The Bookworm Project

Love in the Time of Cholera: why it's a bad title

I admit that "Love in the time of ..." is a great title, so far. You're reading along, you're happy, it's about love, I like the way the word time comes in there, something nice in the association of loveand time, like a new word almost, lovetime: nice, nice feeling. Suddenly, the morbid Cholera appears. I was happy till then. "Love in the Time of the Oozing Sores and Pustules" is probably an earlier, rejected title of this book, written in a rat-infested tree house on an old Smith-Corona. This writer, whoever he is, could have used a couple of weeks in Pacific Daylight Time.

― Steve Martin, Pure Drivel

One can be deceived by this book reading its cover and letter from this Joyce Reardon, Ph. D. which tells that this is a genuine diary of an aristocratic woman named Ellen Rimabauer, wife of a business tycoon on early 1900s John Rimbauer. The book presents itself as a nonfiction, horrific and filled with paranormal phenomena based on true events and I had no idea it is all hoax. Very much interested, I read its first few pages at midnight and realized it is a terrible mistake reading it alone on your bed, sun is out, darkness is overwhelming, silence is dreadful. The problem with me is spooky stories can't get easily be dislodged from my mind like a sticky, clinging, vicious gum.

Indeed I was fooled by this misleading book. Dr. Joyce Reardon isn't actually a doctor and his real name is Ripley Pearson, a writer who wrote the fake diary. Rose Red doesn't exist. [The novel's genesis came as part of a $200,000 promotional marketing campaign for Stephen King's Rose Red television miniseries. Marketing of the film presented the movie as based on actual events. -Wikipedia.org] My fascination for the book declined after knowing that everything is fraud but I still didn't read it during the night just the same.

Frustrated after discovering the truth, I obligingly flipped the remaining pages. Ellen Rimbauer is a kind of person I would not like to be a friend, neither just a seatmate for an hour. Odd, eccentric woman with lesbian tendencies. Her diary implies that her relationship with her African female maid Sukeena is beyond friendship but disturbingly sickeningly involves lust and sex. Her diary is horrendous, eerie and likely to haunt you when you're done with it. I did enjoy the book despite that the kind of its narration is not my preference and my frustration after I figured out that I was deceived that the diary is unfeigned. I also checked out the link the author gives as Joyce Reardon states that some parts of Ellen Rimbauer's diary are omitted to protect the integrity of Mrs. Rimbauer but the complete diary entries could be seen on that website. Of course, there is nothing of significance could be checked there but broken links that would lead you to no where.

Still I did like that Rose Red is after all a fictional mansion and everything didn't exist altogether because it is exceedingly disturbing and alarming to imagine it happened. And nobody will ever want to expose her personal diary in public for exploitation and sheer entertainment. Ellen Rimbauer and her husband John Rimbauer are all fictional characters with wild and evil rumination and if her diary was happened to be a genuine one it would really can cause shame and disgrace on herself and on her family and thus who would allow it? It is a fun read though.

Seventeen-year old Holden Caulfield is the protagonist, gets kicked out of Pencey Prep because he flunked most of his subject excluding English. Holden comes from a well off family in New York. His father is a lawyer. His brother D.B. is a writer who works in Hollywood. The novel is written in first person point of view, (Holden's). He leaves his boarding house and wanders off depressed, confused and angsty, drinking alcohol and intensive smoking and even hiring a hooker but does nothing. He recalls a lot of different people he knows and mostly considers them 'crumby' and 'phonies' or superficial. He hates school and people but he adores kids. He has a little sister Phoebe whom he visits and borrows her Christmas dough. He says that what he really wants to do in life is to be the catcher in the rye quoting a line from a poem 'Coming Through the Rye' by Robert Burns, 'when a body meets body coming through the rye'. He says he wants to catch little children who play in the huge field of rye and will happen to come close to falling into a cliff. In the end chapter he seems that he ended up in the psychiatric ward and has undergone psychoanalysis.

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger has sold millions of copies since 1950s, is a classic and very controversial novel. It is translated in world's major languages and had been banned many times due to foul words/excessive cursing, sex, alcohol abuse and prostitution. It could have been made into film but J.D. Salinger didn't allow it till he died at the age of 91 two years ago, 2011.

I read the Jerome David Salinger's Catcher in the Rye as a teenager, roughly fifteen years young. I can't remember who owned that book but now after eight years someone gave me a brand new copy of it as a Christmas present. Reading it again is like reminiscing my younger pubescent self I didn't outgrow wholly. And unlike Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower which I can't hide my loathing (a bit), The Catcher in the Rye is a coming of age novel that became close to my heart. The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a rip-off of the latter. Stephen Chbosky admits that The Catcher in the Rye influenced him a lot.

Visit TBP page here.

I like Holden's sarcasm. “I can be quite sarcastic when I'm in the mood.” says Holden. If you weren't interested in Holden neither could understand his struggle, the novel would be no entertainment for you because it has no climatic plot nor suspenseful series of events. The novel is not about the plot; it is Holden attempting to speak to you. Few loathe him because he whines and cusses too much. He despises his life, is suicidal, cynical and sarcastic. He claims that everyone is a phony but he's a liar himself. He certainly is but I can't bring myself to abhor him because I have related to him at some point. Despite his aforesaid traits, he really makes sense. Holden hits closer to home. He is an epitome of adolescence rebellion, depression and angst. I sometimes think he was my male teenage counterpart, only I didn't end up at mental institution. He is depressed yet smart badass. I've found myself agreeing with him as I've read along. “What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn't happen much, though.” says Holden. How I wished I could phone old Salinger and be my terrific buddy. That would kill me.

He indeed is sarcastic in amusing sort of way. Holden having sent to psychiatric ward frustrates me somehow because I've thought he doesn't need to. All I thought he needs is to grow up some more and eventually contemplate some more stuff. Though Salinger himself had been sent to hospital for having a nervous breakdown. Writers are interesting people as well as their novels. Most of the time, their novels speak for themselves.

Some quotes from the novel stand out for me:

“If you sat around there long enough and heard all the phonies applauding and all, you got to hate everybody in the world, I swear you did.”

“I am always saying "Glad to've met you" to somebody I'm not at all glad I met. If you want to stay alive, you have to say that stuff, though.”

“Mothers are all slightly insane.”

“And I have one of those very loud, stupid laughs. I mean if I ever sat behind myself in a movie or something, I'd probably lean over and tell myself to please shut up.”

“Among other things, you'll find that you're not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You're by no means alone on that score, you'll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You'll learn from them—if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It's a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn't education. It's history. It's poetry.”

“I mean most girls are so dumb and all. After you neck them for a while, you can really watch them losing their brains. You take a girl when she really gets passionate, she just hasn’t any brains.”

“You never saw so many phonies in all your life, everybody smoking their ears off and talking about the play so that everybody could hear and know how sharp they were.”

“People always clap for the wrong things.”

“I was trying to feel some kind of a good-by. I mean I’ve left schools and places I didn’t even know I was leaving them. I hate that. I don’t care if it’s a sad good-by or a bad good-by, but when I leave a place I like to know I’m leaving it. If you don’t, you feel even worse.”

Suzanne Collins' Catching Fire is the second book of The Hunger Games Trilogy. If I would describe the novel in one word it would be intense. Thinking that it will be made into film on November 22, 2013 thrills me. The Games would be more exciting. There are a lot of awesome characters to look forward to. Finnick Odair, for example, is one of my favorite who will be played by Sam Chaflin. I can say that Catching Fire is the best book among the rest, The Hunger Games and Mockingjay.

Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark, the star-crossed lovers of District 12 win the seventy fourth Hunger Games but President Snow isn't convinced that Katniss' attempt at committing suicide with Peeta by ingesting poisonous berries known as "nightlock" is motivated by her love for Peeta but otherwise defying the Capitol which causes uprisings throughout the disrticts. Katniss and Peeta are forced to returned to arena for the special edition of the Hunger Games, Quarter Quell which the former victors will be tributes again. The former victors such as Finnick Odair, Johanna Mason, Beetee, Wiress and Mags join them up during the games. Who will be their allies and how will they survive the brutal bloodthirsty game? May the odds be in their favor?

I've done some research on where they'll shoot the film and found this.

Impeccable.

Photo taken from www.catchingfiremovienews.com

I finally was able to flip through Suzanne Collins' famous The Hunger Games which made into film months ago. After reading I contented myself with the movie again, scrutinizing every scene and line and character and emotion and setting the movie offers. Frustrated but more elated by the film I decided to blog about it.

The first thing I noticed was their odd names which sound Greek mythology-esque names or something I have no idea. The story takes place in the post-apocalyptic nation of Panem where was once the countries of North America before the destruction of continent's civilization. The Capitol is exceedingly wealthy and technologically advanced compared with Districts where citizens are starving to death, oppressed and impoverished. It was kinda queer to me how the Districts stay as poor and rural while the Capitol has all the power and capability aids by extremely advanced technology and indeed is very urbanized. Watching Katniss Everdeen hunt with her bow and arrow at the forest makes me think of the ancient way of living which is really strange because it was the other way around. Nonetheless, I can't help but to compare Katniss Everdeen and Bella Swan (whose both novels has their own movie adaptation) because they both speak in first person point of view. Unlike Bella, I came to like Katniss a lot. Her temper, independence, courage, shrewdness, personality--there is no reason for me to loathe Katniss while Bella is feeble, overdependent on her vampire lover, very fragile and emotional to the point of sappiness are all flinch-worthy in my viewpoint.

The Hunger Games reminds me of reality shows on television which viewers' sympathy and favor with the contestant/tribute are crucial. Big Brother for instance, should each housemate be likable and unforgettable enough for the people to love him/her and thus vote for him/her to win. Katniss and Peetah pretends that they are star-crossed lovers to appeal to television audience and gain plenty of sponsors who can send them gifts such as food, medicine and tool that are critical for their survival in the arena. Katniss also has a stylist, Cinna who resembles famous fashion stylists that clothe and make celebrities look their best. They say that The Hunger Games is a satire of reality television shows only the former is most savage, inhuman, ferocious and ruthless among the others.

Cinna, Haymitch and Peetah

It has three parts: The Tributes, The Games and The Victor. The third part is the most engrossing since it features the actual Games and the first part is somehow the most humdrum. The Hunger Games, since I haven't read Battle Royal yet, for me has a unique plot and charming well-developed characters. Though I have to say that the idea of another love triangle makes me sick. Enough of those sappy vampires and werewolves, all right.

The book is rich in details, vividly narrates how Katniss' father died while she was eleven and how she carries all the burden of feeding her family, how she bravely assumes the role of parent to her younger sister Primrose because their mother was immobilized by depression after their father's death, how starvation scourges their district and how she owes Peeta Mellark, baker's son (a young boy back then) who threw a loaf of bread at her feet when she was almost on the verge of hopelessness. The film lacks all those kinds of lucid narration and illustration. Some parts of the novel are excluded in the movie. Gale seems just have a little part in the film. Katniss' father teaching her how to hunt is omitted. Grease Sae and Katniss' pal Madge (who has given her the mockingjay pin which Katniss' used as a district's token) are out of the picture in the film. Peeta's father as well who was in love with Katniss' mother. Katniss tying herself up on the tree with her sleeping bag is omitted. Rue sleeping with her up on a tree with their sleeping bag is omitted. Rue chewing a medicinal leaves and putting it on Katniss' tracker jacker's bites is also omitted. Some insignificant parts are lost in the film as well as significant like how Peeta is badly sick Katniss needs to coax the sleep syrup into him that can sedate him so she can go to feast and fight to death just to get the right medicine for him. I waited for the hovercraft of the Capitol to retrieve the death bodies of tributes but it didn't occur. I anticipated to hear the anthem play but there was nil. The red haired Avox girl doesn't appear. The movie minimizes the kissing and romantic scenes.

I enjoy the movie though. It isn't that bad after all. The flow of the story is fast and engaging. Though you will appreciate the movie more if you already read the book. The movie summarizes the 374 pages story which you can read for about a day but can be watched for about only a couple of hours. The film doesn't ruin it altogether in fact fleshes out the characters perfectly through the faultless acting of both Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson and the rest of the casts.

All seriousness aside. I find this hilarious.

He's Peeta and we know it.

“Sometimes people use thought to not participate in life.” That's my favorite quote in the novel. I understand Charlie at some point--lots of thoughts on the head and almost forget that life should also be participated and not only be thought. Introvert people are like that, like Charlie. And I guess, many young people and young at heart can relate to his story because we are (once) melancholic teenagers struggling to search for every meaning of things.

We don't judge the book by its cover but a cover gives impression and at least a bit of idea what the story is about. So when I saw this book on a shelf of a thrifty bookshop I had second thought about buying it although it cost only ten pesos.

Ten pesos. As if I was about to purchase a candy or a lollipop in a tiny candy store so I gave it a try but I couldn't expect a lot for a book that cost only ten coins plus its gloomy, ghastly, horrible photo in the cover added ugly notion towards the book.

But wait until you have read the few chapters. This was my first attempt to read Peter Robinson's writings and he didn't disconcert me, though I still relish to suggest a better cover.

Every chapter is narrated by one of a pair of characters. A young university student, Kirsten, who is attacked by unknown killer but when she wakes up in the hospital she has no recollection about everything happened to her during the attack; and a beautiful lady Martha Browne who poses as an author doing research for a book but is hunting a certain quarry. Kirsten and Martha Browne's cryptic connection is something you can look forward to. Thumbs up for the narration and well structured story line. The characters are well-established and compelling. But for me, there is still a bit lacking on the plot, especially in the end part. The murderer should have done something more than just relinquished himself to death without even uttering more sensible words to defend his lunatic self. Well yeah, the author didn't give him a chance since the protagonist has already deciphered everything about the culprit herself. She, the protagonist, is impressively smart, capable of figuring out a person's locality by listening to his accent. You should read the book to understand what I'm blatting.

The novel is not that horrid but the mystery is enough to urge you to read it until the last page, which is the most important.

I had read this novel two minutes ago on an ebook copy and certainly it is a wonderful novel to start your day right. I anticipated a story that was very different from what actually the story is. Edward or Eddie, an eighty-three year-old man who worked as a head of maintenance of an amusement park called Ruby Pier, had died while he was trying to save a little girl in the aforesaid park. Then flashbacks begin after his death and during his every encounter with five different people who have significantly affected his life. Every person he meets teaches him lessons and wisdom about life as he looks back on the crucial events in his life, from his childhood to his very last day alive.

At Booksale Metrotown Mall Tarlac, I bought the book for thirty pesos. I've read somewhere I couldn't remember where that Puppet is the very first novel written by Joy Fielding (if they aren't mistaken). Anyhow, I didn't do any research about the aforementioned author since she doesn't defeat my favorite Sidney Sheldon in terms of writing mystery or suspense thriller. What I happened to like about her is her style of writing, which for me, isn't sufficient to consider her fiction a masterpiece. Well, you can savor her book yourself.

The main protagonist is Amanda Travis, 28 years of age and a criminal lawyer. The story begins when her ex-husband Ben Myers (who represents her mother as her attorney) phoned her after eight years of no communication, only to ask her to come home for her mother, Gwen Price has shot and killed a total stranger in the lobby of a hotel. She's forced to return home in her hometown of Toronto although very much reluctant for some reasons: she hates memories of her past. She hates her mother who was very cruel and uncaring to her as a child and her father whom she was always craving attention from him but has died abruptly. The first few chapters are intriguing and would make you want to pursue it until you figure out what's going on, but it's just frustrating when I was almost more than half of it but couldn't really shed some light on what's really happening.

Amanda Travis isn't a likable character because at her certain age of 28 she somehow stuck in her rebellious teenage past. Understandable for teenagers that might act preposterous, angsty and undergo rebellious tendencies but in her case, all I really wanted to tell her is 'Please grow up!' Aside from she likes having mindless sex with total strangers she has shut her door on her two former husbands, first, Ben Myers whom she married at the age of eighteen, and second, Sean Travis who is almost as old as her father. She's suffering from some kind of behavioral disorder in my very opinion because no emotionally stable person would just sleep with unknown people especially married men.

I would not want to add any spoiler so I'd just recommend the book for those who are into hard-to-figure-out novels. Perhaps I should have read Lost, another Joy Fielding's which I heard is better and a page-turner one.

Better late than never. Shame on me 'cause I couldn't watch the movie nor read Eclipse back when almost everyone was babbling about the you-know-what love triangle. I had been too busy, perhaps, during those times. Better late than never, all right. I ain't able to catch up the film for now, just this book, so let me blabber about only the book.

October 5, 2011

Dear friend,
       I could say that I am too old for the novel. Sometimes I think and feel older than I should. Maybe if I was in my teenage years having a tremendous confusion about the difference between masturbation and ejaculation and I happened to be a boy and I read it, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, then I think I would enjoy it immensely more than I enjoyed it these days. The novel is somehow a lousy one for a grownup in my very own opinion and nothing could beat Jerome David Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye's portrayal of adolescents' angst. Maybe because I've read The Catcher in the Rye when I was in high school and I've appreciated it so much.

Vince O. Teves' Vince's Life wasn't one of the best book that I've read but because it was the very first book that I bought authored by a Filipino writer except Bob Ong, I valued it before my college classmate borrowed the book (long long time ago) and time flew; we graduated from school; we separated ways and until now, I have no idea why people got the guts of shamelessly owning a book that doesn't belong to them. Bitter.

I bought the book for some reasons:
1. I wondered how male authors write romantic novels. Apparently, most romance writers are female. And I haven't read romantic fiction that is written by a masculine before. I believed that there could be a difference between how a woman handles and how a man sees love in their very own point of view, I reckon. It could reflect in their writings.
2. I wanted to try reading romance fiction in English for the first time.
3. The book was cheap, 150 pesos only.
4. The book cover was cute.

Vince O. Teves' Vince's Life was a cute story of guy who was very in love with a girl. The plot is all concerning Vince and his love for Andrea. It would be more suitable if the title was 'Vince's Life with Andrea'. But it was cute. I liked how it's written in male first person point of view. From what I've read, I could say that there was no big difference between a man and a woman if they are absolutely in love. They say that girls are more emotional and serious in relationships while boys are often incapable of fidelity and less emotional. They say that ladies love one man at a time while men are less serious and always flirting every pretty and sexy ladies they know. But in the novel, it breaks the rules and wrong perceptions about gentlemen. There is no such thing as incapable of fidelity. Vince's pure love for a one and only woman, that's Andrea, was amazing. Boys and girls, if Mr.Cupid struck our hearts there would be no less emotional nor less serious. Everyone gets serious and emotional for the special feeling we have for the dearest person in our lives. By the way, there are two other books (sequel) follow after this one.

I'm not really good writing reviews about novels slash books 'cause I simply want to read and adore the book afterwards, 'cause that's why books slash novels are written. To entertain us. And if they fail, then read another one that suits your taste and preference. I don't wanna be too critical and my mind is just programmed to admire good books and authors.

Stephen King's Dreamcatcher is one of my favorite book though I have heard too much negative comments and reactions against the novel. This is another book from Booksale which has approximately 800 plus pages. I liked how Stephen King has fleshed out every characters perfectly. I loved how he has illustrated every details cunningly in his very own style of writing.

I'm waiting for my friend to return this book to me after borrowing few weeks ago. Just a force of habit to smell the pages of the book before I will write something about it. But like any other books of mine that haven't returned to the owner, I expect the worse. So what, I can buy hundreds of copies of Dreamcatcher by Stehen King if I long to (sourgraping).

Same shit different day, that's my favorite motto originated from four protagonists. Pete, Beaver, Henry and Jonesy. Everyone has the same load of shit and unhappiness. They were childhood best of friends. In their childhood they encountered a bullied kid named Doughlas Cavell, with Down Syndrome. They saved him from bullies and from then on, they've done so much favor just for him. The character of Douglas also known as Duddits touched me deep down. I named my new puppy Duddits and claiming that my puppy also could possess the power of mental telepathy like what the real Duddits in the novel has.

Beside Aslan of The Chronicles of Narnia, Duddits is my favorite fictional character (as if it matters). Simply because he loves his friends. He would do anything for his friends, even it risks his life. I really wanted to discuss some parts of the story but I prefer not to spoil the mystery and fun of discovering it yourself.

Yes, it has a movie adaptation. But I tell you, if you're a bookworm like me, you may want the book copy rather than the disc.

Hey. I dunno what brought me onto this but I think this is fun. Blogging has always been fun, right?