Rereading the great Philippine novel

Rereading the "great Philippine novel" this month

So it's finally come to the last book for the year for the book club. And this month, it's José Rizal's Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not).

A lot has been said about this novel written by the national hero of the Philippines. How it sparked the Philippine revolution, how it has become the great Philippine novel, why is has found itself in the high school curriculum in the country and thus has become required reading.

Perhaps it's the concept of the book being required reading that made it a very unenjoyable reading experience more than 20 years ago in high school. I recall memorizing all those details about the characters: their full names, their roles, what they symbolize. Tedious and boring stuff, I tell you.

I never did get into the novel, despite having finished it and all its non-relevant details. I found it too political, too serious for itself, and too symbolic. It's lengthy too, with my current trade paperback copy at more than 420 pages.

Nevertheless, I'm determined to still give it another go. Perhaps this time time, I'd find some gems in Rizal's opus. Maybe reading Noli Me Tangere solely for its literary value would elicit an appreciation for it, or maybe that would just heighten my disdain for it. We will see, dear readers.

So now we're saying good-bye to 2012, and it's been a good year as well for the book club. The books we chose this year were our most eclectic mix yet. We've read not just "literary" novels but also graphic fiction, short stories, fantasy, food and travel essays, young adult, and nonfiction.

One more book to go, and then we're saying hello to 2013.

The books chosen for discussion for 2012
by Flips Flipping Pages
(Click to enlarge.)

While the others were talking...

Yes, that's me in the picture below. Me, reading, trying in vain to catch up with the book discussion. Never mind that it was dusk, and reading was getting harder and harder by the minute.

So during the last book discussion, I was my anti-social self. I also arrived very late for the discussion, as I just came from a work-related event.

So there I was that late Saturday afternoon, too tired and hungry from work. The discussion was potluck, but I didn't bring anything. My catch-all excuse? I came from work. After dispensing with the obligatory niceties (i.e., saying hi to everyone and making air kisses with the ladies) and grabbing some food, I just plopped my tired old self on the grass and started reading.

Thank goodness for my 20/20 vision.
(Photo courtesy of R.)

Such a shame really that I was reading the book for discussion on the day of discussion itself. Blame it on procrastination and my being a polybookist for the last few days. I couldn't even finish a novella in time! Never again, I say!

Poverty, politics, poultry

If you've read at least one novel by Gabriel García Márquez, then you might be in for a surprise if you read No One Writes to the Colonel and Other Stories. If you're expecting magical realism (e.g., people suddenly ascending into heaven as if it's the most natural thing), then the stories in this collection might disappoint. For in this collection, García Márquez chooses the path of a realist. Compared with his other works, you can probably refer to this short story collection as GGM lite.

I, however, wasn't a bit disappointed when I finished No One Writes to the Colonel and Other Stories on this fine Sunday morning. I'm one day late though, as the book club discussed this collection yesterday afternoon. And because I didn't even finish the novella No One Writes to the Colonel, I just decided to keep my mouth shut yesterday.

The thing about the novella is that García Márquez drives you smack in the middle of things. You feel the inescapable poverty of the town, the sickening reek of bureaucracy, the uncomfortable humidity of the town, the futile hopefulness of the characters. You know that nothing's going to come out a situation wherein a retired colonel pins his hopes on a rooster. It's the rooster that's supposed to bring in the money, much needed after so many years of not receiving a pension from the government. The colonel and his wife is so poor that she has been reduced to boiling stones in the kitchen, in the hopes of deceiving their neighbors that they have something to eat.

The novella isn't a pleasant read. The story just gets bleaker at every page. But you plod on, because García Márquez's writing is beautiful. Unlike his novels, here the sentences are terse, the dialogue natural, and the sense of place given in detail. And like most shorter works of fiction, the ending makes you ponder. Is there still hope for the colonel and his wife? I believe not.

During the discussion, Marie, the moderator, mentioned something about the iceberg model of short stories. In an iceberg, the part that is visible on the ocean surface is just a very small fraction of the actual size of the iceberg. I fully agree. Short story writers are masters of the tease. They offer you just mere spoonfuls instead of the whole dish. They leave it up to you on how you interpret the story and, ultimately, on how you appreciate it. They make you question. And such is the pleasure of reading short stories.

The other stories in this collection are just as good as the novella. In fact, my favorite in this book isn't the novella itself but an 8-page short story entitled "Tuesday Siesta." My mind can't stop thinking of all the various scenarios that can transpire after the last scene. What happens when folk learn that the mother of the thief whom they've killed has come to their town to visit his son's grave? Such delicious possibilities.

It's quite fascinating how Gabriel García Márquez has assembled a treasure of stories in this collection. I don't read a lot of short stories, but each small gem in No One Writes to the Colonel and Other Stories is enough to urge me to read some more.

Read this book if:

1. You'll read anything by Nobel laureates.
2. You love Latin American fiction.
3. You like your fiction bite sized.

A surprise favorite read this year

Teen paranormal romance. Them 3 words that usually scare me. Okay, just for the sake of transparency, yes, I've read all 4 Twilight books. It was an experience all right. Uneven at best. I liked the first book and found the last book quite enjoyable. Now, for books 2 and 3, excuse me while I barf.

To compare Meyer's novels with Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke & Bone would be futile, even though they belong to the same genre. It might even seem unfair on Taylor to have her books next to Twilight in bookstores. If you read Daughter of Smoke & Bone, then you'd have this compulsion to gather all these books and place them prominently on the bookstore. I was this close to just hanging out in the teen section in bookstores and keeping an eye out on everyone buying Twilight. Then I'd shout, "Drop that silly little book, you commercially brainwashed teen!" Then I'd place DoSaB on her hands instead. I know she'll thank me for it.

Here I am gushing about a book when I haven't even told you what it's all about. Well, it's about angels and demons, or more specifically, angel- and demon-like characters. Taylor, however, goes beyond the mythology. In DoSaB, the angels aren't really the good guys, nor are the demons the evil ones. In fact, you can hardly tell who has the moral high ground in their war. It's a good thing that Taylor came up with less conventional names for these 2 groups: seraphim for the fiery-winged and celestial beings, and the chimaera for the characters whose body parts are an odd mix of animal and human body parts.

Enter Karou, a human (supposedly), who is in the service of the chimaera by providing them with human and animal teeth. Such an odd task for someone so frail looking. Then she meets Karou, a seraph of unimaginable beauty with a reputation for being a ruthless soldier. Of course, they fall in love. Of course, it's not possible, in theory. Karou is revealed to be a chimaera herself. Of course, everything gets complicated. Karou is the resurrected form of Madrigal, a chimaera who was executed after being discovered to be having a relationship with Karou.

Oy, dear reader, it's wonderful to get lost in Taylor's beautiful and brutal universe. The slow reveal of the true nature and history of the two lead characters is a delight. Their inexplicable attraction toward each other has none of the cloying taste of novels in this genre. What we have are 2 immensely relatable characters who are aware of the consequences of their actions.

Taylor's sense of place is also admirable. Prague's gloomy and Gothic atmosphere sets the right tone at the beginning of the novel, where the reader is immediately plunged into the mystifying world of the chimaera. Eretz, the home of the chimaera, is portrayed as a place of strange and harsh beauty, a vast landscape where you see chimaera in every configuration.

Why did it take too long for me to write my thoughts about this book? Well, blame it on my age. I thought that I've already made a post about it and only bothered to check because I'm reading the 2nd book. It's turning out to be just as good as the 1st. In fact, it might even be better!

Read this book if:

1. You're willing to give teen paranormal romance a try.
2. You've always been fascinated by angels and their fallen counterparts.
3. You love "Romeo and Juliet."

The world is going to end next month and all I can think about are the books that I haven't read

My TBR pile early this year
To date, this has probably doubled. Aieeeee!

Well, this post's title holds true only if you believe the Mayan calendar. Still, the thought of the world ending does make for good conversations, no? What would you be doing on the last day, who would you like to spend those last days with, would you run around naked on the streets, etc. (If it were indeed the last day, drunk, horny, and naked people on the street would be the last thing that I want to see. Unless I'm one of them.)

But what if the world is really ending, and we just have a month to go before everything goes kaput? I'd go on panic mode and think of all the books that I haven't read and all the authors whose works I haven't even sampled! The brilliant nonsense of Finnegan's Wake! Charles Dickens and his doorstoppers! All those Greek classical works about fathers boinking their daughters, and mothers falling for their sons! Argh! (FYI: I'm actually using Dickens's Our Mutual Friend as a doorstop. Pic coming up soon.)

Maybe it's a sign, no? A sign that I should stop (or at least temporarily put on hold) those book-buying binges and just conquer that mountain of a TBR pile instead. There's an idea, albeit it's something I've vowed to do before and wherein I've repeatedly failed.

I keep imagining how the world will eventually end. And I think T. S. Eliot got it right. In his poem, "The Hollow Men," the poet laureate wrote these beautiful words:

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang but a whimper.

No books finished last week

Last week came and went like a blur. As far as I can recall, it's the first week this year that I wasn't able to finish a book or two. Oh, the humanity! Nevertheless, I did find two things that I can put blame on.

The first is food or, more specifically, the dimsum buffet. Yes, I didn't get any reading done because we spent several hours in the afternoon just munching and munching on these bite-sized pieces. Dimsum—the 2nd best Chinese invention! Of course, paper still comes 1st. Also, fireworks! One needs fireworks to stay happy.

So how many was I able to consume during that dimsum buffet afternoon? I purposely didn't count. (I don't have enough fingers and toes.) But I think it may have been enough to feed a family of 4, or 6.

On our table last Saturday
This photo can deceive.
This was actually our 3rd set of dimsum platters.

The second is that blasted TV show, "Downton Abbey." Oh goodness, what's not to love! It doesn't help that Shirley Maclaine joined the cast. And that 2nd footman! Such eye candy! I think I watched the first 5 episodes of season 3 in succession.

"Downton Abbey": For the anglophile in you

I'm not big on television, but I do make an exception for "Downton Abbey," and maybe "The Tudors."  Ack, I forget "The Good Wife." Yes, one cannot forego watching "The Good Wife."

The bookshelf project #40

I eat out a lot. And having been to quite a number of restaurants in the metro, I noticed that there are very few eating places that have actual books. Why oh why? Books are perfect in restaurants, especially if you're dining alone and couldn't care less about people spotting.

Waiting for your companion to arrive? Read a book. What to do while the food that you ordered is being prepared? Get a book from the resto's bookshelf. Other diners seem uninteresting? Just go and read 10 pages or so. Finished with your entrees? Enjoy a cup of coffee with a book.

So let's call this The Bookshelf Project: The Restaurant Edition. Now I must admit that I haven't taken pictures of books in some restaurants that I've been to. (Must be more vigilant in using my phone's camera!) But 2 weekends ago, when I went to a gift-wrapping workshop held at a pizza place, I was amused to find beautiful books about food.

Books about pizza, pasta, desserts, and Italian food!

I die. 

Here's another resto that we went to 

a couple of years ago.

Don't you just love how the books make for 

interesting interior design pieces?

(Photo courtesy of R.)

I wonder why restaurant owners aren't too keen on putting up bookshelves in their places? Perhaps they're thinking that the pages might be soiled by the food? Ummmm... That's what napkins are for.

Addendum:
Kaz of Books Anonymous, one of the blogs that I follow, has made a great follow-up post on her blog about books in eating places. You can read her post here. The cafe that she features, with its cozy atmosphere and loads and loads of books, is so awesome that I want to book a flight to Sydney now!