Bookworms: Monthly Readings, February 2016

I can’t say I either loved or hated the book. In short – it was an interesting easy read and I don’t regret having read it. However, I wish it were a bit more intricate as I found the plot rather plain overall. Piper Kerman commits a money laundering crime in young age and gets to serve one-year sentence years later. She describes the time of her conviction, the prison and its rules perceived by a so-called black sheep who would never think that one day she might get behind the bars.

I wish I felt more compassion or empathy for the characters and kept waiting for heartfelt details that would bring tears to my eyes or make my heart pound. That didn’t happen and most likely was not the intention of the author. What I did enjoy was Piper’s discourse about her struggle to stay true to herself, to maintain humanity and to guard dignity in prison conditions of daily humiliations and complete helplessness.

Victor Pelevin is a mystical genius of contemporary literature and sometimes I even doubt he is human – his books are That unthinkably unpredictable, wickedly satirical and oh my God at times totally convoluted. But you absolutely have to get yourself some “Pelevin” and read-read-read (if you haven’t done so already)! You might encounter a few (well, a lot actually) rough moments comprehending what the heck he is talking about, because of countless inside jokes. To understand those you would need to have some idea of what was going on in Soviet Union, or better yet have a Russian “comrade” by your side to explain how on Earth those things could make sense. His books have a lot of references to Soviet history as well. Just let me say one last thing – all the troubles you will go through trying to grasp some sense in Pelevin’s ramblings are totally, totally worth it!

Empire V is both intellectually challenging and entertaining. It is about vampires after all! Just don’t expect some romanticized pale beauties aka Twilight characters. Pelevin vampires rule the world by sucking…no, not the blood, but “bablos”, a drink distilled from the money-generating human's energy. Humans are merely a special breed, like cows, whose only purpose is to long for money, make money and to be milked by vampires. They can also become bats, fly, read your thoughts after they bite you, hang upside down, fall in love… Needless to say I literally swallowed the book.

Empire V has been published in English only a few days ago and you can get it on Amazon. Or you could start with some of his earlier works that have been widely praised and made Pelevin share the pedestal with Kafka, Orwell or Bulgakov. 

“Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.” C.S. Lewis                                          

Sven Nordqvist is a Swedish writer and has a very light breezy style of storytelling with witty, yet kind anecdotes and jokes. The series about a kind-hearted old farmer Pettson and his talking kitten Findus will melt anybody’s heart. I earnestly recommend getting the series, especially if you have kids – they will learn to be kind to animals, to care for the nature and to be considerate of others. Available on Amazon.

Country – Japan

Year – 2013

Language – Japanese

Genre – Realist Novel
Read a "real" book made of paper! [in Russian] And I truly believe this is the only way to read Murakami – with the feel and touch of paper.

Murakami is by far one of my most appreciated and cherished authors. I could live in Murakami’s worlds. There’s no counterfeit in his worlds. No pretentiousness, no phonies. Murakami doesn’t make grand gestures or claims universal truths. His genius is in his minimalism, ability to captivate describing mundane everyday life, to see extraordinary in ordinary, to blend magic and mysticism with reality, to see beyond the shadows. His characters are simple and down-to-earth yet undoubtedly refined, which fact they deny largely for their own sake. Murakami’s worlds exude whale’s tranquility and serene solitude and serve as a remedy for my case of a lunatic personality inclined to anxieties and panic over insignificant negligible things.  Just like an antidepressant for a depressed patient, Murakami is my cure in dark times. :-)

Needless to say I loved Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki, but again I can’t be objective when it comes to Murakami. It is a story of five friends, inseparable in school years, until one day when Tsukuru Tazaki finds out he has been cut from the group. His friends closed the doors and left him behind. The following years of ostracism are the years of his pilgrimage full of mysteries that doesn’t let the reader off the hook until the very last page.

“As we go through life we gradually discover who we are, but the more we discover, the more we lose ourselves.” 

“Let’s say you are an empty vessel. So what? What’s wrong with that?” Eri said. “You’re still a wonderful, attractive vessel. And really, does anybody know who they are? So why not be a completely beautiful vessel? The kind people feel good about, the kind people want to entrust with precious belongings.”