Review of Erin Morgenstern's "Starless Sea"

What does one say after reading a story about all stories? When one gets every bit, detail and reference (even if only on the subconscious level) and it almost takes her breath away? I have many words and I have none at all. 

While reading Starless Sea, I couldn't stop marveling at how Morgenstern constructed and structured the story. It is a very complicated story(line?), but just as the Night Circus I didn't get lost. At times I would forget what happened previously, so I'd go back and reread big portions of the book leading to the moment I was currently reading. I  really enjoyed these rereads. I didn't want the story to finish, I wanted to know what happens, but I wanted it to keep going and going and going. 

This was the first time when it took me months to read a book, and I loved it. I loved that this book and I were stuck with each other for so long going back and forth, rereading parts that illuminated the current themes. It felt I was one with the book, which jumps so much through time and space it's a wonder I got through it intact at all. But that's the genius of Erin Morgenstern. 

Admittedly, I'm envious of her style, language, expressions... imagination... drive... magick... Starless Sea is one of those books that one wishes they could read it for the first time again. 

Thank you for such a wonderful ride.

Rating: 5... all the stars for the Starless Sea!

Review of Paulo Coelho's "The Manual of the Warrior of Light"

This book is brilliant!!! 

I got it as a gift many years ago, but every time I picked it up to read - it just wouldn't want to be read: the words were uninteresting and, soon, my mind would start wandering. I couldn't even get passed the first page. The last time I picked it up, however, - I was ready. And... it blew me away! 

What's interesting is that the same thing happened with Bulgakov's Master and Margarita, I couldn't pass the second chapter for years, until it finally became one of my favorite volumes.  

I am grateful to Paulo Coelho for putting together this amazing textbook for those who are reaching for the light and striving to BE the light. It it explanatory, supportive and very kind. 

The Manual is by far the best of the author's books. 

Rating: many more than 5 stars.

P.S. The translation to Russian is impeccable.

Review of Sos Sargsyan's "Pup"

Author's language is beautiful and full; vocabulary vast, but neither forced nor pompous. Long forgotten words sneaked onto his pages and - along with lacy, ornate and acutely accurate descriptions - illuminated the book. The fact that Sargsyan's "pen" is light and unpretentious, made the read doubly pleasurable.

However... (and this is purely subjective) like many other Armenian writers' works, this story is a  tragedy. Sorrowful, heart-wrenching tragedy. And I am not one for tragedies. Never was. It is a beautiful, very well written story,where the writer explores many sides of human emotions and actions; it brilliantly shows the hardships of the time period, and you comprehend the calamity of rigid, inhumane, absurd, at times nonsensical  and comical societal "laws", but... I simply do not like reading sad stories, although, I cannot deny that I have learned a lot from them.

When I was learning how to roller-blade, my instructor told me never to look at a falling roller-blader, for I would, certainly, follow suit. So.... I like to read stories that will keep me on the rink, firmly on my feet.

5/3 (writing/story)

Review of Amélie Nothomb's "Fear and Trembling"

When an author is capable of describing a culture with such precision, humor, language and empathy... all the reader is left to do is admire and enjoy the read.
This is one of those cases, I finished the book in mere hours, not wanting to put it down.

What struck me as odd was how much the rules and etiquette of the Japanese world are similar to the old-fashioned Armenian rules and etiquette (Now that I think of it, it is probably true for many older cultures).  All the twisted ways of looking at life, the priority of others' opinions over one's happiness and contentment, the need to be a 'good' person (which always requires you to be miserable), the self-deprecation, self-judgment, self-loathing for the sake of distorted understanding of honor... Nothomb goes on a rant about the "place" of a woman in Japanese society and she nails it: the passage is like a humorous and clever formula. She couldn't have said it better. It is a distant cousin of Zamyatin's "We" and Orwell's "1984": the pristine, perfect society where everything and everyone has a place, duty and responsibilities, without a hint at such 'shameful' things as displays of love and compassion. And as the author so aptly put it "The core of the system's sadism lay contained in this contradiction: obeying the rules eventually meant disobeying the rules".

This book also reminded me a lot of Kafka's "The Castle" and Kobo Abe's "The Woman in Dunes", but this was brought on by the conversations of Amelie and Fubuki, where Amelie could not, try as she might, find her way out of the labyrinth of the conversations. Whatever she said, however she tried to explain herself - she was perceived as perverted, antagonistic, hostile and pusillanimous. I always wondered why certain cultures that force you to obey and honor their 'rules', so often do not reciprocate in the same way.

There were two ways the writer could have taken: one was to blow up, the other to grow as a human. Author chose the latter.

Five stars.

Review of H.L.Oldie's "Puppeteer"

The authors have created a very intricate and detailed world, which earns them points, of course. But to dump it all from the get-go unto an unsuspecting reader... I had a problem with that. Too many "new" terms, too many "new" ideas, too many "new" concepts to process. More than 50% of the book is written in the lingo of that imaginary world (so you need to learn a new language, get your masters in a made-up astronomy-cosmology-etc. sciences and get acquainted with all the new races while trying to enjoy a book... no easy feat). And too much of the nauseating, overabundant detail littering the novel doesn't have anything to do with the story; it's just there, because it was created by the writers.

The story is interesting and the concept is quite new (points again), which is so refreshing (and the reason why I will continue reading this series), but I constantly wanted to tell the authors the famous Chekhov lines: "Remove everything that has no relevance to the story."

2 stars. 

Review of Dina Rubina's "White Dove of Cordova"

I cannot even explain or describe how much I like Rubina’s language, her style, her metaphors and the way she plays with words… How she blends them, mixes, tosses them around… How she weaves the gossamer fabric of her narrative. It’s obvious that she is not afraid to use the most unlikely combinations of words and she does so masterfully.

While reading “The White Dove of Cordova”, I kept remembering J. K. Rowling’s “Casual Vacancy”, because both books had such strength and power of words. Both authors made me want to reread passages and smile at their absolute beauty. However!... while “Casual Vacancy” was also a masterpiece as a story - “White Dove” lost me in the end. Not that I didn’t understand it, but rather it lost me as its fan. Up until the last 8-10 pages the book had me in its claws, I couldn’t wait to see how the story plays out, couldn’t put the book down, but the ending was so incongruent with the rest of the book’s mood, was so botched and rushed… I love being surprised and taken in a different direction, than the one I anticipated, but I wasn’t surprised, only annoyed. I can see how the author wanted to make a loop and conclude the “inner story” where it began, but she didn’t think it through.  Like in Jack London’s “Martin Eden”s case, I thought the protagonist went out of its character without any precedent, as if he was forced into certain actions, because he had to fit some already-made-up storyline.

Still… I don’t want to take away a star for the last 10 pages, and since I truly enjoyed the beautiful, superb language – a wobbly 5 star rating.

Review of Dina Rubina's "Sunny Side of the Street"

This ode, this declaration of love, this serenade to the town of her childhood, Tashkent, is masterfully written. Rubina weaves in different narrators, including her real self, to help her show off the city, which now exists only in memories, like so many Soviet cities that underwent a drastic "western" make-over and in the process lost their color, wonder and innocence. 

I completely understand the author refusing, after many years of absence, to visit the Alay Bazaar, which has been turned into a modern mall. She wants to remember the true Alay Bazaar - whole, native, filled with traditions, colors and darling hubbub. I often feel this way towards my childhood city, Yerevan (where I live once again many years later), which has been turned into a parody of some provincial, suburban western town and lost some of its warm, sunny identity.

Even though I have never been to Tashkent, I pictured it perfectly, thanks to Rubina's intelligent, delicious, juicy language, her metaphors and exciting descriptions. I can smell the city, hear its sounds and music, I know the neighbors, know the people she painted, I have lived there... (Although, I must admit there was a whole section in the middle, which bored me and, in my humble opinion, should have been edited out. It was a series of descriptions of places and people, not repetitious, per se, but somehow already unnecessary.)

I particularly liked how Rubina broke the fourth wall (if you are familiar with the movie industry, you will understand what I mean), the author was present throughout the entire book, she came out from behind the scenes, and that made the reader feel closer to her and her subjects. I even wondered whether the lovely, lonely heroine, Vera, is a real person and looked her up on the internet; I wanted to see her paintings. No, Vera is not a real person. (Sigh).

It's an engaging, graceful, positive, albeit nostalgic story. And, without a question, it deserves its 5 stars.