The Story of All Stories

 “A love story is not about those who lost their heart but about those who find that sullen inhabitant who, when it is stumbled upon, means the body can fool no one, can fool nothing—not the wisdom of sleep or the habit of social graces. It is a consuming of oneself and the past.”

I have been taking a creative course on "The Future of Storytelling", which seems quite interesting after its first week, and my first assignment is to write about the story that has impressed me the most. My first thought, and the one which stayed with me the past few days was to talk about "The English Patient", since this is the story that impressed me the most, it is one of those stories that gets engrained in your heart forever.

I still remember having seen the movie for the first time at the cinema close to my place, back in 1997, and the emotions that kept on gathering during its showing. I remember how beautiful and tragic everything seemed, how every glimpse that the two characters shared felt like everlasting love. I liked Hana more that Katharine at first, maybe because she felt more down to earth, but after seeing the film for more than 6 times, I can say that I do understand Katharine better now.

I am sure that everyone will really like to experience such a life altering love story, that goes beyond being alive and present, but of course, without its tragic end.

I also remember looking for the soundtrack, that perfect music that rendered the movie even more enchanting. At that time CDs were not very popular in my country but I luckily found an American volunteer who I was working with in the summer of 2001 and she kindly recorded a tape for me. Needless to say I still have it.

But my journey towards the most beautiful story ever told did not stop there. A Romanian publishing house decided to print the book in Romanian and I can still recall the excitement with which I started reading the book, absorbing its every word. Then, in 2007, while in Northern Germany, I found "The English Patient" in its original English version in a small bookshop. What a happy encounter that was! And in 2010 I wanted to own a different, "improved" English edition, which I now do. While my passion grew bigger each day, I started following Ralph Fiennes's and Kristin Scott Thomas' careers and I can truly say they are incredible actors, never disappointing me with the parts they played. Oh, I also managed two years ago to get Michael Ondaatje's autograph on his newest release, "The Cat's Table". Lucky me, I guess.



As for the story developing in "The English Patient", if you have seen the movie or read the book, there is no point in telling you about its beauty and if you haven't read or seen the book, then you have to see for yourself as I do not plan on spoiling everything for you...

“Her life with others no longer interests him. He wants only her stalking beauty, her theatre of expressions. He wants the minute secret reflection between them, the depth of field minimal, their foreignness intimate like two pages of a closed book.”

I'm only Happy when it Rains...

If you don't like the rain, then you will love it after you read Martin Page's book "About the Rain". 

Martin Page is a young French writer born in 1975 and who debuted at 25 with his book "How I Became Stupid". The essay - and my first book written by him - "About the Rain" was written in French back in 2007 and so far it has been translated only into Romanian, Greek and Korean. It wonderfully describes the role of the rain in eroticism, music or sacred matters. It represents a beautiful praise, both poetical and philosophical and I found myself wanting to write down every other line so I could remember it later on. However, I stopped at the following lines, mainly because they may be the most mesmerizing ever written about my favorite place in Paris, the Sacre Coeur cathedral and the simple yet miraculous rain.

 "Under the rain I am effervescent from my entire being. I am just like the Sacre Coeur cathedral in Montmartre, built from Chateau - Landon stone, which oozes a white substance when it rains. A chemical process is set off. Like a tablet of aspirin I foam and I quiver. It is not at all unpleasant to mix with the air. Disappearing, my body gains a presence. I am tightly connected with Nature. The drops fall on my skin and, just as on the surface of a swamp, they trace wavy, passing circles that reach my heart."

You can pay Martin Page a visit here.  
P.S. Thank you, Alle, for lending me the book :) 

A Night at the Opera

While some of you may be busy with Dewey's Read-a-thon, which I couldn't join because of too much work and a lack in reading time, I did find some moments to escape the crazy routine and go see a wonderful show, staged by The National Opera in Cluj Napoca. I am talking about Puccini's mesmerizing "Il Trittico", which premiered last month when the new opera season started.

The three one act operas were directed by the Hungarian director K. Gyorgy and conducted by the Italian conductor David Crescenzi. The operas were sung in Italian, with Romanian translations available and they swayed from tragic love (Il Tabarro) to a tormented soul (Suor Angelica) climaxing with roars of laughter during "Gianni Schicchi". It was incredible to see such a complex performance and also one of my former students in a supporting role during the last act and I am definitely looking forward to seeing "Madame Butterfly" in the next few months.

The Secret Is Out!

A Proverb a Day ...

Kate Atkinson - Life after Life: New Moon, New Life

"In the space between chaos and shape, there was another chance." (Jeanette Winterson)

The more you live, and read - in some cases - the more you realize that you've been harder on yourself than anyone else in your life. It was you who kept the windows dirty and did not let the sun in, fearing whatever was unknown. It was you who believed for too long  in something not worth believing. We delude ourselves with mere words when actions should speak for themselves. However, more often than not we should give up on people, not because we don't care, but because they don't care.

In "Life after Life" Kate Atkinson optimistically (or obsessively, it depends how you look at it) states: “What if we had a chance to do it again and again, until we finally did get it right? Wouldn’t that be wonderful?” What if there were second chances? Or third chances? Would we still want to do things differently? Would we still want to try?

We are the stories we tell ourselves...and inbetween hypertext and metaphysics, "time is a construct, in reality everything flows, no past or present, only the now." The author retells the story of one's life in different times and from different perspectives and we find ourselves asking if novel and real life are alike, being able to do things once more, or life events are singular and final?

"Life after Life" has been praised by prestigious magazines and Kate Atkinson was shortlisted for The Women's prize for Fiction 2013.

My Reading Challenges - September 2013

Having spent the month of August reading whatever my mind fancied, and it did fancy quite a lot of books, this September I am back to face three of the reading challenges I subscribed to:
I will be reading Dan Puric's "Cine suntem" (Who we are) and "The Easiest Way to Live" for Birgit's Non - Fiction Challenge, which I am proud to say that it is going smashing, with 15 books read so far;
Osamu Dazai's "Setting Sun" is meant both for Bellezza's Japanese Literature Challenge and New Authors Challenge, as is "The Girl with Glass Feet" which I have been planning to read for quite some time.

Happy Reading and Bonne Rentree!

5 Things I've Learned from "The Bastard of Istanbul"

"Whatever falls from the sky above, thou shall not curse it..That includes the rain..."

 

I quite enjoyed reading "The Bastard of Istanbul",  for several reasons. Shafak's style of writing is one I admire, full of powerful images, Turkish folklore and the country's agitated past, and Shafak has quite a unique talent for storytelling. 

The book was published in 2006 and it stirred a public controversy due to the account of the mass killings of the Armenian people by the Ottoman government in the 1920s, recognizing it as a genocide. The writer was accused of insulting the Turkish national identity through the voice of the main character and she was sentenced to three years in prison, but the charges were later dropped. This was the first time I have heard or read about the genocide, and it felt rather strange, just happening after the First World War and people already pretending it did not happen. 

On a more happier note, the book is full of Turkish and Armenian food and sweets and a few of the culinary products were tasted on my trip to Istanbul two years ago, but not ASHURE, which plays such an important part all along the novel. Ashure, or Noah's Pudding is believed to have been made by Noah himself after the flood, with  some of the ingredients that were left. More on its story and the recipe here.  

The third thing I discovered was the story behind djinns, or genies, who can interact with people, (and they do so in the book) and who have free will and can do good or bad. 

Dervishes were not something new to me, since I have read about them and I also saw them dancing and whirling in a wonderful show back in Istanbul, but the book stresses once more their importance in the Turkish culture. 

 One cannot mention Turkish elements of culture without some linguistic examples, and SEREFE seems quite an interesting one. It means "Cheers!" and you can learn more about its history here.
 

Best Birthday Gift :)

All Hail the Queen!

                   Happy Birthday to Madonna!

What my Favorite Writer Is Reading...

Have you ever wondered what your favorite writers are reading? I have, and weeks ago Jeanette Winterson wrote about what she recommended as some of the best releases of this year. All five are memoirs and this was quite foreseeable mainly because Jeanette herself wrote a wonderful memoir two years ago - Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? - and I am sure she wanted to check if others are better at this :) Jeanette, without doubt yours is the best :)
I checked what the five books are all about and there are two that I may think about reading somewhere in the future: "She Left Me the Gun" and "A Fort of Nine Towers". The rest don't seem to intrigue me...

The Wave A profoundly moving, piercingly frank memoir of learning to live with grief--that begins in Sri Lanka on Dec. 26, 2004, when the author lost her parents, her husband, and her two young sons in the tsunami she miraculously survived.
A Fort of Nine Towers A young Afghan man's searing and redemptive memoir of his family and country. Omar survived imprisonment and opened a secret carpet factory to provide work for girls who were forbidden to go to leave their homes. Inflected with folktales, steeped in poetry, this book is a life-affirming triumph.
Bad Boy Renowned American artist Fischl has written a penetrating, often searing exploration of his coming of age as an artist, and his search for a fresh narrative style in the highly charged and competitive New York art world in the 1970s and 1980s.
She Left Me the Gun When Emma Brockes was ten years old, her mother said 'One day I will tell you the story of my life and you will be amazed.' Growing up in a tranquil English village, Emma knew very little of her mother's life before her. She knew Paula had grown up in South Africa and had seven siblings.
I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp The sharp, lyrical, and no-holds-barred memoir of the iconoclastic writer and musician--progenitor of American and British punk rock--which charts the coming of age of an artist and an indelible era in rock & roll history.

Sous le Ciel de Paris...

July is over and what a Paris - related month it was, with lots of books and French music and movies! Oh, how I love holidays with worries aside...
Here are some of the movies I have seen this month, hoping you will be curious enough to give them a try:

"Ma Mere" (My Mother), starring Isabelle Huppert, whom we talked about months ago, is a movie based on Georges Bataille's book with the same title and it presents quite a disturbing story between a promiscuous mother and her troubled son. Having watched an interview with the director, I was made aware that the sex shown was meant to make us cross moral boundaries... It is a movie I would recommend to those who want to check where the new French cinema is heading.

"Dieu Est Grand, Je Suis Toute Petite" (God is great, I am Really Small) is a light movie about Michele, played by now the famous Audrey Tautou ("Amelie") , who struggles with becoming Jewish and still keeping her Jewish boyfriend.

"Amour" is probably one of the most beautiful movies I have seen so far and I am so thrilled that such cinematic jewels are still made by talented directors such as Haneke, whose two other movies I will surely watch. "Amour", which premiered in Cannes in 2012 and won Palme d'Or, the highest distinction tells the story of a love beyond common understanding between an old couple. It is definitely a must see for anyone who still believes in the powers of simple yet touching love stories.

"Dans la Maison" (In the House) was such an amazing discovery. The story is so intricate and captivating, the actors (Kristin Scott Thomas included) are so talented that you find yourself on the edge of your seat impatiently waiting to see what will happen next between the bored teacher and the student whose inspiration goes beyond the limit. Excellent movie!

All four movies seen for my pleasure but also for Paris in July Challenge :)

The Paris Wife - Six Word Sum Up

Paradise is lost when you stop believing.

"The Paris Wife" is probably the best book I will have read this year. I was expecting a love story, but what a love story that was. One between the mighty Ernest Hemingway, just before he became famous and Elizabeth Hadley Hemingway, his first wife. Hadley recounts the years she spent married with Hem, from the first year when he was struggling to finish his first stories and up to the end, when he almost finished "The Sun also Rises" (which he dedicated to Hadley and their son, Bumby).
Eight years older than Hemingway, Hadley dedicates her life to become a supportive wife, while they spend most of their marriage in Paris, befriending Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound or Zelda and F. S. Fitzgerald.
Paula Mclain portraits the couple as a single being, with identical haircuts and nicknames, each one calling the other "Tatie", they ski and drink together, but one day Ernest meets Pauline, whom he seduces in front of Hadley and who will become his second wife.
Although it may seem like a simple love story, filled with betrayal, it is not just that. It is a love story that scares you forever, since Hemingway, married for the fourth time, will write in  his memoir "A Movable Feast" that "I wished I had died before I ever loved anyone but her."

You can find an interview with the author about this book here.

Read for Paris is July and  New Authors Reading Challenges. 

My Reading Challenges - July 2013

The not so hot month of July is almost entirely devoted to reading French literature or novels set in Paris because such an addicted fan of everything French cannot stay away from this challenge about which you can find out more here. 
Besides reading my first Romain Gary and Robbe-Grillet, my third Stephen Clarke, which seems quite a funny book, just like the previous ones, and the famous Paris Wife, I am going to tackle one book for the Japanese Literature Reading Challenge, but I am not sure which one (yet) and some non-fiction books, if there is enough time for reading and sleeping and falling asleep while reading :)

Joyeuse lecture! :)

Vanessa et Benjamin

The most beautiful song of Vanessa's album "Love Songs" is definitely this one, mainly because I also love Benjamin Biolay who produced the entire album and signed eight of its songs. Voici la version live "Le Rempart" and I also recommend "Les Roses Roses" :)

Moi j’ai peur du noir
J’ai peur de la nuit du hasard
J’ai peur ici de n’plus savoir
J’ai peur de me perdre, il est tard
Là sans lumière, j’ai quel espoir ?

If you like it and you want to listen to the whole private concert, then click here :) 

La Musique de Paris en Juillet

I decided to join, for the third year, Paris in July Challenge, which is one of the simplest yet most entertaining challenges, mainly because one can mix books with movies or music, not to mention other fun activities, all related to France and/or Paris. You can read book about France, written by French authors or listen to some French piano bar music... your choice and your delight, since you cannot think about Paris without a smile lingering on your face, but what happens or will happen in Paris stays in Paris, right? :)

The soundtrack for this July will be Patricia Kaas and Vanessa Paradis, whose latest albums are simply beautiful.
Do you have a preference for one of the two? :)

Manuscript Found in Accra (or How to Fight the Best Fight)

You already know how much I appreciate Paulo Coelho's writing and now you can see those are not just simple words :)

This is my review for the French Publishing House Flammarion who kindly offered to me the French edition. In a nutshell, I consider the Manuscript as good as The Alchemist, with the advantage that it does not follow an actual plot and it can be read whenever one feels that they lack courage or determination... A perfect book to gift any friend... or foe :) 

“Combats le bon combat de la foi” (1 Timothee 6:12)

Pour ceux qui lisent constamment les livres de Paulo Coelho, etre fidele aux desirs qu’on puisse avoir est un leitmotiv qui ne demande pas trop d’explications. Coelho reste fidele a son desir d’ecrire un livre tous les deux ans, un livre qui puisse changer le monde, le rendre meilleur, meme si ce desir puisse paraitre un peu desuete. Et encore une fois l’ecrivain y parvient, par des mots simples mais prestigieux, car la verite ne devrait jamais etre trop compliquee.

“Le Manuscrit retouve” est un livre qui presente les valeurs importantes que la vie nous offre a la fin d’un combat avec nous meme, avec les autres, avec les prejudges de la societe ou on vit. “Le Manuscrit” est un livre qu’on puisse relire quand le combat est trop dur, quand on doute tout autour de nous, quand tout nous semble difficile, quand on a peur de l’echec ou du changement, quand on aime mais on ne recoit pas de l’amour en echange.

“Sois toi-meme” nous dit Coelho, et “ceci devrait etre suffisant.” “Aime, parce que tout autre chose est silence.” Est-ce qu’il y a des mots plus vrais que ceux-ci? 

Dan Puric (or How to Speak Beautifully about Your Past)

 If you come from Romania, then you are bound to have heard and even admired Dan Puric. However, this post is not about his great talents as an actor, it is about how beautifully he can talk when it comes to his and our past, us as a nation, his family and his torments.
Last month I had the chance of meeting him, hearing him speak about Romanian martyrs and the Romanian church along the years, and because I am a lucky person after all, I managed to steal two autographs on his two (out of three) books. Oh, and he also wished me Happy Birthday :)
Dan Puric is an exceptional person and I am glad we have already realized that, taking into account how many people were present for his talk and how crowded the grand ballroom at Metropolis seemed before he entered. And because nothing could speak better about his nature than his own words, here are a few quotes from his most recent book, "Be Dignified!" which I tried to translate without omitting their poetic side:

"I truly believe that people who understand life in its depth cannot be too cheerful."
"What's with some memories that cannot be forgotten? Maybe they are pieces of a soul that accompany us forever..."
"After all, what is friendship but that wonderful honor of our soul in which truth can rest."
"Not everything that you have lived has the right to become a memory."
" Then, growing up, I gave to them, to those that looked at me from beyond the fence, my soul. And they rolled it around in the dust of life and gave it back to me, squashed, beaten and lifeless. I sadly took my own soul into my arms and caressed it. Then, when it would heal, it would leave me smiling and throw itself naively into the longing arms of those around. And again, smashed by the cheerful yet unknown waves of life, it would lie tired at my feet, telling me it was for the last time. Since then, I have been burying and digging out my own soulful flight just like a curse." 

You can watch a wonderful interview with Dan Puric here.

My Reading Challenges - June 2013

June looks like a good month for doing some meaningful reading while sipping lemonade under the shade (well, a girl can dream now, can't she? :))
Bellezza will be hosting her Japanese Literature Challenge and I will join in, since I can't really stay away from that, so I have already started reading "Out" by Natsuo Kirino, which seems like an excellent thriller, the type that you cannot put aside, even if it is 3 am.
Also, I will indulge in some non-fiction books for Birgit's Challenge, and I have in mind, among others, Lenoir's "Petit Traite de Vie Interieure" (Short Treatise on Inner Life).
I am also looking forward to Shafak's "Bastard of Istanbul" mainly because I really enjoyed all the books I have read and which she penned.
Last but not least, I hope to be able to read "The Einstein Girl" by Philip Sington, for the New Authors Challenge. The subject is quite intriguing and it seems like the perfect book to start my holiday with.
Happy Reading to all!

5 Books That Changed My Life

Today, Paulo Coelho, one of my all time favorite writers, asked his readers to name the five books that changed their lives. So, how could I not have complied with his request? :)
Here are my FOUR books that really changed life as I see it, and it is only four because I always leave room for more surprising books that may come along...

Do you have any books that changed your life? :)