Art and Literature

Mczoum is one of the many people I met through the blog and facebook page. Soon enough, he became one of my dearest friends. I look up to him a lot as a person, as a reader and as an artist. Aside from being an attorney in law, he is a well read person who is very knowledgeable in German philosophy, History, French and Russian Classic Litterature, as well as Spanish and Arabic Poetry. Artistically, he is passionate about painting, lomography and iphone art. In fact, Mczoum has exhibited his photography work in many galleries around the world including Paris, New York, LA, Milano and Poland. I just love his work but apparently I am not the only one for he has been awarded several times. In case you are interested, you can check his gallery at the following link:

http://www.iphoneart.com/users/1433/biography

In May, Mczoum pointed out that book pictures posted so far on the blog did not reflect an investment of the bloggers. He was right. So far we hadn't taken book pictures ourselves or added our favorite quotes from the books. His remark lead therefore to the creation of a new page "Photos" where personally shot pictures of books will be added along with some of the favorite quotes from the corresponding book. Anyone can post here, so if you have some book pics and favorite quotes do not hesitate to send them to bookloverbookclub@gmail.com.  

Below you will find a sample of Mczoum's book pictures and favorite quotes that he kindly provided. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I did.

 “The best fortress which a prince can possess is the affection of his people.”

“She would have liked not to be alive, or to be always asleep.” 

“Do you know that it is in your company that I have had my finest thoughts?” 

"When I desire you, a part of me is gone."

 

"You can suffer nostalgia in the presence of the beloved if you glimpse a future where the beloved is no more” 

 "Until I was fourteen, I divided humanity into three categories: women, little girls and buffoons."

 “Because we don't have much time together, I will give you as much love in a year as I could give you in a lifetime.”

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.

L'Évangile selon Pilate - Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt - Part 1

My amazing little brother Jean-Pierre (Yo2borni Nchalla) has been wondering why I haven't posted any reviews lately. Well honestly, I have several reviews in mind for books that I have read in the past months, and books that I am currently reading but the real reason why I am inactive is because I wanted to re/read this book and review it before anything else and this is why:  

Let me just invite all French educated people to read L'Évangile selon Pilate by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt during these two weeks. I mean there's a new Pope and it's almost Easter time, so what better time to reading this book? It doesn't matter if you're Christian or not, if you're a believer or not, this book is written very intelligently. It's like a Sherlock story but even better. I'll review it as soon as I'm done re/reading it. If you read it along too, I think you might enjoy the review even more. But for now just let me tell you the story behind me reading this book for it is a precious one to me.

(Now remember when I talked about the bad choice of cover image of "A thousand splendid suns"? This is totally the opposite. This is the perfect cover for this book where you can see Pilatus presenting Jesus to the people of Jerusalem. The painting is by Antoni Ciseri and is entitled "Behold the man")

In summer 2009, I was on my way to Morocco with my family to spend summer at Dad's. The plane got delayed because Moroccan pilots were on strike to denounce the air company for its unfair treatment and discrimination towards them and to demand to be treated equally to their foreign colleagues. Bottom line is that we had to wait eight long hours at Rafik Hariri International Beirut Airport before we could board our plane. It's while I was waiting there that I saw a very sweet girl (you know who you are :) ) reading this book and in a few words only she got me very excited to reading it too.

Got back from Morocco at the end of the summer and I didn't forget about the book but was postponing it for later because I had a lot of other books in my hand. Then, suddenly, I learned that the author was coming to Beirut for the 16th salon du livre Francophone edition. Beirut was the world capital of the book that year as well. There it was, by pure serendipity I got to read the book and meet the author! Below are pictures of the book signing and the dedication and a few words about the plot of the book because I really want you to read it!

(I know I look terrible, long story :D)

The idea of the book is very original. On one hand, Jesus (Yechoua), is telling his story and on the other you have the Roman prefect of Judaea investigating the disappearance of the body of Yechoua from the tomb. The novelty is that we only know what the Apostles are telling us about Jesus, in this book Schmitt is imagining how Jesus's life would have been like and what feelings and thoughts would have crossed his mind. I really loved this touch. Now for the investigation about the disappearance of the body from the tomb, I personally don't know anything about it. Whether it really took place historically or not, but it is so logical that one gets the feeling that everything written in this book is true. The author really succeeded at deceiving us into believing that what he imagines and is telling us did really happen. This is brilliant! I have read two books  by Schmitt (this one and "Lorsque j'étais une oeuvre d'art") and in both I found a brilliant writer who always gives you a lot of new ideas to think about. It wasn't until I read this book for example, that Jesus, Pilatus and other characters from the Bible became fully human to me!

I do remember however that I didn't like that the book was mainly based on dialogues, but I also believe that this was the only way a plot like this could be written.

Now, that's all I remember about the book. The review will come soon. Meanwhile, you all are urged to read it. It's a short and creative book with a special flavor. Try it!