Book Review: THE DOOR by Magda Szabó

The Door by Magda Szabó
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"You think life goes on for ever, and that it would be worth having if it did. You think there’ll always be someone to cook and clean for you, a plate full of food, paper to scribble on, the master to love you; and everyone will live for eternity, like a fairy tale..."

Would you pick up this book if you knew nothing about it? As far as covers and titles go, there are so many more intriguing ones. Even reading the blurb, one wouldn't find it "sexy." Old age never is.

But when your book pals tell you that it's a must-read, then you follow peer pressure and get a copy like the good friend that you are.

And allow Magda Szabó to wreck your heart in yet another unforgettable novel.

I had previously read ABIGAIL and thought it wonderful, and was a bit disappointed to discover upon beginning THE DOOR that it was set in contemporary times. I thought it would be less interesting than the first book which had been set in World War II.

How wrong I was.

It starts with an admission of guilt: "I killed Emerence. The fact that I was trying to save her rather than destroy her changes nothing."

A searing critique of superficial Christianity and social attitudes towards the aged, it forces us to confront our deepest fears not so much about death, but more importantly, the illnesses that come before dying.

"She was capable of sacrifice. Things I had to attend to consciously she did instinctively. It made no difference that she wasn’t aware of it — her goodness was innate, mine was the result of upbringing. It was only later that I developed my own clear moral standards... What I consider religion is a sort of Buddhism, a mere respect for tradition, and that even my morality is just discipline, the result of training at home, in school and in my family, or self-imposed...This woman wasn’t one to practise Christianity in church between nine and ten on Sunday mornings, but she had lived by it all her life, in her own neighbourhood, with a pure love of humanity such as you find in the Bible."

This book should come with a trigger warning, though! It's not advisable for those fresh from caring for a beloved elder at their bedside. * heaves a steadying sigh *

We shirk from thinking the unthinkable because it's never pleasant. In a similar way, I have yet to encounter a Szabó book that I could call "pleasant," but they're so much more.

They're essential.

Few books make us question our attitudes towards life and death. This is such a one.

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Book Review: BOOK LOVERS by Emily Henry

Book Lovers by Emily Henry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"Is there anything better than iced coffee and a bookstore on a sunny day? I mean, aside from hot coffee and a bookstore on a rainy day."

When the Goodreads sisterhood crowns a book as the best romance of 2022, once simply has to read it. And it certainly exceeded high expectations! This book re-kindled my love for Kindles and romance novels!

It's certainly novel, with our heroine and hero both working in the book biz, she as an agent and he as an editor (aka every book lover's dream job). They consider themselves the villains in Hallmark films because they're bad ass city people, but they made this reader fall in love with their relatable imperfections within a few pages.

BOOK LOVERS is downright HILARIOUS! It's not easy to write funny lines that are original and don't come across as Kinsella-esque, but Emily Henry has SUCH a gift for flirtatious banter that one can't help but giggle hysterically every page!

"That is what I’m looking for every time I flip to the back of a book, compulsively checking for proof that in a life where so many things have gone wrong, there can be beauty too. That there is always hope, no matter what."

And yet her characters have real life problems, too. I found myself sniffing at one point, only to wipe away at the stray tear drops in disbelief. There is gravitas here as well, people, hidden under such delightful layers of romance tropes.

"After losing Mom, those were the endings I found solace in. The ones that said, Yes, you have lost something, but maybe, someday, you’ll find something too."

Both a loving tribute and a playful critique of the genre, BOOK LOVERS manages to be an unforgettable book for this reader who has consumed hundreds (and forgotten dozens) of romance novels! READ IT READ IT READ IT!

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Book Review: ELIZABETH AND HER GERMAN GARDEN by Elizabeth von Arnim

Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

"The stillness of an eternal Sunday lay on the place like a benediction."

Every teacher spends Sundays preparing for several classes the following week.

The morning and early afternoon is spent luxuriating in "me time," although as often as not, this is time taken over by chores and Real Life concerns.. * heaves a sigh * Oh, Adulting...

The late afternoon is taken over by urgent work that can't wait til Monday. It is part and parcel of every busy person's life, which is why Elizabeth von Arnim is a good author to read on Sundays.

She reminds us of a better, slower time a century ago. This one makes you want to go outdoors and smell the neighbor's flowers (if you haven't any of your own), and analyze the song of the birds and write them down in musical notation (she does so in the book!).

This novella, however, isn't her best work. For the first time, she writes about a rich lady, and her first-world concerns. And although I was predisposed to liking her heroine based on my previous wonderful experiences with her other books, I found myself disliking this spoiled rich matron more and more as the book progressed.

Verdict: Go ahead and skip it. "The dullest book takes on a certain saving grace if read out of doors," von Arnim writes, and similarly, this book's saving grace was its cover, displayed to its full beauty when contrasted against different flowery cloth backgrounds.

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Book Review: THE REMAINS OF THE DAY by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"When with the benefit of hindsight one begins to search one's past for such 'turning points,' one is apt to start seeing them everywhere."

It was a rainy Saturday. My boss had asked me to do guard duty at the school, and I happily complied because it meant a few hours of peaceful reading with MY VERY FIRST KAZUO ISHIGURO! He comes highly recommended by bookish friends and The Establishment, hehe, so I had great expectations.

I haven't seen the movie, and was wondering why an actor of Anthony Hopkins' caliber would take on the not-so-glamorous role of an English butler in the years before World War II.

But now, having read the book, I think I'm beginning to understand.

This is about a working man's life, and the dangers of throwing one's self at a cause so completely, that one leaves little room for other joys.

I also think THE REMAINS OF THE DAY is better seen acted out on film, with so many things left unsaid in the book that it takes a very observant reader to fill in the blanks of motivation, of subtlety.

This is the kind of book that older readers will appreciate more. One needs to have suffered through the pain of past passions, the loss of "almost" lovers.

It is a warning for workaholics everywhere. Of what use is dignity if one is, at the end of the day, lonely?

It does what good books do: makes one reflect on the decisions that seem so little at the time, but mean entirely different lives had we made the opposite choice.

(After I finished the novel, I felt compelled to go out and practice bantering, inspired by our butler-hero, but unfortunately the sleepy guard-cat on campus would have none of it. Oh well.)

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Book Review: THE TIME OF OUR SINGING by Richard Powers

The Time of Our Singing by Richard Powers
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"In the only world worth reaching, everyone owns all song."

This, beyond doubt, is Richard Powers' masterpiece. I've read six of his other works, including "the more famous ones," and while I have a few more left to go, I can't imagine anything beating the scale of this one!

This impassioned reader stayed up late on a school night, weeping over the ending of this miracle of paper and passion, this transcendent piece of art that challenges the very fabric of time itself.

Richard Powers, a Caucasian man, just wrote the definitive book about growing up labeled "black" in America during its most violent civil rights movements. But like any Powers book, its themes are polyphonic: on the politics of race, of music, of the soulless machine that is the record music industry, of authenticity and identity, of freedom in all its forms. It's also a history of Western music condensed and described with a pen so skillful, it makes me hold my breath after reading passages of piercing beauty.

To gatekeep Richard Powers and question the legitimacy of his masterpiece is to question the legitimacy of brown Filipinos and yellow Asians studying the rich cultural heritage of white Europe: thousands of years of classical music history, from organum to opera, hemiolas to hiphop.

This novel, in a word, is "operatic." It's so operatic, the opera of the book premiered in Belgium only in 2021!

"What’s music, that anyone should wreck their life over it?”

In 1939, the famous African-American contralto Marian Anderson sang at the Lincoln Memorial Center and made history.

In that crowd of thousands, a German Jew and an African-American woman are brought together by destiny. (Or a mind-boggling, time-defying physics of their own making.)

He's an amateur musician turned physics professor ("Science was his way of lengthening his shortened days."). She's a soprano studying to be a future Marian Anderson ("Crisis brought out her art."). Their love, and their children, defy so many of society's silly rules.

"Maybe we sing for ourselves. At least that. Nothing without that. But nothing if only that. We need a music that sings to anyone. That makes them sing."

To "keep afloat that feather on the breath of God," Richard Powers challenges all of us (musicians and non-musicians alike) to keep singing the song of our existence. Joyfully, no matter what, because "you can only be what you sing."

I'm typing furiously over my hastily eaten breakfast, as if to exorcise this book from me just enough so I can go to work and function like a normal human being.

But I know I'll never be the same.

Some books are signposts in life. Yesterday was before "The Time of Our Singing." There is today, and a more beautiful tomorrow, because of it.

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Book Review: ORFEO by Richard Powers

Orfeo by Richard Powers
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life."

A composer dabbling in garage lab experiments calls for authorities to help take away his pet dog's remains in the paranoid years following 9/11, and suddenly becomes the most wanted "Bioterrorist Bach" because he tried to imprint his compositions in the make up of bacteria.

This book is for anyone who has lived for music or art, whether for several years, or for a lifetime. "Vissi d'arte" is all very well in good onstage, but what happens when Tosca and Mario manage to escape and have to do mundane things like raise a family and hold down jobs?

For some weird reason I thought the book would be about Baroque or similar classical music, in the order of Gluck's immortal opera, Orfeo ed Euridice (which was also my own introduction to the beautiful world of opera). But for the story to be relevant, Powers had to use more difficult 20th century music (think Crumb and Cage, Shostakovitch and Mahler).

I was also surprised to learn that the novel was based on a true story! (That of Steve Kurtz).

It is also a reflection on the subversive nature of art, as well as an extended debate on whether there is room for beauty in art today.

No one matches Powers' gift for writing about music ("the first language, direct transcription of inner states, the thing words used to be before they bogged down with meaning"), although admittedly there are still several technical terms and musical references that might send non-music majors rushing to Spotify. (There's a helpful portion at the end of the book with a list of composers and compositions used in the book.)

On atonal music: "Be grateful for anything that still cuts. Dissonance is a beauty that familiarity hasn’t yet destroyed."

On the joy in a minor key: "There's a deep pleasure to be had from hearing the darkest tune and discovering you’re equal to it."

While not his best book, it is still a Richard Powers novel! They are always worth the intellectual weight-lifting. The book hits deep because I know actual folks like its main character... Willing to sacrifice everything for a performance of a song with more people onstage than in the audience. The book asks: Is the sacrifice worth it?

"Grace was pouring out everywhere... And all that secret, worldwide composition said the same thing: listen closer, listen smaller, listen lighter, to any noise at all, and hear what the world will still sound like, long after your concert ends."


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A Cross-Post: Lockhart's Lament and Dr. Po-Shen Loh

 

(The original post can be found here!)

The books that stay with you are the ones that you read out of a real-life compulsion. This was the case when I attended a math education seminar by the world-renowned professor, Dr. Po-Shen Loh, and this book was discussed in the Q&A portion.

I shall reserve my paroxysms of anguish mixed with delight, and detailed descriptions of what will remain as one of the most life-changing, impactful talks I've attended (and this veteran teachers has been to her fair share!) for when I echo what I've learned to my fellow teachers, LOL.

But even if you aren't a Math teacher, you'd find this short book an amazing read. It was fitting that I read this on the commute back home (one good thing that comes from long trips is that you have time to consume long essays like this one, conveniently packaged in e-book form!). I felt that Lockhart's Lament (published in 2009) captured the essence of the education problem, not just for Math, but across the board for all subjects! And there are several key ideas that Lockhart and Dr. Po-Shen Loh share, which I hope to incorporate in my own teaching in the future!

To put it simply... most of us have been taught Math the wrong way OUR ENTIRE LIVES.

Part I is "Lamentations", while Part II is "Exultations." Parts of it are in philosophical dialogue form, with Simplicio defending the status quo and Salviati attacking it most passionately. I found myself agreeing with most of the things mentioned in this highly controversial book! It is revolutionary!

Lockhart contends that math is closer to music and the arts, that math education today has taken the wonder out of the joy of problem-solving and discovery, replacing curious exploration with blind, mindless obedience to tables and theorems.

Don't be put off by the math and geometry problems within, they are very basic! Lockhart uses a couple of examples to illustrate two very different styles of teaching: the "memorize this formula and don't ask questions why" method (*sobs from past trauma*) versus the "starting with a fascinating question and asking students for ideas on how to solve it" method.

I believe this is a book for all teachers, and all parents!

"If teaching is reduced to mere data transmissions, if there is no sharing of excitement and wonder, if teachers themselves are passive recipients of information and not creators of new ideas, what hope is there for their students?" 

(Forgive the reader for low-key flexing her brand new Kindle Paperwhite 5, tee hee! Brace yourselves, Kindle Paperwhite posts are incoming!) 

To what extent do your formative educational experiences with Math affect your attitude to numbers today? Do you think that an education revolution of this magnitude, involving a complete 180 degree paradigm shift, is possible?

A Cross - Post: The Ateneo and its University Press

                        (The original reel can be found here!)

Ateneo's trending in the Philippines right now because two Math majors whupped the butts of international Ivy Leagues in Debate and won the world's largest debate tournament (WUDC 2023) in Madrid. Mary, for you! One big fight, woot woot! The whole country is proud of their achievement, and rightfully so! This local university's debaters beat the likes of Princeton, Harvard, Stanford, National University of Singapore, and London School of Economics. What can I say? The Jesuit reputation for being excellent educators is well-deserved, ho ho ho.

So today, I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and showcase one of many books published by this university's press. I think they have a wonderfully diverse collection of books targeted not just for those in academia, but also for the everyday reader (like me!). Also, the Ateneo University Press publishes books at student-friendly prices (or in my case, teacher-salary-friendly prices), which is great!

There are other university presses, of course, such as the University of the Philippines Press, and the University of Santo Tomas Publishing House. But it so happened that this teacher/reader had to be in the Ateneo campus for a * gasp * Math education seminar today, hihihi. I know it's cheesy, but I hope you enjoy this Ateneo Press book, featuring the beautifully manicured campus of the Ateneo in the background!

Gideon Lasco's THE PHILIPPINES IS NOT A SMALL COUNTRY is a collection of essays that EVERY Filipino should read, and remains a favorite.

Ateneo Press is also very brave, as they have published quite a few books that objectively analyzed (or were even critical) of past and present controversial presidencies, causing a few misguided individuals to label this university (and anyone who is a free thinker) with a dangerous color's tag.

But when we pause to consider the legacy of this educational institution (forming the soul and mind of our nation's foremost hero, Jose Rizal himself), we realize how important the Ateneo is to our society. Critical minds need critical books, so problems in our government can be acknowledged, and then solved.

The pen is mightier than the sword, they say. In the case of the Ateneo, with their patron saint, Ignatius of Loyola (himself a soldier), it is an inspiration for us Filipinos to use both ink and rapier in service of God and country.

A Cross - Post: A Bookshop Amongst the Clouds

                                                           (The original reel can be found here!)

Mt. Cloud Bookshop is aptly named. Among bookish folk from the capital city, it is a truth universally acknowledged that a trip up north to the mountains of Baguio City is wasted, incomplete, if one does not pay homage to this famous bookstore, up in the fog and clouds.

This wasn't our first trip to Mt. Cloud, as we had visited a couple of times before, when we had just started working. A decade or so ago, Mt. Cloud was located in Casa Vallejo, the historic hotel. I remember loving the fact that they had an extensive Asian book collection back then, with titles to be found nowhere else even among the big bookstores in Metro Manila. I have bittersweet memories of spending a hefty amount of my (then smaller) salary on Volumes 1 and 2 of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms (the basis of the epic movie Red Cliff with heartthrobs Tony Leung and Takeshi Kaneshiro).

However, this was our first time to visit the bookstore's new location near Brent International School. It's a quiet part of town... so quiet, it's where taxi drivers go to park and nap undisturbed. It's where the Pink Sisters' Convent is, full of holy women who shut themselves apart from the world to pray.

And that quietness is part of the bookstore's appeal. Imagine being able to browse IN PEACE, without having to scurry every now and then, bumping shoulders of strangers (like one inevitably does in the chain bookstores in Manila).

When one visits Mt. Cloud, one approaches as a pilgrim... walking tentatively, glancing up every now and then from Google Maps... or reverently alighting from a taxi, thanking Waze for its accuracy. Whether on foot or by car, one HAS to make a special trip to see this bookstore. If you are met with strains of Broadway music floating in the air, then you've come to the right place.

The bookshop is much bigger now, with a room dedicated for children's books alone, and a display of books that would make Belle from Beauty and the Beast envious. It has that famous "Belle book ladder" as well (Disney fans, you know what we mean, right??), which automatically sets it apart from other stores!

The books are mostly local publications, and boy, do they have (almost) everything! All the local publishers are fully represented. And if you look closely, there's a shelf for foreign authors as well! I remember being "shooketh" when I saw a few NYRB titles (they're all the rage in Manila nowadays!) such as Vassily Grossman's LIFE AND FATE. I almost screamed aloud when I saw a very rare title by Richard Powers and grabbed it as if it would be taken from me by a thief.

It was nice to see a steady stream of customers going in! In the half hour we were inside, we overheard several students and yuppies approach the cashier to ask, "Excuse me, would just like to inquire if you have x book by y author?" It was also comforting to overhear their requests being handled with know-how and care. I remember thinking to myself, These booksellers are book people. The way they talk about books is with a mix of knowledge and warmth. They care, truly, about the books and the readers who enter, seeking them.

From historical books tagged "Lessons Not Learned" (LOL) to foreign authors of esoteric novels... from the complete works of Manix Abrera and Budjette Tan/Kajo Baldisimo, to works specializing in Igorot culture by Baguio artists... to browse in Mt. Cloud is a delight! A stool here and there were thoughtfully placed, to make treasure-hunting easier on the back. Fun accessories and bookmarks are also being sold, made by local craftsmen.

And did I mention that they accept credit card payments now? (A decade or so ago, it was cash only!) Hurrayness! For Mt. Cloud and the Filipino authors whose treasures lie within, this reader will go most happily into debt!

Book Review: WHEN I WHISTLE by Shusaku Endo

When I Whistle by Shūsaku Endō
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"Some people leave no impression at all upon your heart, no matter how often you encounter them in life. But there are also people who touch your life only once whom you cannot forget for as long as you live."

We have again another Endo novel with a lot of its action taking place in a hospital.

So many of the works of Endo take place in this scenario, and today I finally found out why.

In the Preface, Endo says that altogether he has spent four years of his life as an invalid, one in Paris and three in Japan, with his heart stopping in one of his several operations to take out one lung.

No wonder the man writes of Life, Faith, and Death this way!

The appeal of the hospital, Endo wrote, is because "there people must cast off all the decorations of society." Masks are gone, souls revealed by the manner they face death and tragedy.

In "When I Whistle," two young men grow up before World War II breaks out, falling in love with local girl. The novel shifts timelines to underscore the difference between the generation that didn't know war, and the one where everyone lost someone.

This was simpler and less convoluted than other Endo novels, but still well worth reading (is there any Endo book that isn't?). The familiar ethical quandary rears it head: a medical one. Is it worth risking the life of a patient in order to test a new drug? But somehow, the book feels less religious than Endo's other works. It makes its reader reflect on those who passed through our lives so briefly, perhaps only for a few days, or months. But without our meeting them, we would not be who we are, now.

It shows the breadth and depth of Love, in its purest form. For even without the expected ending in prolonged love affairs or relationships, souls still have power to shape destinies of those we never knew.

At the start of 2023, it made me think back with fondness for those butterflies of fate in my own life, and how wonderful it is that we can impact others so powerfully, even without our knowledge.



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