Saturday morning and I am covered in hives from my allergic reaction to eating bad pho last night. Even though I could sense that there was something wrong with the meat I kept eating anyways. Thanks to that, I’ve had an allergic reaction to something in the soup. Not a reaction in the sense of my throat getting blocked but rather being covered in hives like I’m having a massive mosquito bite all over my body. Yes, very uncomfortable. But even worse to wake up and realise you still have the left over hive stamp all over my face. Never had a problem with acne, but I now know what it feels to have bad acne.

So I’m hoping that it will go down soon as I have a lunch date with my old friend Wendy and Evan is playing at Utopia. I will never go back to that pho place anymore. I should have heeded the warning.

Which brings me to writing about the latest book I conquered A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. I bought this novel in a collection of series involving books that had been banned sometime during their moment of publication. I have tried to read it 2 times before succeeding for the third time. Only because I had watched the movie, I thought it would be similar. But oh was I wrong. The language was the first thing that threw me off balance. Burgess novel is essentially about violence - acts of violence. Rather than describing violence in word - which I can imagine could be a gut wrenching read - Burgess gets words from Russia and uses it consistently throughout A Clockwork Orange. I only found out that he had derived those words from Russia after reading the novel. I initially thought it was just made up gibberish but in fact if you can understand Russian then chances are you would be able to understand this novel a lot better than an english speaking person - taking that you can understand English.

So once I got used to the language it was an engrossing read which brings up many deep issues in society and which are relevant now. It asks is man better off with the ability to choose to do bad or no choice but to do good? A Clockwork Orange explores it in a way that is extreme so you would choose the former condition. Also worth checking is Stanley Kubricks A Clockwork Orange film which lifts the novel and makes the film stand on its own two legs. The novel on its own is worth in reading itself for its play with language and word play used very creatively to paint acts of violence.

Forget my lazy and forgetful ass, I had an itch to do some blogging tonight (!) And I do intend to try and do some regular posts and also get Akismet activated on this blog - spam comments must go…I’ve had enough mentions of sex, porn, dildos and viagra.

Talking about viagra, my most recent book I’ve just finished is Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. Probably made popular by Jack Nicholson in the movie of the same name - which I have not seen - the blurb on the back made it sound at least at least quite interesting. Put nut house and electro-therapy together and it sounds like one hell of a read. I must admit though that this was my second time that I’ve picked this book, and this time, succeeded until the end. It was a bit slow to start of with and a bit of adjusting with the way it was written. But overcoming that, it was an engrossing read.

I’ve done a bit of Psychology study at Sydney Uni and yes I cannot believed that they used to use electro-shocks as an acceptable way of treating a patient. Scary, when you think about it! But even now, I do believe that mental health is a big money making business because frankly, patients rely on the drug they are given and it is so easy to diagnose. Feeling a bit emo? Oh that’s just depression, we’ll subscribe this pill to you! Crazy. So despite not having electro-shocks, we’ve got another form of medication that maybe perhaps could be questionable down the track. Psychology is fundamentally a science, a very young science in which we don’t know a lot about.

So anyways back to the book, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest was written in 1962 and yet it feels so timely. Definitely ahead of its time, Kesey’s ‘inspiration’ for this novel came from his time working the graveyard shift at - you guessed it - a mental hospital. His apparent friendship with the wardens determines the sympathetic approach of his characters. At times, you almost feel that the people outside this ward are more crazy than the actual wardens. It’s a journey of freedom and realization of self being and fulfillment. Encompassed in the 60’s hippie free spirit culture, this book is a humorous yet thoughtful look at what is it that defines and determines if people are crazy, pyscho and plain mental.

Jack Nicholson stars in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest:

I’ve spent last night reading Truman Capote’s Breakfast At Tiffany’s as I couldn’t put it down and was completely consumed over the character of Holly Golightly. One word to describe Breakfast at Tiffany’s is charming. Just delightfully charming. The storyline does not have much depth to it or there is so much happening but we are only allowed a glimpse what is actually going on. However, this furthers and enhances  the mysterious and captivating characterisation of Holly Golightly which is the centre of focus in Breakfast At Tiffany’s.

I saw the movie ages ago and while the movie stands on its own two legs, the movie is loosely based on the book. While the movie did not captivate me as much as others, the book on the other hand did just that. The character of Holly Golightly is complex, more complex than what the movie portrays. She seems to be just everything and anything but in which Capote has written it in a captivating manner. Holly Golightly is all at once a hillbilly, playgirl, a bitch and a gold digger! However, little girl lost comes across all these characterisation and Holly Golightly’s hunger to be free like her cat is strong throughout the novel.

Everything is Illuminated is an ironic title for this book - it should rather be Everything isn’t exactly illuminated but what the hell! So I’ve finished reading this novel by Jonathan Safran Foer (no not the John Safran fame) and finished the book in tatters..literally. Call it postmodernism writing or post-postmodernism you can argue, but I really can’t be bothered going into details about what it is.

So this novel is not a straight forward beginning-middle-end sequence, rather it is loosely tied in that structure. Apart from the messy but ordered structure, I really enjoyed this novel, and was quite sympathetic towards the characters. There is at least 3 parallel storylines running one after the other to provide a past and present time shift phase that structures the novel. Its very funny and witty with a lot of black humour thrown in. Just don’t expect it to be a traditional novel otherwise it will leave you unsettled.

The story is basically a road trip novel to find a specific person. There are underlying storylines about the protagonist’s past bloodline and the letters that he receives from his travelling guide, with occurrences of war during the Nazi regime is both moving and hilarious. Elements of fantasy are thrown in for good measure and place the war themes in a rather light tone. Although it may sound a bit all over the place, it all fits into one overall storyline.

Recommended if you’re tired of reading the same traditional novel and want a novel to spark some magic and faith back into what talented writers can achieve!

Everything is Illuminated has won several awards and critical acclaim and has been made into a film staring Elijah Wood. I am yet to see the film as the fragmented storylines piques my interest to see how they would have represented and interpreted the novel onto the screen.