Book Review: "1Q84" by Haruki Murakami

Hi everyone!

What can one say about best-selling Japanese author Haruki Murakami's latest opus, the futuristic 1Q84?

1. It sucks you in from the first page and keeps you in its thrall, greedily turning over 900 pages to find out what's going to happen next.
2. It is populated by a cast of characters unlike any you've read in fiction at any recent time: each beautifully drawn without being overly descriptive.
3. It gives the reader a keen appreciation of and an introduction to the urban sprawl that is modern day (or should I say post-modern day) Tokyo.
4. It contains one of the most bizarre (not to mention perverse) sex scenes (or is it a sex scene?) between an older man and a child (children) one is likely to encounter in world literature.
5. It inspires the reader to listen to Janacek's "Sinfonietta" (it pays to be familiar with this classical piece because it plays a rather important role in the novel) and at least attempt to read Proust's "In Search of Lost Time."
6. It poses more questions than it answers: like what exactly is an Air Crystalis and who (or what) are the Little People?
7. It has Little People (literally...these are one of the novel's most baffling creations, see above)
8. It gives the reader an increasingly sinking sense (somewhere around page 700) that the ending is going to be less than the sum of its parts.
9. It ultimately disappoints and yet...somehow one can't help but admire the audacity of Murakami's storytelling.
10. Huh?

Don't get me wrong. I really enjoyed this novel. I couldn't put it down even as my wrists started to ache from holding this doorstop of a book and, as I mentioned above, I started to realize that after 900-plus pages, there's still so much that doesn't really add up. I wonder if Murakami is planning to write a sequel?

Briefly, 1Q84 tells the parallel stories of two thirty year-old Tokyo residents living in the year 1984: Aomame is a fitness instructor who escaped from her parent's religious cult when she was a young girl and has grown up to live a rather reclusive life, teaching a particularly brutal exercise/stretching class when she's not acting as an assassin; and Tengo, a somewhat hermetic part-time cram school math teacher who moonlights as a fiction ghostwriter with literary aspirations of his own. One day, en route to an assassination, Aomame is sitting in a cab on a Tokyo expressway stuck in rush hour traffic. Janacek's Sinfonietta is playing on the radio. Aomame is in a hurry. The cab driver suggests she get out and walk down an emergency staircase coming off of the expressway ramp if she hopes to make her appointment on time. Aomame does and, after a series of bizarre events including the discovery that the Earth now has two moons, she finds herself in an alternative reality called 1Q84. Meanwhile, Tengo has been hired by his editor to rewrite a novella called Air Crystalis by Fuka-Eri, a mysterious seventeen year-old autistic-seeming girl, in order to submit it for a literary prize. The novella becomes an instant best-seller which causes a whole host of problems for everyone involved, not the least of which is that the teenage author Fuka-Eri is another escapee (like Aomame) from a religious cult hell-bent on preserving its rather unsavory secrets. Added to this mix is Ushiwara, de-barred former lawyer with frightful looks and a moss-covered tongue who sets out on his own obsessive investigation of Tengo, Aomame, and Fuka-Eri. 

SPOILER ALERT!!!

Over the novel's 900 pages, the reader is treated to all manner of interweaving narratives, violence, sexual perversion, literary and musical references, the ritualized abuse of young girls for the sake of religious fulfillment, a comic though scary off-camera NHK fee collector who may or may not be the spirit of a comatose character, action-packed set pieces, a kidnapping, rambling semi-philosophical dialogue that occasionally reads like deliberate excursions into dead-ends, semi-celestial entities named "Maza" and "Dohta" (mother and daughter), and (my personal favorite) an Immaculate Conception that more-or-less ties at least two of the main narrative threads together. The result is a thrilling yet ultimately unsatisfying novel that goes around in circles and ends in a manner that is wholly appropriate yet frustratingly disappointing. Nothing is explained. As I turned the final page, I felt as though I had just endured (albeit willingly) a very elaborate and beautifully constructed April Fool's joke. In other words, I felt a bit like I'd been had.

And yet...and yet...1Q84 is a novel that I will return to and reread, probably not any time soon, but it's definitely on the list., right up there with War and Peace.  Does 1Q84 really exist? What's the significance of the two moons? What exactly is an air crystalis? And who (or what) are the Little People?

Film Review: "Trishna"

Hi everyone!

Just watched British director Michael Winterbottom's new film "Trishna." It is his third film adaptation of a Thomas Hardy novel, one of my favorite authors of all time. His previous two are "Jude"which starred Kate Winslet and was based on Hardy's classic "Jude the Obscure" and "The Claim," an adaptation of "The Mayor of Casterbridge" set during the American gold rush.  "Trishna" is loosely based on Hardy's "Tess of the d'Ubervilles" and transposes the story to modern-day India.  As can be expected of any filmed version of Thomas Hardy, the story is bleak and offers little in the way of uplift or redemption for its characters.

"Trishna" tells the story of a poor young Indian woman (played by a fetching Freida Pinto, best known as the co-star of the Oscar-winning "Slumdog Millionaire") whose life is dramatically altered when her father, the family's sole breadwinner, is gravely injured in an automobile accident. As fate would have it, Trishna has recently met Jay (an understated performance by Riz Ahmed, an acclaimed British-Pakistani actor and rapper) whose father owns a string of luxury hotels across India. Jay takes pity on Trishna and hires her to work at one of his father's hotels in Jaipur.

It would seem however that Jay has an ulterior motive. He is struck by Trishna's beauty and innocence and, one evening, he seduces her. Overcome by shame, Trishna returns to her family's village but her fallen status proves too much for her father so he sends her away again. Jay soon finds Trishna and persuades her to join him as his live-in girlfriend in his rented flat in Mumbai. All seems to go swimmingly for Trishna in Mumbai. She is accepted by Jay's Bollywood-aspiring friends (one of whom is played by Bollywood director Anurag Kashyap) who nurture her talent for dancing. But...Trishna has a rather big secret and the moment she confesses this secret to Jay things start to go tragically, though inevitably--this is Thomas Hardy after all--downhill.

"Trishna" is a beautifully made film: gorgeously shot and indelibly acted by two extremely talented emerging actors. Winterbottom does an effective job of portraying two contrasting Indian societies (rural and urban) represented here by Ms. Pinto and Mr. Ahmed. You can't help but be affected by the terrible/naive decisions Trishna makes because you know early on that things can only end badly, and when Trishna finally takes matters into her own hands, the violence is sudden and shocking.

If I have one criticism, it would be that the characters are fairly one-dimensional. You know, this being a Michael Winterbottom film of a Thomas Hardy novel, that Trishna and Jay are meant to be symbols of opposing classes of society. Trishna is meant to represent everything that is wholesome and pure about the underclass while Jay symbolizes lazy Westernized old money, a society that lives well and loosely off of inherited wealth. It's all a bit predictable but compelling nonetheless.

As I said at the top of this review, Thomas Hardy is one of my very favorite late-Victorian novelists. Despite its exotic setting and modern update, in "Trishna," I am pleased to say that the spirit of Hardy survives and thrives.

"Trishna" is currently playing in limited theatrical release as well as on Comcast Xfinity On Demand. Check it out.

Book Review: "Great Soul" by Joseph Lelyveld

Hi everyone!

"Great Soul" by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Joseph Lelyveld is an eye-opening and ultimately surprising (to me anyway) new biography of the late great Mahatma Gandhi. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a bit of an India-phile. I first started taking notice of Indian culture in 2009 when I saw my first Bollywood film "Race" and I have been rabid about wanting to learn more about Indian culture and history ever since.  I was particularly interested to learn more about the life of Gandhi-ji whose campaigns of civil disobedience against British colonial rule were instrumental in helping shape a modern independent India, sometimes it seemed (at least according to Mr. Lelyveld's engaging book) in spite of himself.

Prior to reading this book, the depth of my knowledge about the Mahatma was more-or-less limited to Richard Attenborough's Oscar-winning 1982 biopic starring Ben Kingsley. I haven't seen the film in thirtysomething years so I am not overly familiar with the details depicted within in, though I do remember repeated scenes of Gandhi in jail, the great Salt March, his reluctance regarding the eventual partition of India upon independence, and his assassination at the hands of Hindu nationalists. I also remember how he preached the importance of self-reliance, encouraging Indians to spin their own cloth as opposed to relying on British imports. A more recent Hindi-language film "Gandhi My Father" depicted the troubled relationship the Mahatma had with his eldest son Harilal, a portrayal that wasn't particularly sympathetic to Gandhi-ji, and ultimately is what inspired me to further investigate his life. Philip Glass's opera "Satyagraha" whose title is taken from Gandhi's overall philosophy is also a source of considerable interest.

While Mr. Lelyveld succeeds in conveying the complicated life of India's "Great Soul," the reader is left with a troublesome portrait of the man many consider something close to a 20th century saint. He begins by spending a considerable number of pages discussing Gandhi's life as a young lawyer in South Africa and his establishment of two communes inspired by the great Russian writer and philosopher Leo Tolstoy. Gandhi was particularly active early in his life with the cause of promoting greater commonality and understanding between Moslems and Hindus, and the destruction of the traditional Hindu caste system, a cause that began in South Africa but continued and was further shaped by his years spent back in India.

Mr. Lilyveld doesn't shy away from the less savory aspects of Gandhi's life and philosophy. As portrayed here, Gandhi is a man of singular determination, often at the expense of his family. Gandhi's wife, an illiterate but seemingly well-intentioned woman, quickly fades from relevance as Gandhi develops an ambiguously non-sexual but intensely devoted relationship with a German Jewish body-builder named Hermann Kallenbach. The two remained passionately involved for much of Gandhi's life. Whether this affair was ever consummated remains in question, though letters exchanged between the two might hint at something less than platonic. As part of his Satyagraha, Gandhi swore off all sexual intimacy. In order to be a true pilgrim for the cause, Gandhi believed that one must live one's life with total sexual pureness, though in his last years, Gandhi was known to have had a predilection for young women whom he invited to share his bed, sleeping naked, and engaging in "non-sexual" massages.

As presented in this book, Gandhi is a man of deep contradictions, whose actions were often interpreted as running counter to the philosophies he seemed to embody throughout his work. He is originally ambivalent about gaining independence from Britain, deeply believing that the key to success of India as an independent nation was in abolishing the caste system and not necessarily the ruling British Raj. He was also a champion of bettering the lives of India's Moslems, a cause which ultimately cast him in opposition to the Hindu nationalist movement. I was particularly surprised to learn that Gandhi actively campaigned on behalf of the establishment of a new Moslem Caliphate upon the fall of the Ottoman Empire following World War One. As partition drew near, Gandhi sought to live out his remaining months in an area that became part of modern-day Pakistan, and was the scene of some of the worst Muslim-Hindu brutality at that time. Many Hindus felt he had betrayed them which ultimately prompted his assassination in 1947, an event which Gandhi rather eerily seemed to have predicted.

Mr. Lelyveld's biography exhausted, disturbed, and enlightened me. His narrative style is never less than engaging and I recommend this book for anyone interested in learning more about one of India's greatest and most formative public figures. One needn't have a strong knowledge of colonial history or Gandhi's life to appreciate this book. I don't know how the book was received in India upon its publication last year but I can only imagine it stirred some controversy. Lelyveld's "great soul" is a difficult man, a man of the people despite his upper-caste background. While Gandhi's work inspired and one can argue created a modern nation, he is presented here as only a moderately successful politician, whose greatest contribution to Indian and world history is a demonstration of how sheer determination and force of will can rally a nation's dispossessed and inspire them to an awesome if troubling degree.

Ciao.

Why I Love "Big Brother"

Hi everyone!

At risk of sounding like a total reality television junkie (though I'll admit that most of the shows on my DVR this summer have been Bravo-based) I want to devote today's entry to my newfound love for "Big Brother." I'm late to the BB party. After thirteen seasons here in the U.S. and countless versions overseas, this season (the 14th) is the first I've seen. And I'm hopelessly, unequivocally, irredeemably hooked. Here's why...

"Big Brother" is like a cross-pollination of MTV's "Real World" with a healthy dollop of "Survivor." You've got your standard twelve or thirteen house guests, ranging in age from early 20s to early 40s, living for an extended period of time in a giant set made up to resemble an adult version of Pee Wee's Playhouse. Cameras installed throughout the 'house' are running 24/7. Every week, these house guests are subjected to a series of ridiculous and oftentimes thoroughly humiliating challenges all of which are designed to pit the house guests against each other in pursuit of rewards that include Head of Household, Power of Veto, and the like. Each week, two players are nominated for eviction. In order to maintain their presence in the 'house,' these players must coordinate, manipulate, brownnose, and convince each week's Head of Household that they deserve to stay in the house. The Head of Household, who gets to live in the 'penthouse' and at least so far seems to conduct most of his or her business while lying half-naked in bed, changes each week.

The challenges so far this season have included leaping across giant rotating beds designed to knock them onto the floor; dressing up as giant Dorito chips while fishing for menu items in giant vats of salsa, guacamole, and melted cheese; and (my personal favorite) engaging in bizarre and suggestive workout routines dressed in 1980s gym clothes right out of Olivia Newton John's "Physical" music video.

The current cast includes Shane, an impossibly tanned 'house flipper' who appears to have an unhealthy obsession with his hair and walking around with his shirt off; Ashley, a bleached blond spray tan technician who is actually smarter than she looks or, for that matter, acts; Ian, a likable though nerdy college kid with limited social skills; and Danielle, a registered nurse who for reasons I've never quite been able to figure out has told everyone she's an elementary school teacher.

This season, four returning 'champions' or runners-up--Mike "Boogie", a 40-something master manipulator; Dan, a high school football coach; Janelle, a bottled blonde Amazon from Minnesota with a bad temper; and Britney (my personal favorite), a girl who seems to have a heart of gold and talks in an occasionally annoying nasal whine--have come to the house to coach the newbie house guests. Each coach is in charge of three house guests and are vying for a rather large sum of cash if one of their particular proteges wins the overall competition.

When they aren't competing in physical challenges, the house guests and coaches seem to spend most of their time lying or sitting around the house, strategizing and striking deals, eating inordinate amounts of junk food, and talking trash about their fellow contestants.

While NBC does a good job editing the thrice weekly primetime broadcasts (one of which is a live show on Thursday nights where one contestant is evicted from the house), what's almost more fun to watch (and gives the viewer a better sense of why the show is called "Big Brother" in the first place) is the live broadcast on Showtime 2 that runs from 11pm CT to 2am CT seven nights a week. I've been checking in for an hour or two before bedtime. This is pure unadulterated reality television, completely uncensored. And while it is only intermittently interesting--last night most of the house guests sat around the common room playing with Play Doh because there was nothing else to do and joking about the fact that they doubted anyone was watching the Showtime live feed--the viewer does get a clearer sense of the ongoing personality clashes and rivalries between everyone in the house. There's an awful lot of backstabbing and, especially with the coach Janelle, bitchiness. Last night, for example, Danielle was close to tears as she complained it seemed to anyone who would listen that Janelle told her she was, essentially, too tall and too fat to win the competition. Britney, who has her own issues with Janelle, agreed that "Janelle just likes to hurt your feelings." Also (and this seems more key to the actual competition) the very gay and lovable Wil has apparently had several run-ins and a blow-up with his coach Janelle over something she said to him a few days ago. None of this is evident on the NBC primetime broadcasts.

What cracks me up is when scolding directives pipe over the intercom from "Big Brother" admonishing the house guests for not wearing their microphone, telling them not to talk about production, telling them not to sing, and to report to the Diary Room. You don't hear this on the primetime broadcast, which is unfortunate because what these nightly live feeds provide is a sense that these contestants really are living in a fish bowl, a completely artificial environment utterly removed from the outside 'real' world, dominated by sheer boredom. I almost get claustrophobic watching them.

Tonight we've been promised a 'major twist,' the contents of which have been a source of endless nervous speculation among the house guests all week. I think the coaches are going to be asked to relinquish their coaching duties and become actual competitors with the newbies. I could be wrong but that's the feeling I'm getting.

So why do I love "Big Brother"? More than any other reality show on television, "BB" demonstrates the lengths to which people will go to win a lot of money and proves that regardless of age, trash talk and backstabbing seem inherent to human nature. When you get fifteen or so people locked in a confined environment for weeks on end with little else to do, it is amazing how quickly things devolve into a Lord of the Flies scenario. But those kids on that island didn't have Play Doh to pass the time...

Ciao.