The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf
The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf |
| Posted: 01 Mar 2013 02:06 AM PST Here's a fun romp of a read — just ignore the inconsistencies. Where'd You Go, Bernadette MEET Bernadette Fox. She is a myriad of characters to various people. She is the talented yet troubled wife of Elgin Branch, a genius working in Microsoft; she is a nuisance and a troublemaker to the mothers at her daughter's school; she is the revolutionary architect to design students and practitioners; and she is simply Mum to Bee, her 15-year-old daughter. Having presented her titular character as a splinter of more than one personality, author Maria Semple decides that her novel needs drama. Thus, she causes Bernadette to disappear, much to the anguish of Bee and chagrin of Elgin. Semple then not only spends her debut novel exploring why Bernadette Fox disappeared but also who she is. The author attempts to paint a picture of a complex woman suffering from her own inner turmoil, and she succeeds somewhat. It is while Bernadette is taking care of the logistics of a planned Christmas family trip that she begins to show symptoms of not being all there. Firstly, she engages an Indian woman named Manjula who is based in India to assist with day-to-day errands – in Seattle. While the e-mail exchanges between Bernadette and Manjula shed some insight into Bernadette's mental make-up when the word agoraphobia comes up, it is the e-mail and fax exchanges between fellow school mums Audrey Griffin and Soo-Lin Lee-Segal that paint Bernadette as a renegade mother who refuses to be the conventional (ie, permanently smiling and happy to be point of being fake) soccer mum that Audrey and Soo-Lin portray themselves to be. Audrey, the all-American mother with the perfect family and true blue Christian beliefs, is a sharp contrast to Bernadette, who is an adamant atheist. The gossipy exchanges between Audrey and Soo-Lin also serve as the comic element of the novel. The first run-in between Audrey and Bernadette takes place over several e-mails and faxes and ends up with a dramatic mudslide and a total meltdown for Audrey. The dramatic mudslide may seem a tad far fetched but bear with it, as it plays a vital part in the plot. Throughout the first part of Where'd You Go, Bernadette (the novel is divided into seven parts), husband Elgin Branch remains distant and in the background, giving readers the impression that Elgin and Bernadette live separate lives. Bernadette's past comes into full play in the second part of the novel, where readers learn of the creative dervish that was the titular character's career in architecture. Readers also learn of the various miscarriages Bernadette suffered before she conceived and managed to carry Bee to full term. (And we find out that Bee's full name is Balakrishna and that she was named after an Indian deity.) When Bernadette disappears in the fourth part of the novel, Elgin's presence becomes more prominent. But though he loves her, Semple makes it clear that Elgin is not able to understand the private anguish that Bernadette seems to be harbouring deep inside. In dramatic tones, Elgin confesses to Bee that certain choices he made in the lead-up to Christmas and the family might have played a part in the disappearance of Bernadette. In contrast, Soo-Lin's ramblings to Audrey about her love for Elgin proves comical. And Bee's reaction to her father's brief affair with Soo-Lin in the wake of her mother's disappearance gives readers a dose of that anguish, despair and confusion that Semple is striving to portray. Just as Bernadette seems to be made up of a myriad personalities, the novel offers a myriad emotions, which is as near a reflection of what Semple obviously hopes is a slice of real life. The premise for Where'd You Go, Bernadette is not a wholly original one. What sets Semple's novel apart from previous such stories is her flair for comic timing and how she presents her story. Forgoing traditional narrative until the final parts of the novel, Semple uses e-mail, faxes and letters to present the complex persona that is Bernadette and the quiet but reassuring presence of Bee, and to illustrate the happily fake, all-American-with-Christian-values-they-shout-about characteristics of Audrey and Soo-Lin. Semple also ingeniously uses the formats of press releases and interviews with Bernadette's former mentors and colleagues and architecture students to discuss her once brilliant career. The novel falters when Semple reverts to traditional narration in part six. Bee's narration seems laboured and prolonged for the sake of meeting a word count. Halfway through Bee's endless narration, this reviewer stopped caring if Bernadette will ever be found. On that note, the novel also ends rather anti-climatically. Bernadette's mental illness which was prominent in the earlier part of the novel seems to have disappeared; Semple presents her titular character as a normal woman with no signs of having suffered from agoraphobia or anguish at having to be with a crowd of people. If Bernadette was not mentally ill all along, then she did a fine job in portraying herself as a mad woman. Throughout the novel, Semple uses simple, everyday language, and the e-mail, fax and letter formats make Where'd You Go, Bernadette easy to read. It does not pretend to be anything other than a fun romp of a read. Despite its flaws towards the end, this is a good and enjoyable comic novel – just ignore the inconsistencies. |
| Posted: 01 Mar 2013 02:05 AM PST On Looking: Eleven Walks With Expert Eyes ALEXANDRA Horowitz made a name for herself in the field of psychology when her first book, Inside Of A Dog became a giant bestseller in 2009. That book looked into what dogs see, smell and know. This time, in On Looking, she turns to humans (plus another dog). Horowitz takes a walk with 11 different individuals down ordinary streets and records the way they perceive their surroundings. If you've always zoomed through streets intent only on reaching your destination, what Horowitz does sounds painfully boring. After all, what can be observed that is new about your average city street? A lot of things, as this journey with Horowitz and her walking companions proves. In this book, the world comes alive through the mundane — in Horowitz's experience with her co-walkers, nothing is too dull to be undeserving of attention. An old sofa thrown out on the street and the underside of leaves become objects of intense scrutiny to an illustrator and an entomologist respectively. During a stroll with a typographer, every letter seen on a flyer or the side of a taxi radiates its own personality. When walking with a geologist, the stones and pavements become living and breathing beings, revealing traces of what used to live in them. Adding to the fascination is how Horowitz cleverly fuses witty storytelling with well-informed scientific explanation throughout. With her strong foundation in the cognitive and behavioural sciences, Horowitz backs up her observations with comprehensive scientific information and research. That we subconsciously look in the direction of our destination – which makes others able to predict where we are headed just by observing the tilt of a head or the turn of a shoulder – is only one of many observations that give us a better understanding of ourselves. Horowitz also takes us beyond just looking with the eye. Walking with a blind woman and a sound engineer opens up the senses to the world of sounds. In the case of the blind walker and the geologist, the tactile world of contact with the environment becomes a very important way to make sense of the world. This book shows how a blessing can often be a curse as well. Most of us are blessed with the ability to ignore most of what is happening around us, especially when we have familiarised ourselves with a place. This is crucial in preventing our senses from becoming over-stimulated. At the same time, this is bad news to us as it means our senses have a tendency to shut down a little once there is a perceived sense of familiarity, convinced that we no longer have to actively absorb new information since everything is already so familiar. We see so much of everything every day that we stop seeing things for what they are. They are reduced to mere background that passes by in a blur. There is a solution to this curtailing of our senses, though, and that is to realise that the extent to which our senses interact with the world depends on wanting to do so. If you want to be delighted by revelations of human perception and behaviour not consciously known before, this is the book to check out. If not for any other reason, this book is a life lesson that teaches us to start paying real attention to our world. |
| Posted: 01 Mar 2013 01:56 AM PST AT 24, actress Nina Dobrev is the envy of young women the world over. She has a role on the hit TV series The Vampire Diaries, a gorgeous guy to call her boyfriend (co-star Ian Somerhalder) and a killer body (fashion magazines are lining up to feature her on their cover). Galaxie takes a closer look at the young star's life on and off the set of the small screen show in the new issue which hits newsstands today. Dobrev reveals that she is relishing the idea of getting to play two different characters – Elena and Katherine – on the show. "There is never a dull day, and the great thing about television is that it's not two hours where you have a beginning, middle and an end, and you only see one character and one thing they go through. Fortunately, these characters get to grow." When she's not busy acting or spending time with her man, Dobrev makes "vision boards" (with lines like "Learn. Excel. Exceed.") to motivate herself, and she loves to cook. Oh, and did you know she was once a competitive gymnast? Discover more fascinating facts about the talented actress in the March 1-16 issue of Galaxie. Also in the new issue, Jason Statham talks about his latest movie project, Parker, Halle Berry puts her personal drama aside to chat about Cloud Atlas and readers can test their celebrity fragrance knowledge with the magazine's fun quiz. Plus, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation's Elisabeth Shue divulges to Galaxie that she's "squeamish about dead bodies" in a conference call while Malaysia-born Sarah Lian tells the mag about her budding acting career, including her stint on TV's Covert Affairs. Don't forget to enter all of the contests when you get your copy as well. You could walk away with tickets to Twin Towers@Live 2013 (there are 100 tickets up for grabs!) to watch Demi Lovato perform live in Kuala Lumpur. If merchandise is what you are after, how about an exclusive Justin Bieber T-shirt, an Oz The Great And Powerful tote bag or The Lumineers CD? Poster-wise, there's Shay Mitchell to complete your Pretty Little Liars collection as well as Justin Timberlake, Ellie Goulding, Phillip Phillips, One Direction and the cast of Glee to decorate your walls with. The ever popular Songwords section this time features lyrics to Bruno Mars' When I Was Your Man, Rihanna featuring Mikky Ekko's Stay and One Republic's If I Lose Myself along with three other radio hits. – Evelyn Teo Galaxie was voted Entertainment Magazine Of The Year in 2011 and 2012. To get all the latest entertainment news, check the mag out at galaxieblog.com.my, follow it on Twitter (@galaxiemag) and visit its Facebook page (facebook.com/GalaxieMagazine). The magazine is owned by Star Publications (M) Bhd. |
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