Book Review: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime

Author: Mark Haddon
Genre: mystery novel
Length: 221 pgs.
available for purchase here ($5-10)

This is a really cool concept. The story is told from the perspective of a
15-year old autistic savant. He lives in England and loves mathematics, Sherlock Holmes, and Toby his pet rat. He's extremely gifted at logic and math, but can't perceive emotion nor express it to accurately communicate his feelings. I read somewhere that it is likely that this character's particular type would classify as Asperger's.

At the beginning of the story, the endearing narrator comes across a "murder victim" as he refers to it, (a dead dog), and with his unrelenting ambition and love for mysteries, he takes it upon himself to solve this murder mystery, (while simultaneously writing a novel about all the subsequent events). It's really quite a cozy and intriguing read once you get into the characters and events--and funny, too. It's an impressive piece of writing, especially considering the author is not autistic and had to put himself in such a mindset throughout the entire novel's composition.

Summing it up well:
"The most lovely and unexpected first-person narrator...Gloriously eccentric and wonderfully intelligent."
- The Boston Globe

"To get an idea of what Mark Haddon's moving new novel is like,...think of The Sound and the Fury crossed with The Catcher in the Rye and one of Oliver Sack's real-life stories."
- The New York Times

Excerpt:
"Terry, who is the older brother of Francis, who is at the school, said...they didn't let spazzers drive rockets that cost billions of pounds. ...I'm not a spazzer, which means spastic, not like Francis, who is a spazzer, and even though I probably won't become an astronaut, I am going to go to university.... But Terry won't go to university. Father says Terry is most likely to end up in prison. Terry has a tattoo on his arm of a heart shape with a knife through the middle of it. But this is what is called digression, and now I am going to go back to the fact that it was a Good Day."

book review: Catcher in the Rye

Author: J.D. Salinger
Genre: Narrative Fiction
Length: 277 pgs.
Available for purchase here ($7-10)

Influencing myriad readers since its initial publication in 1945, this timeless and impossibly famous "coming-of-age" story is one that breaks the rules in a truly badass, authentic and amusing way. Shortly before Christmas break, 15-year old Holden Caulfield gets kicked out of Pencey Prep School and impulsively decides to venture around New York City before going home to face his parents. A lot of the story consists of Caulfield describing the people, places and things that he comes across--and then reflecting on his troubles. His scatter-brained ideas represent his inner turmoil and conflictedness about the past and the future.

As he narrates through his adventures, Caulfield uses terms like "flitty" to describe pervs, and "phony" to describe people who aren't worthy of his time (a.k.a. the 1950s version of a modern day 'd-bag' or 'tool'). Other staple terms include lousy, goddamn, madman and big bang. The speaker's tone, dialect and vocabulary were so amusing--and the timeline and plot kept me in suspense. Somehow, even after majoring in English, I only read this book for the first time last week at age 25. I couldn't put it down, it was so wonderful. I was reading it on the subway the other day and couldn't help but laugh out loud several times during the ride.

My favorite quote from the novel was this:

"You ought to go to a boys' school sometime. Try it sometime," I said. "It's full of phonies, and all you do is study so that you can learn enough to be smart enough to be able to buy a goddam Cadillac some day, and you have to keep making believe you give a damn if the football team loses, and all you do is talk about girls and liquor and sex all day, and everybody sticks together in these dirty little goddam cliques."

book review: Just Who Will You Be?

Author: Maria Shriver

Genre: Self-Help/Leisure
Length: 91 pgs.
Available for purchase here ($3-10)

This is a short, sweet, soul-searcher type of book. You can read it in one sitting and it has a refreshing message.

Shriver, niece of the Kennedy family and wife of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, reflects on how up until a certain point, her life had wholly been about living up to others' expectations. During an awakening, she realized it was okay to not always have a plan of action for where you're headed next. Shriver encourages each reader to be an individual and to not be afraid of changing, evolving and "updating" oneself accordingly. She goes on to tell about the graduation speech she gave for her son's senior high school class and how afterward, students and parents urged her to turn the speech into a book. And Just Who Will You Be is the result.

Here's an excerpt:
"...sometimes life happens to you and--bingo!--your idea of who you think you are just goes up in smoke. That's what happened to me. One day out of nowhere...I was asked to resign. ....Just like that, my career was gone, and with it went the person I'd been for twenty-five years."

book review: Hiroshima

Author: John Hersey
Genre: Journalistic Non-fiction
Length: 152 pgs.
Available for purchase here (new $7, used $3)

Author John Hersey's account of Hiroshima offers the best journalistic reporting on the effects of the first atom bomb, dropped on the city of Hiroshima in 1945. The NYU journalism dept. called Hersey's account the "finest piece of journalism of the 20th century." Hersey tells the story with important background information, but largely from the perspectives of six different survivors of the bomb. He introduces each survivor as a character, describing their life in 1945 and what they were doing that day up until the bomb was dropped. Then he describes the horrific devastation on the city--from inside the only remaining hospital's overwhelmed corridors--to the banks of the river, lined with people severely burned and waiting for rescue by boat.

In the following years, those who did survive, were labeled hibakushas by their culture, a discriminatory term which translates to "explosion-affected people." Hersey details the aftermath of the bomb and its long-term physical, emotional and economic effects on the hibakushas. He also went back forty years later and includes a whole chapter of updates on each survivor.

It was a hard book to read as it was an overwhelming tragedy of humanity--that's a given. But it was fascinating to read about this major historical event from what felt like a Japanese or non-American perspective. Considering the great linguistic, cultural and geographic barriers, it is truly remarkable that such an account was written in English by an American--and in the 1940s no less. On another note, it was really interesting to learn about the various scientific factors that played roles throughout the events. Lastly, it was a great way to educate myself further on the Japanese culture.

background info:
about the publication of Hersey's Hiroshima

book review: Island of Fantasy

Title: Island of Fantasy, A Memoir of an English Teacher in Korea

Author: Shawn Matthews
Genre: adventure narrative
Length: 188 pgs.
Available for purchase here(paperback - $12, downloadable - $4)

This compelling and hilarious narrative was written by the late Shawn Matthews during his time in South Korea. Matthews, an intense, Radiohead-loving, early 20's eccentric from New York state quickly grew bored with life after college in the states. That's when he stumbled upon an online ad. seeking English teachers at a school on a 'beautiful and exotic island' off of South Korea. He jumped at the chance, quickly packing his things and saying rushed goodbyes to his family. Matthews dreamed of an easy teaching job with plenty of free time to explore his enchanting surroundings on Koje-do, near Busan, SK.

The dream-job Matthews had imagined didn't turn out to be quite what he expected, and the Koje-do island life was markedly different than the one in his Korean fantasies. But it is a truly entertaining read from start to finish. His knack for story-telling and attention to detail take the reader along for the chaotic and suspenseful ride, painting memorably picturesque landscapes and quirky encounters with the Korean locals on Koje-do.

Tragically, the talented writer took his own life in 2006 in China, and he wasn't able to share more of his writings with the world. His blogs and writing style had become so popular that they were the subject of controversy, praise, criticism and envy all across the community of expats in Asia, even posthumously.
Links:
Matthews' blog while in Korea
reviews and other works by Matthews
comments by his readers