Somah's Blog

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

More Like a Lost Opportunity
My review on Amazon.com

As it turned out, Dan Brown had squandered a golden opportunity to enthrall his readers with this much anticipated Robert Langdon novel. He also managed to mar his reputation as a serious writer and entertainer with the exceedingly bad characters, including Robert Langdon's, with which this book is rife. As much as I enjoyed reading Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code, I'm afraid Mr. Brown has "lost" me with this one.

With that said, I did enjoy some aspects of the book. I'll start with what I liked first.

Dan Brown is known to load up his books with a ton of research on the subjects in question (i.e. Vatican, Rome and Catholicism in Angels and Demons; Christianity, Paris, Jesus and Knights Templar in The Da Vinci Code) and this book is no exception. I really enjoyed reading about the Masons and their history and rituals. I also got to learn about Noetic Science, which I didn't realize existed prior to reading this book. Brown's descriptions of Washington D.C. and the Capitol were immersive and fascinating in the same measure.

But then we had to deal with characters and plot, which brings us to the portion of this review where I get to tell you what I didn't like about the book.

Aside from the fascinating research, everything else was one bad joke after another. The characters, especially Robert Langdon's, were vapid to put it lightly and sadly inconsequential. For the better half of the book, Langdon was inexplicably balking at concepts that a man with his experience (from Angels and Demons and Da Vinci Code) would simply not have. Seriously, most of Robert Langdon's lines were a variation of, "yes, but that doesn't make sense" that's shortly thereafter followed by, "God, now it all makes sense." 

And to add insult to injury, the plot was a mess. It was too predictable, weak and embarrassingly contrived. 

I was really disheartened to see such cheap and amateurish work put out by a writer with such a huge platform. You may enjoy reading this book just for the research that's put into it. But if good character development and believable plots are important to you, The Lost Symbol will end up being lost time you wish you get back.

Orangutan by Colin Broderick

Bird's-Eye View of The Descent of Man
My review on Amazon

Colin Broderick starts his memoir with a warning. "This is not a pleasant story," he says. "In fact, it's downright ugly in places. But it's my story and I'm not going to apologize for it." Well, he's right. It is ugly and indulgent, but a fascinating and well-written ugly and indulgent story.

The fact that Colin is still alive is beyond me. He actually touches upon that in the book: "I had not died. I was alive. I had been through car accidents, I had been stabbed and hospitalized and almost drowned, and now I had fallen off a roof and I was alive ... God was telling me that I should drink." As glad as I'm that he's still alive and well, I think the fact that a lot of drunkards, like him, pull through unscathed dampens the cautionary tale their collective experience is supposed to convey: alcohol kills.

There are some genius moments in the book, like the sage advice Colin gives aspiring writers. "To write you must rewrite. You must be willing to sacrifice your darlings. Rip it apart, throw some of it out--throw it all out if you have to--and rewrite." and his ballsy move to hand Colum McCann--author of Let The Great World Spin--the manuscript of his first novel. He definitely has what it takes to get a book like this into my and your hands.

Colin's story sheds light on alcoholism and Irishmen, which is evidently endemic. Colin admits that "the possibility of not drinking at all was out of the question. My fellow country men would never forgive me." It's pretty hard to quite drinking when everyone around you--your friends, your family and your community--are big drinkers.

Aside from his alcohol and cocaine addictions, Colin actually reminded me a lot of myself, which made his story that much more devastating. He's a bibliophile and a writer and a sensitive SOB. He's a great guy if you're lucky enough to catch him sober.

This was a fast read and written really well. I wonder, however, if Colin has another great book in him or if this is it. Whatever you think of Colin the person, the addict or the flake, you gotta hand it to him as a great writer.

Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx

Forbidden Love, but Love Just the Same

It's astounding how much story is packed into this 55-page epic of love found, squandered, salvaged and ultimately lost forever. From the vivid scenery of the West to the intimate relations between two lovers, this very quick read (took me an hour to read with interruptions) proves to be a force of nature and an exemplary lesson on succinct writing.

I think my imagination to fill in the details has been polluted by having seen the movie first. With that, though, I still very much enjoyed reading the story. Annie Proulx writing is easy and flows well. 

The story of Ennis and Jack is the reality of so many couples in many scoeities, including Western societies that pride themselves with "tolerating" gay people and giving them "rights." The idea of two men falling in love is still largely considered taboo. 

"Brokeback Mountain" is the "Romeo and Juliet" of my generation and the 21st century's. It breaks considerable boundaries and challenges deep-seeded perception of the nature of love.

Great story!

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

Life is but a Series of Corrections
My review on Amazon

The Lamberts are an American family dealing with the universal themes of aging and its indignities, capitalism and its diseases, sexuality and its complications, success and its burdens, depression and its loneliness, family and its expectations and love and its disappointments. 

The characters are intense, raw and very very real. To the sensitive reader, the Lamberts are sad and harsh and disappointing. To the critical reader, they are all of that and much more. Whatever they are or however they're perceived, the Lamberts are one midwestern family you won't soon forget.

Jonathan Franzen writes beautiful prose. He pushes words beyond their boundaries to draw interesting images of human experiences. You'll definitely appreciate his writing when you read the book a second time. 

The book, to me, is about life as a series of successive corrections: mental corrections, attitude corrections, language corrections, behavioral corrections, emotional corrections, moral corrections and economics corrections. It's the endles cycle of making choices, regretting them and correcting them with new choices that you end up regretting and so forth; It's a cycle that's become synonymous with "growth" and "living." 

The complicated and achingly familiar lives of the Lamberts typify that cycle.

I saw a little bit of myself in the Lamberts: in Alfred's sternness, Enid's hopefulness, Chip's uselessness, Gary's madness, and Denise's humanness. Their combined failures and triumphs are epic yet common and their individualism is sincere. The Lamberts are reflections of people we know, including ourselves. Jonathan Franzen did a great job giving each character a distinctive voice and a palpable dysfunction.

When I first read this book six years ago, I thought it was highbrow literature at its best, although I thought the writing at times ostentatious and needlessly protracted. When I picked up the book again this Holiday Season (since the story culminates with a family Christmas get-together,) I fell in love with Franzen's unusual writing style and the fleshed out auxiliary characters whom I neglected to appreciate on my first reading. I really enjoyed reading The Corrections this time around. Although the story is unapologetically raw and deeply sad, it makes a great Christmas read.

I'm looking forward to the new Jonathan Franzen work of fiction and to the theatrical treatment of this story due for release in 2011.

Best Books of the Decade (2000-2009)

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

Let The Great World Spin by Colum McCann

John Adams by David McCullough

Zeitoun by Dave Eggers

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

Bright Shiny Morning by James Frey

Look What Santa Left Us Under The Chirstmas Tree!

Lili under the Christmas Tree. That's my hand petting her. Isn't she adorable?!

Santa came a bit early this year to deliver the most beautiful kitten to our household. Since Mark and I have been really good this year, Santa brought us an adorable Maine Coon, two-month-old little baby girl. She is a little shy right now, but she's so affectionate and loves her treats and the Christmas Tree (I know, we're trying to keep her out of it.)

Please help us welcome our new family member. Many more photos will be posted soon :-)

Lili after her shower, all fresh and clean! She is starting to explore the place, although she's a bit overwhelmed with the space and all the nooks and crannies she can get in and out of.

Most Memorable Music of 2009

The albums (from left to right and top to bottom) are not listed in any particular order.

XX by Xx

Yes by Pet Shop Boys

Tonight by Franz Ferdinand

Three Flights From Alto Nido by Greg Laswell

Taller Children by Elizabeth and The Catapult

Glee (iTunes)

Ready for the Weekend by Calvin Harris

Other Lives by Other Lives

Revolutionary Road Soundtrack

Gary Go by Gary Go

Ocean Eyes by Owl City

Greg Laswell (iTunes)

The Chill by Romano Bilenchi

A Universal Coming-of-Age Story
My review on Amazon

"The chill of suspicion and incomprehension came between me and humankind when I was sixteen." This is how our unnamed protagonist begins his achingly familiar story about becoming a man in the real world.

Living in Tuscany in the 1920's, the protagonist is sixteen-years old and just lost his grandfather to old age. The loss--monumental in every respect--marks a shift in his perception of adult life, and adults in general. Standing on the precipice of adulthood, he studies it as if it's a piece of an overripe apple that he's reluctantly considering buying.

He contends that it isn't "possible to live among other people if all of a sudden they could attack one another with such ferocity." It's his innocence talking and it's precisely the loss of innocence that gives our protagonist the "chill."

Part of the inescapable process of becoming adults is that we shed our childhood innocence and replace it with an armor that helps us navigate the "real world." The shedding process--that inevitable fate--is what's at the core of this book. 

Our unnamed friend's journey into adulthood, as dramatic and chilling as it is at times, is so relevant and real. His encounters with the fragility of friendships, the hollowness of death, the explosion of sexuality and the dullness of shame are timeless and tireless themes that usher us into the world of grownups. He has to learn the hard way to become a man.

I didn't know much about the book when I picked it up a few months back, but I'm so glad I did. Bilenchi's prose in these 84-pages is classical and refined (Ann Goldstein did a wonderful job bringing the Italian text to life with precise and beautiful locution.) In addition to the protagonist's engrossing story, the Italian countryside setting is so delicately and thoroughly described that it makes the story that much more captivating.

This short story managed to capture the essence of adolescence like no other novel or novella has. The shedding analogy I used earlier can really be summarized in one word: rebirth. As we go past our adolescent years we are in fact reborn with calibrated sensibilities and a wiser (or damaged) perspective.

Most Memorable Books of 2009

I've read many books this year, most of which was great with some mediocre and very few bad ones in between. Not all the great books I read were memorable. However, the books below (in no particular order) stood out for one reason or another. They either had an amazing storyline, fascinating characters, beautiful prose, or all of it combined. Links to my reviews are also listed below:

Zeitoun by Dave Eggers | Bright Shiny Morning by James Frey | Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon | The Book of Joe by Jonathan Tropper | The Blue Notebook by James Levine | Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

A Literary Masterpiece with a Soul
My review on Amazon

This book is already an instant classic! It's not only beautifully and lyrically written, but its characters with all their achingly palpable pain, heartbreaking innocence and infectious optimism are impeccably drawn.

Colum McCann writes an epic tale of New York City on an August day in 1974. Anchored in the quicksand of corruption and crime and Vietnam, the City looks up to the sky and observes Philippe Petit walk between the World Trade Centers on a tightrope, as free as the sinking City will never be.

The event is the lynchpin that holds the book together as it tells the story of various interconnected characters: two Irish brothers living in the Bronx and the Black prostitutes they call "friends," a Park Avenue judge and his wife that just lost their only son to war, a group of women mourning their lost sons, four young engineers in Palo Alto hacking fledgling networks, two young artists high on cocaine and delusional grandeur. They live, love, hate, cry, laugh, sell, buy, learn, spit, swear, pray, smile, shoot up, give up, take off, get off, sweat and die as the man above them--an angel, really--live out their true desire to be free, completely unaware they even existed down below; down in the gutter.

True to the City they roam, every character in this book has a strong opinion of the man high above them. Some admire him and some resent him. Some don't care enough one way or the other because this was "New York Fuckin' City. As if it were the only place that ever existed and the only one that ever would" and shenanigans like that were banal and commonplace at best.

One of the characters is Corrigan--an Irish Jesuit Priest who moved from Dublin to New York City in the pursuit of God. He's not looking for any God, he wants "a fully believable God, one you could find in the grime of the everyday." What he ends up finding instead is social calamity and destitution. A city rotting from the inside out. He also falls in love with a woman for whom he would have to abandon his unfound God in order to be with. As he struggles between his desires, he continues to be a selfless giver and the City never ceases to suck the living marrow out of him.

Corrigan is an innocent dreamer with pure ideals and impossible optimism. Ravaged by the City's embrace, he never once let up. "The comfort he got from the hard, cold truth-the filth, the war, the poverty-was that life could be capable of small beauties. He wasn't interested in the glorious tales of the afterlife or the notions of a honey-soaked heaven. To him that was a dressing room for hell. Rather he consoled himself with the fact that, in the real world, when you look closely into the darkness he might find the presence of light, damaged and bruised, but a little light all the same. He wanted, quite simply, for the world to be a better place, and he was in the habit for hoping for it."

Meanwhile, Philippe Petit has "one foot on the wire–-his better foot, the balancing foot. First he slid his toes, then his sole, then his heel. The cable nested between his big and second toes for grip. His slippers were thin, the soles made of buffalo hide. He paused there a moment, pulled the line tighter by the strength of his eyes. He played out the aluminium pole along his hands. The coolness rolled across his palm. The pole was 55 pounds, half the weight of a woman. She moved on his skin like water… he held the bar in muscular memory and in one flow went forward ..."

Claire--another incredible character in the book--is actively mourning the death of her only son in Vietnam when she hears about the man up high in sky and thinks he's "so flagrant with his body. Making it cheap." She resents the man for inviting death at a time she was trying to understand it but couldn't; understand its infinite forms, "death by drowning, death by snakebite ... death by memory loss, death by claymore ... death by paper cuts, death by whoreknife, death by poker game ... death by authority, death by isolation, death by genocide, death by Kennedy ... death by signature, death by silence ... death by performance." She thought the man's performance was death toying with him before taking him away to another rotten world.

I can go on and on calling out every character in the book and list countless more quotations, but I will let you discover this special book on your own. Although the story takes place in NYC, the story is deeply American. The early 1970s was uniquely transitional in American history. That's when America lost its innocence, and NYC exemplified that in every way.

Having said that, this is also a very NY story. Colum's descriptions brought the bankrupt city of the '70s to life and captured its enduring spirit in a way I never realized possible.

Can't do this book justice talking about it, so I'm going to stop now. Just read it. You simply have to!