One Day

When was the last time you read a book that was so good, so filling, so all consuming that you just couldn't put it down. You spent hours on end turning page after page, completely happy to spend the day wrapped up in whatever it was you were reading. For me, that book was One Day by David Nicholls. A painfully realistic, witty and sentimental novel, the characters and their lives grabbed hold of me from the very first line, and had me until the end.

The Novel, which has now become a Motion Picture (which I am both intrigued and terrified to watch, incidentally), revolves around the concept of one seemingly ordinary day - July 15th, to be exact, and visits the lives of the two main characters - Dexter Mayhew and Emma Morley - on that day from 1988 and every year onward. Whether the characters are together or apart on that day, the narrative ties them together throughout the novel as the two discover what it means to grow up and remain (or fail to stay) [best] friends.

The style and voice of his writing is at once sentimental and powerfully moving (I must admit it brought me to tears on a few occasions), and wonderfully hilarious and witty – I even laughed out loud, something I RARELY do while reading. The humour: snappy, occasionally dark, and always understated was not only brilliant in its own right, but served to balance beautifully against the darker or dramatic aspects of the novel, making it a well rounded complete story.

The very style of the narrative – highlighting merely one day in a year of a life, allows for Nicholls not only to move quickly through time, but also to pull together a larger picture of actions and consequences. While we never see the ‘day after’ effect, we instead see the characters the following year, and can connect the dots as to which events we saw previously were trivial in the grand scheme of things, and which became pivotal life moments. Nicholls brilliantly handless the difficult task of keeping the reader connected and up to date with the lives of the characters without revealing too much or plunging into the boring tedium of daily life. By carefully constructing events and encounters around July 15^th he keeps the story both interesting and progressing, while firmly rooting himself in the rolls of an average and – exceptionally realistic – life.

The novel has an authentic, genuine quality to it which I personally found added immensely to the character of the novel as a whole, and thus my connection and emotional ties to the story. Set in Scotland and England primarily, with a heavy focus on Edinburgh and London, I couldn't help but love it just that little bit more, having recently visited both countries, and cities. The details in the novel such as street names, slang terms and landmarks were such that they familiarized the story to any reader with a good knowledge of the cities, but did not detract from any readers which may not. It made a nice change to read the story from view of a friend relaying a life compared to what can be described as 'informative narrative' [not sure if that's a real term or I've just made it up] which not-so-subtly explains culturally specific references to readers. 

Similarly, and more importantly, Nicholls paints his characters in sharp relief creating similarly real, relatable characters. They are, each in turn, both loveable and detestable as any human being would be. Dexter, who we might assume is a stereotype of the suave always-trying-to-be-cool guy: "He wanted to live life in such a way that if a photograph were taken at random, it would be a cool photograph" is soon revealed to be so much more than just an image, with all his triumphs and failings, rounding him into a complex believable character I couldn't help but imagine as real. Emma, on the other hand, is shown first to be the anti-conformist: "The problem with these fiercely individualistic girls was that they were all exactly the same. Another book: The man who mistook his wife for a hat. Silly bloody fool, he thought, confident that it was not a mistake he would ever make." but is soon revealed with her own set of short comings and secret assets. By the end of the story their lives are told with such complex detail, in such a realistic rollercoaster of events and emotions, that I couldn't help but think for a brief moment that the author could very easily have written his life story, for all the reality it seemed to hold. Of course, neither Emma nor Dexter are modelled after David Nicholls himself, but it is a testament to his talent that it seemed (for a moment) as such.

Though I think a great deal of why I SO connected to the novel was my own personal ability to relate so strongly with the character of Emma, I found this novel both engrossing and emotionally engaging in a way which to me suggested skill beyond circumstance. Regardless of whether I saw myself in Emma, I cared immensely for both (and all) characters within the novel, where their lives would lead, if they might reconcile differences with other characters or live out their dreams. A story, put simply, about life itself, David Nicholls One Day was just that – a beautiful glimpse, once a year, into the everyday (and therefore extremely complex) lives of two common Brits. Even when things didn’t turn out as you wanted them to – a quality in plot I find most admirable in one’s writing, you pour your heart into reading it just the same, and all the more. What more could you possibly ask for?

A Vist From the Goon Squad

An interconnected tale where one character leads into the lives of another, in some small, chance way A Visit From the Goon Squad the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Jennifer Egan is a unique depiciton of multiple self destructive lives as they reflected, regret and hide from themselves. Often people find interconnceted stories a bit forced, or, for whatever reason, just simply unenjoyable, but Goon Squad had a simplicity and realistic quality to it which pulled characters together in a range of ways - from the significant to the unnoticed, in order the weave a full tapestrey of experience, leading some critics to describe it not as a Novel, but rather a Series of Short stories. (For my purposes I'm going to stick with Novel, because a that's how it read to me, and b) it was marketted/formatted as such.

Punchy and gritty, the novel is steeped in Punk and Rock and Roll - from the glamour to the depressing, dictating this in its own distinct style, both raw and refined, allowing the reader the taste of the times without diving fully into the culture of it (in say, Trainspotting style). The tone of the novel, however changes with each tale. Whether it be teen would-be punks with green hair getting wasted and tripping out at the local grunge bar, a struggling musician or the success of the CEO of a new record label, fame fortune and music preside over the story, tying them all together. With a focus on the dismantling of life over time, it follows the hopes and failures of life with a nearly objective clarity.

Because of the style of the novel - several little stories piled up into one, it is likely that the reader will find at least one which they can relate to on a deeper level, and connect their own path to. However, many of the tales are unfinished, or simply alluded to later when the name crops up in someone else's story, leaving the reader to fill in the blanks and try to connect the dots. I appreciated the fact that not all the dots are given to you. though I occasionally found it tricky, reading the name 'Drew' and thinking, where do i know that name from again? it was an interesting challenge to connect that character to the one from a previous story, and piece the aspects of a single persons life back together. I found it very life like, in that way, as discriptions and reminders were not provided (this is Sasha, she's the assistant, remember?) so that our understanding of characters was based purely on memory, and that hazy process of flipping through our personal memory name/face databases. This idea was further by the fact that the novel is not chronological, slippingfrom the late 60's to present day and back, while similarly picking and choosing between characters past, or teen years, and their adult (or even elderly) lives.

Though at first somewhat removed from the characters - perhaps the hard edged style or simply my own experiences didn't resonate with those in the novel as deeply as they might, preventing strong emotional attachment to the novel, there was still a sense of triumph in the little victories of the characters I read, and moments where I shared the empty broken feeling for girls like Jaqi who let her life slip away from them in a childish game of chasing their youth. Some of the most moving moments for me were, suprisingly, within the chapter written entirely in PowerPoint format, flowcharts and little graphs and speech bubbles rather than paragraphs. Not something I expected to enjpy 'reading', I found myself moved by the simple (and often unspoken) truths of the pages, and the underlying connection of pauses in music - a seemingly useles obsession, and yet it said it all: the unspoken parts of a song, the unsaid parts of your life. There was something beautiful in the formatting of these pages which I must admit, probablly wouldn't have carried as well in 'conventional' narrative form.

"Time's a goon, right?"
the novel is a vaguely multi-media approach to the destructive effects of time on the lives of those that most try and flee. Through each story, and each form it allows the reader to connect and observe from varying perspectives, the course of each characters life - those that succeeded or those that (more often) failed, winding up a million miles from where they started, or, more dissapointingly, in exactly the same place they started.

Biblical Fiction

I wasn't really sure what to think of Deepak Chopra's novel Jesus when given it for a birthday present by my (non religious) mother one birthday. It sat on my shelf for nearly a year, and finally this December I picked it up to have a good look. I'd no idea what it would really be about. Was it a fictional story? Historical account? Bible companion/gospel?

Jesus is, indeed, a completely fictional novel. It's not a bible story, a companion reader or anything else. So then... the next set of questions, some of which raised by friends who saw me reading it. As a Christian was it 'okay' to read it? Where was Chopra writing from? Was he a believer? was he trying to disprove Jesus in some way? What, in all essence, was this book I was holding?

Well, I'm not completely sure I can answer all those questions, and in the end, I decided i didn't need to know everything in order to read it. It wasn't, as far as i could tell, an attack on christianity, and really as long as i went into it knowing where I stood, what harm could come of it?

After reading the Forward I discorved that the book is aiming to look at the life of Jesus that is NOT included in the Bible - that is to say, the middle years between childhood (we know little about him after his miraculous birth aside from when he speaks to the crowd at age 12ish) and his 30's when he comes back on the scene as the 'grown up' Jesus. I still wasn't positive on chopra's slant, but it didn't seem negative.

The character of Jesus is an extremely human one, in Chopra's depiction. though I have come to loosely deem the novel 'biblical fiction', his work drawing from characters and scenarios we find in the bible, actions and experiences and even the way Jesus is portrayed within the novel is extremely fictionalized.
They story focuses less on Jesus's Godliness, and more on his human side, creating a relatability which, with caution, allowed me to feel a great connection with the story and, given my beliefs, with the actual Jesus. While of course Jesus did not actually behave as the character does in the novel, the experiences he goes through in his journey to realize his own power, destiny, holiness -however you want to word it - provided a great example for any Christian believer.

It is dangerous to remove the aspects of Jesus that make him truly God, as is essentially done within the novel (though he eventually takes ownership of being God's son) and yet as we read, the Jesus in the novel struggles between his own desires, and those of God, the path of resistance and acceptance, fighting and succumbing. The matters of will and faith were such that despite the details not align with the Bible, the messages of Faith, following, and trust in God were strong and moving, and extremely benifical to me as a Christian.

Perhaps a rather controversial novel, and yet I found it only strengthened my Faith and my understanding of God, even as it highlighted how Jesus wasn't. The contrast between saviour and a humanized character emphasied both Godly nature and human nature in a way that further connected me to the former, and widened my view of my own faith journey.

Whether you're a Christian or not, this novel may not be for you, but I for one, found it both extremely enjoyable, and also beneficial in strengthing my views, faith and perspectives while allowing for a wider angle view of both my religion, the art of fiction, and Jesus himself.

Irma Voth

Irma Voth, the most recent novel by acclaimed Canadian author Miriam Towes is a tale of subtleties and secrets, where the dramatic becomes the understated, and the mere media of story reveals the interwoven complexities of a culture out of time.

Irma is young woman in her early twenties dealing with the loss of family, within the context of extreme proximity. After eloping with her then boyfriend Jorge, a mexican local, Irma - a canadian-born mennonite - is shunned from her family home. Though she works and lives just the other side of the Voth's farm, and can literally see her parent's house from her bedroom window, Irma is secluded and cut off from their lives except for the brief (forbidden) interactions with her rebellious younger sister Aggie. When a film crew move in the the only other house on the adjacent property to commence filming a story which will encompass the spirit of Mennonite life, Irma is immediately pulled into a whole new world of experiences and understandings as she is recruited as the crew's translator. Meanwhile, traditional and closed minded Mr. Voth sides with the majority of the Mennonite's views in their attempt to evict the film crew from their land and continue their lives in piece.

This story delves deep into the concepts of family, tradition and obedience within the context of broken and upturned homes. Small rebellions and unspoken words weave their way throughout the story to reveal a life style that is both sepearte from and inherantly connected to the context in which it thrives. While Irma and her sister Aggie try to find an identity of their own under the shadow of their father's dissapproval, they quickly learn that there is a fine line between necessary freedoms and ill planned rebellion.

Fraught with themes of freedom, supression, identity and expression, Irma Voth is a wonderful tale of a simple life style, complete with all it's over complicated relations.

Crying Over

Spilt Milk, By Lana Citron is an all together confusing thing of a novel. Citron writes in a style that is at once intriguing and infuriating. Stream of consciousness like, and rambling, there is a uniqueness and authenticity there that I want to like, but the fact of the matter is, the styling is just poorly done.
The first fault that I had with the novel, aside from the style, was that of character. It's lacking. The novel is written both in the perspective of Murrey, the character who is first introduced, and switches often to that of Manfredi, the second main. This in itself is not a problem AS a style, but failed again, in the execution. For quite a while I as the reader was unsure whether Murrey Pouge was a male or female character, which meant that I had no description of Murrey's character - whether physical or otherwise which might clue me in. Manfredi, however, was obviously male, and had red hair. Eventually I realized that Murrey was indeed female, but the switching of perspectives coupled with the vague style of writing and lack of character definition left me feeling lost and confused. Which "she" was Manfredi referring to? Was Murrey describing her romantic relation with a girl this time, and a male next time? I couldn't keep track.

By the time I finally got a grip on who was who, and a vague feeling of what was going on, I was nearly half way through the novel and had already considered giving up on it more than once. But, being persistent I ploughed ahead.

I did, eventually, begin to invest somewhat in Murrey's semi-tragic (though not all together explained) existence and her relationship with Manfredi - it was not until the two come together that the narrative styling becomes much more coherent - but the feelings were short lived. Just when I felt some - albeit shallow - connection to the two, they were wrenched apart with no explanation, the narrative returning to its cryptic "shes" & "hes" and the reader was thrust roughly back to where they began.

The ending of the novel, just as ambiguous as the start, was not disappointing in its plot so much as the delivery. Queue typical scene of estranged daughter coming home, mother dropping whatever glass object is in hand (in this case, the all the more cheesy bottle of milk) and a return to a previous childhood state of living. Then bring on the exaggerated perfection of a taxi down the lane, a turning of the head just in time - so cinematic it's sickening - but no, the author is acknowledging the cheese factor with a tossed aside "but no, that isn't how it happened at all". Finally, some self humour and clarity, come too late, and too jarringly different from the style of the rest of the novel.

The one thing I would give this novel is its drive to stay connected to realistic rather than romantic paintings of love - the theme which it claims on its very cover - but even then, the intertwining stories (which we, in the end, come to see as merely half truths) still strive for a romantic nature that harkens back to age old loves. And realistic interpretations - while imperfect - do not have to be anti-love stories, and made up lies, but rather simple ins and outs of life.

A confused, jarring, disconnected novel, I have to say i was mad enough to yell at it on several occasions, and ultimately slam it across the table upon its completion. Spilt Milk does not come highly recommended.

Jane & Charlotte

Despite having graduated with an honours BA in English, being an avid reader, having read "the Eyre Affair" and taking Women's Lit, I still had never fully read Charlotte Bronte's iconic Jane Eyre. I know.. I know..
I was assigned it in my Women's Literature class several years ago (in which we read only books by female authors, so the Bronte's were bound to come up) but I never finished the novel. After a few disappointments over other such novels as Austen's "Mansfield Park" which I could not finish do to mounting school work and sheer boredom, I was not exactly pumped for Jane Eyre. To be honest, I was weary. And when I turned that first page and began reading about a pretentious rich family in the way-back years with a little unloved precocious child of five dotting the pages with mild interest, I must say my worries increased. Then hit me up with a sentimentalist style fainting & phantom scene in the red room and my doubts seemed all but confirmed.

So it is no surprise, then, that Jane Eyre was set aside and the vacuum of school work that somehow makes most assigned readings that much more difficult to complete swallowed Jane whole. But I knew I had to give her a second chance. It was JANE EYRE for goodness sake. If only to be able to properly call myself a book lover, English graduate and/or writer, I had to finish it. And of course, having read the Eyre Affair without properly completing the original, was pretty bogus.

So this September, I gave it another try. Spurred by the need for new reading, something to fill the giant whole that was school, and my imminent trip to England, Jane Eyre seemed the perfect fit. Again I went through the sentimental styling of the first 40 pages without much heart, but a bit more faith, and, coming out the other side into the fifties and onward, the story picked up, added character, and began to grow within Jane.

Jane Eyre, of course, is a classic. And yes, it is and 'old classic' meaning the style of writing the diction, the wordiness, is still all present, but in the simplest of terms: Jane Eyre is actually one of the classics you would LIKE reading. It is not just 'good' because it is solid writing etc, it is enjoyable.

Despite the setting and the (sometimes rambling) diction that can occasionally get cumbersome, Jane is a timeless character. Regardless of setting or story, I believe it is Jane herself that transcends the ages. Readers can identify with her, or at least some aspect of her. She is straight forward and unafraid to speak her mind, in most cases, making her both a modern and interesting character. She is pure and sweet, but intelligent and determined, so that despite her meek lifestyle or simple tales, there is a passion and fire within her that does not allow her to be trodden upon or downcast long. It is the balance of sturdy levelheadedness and passion where passion is due that makes Jane such a full and rich character.

Being written in a first person narrative, that is, Jane's, the reader gets a full picture of our main character, and in this novel's case, that is extremely key. It is a story which centres around character not only in plot but in emotion, relevancy, and style. Without a character as strong as Jane the novel would indeed be flat, a pattern which I find often in books of a similar period. The novel centres around character development and flushes out each aspect of her nature in detail, something which I personally found novels like "Mansfield Park" lacked. Because the settings are so far removed from our present day scenarios, a strong sense of character is imperative to give the reader something to hold on to, to attach their hearts to so that they might think and feel for Jane. Without this connection, we as readers no longer care what happens to the characters and therefore lose interest in the story itself.

Jane Eyre, though it can be long and occasionally tedious, holds that connection throughout the novel so that despite the rather simple plot, we care for Jane, and thus must strive to keep reading. Though the story may include death, betrayal, lies, love, fires, proposals, estranged family members and large inheritance, it is not a plot-driven novel. Entirely wrapped up in the character of Jane, and to an extent the secondary character of Rochester, the novel finds a relate-ability which transcends time and circumstance in order to connect with the reader and pull them in.

at last a classic with feeling - true feeling - not the sentimentalist Pamela-esque sense of feeling. Jane Eyre is a classic I would actually recommend for enjoyment, not just study.

Noruwei no Mori

Norwegian Wood is a story about love, sex, relationships, and the complexities which define and effect the interactions of the human species. A novel centered around loss and pain, Haruki Murakami paints a picture of late 1960's Tokyo fraught with confusion, emotion, and the breaking down of the human mind. Norwegian Wood is in many ways a beautiful tale of tragedy and confusion. The style and cadence of Murakami's writing, and specifically his dialogue hold a distinctive, snappy honesty rarely found. The chracters are flawed, real, and therefore that much easier for the reader to invest in as we follow them along these winding roads of instability and small victories. The bluntness with which chracters unfold topics and events of their lives is refreshing, though occasionally jarring.

Written originally in 1987, and dealing with the 60's there was a sense of era about the novel that really seemed to capture the spirit of the times - which though enjoyable for the atmosphere of it, occasionally left me feeling I was a bit young to fully appreciate all the underlying currents of the time period in which the novel was set. [myself having been born in 1988] Never-the-less the feel of the novel was an authentic and wonderfully mystical one, permiated by a love of music, free spirits and soft revolutions which coloured the novel and its tragedies with all the more clarity.

A complex novel which attempts to unravel the logistics of the soul, sanity and love and death, Murakami questions convention and loyalties as the main character, Toru Watanabe stumbles his way from adolescents into full-blown accountable adulthood.

Toru is a resolutely optomistic character that finds himself hopelessly in love with his deceased best friend's girlfriend Naoko. Despite her sweetness and beauty, Naoko remains emotionally unavailable as she constantly attempts to unravel the sickness within her own mind - a reoccuring theme that is never directly explained nor defined, as mental strangeness and 'brokeness' becomes a concept of relativity which continually infiltrates chracters and relationships as the story unfolds.

In stark contrast to the quaint Naoko is Midori - the spunky, outspoken, short-skirt wearing character from Watanabe's classes. Midori adds a sense of uncertainty, adventure and bluntness to Watanabe's life previously missing, and he and Midori become odd but close friends. As Watanabe manueveres his way through university, he continually finds himself re-evaluating and analyzing not only his relationships, but the way in which he interacts with those closest to him.

Because of this constant evaluation of relationships, the novel is completely interwoven with explicit interactions of sex and erotic encounters. Though this certainly adds merit to Watanabe's inner dilemas - namely, the fine lines between love, sex, romantic relationships and friendships - the explicit nature was certanly more than my person taste appreciated, and is something to keep in mind and be advised of for readers.

Despite these less than appealing scenes, the novel is a well written stylistic tale of the downfalls in human nature, and the inexplicable connections humans form with one another.