READ: Curious reads

2009/10/30

SU AZIZ

There’s no method to how SU AZIZ chooses books to read. Even the ones that have a 25 per cent discount on them. All she recommends is that you pick one or two from the titles below. She reckons you’ll enjoy them. If not, blame it on her

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson 554 pages / Quercus I DON’T really know what to make out of this book. A morbid fascination kept me turning the pages (even though the characters are somewhat two-dimensional to me). Then there’s the sickening thought — do men hate women so much? The book is part one of a trilogy which were published posthumously. Larsson died suddenly, five years ago, of a heart attack.

What it’s about? To quote The New York Times’ review, “The novel offers a thoroughly ugly view of human nature, especially when it comes to the way Swedish men treat Swedish women. In Larsson’s world, sadism, murder and suicide are commonplace — as is lots of casual sex.” To elaborate, the story starts with the disappearance of Harriet Vanger from a powerful (Vanger) family, four decades ago. The mysterious part is, there was no body, no one saw anything. Nevertheless, her uncle is adamant she was killed “by someone from her own deeply dysfunctional Vanger clan”. A financial journalist, who had fallen from grace, is hired to find out.

There are many pages dedicated to the journalist’s research into the Vanger family history but it gets heart-thumping towards the end “as all the threads come together in a suspenseful conclusion: Harriet’s fate, the future of Millennium, Wennerstrom’s power, the Vanger secret — and the shadow of a Nazi and racist past.” Bear in mind, this is the first of three. So, watch out for the other two for the final gripping conclusion; The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest.

If you’d like to take your curiosity up one level, look out for the movie of this book in Swedish! Guernica by Dave Boling 370 pages / Picador THIS paperback is in very small print. Because the story is set in the Basque area of Spain, with its great food, drink and lifestyle, I was intrigued.

I’d compare this to an Indonesian layer cake — it’s multi-layered with love, at times flat, only to be awakened via hints of spice.

I’ll see if I can summarise the story better, epics have a way of lengthening summaries! The story is about three abandoned boys trying to survive on the family farm. This is during WWII.

While one brother becomes a fisherman and another a priest, the eldest marries and has a beautiful daughter, Miriam. She attracts a man, who becomes the reason for their move to ill-fated Guernica, which was destroyed by the German Luftwaffe during the Spanish Civil War.

Painting a vivid picture of Guernica’s tragedy, Boling also colours his descriptions of the oppression of the Basque people. In this respect, some reviewers mention how Boling has wisely “sidestepped elaborate political explanations that could slow the family drama”. Although you may not be into European war history, Boling’s illustration of the area and hints at humour might just intrigue you enough.

The Associate by John Grisham 485 pages / Arrow Books YES, I’ve reviewed this book before but this time, there’s a 25 per cent discount on it. And I know Grisham fans would appreciate purchasing this paperback at a lower price.

So, to re-cap, this one resonates vintage Grisham — which basically means a gripping thriller that wraps itself around lawyers and the law.

In this one, a law student of an Ivy League university has his future marred by blackmail.

His dark secret from his earlier college days falls into wrong hands and forces him to take a job most law students can only dream about.

Doesn’t sound like blackmail, does it? Actually, it sounds pretty good.

Imagine becoming an associate at the largest law firm in the world right after you graduate.

Perfect, isn’t it? Sure, he’d have to clock in 18-hour days but the pay’s incredible. The problem is, he has to lie, steal and be part of a scheme that could get him prosecuted, if not murdered.

It gets worse. His every step is being watched and his space invaded by listening devices and cameras. You will want to keep turning the pages to see if it takes a turn for the better or worse.

My only gripe about this is that unlike most of Grisham’s legal thrillers, even after the second time, this one’s ending still doesn’t do it for me.

Sidney Sheldon’s Mistress of The Game by Tilly Bagshawe 330 pages / HarperCollins THE question is: Is it by the late Sidney Sheldon or by Tilly Bagshawe? As I understand it, it’s Bagshawe’s attempt at a follow-up to Sheldon’s Master of the Game — that’s where Sheldon created American royalty under the name Blackwell.

Although some reviewers slammed Bagshawe for bravely attempting this feat, the end result is really not bad. She’s kept up Sheldon’s brand of glamour, is fast-paced and offers The Bold and The Beautiful type of characters.

Apparently, the passing years haven’t decreased the Blackwells’ drama or “talent for manipulation, domination, and passion”.

Though the matriarch is long gone, the children of her granddaughters are determined to control the multi-billion-dollar international corporation. The ugly turned uglier as they realise only one can actually run the show. And that’s the one who will survive. For those die-hard Sheldon fans, let me know if you think Bagshawe did a good job upholding Sheldon’s style and legacy here.

The Time Traveler’s Wife by AudreyNiffenegger 518 pages / Vintage YES, the movie’s out. And I am curious to see if the movie is able to capture the sexiness, passion and intensity the book’s characters project.

Here’s a book where the characters are three-dimensional. Their lives are absorbing, even in their most mundane moments — believe me, with the traveller, mundane doesn’t happen often.

Most of all, on love, how do you cope? Do you let time pass and hope? Or do you seize each moment? I am in two minds about it.

You see, in this one, he (the time traveller due to some defect in his genes) met her (the love of his life, I call her the wait-er) when she was an eight-year old and he was 36. They meet again when she is in her 20s and he 31. Hard to grasp, right? Well, it’s about how time travel affects their relationship, marriage and their attempt at having normalcy — even to the point of trying for a baby and raising it.

The thing is, how do you achieve normalcy when he is forever flashing in and out of time at no notice at all (even on their wedding day!) and with no way of controlling it? The other thing is, how do you carry the burden of knowing what is there in the future? Well, pick up the book. Do it even before you watch the movie. You’ll end up reading all 500-something pages in one sitting. Oh, better brew a large pot of tea (if that is your poison!).