This is a disturbing book. Especially towards the end. It starts like other BEE books, with a young guy, from a well-to-do family, coming back to LA from the first semester out East, and hanging out with his high school friends, all of them rich, spoiled brats, never wanting for anything in life, and yet becoming broken, numb, apathetic human beings. The main character's name is Clay.
Towards the end of the book is when things become really disgusting. First we find out that Clay's best friend (and maybe occasional lover, after all, all BEE male characters are bi-sexual) Julian became a male whore because of huge drug debt and his pimp, a disgusting caricature of a man, pimps him out to mid-western businessmen, who cannot indulge in boy-flesh in their native, fundamentalist areas, where they have to show a wife and kids. Clay watches while one mid-western businessmen pounds Julian for close to 5 hours in a seedy hotel.
Clay's other 'friend' and main drug dealer, on the other hand, has tried everything by the time he's 18, so he organized a gang-raping of a bound 12-year old girl, whom he keeps constantly high by injecting her with heroin at intervals. He invites Clay to take part, but Clay refuses (wow, BEE, you're getting soft!), although the two guys with Clay (his "friends") have no qualms about jumping in.
Clay's high school girlfriend, Blair, is supposed to be the book's main female character, but just like in other BEE books, the female lead is lifeless and unpersuasive. Blair doesn't seem to have a hold on anything, even her professed love for Clay, which she tested multiple times by sleeping around with other guys. She seems like she wants Clay, but doesn't really do anything about it, except a few bouts of below-average sex.
This is BEE's first book, and the style and subject matter is similar to 'Rules of Attraction' however it is written with more shock-value in mind. It is a gripping read, only because one is curious to see what would happen next, even though none of the characters are truly likeable or relate-able, and the plot consists of nothing, just 4 weeks of winter Xmas vacation.
Thursday, January 8, 2015
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
"Rules of Attraction" by Bret Easton Ellis
The book can be summarized as "drink-fuck-drugs-fuck-drugs-drink-fuck-dostupidthings." Towards the end it gets a bit more serious with Mary's suicide and Lauren's pregnancy and subsequent abortion, but the reader is so overwhelmed by the sheer amount of drugs, drinking and meaningless sex by that time, that he hardly can appreciate the gravity.
Ellis uses the expression "Terminally Numb" towards the last third of the book, and that expression by itself describes most of the characters, both male and female, including most of their interactions. At times it seems that there's only one male and one female character, while all the different names seem to be like different moods of the same person. Shawn and Paul and Rupert and Lauren and Mary and Victor and Jaimie, etc.
Ellis seems to be very adept at describing male homosexuality, as almost all male characters in the book are either bi-sexual or homosexual. However, he lacks skill when describing female homosexuality, or female sexuality at all. The one lesbian scene in the book is pretty unconvincing, and the author generally puts much more gusto into describing male sex perception , even if it is masturbation, than female-perceived sex. Mary's pre-suicide thinking is unconvincing, and Lauren comes across as too one-dimensional for what should be the leading female character.
Ultimately, "The Rules of Attraction" is a wishful-thinking, of sorts, for all the debauchery and decadence (and the corresponding price to be paid) that one might have missed during one's undergrad days. Fun, but no cigar.
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
"The Road" by Cormac McCarthy
This is not an easy novel to read, and many critics are complaining that it is tedious and monotonous and consists only of walking, walking, walking. The author, however, has a distinct intention to evoke the feeling of the post-apocalyptic world where everything is covered in ash, ash floating in the air, the skies are just ash, the sun is never to be seen and all carbon-based life has gone extinct except for small bands of human survivors who descended into the lowest form of barbarism and cannibalism. "First they're gonna rape you, then they're gonna eat you."
We never learn what the disaster was that destroyed much of the North American continent, and, presumably, much of the rest of the world. The unnamed father and son are struggling to go south, following 'a road', small leftover pieces from the once mighty highways, reach the sea and maybe find some lost warmth. The father is terminally ill with lung disease and is counting the days until his death. The boy was born after the disaster, and is around 9 years old. The mother is mentioned in few brief paragraphs, as having shot herself, to escape the ultimate and inescapable fate of being raped, killed, skinned and eaten.
On "The Road", the father and son see horrible things. Bands of cannibals, murderers and rapists, organizing themselves in groups, hunting other humans for food. Tribes of cannibals organized in classes: warriors with spears made of scrap metal, slaves to pull the carriages and used as food and women kept for sex. They find city-cannibals fortified into old houses, with locked trapdoors in the floor underneath which horrors lurk of humans kept as animals for food, cutting off limbs from them, one at a time, for dinner or lunch, while keeping the rest of the human trunk alive in order for the meat to be fresh. Human babies, gutted and skewered, roasted over coals.
They reach the sea, but only more gray ash and coldness. They find a wreck where The Man swims and gets some more supplies to last them for a while more in their shopping cart. But the cart gets stolen by a starving thief. They catch the thief, and The Man is so Angry he makes him strip and stand naked in the freezing weather, while The Boy begs him to spare him. But The Man doesn't spare him. He tells the boy 'we're the good guys; we carry the fire' but the boy asks how can they be the good guys if they kill other people or let them die, even if they don't eat them.
The Man dies of the lung disease near a house on the shore. The boy is alone, but someone followed them: a man with a shotgun, home-made bullets and a woman and two children with them. He invites the boy to join them. The Boy asks if he is one of the good guys, if he carries the fire. The new man says 'sure' and shrugs.
Heavy book.
We never learn what the disaster was that destroyed much of the North American continent, and, presumably, much of the rest of the world. The unnamed father and son are struggling to go south, following 'a road', small leftover pieces from the once mighty highways, reach the sea and maybe find some lost warmth. The father is terminally ill with lung disease and is counting the days until his death. The boy was born after the disaster, and is around 9 years old. The mother is mentioned in few brief paragraphs, as having shot herself, to escape the ultimate and inescapable fate of being raped, killed, skinned and eaten.
On "The Road", the father and son see horrible things. Bands of cannibals, murderers and rapists, organizing themselves in groups, hunting other humans for food. Tribes of cannibals organized in classes: warriors with spears made of scrap metal, slaves to pull the carriages and used as food and women kept for sex. They find city-cannibals fortified into old houses, with locked trapdoors in the floor underneath which horrors lurk of humans kept as animals for food, cutting off limbs from them, one at a time, for dinner or lunch, while keeping the rest of the human trunk alive in order for the meat to be fresh. Human babies, gutted and skewered, roasted over coals.
They reach the sea, but only more gray ash and coldness. They find a wreck where The Man swims and gets some more supplies to last them for a while more in their shopping cart. But the cart gets stolen by a starving thief. They catch the thief, and The Man is so Angry he makes him strip and stand naked in the freezing weather, while The Boy begs him to spare him. But The Man doesn't spare him. He tells the boy 'we're the good guys; we carry the fire' but the boy asks how can they be the good guys if they kill other people or let them die, even if they don't eat them.
The Man dies of the lung disease near a house on the shore. The boy is alone, but someone followed them: a man with a shotgun, home-made bullets and a woman and two children with them. He invites the boy to join them. The Boy asks if he is one of the good guys, if he carries the fire. The new man says 'sure' and shrugs.
Heavy book.
Friday, October 10, 2014
"Middlesex" by Jeffrey Eugenides
I really liked this book and enjoyed reading it, but then I was accosted by plenty of opinions that do not esteem the novel in the same light as me. I read some reviews that say the book is actually two books: one about the Greek immigrant experience in America and the other about a hermaphrodite, or "Intersex" third-generation Greek-American boy/girl Caliope, or Cali, and later Cal.
The book starts in the 1920s, when the Greeks tried to materialize the "Megali Idea" or the "Great Idea" of re-conquering Byzantine lands in Asia Minor. Cali's grandparents, Lefterios "Lefty" and Desdemona, a brother an sister, run away from their village of Bursa, north of Smyrna. Lefty and Desdemona get on a ship first to Athens, then to America, Ellis Island, and play a number on the other passengers presenting themselves as two strangers who just met on the ship. The brother and sister got married in the US and had two children. Unbeknown to them, they were carrying a recessive chromosome for Hermaphroditus, which however skipped their children.
To make things more interesting, the daughter of Lefty and Desdemona, Tessy, married her first cousin, Milton, and their second child, the daughter Calliope, was born with recessive hermaphrodite genitalia. The life of Milton and Tessy is described and how they slowly melted into the American normal, even forgetting to write, and eventually even speak Greek. Cali falls in love with a girl in her class when she reaches puberty, but when she does not get her period by 14 - her parents take her to a doctor and her hermaphrodite condition is discovered. She runs away from the sex change clinic, since she feels a boy, not a girl and doesn't want to be a girl. Eventually she ends working in a strip join in San Francisco and after the gig is busted she returns home to Detroit to find her father died in a car accident.
Thinking back, the book does lack a certain uniform strength, but it is nevertheless an enormously entertaining read.
The book starts in the 1920s, when the Greeks tried to materialize the "Megali Idea" or the "Great Idea" of re-conquering Byzantine lands in Asia Minor. Cali's grandparents, Lefterios "Lefty" and Desdemona, a brother an sister, run away from their village of Bursa, north of Smyrna. Lefty and Desdemona get on a ship first to Athens, then to America, Ellis Island, and play a number on the other passengers presenting themselves as two strangers who just met on the ship. The brother and sister got married in the US and had two children. Unbeknown to them, they were carrying a recessive chromosome for Hermaphroditus, which however skipped their children.
To make things more interesting, the daughter of Lefty and Desdemona, Tessy, married her first cousin, Milton, and their second child, the daughter Calliope, was born with recessive hermaphrodite genitalia. The life of Milton and Tessy is described and how they slowly melted into the American normal, even forgetting to write, and eventually even speak Greek. Cali falls in love with a girl in her class when she reaches puberty, but when she does not get her period by 14 - her parents take her to a doctor and her hermaphrodite condition is discovered. She runs away from the sex change clinic, since she feels a boy, not a girl and doesn't want to be a girl. Eventually she ends working in a strip join in San Francisco and after the gig is busted she returns home to Detroit to find her father died in a car accident.
Thinking back, the book does lack a certain uniform strength, but it is nevertheless an enormously entertaining read.
Friday, September 12, 2014
"Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion" by Robert B. Cialdini
This is a seminal book both in Psychology and in Marketing, Prof. Cialdini teaching at both departments at the University in Arizona. I was assigned this book as a required reading for a Marketing course while doing my MBA, but I have to admit I only browsed through it, and only now (3 years later) I am giving it a thorough reading.
The book is written so well, it flows almost like a good novel. Prof. Cialdini definitely has a flair for writing. Both psychological theory and analysis and practical examples are provided amply and appropriately, mixed in the correct ratios, making the book a pleasure to read while assimilating the concepts and ideas easily. I believe part of the attraction of the book is that most readers have already noticed the ideas and principles that Prof. Cialdini is exposing in their own lives, but never been able to espouse them in such a systematic and logical way.
Prof. Cialdini bases his theory of influence on 6 basic pillars:
1. Reciprocity. Tendency to return favors and feel guilty when not returning one (internal pressure that has to be equalized)
2. Consistency (and Commitment). Consistency with their own inner world is a great motivator for people to make less than optimal decisions. Getting commitment is a first step towards consistency.
3. Social Proof. Tending to think what other people are doing or valuing must be the correct one. This behavior is especially strong in new and unfamiliar situations or when people are unsure and afraid.
4. Authority. Trappings of authority seem to have very similar effects to an actual authority in eliciting compliance from people.
5. Liking. Good-looking people tend to get more positive results (also for well-groomed and well-dressed). We also tend to be more lenient and positive towards people we like or we perceive that are similar to us.
6. Scarcity. What is perceived to be rare is valued more, even if the scarcity is not real. A special case is when something abundant becomes scarce - produces larger behavior modification and perception of scarcity. People tend to value more losing something they have then gaining something the never had.
The main point Prof. Cialdini makes is that the above principles and the flawed behavior on which they are based are not necessarily negative. These behaviors are necessary shortcuts in today's hectic and overwhelming world. However, he makes a point of being aware of them and of the thousands swindlers, hecklers and hustlers (in whichever guise) that are trying to exploit them without our knowledge.
A recommended reading for anyone.
The book is written so well, it flows almost like a good novel. Prof. Cialdini definitely has a flair for writing. Both psychological theory and analysis and practical examples are provided amply and appropriately, mixed in the correct ratios, making the book a pleasure to read while assimilating the concepts and ideas easily. I believe part of the attraction of the book is that most readers have already noticed the ideas and principles that Prof. Cialdini is exposing in their own lives, but never been able to espouse them in such a systematic and logical way.
Prof. Cialdini bases his theory of influence on 6 basic pillars:
1. Reciprocity. Tendency to return favors and feel guilty when not returning one (internal pressure that has to be equalized)
2. Consistency (and Commitment). Consistency with their own inner world is a great motivator for people to make less than optimal decisions. Getting commitment is a first step towards consistency.
3. Social Proof. Tending to think what other people are doing or valuing must be the correct one. This behavior is especially strong in new and unfamiliar situations or when people are unsure and afraid.
4. Authority. Trappings of authority seem to have very similar effects to an actual authority in eliciting compliance from people.
5. Liking. Good-looking people tend to get more positive results (also for well-groomed and well-dressed). We also tend to be more lenient and positive towards people we like or we perceive that are similar to us.
6. Scarcity. What is perceived to be rare is valued more, even if the scarcity is not real. A special case is when something abundant becomes scarce - produces larger behavior modification and perception of scarcity. People tend to value more losing something they have then gaining something the never had.
The main point Prof. Cialdini makes is that the above principles and the flawed behavior on which they are based are not necessarily negative. These behaviors are necessary shortcuts in today's hectic and overwhelming world. However, he makes a point of being aware of them and of the thousands swindlers, hecklers and hustlers (in whichever guise) that are trying to exploit them without our knowledge.
A recommended reading for anyone.
"The Balkans: A Short History" by Mark Mazower
I got this book as a present from my cousin at Yale, who apparently thought it is one of the best book on the Balkans. Well, it is a pretty good book, but there are some omissions. First, the early periods of the Balkan states and their development are very well covered. The Roman, Byzantine (Eastern Roman) and the Ottoman periods are covered in vivid detail, emphasizing the little know facts of the empires being not based on nationality and ethnicity, but on religion and social/cultural cohesion. This is very important, especially for South-East Europe where many "new" nations emerged from the nationalism in the XIX century and laid claims to much longer history.
The main weakness of the book is in covering the last periods of the development of the Balkan States. The turmoil in Greece in the '70s and the military dictatorship of "The Generals" is very lightly covered. The development of Yugoslavia from a backward agrarian state to an industrial power with the 4th largest army in Europe and full domestic production of all weaponry and military equipment, is also covered very lightly. The disintegration of Yugoslavia and the second wave of Balkan Wars in the 1990s is not covered almost at all.
Mazower also throws a few 'curve balls' like calling the Bosniak and Macedonian nations 'newly created' after WWII in Tito's Yugoslavia, while ignoring the decades and centuries before of nationalistic movements and fight for national recognition in these countries and regions. History has shown us, as in the Russian Moldavian example, that 'new' nations cannot be created without having some solid historical development on the ground. Which is why, after independence, the Bosniak and Macedonian nations are continuing strong, but the "Moldavian" nation, has voluntarily reverted to the original Romanian nomenclature. Such reversals have not happened either in Bosnia nor in Macedonia.
Overall, a good, entertaining read, but only to be seen as a piece of a larger puzzle; the other pieces to be identified and collected by the reader.
The main weakness of the book is in covering the last periods of the development of the Balkan States. The turmoil in Greece in the '70s and the military dictatorship of "The Generals" is very lightly covered. The development of Yugoslavia from a backward agrarian state to an industrial power with the 4th largest army in Europe and full domestic production of all weaponry and military equipment, is also covered very lightly. The disintegration of Yugoslavia and the second wave of Balkan Wars in the 1990s is not covered almost at all.
Mazower also throws a few 'curve balls' like calling the Bosniak and Macedonian nations 'newly created' after WWII in Tito's Yugoslavia, while ignoring the decades and centuries before of nationalistic movements and fight for national recognition in these countries and regions. History has shown us, as in the Russian Moldavian example, that 'new' nations cannot be created without having some solid historical development on the ground. Which is why, after independence, the Bosniak and Macedonian nations are continuing strong, but the "Moldavian" nation, has voluntarily reverted to the original Romanian nomenclature. Such reversals have not happened either in Bosnia nor in Macedonia.
Overall, a good, entertaining read, but only to be seen as a piece of a larger puzzle; the other pieces to be identified and collected by the reader.
Monday, August 11, 2014
"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee
I read this book back in high school, as it was a required reading, and I read it in translation, since I wasn't born in an English-speaking country. Now, decades later, I read it in the original, and it is still amazing. Notwithstanding the excellent movie with Henry Fonda, movies cannot quite catch the subtleties of the written word - the well written word. Scout's words jump off the page as so lively as a real tomboy little girl in blue overalls is standing right in front of you. Atticus Finch is a glorious character, the perfect father, just, controlled and measured, always having the best for everyone on his mind. Jim and Dill are lovable characters, each showing their own strengths. Calpernia must be one of the most lovable African-American nanny characters.
The Yules are probably the primordial white-trash family, of which every town in the South has some, and some have more. They could have been the original Trailer Park Boys if born 50 years later. Tom's unfortunate fate evokes much more sympathy today that in the 70s when the book was popular and the civil rights in the South still had a lot of work to do.
Although I've read critiques around the Web that the book is too culturally-narrow and that it cannot be fully appreciated by other nations than the Americans, as it has so much localized details. But, in my humble opinion, that is the main strength of the book. It gives even non-American an intimate and in-depth view of the complicated beginnings of the American nation and shows the evolution of values and societal mores that resulted in a much more multicultural and tolerant American society today.
The Yules are probably the primordial white-trash family, of which every town in the South has some, and some have more. They could have been the original Trailer Park Boys if born 50 years later. Tom's unfortunate fate evokes much more sympathy today that in the 70s when the book was popular and the civil rights in the South still had a lot of work to do.
Although I've read critiques around the Web that the book is too culturally-narrow and that it cannot be fully appreciated by other nations than the Americans, as it has so much localized details. But, in my humble opinion, that is the main strength of the book. It gives even non-American an intimate and in-depth view of the complicated beginnings of the American nation and shows the evolution of values and societal mores that resulted in a much more multicultural and tolerant American society today.
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