The days are dark and too short, the weather is cold and my mood is falling as fast as the thermometer. During my mid-winter blues, I feel that curling up with a snuggly blanket; a cup of strong coffee and a gripping read always help to lift my spirits. Let’s get cosy with 3 books I enjoyed reading!
The Hundred-Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson. I will go ahead and preface by saying that it is a LOVE or HATE book. To begin with, I was intrigued by its title and stunning cover design with embossed feel. It turned out a quirky, amusing, intelligent book that as I was going through its pages, I was falling in love with.
An adventure novel revolving around some of the major international events of the 20th century and involving criminals, several murders, a suitcase full of cash, incompetent police, leaders, presidents, tyrants, multiple plot twists, black humour and some things out of my usual reading zone like pee-slippers (so called because men of an advanced age rarely pee further than their shoes), an atom bomb, lots of vodka and an elephant…. Most of all, I fell in love with Allan’s, the protagonist’s, strong will besides his old age, his care-free attitude to life, his enlightened, entertaining and vivacious, optimistic character "You see Benny, said Allan That’s what I mean by thinking positively. The problem immediately became a whole ton less" (p. 346), as well as his wisdom "Well, now you can see how sensible it is not to start your day by guessing what might happen, said Allan" (p. 209). This book is crying out loud to me: It’s never too late to start over again! The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer: A novel that deals with fragile, often well hidden parts of life, mental illness (schizophrenia) and family grief. An emotional journey is bravely narrated and to my surprise is analysed without much sentimentality, but often treated with dark humour, by the patient – hero of the book. So vividly, he explains: "Mental illness turns people inwards. That’s what I reckon. It keeps us forever trapped by the pain of our own minds, in the same way that the pain of a broken leg or a cut thumb will grab your attention, holding it so tightly that your good leg or your good thumb seem to cease to exist." p. 277 Despite the fact that the main event of the story is revealed in the first chapter of the book, "I’ll tell you what happened because it will be a good way to introduce my brother. His name’s is Simon. I think you are going to like him. I really do. But in a couple of pages he’ll be dead. And he was never the same after that." p.5, there was an underlying suspense throughout that kept me turning the pages and refused to let it go until I had finished it. I believe it’s a groundbreaking story that well deserves to be shared with other readers! The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt is a long and rich Dickensian novel, while being a thoroughly modern work about terrorism in the modern world, the trauma of loss, friendship, love, companionship and the power of art. “You can look at a picture for a week and never think of it again. You can also look at a picture for a second and think of it all your life” I started reading the Goldfinch with enthusiasm and its brilliant opening section kept me engaged, but as my reading was progressing I started losing my interest and I grew impatient for the hero’s adventures in Las Vegas to come to an end. There is no shortage of continuing misery and annoying self-pitying throughout the book, but these fine moments of drama are tempered by hope, humor and massive revelations that kept me awake for several nights. “ Why am I made the way I am? Why do I care about all the wrong things, and nothing at all for the right ones?..... A great sorrow, and one that I am only beginning to understand: we don’t get to choose our own hearts. We can’t make ourselves want what’s good for us or what’s good for other people. We don’t get to choose the people we are.” p. 852
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