crazed monkey

There are many sites documenting so-called “Bushisms“, curious quotes made by the U.S. president. Now you can collect these quotes in a desktop calendar format. A sample:

“There is a lot of speculation and I guess there is going to continue to be a lot of speculation until the speculation ends.”

Posted on November 7th, 2002 in books, culture - No Comments »

I recently finished Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Unconsoled and am terribly glad that I kept with it after the first half.

It is very difficult to read a novel in which you abhor the protagonist, which is how I felt about Ryder, the novel’s narrator. Here is a man who, throughout the novel, makes a lot of promises and accepts a lot of invitations but never keeps the ones which are important, wanders about as if in a dream and, at many times, acts like a complete and total asshole. At one point, Ryder goes to a screening of 2001 at a local movie theatre, incorrectly names the movie’s lead actors as Clint Eastwood and Yule Brenner, and then leaves in the middle without the woman he came with, quite likely his wife or mistress. In another scene, he leaves a boy, who might be his son, at a cafe for several hours as he allows himself to be led away by photographers and then by a local musician.

In addition to being very frustated with Ryder’s actions, I became very puzzled with The Unconsoled’s surreal setting, specifically the relative distances between locations in the village. In one chapter, Ryder is whisked away from the hotel where he is staying in the centre of the village and driven to what seems like a large house in the country for a formal gathering. When the gathering is over, Ryder is then led through a door which, quite miraculously, leads to his hotel. Later on in the book, Ryder drives to a gallery in the middle of the country, remembers that this is the same place where the gathering was located, and then finds his way back to the hotel through another door.

Because of my frustrations, I would have abandoned The Unconsoled altogether but did not as I wished to get to the bottom of Ryder’s behaviour and because of the tense build-up to the climax at the end of the novel. Having read this book, I look forward to reading Ishiguro’s other works, including The Remains Of The Day, for which he won the Booker Prize in 1989.

Posted on August 13th, 2002 in books, culture - No Comments »

On Saturday I perused the BMV bookstore at Yonge & Eglinton for birthday presents for my niece, Leyla, who turns 5 on the 22nd. I know that relatives on Leyla’s father’s side of the family will bestow toys upon her, but I and my parents believe that books make a more practical gift. This is not to say that I don’t give Leyla toys, just that, in the long run, I think that books provide more stimulation.

As children’s books go, I am fond of the classics. On my Saturday trip I picked up The Giant Paddington Story Book with stories by Michael Bond, Stuart Little by E.B. White (the same edition featured in the link), and Where The Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein. The latter is a book I always wanted as a kid, if only because of Silverstein’s song “You’re Always Welcome At Our House”, which features a deliciously sadistic and twisted sense of humour. As far as Stuart Little is concerned, I am uncertain whether it is appropriate for a five-year old, especially after reading that link. We’ll see.

Posted on August 12th, 2002 in books, culture - No Comments »