Review of Suzanne Collins' "Mockingjay"

(Some spoilers ahead). When I read the first book of the series I didn't like it. I thought the premise, the whole idea of the games, was too fantastical to be taken seriously (I still do). And so I discarded the series. However, after watching the first film - I decided to give it another try. And I'm glad I did.

By the way, this series falls into my "the book is as good as its ending" category, which as many of you know means - even the worst book with a good ending will be liked.

No matter what is happening in the book, the story we follow is the human lives, the relationships. The war recedes to background when the love triangle steps into view. Unlike Twilight's crudely portrayed triangle, which is based solely on selfish desires, in Hunger Games the love triangle is subtle, truly conflicted, filled with minor, yet heart-wrenching details. With the help of writer's delicate hints and suggestions it's understood that Katniss knew from the start who she will end up with, yet she fought it until the end.

There are a lot of things happening throughout the books, making a bit of a clutter, but the characters the author created are very genuine and lovable; you root for them, you want them to end up alive and happy, despite their human shortcomings. But the author doesn't indulge us, she kills off and scars people for life left and right, just like life does, with the same brutality and offhandedness.

4 stars

Review of Barry Unsworth's "The Ruby in Her Navel"

There are books that aren't good, but because of their well written ending we end up liking them (Life of Pi for one). The Ruby in Her Navel isn't one of those books. The ending, while trying desperately to be profound - wasn't. The biggest chunk of the story was compressed and rushed at the end as a well written yet garbled mess, while the primary 2/3 of the book was littered with loooong descriptions of clothes, tedious thoughts of the hero and insipid conversations.

In the middle of the book I was plain bored. It droned on and on about some emotions and experiences I didn't care about in the slightest. And then I came to hate the hero.

I think it was author's intention for the reader to hate the hero, but no, I didn't hate him, I loathed him. I wished he would commit suicide and the book would end.

The hero didn't commit suicide, instead the author decided that after 300 pages of monotonous boredom he should stuff and squeeze in 70% of the story still untold.

Even though the author only recently passed away, his language is that of the classics. After reading "modern" language for many years, it was nice to read in an old language we all know very well, but never use.

Still, the book is crippled and the hero is unlovable. He's angry, infantile, educated, but very stupid, selfish and empty, pompous and naive. (SPOILER AHEAD) He didn't deserve the good fate he got in the end. He should have died in some ditch, unknown and unwanted. But the author took a poetic route, which was incongruent to the universe he'd created.

1,5 stars

Review of Gregory David Roberts' "Shantaram"

Roberts is absolutely in love with Bombay. Bombay is one of the main characters in "Shantaram"; it's noisy, dirty, criminal, over-over-over populated, but the writer loves 'her' and he isn't shy about expressing his love over and over in this big volume.

Repetition seems to be the plague of today's writers.

There are so many unnecessary details and repetitious emotions expressed in this book, that at some point I started skimming and skipping them. One mistake contemporary writers make is not differentiating life and literature. One might feel an emotion every minute, every day, but literature doesn't forgive every thought of the feeling or every second of the story described in such abundant detail.

But in this case I understood why the writer was doing it. The novel is about love. He loves the city, loves every person he encounters, loves his journey, his experiences, new understandings, his redemption, and he loves to describe them just as he sees them in his head. He doesn't want the reader to escape with a half-ass picture of the world he's created.

Having said that... I loved loved loved Robert's language. His metaphors are new, fresh, imaginative and beautiful... His vocabulary is vast and complex. He reminded me of China Melville, who also uses forgotten and eloquent language that challenges the reader. Every paragraph has either a line you want to quote or some profound thought.

Roberts has his philosophy and opinions about good and evil, war and sin, love and hate. He knows how to start and end his chapters (a very difficult thing to do), he treats his reader to a good piece of writing, and at the end of the book he elevates his reader's philosophical senses to the maximum.

I truly liked living this story with its hero. The hero's journey is so large that my life seemed mundane, boring and pale in comparison. And most of all I loved the fact that the hero found love everywhere he went. Love saved him, helped him and kept him alive. He loves life itself and looks at the world with childlike awe and a fragile, fluttering heart.

4 stars

Review of Haruki Murakami's "1Q84"

If this is your first Murakami book, you might be captivated by the inventive "weirdness" of this author. There will be others that after this book would never pick up another Murakami book or those that weren't even able to finish it at all. Sad to say, but if I had never read his other works, I would definitely belong to the latter two groups of people. But I did finish this one and was utterly disappointed.

My first Murakami "Wind-up Bird Chronicles" (5 stars) and second "Kafka on the Shore" (4 stars) truly mesmerized me with their imagination, their "off-ness" and unpredictability. I awaited for this volume for a long time and tried, truly tried liking it, but... alas.

What's wrong with it? Hm. Where do I begin?

First of all, it's too long, unnecessarily so. The repetitions are tiresome and aggravating. I don't mind stylistic repetitions, however I do dislike the same thought repeated in slightly different variations (underline "slightly") over and over. At times I thought that maybe the publisher didn't notice that the same line got reprinted several times in the row or that maybe some lines got loose and just went at it - sticking themselves anywhere they could, popping up all over the place, annoying the reader to no end.

Another thing, if I would accumulate all the descriptions of what the characters wore and ate - it would easily sum up to 150 pages (150 pages wasting my time). "She took out the cabbage from the fridge, put some soy sauce on it, steamed it on low, added fresh vegetables, poured "whatever" sauce on it, pulled out a bottle of beer, opened it, took a sip, boiled some water, made herself a cup of coffee, sat at the table, drank it slowly..." OMG. Seriously. WHY?? How does any of this add to the story? Imagine the same monotonous narrative for the clothing. Agh...

Third and most important, the story. Do you know that joke "What does the hen think while running from the rooster? She's thinking, 'I hope I'm not running too fast'". Well, Murakami was running so fast that none of his set-ups got answered. (Some spoilers ahead).

Who are the little people? What is the air chrysalis? What was the point of what the Leader did with the girls? Why was the copy of those girls created? Honestly, I don't need to have everything explained to me, but I definitely don't want to read a story which is like a dark room, which I never get to see. EVER. If all the happenings were only happening so the two main characters could meet... then, I'm sorry, at least make it FUN.

And what was the point of all the side storylines? Neither Tengo's father nor his lover were necessary and there was no point to have them in the book at all. Aomame's graphic and tasteless sex escapades didn't add to her character either. What was the reason for the policewoman's existence? Although there was an echo between her murder and Tengo's mother's. Did you even notice it among all the clutter of this mess of a book? Here I thought "OK, finally the murders touch on the parallels of two worlds, etc., etc., we are finally hitting on something". But I think the writer himself didn't notice the parallel, because he was so busy writing repetitions and descriptions and unnecessary stories and confusing himself and going in circles...

As a conclusion I would like to say that if we base our view of Japanese people on Murakami's works we would think that they are all lonely, sad, depressed, abandoned, weird and pathetic. Hm... 

It will take me a long time to pick up another Murakami again, and I will definitely go for his older books.

1 star (if that).