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.

 

Tip of the day: Date a girl who reads

Hasan, a new and special friend whom I got to know through this blog, has just shared this awesome text with me. It was written by Rosemarie Utcquico, a young Filippino author, in response to Charles Warnke’s "You Should Date An Illiterate Girl". I am not going to comment on the atrocities that are found in that cheap and shallow text or the petty life it describes! I'm just glad that someone stood up to him and defended us, lady readers of the world from this nonsensical and unnecessary attack. Now if you haven't been with a reader before (male/or female), then I think you should read this text and discover how it would be like to have that sort of person in your life.

 

 

 

 

"Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.

Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag. She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow.

She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.

Buy her another cup of coffee.

Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.

It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by god, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.

She has to give it a shot somehow.

Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.

Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who read understand that all things will come to end. That you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.

Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilightseries.

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.

You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.

You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.

Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.

Or better yet, date a girl who writes".

 

What are you waiting for? Go for readers; they're sexy even after they've spoken! :D

Under a Glass Bell - Anais Nin

My best friend Elia, who is also one of the few persons whose opinion I trust, recommended this book to me. She was in her Nin phase and I thought I'd give it a try too. When I started reading it, I was very surprised. My first impression was that I can't understand anything! I like clear plots and these short stories were everything but clear. I tried to analyse what was happening and realized that they were written in such way on purpose. It is not simply the author's mark; because half way through the book we discover another writing style, the ordinary straight forward one which was as good as the latter, if not better. In my opinion, the author's aim in the first few short stories was not to give the reader something obvious that can be easily enjoyed. Instead, she wanted him/her to read for the sake of the printed words and not the story itself. The beginning and the ending are not per say, important to her in these stories as much as being able to convey the feelings, and that I confirm she did excellently!
 

 

 

Even though I did not follow the plots quite well, this did not stop me from re reading many passages over and over again because they were just mind blowing. I knew from the beginning that I was dealing with a strong author. Then half way through the book, I had more than my dose of satisfaction. The stories were clear, and I was able to appreciate every written letter. I highly recommend that you read these three stories: Hedja, The mouse, and Birth. The first talks about an oriental woman and her confidence issues. The second is about a maid and her life fears and finally the third deals with Nin's abortion. Described like that, you'd think nothing is original. I beg to differ. You just have to take my word for it and read them for yourself to see. Just amazing!

Finally, I just wanted to say that this book might be one of the hardest to explain. If I were to simply describe it, I would say that the first half of it if can be compared to abstract paintings: Unclear but beautiful (see exhibit A). The second is more like clear normal paintings  (see exhibit B) that are just perfect for my taste. The authors excelled in both types: Chapeau!

Exhibit A

 

Exhibit B

 

 

My syndrome

I have tried to hide it for as long as I could but I just cannot fight it anymore. My name is Izzy and I am Améliesque! Stay calm, bare with me the few digressions, keep reading, and you'll understand my syndrom.

 

My symptoms started 4 years ago when I borrowed a movie at the Institut Français (Centre Culturel Français back then, mission previously etc. And by the way, does anyone know why the name keeps on changing?) Anyways, this movie, "Stupeur et tremblements" by Alain Corneau (still can't believe he's gone :( and just in case you're interested check his last movie "Crime d'amour" one of the best works ever) and starring the more than BRILLIANT Sylvie Testud (I love you!) litterally changed my life.

The plot was captivating and the turn of events was such an original one. This movie was based on Amélie Nothomb's novel by the same name which also won the "Grand Prix de l'Académie Française". Curiosity lead me to check the author's books and before I realised it, this innocent curiosity developped into addiction.
What do I mean by addiction? Nothing much. I just read her 21 books, I write to her, I've been quoted in one of the books about her and recently for my birthday this was my cake:

 

Without my friend JM this cake would have never seen the day, thank you again so much!
 

This blog will have a whole section about this author and her books. She deserves a blog at least, but I will try to give her justice as much as I can on this page. I believe Amélie is the drug no one can resist. Sooner or later you will all become "Améliesque" like me and life would never be the same again.



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!


     

A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini

Everybody around me is buzzing about Khaled Hosseini's new book "And the mountains echoed" which is to be released on may 21st. So what is this all about? Should we/you be waiting for it like everybody else? I can't answer on your behlaf, but I know that I will not be waiting for this book! This post aims to explain to you why I will not also read the new book.

So I have read Hossaini's two books, "The kite runner" and "A thousand splendid suns" and I can honestly say that I was disappointed, twice. I have read "The kite runner" a long time ago which means that I don't see myself fit to review it, so here's instead my review of "A thousand splendid suns" which is the reason that made me make up my mind not to read the third book by the author.

 

Firt thing I would like to mention is that this book was a Christmas gift from my two favorite tutorial students ever. I loved the gift more than anything in the whole world and I loved reading the book because it was from them. But when it comes to reviews, I have to be objective and straight forward so here it goes.

There are two things that I liked about this book: the title and the cover page image, although the author is not to be credited for the latter one. Annoying thing however, was that I didn't see at all how the cover image related to the story. Is there a reason why this image was chosen paticularly??? I don't know for sure, but I believe that this choice was bad from an intellectual perspective because one cannot relate it later to the book. Maybe it doesn't matter to you, but I feel that if one really cares about his book, at least he should have the decency to make an effort to choose an appropriate image that relates to the story and not any stereotypic one, an image that will just do.

 

To be really fair, I did like one more thing about this book: The protagonists are women and they are themselves telling their stories. I believe for a male writer to speak in the words of a woman is very hard, especially because one has to think like a woman to know what she would say and men usually can never do that :D (right ladies?). However, I found the writer to be very successful in his task, in his double difficult task one should say, since he did speak in the words of two women and not only one and did it in a very good way.

 

Briefly, (as usual meaning this won't be so brief :D, at all!) the story tells the life events of two girls with a large age difference having very different characters and completely different backgrounds. The older girl is forced to marry a widow that is a bit older than her. Several years later, the younger girl is also forced to marry him too. The man is an asshole to say the least. At the end, the man is killed by mistake, one of the girls sacrifices herself and the other finds happiness, leaves the country and returns several years later to do just charitable work and remembers her good old friend.

 

In this book, we do not only follow the adventures of the Afghani protagonists, we find ourselves taken in a descripticve and historical trip which retraces in details the culure of this country, the destructive war, the warlords and the misery etc. However, the style used to convey the story was very ordinary, the events were very predictable (I did predict one of the girl's mom's suicide, that the boyfriend of the other girl was not killed as she had thought, that the girls escaping the horrible husband are gonna get caught etc). One major issue for me (and this is very personal) was that the book lacked music. I can't remember at all a single quote about music anywhere (or about books as a matter of fact). Knowing that I PERSONALLY really enjoy books that introduce me to new music or litterature works, "A thousand splendid suns" failed to personally please me or at least mark me. I usually mark the pages that I find really good while reading, so that sometimes my books look more like accordons than anything else :D. However, the only page that I marked in this whole book was the one where we learn about how the book got its name.  

From a technical perspectve, there was nothing creative in this book and I noticed a lot of similarities with the author's first one. Hosseini has a very clear pattern in writing: He writes about harsh subjects (war related atrocious death accidents, marriage to teens, revolution, violence, martyr etc) Also, in both books you have the character leaving the country and coming back to remember the sacrifice of a very honorable dead friend. Some of this stuff is defenitely real, but I never enjoy real books and I always say that if I want such stuff, I'd just read the newspaper or a scholar book. The creativity and the style are very important to me. The shocking truth affects me in real life but never in books. I hate when a book's strength is only based on how horrible the events it describes are!!! And this is what the book is only about. There was no magic in it and I demand MAGIC!

 

For all of the above, I hereby declare that unless you convince me that the new book is really different from the two previous ones, I shall not read it!