful closing.

While I was skimmed through some reviews on Goodreads to see whether people were enjoying it as much as I did, I realized how polarizing this novel is. True, everything from the writing style to the deceivingly stereotypical characters to the lack of an obvious plot to the unlikable protagonist (not really !) doesn't exactly welcome you with open arms. But it is a worthwhile read. Some of its passages are nothing short of genius.
This is a work that handles you a funny package that, once opened, reveals a deep insight about society, the invisible forces that rule it and the different coping mechanisms that everyone use to deal with it, and an odd, unique, subverted interpretation of the world that only a different mind can offer (this different mind offed itself after finishing the novel, which makes me really sad).

PS : Many central plot points and themes (the ones that make this novel brilliant, see "Themes" above) were not discussed in the review because (1) I am starting to write reviews minimal spoilers and (2) I should have taken notes. There are honestly too many subtle hints and jabs to be fully and respectfully enumerated in this short review. I'll leave the care of discovering them to the reader.

Favorite Character : 
Ignatus, being the fully-fledged "punchline character". Ignatus honestly think that modernity would be the end of humanity. Everything in the world as he sees it is tainted with its filth, a perversion. The world needs to go a couple of decades, maybe centuries back, and the people needed lessons in "theology and geometry, some taste and decency". Ignatus is a rebellious character, frequently criticizing capitalism and aspects modern slavery, going as far as planning to start a racial revolution or plotting to "save the world through degeneracy". Ignatus is a creative person, writing so beautifully about his heroic acts with sincerity and just enough well-calibrated fact-omitting. He deeply longs to find like-minded people to change the world, volunteering to be their leader and master, if that is what it takes. He's aware, perceptive, critical, witty, funny, manipulative, intellectual, and ultimately paradoxical. Not being able to notice the huge holes in the fabric of his being ends being his fatal flaw (that, and his valve malfunctions). He constructed a reality that makes him a saint in a world of demons, a hero in a land of despair, a chaos in the rows of uniformity. He's all of that, but a caricature of that as well. Ignatus has a brilliant mind that fell into the trap of self-righteousness, self-indulgence and laziness, thus failing to see all of his shortcomings that makes others' lives around him a hell to endure.
Yet still, a masterfully written character.

Miss Trixie gets a shout-out for delivering the best lines/jokes of the novel. So silly-it's-funny, but I'm a taker.

Favorite Quotes :
Once again, I wasn't able to note down the best quotes of the novel (and there are many good lines, t-shirt worthy!), those are some of the ones I found online that I enjoyed reading again :

“I am an anachronism. People realize this and resent it.”

“Possession of anything new or expensive only reflected a person's lack of theology and geometry; it could even cast doubts upon one's soul.”

"You amaze me." The young man stared at Ignatus's outfit. "To think that they're letting you run around loose. In a way, I respect you."

"That fat freak a guarantee one hunner percen nucular bum. Shit. Drop him on somebody, everybody gettin caught in the fallout, getting their ass blowed up".

“Apparently I lack some particular perversion which today's employer is seeking. ”

“Over the years I have become very good at getting out of things I don’t want to do.”

“New Orleans is, on the other hand, a comfortable metropolis which has a certain apathy and stagnation which I find inoffensive.”

“I bet you cook good, huh?" Darlene asked.
"Mother doesn't cook," Ignatius said dogmatically. "She burns.”

“Is my paranoia getting completely out of hand, or are you mongoloids really talking about me?”

“You could tell by the way he talked, though, that he had gone to school a long time. That was probably what was wrong with him.” - Can a description get more potent that this ?

“Stop!' I cried imploringly to my god-like mind.”

“Between notes, he had contemplated means of destroying Myrna Minkoff but had reached no satisfactory conclusion. His most promising scheme had involved getting a book on munitions from the library, constructing a bomb, and mailing it in plain paper to Myrna. Then he remembered that his library card had been revoked.”

“I was getting tired about what the preacher called Christian. Anything he did was Christian, and the people in his church believed it, too. If he stole some book he didn't like from the library, or made the radio station play only part of the day on Sunday, or took somebody off to the state poor home, he called it Christian. I never had much religious training, and I never went to Sunday school because we didn't belong to the church when I was old enough to go, but I thought I knew what believing in Christ meant, and it wasn't half the things the preacher did.”

37. Les Désorientés

Name : Les Désorientés
Writer : Amin Maalouf
Publishing year :  2012
Language : French
Type : Recommended, Novel
Recommended by : Soukaina Mkh'
Main themes : Friendship, Difference and Tolerance, Religion, Death, Love, Nationalism, Alienation ..
Recommended for : Anyone who doesn't mind an open-minded text
The book in a few words : A bunch of friends, separated by war, reunited by Death.
The synopsis : Adam receives a call telling him his ex-best friend is on his deathbed, urging him to consider visiting his homeland for the first time in twenty years. Things develop, and now he has to reunite with the ghosts of his past..


The Rating : Excellent 9.25/10

The Review :
I love this book.
(and this review is very superficial, it's more about my impression on the book than it's about its content, and that's because I was too immersed in its universe I didn't write down any notes for my late review .. next time I'll do better, promise).

First of all, shout-out to the awesome wordplay in the title.
To be honest, once I got a feel from the first pages of what this is going to be about (friendship!), I was predisposed to like it. "Novels about Friendship" is still on my search history.. I know, too cheesy! But I happen to be one of those people who believe that friendship is one of the most relatable and universal themes there is, and maybe it deserves its own genre.. Friendship is just underrated.
Then, comes this book to pay homage to this theme/feeling, and it does it handsomely.
Unlike many friendship-related works of fiction that use the birth of a friendship -the pure, warm, exhilarating moment of its coming to existence and its taking shape-, Maalouf chooses to present the story of this little band of people in a non-linear fashion, starting, unlikely, at the death of a friendship. No background, no context, just a long cold internal monologue of one character who decided for some reason that his once-best-friend deserved his friendship no more.
From the get-go, the protagonist, Adam, seems to be a very rational man. With a trailing habit of writing down his thoughts and impressions, we get to read through his reasoning and his judgement, apparently sound and justified, never unfair, never premature. But in all his labored neutrality, his undeniable self refuses to be entrapped in the borders of the logical and the calibrated, and soon it starts to show up, sometimes furious, sometimes uncertain, sometimes judgmental. We only get to know him through his friends and how he thinks of them.
This death was the spark that rekindled many a forsaken friendship. We get to know that the narrator Adam, his late friend Mourad and his widow were all members of clique that was humorously called the Byzantines, obviously for their never-ending discussions of everything and anything. They are the proverbial band of misfits that were joined by their .. "misfitting".
In an effort of regrouping the group, Adam goes through a series of faithful re-encounters with his old friends after more than two decades of their last meeting under the roof of Mourad.

The characters are generally a vehicle of the plot, but the better writers do spend time in writing excellent, well-thought ones. This plot is pretty much a vehicle for the characters. I love those "character stories" because I love to imagine characters as real people, not some plot devices who are either conveniently helpful or unjustifiably villainous. This book hits all the right marks in character analysis (although not as much is character development, more on that later).
Instead of dissecting and labeling every character, the author gives this dirty job to Adam, who takes the liberty in choosing the adjectives he sees better fit the character in question. The use of letters and dialog segments adds a realistic layer to the characters who are otherwise only the product of Adam's imagination and vocabulary.
It goes without saying that a "character story" is as good as its characters. And here, Maalouf delivers.
The friends of young Adam are a merry bouquet of human specimen. Different scents, different colors, different origins but you don't need to be a flower arranger to know that a diverse, multicolored bouquet is more interesting. The book is, of course, more than a display of colorful characters, it's cry for a change. The beautiful selection is far from random, it's symbolic.
The author chose a sample from the human specter that reflects the background of its chosen context : a post-war levantine country. We have the warrior and the pacifist, the thinker and actor, the heir and the exiled, the subtle and the brute, the dreamer and the crushed .. enlaced only by a mere coincidence and the goodness in their hearts .. and this is a beautiful thought in itself.
I can write lengthy paragraphs to praise the character construction and analysis (done generally by Adam, but it's better that way). They were meant to represent real, breathing sections of the society the book is set to represent, reproach and hopefully remedy. We get to meet a couple muslims, a couple jews, a couple christians, a couple atheists, all shot in very different lights. The author may have voiced his own belief through Adam (who is agnostic, but intrigued to the idea of faith), but he kept away for judgements, exploring every faith with a parental fairness, and emphasizing that religion is but one stroke in those human portrait.
The story find its best when it clashes those characters to explore its many themes : from sensuality with Semiramis to sexuality with Albert, the characters work through their differences and authenticity to find an understanding. Their bond is strong and idealistic, but the author succeeds in making it genuine and believable.
The novel doesn't spare any effort to denounce war. War divided the group, sent some to the exile, made some kill and got the others killed, it fouled the lands and the minds and made the gaps between civilizations wider. War didn't only destroy the region, but it destroyed its potential of ever getting on its feet again.
War killed hope. And no character tried to deny it.
I need a second read to recapture the transient wisdoms sprinkled generously throughout the book (I couldn't even write down my favorite quotes, and there were many), but I can say this : we need more books in this vein, and more people reading them. The whole story is a meditation about war and how it helped invigorating every poison spreading in the region (ignorance, extremism, exodus, corruption, abuse of power, fear, hatred, racism ..), and the author suggests that an understanding and a look at the bigger picture is a solution, but he's also convinced that this solution isn't realistic.
The young actors aren't enthusiastic to rebuild the country, and Adam says he has the name of the birth of Humanity, and yet he belongs to its death.
I have only two complaints on an otherwise perfect book is the ending. It was only unexpected or surprising, it was just .. sad. I get some of its vague symbolism, but I still think the plot deserved a better ending (maybe another eclipse to the future?). For me, it was weak and unnecessary, unlike anything else in the book.
My other complaint is the character development, because of the 20+ years eclipse we only get to see a "before/after" shot of each character, and nothing of the transition. I was so into the characters I wanted to know more about them, much more than the book offered anyway. Most of them got cameos rather than lead roles, and that saddened me, even more when we got to have Adam's full background and we got to know why he is the honest, thoughtful, quirky little man he's become (thus making him feel much more real). An equal treatment to the other great characters who were so well written would have made this lovely novel an undeniable masterpiece, but hey, it is still very close.

Favorite Character : 
I don't think I have one, whenever one of them was the focus of the story he became my favorite (and no she, females were underused if you ask me).
If I really had to pick, it would be either Ramez, Albert or Adam.
I might be biased, but I had most fun reading Ramez's arc (dude is funny !). I was deeply moved by extent of his friendship with Ramzi (and when his wife spoke about his friend with all that zeal I couldn't help imagining him talking about him non-stop. It was pretty feelsy man).
Albert was very well contrasted (pre and post his decision). The author called him "subtle" and still gave him two of the most hard hitting moments in the novel. His transformation thanks to the "adoptive parents" was also such a touch, and the fact that his sexuality was  not exploited in his character definition and existence was thoughtful. I also loved his final monologue about the trees and the forests.
Adam was the only character to really grow (and not transform). He's analytical, just and knows how to deal with people (becoming thus pretty much everyone's best friend). He is the character I related to most, but his tendency to disown things he used to care about didn't go together well with the rest of his attributes. The story couldn't have worked without him putting the beautiful, colored pieces together.

Favorite Quotes :
Again, I regret not taking the time to write down my favorite quotes as I usually do, but there will be a reread I promise.
Until then, here are some of the ones I found online that I especially liked :

"On parle souvent de l'enchantement des livres. On ne dit pas assez qu'il est double. Il y a l'enchantement, et il y a celui d'en parler."

"Tout ce qui est soumis au contact de la force est avili, quel que soit le contact. Frapper ou être frappé, c’est une seule et même souillure.
"

"De la disparition du passé, on se console facilement ; c’est de la disparition de l’avenir qu’on ne se remet pas. Le pays dont l’absence m’attriste et m’obsède, ce n’est pas celui que j’ai connu dans ma jeunesse, c’est celui dont j’ai rêvé, et qui n’a jamais pu voir le jour."

"Ce serait simple si, sur les chemins de la vie, on devait juste choisir entre la trahison et la fidélité. Bien souvent on se trouve contraint de choisir plutôt entre deux fidélités inconciliables ; ou, ce qui revient au même, entre deux trahisons."

"Mieux vaut se tromper dans l'espoir qu'avoir raison dans le désespoir."

“Si tu arrives à le convaincre, je t’offre un avion comme celui-ci.”

“Mon meilleur ami parmi les musulmans, c’était Ramez ; mon meilleur ami parmi les juifs, c’était Naïm ; et mon meilleur ami parmi les chrétiens, c’était Adam. Bien entendu, tous les chrétiens n’étaient pas comme Adam, ni tous les musulmans comme Ramez, ni tous les juifs comme Naïm. Mais moi, je voyais d’abord mes amis. Ils étaient mes œillères, ou, si tu préfères, ils étaient les arbres qui me cachaient la forêt.”
“Et pour toi, c’était une bonne chose ?”
“Oui, c’était une excellente chose. Il faut cacher la forêt. Et il faut porter des œillères.”
“C’est à ça que servent les amis ?”

“Oui, je le crois. Tes amis servent à te préserver tes illusions le plus longtemps possible.”
“Mais tu finis quand même par les perdre, tes illusions.”
“Bien sûr, avec le temps, tu finis par les perdre. Mais il vaut mieux que ça n’arrive pas trop tôt. Sinon, tu perds aussi le courage de vivre.”

36. Veronica Décide de Mourir

(well I wished my comeback book was something better than this.)

Name : Veronica décide de mourir
Writer : Paulo Coelho
Publishing year :  1998
Language : French
Type : Recommended, Novel
Recommended by : Insaf Bouqrou', Inas Laghdess
Estimated time : about 7 hours.
Main themes : Insanity, psychology, coming-of-age, liberation.
Recommended for : Hardcore Coelho fans only.
The book in a few words : First world problems meets the Alchemist.
The synopsis : A perfectly fine young lady decides that she's bored of life and tries to commit suicide, but she didn't die and she only has 5 days to rediscover life and what she's missing out on and feel regret for being a stupid perfectly fine young lady.

The Rating : Disappointing 4/10

The Review :
My oh my.
Paulo Coelho is such a thorny writer to approach. He's venerated by many "readers" and hated by other readers (notice the use of quotes). I like his comparison to Justin Beiber : Many people hate him without even listening to his music, many people hate him after listening to his music, but many, many people (impressionable 13 years old girls) think he's the best singer in the universe of all time. Because of this, when you "hate on him" you get waves of angry comments for being mean for no reason. "His music gets Grammys!" they say, and there is no tangible proof that he's overrated and he sucks and the attention he gets should be equally distributed on far more talented people who really deserve it. Defining "more talented" and "deserve" is another problem, but everyone on the other side of the fence know what it means. You just feel those people need someone who show them the light and direct them to the better ways of life.

Now this is a long paragraph for a writer of whom I've hardly read two books (one of them twice). I'm no expert in Coelho and I ain't got no time to spend on reading his books after being disappointed by this one. But other people with more time in their hands did, and they don't seem to differ from the aforementioned groups : Either hate it for being overexposed and overrated, or revere it and having all his book read and reread and shared as cute, inspiring quotes.
Before reading this book, I didn't want to put myself in any of the previous categories, I only read the Alchemist (which I liked moderately but I only gave it a 4/5 for being the first novel I've read) and I didn't want to go with the flow and pretend to be an illuminated reader who sees right through his repetitive malarkey and consider people who do like him to be shallow, inexperienced readers. (I might as well belong to those for all I know).

But now, I read Veronica, which is claimed by many to be his best work (alongside his "masterwork", the Alchemist) and a complete change of tone in contrast with many of his other books that kind of feel the same (uh oh).

So I held my hope high and opened it with all the good intentions, and I really wanted to give him a try, maybe he's greater than the sum of the inspirational quotes everybody seems to relate to.

First thing I notice: Dry style. Some may mistake that for being an "easy" or even a "smooth" read, but it is not. It's just .. dry. Oversimplified, dry writing style. It feels like you're reading an average article from a newspaper, and it's not a good thing.
There is the Minimalism that I adore (and I think helped the Alchemist to feel bare and genuine), but it's not even that. It's just a tasteless, colorless steam of words. What's more, it wasn't what the story required or needed, it was just a choice of the author. I believe that a good use of imagery and description would have helped the package in some way, but what can I say.. Coelho is a crowd-pleaser (yes, I meant that in a very negative way). In the same vein, metaphors and allegories, when feebly used, were spoon-fed to the reader. There is not figuring out or "Aha!" moments, only direct, in-your-face obvious symbolism that is explained many times throughout the book, in case the very sophisticated intellectual readers of Coelho didn't pick up on them if they weren't attentive enough the first ten times they were explained (and not dumb enough, God forbid).

Next was the heroine. And for a book to be named after and centered around one character, she was such a disappointment. I couldn't put my finger on why she just was irritating for me to try to connect to, but I guess I ultimately figured it out: she's rushed. It feels like the author didn't have an exact portrait of her before he started writing, he just kept using her as a plot device. So she was first this blatant ungrateful first-world woman who didn't have any problem except maybe being in a Coelho-created universe, she was bored and she decided to die. She decided to die because she was a pretty woman who could have all what a pretty woman can have from this life (work, love, marriage, eventual divorce (?), settling, children, all the "normal" pleasures of love), and that wasn't good enough for her.
But she's called a smart person throughout the novel, so she could have just planned a journey to change her life or live an adventure like a smart, self-conscious person would do (I will read you, Eat Pray Love), but she didn't. Veronica decided to die, decided that nothing in life is ever gonna be of interest for her although she never quit her little place and never tried to change her routine. She gave up, and that's a stupid cowardly thing to do (and she thought she was very courageous!). Now before anyone say that I don't get the mind of a suicidal or a depressive person, I can say she wasn't one. She's not a "messed up" person. She was very ordinary in every aspect of the word for the rest of the novel. She wanted to live right after meeting Zedka, which is, clue for the clueless, was becoming a friend of hers. Why didn't she try to get friends before? Beats me. She then clung to dear life like the most normal people do, and while that might have served the "message" of the book (rant below), it harmed the character integrity. And the "sexual awakening" was so .. impromptu. It popped out of nowhere, the setting was bad, the motive was nonexistent. It was  pulled out of the bucket to push once again the message of the book, but it was so badly done. (For notes on how to do it correctly, see Flowers for Algernon Charlie's second "phase of growth". The whole book built up to that part, and it made perfect sense. Here we see a girl who experienced the limits of her sexual desire on her deathbed because an old woman told her about it in a meditation session .. COM'ON!). I have many inconsistencies to point out about her that I won't mention -almost every chapter draws her with different colors- which made any growth of the character seem more like a forced step down the archetype of Santiago, the protagonist of the Alchemist : a person who's lost at life, have a faithful encounter with a life changing figure (the doctor/the king), goes on a journey of self-discovery and more fateful meetings, and then achieve the Magnus Opus and become one with the universe and reaches its human peak and then find a materialistic treasure (the gold/the very pretty boy who understands you. And that's another point, she didn't find just any love, but one with a very hot dude who's an artist and is very understanding and deep. Too much for a spiritual message :v).

Secondary characters got all their half-witted full 5 pages!! I hoped they had more elaborate lives, and not all of them were pretty much .. normal poeple. Before you jump and say 'EXACTY! That's the poooiiiinnt of the book!!!!", I take back what I said. They're normal people in our definition of insanity, not the book's (that's trying so hard to rebrand insanity as "just like you, but different". Really insane poeple are nothing like the ones the book cherrypicked, but more like the many others that didn't pay attention to Veronica and stayed in the backgrounds doing backflips and eating their snot). They were all melodramatic, and every page screamed "please feel sorry for us! #CrazyPeopleAreJustLikeYou"). Zedka was almost given depth but then she was tossed away like my hope of this book being any good. The rest was truly and utterly meh, with Eduard's story being "please let me fly with my own wings" typical and Maria's mixture of many half-baked ideas (I don't know why he bothered to make up such a weak background story for her: for example he didn't make any use of her being an attorney at all except for trying to sound clever in one useless line by the end of the book, ha).

"Vitriol Or The Bitterness" was the worst combination of concept/nomenclature I encountered in literature so far. The notion of it is hilarious (I don't think laughter was the intended effect, but I hope sounding sophisticated wasn't too).  To name an "ethereal substance that slowly pushes people to die of bitterness and boredom" after an instant-effect poison that people used to assassinate is not my idea of good symbolism. Anytime he used that forced word, I chuckled.
(ps. Libido was never thought of as a substance. No surprise it wasn't isolated in laboratories, Einstein).

And finally, the message.
What I gathered from the book -and let's be honest: Coelho is pretty known for resonant, life-changed messages- you must close it thinking :
"There is no such thing as sanity, only a law of majority which dictates that wearing a tie is a hint of fashion taste and not a self-strangling useless piece of cloth. Sanity is just one form of accepted insanity that got adopted by many people. There is no such thing as reality, only a percieved version of it, and is generally one that is not in our element. Drop both those illusionary notions and live as an animal free Man, enjoy your life, please your body and don't give two damns about people around you because they're all crazy too, only in a uniformed kind of crazy. But also seek the love of others, and see death as a gateway to life and life as an early stage of death, but never fear them. Embrace your inner fool, leave your job, and live on love and fresh air and wine you can hardly afford".
It would have been such a bombarding, bigger than life message if it wasn't very self-asserting, self-important and finally bombastic.
It is presenting a very dumbed-down vision on life, making it sound as if Veronica and her lover boy won't eventually need to work in a 8 to 5 mind-numbing job to afford their champagne under the stars, and that he won't get fits of schizophrenia when she'll get old and remind him of hell rather than heaven, and that she won't tell him to notice her more than his Visions of Paradise he's spend all day working on. It implies that life is no more than a first-world problem that would be fixed by trying the new and exploring the forbidden.

If only the book ended with her actually dying and being remembered by every fool she encountered (let's assume for a second that she's not a shallow character but a one capable of touching souls and not only her body), and then making the point across that there is Life in Death as the doctor metaphorically suggested, that people change perspective and get insight from the passing of a dear one and that one's life doesn't stop when he or she dies, whether he or she believes in an afterlife or not. They remain in the hearts of those whom they inspired by living through the repetitiveness of life and the tricks of the minds and the bad turns of wind, and that only, is worth living for. Or something.

I don't feel like writing about this book anymore.

Favorite passages : 

I wanted to register the most pretentious lines and quote them all here back to back to give my impression of it as I was reading it. Because there were too many, I gave up.

I didn't have any favorite passages. Maybe the one he was talking about himself and his friend who told him about Veronica, that wins the most unwarranted chapter in the book.

Summer Project Report #3

The "project" has come to an end, so did the Summer holiday. It's been fun, really, and I've more books in this short amount of time than pretty much my whole life, so that does say something about how terrible of a literate person I am.
Anyway ! For the final Report I've gathered the last 15 books (and mini-books) that I've read during pretty much the last week of August and the first week of September, I didn't reach my goal of reading 50 books (because I pretty much didn't read for more than a month :v), but still, I'm proud of this first accomplishment, way to go !

21. Bridge to Terabithia :

Author : Katherine Paterson
Themes: Friendship, Fantasy, Alienation.

Rating : 9/10

Mini-review : 
For a short novel (about half the size of a normal novel), this work of fiction accomplishes effectivelythe mission of a story : Give us a world to live in and people to befriend while reading, and a sentiment of sorts when finished. Almost-spoiler alert, this novel might hit you in the guts.


22. الخبز الحافي :

Author : Mohamed Choukri
Themes: Coming of age, family, society, loneliness, suffering..

Rating : 5/10

Mini-review : 
As I finished this autobiographical work, I really wanted to hate it. It had all sorts of things I didn't appreciate in the stories I enjoy : a dislikable protagonist (The author, Choukri), an overly-tarnished world, a linear story with no real intrigue (we can blame that on the fact that this story is autobiographical, but then again, why would you write you're story if it's not intriguing ?), bad writing style (not only unnecessary vulgarity, but also unnecessary vulgarity), slobby supporting characters and just a general growing feeling of disgust throughout the story. I believe that it's what the author want (an "ugly" story, if the term permits), but that was no excuse for the lack of plot integrity. Moreover, I didn't express any feeling towards the character(s) at all, except ar the end, which justifies my not-sure-what-to-think 5/10. I felt finally that the author, amidst his fully-blown Oedipus complex exposure, was on a quest of growing, but surprisingly he never took one step towards that end. The last chapter, though, felt like a miscreant's prayer, a moment of repentance and a light regret, although I'm not sure it really was.
I would have gone on trying to explain to myself why did I fail to put my hand on what irks me about this book, but this is a mini-review and I'm not even sure whether it would be of any help at all.
(Also, why the heck almost every moroccan who reads claims this to be the OMG BEST BOOK EVERRRR!!?)


23. The Rape of the Lock :
24. Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and other minor poems

Author : Alexander Pope, Edgar Alan Poe
Themes: Diverse ?

Rating : 7.5/10

Mini-review : 
I joined those two reviews for two reasons : One is that obviously I'm lazy, and secondly that it almost felt the same. Poetry is grotesque world that still refuses to open the doors for me as a reader, and I sure don't have the patience yet to "take my time" and meditate the subtle hidden beauties of this art. Those two collection of poems made the same impression on me : Sublime at times, lacking distinction at others (especially after you get used to the poet's style). Also, weird mythological references aren't my cup of tea, for the time being.
Beautiful texts nonetheless.

25. الأيام - الجزء الأول :

Author : Taha Hussain
Themes: Childhood, life in the country, Knowledge, societal merit ..

Rating : 8/10

Mini-review : 
I had high expectations on this book because it was one that I knew for a log time and never had the time to read. Unlike Choukri's autobiography, Taha Hussain's vibrant portrayal of the characters around him (he never quite get in the spotlight) made the story worth reading and engaging. Since we get to see the characters from his perspective (he who is blind, accidentally), we get to experience many highlights of his life almost realistically, without too much distance that the previously-cited author does. You get to like the little Taha, or even sympathize with him and then believe him as he guides you around his pitch-black world.
I need to read the sequels, too.

26. Grace :

Author : James Joyce
Themes: Society, life, religion,

Rating : 8.5/10

Mini-review : 
As my first Joyce experiment (who is one of the most acknowledged/controversial writers out there), I can't say I was disappointed in any way. For a very short story, there is barely any explicit story at all. The plot takes too long to unfold and in the end, hardly does. The writing style was quirky and that's the only word I can think of to describe it. There was a subtlety in the way the story is told and the characters are presented and animated, and I silently enjoyed it. I'm not even sure what was that was really all about, thanks to the prompt ending, or rather stopping, of the little tale.
I said it before and I'll repeat it: I love short stories.

27. How to know if your cat is plotting to kill you :

Author : The Oatmeal
Themes: Cats and their wondrous lives.

Rating : 7.5/10

Mini-review : 
That's almost blatant cheating, because this wasn't actually a book, but rather a .. I don't know. If the title isn't informative enough, I don't think my review would be either. For some very silly comedy and some so-stereotypical-it's-funny jokes about cats, this book will please.

28. The Alchemist :

Author : Paulo Coelho
Themes: Destiny

Rating : 8/10

Mini-review : 
Paulo Coelho, here we meet again.
After more than six years of my reading of the Alchemist for the first time (in arabic), I chose to repay it a visit. While some claim it to be one of the most wonderful awesome things that have been ever written and can't be topped, I beg to disagree. I was one of those people that believed that this book is of enormous depth and very maturely laid but I am no more. Let alone the fact that the translation I read was as inspiring as a plastic bag, the story itself didn't hit me hard in any way. After I saw a variety of media that uses the same raw material (inspiration off mysticism and alchemy is the broad sense), I can freely take off the point of originality too. What we are left with is a story that pushes itself forward to an ending that doesn't surprise nor inspire only after ONE READING. I can't say it's a bad novel because it's by no mean that. I'd rather say, personally, I think, it's one overrated novel. And since judging Coelho's works is a requirement to join the "readers" subgroup, I need to read more of him to have a more definite idea. I hope there's more tricks in his bag.
Side note : This was the first "grown up" book I've ever read so .. thanks Paulo ?

29. رمل و زبد :

Author : Gibran Khalil Gibran
Themes: Misfitting quotes.

Rating : 3/10

Mini-review : 
What do we do with phrases we think sound cool but don't quite fit any context whatsoever ? Put them in a book of course.
3 to 10 is about the ratio of decent to what-are-you-trying-to-say-goddamit quotes. I had all my high expectations because this guy can write marvels (Al-Mawakib, anyone ?), but this book really fall short in the worst of ways. I forgot to keep some real quotations from the book to show how hard it tries to be abstract and allegorical and whatnot, but in the end, well, you get a thing that doesn't look like anything.
Read only if you're a hardcore GKG fan, maybe you'll understand the magic that is beyond my average sense of things.

30. The Two Drovers :

Author : Sir Walter Scott
Themes: Honor, Friendship

Rating : 7/10

Mini-review : 
Again, another cheating attempt. This is yet another short story (I like them, don't judge) that doesn't qualify to be a book, but whatever.
As you can clearly see in the themes, the short story goes straight to the point. The dominant themes in the short story are friendship and Honor, those being quite the only themes in the registry of many classical writers. Short stories are cool because they just give you a point. Whether it's a starting or a finishing point, you decide. Simplistically, this is the story of two hot-blooded friends who turned against each other for a vain misunderstanding, and the thing ends on a tragedy. I found the concept quite bizarre, but after I read Romeo and Juilet (see below), I starting seeing the point of it: People of the olden times LOVED honor, lived for honor and died of/for it. This worship of Honor can be taken to some hilarious proportions.
The language is quite challenging too, both for using old phrasal structures and different English dialects (Old English and Scottish), and I didn't really care enough to look up every other word.
The ending was the good part.


31. الكتاب الأخضر :

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Author : Mu'ammer El'Gaddafi
Themes: hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Rating : 5/10

Mini-review : 
hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
also hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
But seriously, seriously hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Ehem, okay .. This book is very serious. It's SO serious it's claimed by some -the author, mainly- to be of prophetic aspect, almost a revelation, a human feat, a tour de force, a magnificent work of philosophy, sociology, politics, pantology, ecology, pathology, psychology, psychosis, analysis, economy, dichotomy, anatomy (srsly, anatomy). It's a panacea for all human struggle, and some more.
SO rightfully named by the author The Third International Theory (??!).
I can't use words to describe what the book is because I'll never be fair to such grand heights of wisdom, wit and wizardry. Just go read it, it will blow your mind in many ways (for example, have you ever thought that democracy IS dictatorship ? Well yeah, take that Obama).
The only disappointing thing about the book (for which I took off 5 points in my rating) is that sneaky Gaddafi didn't reveal the secrets of his brilliant fashion taste that I so earnestly wanted to discover.

Fun fact : Extracts from the books were aired periodically on the national Libyan channel.


32. L'Art de Guerre :

Author : Sun Tsu
Themes: War techniques

Rating : 7.5/10

Mini-review : 
This book is literally about war techniques of the old times, it's all about strategies and tactics of warcraft and it's kind of awesome in the way.
It made me want to play Age of Empires, which is as remarkable as a book about serial killers making you want to commit a virtual crime.
I always wondered what old military general did in their free time, and writing books about war techniques was far from what I expected.


33. Zen to Done :

Author : Leo Babauta
Themes: Time management and productivity

Rating : 7.5/10

Mini-review : 
I read this book along with the one before in attempt to include more non-fic in my reading diet, and I4m not sure I like it.
I like reading books about time management and productivity boosting and task organizing and stuff, only they never succeed to help Me, hopeless case.
The book presents another approach to do things, named Zen to Done, and has nothing to do with Yoga.
The book is light and has some insightful tricks and hints that can help those who can be helped, but I tend to think that it doesn't include me.
The thing that I liked is that it's much less self-promoting than most other books that promise you to be 13000.6% MORE EFFECTIVE WOWWW!! It just gives you a formula and it's up to you to kick it. So I might actually read it again.


34. Romeo and Juliet :

Author : William Shakespeare
Themes: Love, Passion, Honor, Family, Destiny ..

Rating : 8/10

Mini-review : 
At last, this day has cometh.
I actually read a Shakespearean work, and not only a work, but the Shakespearean work. The Greatest Love Story of All Times. Or is it ?
Now let's see, I think not. beyond the silky curtain of Beautiful language and Masterful style and such, I don't find much to admire about the story itself, or what point it serves.
Let me break it down for you, not really a spoiler since your experience of reading the book won't really be spoiled, because it's kind of not very spoil-y of nature, agreed.
The boy, Romeo, is madly in love with a girl and almost hating the world for keeping him away from her. Surprise #1, the girl is NOT Juliet, but a rather random girl named Rosaline that doesn't even appear in the freaking novel. She's kind of friend-zoning the boy who's kind of stalking her. Upon stalking her at a party, he spots another hot chick of 13 YEARS OLD named Juilet, and surprise #2, he's now maaaad in love with her. He's also the sassiest boy you'd meet, with all his bitching about every single vanity of his noble life, and talking about the moon and stuff, mad stuff.
The thing is, their family is on a fiery feud and they can't really date, let alone get married. What do they do ? Surprise #3, they get married! But wait, Juliet is set to marry the prince, which she does, but she's also married to Romeo? Never mind, there is a way out of this. Surprise #4, she'll fake being dead to trick the prince because he can't love a dead woman. Well, joke's on you, 13 year old witch, because now lover boy is the one to be tricked and so he, surprise #5, commits suicide next to her grave, but not before killing her cousin. She wakes up, find him dead. Ultimate surprise #6, she kills herself. They die. Families end the feud.
Now, that's something.
The story is a really inconvenient is our time because if it was set in 2012, they'll be figured in "16 and pregnant" on MTV rather than dead. But the style, oh and the sarcasm, oh and the wordplay and puns. Very good job, Shake, very good.
Also most of the text is a real pain to understand, you've been warned.


35. Flowers for Algernon :

Author : Daniel Keyes
Themes: Intelligence, Human nature, alienation, morality, society, duality, destiny, empathy

Rating : 10/10

Mini-review : 
Ah, my love.
Since this can't be a full review (I'll do that one later on), I'll just describe the experience of (re)reading this book, not much the content itself.
Well, it was like encountering a very good old friend by chance and having a very nice talk.
My first 10/10 ever and my favorite book so far, reading this book to end this summer project was almost an obligation, especially that it coincided with my oh-so-awaited receiving of the fancied paperback version of the novel. When I finished it, I literally and emotionally hugged it.
To put that in a few words, this book is a journey that, instead of rolling over time and space, takes place in the mind of the protagonist, Charlie. I won't make any other allusion to the nature of the journey because it's better when you march on alongside with him, figuring things in and out.
The change of emotional weather that carries on throughout the story will take you away if you let it, and I must say it's an agreeable feeling.
The true message of the book, the loneliness, the pain, the pleasure, the discovery and the puzzlement, they all intertwine to make a the most touching and personal experience.
When the time is right, I'll write the due full review, I owe it that much.
I love you, Daniel Keyes.


And that's it  :)  !
Next month, I'll shake things up a bit. More on that on the next article.