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 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.

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.

The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner

Don’t you just hate it when a movie ruins a book?

I made the mistake of watching The Kite Runner at the movies a couple of years ago. I say ‘mistake’ only in that I should have read the book first.  Whenever I read a book, I build up images in my head, I pretty much form a movie in my head. I’m going to admit that I’m a slow reader, mostly because I allow myself the time to take into the book, think about it, process it and play it in “pictures” in my head.  The Kite Runner (the book) by Khaled Hosseini is wonderfully discriptive and is poetic in its imagery, particularly in the way in describes the Afgan landscape.

I should mention that the book is fiction, which I don’t typically tend to read a lot of.  Reading this book may just be the catalyst I need to read Harry Potter. Yes that’s right I HAVEN’T read Harry Potter.

I’m sidetracking from my point here (if ever I really had one), but watching movies first before I read the book tends to make me ‘remember’ the movie and takes away the creativeness and ‘fun’ in reading a book.  By watching a movie first my mind is filled and corrupted with someone elses thoughts and images and eventhough I gave myself two years before touching the book, much of the pleasure of reading the book was taken away. This may be a problem as I’ve watched the majority of the Harry Potter movies and yet to read a single word. *sigh* I should never have caved into watching those movies!

For those who haven’t come across The Kite Runner, the book is set in Afganistan during the time of the Soviet Invasion of the country. I won’t get into the politics of it all but for those who’d like a bit of a history lesson, it’s pretty much around the time when the Taliban start to grow, courtesy of US government (the benefits of hindsight).

The beginning of the book evolves around two boys Amir (the rich kid) and Hazara (the servant’s boy) and their childhood.  Their friendship and each of the boy’s personalities are developed through their involvement in “Kite Fighting” (not as violent as it sounds).

As the story moves on so does the war and eventually the story moves on to California, USA.  There the book follows the life of Amir who endures the pains of all things ‘cultural’ when falling in love with a fellow Afgani refugee, whilst working for his father at the flea markets.

You’d think that the book would end happily there with Amir falling in love, but there’s a twist which leads to Amir returning to Kabul, Afganistan during a time when the Taliban pretty much ruled the place.  The last part of the book gets pretty emotional and I guarantee that once you get to the last third of the book you won’t be putting it down.  I have to say that I was extremely touched by the ending and despite already knowing the ending from having seen the movie it still left an impact on my thoughts and moods for a few days.

Running with Scissors

Running with Scissors

Running with Scissors is a book by Augusten Burroughs which unbeknonst to be at the time of buying the book was made into a movie in 2006 about 4 years after it had been published.  I came across this book as a direct result of reading “Look Me In The Eye” by Augusten Burrough’s brother John Elder Robinson who has Aspergers.

Before reading on I’d have to say that I have an obvious bias towards reading biographies and non-fiction, but I have even more of a bias for reading memoirs about people with disabilities.  As a direct result of the work that I do, it gives me what I consider to be a brief but enlightening insight to what it is like for the children I work with as they grow up.

I will preface my summary of the book by also saying that although Burroughs doesn’t have a “disability” in that it’s neither physical nor intellectual he does suffer psychologically, but as I’ve written above, my interest was sparked by my own curiosities after having read “Look Me In The Eye”

The book looks into the “dark” side of Burrough’s adolescent life, although ‘twisted’ and ‘black’ it’s written in a such a candid way that you can’t help but go through the emotions of being shocked and then smile to yourself at the humour of the situation which I think is a credit to the way in which Burrough’s writes the book. It could have easily turned into a book filled with ravenous anger and hatred for his upbringing and his situation but there’s very little of the absolute hate you might expect from someone that has experienced such a twisted up bringing.

The early stages of the book centres around the marriage breakdown of Augusten’s parents and then it quickly moves on to his mother’s (Margaret Robinson) dellusions of gradeur and psychiatric/psychological problems which ultimately leads to Augusten been “given away” at approximately the age of 13 to his mother’s shrink “Dr. Finch” which for a shrink is in today’s youthful vernacular would be considered to be “pretty fucked up”.

The messed up nature of Dr. Finch’s unorthodox approaches itself make this book a worthwhile read, but there’s just so much that goes on in the book that you won’t want to put it down.

After reading the book I acquired a copy of the movie and was pleasantly surprised at how well the book transferred into a movie, which may possibly be why it was nominated for several awards the year in came out. As with all books that are made into a movie, things are left out and I’d recommend reading the book first.  There’s nothing like reading a book first.

Look Me In The Eye

Look Me In The Eye

Q. How often was I told when I was younger to look the teacher in the eyes?

A. Countless number of times, yet the old teachers when I was in primary school had not taken into account the cultural differences between what we would consider to be appropriate in the Anglo-Australian world and the Chinese-Australian world.

I always felt conflicted when it came to making eye contact. At home I’d be in trouble for looking into an adult’s eyes, at school I appeared to be ‘disrespectful’ and inattentive to a teacher’s demands.

In hindsight all of this was only trivial in my younger ages and I eventually sorted and worked it out myself I’ve just finished “Look Me In The Eye: My Life with Asperger’s” by John Elder Robinson.  I have a special interest when it comes to reading books about people with disabilities (as most of you know I work with children with a variety of different (dis)abilities. I was about six and seven years of age when the issues of eye contact were raised, (basically in Kindergarten and year one) and I was only a typically developing child with English as my second Language or more correctly  Anglo-Australian as my second culture.

If I was confused I can’t imagine what it would have been like for John at that age.  John Elder Robinson describes all the prejudices he encountered throughout his life, yet the book isn’t a whinge about the way he was treated, but rather an insightfully written memoir of what it was like to have “Aspergers” for the majority of his life without actually knowing.

The book begins to raise many questions within myself and because I work with a lot of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders I am myself very wary of the “Autistic” like characteristics I also have.  Most of us in the profession recognise that there’s a little bit of ‘Autism’ in all of us. After all it is a ‘Spectrum’.

To be honest I’m very aware that I’ve had some very anti-social behaviours and challenges especially when it comes to connecting with people, not because I don’t want to know people, on the contrary, but like  people with Aspergers I find small talk arduous and I find coded conversation and non-verbal cues tiring. I’m pretty clued in the majority of the time and pride myself in the ability to work out a lot about a person’s personality from their subtle non-verbal cues, but I find that people hide themselves behind veneers.

There are other things in the book that make me wonder quite seriously where I sit, because he describes quite well how he is able to focus on things that he has high interests in, but as soon as he loses interests in them he often loses the in-depth understanding he had. I look back to high school and I look back at maths in particular. I started off in year 7, being pretty ordinary, but by the end of year 10, I was to my surprise actually in the top 60 students in the grade, but that was because I was interested and enjoyed the challenge, but the time I hit year 11, maths started to bore me and the realisation that there were no real practical application of the things we were learning made me lose interest very quickly and by the end of the HSC I had managed to score within the lowest band in 3 unit maths and somehow managed a low Band 5 (Band 1 = lowest and Band 6 = highest) score, without evidently trying. This of course is only one example, but believe me I have loads of examples just like this.

How much of it is just interest? and how much is typical? and how much of it means that I am somewhere on a Spectrum? Of course I don’t really think that I’m on the Autism Spectrum, but like I say to many of my friends, we all have some odd and strange behaviours.

Back to the book, I found the book intersting, but at times long, but that’s the nature of the writer’s style and considering that it’s meant to provide insight, then it has done excellently. I would recommend that book to anyone wishing to get a better insight into these things.

For those interested in the subject I would also recommend The Black Balloon which is an Australian made film documenting the challenges of growing up and living with an Autistic person.

Following that another Australian claymation film currently playing at the cinemas is Mary and Max I saw this at Roseville Cinemas last night and the story is sweet and plain beautiful. I haven’t seen a movie that evoked such subtle emotions in me, in a long time. It deserves a lot more than it’s getting. I’d encourage anyone who loves a good story to go and see it. It’s clever, witty, funny, sad and at times thought provoking.

One hobby replaces another…

Out of Iraq

For some reason I have re-kindled an old flame of mine, one which I thought left when my desire to pursue an underwhelming, yet overtly intense tertiary education sucked up most of my time like a camel in a desert oasis.

I have found that in the pass month my insatiable appetite for books to be the lead cause of insomnia. (Yes, I have self-diagnosed and almost at the point of self-medicating) I have to admit that I am a slow reader and whilst I had learnt some basic ‘speed reading’ or ‘skimming’ techniques to get me through uni days, when it comes to reading for leisure and indeed pleasure I take in every word as though I was presented with a delectable French dessert.

The worst thing about my reading pace is that I often let me mind wander, imagine and reflect on what is presented to me. I allow myself the time and the luxury of building up mental movies of what occurs in the book (which no doubt everyone does too). The annoying thing about it, is that I become frustrated at my pace, yet it is exactly the sort of escapism that the book provides that I sought out the most.  Oddly enough it was this ability to envisage the happenings and going-ons that guided me through ancient history in high school (my favourite subject).

It seems that life has come seemingly back and into a full circle in the last few months. I have returned to playing basketball, re-found my love of reading and as Kieran may suggest in more tactful and in more subtle ways, gone back to possibly ruining my life again by doing too much.

I wish there were more hours in a day. Whilst I may enjoy reading, I find that it is coming at the cost of my love of photography. One thing is for sure I am glad to be reading again. I think my brain has finally re-equated reading as fun as oppose to painful and a bore.

I am a fan of biographies and non-fiction and for those wishing for some insight into what it’s like to grow up in Iraq I would recommend “Out of Iraq” by Lewis Alsamari. The book changed my own prejudices toward ‘assylum’ seekers and what we would consider here in Australia to be “Illegal Immigrants”.  Whilst I still think that we need to protect our borders, we as Australians and human beings should lead the world in showing compassion for people who are escaping a world of terror.