“What I am telling you, before you begin my story, is this -- two things: I crave truth. And I lie. ”
This book could've been everything a good mystery novel aspires to be. It was realistic, dark, a mystery within a mystery and about the right amount of twisted. The story is a slow-builder. Two detectives are assigned a case where a dead girl is found on an archaeological site. Coincidentally, one of the detectives has a difficult past in the very neighborhood that he had never gotten over.
So what's not to like? So far I've been all praise and it is a two-star review? Well, the trouble started towards the end. You could see who the murderer was from a mile, but our narrator is such a nervous wreck that he was in denial. In fact, In the Woods probably has the least likable protagonist I have come across. That includes some pretty hate-worthy characters, trust me. I have never read a more self-pitying character in my life, and I had to read it from his perspective. This is torture.
The last hundred or so pages were an extra stretch of a novel that could've ended much earlier. The entirety of this is the Rob (Adam) Ryan's "I messed up" show. I had such a hard time going through this that I ended up hating what actually was decent quality writing.
Also, the true mystery remains unsolved. The manner in which the plot unfolded towards the end makes it one of the most disappointing mystery novels I've ever read. Give me old school Conan Doyle over this any day. I can't dig this.
“Every man should be capable of all ideas, and I believe that in the future he will be.”
Jorge Luis Borges is a monumental inscription in the world of philosophical fiction. His short stories with his labyrinthine themes and language have been explored and analyzed to the point that he has been named one of the pioneers of post-modernist fiction. His fabulistic stories with strange fictional realms and complex social systems and unusual metaphors had a significant influence on the Latin American magical realism movement.
Ficciones is a collection of short stories, and is considered to be his most popular anthology. Some of his best known and most influential works are in this collection. The book is divided into two parts: the first part, The Garden of Forking Paths, contains eight stories and the second part, Artifices, contains nine. The stories explore many themes of existentialism, creationist philosophy, fantastical realms and universes governed by strange theological and sociological systems, satirical reviews of fictional works and many more such unusual works of fiction. Highly recommended if you're into philosophical fiction.
“My God, a moment of bliss. Why, isn't that enough for a whole lifetime?”
An iconic short-story, White Nights is a tale of unrequited love which showcases the power of human emotion in its full glory. The story tells the tale of the narrator who, one fateful night of loneliness, happens to come across a young girl in distress. The two central characters and their feeling of alienation, their bonding, their musings make up most of the story. Unfortunately, cruel reality hits our protagonist soon and he decides to accept the truth with modesty. Dostoyevsky's ability to portray a most complex spectrum of emotions is what I really loved about this lovely tale. Definitely one of my favorites!
Nile Rodgers' influence on modern pop music can barely be defined by his oeuvre of work as musician, producer and songwriter. A career that spans four decades and scores of hits, yet he has always been content being on the sidelines. Le Freak showcases a major portion of the career of Nile Rodgers. the Hitmaker.
The book starts off at Nile the little asthmatic kid whose childhood was spent with his junkie parents, watching TV and loitering around. After a difficult upbringing, which he details on particularly, he found his love for the guitar as a teenager and began a part hippie, homeless beatnik life panhandling and playing music for money. This early period has some interesting tales, like how he wound up in the same ER as a bloodied Andy Warhol after a bad hallucinogenic trip or his stint with the Black Panthers.
This is when his involvement in the music business as a guitarist had begun, and he would soon meet Bernard Edwards or Nard as he would call him. Together they formed the Big Apple Band and backed a group called NYC, touring extensively with them. After the disbanding of NYC, they'd soon become involved with Tony Thompson, and the Chic trio formed.
Nile and Nard in action
The book then details on the writing of their first hits and the conception of their image, their first inspirations and their sound. The book eventually details on the rise and fall of disco, the "disco sucks" movement, and their future success as producers writing for Sister Sledge and Diana Ross. Unfortunately, the two friends eventually drifted apart, but then David Bowie happened.
Nile Rodgers and David Bowie in studio
The book then details on the making of the Let's Dance album with Bowie and afterwards the Like a Virgin album with Madonna along with some other works with artists like Duran Duran. By this time, Nile had become independent of the Chic moniker and was suffering from severe alcoholism and drug problems. The book then details his breakdown from extensive drug use and the time when he almost quit the showbiz after rehab, only to be called back to action by Michael Jackson. Eventually it all moves onto the ill-fated Chic show at Budokan after which Bernard Edwards was found dead in his hotel room. Nile Rodgers with Daft Punk and Pharrell Williams
What I most admired about this book is Nile's honesty. The man didn't take any credit away from the artists and gave credit where it was due. He also details on his junkie days and cleaning up his act. A must-read for the lovers of pop-culture and African-American music culture in America.
Note: If you're not familiar with Nile Rodger's body of work, here is a video interview of him playing a medley of some of his most important hits with his band Chic, in just sixty seconds.
"But when I look back at myself at age twenty what I remember most is being alone and lonely."
Ahh Murakami and his endless alienated, lonely male characters! Men Without Women is a collection of short stories by Haruki Murakami that came out in 2017 (not to be confused with Hemingway's short-story collection of the same name). Here, we have seven stories with male characters, each with varying degrees of despair, dread or loneliness from the lack or loss of women. There are themes of grief, betrayal, masochism or just complete alienation in this book. Some of the stories are really well-done, I particularly enjoyed "Samsa in Love", which is a reworked version of Franz Kafka's [b:The Metamorphosis|485894|The Metamorphosis|Franz Kafka|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1359061917s/485894.jpg|2373750], and "Kino", which has some of the many usual Murakami elements I happen to love. Most of the stories are already available online on The New Yorker.
