Winter reading

If you are in a mood for reading during Christmas holidays then here are my "Winter" suggestions.

Smilla's Sense of Snow, I have already talked about this book here. The story is not without bumps. However, you  will plunge into silence masterfully created by Hoeg, you will perceive snow as a special kind of silence, you will fall in love with snow, Winter and Smilla.

The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel

You may find my impressions about the book  here. Do you like frightful and bewitching mystery? Like a hypnotic melody of fakir’s flute? Here is your book. Why did I chose the book? The main protagonist is called Vida Winter.

Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life Why Coco Chanel? Because according to the color analysis Coco Chanel belongs to Winter type (color analysis is the process of determining the colors that best suit an individual's natural coloring. There are a wide variety of approaches to analyzing personal coloring. The most well-known is "seasonal" color analysis, which places individual coloring into four general categories: Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn.)

Hans Christian Andersen "The Snow Queen"

We are accustomed to the fact that in fairy tales it is usually knights who save princesses. 

Opposite happens such as in the tale called "Snow Queen" by Hans Christian Andersen. Here Kay represents death. The broken pieces of the magic glass lulled him. He likes regular geometric shapes in which there is no life, he finds roses ugly, his heart grows cold. 

Gerda is love itself , she goes unarmed around the world to save Kay.

Every person has Kay and Gerda inside himself/herself. The question is "Who is stronger?"

"But can you give little Gerda nothing to take which will endue her with power over the whole?", asked 

the Lapland Reindeer the witch.

"I can give her no more power than what she has already. Don't you see how great it is? Don't you see how

men and animals are forced to serve her; how well she gets through the world barefoot? 

She must not hear of her power from us; that power lies in her heart, because she is a sweet and innocent

child! If she cannot get to the Snow Queen by herself, and rid little Kay of the glass, we cannot help her", the witch replied.

As I said earlier we have both Kay and Gerda inside ourselves. Often when we see a worm-eaten apple we prefer to it a smooth, refined, full of insecticide fruit from the supermarket. Remember our pathologic fear of microbes, the French regular gardens etc? In fact, we have a lot from Kay.

Is your Gerda strong enough? Mine is hesitant and fragile. 

I wish your Gerda always saves your Kay. This beautiful fairy tale will help you.:)

Gabriel Garcia Marquez "Love in the time of cholera"

Where did the summer go? Do you happen to know?

"Love in the Time of Cholera" is one of the best I've read this summer. The plot is reminiscent of the Great Gatsby. The formula is simple: (He) Florentino Ariza is poor. Fermina Daza, the love of his life, marries the most enviable groom of the city, a Doctor, Juvenal Urbino.

If the Great Gatsby reaches his dream in American way, that is, he tries to become richer than the husband of his dream-woman, Florentino Ariza walks to his goal in Colombian way. What is this Colombian way? You will learn if you read the brilliant Marquez.

Symptoms of love are similar to the symptoms of cholera and it is easy to take one for the other, especially in the beginning. Why cholera and love go through the novel as a dotted line? I did not dive into deep meditation on this. Wikipedia explains it well (Love as an emotional and physical disease). Maybe Fermina Daza wrongly diagnosed her feelings when marrying the Doctor. Two men are antipodes - one is the rational, the most respected man, an active struggler against cholera in his hometown, the other one is a knight of love, far from being “comme il faut” though.

The charming part of the novel is Colombia, sweltering, humid and dangerous country where mules wander through the mountain passes, malicious parrots hide in huge trees and old steamers creep on the rivers hiding lovers under the cholera flag.

Kohle Yohannan "VALENTINA American Couture and the Cult of Celebrity"

"No matter in what milieu, a woman should never look clumsy. When she is working, even in the kitchen, she must be dressed in what is suited just for this, created just for this. It can have as much chic, on its own terms, as what she wears to dinner - and she should feel just as gay and charming in it. The woman who imagines she can become chic suddenly at six o'clock by getting all dressed up for the evening- to this I say no. Chic is something that must be with her all day, all the time. It does not matter how frugal her wardrobe is, if it is planned, if everything in it expresses a reality of what her life is, and its occupations, then she will never look clumsy. This is the only elegance." 

Valentina

"Stepping out of limousine in front of a bustling Manhattan supper club one evening in the 1940s, Valentina and George Schlee approached the cordoned-off front door with Noel Coward, Marlene Dietrich, John Galliher, and Clifton Webb in tow, filing past a gathering group of tourists who had stopped to catch a glimpse of the glamorous nightspot and equally glamorous clientele. Visibly stymied, a child in the crowd pointed and giggled at what must have been one of Valentina's more outlandish getups - a gaffe that her well-meaning, but embarrassed mother attempted to back pedal away from by saying approvingly that no doubt the lovely lady was "dressed for theater"

Bemused, Valentina stopped, then turned dramatically to face the on-looking crowd, and replied, with a bow,

"Madam, I am theater..."

With this, she raised one carefully groomed eyebrow, then turned back to the charmed laughter of her companions and the now-applauding crowd and disappeared into the club."

Valentina Sanina  Schlee and her husband, George Schlee, Russian émigrés, moved to New York in 1920s. Valentina opened up an atelier and later a high couture house, which became very successful. Valentina dressed the preeminent women of style of her day. Harold Koda noted rightly that Valentina understood the conflicting desires of women to stand out, while appearing to blend in.

She constructed a lot of outfits based on nuns' images: "I thought them the most beautiful women I had ever seen. The memory has remained to color everything I have ever done..."

Agatha Christie "An Autobiography"

Agatha Christie talks as if she embroiders - she picks up thoroughly a thread, sometimes adorning her work by pearls of wisdom.
 

I found interesting her thoughts about women.  
Agatha Christie says that with the passage of time the situation of women has definitely changed for the worse. Women behaved foolishly - they began to yell, they were allowed to operate on an equal basis with men. Men  jumped gladly at the idea. Why to defend  wives? What's wrong if she would defend herself? If she wants it, she is welcome!

Agatha finds extremely frustrating that at the beginning women declared themselves wisely as the weaker sex, now they are caught up in a situation of primitive women  working all day in the fields, marching for miles in search of camel thorns suitable for fuel. Poor women marched with heavy household goods on their heads, while their brilliant males pranced proudly in front, free of baggage except deadly weapons to protect their women.

You have to do justice to the women of the Victorian era, Agatha says. Women of that epoque kept men in such order. Fragile, delicate, sensitive, Victorian's women were constantly in need of protection and care. Were they humiliated, crushed or had a slave lifestyle? The memories of Agatha Christie tell her something different. All friends of her  Grandma were very joyful, stubborn in their desires, self-willed, extremely well-read and well-informed about everything, they achieved success in all endeavors. They  admired incredibly their men. In daily life, women were doing everything they wanted, while pretending to fully recognize the superiority of men so that  their husbands do not lose face.

What else did I find interesting in the biography of Agatha? A lot of things. Her descriptions of how they dressed, of course. Her sartorial problems with a bathing suit and her collar a la Peter Pan. Glimpses of post-Victorian upbringing, such as Agatha's dialog with her Nanny:

- Remember, the Queen of Spain has no legs.

- And what does she have, Nanny?

- Limbs, my dear. You have to call them like that , hands and legs are limbs.

As noted rightly by Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, her autobiography is"the history of a unique upbringing in a time long gone. It’s a portrait of a childhood and young womanhood that vanished with World War I.”

I liked very much Agatha's principle of not coming back to the places that are associated with very special memories. Never go back to the places where you were happy. As long as you do not do that, everything remains alive in your memory. If you find yourself there again, everything will not be the same and it will destroy your miracle.

I remembered Agatha's dialogue with a lady in the train.

"- Honey, - the lady said - never give in to the stomach. If there is something wrong, tell yourself: "Who is the boss here - me or my stomach?"

- But what can you do with it, really?

- Any stomach can be re-educated. Little by little. No matter what it is for. For example, I have endured badly eggs. Or I got quite ill from toasts with cheese. I started with a coffee spoon of soft-boiled eggs two or three times a week, then cooked them a little longer, and so on. And now I can eat as many eggs as I want. Same with toas

If you like descriptions of traveling you will find curious things on how people traveled hundred years ago, descriptions of Isfahan, Baghdad, Baku and many other places that Agatha saw. 

It is a good summer reading.

Agatha Christie and the collar a la Peter Pan

Milorad Pavic "The Inner Side of the Wind, or The Novel of Hero and Leander"

Do you like paintings by Marc Chagall?

Milorad Pavic is Marc Chagall in words. Both are geniuses.

The Inner Side of the Wind, or The Novel of Hero and Leander:

"...in dreams there is no past tense. Everything there reminds of something not experienced yet, some strange tomorrow, which started in advance. It reminds a down payment, taken from a future life, a future that happens thanks to the fact that the sleeper (isolated in the future tense) avoided the inevitable 'now'" 

"The future has one big advantage: in reality it looks always as you did not imagine it."


Last Love in Constantinople, A Tarot novel for divination:


 "You people do not know how to measure your days. You only measure their length and say that the day lasts 24 hours. And your days have sometimes more depth than length and this depth can be up to a month or even a year of the length of days."

Barbara De Angelis "Secrets About Life Every Woman Should Know: Ten Principles for Total Emotional and Spiritual Fulfillment "

If you find Kastaneda too dramatic and you think the methods he offers are not applicable to your busy life, you may try Barbara de Angelis "Secrets About Life Every Woman Should Know". 

It is Kastaneda or Hawaiian shamans packed and explained to modern women who do not want to be bothered with extravagances such as Daoism, I mean those many women who have usual life problems like a broken heart, children, job etc.

The book is a bit long - Barbara belongs to a "chewing" type. Maybe being long and sentimental is something typical for an American. I can't judge, but I have this impression. Elizabeth Gilbert is also a "chewing" type. Sometimes I think American editors ask their authors to bring bricks with no less than 500 000 words, so the authors have to chew. Why shorter novels are not in fashion? Why not to announce, just like in Vogue - "This year is the year of short stories, mini is back again"! Have you noticed how heavy children books became?

Back to Barbara. In fact, being a "chewing" type is being analytical. I, unfortunately, also belong to this type. Instead of writing something creative like "Brigitte Jones" and make people smile, a "chewing" type would rather chew and provide people with an "understanding".

Did you know that love can be explained? Barbara gives one of THE BEST explanations of love, no sarcasm here. In fact if you have no money and time to fly to India's ashrams or you do not want to pay psychologist's fees, the cheapest and, in my opinion, the best solution, is Barbara's book. She walks you through her life, she is very sincere and very helpful.

Diana Vreeland "DV"

Many books about fashion history are boring.
They are dead statements of facts like old encyclopedias.  Do not you think so?

To learn about 20th century's fashion history in the least boring way is to read Diana Vreeland's autobiography. 

What an inspiring life!

It is an autobiography above all. However her life was connected so closely to style and beauty that you also learn a lot about fashion and style. She starts with Diyagilev, she speaks a little bit about Queen Mary and the royal family, few paragraphs about Coco Chanel, few pages on Japan, one chapter about colors and a lot about France and US. She met a lot of interesting people and she makes you look at them from a different angle. 

She shares her passion for beauty and teaches  you not to be afraid of being different.

Here are few quotes from the book.

"Conde Nast was a very extraordinary man, of such a standard. He had a vision. He decided to raise the commercial standards of the American woman. Why, he decided, shouldn't they have the best-looking clothes? He gave them Vogue. The best looking houses? House & Garden. And don't forget Vanity Fair! Why, Conde decided shouldn't American women know about writers, entertainers, painters - that Picasso was painting extraordinary paintings, that a man named Proust was writing an extraordinary book? Why shouldn't they know... about Josephine Baker?"

 or

"Most people haven't got a point of view; they need to have it given to them - and what's more, they expect it from you. I had this most curious thing happen - it must have been about 1966 or'67. I published this big fashion slogan: THIS IS THE YEAR OF DO-IT-YOURSELF.

Ameera Al Hakawati "Desperate in Dubai"

I have already talked about women in Turkey of 16th century (harem), French queen and Russian empressof 18th century, Chinese women of 19th century, Mexican women at the turn of 20th century and many others. Today is Dubai of the 21st century.

My friend, who has been working in Dubai for several years, wanted to write a post about living and working in Dubai. She kept saying: "Dubai is a vicious city, the world of double standards." After some time, she advised the book "Desperate in Dubai" by Ameera Al Hakawati saying that the book conveys the mood. 

I have been several times in the city, unreal, like a mirage in deserts, where the smell of money is felt like anywhere else, and some of my unspoken assumptions were found in the book. This story  will open slightly  abayas'  veil.

The main characters of the book are four women: The Lady Luxe, the daughter of a powerful man (it was her line in the novel that captured me the most - Lady Luxe is rebellious, playing with death and leading a double play), Leila, a girl from Lebanon, lonely and desperate for a rich husband, Nadia, a devoted wife, who left her work in London for the sake of her husband's career in Dubai and an Indian girl from the UK, who had come to work in Dubai to forget her past.

It is the same old story of women's search for happiness, with one exception - the play takes place in the United Arab Emirates. Brands of clothing, cosmetics, and cars are constantly mentioned. It is overwhelming, but it is also an integral part of life in Dubai. In my opinion the book presents well the atmosphere of Dubai.

If you are curious to know what kind of a mystery "shadows of a man" hide, read the book.

"Snow Flower and the Secret fan" Lisa See

This story concerns the events that took place in 19th century in China, during that time when daughters were considered "worthless branches on the family tree. They drained the family resources, they were raised by one family for another". Perhaps in some places of the world  it is still the case.

Lily is one of the worthless branches from a poor family. When she turns six her family invites a diviner to fix the date for Lily's foot binding. The diviner studies Lily's horoscope and discovers that she is not an ordinary girl. The diviner confers with a matchmaker, they both examine the girl and announce that Lily has a great potential of making a woman "carrier", i.e. marrying a man from the wealthiest family in their county, provided Lily's feet are bound properly, of course.

The matchmaker proposes that Lily has also a laotong.

"I believe your daughter might also be eligible for a laotong relationship" 

I knew the words and what they meant. A laotong relationship was completely different from a sworn sisterhood. It involved two girls from different villages and lasted their entire lives, while a sworn sisterhood was made up of several girls and dissolved at marriage."

When Lily turns seven she goes through the foot binding process and when the agonizing part of it is finished, the matchmaker comes and announces she found a loatong for Lily whose name  is Snow Flower.

"Lily and Snow Flower are of identical height, of equal beauty, and most important, their feet were bound on the same day. Snow Flower's great-grandfather was a jinshi scholar, so social and economic standings are not matched"

The matchmaker says that regardless of the difference between two families, Snow Flower's parents did not oppose to laotong relationship between the girls. The relationship will be beneficial for Lily, who was ideal in many ways but needed a refinement to enter a higher household. The matchmaker gives a fan to Lily where it is written in Nu Shu (secret women's writing):

"I understand there is a girl of good character and women's learning in your home. You and I are of the same year and the same day. Could we not be sames together?" 

From that day Lily and Snow Flower's laotong relationship started and lasted all their lives. What happen to the girls afterwards? Find it for yourselves.

Romain Gary "Promise at Dawn"

I have long been thinking to have a section dedicated to mothers. Here is the chance to open it. 

This winter, I saw a play based on the book by Romain Gary "Promise at Dawn", in which one French talented actor played Romain Gary and his mother at the same time. It is a poignant story. We laughed and cried. Romain Gary's mother is something. She is eccentric and her boundless love for her son is even despotic.

She, in spite of poverty and exile status (Romen Gary and his mother were immigrants from Lithuania), filled him with knowledge that he would become the ambassador of France, a famous writer, a hero and will dress in London! From his childhood she would proclaim her "predictions " with aplomb and no hesitation tete a tete and often in front of people . What struck me most is how parents' messages direct lives of children. As his mother predicted Romain Gary did become a world-famous writer, the Consul General of France, member of the Resistance, a Knight of the Legion of Honor. He even dressed in London, though he hated English cut. He just had no choice. 

The dose of his mother's love surpassed the norm, it was always present in his life, even after her death, it hid him from death in the war and rose him to the incredible heights in life.

Parents' messages is an incredible phenomena. How strongly we always react to the words of our parents, even as adults, even if separated by thousands of miles, even if not seeing each other for decades.  Who are we? What is our achievement in life and what is the result of what our parents have told us?

"French Lieutenant's Woman" John Fowles

It is genius!!!

Now let’s talk.

There are stories that have to be read slowly with breaks, sometimes with a glass of wine. "French Lieutenant's Woman" by Fowles is one of them. I relished the story, enjoyed the erudition and generosity of the author. The novel was a revelation. It is not a fast food, so it deserves expensive surroundings and time.

The rhythm of the narrative coincides with the pace of the middle of 19th century' life. You feel like walking slowly in the woods, examining in detail all around, sometimes you sit down on a stump and your eyes catch details of which, if not Fowles, you would not have thought. In short, it is not an action story.

The author is very visible, he constantly interferes, comments, sometimes goes into a totally different direction. And I like what he does, because if he stays behind, subtle and invisible like Chekhov in his plays, a superficial reader (like me) will not think it through.

I liked that Victorian England was spoon-fed to me. This is not a novel; it is above all a great guide on Victorian England. Fowles touches all aspects of history: religion, science, sanctimonious morality, customs and traditions of all sections. The text is smart and it can be divided into many citations. As a stylist I found Fowles’s comments on clothes and fashion marvelous. The characters are described very well, and it was through them Fowles was able to convey the mood of the époque and the changes occurring during that time. Despite the slow pace and thoroughness, Fowles surprises by twists in the plot.

Now, about Sarah, the main character. At first I thought it would be another version of Anna Karenina, Lady Macbeth, or the main character of the Awakening by Kate Chopin. Sarah immediately fit into the famous list of ostracized women. I was looking forward to read the "English" version of events, however I got surprised...

Part 2 "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy

Last post was about Sonya from "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy. 


The central images of the novel are two antipodes, Maria Bolkonsky and Natasha Rostova. 

Look how far their destinies stand at the beginning! Natasha is charming, tender and young. She is trained to sing, dance and ride horses. Deprived of parental tyranny, she enjoys a great success in the high society, falls in love and is being loved. In one word Natasha looks like a beautiful white flower that grew up under the warm sun. Princess Mary is actually imprisoned in a provincial estate, she is neither beautiful nor graceful and she does not have skills to charm. If people are interested in her, it is because the old maid is one of the richest Russian brides. Her father is a jealous tyrant who for some reason decided that his daughter should understand geometry. (You, modern women, tell me, how many times the ability to solve problems on parallelograms helped you in life?) The only joy that she has is to write letters to her friends, however even her letters are being checked sometimes by the father. Mary dreams of becoming friends with her sister in law; however the latter dies tragically during a difficult childbirth. Mary renounces the dream of leaving home and becoming a wanderer - she is sorry for her old father and the little orphan, her nephew, little Nicholas.

Later, the lines of two girls begin to converge imperceptibly and gradually. At the ball, the young widower, Mary’s brother, Prince Andrew, at the request of his friend, Pierre Bezukhov, invites a debutante, Natasha Rostova, to dance. Here are few paragraphs that describe the meeting of Natasha and Andrew.

The chapter of the book, which describes Natasha’s first ball, is one of the most popular among women. I love it!  

“Prince Andrew liked dancing, and wishing to escape as quickly as possible from the political and clever talk which everyone addressed to him, wishing also to break up the circle of restraint he disliked, caused by the Emperor's presence, he danced, and had chosen Natasha because Pierre pointed her out to him and because she was the first pretty girl who caught his eye; but scarcely had he embraced that slender supple figure and felt her stirring so close to him and smiling so near him than the wine of her charm rose to his head, and he felt himself revived and rejuvenated when after leaving her he stood breathing deeply and watching the other dancers...

Women characters in "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy

I will just tell that this topic is immense. One can discuss the "overripe” bride, Julie Karagina, and self-seeking Mademoiselle Bourienne, and the unfortunate fate of Sonya.

By the way, in my childhood I was very sympathetic to Sonya: fate cheated her – she was left without parents at an early age, grew up as a dependent, a dowry-less girl. Sonya put tremendous efforts to be worthy of her beloved cousin, Count Nicholas Rostov, and in the end, due to the difficult situation of the family, was forced to cancel the engagement and resign from the prospects to become his wife. She had nowhere to go, so from the time of Nicholas's marriage she lived with his family.  

You may think what you like of it, but this is not fair! One girl has a mother, and a father, and brothers, and sisters, and success in  society, and at least some sort of a dowry, and the title of Countess, and the other one has nothing. Both girls (Natasha and Sonya) were raised by the same family.

Tolstoy describes her fate in the dialog between Natasha and Countess Mary:

"You know," said Natasha, "you have read the Gospels a great deal- there is a passage in them that just fits Sonya."

"What?" asked Countess Mary, surprised.

"To him that hath shall be given, and from him that hath not shall be taken away.' You remember? She is one that hath not; why, I don't know. Perhaps she lacks egotism, I don't know, but from her is taken away, and everything has been taken away. Sometimes I am dreadfully sorry for her. Formerly I very much wanted Nicholas to marry her, but I always had a sort of presentiment that it would not come off. She is a sterile flower, you know- like some strawberry blossoms. Sometimes I am sorry for her, and sometimes I think she doesn't feel it as you or I would."

Though Countess Mary told Natasha that those words in the Gospel must be understood differently, yet looking at Sonya she agreed with Natasha's explanation. It really seemed that Sonya did not feel her position trying, and had grown quite reconciled to her lot as a sterile flower. She seemed to be fond not so much of individuals as of the family as a whole. Like a cat, she had attached herself not to the people but to the home. She waited on the old countess, petted and spoiled the children, was always ready to render small services, for which she had a gift, and all this was unconsciously accepted from her with insufficient gratitude.”

Well, all that is very well said. The Rostovs who raised Sonya were generous and warm people. However, they were not able to give her the same amount of love and energy as they did to Natasha. In fact, you cannot blame them; they could not replace the real parents and should not have to do so. They just raised a “cat”! What could have been done? Do you think Sonya's fate would have been better if she grew up in some Institute for Noble Maidens?...

Actually, it is not Sonya that I wanted to discuss, I wanted to talk about the central women images of the novel, two antipodes: Maria Bolkonskaya and Natasha Rostova and I will talk about them in my next post.