Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone enjoyed
their Christmas day.


Much love,

Me





This is from my favorite Christmas movie

Book 4: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running - Haruki Murakami

In this memoir, Haruki Murakami combines a series of excerpts or essays over the course of 2005-2006 regarding his life, his career as a novelist, and of course running. Through this short work, he reveals the moment that inspired him to start writing and what led him to begin long-distance running. Besides being a world renowned author, Murakami is a dedicated athlete having participated in over 25 marathons and a series of triathlons. He uses these experiences as a runner and, more specifically, his unwavering discipline to describe his personality revealing that the qualities that allow him to be a dedicated long-distance runner relate directly to his success in methodical writing.

Before I read this book, I read the NY Times Review of the book that read,

"I’m guessing that the potential readership for “What I Talk About When I Talk About Running” is 70 percent Murakami nuts, 10 percent running enthusiasts and an overlapping 20 percent who will be on the brink of orgasm before they’ve even sprinted to the cash register."

That made my laugh instantly because I'm part of that overlapping 20 percent. For me that is a statement, a fact, but for you that will serve as a warning because I inevitably have strong bias in favor of this book.

So I guess what I'll do is give you my impression of the book, which is what I'm here to do anyway, and then I'll give you my honest recommendation.

What immediately drew my attention to this book was that Murakami was talking about his long distance running experience in Cambridge (among other places) which included morning runs along the Charles River. I'm a long distance runner, so that works for me, and I also ran in the Boston Marathon, so I related to the marathon talk - I related to his discourse on training, the difficulties he faced, and his genuine desire to run. But, what really excited me was that he had been running in my backyard this whole time during my college career, and I didn't even know it. I thought to myself, "Imagine if I had been running along the Charles River in 2005, I might have been seeing him every morning." But I wasn't, not at that date anyway. Regardless, I understood the context of his experience, because I experienced these locations myself over the past four years. He even mentions a talk that he gave at MIT on October 6, 2005. I remember exactly what I was doing on that date because I had plans on attending said event, but I couldn't go. In these ways I felt a direct connection to the book.

If I could meet Haruki Murakami I would thank him for sharing this book with us. I use the word sharing because I felt as if I were reading pages out of the man's diary. I'm sure this was a very calculated portrayal of himself, but it didn't feel that way; it felt like a very candid, honest depiction of himself. He writes as if he's having a conversation with you; he uses a very forthright, casual language and you get a feel for what goes on through his mind.

This casual language made me realize that there is a big difference between the writing of Haruki Murakami the man and Haruki Murakami the author. I suppose I have always assumed that an author has one voice, a natural talent, and that voice comes out not only in his or her professional writing, but in all of the writing. I was wrong. This book is written in a completely different way than the novels. His style was no way nearly as refined and sophisticated as his novels. This realization helped me recognize that novel writing is his job, a painstaking task that would be like any other job that any other ordinary person has, it's not just a flow of natural talent (although I do believe that he is still extremely talented).

The most important part of the book, to me, was when he discussed what he thinks about when he is running. People who aren't distance runners just don't understand why people can run for hours - it's boring, how can you run for so long, what do you think about. I just enjoy it. My only motivation is the act of running itself and, of course, general physical fitness. I don't think about anything when I run. I usually say that "I think about nothing and everything." I'm not really successful at explaining this and since people typically don't understand me I start to feel a little crazy in the process, so it made me smile when Murakami confirmed my sentiment:

"I'm often asked what I think about as I run. Usually the people who ask this have never run long distances themselves. I always ponder the question. What exactly do I think about when I'm running? I don't have a clue."

Overall, I was happy with reading this memoir, but I wouldn't recommend it to just anyone because it is clear that it has a very specific audience. This definitely shouldn't be your first Murakami book. You should read this if you like Haruki Murakami's books already or are interested in learning about him. You might even be interested in reading this if you are a runner or are at least mildly interested in running, but if you are neither of these things, I can't imagine you enjoying this.

I'm Craving Tomato Soup

I want Tomato Soup.

I have been craving it for the longest time... I don't want soup from a can, I don't want to eat it at Panera (which is no different from eating soup from a can), I just want to make it on my own. I have a feeling that it is super easy to make, but this is not something that exists in my culture.

Does anyone have a Tomato Soup recipe? Please pass it along.

Sincerely,

Hungry Cannonballer

Book 3: World War Z - Max Brooks

In World War Z, an Oral History of the Zombie War, Max Brooks uses interviews with people around the world to give a hollistic account of the Zombie War that plagued the earth. Max Brooks brings together a variety of perspectives to provide interesting social commentary pertaining to many facets of human society. This book is very scary.

At first, I was convinced that Brooks single-handedly predicted swine flu and the subsequent public and governmental reaction to it - the greedy businessman who created a vaccine that didn't work to make money, the government's perspective to calm people down and maintain crowd control, people panicking due to uncertainty. In the process, through the combined efforts of the government and health department, a useless placebo drug claiming to be a vaccine gets administered to society even before anyone has an understanding of the Zombie Epidemic itself and knowing full well that it does not work. Sounds a little like swine flu and it's corresponding vaccine, doesn't it? How timely. On the cover of the November 2009 The Atlantic it reads, "SWINE FLU: DOES THE VACCINE REALLY WORK?" Scary. Then, as I kept reading, I was convinced that Brooks had a full understanding of the AIDS epidemic - prejudice and extermination for fear of the disease spreading, knowingly infecting people, and creating a vaccine to maximize profit instead of pursuing a cure, just to list a few things.

Then, it occurred to me. What makes this book so scary isn't swine flu nor is it AIDS, what makes this book so scary is that the Zombie War applies to every crisis and epidemic in modern human history. Max Brooks make you realize through these accounts that human nature is relatively constant, and while new incidents may arise, they all boil down to the same thing because we collectively react to them in the same way.
That's the only thing I got out of this book.

The book is clearly well-researched and definitely well-thought out. Max Brooks brings forth an understanding of World History, Current Events, and Global Politics. It was almost as if he was summarizing any History, Political Science, International Relations, students' college career. He doesn't go in depth into any particular world event, instead he gives you a taste of the multi-layered, interdependent global network, all while remaining arguably U.S. centric. I was also very surprised in the intricate details he used. For example, he mentioned the Revolutionary Guards, the Saw Mill Parkway, and the Ossetian ethnic minority. How many people know about the South Ossetians? I thought that was incredible random and respectable.

I thought this book was intriguing, but I didn't love it. It's sad because this book rests on an interesting premise and has the potential to be a GREAT book. Regrettably, the premise of this book is a lot stronger than its writing. The greatest weakness of this book which should have been its great strength had to do with the different perspectives. Different perspectives would normally keep me interested and entertained. However, every interview had the same exact voice, and that made this book utterly boring. Up to the first half, it grabbed my attention because through every perspective you learned a little more about the Zombie war. But once you got the full picture, it was just the same thing over and over - same voice, different event. It was a struggle to finish.

Book 2: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer

This book is a gem. I absolutely loved this book, and I think you will too.

Oskar Schell is an intelligent, eccentric 9-year old who is deeply affected by his father’s death just one year ago in the World Trade Center crisis of 9/11. It is obvious that Oskar is deeply traumatized by this incident and is having difficulty coping with it as his mother gets a new boyfriend, he doesn’t get the attention he deserves, and life continues to move forward without his father. It’s not as obvious that he is 9 years old – I had to double check the back cover to make sure – he was definitely too mature for his age.

One day as Oskar rummages through his apartment he finds an envelope labeled ‘Black,’ and in it he finds a key that belonged to his father. Oskar sets himself on a mission to find the lock that matches this key in order to keep a connection with his father and to figure out his secret. The journey to find this lock sets this novel in motion. His first task is to meet every New Yorker with the last name ‘Black.’ The tasks that encompass this fact-finding mission lead Oskar to run into a wide array of people. What makes this novel so beautiful isn’t the encounters or the events themselves, but the point of view of this fascinating young boy. The way Oskar thinks, the way he frames events – well, mainly his train of thought make this book easy to read and easy to relate to.

At the same time, interspersed throughout Oskar’s journey, Foer tells the story of Oskar’s grandparents, how they met, and how they lived, and their marriage. If anything, that story is even more captivating. The characters are again eccentric, especially the Grandfather who chooses not to speak, and their journeys that led them to each other is brilliantly thought out. You discover the Grandfather’s version of the story in the form of a letter, and you get the Grandmother’s version in her personal account expressed directly to Oskar. Let’s just say that Grandfather, in his adolescence, falls in love with Grandmother’s sister Anna in Dresden, and when he meets Grandmother in America they decide to marry a loveless relationship.

“…the center of me followed her, but I was left with the shell of me, I needed to see her again, I couldn’t explain my need to myself, and that’s why it was such a beautiful need, there’s nothing wrong with not understanding yourself.”

“It’s the tragedy of loving, you can’t love anything more than something you miss.”

The structure of this novel is also something to consider.
Images. The novel is interlaced with images. (see post photo) That interesting choice of images makes you feel like you’re joining Oskar on his journey to find this lock. When Oskar finds a clue, you do too in the form of a picture. This element of the book, I believe, connects you even more to Oskar – it’s almost as if you’re going through the journey directly with him.
Format. The novel is also structured differently through its unique format. On some pages you’ll find only a word or a phrase.

I actually wrote this review when I was up to page 160, about half-way through the book, while I had my ideas fresh on my mind and thinking that I would have more to write once I finished. Surprisingly, I have nothing more to add. I’d like to reemphasize how amazing this book is… it got even better as I kept reading, and I’ll leave you with this amusing passage that really gives you a flavor of Oskar’s character:

As he walked out of the room, Jimmy said, “Hey, Oskar, who’s Buckminster?” I told him, “Richard Buckminster Fuller was a scientist, philosopher, and inventor who is most famous for designing the geodesic dome, whose most famous version is the Buckyball. He died in 1983, I think.” Jimmy said, “I mean your Buckminster.”

I didn’t know why he was asking, because I’d brought Buckminster to school for a demonstration only a couple of weeks before, and dropped him from the roof to show how cats reach terminal velocity by making themselves into little parachutes, and that cats actually have a better chance of surviving a fall from the twentieth floor than the eight floor, because it takes them about eight floors to realize what’s going on, and relax and correct themselves. I said, “Buckminster is my pussy.”

Book 1: One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel García Márquez

I finally did it! I have finally completed One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez. It took long enough.

Apologies to my fans – all three of you. On Week 1, the week I should have completed this, I was just so distracted; my head was everywhere, and then from then on… well, you know. I tried to catch up, but this isn’t the type of book you can quickly read through.

Overall, I have to say that this was a wonderful book, and I can completely understand both why people claim it’s their favorite book and that it’s Márquez’s best work. I can’t say that I share that sentiment, but I also feel that I’ll have to go back and read it again so that I may fully enjoy it.

So, about the book.

To be perfectly honest, I was a little lost during the first 150 pages of the book. I couldn’t fully comprehend what Márquez was trying to get at. See, normally I’m used to books that portray a focal character, and then from there, the new characters are introduced in relation to that character. Márquez doesn’t do that here. So, I spent about 150 pages a little baffled, a little confused. Then, I read the back cover, and everything fell into place. I was getting it the whole time.
Here’s what it says:
“One Hundred Years of Solitude tells the story of the rise and fall, birth and death of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendía family.”

Yes! That’s exactly what was going on. That whole time I was trying to ‘get’ what Márquez was doing, and the truth to enlightenment was right there on the back cover. And honestly, that’s all you need to know: this book tells the very very long story of the Buendía family. Now, I’m not going to give you a plot summary – it would be a great disservice to you as I would ruin the book for you, and it would be a grave disrespect to Márquez’s masterpiece as I would ruin the book period. There is no way that I could think of up to now to truly capture the essence of this book. This book is an experience, and you need to experience it for yourself. What I will do is give you my reading of the book – parts of the book that stood out to me, elements that I thought were interesting, the like.

My first comment has to do with the characters… not the characters themselves, but their names. Márquez describes the entire Buendía family starting from the patriarchs, José Arcadio Buendía and Úrsula Iguarán, and tracks the entire family all the way down to the great-great-great grandchildren (I hope I didn’t put too many ‘greats’). As if it wasn’t already difficult enough to remember so many characters, Márquez repeats many of the character names with slight variation. Now, that may be realistic in some families, some people have complexes – I know I do, all of my children will carry a variation of my name- other times it’s tradition, but come on, did you really have to do that to me? Let’s just give you an example with just one repeated name. There’s Colonel Aureliano Buendía who has a child named Aureliano José and 17 other Aurelianos, let’s not forget Aureliano Segundo who has two grandchildren named Aureliano. Márquez was very kind to include a family tree… thanks, but no thanks.

As I kept reading, though, I realized that the repeated name thing actually works very well. Time isn’t a constant and clear element of the book, and it seems that events were layered and repeated. Through this process, personalities were recaptured by the newer generations, recaptured by characters with the same name. This also confused me at times, but when Márquez would return to stories and specific characters, everything seemed to fall into place. I liked that a lot about the book actually, it was very unique.

The one thing that stood out to me was Márquez’s leftism and how it was manifested in this novel. I have read two other Márquez novels before this one which inspired my curiosity for the author. Through that time I learned that Márquez has leftist leanings and more recently I came across a book at Barnes and Noble titled Gabo and Fidel: Portrait of a Friendship. Upon reading that title, I wondered why I never observed these sentiments in his novels. After all, your art is an expression of your person, so therefore I should feel these sentiments to some capacity in his novels. This book does that with two things – the war and the banana plantations.

The War. There is a very long war that takes course through part of the novel in which Colonel Aureliano Buendía plays a crucial role. Márquez provides poignant social commentary as he provides his descriptions of the conflicting Liberal and Conservative movements. Through this discourse he reveals a lot of the contradictions of the conservatives that he describes through their paradoxical perceptions of religion, conflict, etc. In his ‘factual’ descriptions of what the liberal and conservative parties each represented, he subtly and almost subconsciously channels his beliefs to the reader; he creates this good (liberal) vs. evil (conservative) partiality in the process.

The Banana Plantations. The banana plantations scream American Imperialism. Right on, Márquez. The banana plantations which are established and owned by foreigners exploit the people, destroy the neighborhood, and in the process become a dirty symbol of evil. They are also the source of conflict as they have no regard for… anything.

This book was also very entertaining - it was funny, amusing, it would make me giggle. There are so many parts -whether through strange behavior i.e. eating mud, or romantic relationships i.e. literally dropping dead due to unrequited love (I think that happened?) -that were so exaggerated, you couldn’t help but me entertained.

Good book. I’d recommend it.

One last thing I will say before we part - has to do with a very ugly sticker on the front cover of this book. This book is a member of “Oprah’s Book Club.” The biggest turnoff. Ever. Reading a book from Oprah’s Book Club is like being told by the government to read a book. That's why I hated most books in high school. You know people are going to read it just because Oprah recommended it. She got it like that. We vote for people because she says so. I can’t deny it. Now I love Oprah, and I’m actually quite sad that she will be announcing the end of her show – yes, I was raised on Oprah- but, we all know that if I were to write a book about safety pins and that somehow that lovely work of art managed to make its way onto Oprah’s Book Club list, I would turn into an instant mill-i-on-aire.


Be on the look out for Zombie books next.
Peace.

Smoking in Africa

Yesterday morning on the way to work I was listening to NPR and there was a news story discussing smoking in Africa, how it's on the rise, and how it needs to be stopped immediately. Now, my first reaction upon hearing this was, "Africa has more important problems than Cigarette smoking such as... POVERTY, the AIDS epidemic, instability, etc." Right? The list really goes on and on... so smoking should not be a priority. Smoking is the last thing Africans should worry about, let them have a cigarette if they so choose.

My initial reaction is the reason I must share this story. There were a lot of points that enlightened me, so to speak.

The most obvious and compelling argument is that we are currently in the pre-epidemic phase of smoking in Africa. You have to prevent an epidemic before it happens. Europe is the great example, and we need to use their example to learn from their situation. I'm telling you, my brain couldn't even piece that much together on it's own.

What really struck me is how Tobacco companies are manipulating people in developing countries to increase their market and increase profit. Tobacco companies? Manipulate people? No Surprise. Luckily, in the United States regulation has put a stop to this unbridled, shameful manipulation of the masses. You won't see a cartoon character smoking a cigarette or passing a pack of cigarettes to a child. That's not normal anymore. But, in Africa, it appears that tobacco companies are taking advantage of instability and lack of regulation in the government to misguide the public. For example, one advertisement went so far as to explicitly state that smoking makes you smarter. I know that statement goes against our better judgment, but there is a big difference between walking down a street in Nairobi with a billboard that says "Smoking makes you smarter" and walking through Heathrow Airport and seeing huge signs that say "SMOKING KILLS" on your pack of cigarettes. Where are you most likely to light up (even if you are already a smoker)????

I was very impressed when they spoke to pedestrians in Nairobi. They were well-informed about the damaging effects of second hand smoke, and even if they weren't they were so articulate. Which again confirms my notion that the average citizen in most countries is smarter - smartness is very subjective, I'll say more worldly and politically attuned - than the average American. Even the illiterate folk in some places know more about what's going on in the world. Is it because they're smarter? Not necessarily, this has nothing to do with aptitude. This has to do with the fact that certain people make it their business to know. There was one man who stood out from the rest with his outlandish comments - He claimed that smoking releases carbon dioxide into the air, and therefore his smoking helps the trees breathe. hahahaha Smokers are environmentalists.

Anyway, I hope this is interesting and I have a feeling that it is not. But, when I heard this story, it really angered me. The reaction is what inspired the post.

Even beyond the issue of smoking, why don't we hear about Africa? Maybe I'm in a Middle Eastern and Latin American news bubble, but I could swear that we don't get enough news coverage about Africa. Look at how we even treat the stories, we treat the entire continent as if it were one big country. In fact, I just did, but unlike Sarah Palin I at least know that Africa isn't one big country. The hypocrisy of it all just kills me. If this country was so concerned about liberating people, establishing stable governments, and pushing for democratic regimes, certain African nations would be on the critical priority list. Just as always, humanitarian issues get placed on the back burner, and we continue to kill our soldiers to support wars with unclear purposes. We criticize regimes that are unfriendly to us labeling them oppressive, and make nice with regimes that are even more oppressive than some of our enemies.

America needs to keep it real.



P.S. Doesn't the guy in the picture look kind of like Santa Clause??