Out - Natsuo Kirino

This was just a stunner of a book.

It first came to my attention months and months ago when it went on a table display at the bookstore where I was working, and I think I first picked it up because the cover caught my eye.  After reading the back I was intrigued, and I know it was one of those books I was constantly picking up during my shifts there that I eventually added to the book list I'm getting through right now.  I ended up with it when I was at the library before Christmas and pulled The Prestige from its dark little bottom shelf; Out was right at eye level when I stood up and turned around.  I hadn't had it in mind at all but grabbed it right away since it was there staring at me -  literally, as there's an eye on the spine.

I really like reading books that are translated; instead of say an American authour writing a book that's set in Japan it's a completely different experience to read something set in Japan written by a Japanese authour, particularly if it was originally written in Japanese.  It's so interesting to read something where the cadence of another language and culture comes through very clearly.  Even the thought processes and the way the story itself is told can be very different.  It makes a great change.


Out really pulls no punches.  It drew me in right away and kept me in it until the very last pages.  I loved how the story seems to effortlessly pull you in deeper and deeper, as if it's some kind of water demon pulling you down, all you can do is watch the water get darker as it streams past.  The book is full of disturbing imagery that just gets more and more intense.

For me, reading from the comfort of my own living room, it was terrible enough getting the initial picture of the lives of the group of women central to the plot; women who work the night shift at a boxed lunch factory in Japan.  Their lives come across as brutally difficult, it is exhausting even to read and think about and know that right now there are women just like them dragging themselves into a similar kind of day all over the world.  It is likely this fact that causes the events of the story to fall into place so smoothly, seamlessly; even as the turns are turns you could never have been able to predict, afterwards it seems as if it was the logical thing to happen.  There is a kind of matter-of-factness to the whole narrative that adds to its tension and its chill.

Women are at the heart of the book, everything about women, every kind of woman.  All the subtleties and nuances of female friendships, relationships, solidarity...all the ways we are are cleverly woven through the book.  It's just fantastic. So well executed.  I really can't properly describe the way it pulls you so thoroughly into the darkest places you can't imagine to start with, and it does this so well that you don't even realize how deep you've gone til you can put the book down, be away from it for a few minutes and think about where you've really been.

The Postmistress - Sarah Blake

This book first caught my attention over a year ago at the bookstore where I worked because of it's elegant, beautiful cover.  I picked it up all the time to read the jacket and started hearing a lot of good things about it from various customers I'd interact with but somehow I just never got around to reading it until this week.  It was part of the batch of books I just got from the library, that I pulled from my list.  I've been carrying it around for days, keeping it close, and finished it last night curled up on my couch, relaxing after a full day of Christmas visiting.  

A very beautiful book.  It's set in World War II, and approaches a lot of issues simultaneously, but with such subtlety that you are just absorbing thoughts and feelings about various things while still being absorbed in the story.  The underlying themes of the book touch on ideas like news, and what we do with the news, both personal news and the larger news of the world. It looks at the idea of being watched, by a God you believe in or by someone who loves you; at the idea of wanting, hoping, that you are being watched, that someone, anyone is paying attention.  Also moving; displacement, losing home/creating a new home/leaving forever. Being an outsider.  It touches on more typical themes of war such as loss, survival, chance, accident and apathy. 

Ms Blake chose to set her book at an interesting moment in history; one where the war is raging on one side of the Atlantic and you the reader are able to watch both the bombs raining down on London and the peaceful happenings of a small American town not yet touched by the war at all. The idea of looking the other way, or the wrong way, is a strong one in this novel.  I loved how well she evokes the time period, how she plays with the chaos in one place and the idea of simultaneity, that the chaos is happening at the same time as an idyllic summer evening somewhere else. The authour's careful  research reads clearly in the novel and does it a great service, though she has taken a few liberties here and there for the sake of telling the story.  That in itself is interesting because many times the story itself touches on how to tell a story, what a story is, the way that they can have a life of their own, the way there is a lot happening around the edges, which is a big factor in the way this plot is laid out; in scenes happening around the edges of the action we know about but don't directly see.  

A beautiful read.  I loved the way the time period is evoked.  I thought it was really interesting to read a different perspective on that particular war; to get an idea of how the journalists at the time functioned there, of the role radio had in bringing the truth of the situation to the rest of the world.  I had never thought about the details of what it must have been like on the trains themselves, of the waves of people moving through Europe during the early years of the war.  It was really interesting to be introduced to those different perspectives that I hadn't come across before in such detail.

I'm so glad I finally read this. And it's satisfying to prove to myself once again that yes, book covers can tell you a lot about what to expect. 

The Prestige - Christopher Priest

I've just recently moved to a new place, in a new city.  I also left my job as a retail slave, which has been great, but does have a major downside because I had worked at a bookstore.  My unlimited access to virtually every book under the sun is suddenly ended and I've been feeling the loss.  When I knew I would be leaving the store, I started compiling a list of all the books I wanted to read, because I'd realized that there were so many I was forgetting some.  These are books I picked up during the long hours of boredom at work, or that I came across with a customer and had a conversation about, or ones that my coworkers recommended to me - books that stuck in my mind as something I wanted to read.  I've been adding to the list and trying to work through it instead of aimlessly pick up every pile of paper I come across.  So far, it's done me well.

I recently watched The Prestige, which is one of my favorite movies, and when I saw the credits at the end I was again reminded that it is based on a book, that I had decided in the past I wanted to read, and then forgotten about - this is the kind of thing I mean. I went and added it to my list.

As soon as I got my licence with my new address I went to the library to get a new library card.  I've always used the library, and had one right at the end of my street at my old place.  Now I'm living in a much smaller city, and was disappointed to learn there is only one library for the whole region.  I also have to drive there.  However, when I went I was relieved to find that it's pretty big, and so far it seems like they have a good selection of anything you could want to read.  Like most libraries, it is populated during the day by sketchy people sleeping in chairs, seniors, and desperately efficient middle-aged lady librarians.  That all made me feel right at home.

When I went in the other day I didn't look at my list but had a few books in mind; none of these were there and I called my boyfriend to see if he could tear himself away from NHL2012 long enough to read me some titles from my list. That's how I ended up with this week's round of books.  The Prestige I found in a dusty, dim corner of the sci-fi/fantasy section.  I just finished it a few hours ago.

I don't usually have the experience of reading something after I've seen the movie; usually it's the other way around.  And this story presents particular problems because the movie has such a twist, and I had no idea if that would ruin the book or not....As it turned out, though, the book is told in a completely different way.  This is maybe one of the very few times when the movie is actually a really good representation of the book, and it could be argued that it's almost more effective.  The book is told through four different voices, and the writing can be a little stiff, but it's great getting so much background to colour the magicians.  While the movie shows a small slice of a moment of their lives and careers, the novel covers their whole lives, and getting all the extra detail is rewarding.  I loved, loved, loved all the descriptions of the theatres and their innner workings, particularly because of the time period, which was a great one in the history of theatre.  The depiction of the time and the setting is very well done.

What else to say about this book........overall it's very good, well imagined, and the ending is super creepy; you can't not react to it.   I had that feeling of all the hairs on the back of my neck standing up while I read the last few pages; which I don't think I've gotten from a book since Her Fearful Symmetry.  I did feel like there's something missing, or lacking, or a little disappointing, without being able to put a finger on exactly what...but I'd definitely read this again.

Prologue

I've done this once before.  I tried last year to keep a regular record of the books I read, with the fairly simple intention of finding out how many books I read in a year.  The idea was originally that I would just list them, but then it evolved, as most ideas do, and it occurred to me that if I kept a proper diary based on the books I read I would be able to also record my impressions of them. That form of the idea appealed to me because books form a huge part of my life and are constantly shaping me.  So I tried to write about the books I read right after I finished them, and I failed at keeping it up on a regular basis.

So this is a second attempt. I wonder if I try to be more casual about it, and maybe only write about the books I really like, if I will find it easier to keep up?  I guess here I will find out.

I think I will just write to myself, same as I would in a regular diary...it should be interesting to see how much of myself and my life come out in the course of writing about the books I'm reading.

But enough reflection. It is time to begin.