The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf
The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf |
| Posted: THANKS to American whistleblower Edward Snowden's headline-grabbing weird trip to Hong Kong, before unwittingly auditioning for the sequel to the 2004 stuck-in-transit dramedy The Terminal (which starred compatriot Tom Hanks), espionage is back in the news. British spy-thriller writer John le Carré, however, never went away, not even after the Berlin Wall fell, heralding the end of the Cold War, and so apparently annulling the writer's perennial font of inspiration. A Delicate Truth is 81-year-old le Carré's 23rd novel that he has penned since he morphed from being a spy to being a spy-writer in the early 1960s. And he's back on form. Not quite the form of 1974's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, or 1977's The Honourable Schoolboy – his twin masterpieces – but certainly an improvement on some of his less-than-engaging 21st century works like The Mission Song and the lamentable A Most Wanted Man. Le Carré has long been a storyteller of detail-rich spy sagas in which individuals with unrealistically loftly ideals challenge the institutional order of things. And tend to lose. The theme here, as in most of le Carré's works, is the disquieting question: how can any individual hope to take any effective moral action amid the murky mix of international intrigue and compromised principles? There's a shocking post-9/11 message here, too. In the war against terror, some of the sins of the "free world" not only get forgiven, but also forgotten, before eventually getting obliterated from the record. A Delicate Truth also explores the fragility and intricacy of memory, just as skilfully as Julian Barnes did with his brilliant Booker Prize-winning The Sense Of An Ending of two years ago. Which brings us to A Delicate Truth's central character, Toby Bell. Le Carré depicts Bell as the "thirty-something rising star of Her Majesty's Foreign Service – the striving ambitious fellow I fancy myself to have been at much the same age," the author recently told a British daily. Bell's no suave James Bond-like spook. Le Carré describes him as being: "stocky in build, not particularly handsome, with a shock of unruly brown hair that went haywire as soon as it was brushed." Nevertheless, he's courageous, cunning, and – crucially – is in possession of an unbreakable moral compass. Things get sticky for Bell when he finds himself serving as the right-hand man to Fergus Quinn, a shrewd political player and bully of the old (public) school variety, and for whom a juicy Foreign Office position has landed in his lap like an over-ripe plum. The two colleagues don't get along, of course. And Quinn ensures that Bell is kept out of the loop at every turn. Which leads Bell to wonder: what is the weasel hiding? Bell does some solo sleuthing and learns that Quinn's confidantes include a number of unsavoury but powerful US defence contractors. Furthermore, Quinn appears to have orchestrated a covert military operation – a scoop in the waiting for any journalist worth his salt and smartphone. The action opens in the British possession of Gibraltar, the year is 2008, and the operation is a top-secret intervention whose goal is to extract or eliminate a jihadist arms dealer. Tasked with this goal are a team of British special forces and assorted mercenaries hardened by action in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Balkan Wars. But the Gibraltar mission goes terribly awry. Two innocents perish. And the whole mess is covered up. But in time and with the help of an ex-ambassador – one of Quinn's guilt-stricken former collaborators – Bell sets out to expose the debacle. Foolhardy or brave? That, as always with a le Carré novel, is the question. Through these excellently characterised agents, le Carré's righteous anger burns like a phosphorous grenade, and thankfully we are spared the preachy tone of 2008's A Most Wanted Man and some of his other more recent books. This is also an even more autobiographical treatment than we are used to from Britain's most illustrious spy-turned-novelist since Ian Fleming. Le Carré seems to be writing with deft duality about both his younger self and the man he might have become had he'd stayed with the Foreign Office. While Bell – the young le Carré – is mining the now-retired diplomat (who is close to the author's current age) for information, the youngster is also working on a novel. No surprises for guessing the genre. The narrative moves effortlessly back and forth between different points of view and the time-space continuum, and is gratifyingly cinematic with the pacing being closer to a Jason Bourne film than one of le Carré's exquisite but languidly meandering 1970s George Smiley yarns. In other words, a cracking read. |
| Posted: NOTHING is more frightful than confessional memoirs ... except perhaps hipster confessional memoirs. The paralysing phobia hit me when graphic memoir Calling Dr. Laura by Portland-based zinester and artist Nicole J. Georges fell into my lap. I just wasn't sure how much obscure irony and organic wholesomeness I could take, on top of the self-absorbed navel-gazing mush. Don't get me wrong; I don't hate graphic memoirs – Art Spiegelman's Maus and Marjane Starapi's Persepolis rank high on my list of favourite reads – but the daddy issues of the I-generation somehow simply do not evoke the same excitement in me. Well, now I've got my own confession to make: Georges got me at "chocolate peanut butter cups" with her graphic novel. This vegan treat popular among Georges' androgynous Portland set is as hipster-pretentious as it gets in this memoir, and everyone loves chocolate peanut butter, in any form. Despite its Oprah aura, Calling Dr. Laura manages to stay tart and tender without drowning us in an outpouring of oh-poor-me-me-me whining. In fact, Georges' frank and self-deprecating voice even makes this graphic memoir fun. The intimate tone definitely works here – the familiarity makes reading this memoir feel like sharing childhood stories with a good friend ... er ... while chomping on chocolate peanut butter cups. Yup, those chocolate peanut butter cups. All Nicole wanted with the sweet snack was to lure her crush, symbolically named (Verona) Mauss, into her love shack. But Mauss gives her more than a baking misadventure: notably, a date with a psychic who sends her on a journey in search of her father and, inevitably, herself. Part coming-of-age and part coming-out story, Calling Dr. Laura paints a poignant picture of a life slowly spinning out of control after it is exposed as a lie. When we first meet Nicole, she has just moved to Portland from Kansas City and is struggling with stray chickens and dogs while exploring her artistic pursuits and sexuality. Her life is sent into a further tailspin when a birthday palm-reading reveals that her father, who she thought died when she was two, is still alive. Hurt that her whole family conspired to keep it a secret, Nicole turns to radio talk-show host Dr Laura Schlessinger for advice. However, as she slowly learns to untangle the web of lies about her family, especially the "unsolved mysteries" that have plagued her since childhood, Nicole discovers a new her – the person she had been aspiring to be as an artist, daughter and grown woman. What Georges does best is to capture the sensibility and mood of Portland, amazingly without giving one any hipster allergies. Interestingly, while her search for her father drives the memoir, it is her conservative but colourful Midwestern mother who takes the central role. As Georges flits from the present to the past in her 20-odd years of life, we get glimpses of their complicated relationship and how it shaped her other relationships, especially with other women, from sisters to girlfriends. The understated but kooky artwork creates the perfect canvas for this sensitively written memoir of a young woman coming into her own. Georges etches the flashbacks of her chaotic childhood in a simplistic, even naïve style. Like our memories, the details of the past are fuzzy, with only the main players in focus. The illustration of her present is more detailed, with more intricate backgrounds and faces. A pleasant surprise – to me at least – is the toned-down confessionals. Georges eschews the conventions of memoirs by not dredging the depths of her family history, and even self-consciously asks in an aside, "Is it TMI (too much information) to tell you ...?" Georges takes another creative risk by refraining from blowing up her father, or the search for him, in her story. Somehow it works though, as it makes her reconciliation more momentous. And when she finally discovers the answers she has been searching for – plonked in the epilogue to boot – her almost flippant remark that "that was it, the anticlimax of my whole parented life" serves more emotional punch than any weepy reunion. If there is anything to gripe about, it is the titular character Dr Laura. She does play a pivotal role in Nicole's search but despite the marquee status awarded to her, Dr Laura only makes a cameo appearance. It would have been fun to see her acerbic and domineering character creating more havoc for Nicole. |
| Posted: WHEN master numerologist Gracy Yap asked me to review her latest bestselling book, I jumped at the opportunity. With my interest in metaphysics, the prospect of digging into the Secrets Of Golden Numbers seemed absolutely fascinating to me. Diving right into the book, I started off by working out my life path number and name expression number. Lucky me, I was born with some pretty nice golden numbers! With these numbers, I learnt how my job – writing and meeting celebrities – suited me perfectly. These numbers also helped to identify the duality of my personality and helped me to understand myself better. Then I looked at my friends' numbers and these proved to be even more interesting. One is an award-winning journalist who keeps changing jobs and another, a fellow writer who loves travelling and enjoys taking on overseas assignments despite the workload. It turned out that both wouldn't stay put because the numbers for constant movement and change of direction were indicated in their names. If you were not born with these auspicious golden numbers, Yap's book says you can remedy the situation with "number cures". And the best thing is that you can put these formulae into practise immediately; what's more, you don't even have to understand how numerology works to do so. So don't worry if you didn't get a distinction in math or physics. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to practise numerology. The formulae in the book are all stated in simple terms. All that is required is the ability to add and reduce strings of numbers to a single digit. In fact, it was so easy that I made a bunch of golden number "gifts" for my family, by calculating their respective golden numbers and marking desktop calendars with their "personal" year, month, date and such. While Secrets To Golden Numbers seems to be a fun way of decoding your future,Yap does point out that it is not a get-rich-quick-scheme but is intended to be a self-help manual to improve your lot in life. At only 115 pages, the book is easy to carry around and a breeze to read. Especially interesting are the case studies Yap has included to illustrate how some lucky people have cashed in on their golden numbers. The review copy I received was a second print of the Asian Edition and included some bonus stories about how some of her clients made their millions from real estate and winning the lottery. While I enjoyed the content a lot, I did have a bit of an issue with how the formulae seemed to be hidden in the text due to the layout of the pages. I would suggest boxing them up in the next update. In the meantime, this is easily remedied: My book is already variously marked with highlighter pens and sticky notes. And I've already copied out the relevant formulae into my online database for easy reference. For those who care more about love and relationships than money and success, I recommend Yap's previous bestselling book, Finding And Keeping Your Crush: A Numerology Guide To Finding True Love. |
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