The only story

The Only Story by Julian Barnes
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"Would you rather love the more, and suffer the more; or love the less, and suffer the less? That is, finally, the only real question.
You may point out- correctly - that it isn't a real question. Because we don't have the choice."
I think these opening sentences well summarize the book.
There is a story, but - in fact - there is no story.
Well, there is a skeleton of a story followed by storyteller considerations how he looked at it in various stages of his life.
Typical for this author, but I still like him.

View all my reviews

Preselection

Today we had elections to Federal Parliament.
Almost a month ago I presented HERE  two candidates one of whom will get the seat, so today I had to make decision.
My basic reasoning was as follows:
Labor got bigger chances, so vote for Liberal so that the winners feels the presure. Maybe it will result in better work.
Additional factor was intensity of harassment - for some time I was receiving phone calls and sms from both main parties and also from UAP. Actually in the last days Labor was more aggressive which meant leaning towards Liberal.

But then, just as I was driving to the shopping centre, I received a sms. I stopped the car expecting some addition to shopping list, but no - it was from Liberals.
No! I will vote for Greens, they never breached my privacy.
Then, as I was passing a voting point, I noticed 2 bikers pulling large billboards calling for Green vote. They were riding their bikes on very narrow footpath forcing pedestrians to step on the lawn.
What a hypocrisy!

I thought a while and decided to vote for Animal Justice Party.

I returned home in full peace of mind and then, in our garden, I noticed birds, indian mynah, pecking or rather massacring our cherry tomatoes.
Enough!
I returned to my original concept. At least I knew that it was well thought over decision.

Teresa Raquin

Thérèse Raquin by Émile Zola
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I read this book to get some touch of Emile Zola writing, not expecting too much from the story itself.
From this perspective it met my expectations - Zola can write - what a discovery.
But the story... it looked to me as if author would like to prove something, to demonstrate something, not to tell the story.
But what?
Possible answer is - naturalism, showing the dirty, cruel, sick side of life and surrounding. There is a lot of this in the book.
My main complaint is that two main characters - Laurent and Therese - were for me absolutely not convincing, some paper caricatures.
As there was not too much to write about such dummies, there are pages, and pages, and pages of descriptions of nightmares they both experienced. Sorry, but I could not stand it.

View all my reviews