Introduction à la culture japonaise

Walking around the rue du Bailli in Brussels, I came across a little bookshop near the church, called "Peinture fraîche" - in it, a whole different world of primarily photography, architecture and art books.  It was there that I discovered Introduction à la culture japonaise by Hisayasu Nakagawa and I just had to buy it.  I have more often than not bought a book because of the bookstore, and I've yet to be dissapointed.  The originality of the book is that it is actually written in French, not Japanese.  The author, a Japanese having studied and lived in France (specialising in Diderot and Rousseau), has the ability to understand both worlds so well, that he can provide examples and definitions to us Westerners to all "different" ideas of Japan.  The purpose, according to the author, is to prove exactly that Japan is just a different culture and not something exotic.  The book itself is small - 100 pages - and is furthermore split in chapters covering the various main ideas, making reading it very easy.  The author's personal experience and evidence in the situations described further enhances the readability - I particularly liked the difference between "I" and "we" as well as the religion split.  In the end, I may not be in a position to view the world like a Japanese, but I can say that I know why there are these essential differences between the two cultures.

I found the book to be intelligent, not only in terms of me understanding a different culture, but also in learning about my own, as it is seen by others.

Peinture fraîche: 10, Rue du Tabellion, 1050 Ixelles

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Another book club reading, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary-Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows promised to be a nice, light, easy read.  Even though it's set in the after-WWII years, when people slowly start getting the lives back together, the style is not overly sad, and I think that would probably have been the sentiment among the survivors, where the only way is up...

I absolutely loved the method of narrating through exchange of letters and telegrams, if only for being able to read instalments without losing the context.  Even though this method can be considered dated, it does bring back happy memories, when people took the time to put their thoughts into paper - the use of language is very important and I feel that our time does not make enough use of this. (Could this story be told through texting?  I don't think so!). It's set in a very romantic environment, where people with destroyed houses are still looking to gather coupons to buy luxury items, and travel to nearby islands. 
The story of Guernsey itself I found most intriguing.  I would never have guessed that they, too, would be under occupation during the WWII, but I was wrong.  The description of children being sent away to the mainland and of islanders trying to make do with whatever was left does still provoke a nauseating feeling.  I was also surprised at the reality these islanders faced:  shunned by mainland Britain, occupied by Nazi Germany, they truly were left on their own to survive.   
Two twists in the story kept my interest up high throughout the book:  the reference to the Brontës, especially Anne (who is my favourite), and Oscar Wilde.  I just loved the fact that in a book that is meant to attract a modern audience, the main character has actually written a book on Anne Bronte and further makes comments on the whole family.  The whole incident was just too intriguing to miss.  And then the letters sent by Wilde to an islander?  Excellent trick - where there would just be a mediocre author trying to overcome a writer's block and an island that has no great interest, this book has managed to provide just enough spark to light up the story. The references also to other books and authors, courtesy of the island's literature society, also provide inspiration to look them up and read.

In reading about the book, I came across reviews by present-day islanders, who were not pleased about the depiction of the characters living there.  I have never been to Guernsey, but I've travelled to a lot of islands.  It is a fact that an island, because of its specific characteristic, is a microcosm that will include all the types of personalities one meets in a society - just in this case, they are all very close to each other.  I cannot say that it bothered me, or that I thought bad of the place - I am all too well aware that a balanced society will have to accommodate all types and make use of them.

Could this story find its way in our modern-day reality? Probably not.  Yet, this book shows the adventures of the common man, who, while not making headlines, proves to be as exciting under the surface as the known "celebrities".  And this should be an inspiration to all.

Back to the classics

Don't mind me, I'll just keep on participating in more challenges for 2012...  I'm looking forward to starting the Back to Classics challenge hosted by Sarah reads too much.
Here is my selection for the categories:

- Any 19th century classic:  Bleak House, by Ch. Dickens
- Any 20th century classic:  Room with a view, by E.M. Forster (while growing up, I must have seen the movie at least 15 times, but only read the book once...)
- Reread a classic of your choice:  The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, by Anne Brontë (my favourite Brontë)
- A Classic Play:  Pygmalion, by G.B. Shaw (enjoyed the London play with Everett, Tointon and Rigg so much that I wanted to read it again)
- Classic Mystery/Horror/Crime Fiction:  The Boscombe Valley mystery, by A. Conan Doyle (final novel for Holmes...)
- Classic Romance:  Emma, by J. Austen ("a novel about the perils of misconstrued romance")
- Read a Classic that has been translated from its original language to English:  War and Peace, by L. Tolstoy (It's on my TBR list for waayyy too long...)
- Classic Award Winner:  To kill a Mockingbird, by H. Lee (won the Pulitzer prize in 1961, and has been my mother's favourite read ever since)
- Read a Classic set in a Country that you will not visit during your lifetime:  1984, by G. Orwell (another of my favourite reads while growing up)

Tea time for the Traditionally Built

Weird title, isn't it?  At least that's what grabbed my attention while looking for holiday reading at a bookstore.  Part of the "No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" series, Tea Time for the Traditionally Built, by Alexander McCall Smith, promised to be a nice, gentle, fuss-free reading.  And it didn't fail.  Set in a dreamy Botswana, the book follows Mma Ramotswe, a tea-loving and "traditionally built" private detective and the various "misfortunes" in her life, while trying to run her agency.  I was immediately  hooked on it, mainly because it's very easy reading, with emotions not running high (and which would upset me), and with a pace which, though slightly slow, is actually calming and enjoyable.  There are various themes coming through the pages of this book (AIDS, differences between the sexes) that are still part of our lives.  Yet, while they do play a role in the characters' lives, I found that the primary theme was the one on the goodness of people and on the ways to enjoy life.  Mma Ramotswe is an example of this school of thought herself, managing to provide solutions to all problems in the end, while maintaining her good manners and politeness.

This not a book that will trigger deep thoughts; it will leave, however, a feeling of thorough enjoyment.  I wouldn't go as far as calling it "chick-lit", but its purpose is exactly the same:  fill my reading time with a story that's captivating, sweet, carefree.  A welcome break to be taken with tea and doughnuts.

Cookies, cookies, cookies

What makes a house a home?  Cooking of course!  Nothing beats the smells coming out of an oven, be it savoury or sweet, to transform an otherwise bland day at the professional world.  How many of our childhood memories are linked to cooking, how many times have we not been soothed by the comfort that whatever the difficulty, however mean our day was, there would certainly be food to make the world alright again... 

At least, that's how I feel about cooking - it makes every wrong right again.  OK, enough about the theory, let's go into practice:  'tis the season for cookie-baking and for the first time I've managed to bake THREE different types of cookies.  I'm excited about each of them because they may start a trend in my cooking and I may wind up inventing more recipes...

cheese cookies

The first batch was a cheese cookie, adapted from a TV cookery show in the Flemish TV.  Here I substituted gouda with manchego and regular flour with gluten-free one.  It has been some time that I look into that particular type of cooking (gluten-free), not be cause of an ailment, but because I, too, find that gluten-free flour is much more digestable.  Instead of the onion salsa (I'm not keen on onions), I made a simple dip with yoghurt and herbs.  Cookies turned out perfect (next time, though, I'll put a whole egg just to bind the dough better) and I'm afraid there is not one left...

apricot-pumpkin seed cookies

The two other batches were baked for a cookie-swap party (thanks to J for organising this). I played with the idea to make another savoury batch, but, being Christmasy, I surrendered to popular demand and baked sweet cookies (...)

Again, there were adaptations:  the first was an adaptation of Martha Stewart's recipe.  Whereas I thought I had pistachios, I didn't, so I simply used pumpkin seeds instead (green as well...).  And, obviously, I made them round and not triangles (I can be lazy sometimes...). 

peanut butter cookies

The second proved to be quite popular:  crunchy peanut butter cookies, adapted from the blog of the Brown-eyed Baker. Of course, this being the first time  I made the cookies, they turned slightly bigger than expected, perfect for little (or bigger) children...

Initial reactions at the party were positive to these batches, so World, be aware - there will be more cookie baking to come!

Enjoy the Holidays!

The Glass Castle

The purpose of book clubs is to introduce us to books we would otherwise not even have looked at.  Such was The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, the first book I would be reading for my book club.  Just reading the back cover, I thought in dismay what nuisance this book would be.  Another autobiography to bring us all to tears, I reflected (yes, I am that cynical).  I was totally wrong.  This is indeed a heartfelt, true story, of a thoroughly eccentric family in Appalachian America and how each of the members managed (or not) to overcome situations that most can only see in films.

The descriptions in the book really shocked me, all the more because I still have an idealised version of how a family should function, where parents respect each other and provide and care for the children - nothing like two parents who, though they may love their children, are  so self-absorbed that they play with the idea of pushing the author towards prostitution, they don't notice when she falls out of a moving car, just as they don't see a problem with the family living in extreme poverty (even though, towards the end of the book, we learn of an amazing fortune left unexploited). Still,  the tone in the book is not about self-pity - surprisingly, the author describes all incidents in a neutral, balanced manner that lets the story tell itself.  There is a lot of neglect but, most accurately put forward by the author, there is also a lot of complexity in the relationships within a family.

While reading this book, I felt at times like a witness in a car accident - it's horrible, there's broken glass and blood everywhere and people have been injured, but I just can't help myself standing there watching.  I wanted to see (read) more ugliness.  The bad incidents are plenty in the life of the author, but of course, she and her siblings regard many of them as the usual way of things.  And here I questioned myself:  how do we judge a situation? what makes an incident horrible to a child, when the child itself does not regard this as such? Everything in life is so subjective, I truly believe the author went by her childhood without feeling sorry for herself for the ugliness she went through - on the contrary, she became an adult early on and learned very important survival skills that eventually helped her get away from home and thrive.

So while three of the four children manage in the end to lead a "conventional" life, the parents sink even further, willingly continuing to rummage dumpsters and living an "unconventional" life.   This was the  part that was most difficult to comprehend and accept. My comfortable, unadventurous, traditionally-educated self made me want to shout at these characters (actually, I think I did at some point) with frustration :  What is wrong with you people? How can you NOT want to escape this diresome existence?

The  Glass Castle is not a light story to read, but I'm glad the author decided to share it with us, if only to marvel at the strength of courage and determination in all of us, as well as the resilience against difficult situations.