The Curious Incident of the Dog in the NIght-Time

wow.. a big WOW was the word I exclaimed after reading Mark Haddon's 2003 novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. 

At first, I started reading a pdf of it but I said to myself, this good book must not be read in that way rather in the traditional way. So I bought a paperback copy of it from National Bookstore. And fuck. I just spent my money wisely.

In the tradition of Perks of Being A Wallflower, A Separate Peace, and I don't know but all those books that make you understand the phases of puberty, Haddon created a book that would take it in the perspective of a genius autistic teenager. Reading the novel has touched my heart very much. I laughed most of the parts, and welled with tears in some. This book has made my mind blow! why? Because it gives you alternatives from the truths you've learn. Who is the person that would prove to you that some laws in science and math are wrong? It is only Christopher John Francis Boone. 

The twists in the plot have pinched my heart. At first he was investigating on the death of a neighbor's dog. Then, it turned out that it would lead him to an investigation of his "dead" Mother. The perseverance of his parents to regain his trust was very touching. 

The descriptions of the illness of Christopher did not come from the doctor's or his parents, rather it came from him. For me, it was very powerful, helping you to empathize with the protagonist as he groans and moans and feels either upset or happy. 

I really can't say anything bad from this book. Except from the bombardment of math problems which I do not have care with because I really hate math. Well, though the plot was quite shallow and cliche. For me the book was still superb because of the writer's style and the way the book was written/packaged.

It won the 2003 Whitbread Book of the Yea^r and the 2004 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book. Its title is a quotation of a remark made by the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes (who he idolizes) in Arthur Conan Doyle's 1892 short story "Silver Blaze". Currently, Steve Kloves is making a film adaptation of the book.

A Little Princess

Back when i was a child, I would faithfully watch Princess Sarah cartoons on TV either before or after I go to school. Then, I would also watch Mary and the Secret Garden. But of all three, my real favorite is Cedie ang Munting Prinsipe. Back then, I have no idea that these three animated series I was so fond watching were Frances Hudgson Burnett's three most popular children's novels in the 1900s, the time when Pooh and Oz series popularized also. So when I was in powerbooks in Trinoma, I bought A Little Princess and swore that I will buy the other two (The Secret Garden and Little Lord Fauntleroy).

Reading this book was easy. It's shortness and simplicity of language made it enjoyable and comprehensible to readers, especially those of young age. The characters were also vivid, however, I think watching the series made it easy to visualize their characters. I also loved the way Sara Crewe acted/pretended to the things happening to her because, I feel the same, too. Of course, many of us in our childhood days would say that we are maltreated. Then we would pretend or imagine that we are princes or princesses (Fuck! What did Disney do to us!). And so, I think that Sara and I feel the same way, too, in many different situations.

from the series, Sarah Ang Munting Prinsesa

One thing I liked in the series compared to the book was the cruelness of Lavinia and Ms. Minchin. In the series, they were depicted as very bad people, not only through descriptions but through anecdotes. The way they act, the way they talk, the bad things they've done to Sara and Becky will make you loathe them. However in the book, published originally in 1888 as a serialized novella and was rewritten to a full-length novel in 1905, characters' evilness was toned down. There's not much fights between Lavinia and Sara.

They also differed in the number of characters. If you remember from the series about a boy working in the horses' stables and took care of Sara's horse, well that one doesn't exist in the novel. Members of the kitchen were not described also that much.

“Whatever comes," she said, "cannot alter one thing. If I am a princess in rags and tatters, I can be a princess inside. It would be easy to be a princess if I were dressed in cloth of gold, but it is a great deal more of a triumph to be one all the time when no one knows it.”

“If nature has made you for a giver, your hands are born open, and so is your heart; and though there may be times when your hands are empty, your heart is always full, and you can give things out of that--warm things, kind things, sweet things--help and comfort and laughter--and sometimes gay, kind laughter is the best help of all.”

“When people are insulting you, there is nothing so good for them as not to say a word -- just to look at them and think. When you will not fly into a passion people know you are stronger than they are, because you are strong enough to hold in your rage, and they are not, and they say stupid things they wished they hadn't said afterward. There's nothing so strong as rage, except what makes you hold it in -- that's stronger. It's a good thing not to answer your enemies.”

Sara Crewe helped me understand the importance of forgiveness, the giving of mercy to people who have grudged you or done you things simply bad. 

The Perks Of Being A Wallflower

 "I am very interested and fascinated by how everyone loves each other, but no one really likes each other."

"We accept the love we think we deserve."

"It's strange because sometimes, I read a book, and I think I am the people in the book.  "
"... And in that moment, I swear we were infinite."

my pdf's cover photo

These were the lines that struck me while reading Stephen Chbosky's "Perks of Being A Wallflower". By the title itself, it's story was about one of Charlie's high school years where he had major transformations and discoveries about himself and about life simply by being a wallflower---a person who mingle with the walls, interacts to no one, accepts mediocrity and exhibits naivety.

This book was referred to me by my classmate and gave to me its pdf. After reading it in two days, I had both good and bad comments to it.

First, Charlie's storytelling to me was unique, conversational, comprehensible, making the book easy-to-read. However, his character was somewhat disturbing to me. I like his character but his mediocrity and weirdness were kind of exaggerated for me. Well, maybe because of his autism but still, i see it as an amplification and not ways to achieve sublimity.

This leads me to my realization in the end of the novel that it is not a good novel that could turn into film (which is currently what they re doing right now). It lacks denouement that's why I did not find it that gripping. I just can't stop reading it because of the mysteries slowly being resolved as the story progresses.Now that one was a good point for me.

However, I admit that I could relate to Charlie--the books he read, the genre of the songs (not the songs exactly), and the things that happened around him (the teacher-student relationship, the vices (not the drugs!), the affairs, the family stories... It is really one of the contemporary novels that teenagers must read. 

One advantage of the movie also was its quotable quotes. As in! I was carried away of his words, of his realizations.

an alternative cover of the book (which is more interesting)

One thing I want to say before I finish this blog is that, not all good books could be turned into a movie. It's very textual, lyric... Though some phantasms I had by reading it make it cinematic, the plot isn't enough. I even felt melancholic in the end because of the parting scenes... And I could say that this might just be a dragging movie.

 

A Separate Peace

"What I mean is, I love winter, and when you really love something, then it loves you back, in whatever way it has to love."

"Sarcasm... the protest of those who are weak."

"Everything has to evolve or else it perishes." 

My copy of the book

when you feel like reading a novel that has sense to it, a considered modern classic, and one that will take you on the edge of your seat, it's A Separate Peace by John Knowles.

I enjoyed this book very much despite the characters' shallow problems and frustrations. I enjoyed it because of Gene and Finny's untarnished friendship and respect to each other. I also liked the creation of Leper's character because it spoke for in behalf of the young teenage boys who joined the war. I enjoyed Finny's imagination and his extraordinary talent in inventing new games and impossible reasons to everything.

My favorite part in the novel was the part where Gene instead of heading to Devon, he made his way to Finny's mansion. That part where the two spoke to each other after the tree accident made me both feel "kilig" and sad. Kilig because the book looks like a gay-oriented novel, seriously. At first I thought they were going to fall in love to each other. Also because of what they said to each other, the assurance of one that he does not feel bad or mad to the other makes me feel uber kiligness. However, I feel sad, too because Gene feels so guilty of what had happened and I don't know how but reading Knowles' words make you feel what the characters are feeling. The novel was too compelling, vivid, and emotional for me.

the copy that Nat'l Bookstore has

I bought this book in booksale after reading Perks of Being A Wallflower, where it was mentioned there. It's funny because I have so many books in my hand already and then, I saw it--under the shelves, at the back of other paperbacks. Actually, for so many years I've been staring the re-printed version of this in National Bookstore. But it's so expensive there, But I really want to buy it even though I only know that it's author has won a Pulitzer Prize and just died in 2003 and that  it's about a lonesome feeling feeling boy studying in a war-spared dormitory school during WWII.Looking at the cover, It makes me already feel sad, but then, it just ends there. 

AND finally, finding a booksale very cheap copy of the book (when it was first released in the 1960s) made me to buy it without second thought.