Book Review Contest: Lord of the Flies (Reviewed by Kimberley Wong)

The Lord of the Flies discusses the reality of an inborn ‘dark-side’ to human nature, which, by virtue of popular belief, is innate and part of every individual, regardless of age, gender and status. Although the main idea conveyed by the novel would generally seems as one of sheer simplicity, the issue is dealt with in a non-conventional approach, that is, through vast usage of symbolism and conflicts instead of directly as an issue on its own. With this in view, many other issues are raised regarding the sanctity of human beliefs, particularly regarding our inborn conscience which had been identified as the governing feature in the actions of so called civilized human beings. As with the main theme of a darker human nature, other issues are raised throughout the novel in a similarly implied fashion rather than being blatantly stated. The result of Golding’s powerful mixture of various elements applied in addressing such dark issues in impliedly rather than outwardly was an intriguing story about a group of English schoolchildren and their struggle to survive without parental guidance.

One of the key elements addressed in the novel would be regarding the ‘myth’ of innocence, which, as suggested by many human behavioural psychologists would work against age, in line with the belief of Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis where a child is believed to be born a ‘blank-slate’ true to the theory of tabula rasa. Golding sought to challenge this view by creating a scenario in which young children of schooling age, the innocent subjects of wartime, had been left stranded on an island in which survival would become an unguided task. Although the children were used initially as a symbol of innocence and successful socialization of civilized behavior, Golding had suggested that with the passage of time spent in isolation and in sheer need, these children would inevitably revert to a stage which was thought to be unique to the evolution of the human species, effectively unlearning how to function as a civilized society and adopting a more ‘primitive’ lifestyle in its stead. This includes the boys undergoing a ‘shift’ in identities from schoolchildren to hunters and survivors. Golding goes on to illustrate certain aspects of the initial development of the human species such as the ‘discovery’ and utilization of fire and hunting tools. However, in contrast to the long adopted theory of evolution, the characters in the Lord of the Flies seemed to be regressing from a more advanced sate of socialization to a lesser state; effectively from working in cooperative groups to meet their needs of food and shelter to resorting to the barbaric actions of stealing from one another and finally resulting in the death of certain members of their group. Golding had also made a successful comparison between the war which was being waged among the children isolated on the island and that which had been occurring simultaneously in the ‘adult world’ around them in order to raise the issue as to whether the age and influence was a determining factor in violence and aggression as opposed to the idea that they remained mere inborn factors native to human existence.

The Lord of the Flies also makes a successful questioning regarding the position of religion and its significance in the human society. Golding, through the use of vivid imagery and settings, conveys the idea that fear, which has been closely tied to religion through his use of a pig’s head on a spit, his reference to the Devil. This title character, namely, the Lord of the Flies, represents a source of fear among the children which later goes on to terrorize the minds of the children and govern their actions. The Lord of the Flies is a symbolic name of the Devil, Beelzebub. Through the novel, Golding has raised the issue that perhaps the Devil which we fear is not one manifested in flesh and blood but perhaps one that exists in the shadows of their minds instead. The character Simon had been inserted into the novel as one who had the strongest faith in spirituality and who therefore did not fear the ‘Devil’ which the others had feared and had, instead, sought to reveal the truth behind the existence of that devil. Simon later served as a ‘martyr’ character as he later died in the hands of those he needed to convey his discovery to. This representation of martyrdom successfully questions and criticizes society’s understanding of religion and their reactions to matters regarding which they possess little knowledge.

The Lord of the Flies served had also served as a representation of the events encompassed surrounding the Cold War, although on a smaller scale and with less use of politics. Even so, the struggle between two forces of power, Ralph and Jack, had become evident and the others were given the opportunity to select the government which they preferred, that being either one of democracy or totalitarianism, as demonstrated by Ralph’s attempt to establish a government based on equality and free input from the people as opposed to Jack’s method of ruling with an iron fist, even to the extent of intending to kill Ralph, who remained a challenger and inhibitor to his ‘authority’ till the end.

The novel concludes interestingly with the boys being saved from the island by a man stating the war of the outside world had subsided, leading to the cessation of their own battles, but however, with the realization that they had lost their sense of who they were taught and civilized to be by society and had turned into beings little more than savages during their isolation. This reinforces the frailness of human civilization and the little power it has over inborn instincts when faced with absolute physical and mental needs.

Overall, Golding’s novel was one which challenged readers to contemplate the issues which flawed existences had been hidden and denied by the human race for generations, thus bringing about new reflections of the meaning behind being a human being.

Book Review Contest: A Thousand Splendid Suns (Reviewed by Sherene Jawing)

After his first novel, The Kite Runner, was hailed as the international number one bestseller in 2003, Khaled Hosseini released his second novel entitled A Thousand Splendid Suns on May 22 2007. The title of the book refers to a 17th century poem, Kabul, which was written by the Persian poet Saib-e-Tabrizi. It was originally a Farsi poem, but the generally accepted English translation was done by Dr. Josephine Davis.

A Thousand Splendid Suns tells a tale of two brave and remarkable women, Mariam and Laila, living through harsh times in Afghanistan. The novel is divided into four parts. The first part of the book tells the story of Mariam, who was introduced into the story at the age of 5. As the pages are turned, we learn of Mariam as a harami (illegitimate child) of a wealthy business man Jalil who practically abandoned her before she was even born. Mariam spent her bleak childhood with her pessimist mother Nana in the outskirts of Heart. At the age of fifteen, after much hurt and disappointment, Jalil betrayed her by giving her away in marriage to Rasheed, who was more than 30 years older than her, right after Nana committed suicide. Mariam moved to Kabul with her new husband. The initial stages of her marriage started off well, but things started to crumble when she had a miscarriage. That was the beginning of Rasheed’s cold behaviour and verbal and physical abuse towards her.

Laila takes centre stage in Part Two. As a young girl, she was exceptionally bright and was very close friends with Tariq, whom she eventually developed unplatonic feelings for. Laila grew up during the times of war in Afghanistan, which prohibited her from going to school with her other friends. During the war, she lost her friend who was killed by a stray rocket and her two brothers Ahmad and Noor who have become shaheed (martyrs). The lost of her brothers caused her mother to phase into a state of inconsolable mourning, and Laila felt all the more neglected by her mother who was oblivious to the fact that she still had another living child with her. Things worsened when Tariq and his family decides to leave Kabul. He tried to persuade Laila to follow them and even proposed to her, but she refused as she did not want to leave her parents. The second part of the novel ended on a sad note. As they were about to leave, a stray rocket hits her home and killed both her parents, but spared Laila from death.

Part Three sees the lives of both characters intertwine. Laila marries Rasheed after he rescued her from the rubbles and after deceiving her to believe that Tariq was dead. Discontented with her husband’s action, Mariam treated Laila full of hostility despite the girl’s efforts to befriend her. Things between the two women detoriated when Laila announced her pregnancy with Rasheed’s child, which was in fact Tariq’s child she was carrying. Rasheed treated Laila like a queen but changed his mind when she gave birth to a baby girl, Aziza. After some time, Mariam and Laila developed a friendship as both women endured the trails and turmoil of life.

I find the novel to be emotionally draining as from the very first page of the book, you begin to sympathise with the characters and start to get attached to them. As the story progresses, we can see every bit of happiness being pried away from the characters hands caused not only by the war, but mainly by the people that are closest to them. For Mariam’s case, she was plunged into a state of devastation by her own father’s betrayal and just when things started to get along fine with Rasheed, the tables were turned when she had a miscarriage. Laila’s world slowly fell apart one by one starting from the death of her friend. Although both women experienced different types of emotional pain, it was the physical pain and the comfort of their companionship that brought them closer together.

One thing about the novel is that Hosseini cleverly inserts the political calamity within the novel to enhance the intensity of the story. He tells readers about the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan, the rise of the Taliban and even the 9/11 incident in America, by which confirms to the readers that he is using a modern time-frame for the story. Even though the political issues surfaced once in a while, it plays its part as it affects and determines the course of the characters’ lives. The major focus of the story however, would be love and self-sacrifice.

Love and self-sacrifice are two things that go hand-in-hand. Out of love towards her parents, Laila gave up the opportunity to escape Kabul with Tariq. Out of love towards Aziza, Laila was willing to get caught and beaten up by the Talibans just to see her daughter. Out of love towards his son, Rasheed took the risk of getting caught by the Talibans by buying a television set for his son, Zalmai. Out of love towards her friend and family, Mariam surrendered herself to the Talibans to be publicly executed after killing Rasheed with a shovel. Hosseini demonstrates that during hard times, people with a sincere heart and clear motives are willing to set aside everything for the ones they love, even if it means giving up every single thing that they have for the other person.

Overall, A Thousand Splendid Suns is an amazing book that dares to cross the boundaries and tells the truth regarding the lives of those living through the war in Afghanistan. This novel is also confronts readers regarding human nature and the principles that is upheld by everyone. If you are looking for a book that will challenge your soul and gratitude towards the things that you have in life, then this book will do just fine.

Book Review Contest: The Hobbit (Reviewed by Chew Phye Ken)

From the laptop of Ken: ‘The Hobbit’, first published in 1937, sprung from the imagination of JRR Tolkien and is the prequel to ‘The Lord of the Rings’, its more celebrated cousin. I did consider giving you, dear reader, little excerpts of the story but thought it better that the protagonist himself should say a word or two instead. Allow me to introduce you to Bilbo Baggins Esq.

From the quill of Bilbo: This splendid story opens with the introduction of a most famous, a most agreeable and a most heroic hobbit (me), who lives in a comfortable, rather large hole in the ground. Life was a picture of serenity until the arrival of the Grey Wizard. From then on, my world turned topsy-turvy with a flurry of several other visits from dwarves with incredible names (Balin, Dwalin, Bifur, Bofur, Dori, Nori, Ori, Oin, Gloin and oh the list goes on), my being commissioned to partake in a perilous quest and the beginning of countless brushes with death. Allow me to highlight a few of our more remarkable adventures (to whet your appetite). The first was my encounter with the three trolls. How foolish of me to have attempted to steal from them and how humbling to get caught. Our whole company of dwarves ended up as captives as well (and probably would have been the trolls’ next meal were it not for the wiles and wisdom of Gandalf and the timeliness of the morning sun). Then there was the misadventure with the goblin hoard in the depths of their underground lair, the snaking labyrinth that led me to chance upon Gollum (where my life hung in the balance, literally perched upon riddles) and his ring I found along the way. From then on our company found refuge in the warm halls of the mystical Beorn, plunged into woods infested with gigantic spiders, languished in the halls (and prisons) of the wood elves, squeezed ourselves in barrels that floated down river for days and ultimately escaped death in the cavern of a dragon. Oh, there is so much more to tell, but I will give you the pleasure of reading it for yourself.

From the laptop of Ken: The characters crafted by Tolkien are varied and rich, from the endearing tiny hobbits with their large, hairy feet to colossal creatures that inspire nightmares. Leading the cast is Bilbo himself, who is pictured throughout the book as an occasional warrior, constant saviour and ever loyal friend. He starts out as a pushover but by the end is every bit the hero - his transformation gradual but astounding. Guiding him is the venerable and noble Gandalf, a powerful wizard with a conventional long pointed hat, staff and a flowing silvery beard. Although Gandalf is noticeably absent in many crucial parts of the book, his larger than life personality echoes throughout, and you never know when or where he will make his next appearance. The company of dwarves (and their names) provide intermittent comic relief and their valour and love for adventure propels the story to its end. There are villains aplenty, but the two most chilling are undoubtedly the infamous Gollum with his hiss and Smaug the dragon with his red, red scales and wicked fiery breath.

Tolkien’s prose is polished and simple enough for older children to appreciate without it being an affront to an adult’s intelligence. In fact, among the most delightful elements of the book are the rhymes and songs that the characters periodically burst into. This is a stanza of one from the dwarves inviting Bilbo to join them in their quest:

‘Far over the misty mountains cold,
To dungeons deep and caverns old,
We must away ere break of day
To seek the pale enchanted gold.’

And they carry on deliciously …

Tolkien also has a proverbially charming way with dialogue. When Bilbo first meets Gandalf, a straightforward and sensible ‘Good morning’ escapes his lips, to which Gandalf replies ‘What do you mean? Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?’ Who knew that so much could come out of two words that we take for granted every day? Hilarious! Being an Anglophile, I adore that the book has a very English feel to it as well; from afternoon tea and ginger cakes to Cockney accented trolls. Come to think of it, I would not have been surprised if I had discovered that the inhabitants of Middle Earth enjoyed a good game of football. Another plus point for the book is that as simple as the story line is, it is nonetheless attention grabbing. There were some parts that left me holding my breath, even if it was for just a while (Bilbo’s encounters with Gollum and his riddles and the dragon in his lair come to mind) and some parts that left me breathless, panting with the characters as they raced and fought tooth and nail through certain perils. In a nutshell it was a pleasurable read.

A minor disappointment though was the book’s failure to adequately narrate what had promised to be a battle of epic proportions toward the end. It was over as soon as it started and was thereafter explained in a most convenient fashion. I guess you can rarely have it all, but perhaps that was done on purpose, keeping in mind what the author had for a sequel.

Gandalf ends the book by remarking that although Bilbo is ‘a very fine person’, he is ‘only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all’. I am inclined to disagree. Tolkien’s characters (and his story) have left an indelible impression on this little fellow in his wide world.

Schools For Our Enemies (A Review of "Three Cups of Tea")

“As the U.S. confronts Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq, Greg Mortenson, 45, is quietly waging his own campaign against Islamic fundamentalists…Mortenson’s approach hinges on a simple idea: that by building secular schools and helping to promote education – particularly for girls – in the world’s most volatile war zone, support for the Taliban and other extremist sects will dry up.”

(Parade Cover Story, April 6, 2003)

This quote, included in chapter 22 of Three Cups of Tea, provides a useful summary of the life and work of Greg Mortenson, upon which the book is based. In an age where suspicion and hatred continue to reign around the world, even as bombs and rockets rain down on people, we desperately need heroes like Mortenson, a one-man Peace Corps for the twenty-first century. His Central Asia Institute as of 2005 has built 53 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan, each with the help of local communities and with a curriculum approved by the government.

Award-winning journalist David Oliver Relin tells the awesome story of this driven young man who has worked humanitarian wonders in a region of the world where Americans are despised for their bombing campaigns and apparent indifference to the plight of civilians. The title of the book is based on the proverb that says it takes three cups of tea over many months to cement a lasting relationship. During the first cup, you are strangers; with the second cup, you become friends; and by the third cup, you are regarded as family.

Mortenson is family to thousands of Muslims in small villages and refugee camps.

How did this young man get involved in a crusade of love and kindness? He was injured in an unsuccessful attempt to climb to the summit of K2 in 1993. While he was being nursed back to health in Korphe, a remote region of Pakistan, he was stunned to see the village children squatting outside in a makeshift school with no materials or instructor. After recovering, he promised a Balti tribesman that he would return and build a school.

Needing to raise $12,000, Mortenson worked as an ER nurse in California and with great zeal wrote letters to 580 celebrities, businessmen, and others asking for contributions. That didn't work and so the son of Lutheran missionaries sold everything he owned and lived out of his car while continuing this fund-raising effort. It was children who finally turned the tide. The kids in River Falls, Wisconsin, donated $623 in pennies to help build schools in Pakistan; this "Pennies for Peace" program continues today.

One of the most dramatic aspects of this crusade is the emphasis on schools for girls in areas where the Taliban banned education for them. Mortenson believes that literate girls become mothers who have a greater awareness of hygiene, sanitation, and community development. While men and boys often leave villages, the women stay behind and pass on what they have learned to the next generation. Mortenson’s schools reflected new opportunities and liberties for the women of Afghanistan, potentially transforming the entire population.

But the dream did not come easy. Relin reports on Mortenson's kidnapping, fatwas issued by angry mullahs, and the death threats he has received in the United States after 9/11. That he resisted, survived and prevailed is sure testimony to the power of the human spirit to overcome insurmountable obstacles to achieve a worthy goal.

People of extraordinary character have always appeared during the fiercest cycles of hatred, violence, and aggression are most fierce. Martin Luther King, Jr. called such people "creatively maladjusted," for they are unwilling to accept war and hostility as part of the status quo. They carry on the tradition of spiritual masters from all the world's religions who teach that the greatest form of heroism is to turn an enemy into a friend and, Mortenson would surely add, what better way to do so by helping one’s enemy build schools? Thus did the gentle infidel called ‘Dr Greg’ become a spiritual hero for a segment of humanity in the worst of conditions.

Book Review Contest: Shadow of the Wind (Reviewed by Ash)

The year is 1945, and the war-torn city of Barcelona is momentarily in the midst of recovery from its war wounds, while a grieving boy, Daniel, whom by coincidence, seeks and finds peace in an unknown book, The Shadow of the Wind by Julian Carax, where he is drawn into a world of dark discovery towards the author’s past and other somewhat ‘abandoned’ works.
As Daniel dwells into perusing the author’s other works, he gradually discovers a seemingly interesting past about the author. Daniel begins to questions himself, who is this mysterious author, and is puzzled why the books are displayed or let alone, hidden in a deserted place of lost books – The Cemetery of Forgotten Books. The long barrage of questions leads Daniel to find out more about the author’s life. As Daniel journeys on a stringent discovery, he is shocked and awkwardly troubled by the author’s disturbing tales of the past – a mysterious individual is trying to destroy the author’s works. For all Daniel knows, he may have the last copy of Carax’s book and is undeniably a target for trouble.
Daniel is somehow curious, yet he is also mislead by the introduction towards the people who have a mysterious interconnection with Carax’s life. Where is this author, Julian Carax, now? . Who was he ? . Why is his name a topic which many of Daniel’s approaches does not intend or uncomfortable and ashamed to discuss about.? Is Carax a cold-blooded murderer of the past ? Did he plagiarise his written stories ? Or is he just a man of an ugly nature that simply deserved despises, mockery, and sheer disdain from others?
The situation ties Daniel in a state of lost, yet longing for a clue to find about this mysterious and ‘unsuccessful’ author, Julian Carax, of whom his works became an affection and solace towards Daniel. Daniel soon makes a fierce attempt to explore, with Fermin Romero De Torres, a ragged beggar who eventually becomes his co- worker at his father’s bookshop of second-hand books. Daniel unknowingly falls in love with Carla Barcelo, a blind yet irresistibly gorgeous daughter of his father’s friend, Don Gustavo Barcelo. Indeed, Carla possesses a surprising interest and knowledge toward’s Julian Carax’s books and informed Daniel about what she knew about this strange novelist whose books were left forsaken.
Daniel’s explicit discovery of unlocking the keys to Carax’s livelihood as a novelist provokes him to meet with more and more uncertain identities of people he never expected and who ‘self-proclaim’ that there once new who Julian Carax was. With different tales told by different beings about Julian Carax, Daniel is thrown into excessive perplexity as he seems to be brainwashed by differently told biographies about the author, Carax. The content involved Julian Carax’s family, a deep connection of Carax with the Aldaya family, one of Barcelona’s riches and well known families to have ever live. The mystery slowly unravels itself as Daniel finds a dark and erotic past of Carax, a repeatedly claimed love affair involving one of the members of the Aldaya family, known as Penelope Aldaya, and unclear chain reactions that contributed to Carax’s fall.
In discovering so, Daniel is brought to, Nuria Monfort, a beautiful book translator which somehow has a strong connection with Carax’s history and appears to be hiding much secrets, which was perceived so untrue that in someway, displayed a rather elusive truth. Daniel is occupied with bizarre situations where it leads him to suspected identifications of people who could just be one of the ‘murderer’ of Carax’s books. For all Daniel knows, the stories he has received or is about to receive could be tall tales, or may indeed not be lies after all.
While his constant exploiting of information regarding the hidden mysteries concerning the author, Carax, Daniel equally faces the growing and bountiful pains of love, friendship and family. He finds new love, in Beatrice Aguilar, the sister of his childhood friend Tomas Aguilar. As much as Daniel is enveloped by the blistering miseries accompanied by occasional blissfulness of falling in love and overcoming the aches of the lost of his mother, and bearing the burden of his father’s silent emotional sufferings, its combination and the quest to search for the missing pieces and sordid yet forgotten truths behind the mysterious vanishing of Carax’s books and his identity, or whether or not Carax was murdered or that one of the identities associated with the life of Carax could have been responsible for Carax’s sudden missing, puts Daniel in a place of constant curiosity, immense confusion, anxiety, and somewhat a vague assurance that he lies in the realms of peril, as he could be the only threat to strange and horrific demolisher of Carax’s works.
The writings of Zafon are an explicit masterpiece. Zafon intends to manifest the feelings of the characters with phrases and sentences told in a beautifully descriptive manner in attempts to draw readers into an utterly deep connection towards the story and the many emotions the characters portrays. Zafon creates a haunting suspense that leaves the readers with no choice but to remain glued on each page.
Graves has produced genuinely perfect translations from the original Spanish version making it an exotic narrative with unforgettable phrases that outshine the character’s indescribable feelings, unspoken emotions, and thoughts following a uniquely refined nerve-jangling plot, injecting the reader with more questions, suspicions, and urge to reach the story’s attention-frozen climax.
Zafon defines the city of Barcelona very well indeed, inflicting its gothic-like layout and memory-locking scenery while its described atmosphere provokes readers to be unavoidably smitten. Zafon arranges his plot of the story that shoots readers to a state of continuous suspicious and sheer hunger for the unanswered questions and twists towards the story. The Shadow of The Wind will naturally make readers be drawn to the provocative plot on every page, shocked and excited at every unexpected clue that leads them fainting for the story’s unpredictable climax.

Book Review Contest: Shakespeare & the Tempest (Reviewed by Hema Madhavan)

True theatre and scholarly study of literature is rediscovered in Francis Neilson’s Shakespeare and The Tempest as it is one of the greatest exemplar of an interpretation and practical application in performance of a play. Neilson not only presents a comprehensive, coherent and cohesive study about all of William Shakespeare’s experience of life, philosophy and his art but also the thought and work of Shakespeare, which are culminated in these words spoken by Prospero: “We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is recorded with a sleep.” From this pastoral romance, “summing up the distressing conflicts and turbulence that racked Shakespeare’s mind and spirit” (17) Neilson tells us, burgeons “the hope of a new age – such, perhaps, as the golden age – such, perhaps, as the golden one of which they had memory in his father’s time (176).

Interwoven in Neilson’s study, Shakespeare and The Tempest and in the Elizabethan tapestry are the influences of the age that moulded the mind of Shakespeare and dictated the content of the works ascribed to him, the circumstances of his careers that tend to confirm his authorship, and the ways and means employed in presenting his masterpiece in the theatre of his time. Neilson has at his fingertips the diagnostic and social history of England as the English-speaking theatre, especially at its apex in Shakespeare. Thus, with Neilson’s knowledge on performing arts and scholarly research about Shakespeare, his reason for Shakespeare and The Tempest is two-fold as stated in the first chapter of his book: (i) a review of the social and constitutional changes that took place under the Tudors and how it shaped the mind of the man who wrote The Tempest; and (ii) an analysis of the play itself by taking into account the technical problems of staging the play in the theatre.

The first reason for the study reviews the revulsion against the hardships imposed upon the English people began with the misrule of the Tudors and endured through the long line of monarchs from chapter two to chapter seven of the book. Neilson takes on the role of a historian with an investigator’s eyes of the events and a literary scholar when he combines both history and works of Shakespeare to illustrate how the plays of Shakespeare reveal a knowledge of men and their iniquities like “war, religious strife, depopulation, the severities of the acts against vagabondage, harlotry, the gossip of the inns, the troubles of carters” (28) that goes much farther back than the reign of Elizabeth, in which Shakespeare must have knew the life of them all, inside and out. The author’s attempt to discover the ingenuity of Shakespeare’s mind is a journey that Neilson brings his readers on from grave periods of the Tudors to the
rule of the monarchs which Neilson sums up drawing on Thomas More’s Utopia (1904, 4th Ed.) which is “life at that time was nothing but a conspiracy of the rich against the poor.” (19)

Readers unfamiliar with Shakespeare will find Neilson an informed guide to the dramatist’s life and the full range of his writing, and will indeed see more facets of the poet rarely offered in one book. This is because Neilson provides a virtual map of Shakespeare’s life during the rule of 4 monarchs: Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary and Elizabeth, is described and substantiated in detailed using documents found in the Acts of Parliaments, petitions to London from provincial towns, ballads and pamphlets, essays and printed materials of literary critics and historians, and contents from plays that Shakespeare and his fellow playwrights of his time wrote. Neilson uses Dr. Margaret Murray’s chronicle of The Divine King in England (1954), to capture the grave distress of the common people and how they revolted against monarchs who violated their sense of what was right, which is reflected in the Shakespeare’s play, Henry VI. Neilson is particularly fascinated with a story by Alan Keen and Roger Lubbork in The Annotator (1954) about the discovery of the Chonicles of Halle and Holinshed, thickly annotated in the margin by a hand of Shakespeare’s time, because it suggests what might have happened during the “lost years” of Shakespeare in two identified periods: (i) From year 1578 to 1589; and (ii) From year 1582 to 1592. Although Neilson is speculative in the chapter of the “lost years,” his assumptions are plausible and sound as he draws upon events occurred and the places Shakespeare might have visited based on his knowledge of the law, customs, nature and culture of different groups of people (as in Shakespeare’s Henry VI, Henry V); the road system and the social and constitutional state in those years. Thus, Neilson not only provides valuable insight into the political (the execution of wrongly accused queens – Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard (of Henry VIII) and economic happenings (in sheep farming) in England but it also reveals how Shakespeare’s insatiable appetite for knowledge might have been fostered during his childhood from listening his father’s stories to his “lost years” of apprenticeship.

In Neilson’s view, there is an extremity in the shift of genre from Shakespeare’s earlier plays of the tragedies to The Tempest, came amelioration with the vision of a happier day. This transition, unfold the “recorded-and deduced lifetime” background of the dramatist, revealed his mind of his contemplation about mankind and his creation of characters as far apart as Hamlet and Prospero. The plan for Neilson’s first half of his study, which looked into the moulding of Shakespeare’s mind by explaining the period that he lived in, is acceptable because history impacts and forms one’s mind, soul, intent and function, consummated in The Tempest, explored in the second part of Neilson’s study. Therefore, the exploration of the history of England was the beginning of what lay behind the creation of such a figure as Prospero.

When the reader begins to read chapter 8 to chapter 15 about The Tempest, one has to remember that Neilson’s intention for the analysis is for the of staging the play and conveying the message of the play. The author begins with an introduction of some philosophical concepts of The Tempest are expounded on by making close connections to Montaigne’s Essays – “Of the Canniballes” and Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus. The key concepts are: (i) Vengeance, considered the “dominant one”; and (ii) Proprietorship in which Neilson analyses the varied portrayals of Caliban, especially Robert Speaight’s description of Caliban as having a “natural” status of slavery in Nature of Shakespearian Tragedy (which Neilson refutes the notion of slavery being “natural” position). Then, the reader arrives at the climax of the study the theme of foul play evident in the history of England that Neilson had provided. Earlier on, Neilson questioned “What is the basic theme running through all the histories? Foul play! What is the theme of The Tempest? Foul Play!” The foul play of usurpation, of regicide, of sedition, seems to be imprinted in Shakespeare’s especially in his tragedies, which Neilson crisply shows in Macbeth and Hamlet. Shakespeare’s disgust of the social declination, poverty, wars and power play are translated into performance through his plays.

The discussion of the relationship between “Art and Nature” is argued mildly against Frank Kermode’s idea raised in his introduction of the Arden edition of The Tempest. Neilson attempts to correct Kermode by stating that “art and nature” brings to the fore the problem of explaining the mystery of the creative faculties of the human mind and not much as to make the ideas of the play plausible. Thus, Neilson provides a chapter on the practice of magic, wizardry and witchcraft to supply accounts of the Dianic cult in Dr. Margaret Murray’s The Divine King in England (1954) and other forms of “magic” including the occult and divination in Professor Lynn Thorndike’s Cambridge Medieval History. Neilson exposes the different opinions voiced about the play, its author, the significance of the character of Prospero, his power as a magician, and the utility of Ariel, that gives an “all-too-brief” (which is not-too-brief in my opinion) sketch of the man who, never forgave foul play until one of his last plays – The Tempest.

Neilson, then, shifts to a rather ambiguous subject as to whether The Tempest is an autobiography of Shakespeare to look even farther in the mind and life of Shakespeare. The polite manner of first understanding how some Shakespearean essayist or critics the notion will be a clear indication that Neilson wishes to refute this notion. The history of England is explained and Prospero is compared to his maker. Shakespeare’s experience of men and their affairs is different from that of Prospero’s as he lived in the reigns of four monarchs in which they rule powerfully, where as for Prospero who abdicated his dukedom but governed justly and contented as “so dear the love my people bore me” (Act 1, Scene 2). After this chapter, only then, does Neilson leave the literary and philosophical analysis for the more practical matter of staging the play.

The idea of a play in any century is wholly for the purpose for performance and since Neilson has been produced more than 17 plays in his lifetime, his experience in staging plays is undeniable. He discusses the roles and skills required of different members in the play: the director, the stage director and the players or actors. The problems that Neilson identifies in performing The Tempest fall heavily on the actors as it demands the actor’s fullest capability of his art, especially for the character of Prospero as in the last act, the actor has to play two conflicting roles: (i) to assume an anger not outwardly shown; and (ii) to act the part of a parent delighted with the match Miranda has made. There are also intricate scenes in the play that Neilson thinks pose a difficulty in performing which Neilson proves to the readers, he is able to deal with drawing from his repertoire of works that he has accomplished. In the four subsequent chapters, Neilson analyses specific issues in Acts 2 (The Plotters), Act 3 (Idyllic love and courtship), Act 4 (The masque) and Act 5 (Reconciliation) in order to further understand the play and how each act should be conveyed in performance. It also provides an in-depth study of the characters in those acts, which actors and directors of the play will benefit from. Having examined the play and the staging of the play, Neilson concludes Shakespeare and The Tempest with a summary about the message of the play in a cryptic manner of Shakespeare’s intention in writing the play. It is a play of redemption and hope in the midst of turmoil with a something new and fresh in idea and artistry – Prospero, the magician, “to turn our minds to higher values that the states know not of, to forsake the beaten path of man’s inhumanity to man, and to seek the essentials of life” (181) through the mind, life and works of Shakespeare.

Despite the author’s efforts to broaden the contexts of the The Tempest, the fluidity of the study may cause the some reader to be frustrated at times because the study consists of “repetitions and digression” (3) that Neilson warned his readers in the very first chapter of his study. For readers new literary criticisms, essays or studies, reading this book will be challenging because the endnotes provided are very minimal without much useful information and a bibliography as well as glossary of literary terms are not provided. However, this study may prove to be sufficiently detailed for certain group of readers like teachers, performers and directors as it provides a formidable range of materials or information that contextualise the play in Shakespeare’s history, in addition to the problems of performing the play and conveying the message of the play, which Neilson is an authoritative figure in the field of the performing arts.

In conclusion, Francis Neilson’s purpose of the study to show the spiritual effect upon Shakespeare of the great changes in the law and custom of the land, which had taken place in the lives of his grandfather, his father and himself, is organised chronologically from the reign of the Tudors to Elizabeth. The illustration of how these were indelibly imprinted upon his mind when he was a pupil grammar school in Stratford and when he became an apprentice in his “lost years” are substantiated with evidence from texts written before Shakespeare was born to text produced in the 20th century. The contextualisation of the The Tempest in this book not only provides the reader with an understanding of the history of England but with a practical matter of how to stage the play based on Neilson’s years of experience as a playwright, a director and producer.

Book Review Contest: The Great Gatsby (Reviewed by Chew Phye Ken)

The Great Gatsby was a book I had read about many years ago, and of all places, I chanced upon it in a comic! At the time, all I knew was that the story was set in the roaring 1920s, a period in American history that had since captured my proverbial imagination: a time littered with speakeasies, Prohibition, the Charleston and men and women dressed in trench coats with fedora-like hats making their way through life in a ‘black and white’ world; the elements that become the modern day films noir.

The author is F. Scott Fitzgerald who most is known for his novels and short stories from the bygone ‘Jazz Age’. The book itself, the subject of my review, was and still is considered to be the finest work to spring from Fitzgerald’s fertile imagination and when published, was applauded with glittering reviews. That was way back then in 1925. Before I started poring through it, images of mysteries, detectives and ‘dames’ flooded my mind but what leapt from its pages took me by surprise; a suburban drama of life and long lost love viewed through the eyes of one Nick Carraway. Truth be told, I was a little disappointed at first, expecting a Hollywood-esque mystery but I soon learnt that this was one of those books that slowly grew on you and by the end it will leave you wishing for more.

The book is written mostly in a first person narrative, a journal of sorts, a world view and character study by Nick. The writing style itself is fluid and coherent and the story progresses at a good pace. Most readers of classic literature should not find any trouble with the language used (as compared to, say, Austen’s period pieces) although this reviewer did stumble upon some words that were beyond his ken. One should keep a good dictionary handy.

As I advanced though the pages, unravelling the layers of the story onion-like, every now and then, I felt as if I was walking in Nick’s shoes, interacting with the characters and even Gatsby himself! The grand parties, the lights, the scent of the warm New York summer breeze were at times, more real than the book I held. I could see the vintage cars, the huge billboards and even the colossal manor in which the titular character lived.

Speaking of characters, allow me to introduce some of the main cast: firstly, Nick Carraway, before whose eyes the account unfolds; a 30 year old bachelor, among one of the common working class in New York who just happens to live next door to the ‘The Great Gatsby’ in ‘West Egg’ (which is not as classy as ‘East Egg’, New York, so we are told). As far as adventures and drama in the story go, he does not participate in them so much as he does observe them around him. Honest and predictable, it is his person that lends stability to the hotchpotch of people that make up his world. He lives near two family members, his second cousin and her husband, Daisy and Tom Buchanan, the former a lovely young woman who seems to be the epitome of a stay at home wife of a rich man, naïve and long suffering and the latter, her strapping and adulterous husband, whose extramarital life takes a sudden turn for the worst. Jordan Baker, a friend of Daisy’s and romantic interest of Nick proves to be a good counterbalance to Nick’s predictability, appearing all at once haughty, street wise, intelligent and vulnerable. There are a few more intermittent supporting characters that help to move the story along, including the colourful Myrtle Wilson and her eerily placid husband, George, and Meyer Wolfshiem, a mysterious associate of Gatsby. Finally we have the protagonist himself, Mr Jay Gatsby; the swinging bachelor who is wildly rich and immensely popular, but achingly empty, with the only person capable of filling that void beyond his reaches. There is so much more than meets the eye in Gatsby: his remarkable past and sincere longings, and this makes his character one that some could identify with; his story being one of pathos.

At its very heart, it is a tale of lost and renewed love, friendship, loyalty and perseverance. It teaches us the value of determination and the worth of a good friend but also opens our eyes to the hopelessness of relentlessly pursuing missed and forgone opportunities and forces the reader to question how far they would go to reclaim something that had since been given up.

The Great Gatsby admittedly, is not for everyone. If you are seeking swashbuckling adventure, passionate and torrid romance or even a spine chilling mystery, look elsewhere. What Gatsby does offer however is solid story-telling in a modern drama setting and rich characters, all served up with a sober ending.

Book Review Contest: Haroun & the Sea of Stories (Reviewed by Gan Joo Ee)

Imagine that behind our moon hides another moon called Kahani, invisible to our naked eyes, due to the technological subterfuge of its ingenious inhabitants, the Guppees. Imagine further, that Kahani is the inspirational origin of all the world’s fables, poems and epics; and every writer and story-teller is a subscriber (either knowingly or otherwise) to the ‘Story Water’ that the elves of Kahani deliver to planet earth through a Process Too Complicated To Explain (P2C2E).

Rashid Khalifa was such a subscriber. He was a famous story-teller whose service was well sought after at festivals, weddings and political rallies, because his tales could always draw a huge turn-out. One day, his wife ran away with another man, leaving behind their young son, Haroun. This plunged Rashid Khalifa into depression. Meanwhile Haroun, who recalled that his mother ran away at exactly 11.00 am, developed a psychological inability to focus beyond eleven minutes. No matter what activity he indulged in, he would always stop at precisely eleven minutes, to the bafflement of those around him.

Soon the family began to suffer, because story-telling was Rashid Khalifa’s livelihood. Fundamentally, to tell a good story one must be confident, and his wife’s desertion had destroyed this. As a result, he found himself unable to spin a new tale. The danger was that once a person fails to exercise his gift, the subscription to the Story Water may be terminated. Should this happens, Rashid Khalifa would lose his story-telling ability once and for all! To make things worse, he was forced by a despicable election candidate to appear at a campaign rally and use his stories to sway the voters.

Fortunately Haroun caught the Water Genie who was trying to disconnect the magical pipeline that delivers the Story Water to his father. By stealing the disconnecting tool, he forced the Water Genie to take him to Kahani, where he hoped to plead his father’s case. Thus Haroun’s amazing adventures began, where he found himself caught up in the war between the two camps that occupied a divided Kahani. On the dark side lived the Chupwalas, led by the evil cult master, Khattam-Shud; whereas the Guppees lived in Gup City, which was bathed with luminous light. These Guppees were the guardians of the Sea of Stories, where the Story Water came from.

For a long time now, the engineers at Gup City had stopped their moon from revolving, such that one side was perpetually dark and the other side perennially sunny. This was the cease-fire accord between the Chupwalas who hate speech, and the Guppees who cherish freedom of expression. Their mutual animosity was so great that they preferred the solution of permanent estrangement, marked by the light-and-darkness divide of the moon. Over time, the Chupwalas have become shadowy creatures that shrink from light, as they do from active imaginations and speech. But now Khattam-Shud had launched an offensive against the Guppees with the aim of engulfing the entire Kahani in darkness and silence speech forever. To do so, he planned to pollute the Sea of Stories, thus destroying written culture, and ultimately, civilization itself!

Reflected in the war between the Chupwalas and Guppees is the tension in our world, where freedom of expression is constantly under threat from intolerance, extremism and government reprisals. So often we have found dissenters silenced by fanatic shout-downs and irrational violence. Is there no room for peaceable dialogue? Must proponents of democracy and freedom of expression be annihilated altogether? This is precisely what we see in oppressive regimes worldwide. Like Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and Orwell’s Animal Farm, the deeper political issues were so subtly woven into the story that a young person can read it for the beautiful tale that it is, without the bitter aftertaste that political allegory often leaves.

At the critical juncture of the war, Haroun and the Guppees realized that the only way to defeat the Chupwala army was to expose them to sunlight. But to do so, the moon must revolve again – the primordial cycle of day and night must be restored to Kahani! In the chaos of war, not even an Einstein Guppee, using the most advanced P2C2E, could bring this about. Suddenly the Water Genie thought of an idea: he has with him ‘Wish Water’ which enables the drinker to make his dream come true, if he concentrates with complete mental and emotional fortitude. If Haroun would drink it and wish for Kahani to revolve again, then the sunlight would cause the Chupwala to retreat! Unfortunately this was a big ‘IF’ for Haroun, whose attention span lasts no longer than eleven minutes. And I suspect the problem is endemic amongst college students!

In this age of mass-manufactured distractions – ranging from computer games to telecommunication fads of SMSs, MMSs and chats – it is hard to find students with even passable focus. The ability to concentrate is learned, not innate. It is born of patience, self-discipline and hard work – qualities that one must cultivate in order to achieve beyond the ordinary. Have you put your concentration to test recently? Honestly, how do you fare?

So our young protagonist must harvest the powers of his mind and channel them to the sole wish of saving the Sea of Stories from Khattam-Shud. Did he succeed? Well, of course! Unlike Salman Rushdie’s other works, this one has a bright cheery ending. Haroun did summon all his mental strength to work the Wish Water, such that Kahani began to revolve again, thereby preserving the source that nourishes the imaginations of every writer in our world!

I wish I had read this book as a child, when it was possible to savour its wondrous narratives without the cynical insights of an adult. Even so, each time I reread it, Haroun and the Sea of Stories never fails to transpose me to a mystical world full of adventures and possibilities. I love this book, for all its hidden and multi-facet complexities, but also for its remarkably simple message, which no one should forget, namely: Focus, and you can change the world!

Book Review Contest: The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born (Reviewed by Sabah Carrim )

There is a reason why ‘beautyful’ is spelt wrongly in the book. The reader only guesses it when he has a bird’s eye view of the story at the end. At first glance, it could represent the critical eye cast on Ghanaians who are desperately trying to emulate the white man and his values, but there is definitely more to it.

Ayi Kwei Armah born in Ghana, delves into sensitive issues like poverty and corruption, which make up the African social and economic fabric. This novel exposes a panoply of symbols and metaphors much to the delight of thinking minds. In this story, the author describes the hopelessness of the main character, ‘the man’. ‘The man’ is not named. He is not given an identity in order to convey the idea that he is nobody in society. Another interpretation is also that he represents the plight of the average man in Ghana. ‘The man’ has no money and is a mere over-exploited government worker who lives from hand to mouth. His simple life revolves around the principles of truth, honesty, integrity, uprightness. This contrasts with the dazzling life of his former classmate Koomson who is a rich and famous minister deeply admired by yes men and lickspittles like himself. Corruption is an everyday practice in his life. It is even called the ‘national game’ of the country by the author. ‘The man’ feels frustrated at the thought that Koomson is the winner and he the loser in the real world.

‘Koomson was my classmate… He was not very intelligent’. The man was pacing the room again. ‘Shit he was actually stupid.’

But then, the path of righteousness has never been an automatic guarantee for success in this materialistic world.

The man is scorned and disdained by his wife, Oyo. He is an unworthy husband who according to her because of his so-called pride and egocentrism, abstains from participating in the ‘national game’. ‘It is nice. It is clean, the life Estella is getting.’ exclaims Oyo enviously, referring to Koomson’s wife. In this superficial society people with ‘fat pockets’ are worshipped and revered at the expense of those who uphold a strong sense of morality. Here people with empty pockets do not merit any attention. ‘Article of no commercial value!’ is hurled at the man, to denigrate him.

Corruption is even justified as being a means to survival in Ghana, and to make the man understand this, his wife compares him to a ‘Chichidodo’: ‘Ah you know, the Chichidodo is a bird. The Chichidodo hates excrement with all its soul. But the Chichidodo only feeds on maggots, and you know the maggots grow best inside the lavatory. This is the Chichidodo.’ In Oyo’s opinion, the man is a hypocrite who pretends to be noble and integral by refraining from accepting bribes and yet he does not realize that his honestly earned money has its origins really in corruption.

‘My own lord, my master, oh my white man, come. Come and take my bread. It is all yours, my white man, all yours’ calls out the bread seller and the black man to whom the ‘praise’ is addressed, strides out of his car, obviously pleased and flattered by the servility displayed. But the beseeching call can be compared with a prostitute selling herself, like the black man does to the white man. The man, on the other hand, remains the ‘invisible man of the shadows’ whom the bread seller never notices.

‘The poor are rich in patience’. And so the story takes a new turn and the rewards of honesty are paid off: eventually with the change of government, Koomson loses all power and is caught red-handed. Paradoxically he seeks refuge in the man’s house. No matter how demeaning was the former minister’s attitude towards him throughout the story, the man helps him escape and ironically, through a manhole. This event is symbolic of how even the puritanical man ends up indulging in an act of corruption when he facilitates the escape.

It is on the beach, after escaping through the manhole that the man sees Maanan again, a former nun turned into a prostitute. Once more, she is another important character in the novel who evokes that destructive image of robustness turning into deterioration, freshness into decrepitude- the drastic changes one undergoes in a country where corruption is the national game. When the man returns home he sees in huge bold letters the words: ‘The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born’, probably referring to the cycle of past, present and future political leaders who will eternally obstruct the path of potential righteous leaders. Even the man was not sufficiently ‘beautyful’ to fight the corruption that taints his integrity when he helps Koomson escape.

The title of the book also reminds the reader of what is at risk of being lost when ‘(t)he soul of a man (is) waiting to be drawn’…

Another point worthy of admiration about this book is its realistic portrayal of the upright man’s fate as opposed to the corrupted one: either way, life is not pink but involves a judicious exercise of singling out the lesser of two evils. The question is whether you should choose honesty over corruption at the risk of living humbly and simply like ‘the man’ .Or should you opt for lavishness at the greater risk of losing not just that but also your freedom and independence like Koomson?

Book Review Contest: Atonement (Reviewed by Daniel Ling)

I felt compelled to read this novel before its Oscar-nominated film adaptation, directed by Joe Wright and starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy, was released early this year. Although I found the film to be a faithful adaptation which drew me in with its deliriously romantic mood and heartbreakingly tragic tone, I was not spellbound by it in the way that the book captivated me with its engaging plot, its fully realized characters, and its probing moral inquiry. My second reading of Atonement this December has heightened my appreciation of Ian McEwan’s lush and vivid prose as well as his exploration of the ethical dilemma which lies at the heart of this brilliant novel.

McEwan’s novel poses this intriguing and unsettling question: If you realized that you have destroyed two people’s lives, how would you atone for this – and would they even forgive you, when all is said and done? This is the question which haunts Briony Tallis throughout her life, from her committing the above-mentioned crime at age 13 in 1935 until she finally achieves a sense of closure as an elderly woman in 1999.

The novel opens on a sweltering summer day in 1935, when Briony Tallis, her elder sister Cecilia, and their mother Emily are preparing for a dinner to celebrate the return of the girls’ brother Leon as well as the arrival of houseguests. These houseguests include Paul Marshall, Leon’s entrepreneur friend, the Tallis children’s cousins Lola and twins Pierrot and Jackson, and last but not least, Robbie Turner, the son of the Tallises’ cleaning lady. To celebrate her brother’s return, young Briony, a budding writer, has written a play, The Trials of Arabella, which unfortunately never gets performed due to rising tensions within the household. Emily is not far from the truth when she says that “hot weather encouraged loose morals among young people” (128). When Briony witnesses the curious scene in which Cecilia, in front of Robbie, dives into the deep fountain in the garden of their country home, Briony’s naïve and overactive imagination sets into motion a chain of events that will change all their lives forever. At the climax of that evening, one of the girls claims she has been assaulted, and Briony’s accusation results in an innocent man being sent to prison. Briony, however, later doubts the truth behind her own testimony, and her guilt leads her to spend the next sixty years trying to repair the damage she has done.

Atonement is divided into several parts. As shown above, the first part takes place at a manor house in England in 1935. The second part of the novel shifts its focus to Robbie, who becomes a soldier involved in the British Army’s retreat from Dunkirk in 1941. Meanwhile, Briony, as part of her atonement for her crime, becomes a nurse in London’s World War II military hospitals, with her exploits detailed in the third part of the novel. For the conclusion of his novel, McEwan fast-forwards the time to 1999, when elderly Briony’s birthday celebration serves also as a reunion of the Tallis clan.

It is in the conclusion of Atonement that we, as readers, come to realize that some of the events and the fate of certain characters described in the third part are not what had actually happened but are merely the creations of Briony’s imagination. Just as Briony questions the veracity of her childhood testimony, McEwan’s clever narrative style makes us question what is ‘real’ and what is ‘imagined’ in the novel.

Besides this theme of truth and lies, McEwan also handles well the theme raised by the novel’s title, the whole issue of atonement and how difficult it can be. We never really know if Robbie and Cecilia actually forgive Briony for destroying their lives and their chance of happiness together. Briony believes that she can use fiction to achieve absolution and to heal, since she had used fiction to commit her crime and to injure in the first place. Still, despite Briony’s noble intentions, I found myself asking, is it enough? To Briony, it is: “I like to think that it isn’t weakness or evasion, but a final act of kindness, a stand against oblivion and despair” (371 – 72). I believe the novel proves that we need to consider the consequences of our own actions, how what we say or do can sometimes cause irreparable damage towards others.

All in all, Atonement is a superbly crafted novel which I highly recommend. It is one of the most reflective, compassionate, and satisfying novels I have read. Safe to say, I have nothing to atone for in recommending this book!

Book Review Contest: Animal Farm (Reviewed by Ngonidzashe Hove)

George Orwell’s real name was Eric Blair the latter used to protect his name at a time of writing in the Russian revolution, born on 25 June 1903 Motihari, he started writing comics at an early age, it was only after he left Paris that the real venture grew first editions of animal farm was published in 1941 after many struggles and soon became a bestseller. Orwell died in 1950 in London exhausted by his work and disease.

Animal farm is about a group of animals that bring out a revolution on a farm owned by a local farmer Mr. Jones, because of the harsh working conditions and unfair treatment they soon stir an uprising, soon they take charge of the farm with the pigs taking over as leaders Napoleon being the Pig boss. As their sources of food supplies run out and living conditions stifles, they begin to learn the hands on and reality of living. Orwell takes through a twist showing the consequences of power and the road at the top, the twists and the untold rules to be learnt in the game of wonder.

Animal Farm is undoubtedly a package in one from a comic that can be read by school children to a book that fitted for older man and women. Its bringing life into reality, Orwell contrasts and seems to be picking up on reality of the obsession of power comparing the Russian revolution’s rulers like Stalin.
Animal farm tells about a revolution one may think Orwell is likely compelling the consequences of obsession of power to the suffering of those at the lower end of the food chain. Power makes men greedy and showing that some men in power will do anything it takes to get and stay at the top like Napoleon .

The food chain of ruling those at the bottom work the hardest and get little rewards while the rich get rich and keep getting richer, if you are at the bottom once your services are no-longer required an able ruthless replacement is sought for. Animal farm showcases that power may be gained and rules may be changed to suite the ruling power like the rules changed from “all animals are equal to some animals are more equal than others”.

Definitely a book on dictatorship Orwell masses and beautifully potrays the Russian revolution with those of animal’s with “two headed horns like the devil” Orwell brings out this in a satire and comical way image comparing animals to the form of humans giving the pigs to superiority over all the animals. If you don’t find humor in this then certainly the kids may suited almost to be acted as a children’s comic it’s a good fable to the little children a villain’s plot to the mature mind.

Orwell keeps you turning pages his writing style is a humble style surprisingly addictive tone but gaining momentum by every paragraph, fitted that one may expect to know what may happen but it’s always a surprise when you finally read it.
What may be most catching is the pigs are so able to take the human form easily that it keeps the reader debating whether the pigs will be outdone or outdo the human power.

The tone of the book is a happy one more like a fairy tale fable before animals existed, a lullaby that puts young ones to sleep but that haunts the older and torments the dead.

Book Review: Heaven Can Wait, Conversations with Bonnie Hicks (reviewed by WH Loo)

I have been a Bonny Hicks fan ever since I read her books “Excuse me, are you a model?” and “Discuss Disgust.” She is everything that I hope to be and still trying to be…a free thinker, a free spirit.

After her untimely death in the SilkAir MI 185 crash in 1997, Tal ben-Shahar, a Harvard scholar and a humanist practitioner, shares the intimate exchange of letters between him and Bonny Hicks, his “dearest lover of wisdom” in this book he wrote in memory of Bonny.

Tal describes three reasons this book was written:

(1) it is an attempt to show the world the side of Bonny which many of us did not get to see – in part obscured by her modeling background and not being educated beyond junior college – a brilliant and passionate intellectual. Through the publication of the letters, Tal gives the world a glimpse into Bonny’s very private mind and soul and the intellectual relationship he shares with Bonnie.
(2) It is to put together many of the ideas that Bonny and him exchanged over the years and to share it with everyone – collegiality – as he believes it has important philosophical and social value.
(3) As a form of catharsis – Bonny’s untimely departure has created a permanent void in him.

Johan Berman, a friend, describes in the foreword that meeting Bonny was like opening your first bottle of champagne – both daring and incandescent, living a life filled with passion and courage – and always reflecting, always on the go. He calls her an intoxicating nectar and I truly agree, having read both Bonny’s books and one of Bonny’s favourite philosopher, Ayn Rand, whose work Bonny quotes frequently in her letters.

In the opening chapter Tal makes it very clear that both Bonny and him shares one simple purpose – that is to spread goodness in the world using the written word as the tool and philosophy as the medium.

True enough, once you start reading the book (Bonny’s letters), you will not put it down until the end. And like me, you will constantly go back to Bonny’s written words in your moments of madness and frustration. The phrase, “the pen is mightier than the sword” is indeed very true when reading Bonny’s letters – succinct and impactful.

The first half of the book is arranged such that it revolves around the relationship between Bonny and Tal – and their interest in philosophy that binds them close. The second half shows the emphasis on their philosophical thoughts.

Some excerpts from the book (Bonny’s letters):

I read Emerson today. His writings are truly beautiful. Another philosopher of common sense. The greatest “lesson” I got from today’s reading is: “Be sincere or be silent. Speak the whole truth, as you see it, or do not speak at all.” I shall be a woman of few words, for a while. (p.20)


That a lack of university degree is a major disadvantage to me in my country is not the driving force for my wanting to further my education. The pursuit of knowledge in a setting conducive to exchange, discussion and contemplation, is. I hunger to learn for learning’s sake. I yearn for an environment that will challenge me, broaden my world view, and afford me with a myriad of new possibilities. (application to Cambridge, p.30)


I experienced great happiness and great sorrow in my life. While the great happiness was uplifting and renewing, the sorrow ate at me slowly, like a worm in the core of an apple. I realized then that stable happiness was not mine until I could eliminate the sorrow too. The sorrow which I experienced was often due to the fact that my own happiness came at a price. That price was someone else’s happiness. (on morality and happiness, p.92).


In closing, this is a great book – very sensitive, very inspiring and above all, very human. To me, it is justice for Bonny, a person determined to do well in spite of everything. It is not her background as an illegitimate child that pains her, but the rejection of her by her British father via a fax through the British High Comm that eats at her but it is also what propels her in her search for happiness and an appetite for Ayn Rand’s objectivism.

In Tal’s words, “In this book I have tried to capture some of Bonny’s uniqueness and goodness. The medium I used was the written word. Words were – are – the pillars of our relationship.”

….She was - is – a bright, free spirit who was not afraid to speak and, more importantly, use her mind on social issues…To anyone who argues that our youth do not want to stand up, speak out and be counted in society, I commend to them the memory of Bonny Susan Hicks – model, writer, thinker…..

(by Raoul Le Blond, Obituary, Straits Times Singapore, Dec 1997).

Do read it – the letters are published as they are. Rest in peace, Bonny.

Book Review Contest: Hikayat Hang Tuah (reviewd by Siti Awanis Othman)

Hikayat Hang Tuah is a Malay epic and work of literature that tells the tale of the legendary Malay Muslim warrior Hang Tuah. This book tells the establishment of Malays Sultanate that started in Malacca, the height of the reign that spans over 600 years of the Malay Peninsular's history and the end of the sultanate era on the 24th August 1511. Hikayat Hang Tuah pictures the Malay socio-cultural system during the feudal era.

Hang Tuah himself is a legendary warrior during the reign of Sultan Mansur Syah, the greatest of all admirals, ferocious fighter and held the highest regard in the Malysian Malay culture until today. The subjects covered in the work included the founding of Malacca and its relationship with neighbouring kingdoms, the advent and spread of Islam in the region, the history of the royalty in the region as well as the administrative hierarchy of the sultanate.

This book potrays Hang Tuah as a warrior with an absolute loyalty to his sultan. However, in his blind loyalty to the sultan, he bacame the envy of a few noblemen. It is a social fate where feudal principle of absolute loyalty to the Sultan may contradicts justice. This is why another legendary warrior, also his childhood friend and best companion, Hang Jebat avenged his death believing Hang Tuah was innocent. However, when the Sultan was told by the Bendahara (in modern parlance, the Prime Minister) that Hang Tuah was still alive ordered him to kill Hang Jebat. Being unquestioningly loyal to the sultan, he killed Hang Jebat after a long gruelling fight that lasted for seven days.

I would describe Hang Tuah as a Malay legend, embodying the values of Malay culture where allegiance and loyalty were paramount above all else. His famous quotes, “Takkan Melayu Hilang di Dunia’ which literally means “Never Shall the Malays Vanish from the Face of the Earth” is a rallying cry for Malay nationalism until present day.

On the other hand, I think Hang Jebat should be respected for his braveness to turn against the sultan he served to avenge his friend’s death. He believed in justice and wanted justice to be served even if it means going against the sultan’s orders. Hang Jebat's famous quote was "Raja adil raja disembah, raja zalim raja disanggah" which literally means "A fair king is a king to obey, a cruel king is a king to fight against".

The setting of Hikayat Hang Tuah is described in great detail, for example, as an admiral, Hang Tuah was assigned to the task of being the sultan’s ambassador to countries like Majapahit, China, India, Siam and Turkey. China was one of the biggest allies of Malacca and his trip to China has fostered closer ties between the two counties. The Emperor even offered his princess, Hang Li Po to be Malaccan Queen. Since then, the two countries has been in good terms.

The book made me realised that history forms part of us that should not be forgotten by the present and future generation. It made me think that it is not easy to preserve our culture, tradition and beliefs if we ourselves have no inner strength to do so. We should be grateful of what our country has achived so far and we have to maintain and improve the ties we have in the multi racial country.

The authors should be appreciated for this well written book that comprises Malay annals, legends and epics together with good moral values about loyalty and justice.

I think it is important to say that the book should be read by everyone, not just Malaysians. It should be translated into English as this would attract more readers to read and understand history. It is an interesting read although at the beginning I thought that reading a book with a historical theme might be bored.

Overall, I would recommend this book to everyone!

Book Review Contest: The Rice Mother (Reviewed by Yvonne Ho)

The novel reviewed entitles ‘The Rice Mother’ by Rani Manicka. This powerful and moving novel revolves around four generations of women who encounter love, war, duty and hope. A beautifully-woven novel that portrays an intense feminine figure that holds the cradle of life (as rice is the main staple of Asian cultures that sustains life) in her hands through its story title; this already forecasts to us that the story will primarily revolve around the courage of the women who handles life’s shortcomings in varying time periods. For a little introduction, The Rice Mother is known as the Giver of Life in Bali, where her spirit lives in effigies made out of sheaves of rice. She is so sacred that sinners are forbidden to enter in her presence or consume a single grain from her figurine. Along with this story, the matriarch, Lakshmi, is compared to the Rice Mother for it is her that holds the burning dreams of her children and grandchildren in her strong hands and passing years will not diminish her courage and strength in defending them.

Every good story carries a theme which is basically a one-sentence description of what the story is about. A theme is not the plot nor the story line but the meaning behind it. In this particular novel by Rani Manicka, it is evident the theme of the novel surrounds the lives of four generations of women who fight for love, war, duty and hope. The setting of the story spans through the pre and post Japanese Occupation period, around the year 1916 to the year 1991, in Malaya, now known as Malaysia. A crucial yet colourful period of the Malayan history, the author has chosen a very appealing setting in which she exploited to her advantage. It is most interesting to note that this story is presented from the first point of narrative view, where the story is told from each character’s own point of view in the form of memoirs. Readers would have to keep on their feet to tie each character’s narrations together and evaluate them because the first-person narration can be unreliable, as later proven through the memoirs of Dimple’s mother, Rani. However, Manicka has done a good job of arranging the sequence of memoirs in a systematic manner, even if it was not in a chronological flow, making it easy for the readers to capture the essence of her book.

The protagonists of this novel are three women from three different generations; Lakshmi the matriarch, Dimple the grand-daughter, and Nisha the great-granddaughter who is the true heir of the family’s dynasty. Lakshmi, Dimple and Nisha each face life trials from their own generations through the Japanese occupation, past violence, drug abuses, marriages, births, losses and family secrets. Lakshmi’s story begins when she is conned into an arranged marriage with Ayah who apparently owns a ‘rich’ business in the land of Malaya. At the tender age of fourteen, she dealt with this painful truth while separated from her beloved mother in India and attempts to raise her five children to the very best she could, often being very selfish and forcing her ambitions on her children. Lakshmi's oldest children, twins Lakshmnan and Mohini, are the most developed and dynamic. Lakshmi loves these two for their beauty and potential, but each breaks her heart in very different ways. All seemed well for the family of seven until the Japanese Occupation landed in Malaya and threatened to tear apart the family in shreds. The author has done a brilliant job of describing the disturbing and gruesome rule of the Japanese and it provides a very thoughtful insight for the readers. It is during the Japanese Occupation that Mohini is raped and tortured to death by the soldiers and this threw the family’s course to a new dimension never occurred before. Blaming himself for his twin’s death, Lakshmnan’s sudden change in personality shocks and breaks his mother’s heart. This line of tension is carried through to the relationship between Lakshmi and his wife, Rani. When Dimple is born to Lakshmnan and Rani, she instantly becomes the favourite grand-daughter of the family for she carried similar physical traits of Mohini. She captures the painful family history on audiotape and leaves her daughter, Nisha, to uncover the truths of the family heritage after her failed marriage and suicide.

Written from many points-of-views, in the voices of many family members, THE RICE MOTHER is an interesting read. Although the novel is quite complex, the painful message of love and hope is clearly delivered. This novel left me in tears for Manicka has cleverly captured the essence of the characters’ pain, loneliness and ultimately the beauty of the South-East Asian culture in a voice so unique of its own.

Book Review Contest: Five People You Meet in Heaven (reviewed by Karen Wong)

This is a heart-warming story effortlessly written by Mitch Albom. It is a story about the life and death of an old man who works in a local amusement park called Ruby Pier. It really struck a chord when I was reading his story in this book. Everyone can relate to his worries and thoughts. It will leave you in awe definitely and make you wonder about life. It will also give you a whole new perspective about one’s afterlife in heaven. It is truly an original and refreshing story that has captured my heart.

The story mainly revolves around the theme of one’s life and how it is connected with other people’s lives. Eddie who is the main character of the story is a maintenance worker at Ruby Pier. Ironically, the story starts with the Eddie’s death. This is one of the points that Mitch Albom is trying to present, implicating that for every beginning there is an end and for every end there is a beginning too. Eddie dies trying to save a little girl from a falling cart on his 83rd birthday. With his final breath, he feels two small hands in his and then nothing. His soul goes to heaven where he learns the most important lessons in life. He then realises heaven is not a lush Garden of Eden, but a place where your earthly life is explained to you by five people who were in it.

This is how the book gets its title. The first person Eddie meets in heaven is ‘The Blue Man’ named Joseph who is a member of a carnival show at Ruby Pier. This part of the story mostly portrays Eddie’s childhood. When he was young, he caused Joseph’s death indirectly. And the heaven they are actually in is Joseph’s one which is at Ruby Pier where Joseph can be himself. Joseph gives Eddie his first lesson that all are connected. Everything one does may affect others. The second person Eddie would meet is his captain. When Eddie was a teenager, he served as an army. His troop had a difficult time during the war. His leg was severely damaged and was the blame he put on later in life when he cannot advance further than a ride maintenance man. The captain sacrificed his life to save his troop. Also, the captain reveals that he was the one that injured Eddie’s leg to prevent him from entering a burning house to save a child. This sudden revelation leaves Eddie fuming and wonder how many possibilities are out there for him has he not injured his leg in the first place. Undeniably, the lesson here is sacrifice. The third person is Ruby which the pier is built for her by her husband. Here, she related her wish that the pier was never built because of all the sufferings there. She also tells Eddie how his father dies when she was tending to her ill husband who shares the room with him. Eddie had a troubled relationship with his father. After hearing Ruby’s account of his death, Eddie realises that his father is just like any other ordinary person who loves his family very much even though he did not show any affections. The idea reflected here is events before we are born still affect our lives as do the people before us. Eddie’s wife, Marguerite who died young is the fourth person he meets in heaven. Her heaven is a place full of wedding receptions. This is because the happiest moment in her life is her wedding reception with Eddie in a Chinese restaurant. Although it is not lavish, she still enjoys every moment of it. Eddie and Marguerite love each other dearly. So when Marguerite died too soon, Eddie was angry that their love had been broken into thousand pieces. However, she explains that their love is never lost, it just takes another form which is eternal: memory. In his last stage of heaven, Eddie meets the girl that he was trying to save in the burning house. He was responsible for her death. Tala shares the final lesson with him when he feels that he has no purpose on earth. But Tala explains that he is the one who protects children by maintaining park rides at the pier. She also says that he managed to save the girl from the falling cart and the hands he feels are hers who is pulling him to heaven, keeping him safe. At last, he goes back to the pier where he sees all the people that he has saved by maintaining the park rides. By his side is his young and beautiful wife. When he looks at the clouds, the word ‘HOME’ is formed. Many years later, Eddie will be waiting for the little girl he saved and tells his part of the secret of heaven. One affects other and next, and this world is full of stories but the stories are all one.

There are many inspirational quotes from this novel. The most notable one has to be “The only time we waste is the time we spend thinking we are alone.” Others include “Strangers are just family you have yet to come to know.” and “Sacrifice is a part of life. It’s supposed to be. It’s not something to regret. It’s something to aspire to.”

This is an absorbing story as everyone in this world now is finding our own identities. We struggle to find our places in the universe while actually we are already in those places. We just do not realise it. This book teaches me to sacrifice, to love, to grief and most of all to let go our grudges and just savour our lives. This novel is beyond describable. You have to experience it yourself personally. Who knows? You might just be like me who could not put down the book until the end.

Book Review Contest: The Last Lecture (reviewed by Dr. Tan Hui Leng)

It has been awhile since I read the book but my thoughts seem to return to the book often enough. This does suggest that there is much to be gleaned from its pages. Thus a book review seems timely.

To begin with, this is an easy book to read; only 206 pages long and the font is large with some photographs thrown in too! But be assured that those will not be the reasons why you are not letting the book go.

By now, many will know that Randy Pausch was a Carnegie Mellon professor in Computer Science who has since passed away on the 25th July 2008. When he received “his news”, he was in the final stage of pancreatic cancer. As a father to three children, Randy Pausch had lessons that he wanted to pass on to his children when he was no longer around. Since he was a university professor, he chose to do so in the way he knew best; a lecture and a book.

In that sense, reading this book is enjoying the privilege of a “sneak” look into a private matter of a father’s lessons to his children. Randy Pausch collectively calls his lessons “Achieving your Childhood Dreams”.

The lessons are laid out very simply. There are many personal anecdotes to drive these lessons. Close to my heart is his appreciation of his parents; “I won the parent lottery”. Personally, I have not heard many adults attribute success or happiness to their parents (perhaps, I am moving with the wrong group!) as they are more wont to speak of their spouse and children. The strong family orientation in many of the lessons as in “The Elephant in the Room”, “The Elevator in the Ranch House” and “Romancing the Brick wall” is indeed heart-warming.

Randy Pausch has a very candid approach to matters; his great sense of humour comes through very well in the book. There will be times you will laugh out loud. It is amazing for a writer who is looking death in the face to carry this easy spirit and optimism through the book.

However, in his final remarks, as he addresses his dreams for his children and begins “to speak to his wife, Jai directly”, a more sombre mood comes on. Many may shed a tear, as I did. Yet you will not feel too sad for too long for here is a man who will continue to be a husband, father and professor even after he has long passed on. The last lecture is indeed a clever legacy to leave behind. It is also a must-read for us to reflect on our lives and circumstances, making better people of us perhaps?

Book Review Contest: Twilight (reviewed by Daniel Low)

Twilight is simply and yet beautifully written. To draw an overview, the story generally revolves around Edward and Bella’s romance – a vampire romance that is. What makes Twilight even more distinctive is that the story contradicts the common view that vampires are evil and merciless blood hunters. This brilliant idea is the reason why Twilight is so unique it is almost like it is in its own genre. The story is narrated in the first person view from the perspective of Bella, so the reader only knows what she knows, making Edward and his family a mystery that is slowly unraveled as the story progressed.

The major theme of Twilight is prominently love and romance. The romance between Edward and Bella is both touching and compelling. Moreover, there is a melancholic feel to their impossible love, yet at the same time they both are unwilling to give up hope, self-convinced that their relationship is not doomed. Another theme found in the story is change and risk. This theme is particularly true as the relationship between Bella and Edward can also be regarded as predator and prey. Bella knew very well the danger she would have to face but her infinite affection towards Edward made her forgo her own safety. Edward too realized the risk he was undertaking but just couldn’t help himself as he succumbed to his human instincts. Eventually, the themes all converges as the story reaches a fever pitch of excitement as the romance between Bella and Edward turns into a frantic race to stay alive.

Overall, the mood is serious and at times melodramatic. This is in keeping with both the horror and romance genres that Twilight embodies. In either case, situations and emotions are heightened beyond the usual everyday concerns, often becoming life-and-death struggles with consequences beyond the lives of the main characters. Despite the elements of terror and suspense, there are frequent flashes of humor --sometimes sarcastic, sometimes morbid - which help break up the mood and make the serious sections more dramatically effective.

The story is set primarily in the small town of Forks in northwest Washington State. However, the very beginning and the climax take place in Phoenix, Arizona. The description of Forks is so minute you can almost smell the damp air and hear the rain falling on the roof. The setting plays an important role, specifically the weather. In this case, the gloomy weather effectively foreshadows the dangers lurking ahead.

The characters in Twilight are very much alive throughout the story and each one of them is meticulously described. The main character of the story is Isabella Swan, better known with the name Bella -a well written and realistic character, shy and lacking in confidence. She is the narrator of the story, a human girl who moves from Phoenix to Forks to live with her biological father, Charlie Swan. Bella’s swan’s character development focuses mainly on adolescence and finding her first and perfect love, Edward Cullen. To have a first love with someone as perfect as Edward is the key to the fantasy of Twilight. However, there happen to be traces of irony here as Edward turned out to be a century old vampire. Bella is a strongly emotional character, as seen by the tears she cannot control. However, she also has a strong intellectual side and great determination when she reaches a specific decision in her life.

The intensity grew as the Cullen family was introduced, the most prominent one being Edward Cullen – the vampire Bella fell in love with. Though a bit exaggerating, Edward is described with godlike characteristics and is compared to the likes of Greek gods. As the story escalated, Bella’s suspicion became true as Edward slowly reveals the truth, his superior strength and speed. It was later revealed that Edward also possesses the ability to read minds, but for some reasons unknown, not Bella's. Initially, he is attracted to Bella in a predatory manner, but eventually falls in love with her. By falling in love with a human-a human who greatly appeals to this vampire lust, he denied his vampire instincts and tried to regain touch with his humanity.

On the antagonist side, there is James, a tracker vampire who visits the Cullen family while they were having a game of baseball. He is known to be a vicious stalker and thirsts for Bella’s blood. And so, he took it upon himself to hunt down Bella and to provoke Edward. His comrades Victoria and Laurent were with him. However, Laurent did not have any ill intention and did not involve himself in the conflict.

In twilight, vampirism is the most obvious motif and symbol in the story. It is however, not a theme in itself, but is used to flesh out all the themes to varying extent. The vampire romance expressed here is the notion of love as an insatiable hunger that requires the very essence of a loved one. Of course, passion can also be quite dangerous, and a hunger must know limits or will threaten everyone involved - this is shown by the appearance of James late in the book. Probably Edward knows better the importance of curbing the vampire appetite, as it comes in direct conflict with his romantic desire for Bella.

To wrap things up, Twilight has plenty of love, drama and action. Furthermore, it is kept well balanced and the readers’ interest can be sustained throughout the story. Although this book is mainly a love story, it does have a bit of action. Some of the main characters are actually supernatural characters, and it's very interesting to discover their amazing abilities. Twilight is definitely a book worth reading.