The Family
By Reza | June 7, 2007
The Family, written by Mario Puzo of The Godfather
The story revolves about the rise of pope alexander and the ways that he tries to secure a future for his family and his dreams, which is a united Papal states (roughly the Italy of today). In order to do that, he must make alliances, threats, obtain funding, and eventually attacks neighbors. In doing so, he will justify any means necessary, bribing and being bribed, backstabbing, even selling out God.
Summary
- Number of pages: 432 (paperback version)
- Difficulty: Not terribly hard to understand. Sometimes there are just too many characters (and enemies) with Italian names to keep track of.
- How/Where to read: Easy chair, big chocolate mug by your side. Drink the chocolate when the book gets disturbing.
- Entertainment value: Quite entertaining. Could be better
- Usefulness value: I’ve certainly learnt something about pope alexander and life in the 15th century. Don’t use this book as a reference though.
- Rereadability: There are some good parts to read over. Nothing that truly sticks to your mind though
Mario Puzo writes about evil men. However Puzo makes sure that we are sympathetic with these evil characters. This is a predominant theme in his other works
The story is fascinating, describing the various schemes, plot, manipulation and human ingenuity each character uses to achieve his or her desires. The various human relations are explored quite richly. The battle scenes could use some work, as they are short and forgetful (eh.. that’s it?), but then again this isn’t lord of the rings.
Puzo is not afraid to be disturbing. Some of his scenes are absolutely frightening, in a squeamish way. He describes bloody battles, which most people are probably desensitized to, having watched like 5 million violent movies in their lifetime. He also describes murder, rape, and most squeamishly (I know, that’s not a word) he describes incest between brother and sister. If you’re not trembling inside and thinking yuck yuck yuck, then there’s something wrong with you.
Unfortunately, The Family was Mario Puzo’s last work, he was in the middle of this work when he died. Well that’s not technically true, this had been his life work, and near the end of his life he passed the story off to Carol Gino, a lifelong companion. He had written the epilogue before he died, but has not yet finished some of the chapters. Was this a good idea? I don’t know, as the readers are obviously not told which parts of the text were written by whom.
My feeling on this book is that some of the text are more detailed and polished than others. In the first part of the book, the story starts out slow, detailed. In the second part of the book, it feels like the author is rushing it, that the author is trying to get to the end as soon as possible, and thus leave out details. Some parts are there because of history instead of relevance to the story, and it was so out of character (and unecessary), without any explanation why. You also have this big jump between a person wanting to become a cardinal, and suddenly becoming one, without any explanation on how he was able to accomplish this.
All in all The Family is a good story about family, about the trials they must face, the togetherness, the battles, and the conflicts. Yes it’s great having power for your family (being the Pope at those time is like being a king), but it just shows that even at that high of the social ladder, troubles await. It may have been a great story, unfortunately just too many questions are left unanswered.
Technorati Tags: The Family, Mario Puzo, Vatican, Pope Alexander, family, historical, Papal, God, disturbing, honourable, schemes, squeamish, murder, rape, incest, Carol Gino
Topics: Family, Thriller | No Comments »
All the Dave Barry You Could Ever Want
By Reza | June 6, 2007
Dave Barry is a comedian, and a syndicated columnist for the miami herald (now retired). He has won a pullitzer prize for a commentary, has nominated himself for a president, and has vehemently tried to solve the US’s toilet problems (he claims there is not enough water when you have to flush the toilet). His weekly columns (some of which can be found here) gives focus to everyday problems, in his own unique way. He writes without letting facts get in his way.
His jokes are sometimes self deprecative, sometimes absurd and illogical, but at times very pointed and is a sharp critique to whatever he writes against.
Summary
- Number of pages: 200ish
- Difficulty: Easy to understand no need for serious thinking. Although perhaps you may not get all of his jokes
- How/Where to read: Anywhere to pass the time. Preferably not in public where you may laugh out loud and have people look at you funny
- Entertainment value: Quite funny
- Usefulness value: Useles
- Rereadability: Always funny
In this book, All the Dave Barry You Could Ever Want
This book is a joy to read. Lots and lots of laughs. Of course being four books in one, it does get repetitive after a while. Barry uses the same forms of jokes, and rarely is there a real original joke form. The first section (about sex) is funny, but the fourth section (about work), you really feel that you’ve heard it before. Personally I like his column collections better, even though it’s just a collection of his newspaper columns (he usually only adds an introduction).
If you like this book, or are interested in this book, Amazon has a list of Dave Barry’s Books
Technorati Tags: Dave Barry, columnist, toilet, jokes, sex, children, house repair, work, original joke
Topics: Non-fiction, Comedy | No Comments »
My Freshman Year : What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student
By Nana | June 1, 2007
What would a professor in anthropology do to have a profound examination about a particular community? Being part of it is the answer. That is also what Rebekah Nathan (a pseudonym) has done to get an insight of undergraduate students’ life in American University which is told completely in this book. For one school year, she lived incognito in an undergraduate dormitory and actually enrolled as an undergraduate student of AnyU (also a pseudonym).
Clearly, she found the experience enlightening. She had been questioning the difficulty of addressing tasks to her students. From her ‘journey’, she could eventually understand bases of some actions that undergrads usually do. Although here and there, some problems are still left unanswered.
In the first parts of the narration, you would easily find it amusing. How can you not? A middle-aged woman being an undergraduate student and struggling to be one of them is like our mom becoming our classmate. How she tried to relate to her peers, how she had to learn what expressions are in trend, and finding out that skipping classes is a ticket to acceptance are just small parts of daily struggles she had to resolve.
Some facts are probably not fresh, like stereotypes of undergraduate lives that are often associated with freedom, nakedness, and independence. There are also some new edges that gives new insights, especially one chapter about confessions from some international students on American undergraduate lifestyle and education.
We would be incognizant of our own culture until we are able to see from other cultures’ purview. In other words, it’s a self-enriching experience to read Nathan’s adventures. Thoroughly researched inside-out, and written by the expert, I agree that this book gives us a new understanding about American education life.
Technorati Tags: anthropology, Rebekah Nathan, undergraduate, students, undergrads, woman, classes, culture
Topics: Non-fiction | No Comments »
Salem’s Lot
By Reza | May 9, 2007
Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot
Salem’s lot takes place in a small rural town called Jerusalem’s Lot in Maine. The arrival of a writer Ben Mears is coincided with the arrival of two people. I’ll stop beating around the bush and just say it, the other two persons are the bad guys, they’re vampires. As people start disappearing and acting strangely, a group of people finally realize what’s going on (including the aforementioned writer). They now have to stop the vampire threat before everyone in town becomes a vampire…
This book makes a very interesting and engrossing read. It’s hard to put down. You want to know what happens next. You really want the good guys to win. Mr King is not shy about killing likeable characters (unlike most TV/movies), adding to the suspense.
This book, like a lot of his work has also been adapted to various mini series. The latest is on 2004 by the TNT network (wikipedia link. WARNING: Spoilers). Albeit with a lot of changes and not in a good way.
Was it scary? Yes… Perhaps not as scary as some of his other work. Pet Sematary has been said to be one of his scariest, and ‘It’ gives me the creeps. I guess the fact that vampires are the main villains gives you some assurance. Your subconcious says “Relax, there’s no such thing as a vampire”. Of course, that being said it’s quite a scary book.
My suggestions: Read it in the daytime. And skip over the scary part :).
Technorati Tags: Stephen King, horror, characters, vampires, TNT, scary
Topics: Horror | No Comments »
