Three Shorties

I had a quiet weekend, both figuratively and literally! No dance practise, just some tennis on both days, but I also tried to talk as little as possible as my throat has been a bit sore and on Friday & Saturday I had a rather funny voice. Luckily it's almost back to normal now.

I must say that this post is a rather random collection of thoughts, as the three books I'm about to write about are all totally different and range from pretty heavy stuff to the lighter side of romantic fiction! But, here comes:

The Madman of Freedom Square by Hassan Blasim
Blasim is an Iraqi-born writer and filmmaker who came to Finland as a refugee in 2004. The short story collection The Madman of Freedom Square is his first book. He wrote it in Arabic and the collection was translated into English by Jonathan Wright. Blasim's stories are powerful pictures of what life has been and is like for Iraqis either in Iraq or in exile from the time period of the Iran-Iraq War to the present. There is war and insanity, nightmarish and macabre moments in the stories, but also atempts to love, to survive, to find a way to live inspite of all the odds. One of the stories that made the biggest impression on me was Ali's Bag, where Ali, disgusted by the way his older brothers and his father always treated his mother takes his revenge after the mother's death by digging up her bones and carrying them in her old travel bag all the way to Europe in the hope of finding a safe place to bury them. My favorite story, however, was the title story The Madman of Freedom Square, mainly because first it is almost fairytale-like and much more optimistic than most, if not all the other stories, and then the ending is so dramatic! Blasim's stories are not easy reading. He writes about difficult, ugly things, but that is exactly why this is an important book. As the backcover of the book tells us "these stories afford us a rare glimpse of Iraq from the inside."

The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
Have you seen the 1999 movie made of this novel starring Ralph Fiennes and Julianne Moore? I haven't, but after reading the book I would really like to. This slim novel tells the story of a love affair between Maurice Bendrix (based on Greene himself), a writer, and Sarah Miles (based on Greene's then lover Lady Catherine Walston), the wife of civil servant Henry Miles, who Bendrix meets when he wants to get information on civil servants for a novel he is writing. We know from the start that the affair is going to end and we also know very soon than Sarah is going to die. What is interesting is how we get to the end and what happens afterwards. Greene himself has said that The End of the Affair is one of the only two books we wrote which is not melodramatic. Maybe so. At least the way some of the characters react to adultery and even death are almost too civilised. Henry Miles must really be the most understanding husband in the history of literature! Or how many betrayed husbands would not only befriend their late wife's lover but ask them move in with them? I had hard time believing some of the plot, but what I loved from the beginning was Greene's writing. This was the first novel by Graham Greene I've ever read and I want to read more just because he definitely was a very skilled writer. Mayde I'll try one of his spy stories next...

Lucky Loser by Yolanda Wallace
Last year the book I was most dissapointed in was Grand Slam by Samantha Brenner. It was supposed to be a satirical lesbian romance set in the world of women's professional tennis, but the satire was totally lost in me. When I learned that there was another novel, also this one a lesbian romance, set in the world of tennis, I approached the book with equal amount of fear and hope. :) I hoped it would be a nice read. It surely could not be as unlucky a reading experience as Grand Slam had been! And it wasn't! :)
I very seldom read romantic novels, but I'm happy I chose to read this one. Wallace had done her homework and the tennis bits were well researched, even though I must say Sinjin Smythe served a little too many aces in her Wimbledon matches! The story tells about Sinjin, a British player trying to come back from an injury and her French friend and former doubles partner Laure Fortescue, whose feelings for each other start to turn into something more than a friendship. I found it a bit amusing that Wallace had borrowed some characteristics of real tennis professionals for her fictional characters. And my only criticism (but just a tiny little one :)) comes from the fact that Laure Fortescue shared a bit too many characteristics with my all time favorite tennis player Amelie Mauresmo! However, all in all Lucky Loser was a lovely comfort read and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to read a feel good novel set in the world of tennis.
I'll add Lucky Loser into my list of LGTB books read this year.

Ok, now I'll retreat back to nursing my sore throat that is fast starting to turn into a runny nose... :-)

ps. The End of the Affair is missing from the photo as I already returned it to the library.

R.I.P Short Story: Miss Mary Pask by Edith Wharton

The Pulitzer Prize winning author Edith Wharton may be better known for her novels depicting upper class Americans, especially New Yorkers, but she also wrote some ghost stories. Those stories have been published in The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton. What then, for her, qualified as a ghost story? In her own words a ghost story

"...must depend for its effect solely on what one wight call its thermometrical quality, if it sends a cold shiver down one's spine, it has done its job and done it well, and many a tale that makes others turn cold leaves me at my normal temperature. The doctor who said there were no diseases but only patients would porbably agree that there are no ghosts, but only tellers of ghost stories, since what provides a shudder for one leaves another peacefully tepid. Therefore one ought...simply tell one's ghostly adventures in the most unadorned language, and "leave the rest to Nature..." [ Preface, p. 4]

In the story I read today, Miss Mary Pask, Edith Wharton manages just that. The narrator of the story has been painting in Brittany, when suddenly he remembers that a friend of his, Mrs. Bridgeworth, has a sister living nearby. As Mrs. Bridgeworth has told him that her sister, Miss Mary Pask, is often lonely, the narrator feels he ought to go and visit her. The journey to the remont location where Miss Pask lives is full of fog and darkness and builds a proper ghost story atmosphere. Finally he is at the door of Mary Pask's little house. Her help answers the door and says that Miss Pask would, of course, see the narrator. Only when he stands alone in the dark waiting for Miss Pask does he remember that already almost a year ago he learned from Mrs Bridgeworth that Miss Pask had died. And just then, there is Mary Pask standing on a landing above him! She comes down and starts a conversation with the somewhat terrified narrator.

"'It's so wonderfully good of you - I suppose Grace asked you to come?' She laughed again - her conversation had always been punctuated by rambling laughter. 'It's an event - quite an event! I've had so few visitors since my death, you see.'
     Another bucketful of cold water run over me; but I looked at her resolutely, and again the innocence of her face disarmed me.
     I cleared my throat and spoke - with a huge panting effort, as if I had been heaving up a gravestone. 'You live here alone?' I brought out.
     'Ah, I'm glad to hear your voice - I still remember voices, though I hear so few,' she murmured dreamily. 'Yes - I live here alone. The old woman you saw goes away at night. She won't stay after dark...she says she can't. Isn't it funny? But it doesn't matter; I like the darkness.' She leaned to me with one of her irrelevant smiles. 'The dead,' she said, 'naturally get used to it.'" [p. 138]

I'll leave the plot description there. Miss Mary Pask is such a great story you have to read it yourself! :) Wharton manages to build a nicely creepy, but not too scary, atmosphere, and just when you think this is your average ghost story there is the perfect twist in the end!

I have read some of the stories in this collection before, but I liked this one so much that stay tuned for more! I will review more of Wharton's ghost stories in my upcoming R.I.P. posts. Next one will be up on Friday.

R.I.P Short Story: Island of the Setting Sun

Ok, I've decided to post on Fridays and Mondays about the short stories I'm reading for the R.I.P. challenge. I already mentioned in my initial R.I.P. post that I will most probably read some short stories or extracts published in The Dedalus Book of Finnish Fantasy. I've now read three stories from the anthology and it's quite interesting to read Finnish authors in translation! 

The story I chose to write about tonight is by one of my favorite authors: Mika Waltari. Many of Mika Waltari's (1908-1979) books are nowadays consireded to be Finnish literary classics, but in his time he was sometimes said to write too popular or entertaining books for them to have been considered serious or great literature. He wrote both contemporary and historical novels. His most well-known novel is The Egyptian, a junkster book set in Ancient Egypt and telling the story of Sinuhe the doctor. He also wrote a manual for aspiring writers that is a classic in its field over here. As a teenager, he was only 17 at the time, he published a collection of horror stories using the pen name Kristian Korppi. Korppi is raven in Finnish and the little introduction in The Dedalus Book of Finnish Fantasy mentiones that he might have chosen that particular pseudonym because of Edgar Allan Poe's short story of the same name.

Island of the Setting Sun is a mysterious story about a Viking raid to an unknown island on the other side of a great ocean. As The Egyptian (first published in Finnish in 1945) is told by Sinuhe so is this story (first published in 1926) told by an unnamed Viking king. First-person narrative is very typical of Waltari as is well-worded descriptive passages. I find it quite amazing that he was so young when he wrote Island of the Setting Sun, but then, of course, he was a very talented writer. :) The story starts with:

 "I, the final king of the vanquished Viking tribe of the Valley of Three Suns, have commanded Father Anselmus, newly arrived from the land of the Gauls, to commit to posterity that which I am about to impart: the tale of our journey to the Island of the Setting Sun; else it shall be lost, it shall dissapear along with me into the land of eternal shadows, where my ancestors have stepped before me, and in whose footsteps I, the last of my kin, a few years hence must follow"

As a young man the king wanted adventure and he talked some of his fellow Vikings to join him on a raid across the ocean. Already after a fortnight at the sea their slaves start to die, then a great storm breaks. Just when the king thinks all is lost the skies and sea calm down and the men see land. It is the Island of the Setting Sun. It's inhabitants are totally silent, short and pale with captivating green eyes. A battle follows and the vikings win. Something strange is happening, however. When the Viking king visits the temple of the greeneyed people, he falls passionately in love with the statue of their goddess. The passion is all comsuming, but so is the curse of the goddess.

I liked this story very much. I liked the athmosphere Waltari created, it was a little bit creepy, but not too much. :) That the story was set in Viking Period was a nice plus. And see, in the passage I quoted above, how subtly, by simply naming a priest as the scribe for the king's story, the 17-year-old Waltari manages to convey the fact that the time of the Vikings is nearing its end.


That's it for tonight. I find it hard to write a post and follow the US Open women's semifinal tennis match on TV simultaneously. Should have eyes in the back of my head! :) Next short story peril post will appear on Monday.

Four Short Stories by Elizabeth Gaskell

Ever since I read Cranford last summer I have known that little by little I will read all the novels by Elizabeth Gaskell. I had no idea she also wrote some short stories until I happend to notice a slim, little volume called Four Short Stories in the library. After reading the text on the back cover I realised this book would be perfect for the Women Unbound challenge.

Four Short Stories by Elizabeth Gaskell includes the following stories:

• The Three Eras of Libbie March
• Lizzie Leigh
• The Well of Pen-Morfa
• The Manchester Marriage
  

The first story in the collection The Three Eras of Libbie March was first published in Howitt's Journal in 1847, a year before her first novel Mary Barton saw the light of day. Lizzie Leigh and The Well of Pen-Morfa were both published in Household Words in 1850. The publisher of this magazine was Charles Dickens. The fourth of the stories in the collection, The Manchester Marriage, was published in 1858, also in Household Words.

All four stories are about women and the trials and tribulations women faced in mid 19th century Britain.The heroines in the first three stories are all unmarried. Libbie March is a single, working class woman, who knows she is not going to marry and who has to try and find a way to live her life without the safetynet of a husband and a house of her own. Lizzie Leigh is an unwedded mother, whereas the heroine of The Well of Pen-Morfa is a women about to get married whose whole life is changed tragically after an accident leaves her disabled for life. Only the heroine of The Manchester Marriage is married, but also this story portrays the position of women in a male dominated society.

After the wonderful lightness and humour of Cranford these were grimmer stories, but not stories without hope and, in some cases, there were even quite a lot of happiness. My favorites were The Manchester Marriage and The Three Eras of Libbie March, but all four stories were well worth reading. Elizabeth Gaskell was, not only able to write (in some cases quite long) novels, but also to use the more compact form of short stories quite effectively. All in all an interesting and enjoyable read!

Four Short Stories by Elizabeth Gaskell was my 6th read for the Women Unbound Challenge. I still have one fiction and one nonfiction book to read to complete the challenge. :)

How Beautiful the Ordinary

My first book read in 2010 is How Beautiful the Ordinary, a YA collection of twelve short stories exploring identity. The collection is edited by Michael Cart and includes stories by such renown writers among others as David Levithan, Emma Donoghue, and Julie Anne Peters. I will count this book as my first read in the GLBT Challenge.

 How Beautiful the Ordinary is a wonderful book. Were I to rate it, I would probably give it four and a half stars. Some of the stories I absolutely loved (a bit more about those in a moment).The last half a star would be missing only because there were other stories I merely liked. Interestingly, after reading the author descriptions from the last pages of the book, I had to rethink my initial reaction to one of the stories. When I first read Fingernail by William Sleator, I did not like it very much because of the abusive elements in the plot. It was unpleasant to read about a young Thai man's relationship to an unbalanced, violent Frenchman even if the story does end with a positive note. When I later learned that the story was based on Sleator's late partner's life, it made me value it quite a bit more.

All in all, How Beautiful the Ordinary is quite a well balanced collection. Maybe the stories exploring gay male identity dominate a little (6  stories), where as there are 3 stories about lesbian as well as transsexual identity.

Two of the stories are in graphic form, one is a historical short story, and one is partly written as a movie script. First Time by Julie Anne Peters, a touching story of two girls' first time making love, is told alternatingly by the two girls so that the pages are divided vertically in two halves and each girl has her half of the page to speak and think. Last story in the collection The Silk Road Runs Through Tupperneck, N. H. is noticably longer than the others, more of a novella than a short story, really.

This collection introduced me to many new authors. The only ones I had read something by before were Emma Donoghue (Touchy Subjects) and Julie Anne Peters (Define Normal), but now I would like to read something more at least by Jennifer Finney Boylan, Ron Koertge, and David Levithan.

Then to my favorite stories in How Beautiful the Ordinary. And I really cannot tell more about the plots, as I don't want to give too much away. You have to read them yourself!:)

• Jennifer Finney Boylan: The Missing Person
  In this story 14-year old Jimmy steals his sister's skirt and goes to see the Devon Horse Show as Jenny. Beautifully told, intimate portrait of a young boy's realization that he actually is a she.
• Emma Donoghue: Dear Lang
  Lang's non-biological mother writes her a letter for her 16th birthday trying to explain why Lang probably doesn't even know that she in the beginning had two mothers.This is another touching story & it speaks also about the importance of having certain legal rights/the problems caused by the lack of rights
• Ron Koertge: My Life as a Dog
  After ending up in hospital a young man finally gets the courage to tell his parents he is gay. I loved the innovative way in which this story was told.
• David Levithan: A Word From the Nearly Distant Past
  The spirits of the past generations take a loving look at the present and future state of affairs. This is the first story in the book and it ended up being my absolute favorite. Here is a little quote from page 19 that made me chuckle. Let's hope this becomes reality (well, not the Facebook part necessarily:), but the part about rights):
  
  
  
  

  "There will come a time -perhaps even by the time you read this- when people will no longer be on Facebook. There will come a time when the stars of High School Musical will be sixty. There will come a time when you will have the same inalienable rights as your straightest friend. (Probably before any of the stars of High School Musical turns sixty)."

Well, that concludes my review of How Beautiful the Ordinary. Happy reading, everyone!