A Wolf at The Table

A Wolf At The Table

In a continuation of my fondness for memoirs/(auto)biographies, I decided to pick up ‘A Wolf at The Table’ which is written by Augusten Burroughs who was also the author of ‘Running With Scissors’ which I read not too long ago. A Wolf at The Table explores Burroughs’ early childhood and particularly his relationship with his father and is essentially a prequel and really like many prequels should have come first.

The read wasn’t as enjoyable as I had hoped mostly because I felt that it was ‘more of the same’ sort of thing. Having read Running with Scissors and read other bits of information about Burroughs it does put things into perspective and you begin to formulate and see how he has become who he is today.  I’m struggling to really say much about the book other than that the Burroughs really resents his father and fairly obviously blames everything on his father.

The book is really not worth reading unless you happen to have countless hours to spend at a Medical Centre awaiting to find out what exactly gave you the nasty rash.

There is always something to take away from any book and from this book my own beliefs about children and parenting are reaffirmed.  Children are precious and parents have a massive role in shaping the lives of children from a very early age. Wondering what happened when they become teenagers is too-little-too-late.

WARchild

WARchild

I’m going to preface this review with something irrelevant and comment on how much I’m loving Summer in Sydney. Ordinarily, I would be travelling this time of the year, but the short-of-the-long-of-it is that I’m not. Not travelling and not working has resulted in time(+++) to read.  I don’t think I’ve had the chance to read so much for a very, very long time and although I’ve tried to read consistently throughout the year, often work related reading has meant reading-for-pleasure be put on the back burner.

It’s been a very long time since I’ve read a book where I’ve simply not being able to put it down and thus I’ve managed to finish this book in a matter of a few sittings which is uncharacteristic for me as I’m a very slow, reflective reader.

WARchild – A boy soldier’s story by Emmanuel Jal is a brilliantly written book which I lack the superlatives to describe.  I’ve returned to my genre of comfort in an autobiography and the book is about Jal’s experience growing up in Sudan.  As the title suggests he becomes a boy soldier in the “Sudan People’s Liberation Army”.  Another fancy name for one of the many politcal groups that existed during the Sudanese civil war.

The book is heart wrenching and often left me in shock as to the horrors that Jal both experienced as well as handed out, in his role as a soldier. Jal is only about seven years old in the early stages of the book and he doesn’t know his birthday and so like many of the other boy soldiers he adopts the 1st January, 1980 as his birthday. From that we get a rough time reference (not that it matters particularly) as I’m obviously not reading this for its historical facts although accuracy is nice too.

The book (and it’s not Jal’s fault) really depressed me as a result of the brutality in which humans can inflict on other humans.  I guess it’s no different to any other war, war in itself is senseless and barbarous. In the very early chapters of the book Jal describes the memories of ‘Arabs’ beating his mother (he witnessed it), soldiers mindlessly beating civilians because they had the power to do so and reality a general state of anarachy in Sudan.

Jal’s father was a leader in the SLPA and had encouraged families to send their children to neighbouring Ethiopia as there was no war there and that the children would be educated, fed and housed.  As it turns out the boat sinks and only about a quarter of the children on the boat survive, which when you consider they not only needed to survive drowning, but hippos, crocs, snakes and wildlife, I’m suprised any survived at all.

When Jal makes it back to shore he realises that he’s been abandoned and so he manages to get on another boat trip to Ethiopia whereby he soon realises all the things that his dad had told were lies. The people all ended up in a refugee camp where there was no fresh water or food and people were dying from starvation and an assortment of diseases.

Without going into tooooo much more of the book there is one chapter in the book that really put things about the situation in Sudan into perspective for me.  Jal is confronted with the decision to turn to cannibalism in order to survive. What happens you will need to find out for yourself.

The book goes on to describe how Jal tries to rid his demons and his hatred and you’ll be glad to know that things do sort of work out for Emmanuel Jal.

I first heard about Emmanuel Jal when I was visiting a client for work. I was listening to Conversations with Richard Fidler on the drive there and heard about his story and his music. The interview can be downloaded here on the ABC Brisbane website.

A Matter of Faith

God

A few nights ago at a friend’s boxing day party in Chatswood a number of people stayed back at the end and we all ended up discussing and talking about various things from ‘two girls one cup’, ‘the meaning(less) of life’, religion and faith.  One of the people there quoted Epicurus which til now I had not heard of, but it gave an interesting perspective on “god”.

“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?”

- Epicurus (BC 341-270)

Discussions on religion, faith or spirtuality can go on endlessly and it is not my desire to write and explore my own views at this point in time. What’s important is that we all have an open mind when approaching aspects of life, such that we don’t miss out on experiencing something beautiful.

A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns

Khaled Hosseini has authored something I totally didn’t expect.  It’s evident through the writing style that it’s written by Hosseini, but the construction of the plot and how it was executed was very different to what I’d expected. The book is broken up into four parts. Part one tells of the story of one particular girl and her family, then part two tells a story of another girl and her experiences. It isn’t until nearly the end of part two that there is any mention of a connection.

The only negative criticism that I have of the book was the sudden (bordering on abrupt) end to Part 1 of the book. There was just no obvious indication to me that the story of the first girl was going to end and that I would be following the story of a completely different character.  I have to confess that I find the beginning of books the hardest because I always like to absorb and paint descriptions that I read in my head.  So just when I felt I was getting comfortable, I felt like I had to start up all over, painting a second picture and a set of different scenes and groups of people in my head.

Both stories merge seemlessly together in Parts three and four of the book and although not a non-fiction book, the story provides somewhat of an insight to life in Afganistan and a very brief and slightly biased account on the histories of Afganistan from the time the Soviets were ousted til the invasion of Afganistan during the Bush term in office.

The book is absolutely heart-breaking and although not as suspensful as I expected, it was still a book I couldn’t put down as I neared the end.  Many people I’ve spoken feel that Kite Runner was overated, I never said that ‘Kite Runner‘ was a ten-out-of-ten type of book, but in my own humble opinion ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns‘ is a excellent read and I dare say a better read than ‘Kite Runner’ due to the interesting way the plot is constructed.

Christmas as defined by Michael

Christmas Tree

There is no doubt that Christmas means different things to different people.  Although not a Christian, I value Christmas from a family-centred perspective and also sadly the only time we stop to really say “thank you” to people in our lives that deserve thought, praise and acknowledgement for the hard work they have put in throughout the year.

Having come from a Buddhist upbringing as well as being typically male, I find gift-giving a rather arduous task around Christmas, thankfully I have not a lot of people to buy for.  Don’t get me wrong, I love giving gifts and I love seeing the faces of the people I give presents to, but there’s a big part me that cringes and squirms when I reflect on how materialistic society has become.  I have heard many different sides to the point of giving and receiving gifts during Christmas, but none that really truly satisfies the side of me that says that we should be learning to appreciate and make-do with the things we have and also finding happiness not through “material” gifts but through more “spiritual” gifts.

Let’s clear the air as to ensure that I’m no painting myself as a hater of Christmas and gift-giving.  I am forever grateful for the presents that I receive and I appreciate the thought and time that have been put into choosing the present, but a meaningful message and some time together with some food is really all I need to satisfy me during Christmas.

Merry Christmas to everyone by the way!

Word of The Post: Change

As defined by the Oxford Dictionary: verb 1. make or become different 2. exchange for another 3. move from one to (another) 4. (change over) move from one system or situation to another 5. exchange (a sum of money) for the same sum in a different currency or denomination.

noun 1. the action of changing 2. an instance of becoming different 3. money returned to someone as the balance of the sum paid or money given in exchange for the am sum in larter units 4. coins as oppose to banknotes 5. a clean garment or garments as replacement clothing 6. an order in which a peal of bells can be rung.

It wasn’t very long ago that “change” to a lot of people who graduated high school in the year 2002 was a dirty word overused and over analysed in the 2002 HSC. I have to admit that the word had lost meaning thanks to the English curriculum. The meaning and the ideas of making “change” has been a bit of a lost concept.

Recently, I have been co-inspired by Wyatt Moss-Wellington and dear friend Louise Nutting in our combined discontent (I suspect that Wyatt may have stronger feelings) of the current situation we live. The positive person within me wants to say that we should appreciate how lucky we are to be living in such a fortunate country, but as time goes on I can not simply ignore how I don’t agree ethically and morally with the views portrayed by “our” politicians and also the lies that are being perpetuated by the mass media on a global scale.  Not only do I disagree ethically and morally on many of the federal government’s standings on issues, I also believe that we can not simply be counting our blessings and say that we have it “pretty good” here in Australia. Yes it’s pretty good here in Australia, but we should be better, in fact we should be leaders in the world.

I can’t but reflect on the lessons that we were taught in high school, particularly in English and how the aim was to teach us how to reflect, consider and analyse the different perspectives, view points or opinions (whatever you wish to call them).  We were taught through the use of Frontline to look through the ‘dodgy’ practices of a current affair programs, yet my feelings are that our newspapers and television media have degenerated to such a state that it is no longer just the current affairs program that we need to take with a grain of salt, but also the wider news that is available to us on news website and television news bulletins.

We should all be demanding to know the truth, yet the problem is knowing when it is you’re being lied to. My fear with “not trusting” all the time is that personally you can run the risk of being an overly sceptical person which when unmonitored can slowly turn you into a cynical person.

One of the first things we need to do as part of the process of making change is to find a way to spread the truth.  As for the rest… we have much planning. Even if things are in vain, at least we’re going to try and make a change.

Ten Thousand Sorrows

Ten Thousand Sorrows

I don’t generally like to mention that a particular book is a bad read, but there are always exceptions to the rule.  There were definitely somethings to learn and gain from reading Elizabeth Kim’s first novel.  I choose the book based on my limited understanding of Korean culture and of the Korean war. Given that I have many friends who are Korean I thought it’d provide some insight into the world that is Korea.

Surprise, surprise the book is a “memoir” and is about Kim’s childhood during the Korean War in the 1960s and 70s and goes on to explore the horrific times she had as an orphan. I can’t put my finger on it, but sometimes things in the book seem a little inconsistent or vague. I’m not sure if others who may have this book have felt the same way.

I would like to be more objective in my review of the book, but I get the distinct feeling that there are simply better books that would provide much better insight. The book’s title is actually based on a saying that the author’s mother had told her when she was young and that is “that life is made up of ten thousand joys as well as ten thousand sorrows”.

Although the blurb on the back cover contains a quote from Dave Pelzer whom I actually enjoy reading, I disagree with his assessment that the book is a “magnificent tribute to the power of forgiveness” as it seems to me that the author tends not to forgive but rather comes to accept the reality of her situation or position. That’s my assessment of it anyway.

I did feel that Kim was amazingly resilient and manages to constantly keep her head above water and although cliché she has risen above it all and has written a book that is unique in it’s insight on how she managed to keep on going and perhaps there it is something to learn from.

If you have other books on your reading list, I’d skip over this and move on to the next.

Moon – Not to be mistaken for New Moon

Moon (2009)

Quite a while ago Kieran and I went on a man-date to see Moon, a science fiction movie about the experiences of Sam Bell who is employed by a company to harvest ‘energy’ from the sun.  In the last few months we’ve had a knack of picking out movies which have required a little bit more brain-power than anticipated and so a word of warning for those who decide to watch the movie, be prepared to have to use the good old grey matter.

It’s hard to write much about the movie without giving too much away, but its simplicity and the minimalist nature of the sets really focus your attention to the “two” main characters in the movie: Sam Bell and the other character in the movie is a robot who is brilliantly voice-acted by Kevin Spacey.  The characters are the “movie”, so forget about amazing technological advances, lots of crazy futuristic space fighting, this movie simply raises moral and ethical questions.  The questions are not raised in a in-your-face confrontational way and can easily escape you, if you’re just trying to work out what’s actually going on.

Science fiction is normally not my cup-of-tea when it comes to movie choices, but this movie is definitely worth seeing.

Word of the Post: Fortunate

As defined by the Oxford Dictionary: adjective 1. favoured by or involving good luck 2. auspicious or favourable.

It’s not often that I feel that I am the most fortunate person in the world, but everytime I spend time with friends I realise how lucky I am to have such awesome people in my life.  There are always friends you ‘like’ more and friends whom you get on better with, but by-in-large, everyone brings something different to the table and each friend teaches me something about myself.

It can’t be understated, that it is only because of the actions of some of my closest friends that I am still here and for that I am fortunate and blessed.

Double Demerit – Backstreet Fail

Police Patrol

Early this morning at the end of my lovely overnight shift I decided to make my way home via mostly the back routes, to mostly avoid firstly having to think about speed cameras but also police patrols and red traffic lights. The plan worked wonderfully the day before, as it allowed me to freely and liberally get home without need to “think”. Don’t worry I am mostly always alert when I drive, but the stakes were higher as it’s “Double-Demerit” points in NSW over this long weekend.

Anyway, this morning in an attempt to miss “Carlingford Road” where a few years ago, I got caught speeding and subsequently had my licence suspended for three months, I took “Ray Road” and what were the cops doing? Those delightful smart-arses were patrolling in their shmancy police car (as seen in the picture).  I was lucky that I was able to see through the heavy rain, but also thankful for the RTA, in their near perfect placement of a speed bump, because it definitely saved me my licence and lots of money.