Agatha Christie

Hello readers, today I want to tell you "my story" with my favorite author, Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976), who is by the way the best selling writer of all times.

I was only 10 years old when I discovered Agatha's world. I was bored with no books, so my mom suggested reading "Murder on The Orient Express" and that was the official start of a life time love story between me and Mrs. Christie.

Agatha Christie

The world of Agatha is really amusing: crimes, detectives, police, and lots of details. The most valuable thing in her literature is the way she creates her plots and links them to human nature understanding. There is a lot of ingenuity in her style. Detective Fictions in general depend on cheep excitement, but Christie took that genre to another dimension. She wrote stories about "human nature", whereby the crimes are only master keys to unlock the mysteries inside every single one of us.

I read about 40 to 50 Agatha Christie novels so far, but I couldn't solve any of them by myself. She always succeeded at fooling me that I felt I was so stupid. Nevertheless that was very inspiring for me as a writer. She herself didn't believe she could ever write a story. She got a very bad cold one day and was forced to stay in bed for a couple of weeks. Her mom asked her to try writing, that's somehow was the first sparkle in her impressive carrier: 66 novels and 15 short story collections. She sold more than 4 billion copies, and holds the world's most-widely published books record as well as the most-translated individual author. Her books have been translated into at least 103 languages. Finally, her stage play The Mousetrap holds the record for the longest initial run (1952 - now) at Ambassadors Theater in London.

I have to admit that Agatha is one of the reasons behind my love for England. She described that far cold and cloudy country so eloquently that sometimes I feel I know it like the palm of my hand. I have only visited England through books, hers in particular. Maybe my thoughts about England are a little bit outdated for I always imagine myself travelling in a SLOW train in the middle of nowhere in the English country side, drinking a DECENT cup of tea, and complaining about the bad weather.

Slow Train

I highly appreciate the characters in Agatha's books. They are full of life due to the abundance of details especially the protagonists.  The Belgian detective Hercules Poirot (33 of Christie's novels and 54 short stories) and Miss Jane Marple (12 of Christie's novels and 20 short stories) for instance, were both old and super smart. They solved lots of crimes by just meditating and thinking. The other characters are important as well, especially for the comedy that reflects Agatha's sense of humor. The funniest character in my opinion is Ariadne Oliver (a friend of Poirot, who is the fictional Agatha as she is a weird writer too). Oh, by the way I believe that all of Agatha's characters are real and I still think that I can meet Poirot or Miss Marple on the streets.

Agatha wrote about people in many strange places and eras: ancient Egypt 3000 years ago, or Baghdad after the world war II, or even in a stopped train in middle of Europe. This makes it hard for me to choose my favorite book. However, I guess "Murder on The Orient Express" is my most favorite as it introduced me to Agatha. I adore a couple of other titles like "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" and "And Then There Were None" as well as her first published novel "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" that was rejected by 6 different publishers before it became an international hit in 1920.

Murder on The Orient Express

I don't know what to add more. Everything mentioned above are the most important things in my experience with Agatha. However, I want to ask you all about your experience with Agatha. Have you ever read any of her books? What do you think about them? Don't forget to tell us more about your favorite authors as well.

Hunger by Knut Hamsun

"God in heaven, to what extremity I had come!" cried the lonely desperate man living in a harsh cruel material world. This man is the main character in Norwegian novelist Knut Hamsun’s (1859 - 1952) masterpiece: "Hunger". What else to expect from the lips of a poor columnist who suffers homelessness, poverty, and hunger in the cool streets of Christiania (the old name of Oslo)?

From bad to worse, the nameless hero of this novel spends his days wandering the streets, trying to make his living with little success. He blames his bad luck for his suffering. He tries journalistic writing which ensures him a little income from time to time in order to pay his debts and buy some food. The funny thing is how much he always spends on charity, thast reminds him of his "nobleness", "honor" and "humanity".

When all the doors are closed, with no money in his pockets, and no roof to protect him from winter’s harsh cold, he gets to know exactly how real hunger feels like. Shirtless, living on the streets and too proud to let himself degrade to the level of begging or stealing, he will have long uninterrupted days without a crumb. He reaches an advanced stage of rave and idiocy, but the Divine Providence helps him after all, sending him away on a departing ship to leave behind him the scary city and the ghost of hunger that is on the hunt for a new victim on the streets.

The novel was published in 1890, and had a wide fame all around the globe. It is considered today as one of the best classics ever written. It is behind Hamsun’s literary success and has even earned him the Nobel Prize of literature in 1920.

In “Hunger”, Hamsun started a new literary revolution, a totally innovative type of writing that is based on internal dialogue, one that dives so deep in the human mind and its floating ideas. We could call it "the psychological literature", which later, strongly influenced other writers like Virginia Woolf and Henry James.

Hamsun is believed to be the godfather of the modern literature. He considers that the main purpose of literature must be "Describing the whispers of the blood, and seeking the bone marrow" while focusing on the various intricacies of the human reason. On this, says the great American author Ernest Hemingway: "​​Hamsun taught me how to write." All those characteristics appeared for the first time in "Hunger".

Ernest Hemingway

The protagonist’s thoughts and reflections create a deep connection between man and the nature around him and in fact, Hamsun ensured that his character reaches delirium in that wild, crazy and merciless winter.

In spite of all the tragic events in the days of hunger, the novel is totally far from the blue sad writing style. Comedy is strangely present in the weird ideas that cross the journalist’s mind. That was actually one of the best things about the book. I enjoyed black comedy situations spread all over the pages.

The peculiar thing about "Hunger" is the loneliness in the hero's life: he has no family or close friends. In a way, he represents the poor human that lives inside every single one of us. By representing the nameless character as such, the hunger is no longer physical but it also becomes a hunger of the soul. Hunger therefore will also reveal an ugly truth about the human nature of people nowadays.

The philosophy of Hamsun is a reaction to the materialistic thinking that invaded the world at the beginning of the last century. This shows how he was affected by senior philosophers like Arthur Schopenhauer or Friedrich Nietzsche, and former authors like Russian Fyodor Dostoyevsky‎.

At the end, I just wanted to say that "Hunger" is really a great book. It is original and unique. I guess without doubt it deserves to be on the New York Times' list of 1001 Books that must be read before death. I am just glad to share this book and my experience with it. Hope you like it as much as I did. 

L'évangile selon Pilate - Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt

For those of you waiting for posts from Isabelle, I was kindly invited by her to contribute to this blog, so bear with another voice for a while :) I just finished a book recommended by her and would like to share my review here, as brief as it may be. I am not a fan of long reviews which go into details that I don 't necessarily need. When I look up a book, it's mostly because of THAT sensation the reader felt which clearly oozes from their personal reviews. I am basically summarising what got to me hoping it might interest you as well. 

Isabelle already mentioned "L'évangile selon Pilate" in an earlier post and I really wish I had read it earlier. The author deals with the necessity of doubt and reason, most imperatively, in the context of the history of the bible. Divided into three sections, we find three "heroes" realising their true potential, going against audiences that do not necessarily appreciate their inner dialogues. Throughout the three stories, a lot is revealed about human nature, and its resistance, its need to rationalise all events. This gives flavour to the biblical tales told, to which we feel no attachment at all. Emphasising the rationality and human emotions of different random events leading to an epic event is what this story reminded us of, as the secret to great storytelling. A small term mentioned towards the end of the second part perfectly describes the condition in which the three "unsung" heroes find themselves in "troubled yet never convinced". Maybe this is the take-home message of this book, that you need only to be troubled to start your journey towards fulfilment. 

Here's my original review in french:

Il fallait livre ce bouquin avant mon âge (23!). L'auteur traite la nécessité du doute et du raisonnement même, et impérativement, dans l'histoire biblique. Divisé en trois blocs, on retrouve trois "héros" réalisant leur potentiel, tout en s'enchainant contre une audience qui n'apprécie pas vraiment leurs dialectiques intérieures. Dans les trois histoires, beaucoup se révèle à propos de la nature humaine, de sa résistance et son besoin de rationaliser tout évènement. Ca donne du gout à ces histoires dont on se sent détaché, puisque l'élément raisonnable et humain est rendu aux circonstances qui ont abouti a l'épopée. Un petit mot vers la fin de la deuxième section décrit parfaitement la condition des trois caractères "troublé jamais convaincu". Peut être c'est mon message de cette oeuvre, qu'il faut juste être troublé pour enfin se réaliser.

First mention of the blog in media

This is a great day because the blog has been mentioned for the first time in media. It seems that working hard pays off. At this link you can find out what the press had to say about the blog:
http://www.almodon.com/Media/Articles/%D8%A7%D8%A7%D8%A7

Here' s also a glance of what the article looks like:

I am really flattered, although the title seems too generous. This blog is not about challenging other blogs, it' s just a way of expression, an escape in Beirut from all life hurdles towards something good, peaceful and beneficial. I am thankful for the support and appreciation of all those around me and for all the blog readers and followers on facebook.

A big thank you from the heart.