rental person who does nothing

Rental Person Who Does Nothing by Shoji Morimoto
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Strange book, after reading half of it I think I found the explanation - the author is a specialist of Twitter communication, books with text are definitely not his element.
On the other hand I am not a Twitter person, I am not a fan of Facebook too so natural is that I did not enjoy the book too much.
I rated it as OK mainly due to very honest approach of the author. He presents himself as a person who avoids emotions and situations which could require him to declare his position, to make judgement, to give advice.
I appreciate his honesty, on the other hand, he is rather alien to me which is exactly who he wants to be.


View all my reviews

The Road to Wigan Pier

The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

After reading The Animal Farm and 1984 I appreciated G. Orwell but was not keen to read his other books. The inspiration came from unexpected source - Anna Funder - Wifedom.
After reading Wifedom I got interested to learn a bit more about Orwell's interests and style of work.
I think The Road to Wigan Pier answers these questions.
The book itself I found a bit strange - few chapters are devoted to very realistic description of life conditions of British proletariat - workers on pension or disability payments, miners at work, tramps.
Here Orwell does really good job - he goes to the source - crawls in low tunnels in coal mines, lives in accommodation for pensioners, hits a road as a tramp.
Unfortunately very soon Orwell changes position - he describes and analyses various aspects of British society.
It is maybe well done but in my opinion these issues got quickly outdated and are not so important for non-English reader.
So we got quite funny analysis of British class structure - differences between people from lower upper-middle and proper upper-middle class. Additionally it changes dramatically when you move to the North or West.
What I found more interesting was analysis of Socialism in England - its relation to Fascism, different approach of intellectuals and common people and very important remark that low level clerks and bureaucrats, most numerable group of working people, are not considered as "real" proletariat. I think this discovery leads straight to 1984 and The Animal Farm

View all my reviews

Poland, a Green Land

Poland, a Green Land by Aharon Appelfeld
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Strange book.
I found there 2 separate worlds with practically no connection.
World 1 - real life of Yaakov - from early years alienated from his family.
As a result of some mid-life crisis he visits Poland - a country of his parents and grandparents.
World 2 - in Poland he meets a person - Magda - who in matter of minutes frees him from all complexes and inhibitions and brings him first time in his life full sensual satisfaction.
After some 4 weeks the reality calla back - Yaakov, without much concern, leaves Magda and tombstones of his ancestors in rather hostile surrounding and returns to Word 1.
On one hand I liked the style of writing, I got a feeling that a gentle person it telling me some naively beautiful story. On the other hand I felt a bit nervous all the time, I got a feeling that the reality is not so nice, they are dangers and I worried - why the narrator treats them too light?
One more hidden stream - folk tales about God, religion, Jews - again, mostly they sounded like nightmares, still I got feeling that they are told by a good and gentle people.

View all my reviews

The Bookbinder of Jericho

The Bookbinder of Jericho by Pip Williams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I liked very much The Dictionary of Lost Words so I was very pleased that the next book by Pip Williams kept a very similar climate.
Gentle world created by women - I feel great respect for it and for them.

View all my reviews

Wifedom

Wifedom: Mrs. Orwell's Invisible Life by Anna Funder
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

After reading first few chapters of this book I was quite impressed with author's care for details and diligence.
I was also impressed by Anna's Funder talent to present wifedom as magical ability to knit a fabric of satisfactory family life.
With some difficulty I can swallow her accusations of patriarchal system for unequal treatment of men and women.
And here comes a marital life of George Orwell and Eileen O'Shaughnessy.
Very unsatisfactory life for Eileen.
And at that point I lost most of my interest for this book.
I acknowledge, it is my fault, simply I am not interested in stories which lead to nowhere and that is exactly how I receive this book.
I am additionally disappointed that so much effort of such smart author has been invested

View all my reviews