Lisbon!

We're going to Lisbon for a few days, like it's not hot enough here already. I have to admit that I actually hate heat and sun and that I get all red and blistered even with factor 50 sunscreen but the masochist in me desperately wanted to try something new. Now, despite the fact that I don't speak a word of Portuguese, I even doubt I've ever heard anyone speak it, I couldn't leave without locating all the bookstores first on the off chance that I might encounter some paper goodies to take home. Most people get cheesy souvenirs to remember their trips by, I get books...

Betty White: 88 and still great

In May this former Golden Girl became the oldest person to host Saturday Night Live. Her appearance made the ratings sky rocket and was all due to the "Betty White to Host SNL (Please)" facebook campaign.

"I really have to thank Facebook … I didn’t know what Facebook was, and now that I do know what it is, I have to say, it sounds like a huge waste of time. I would never say the people on it are losers, but that’s only because I’m polite...People say ‘But Betty, Facebook is a great way to connect with old friends.’ Well at my age, if I want to connect with old friends, I need a Ouija board. Needless to say, we didn’t have Facebook when I was growing up. We had phonebook...but you wouldn’t waste an afternoon with it."

No matter what people say, she's one of those rare comedians who gets better with age. Check out one of her sketches, muffins will never be the same again...

Everything is Illuminated, the movie

Based on the novel by Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated is the directorial debut of actor Liev Schreiber who also wrote the screenplay. I read the novel several years ago after falling madly in love with Foer’s mesmerizing Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close aka one of the best novels ever written.

Maybe my expectations were too high but I was kind of disappointed by Everything is Illuminated which usually means if the first 100 pages don’t excite me I either a) abandon the book or b) which was the case here, start skimming the pages to get to the end. The result: I know I read the novel but I don’t remember what it was about.

Seeing as I’m a masochistic sucker for book based movies (which are always inferior to the novel), I couldn’t help but torture myself. Everything is Illuminated, the movie however is one of those oddities together with High Fidelity where the movie takes an otherwise bland book to an entirely new stratosphere.

Jonathan Foer (Elijah Wood) obsessively collects items from his family, from toothbrushes to retainers to scraps of paper which he then seals in ziploc bags and pins to a wall in his house to record his family history. He is a collector, scared to lose touch with the past. Before his grandmother dies, she hands him a photograph of his grandfather together with the woman who helped get him out of Ukraine during the Second World War. Jonathan doesn’t have a lot to remember him by and decides to undertake a quest to Ukraine to find the woman, thank her and hopefully learn more about his grandfather. Here he is aided by Alex, his translator who is obsessed with western culture, Alex’ grandfather who is their blind and tormented driver and Sammy Davis Jr. Jr. the grandfather’s slightly “deranged seeing-eye bitch”.



Schreiber, probably best known for his role as Sabletooth in Wolverine, uses both poetic and breathtakingly beautiful imagery, bringing this otherwise ordinary tale to life with a little magic and a lot of grace. He effectively combines both humor and drama and follows the plot of the book quite accurately (or so I’m told), occasionally elaborating on certain events to suit the movie.

Everything is Illuminated is an endearingly quirky road movie that made me laugh out loud during the first half (Eugene Hutz as Alex is simply brilliant) but the closer they get to the tragic truth, the gloomier it gets. It is a dazzling combination of vivid colors, powerful emotions and wonderful performances. In the end, all characters, even the crazy ones, gain their own sparkling illumination in this story about relationships and connection. I laughed, I cried and basically loved it.

Yann Martel

Last Thursday, Yann Martel came to De Groene Waterman to promote his new novel Beatrice and Virgil. He was interviewed by Dutch author Johan de Boose who did quite an appalling job: hadn’t thought his questions through, constantly missed Martel’s point and his English was questionable at best but Martel luckily, was entertaining, refreshing and very poignant.

He started off with how and when he became a writer which for a budding novelist like myself was very interesting and inspiring. He naturally talked a lot about Life of Pi for which he received the Booker Prize in 2002, a novel that basically everyone I know loves. I on the other hand, thought it was just ok. I didn’t hate it but a boy sharing a lifeboat with a tiger, topped off with a spiritual sauce of religion and philosophy didn’t exactly get me excited still, it wasn’t bad.

His new novel, Beatrice and Virgil, deals with 2 writers, the Holocaust (which he went on and on about), a donkey and a monkey. The man likes his animals. I’m a bit hesitant to read it to tell you the truth because I’m afraid that like Life of Pi, his allegories will get the best of me. Hearing him talk about it has left me intrigued and alarmed so we’ll see.

Now, his next novel will be set in Portugal and will star three chimpanzees but he isn’t quite sure about the details yet. When Johan de Boose finally asked him why it takes him so long to write his novels, a question that was both ignorant and disrespectful in my opinion, Martel talked about his extensive research, intricate writing process and a little side project he’s got going: What is Stephen Harper reading?

Stephen Harper is the Canadian Prime Minister (Martel lives in Canada by the way) and Martel seriously doubted this man’s capacity to rule a nation seeing as he admitted to not having read a book since high school because he has bigger fish to fry now. So what does Harper know about creativity? Art? Humanity? Scared that such an individual might lead them to their downfall, Martel has vowed to send Harper a book accompanied by a letter every two weeks “that has been known to expand stillness”. You can follow his quest, the books, letters and occasional responses on the website What is Stephen Harper Reading? A noble and whimsical endeavor indeed.

The Art of McSweeney's

This book showcases both the extraordinary beauty and fascinating history of McSweeney's productions including their Quarterly Journal, novels and magazines The Believer and Wholpin. Besides juicy anecdotes, hundreds of images from napkin sketches to final covers have been included to illustrate their innovative methods and styles, complemented by several interviews with participating designers, artists and illustrators. The result is a (hopefully) dazzling book by the people who have turned books into visually and intellectually stimulating works of art.

Now, I tried to buy this book several months ago but the publication date kept on getting pushed back, needless to say I am now really excited to announce that it has finally been released and will be in my possession in the near future!

Of Bees and Mist

I’m not going to lie, I bought this book because I thought the cover was pretty. Sometimes, it’s just that simple. The cover made the book seem so magical and old-fashioned, the perfect companion for hot and rainy summer evenings and that’s exactly what it turned out to be.

Of Bees and Mist is the debut novel of Erick Setiawan, an Indonesian author who moved to the United States with his family at sixteen. Although he loved literature, he ended up studying computer sciences to make sure he’d never have to talk in class. He’s that shy. A year after he started working as a software engineer, he realized his heart wasn’t in it and gave up everything for his love of the written word which resulted in the oddly titled Of Bees and Mist.

It’s a multi-layered novel about three generations of women, jealousy, deception, hope and triumph. What could have been a painfully predictable Danielle Steel saga is turned upside down by a pinch of magic realism. I’m not a fan of the genre because it’s usually chaotic, frustrating and occasionally bewildering but Setiawan has found the perfect balance and has created a richly atmospheric and memorable piece of fiction that feels like a fairytale but clearly isn’t.

This bewitching and sweeping modern fantasy of two rival families predominantly deals with Meridia whose father vanishes daily in clouds of mist while her mother simply forgets about her. So when her true love Daniel proposes, it’s her ticket out of the madness. Or so it seems. Behind the façade of treacherous bees that is her new home, she will uncover shocking secrets and unfathomable mysteries that will take her years to unravel and in doing so, she will change the fates of all those who surround her. Ok, it sounds a bit corny but it’s a modern fable / gothic novel / love story so what did you expect?

The novel is set in an old-fashioned (Mediterranean ?) town, where there are no cars or telephones but there is a cinema and life revolves around the marketplace adding to the timeless quality which is also reminiscent of the magic realism of masters such as Marquez or Allende. Yet contrary to most fairy tales, there are no women who need to be saved here, it’s actually the women who do most of the saving and ass-kicking creating a modern twist to a novel that deals with an age old issue, relationships between lovers, parents, siblings and friends.

Of Bees and Mist is an intoxicating domestic drama (never thought I’d use those words together) filled with passion, ghosts, evil mother-in-laws and delightfully written prose.

The Prom Date

Arrested Development is a highly underrated and phenomenal sitcom that was sadly cancelled in 2006 after only 2,5 seasons. It's a quirky and hilarious show that combines wonderful dialogues and absurd situations with some of today’s greatest comic talents. Two of its stars, Jason Bateman and Will Arnett have now re-united for a funny short promoting Orbit gum called The Prom Date. Check it out.

The Believer Book of Writers Talking to Writers in Dutch!

I’ve had my eye on this intriguing beauty by McSweeney’s for quite some time so I was mildly ecstatic when I found a copy for €5 at the Boekenfestijn. Ok, it was a translation but for €5 I lowered my standards. Big mistake! At home I discovered that the cover was slowly detaching itself from the rest of the book and that the ignorant bastards at Lebowski publishing actually decided to cut 12 of the original 23 interviews because some authors just weren’t popular enough in Belgium and the Netherlands which is simply outrageous.

The entire concept behind this book is getting to know your favorite authors better and discovering new ones, a concept which was brutally violated by the puritanical censorship of Lebowski who believe that award-winning writers like John Banville, Orhan Pamuk, Marjan Satrapi, Richard Powers and Tom Stoppard just to name a few, aren’t good enough.

The 11 conversations that did make the cut, are inspiring, funny, thought-provoking and somewhat dull (sorry Lydia Davis). Authors like Paul Auster, Ian McEwan, Haruki Murakami, David Sedaris and many more share personal information about what drives them, their writing habits and also talk about their latest novels. Now, the interviews were originally published in The Believer between 2005 and 2007 making some information very dated to say the least. The best example is the David Foster Wallace piece. This talented author committed suicide two years ago but is one of the lucky few who survived the Dutch downsizing. His talk with Dave Eggers is simply heart-breaking considering he was still full of hope at the time.

I personally believe that translating this book was a completely useless, not to mention infuriating, endeavor. By waiting so long, the information is out of date and creates a heard all that before feeling yet certain personal questions remain interesting but it’s not enough to make this book actually work. The original (uncensored) version which was published several years ago will without a doubt have been a treat to read back in the day. Sadly, interviews are quickly dated making them lose some of their relevance, no matter how good they are. All I can say for now is, beware of the Dutch version which is appalling, simply appalling!

Dedication

I've been looking for this movie for several years now. It's another quirky and bitterwseet Sundance favorite filled with tortured souls and existential comedy, just the way I like it. Dedication is the directorial debut of the delectable Justin Theroux and was released in 2007. Sadly I've only found it on Region 1 DVD so far.

The best and the worst of Joyce Maynard

During my late teens, I devoured J.D. Salinger’s small yet sensational oeuvre. I was completely captivated by the intoxicating Glass Family whose history was told via several short stories scattered throughout 3 mesmerizing publications. Even now, I am still convinced that A Perfect Day for Bananafish is the best short story ever written. Period.

Salinger himself, was known for his reclusive nature and withdrew from the public eye after the publication of his novella Hapworth 16, 1924 in The New Yorker on June 19, 1965. Yet I desperately wanted to know more about this man, not only because his life was lathered in such mystery and secrecy but because he made me want to read and write. I can honestly say, if it wasn’t for him, my lust for literature wouldn’t have been what it is today so I owe him a great deal.

I went in search of biographies to figure this guy out but due to his private nature not a lot was written about him. I almost gave up my quest when I accidently stumbled across Joyce Maynard’s At Home In The World which I literally read in one sitting. Her memoir isn’t that fabulous but it is one of the only books that gives us a sensational look into Salinger’s personal life seeing as he had an affair with the then 18-year-old Maynard.

When one of her articles was published in The New York Times Magazine in 1972, Salinger who was 53 at the time wrote to her to compliment her writing and warn Maynard of the dangers of publicity. After exchanging many letters, she moved in with him in New Hampshire were she wrote her first book, the memoir Looking Back. Shortly before its publication, their relationship ended quite abruptly.

At Home In The World gives us a detailed account of their relationship and was filled with just the right amount of drama and literary scandal to make my then adolescent heart flutter with excitement.

Maynard has since written several novels of which To Die For is probably her most famous because it was adapted into a 1995 film of the same name, starring Nicole Kidman, Matt Dillon and Joaquin Phoenix and was directed by Gus Van Sant. I had never read any of her novels and even kinda forgot about her until I saw that Flow magazine featured her latest book, Labor Day, as their book of the month.

Labor Day tells the story of thirteen-year-old Henry who lives with his mother, Adele who is an emotional wreck as a result of her divorce. One day a mysterious and bleeding man begs for their help at the Pricemart. For reasons unknown to me, they take him home which naturally changes their lives forever.

As you might have guessed it’s sentimental, slightly predictable and told by a pubescent boy with boobs on the brain. Luckily it’s a quick and light read so not too much time was wasted on it. Labor Day wasn’t terrible, just not my cup of tea but if you like your novels short, sweet and sensitive then you’ve found a winner here.

Bye Bye Baking Blues

I finally got a chance to test my gorgeous Hummingbird Bakery cookbook. I was hesitant to buy this at first because I already had most of the recipes scattered in a couple of dozen other books but at €5 I just couldn’t resist this mouth-watering masterpiece. Thanks to this book I baked decent cookies for the first time in my life. After countless attempts over the past few years I simply gave up as the result was always rock hard and semi-raw, don’t ask. But now, I was able to bake deliciously divine oatmeal and raisin cookies that actually looked and tasted like real (meaning store bought) cookies and not as some homemade mess. There are still a lot of recipes I want to try but if you love to bake, you can’t go wrong with this book seeing as these recipes are spot on!

Another new addition to my overflowing shelf of cookbooks is The Hairy Bikers' Family Cookbook which is filled with traditional British dishes combined with spicy oriental influences. I basically love their shows and their perpetual witty banter so I desperately wanted one of their books. I’m trying some recipes tomorrow but all I can say for now, is that the book looks great and is filled with charming anecdotes and funny photographs.

For those of you who don’t know the Hairy Bikers phenomenon, it’s slightly similar to the Two Fat Ladies show and it consists out of Dave Myers and Si King who have travelled the world and Britain on their motorcycles while cooking local dishes in the most unusual locations. This combination of cookery and travelogue is also just so darn funny!

Invisible

I have to admit that I haven’t read a lot of Paul Auster, besides The New York Trilogy almost a decade ago and Auggie Wren’s Christmas Story. Although I have several of his books on my To Be Read pile, I just never get round to it because newer fiction always gets in the way. Now as luck would have it, one of my latest additions just happened to be his new novel Invisible which I started and finished almost immediately.

Invisible is Adam Walker’s fragmentary memoir which is divided in 4 parts and each is told by a different narrator.

In the first part, Adam Walker, an American poet tells us about an encounter that changed the course of his life. In 1967 during his second year at Columbia University, he meets Rudolf Born, a Swiss visiting professor at the university’s School of International Affairs, and his intense French companion Margot at a party. Adam and Rudolf join forces and start a literary magazine during which Adam becomes enthralled by Margot but this frivolous threesome is soon broken up by a random act of violence perpetrated by Born and witnessed by Walker.

38 years later, Adam is dying and asks his old university friend Jim to write his memoir which will be sent to him in installments that contain more sordid details of Adam’s youth and a disastrous stay in Paris where he encountered the man that turned his life upside down and once again he got caught up in a tangled web full of deceit, passion and murder.

I loved Invisible and it was as the cover predicted, a real page-turner. Auster’s prose is elegant and filled with self-referential innuendo’s that intrigue and intoxicate. The male characters ranging from tortured hero to evil genius are spectacular but sadly, the women are purely ornamental and pawns to be played out against each other.

The story is simple, shocking and keeps you in a tight strangle hold until the very last page. Yet despite my initial awe, I have to admit that the more I think about it, the less sense it makes. Auster is on a quest for the truth but with so many conflicting characters, there are no definitive answers which makes Invisible an electrifying enigma to unravel.

An oddly detached male narrator roaming New York, language and identity, a random dramatic incident, multiple narrators, ruminations on the nature of writing and several stories within stories make this a quintessential Auster novel and a joy to read.

The Goddess Guide

My mother has always tried to make me more girly. Without the occasional brutal intervention, she would shower me with nick-nacks, make-up and baby pink clothing. Her idea of a perfect afternoon is splurging on clothes, crèmes and anything with angels on it (long story). Sadly, I like to read. As you might know, I am not a big fan of shopping, ok I love buying books, DVD’s and polka dot dresses but that’s about it. Seeing as I’m no Paris Hilton, she kinda lucked out there but that doesn’t keep her from trying.

Her latest attempt to win me over to the dark side was The Goddess Guide. She actually thought that because it’s a book it might get through to me. The Goddess Guide is made to look like a fashionista’s scrapbook and is actually one giant collage of little texts, drawings and photographs. Inside you find everything a girl should know about where to shop, pantyhose, packing your suitcase, facial care, Ebay, nylon, Christian Louboutin, bra’s, bags, zits, ironing, birds, bling, wine, Iceland, art and cellulite just to name a few absurdities.

It’s fun, pretty but the entire concept really made me laugh proving that I’m definitely not the target audience. The lay-out is impressive and the cover is truly luscious and velvety. It’s a great gift idea but I doubt I’ll ever actually read it. But who knows, it might come in handy if I ever have a, god forbid, kashmir crisis.

Blue Valentine

I can’t wait until this movie is released! This indie gem has gotten phenomenal reviews from both the Sundance and Cannes film festival. As usual it will probably be one of those wonderful movies that slips in under the radar and is ignored by the general public due to the lack of CGI, promotion and big stars. The story is simple: the evolution of a contemporary marriage but the acting and dialogue in the rare clips I’ve seen online already seem sublime.