u m a m i

Two Jolly Good Reads

Both are by the same author. Instead of reading the mathematics modelling guide I bought at the same bookstore (Popular), I tore through these two mystery novels overnight. 

(Image from goodreads site)

I started with The Devotion of Suspect X, because this was the book that made him famous as a thriller/suspense/whodunnit writer. The crime happens early in the book, and we get to know who is the culprit, but it's what follows that grips the reader. Don't start, you won't be able to stop.

(Image from Janet Reid website)

Like the first book, this story is set in Tokyo. There is also a murder, and we kind of know who is the murderer, so we just have to figure it out. The bookstores try to sell  him as a Japanese Stieg Larsson which it isn't really, not even 10% of, he's more like Agatha Christie actually; nevertheless just enjoy it as a quick and satisfying read.

be movement

Last Saturday I was at United Square. At the fountain deck basement, I bought some clothes from a temporary stall run by two sisters; the two ladies were very warm and friendly and we soon got chatting comfortably. One of them, Mdm Cindy Ng, told me that her daughter is launching a new bookazine in November, and kindly gave me a copy.

be movement is a bookazine, I am not sure what that means but holding it, it feels as solid as a book and the content is made up of articles written in a magazine style, by people as diverse as entrepreneurs, musicians and reporters, and published at regular intervals like, well, magazines. 

The stories are not your typical magazine fluff, but are thoughtful and well written, many from a first-person narrative or in interview format. They inspire, affirm, or challenge one's self, yet without being preachy or earnest. Cindy was very excited to inform me that Noam Chomsky contributed an article, but that was actually not something positive for me, because Noam Chomsky writes serious books that my husband reads and then regurgitates to me in order to "internalise" them. Fortunately,  I am happy to report that the article, with the ponderous title of "Academic Freedom and the Corporatization of Universities", was quite readable even for someone with my low attention span. I have not finished reading the entire thing, but have been dipping into it in between appointments or daily tasks; it is better this way, the stories are best savoured one at a time.

be movement is magazine that I would not hesitate to reach out for the next time I see it in a bookstore. Its entire worthy content is also printed on lovely, thick paper, with nice fonts and stunning photography.  The social enterprise spirit behind it is, certainly, very admirable too.

Another feature to note- there are no advertisements, which sounds incredibly brave to me. It retails in Singapore for $18.90.  Alternatively, mobile subscriptions are a reasonable  at USD 5.99 per issue, or USD 19.99 for a year's membership (4 issues). It is not usual to see projects like this in Singapore, do support it if you can.

The Calligrapher's Daughter by Eugenia Kim

                                                            (Picture taken from Macmillan web site)

I picked this book up at Popular bookstore because I was attracted by the beautiful cover. Later I learnt that the writer's mother drew the picture. Although a work of fiction, the novel draws heavily on the author's own family history and anecdotes, so, at times, I felt like I was reading a semi-autobiography.

The story starts in 1915, during the sunset of Korea's last dynasty and spans a turbulent thirty years of Japanese occupation and Second World War. Najin Han the young girl wishes to be educated, her father is old-fashioned and firmly opposes the notion. Fortunately her mother is progressive and she helps  Najin to eventually achieve her aims. Najin Han then falls in love,  marries and the couple make plans to start a new life in in America. One day before she was to sail, the Japanese government denies her a passport and she is separated from her husband for nearly twenty years.

When I read the synopsis, I put the book back on the shelf. It sounded like another Joy Luck Club victimised- female weep-fest. Yet, the cover called out to me, it has such a dreamlike quality. I flipped a random page and read a few paragraphs. The prose is richly detailed yet clean, the style very engaging, so it passed my readibility test. Weeks passed before I picked it up again.

Once I started, I couldn't stop. It is a riveting novel. As we already know what is going to happen, it remains for the reader to simply immerse one's self in the characters' lives and their environment.  It is not everyday we get a glimpse of life in an early 20th-century aristocratic Korean family, a staunchly Christian one at that; I was fascinated straightaway. There  are so many other elements and themes which fleshes our the story so sumptuously: court intrigue, lots of bloodshed, much suffering and deprivations as the family declines in tandem during this most tumultous period of Korea's history, as well as romance, some chaste, some almost burlesque.

Being a novel written in the 21st century, we moved through the thirty odd years of the story at a fast clip. This is good too, because there are many highly dramatic events, some quite implausible if the plot sagged and we were given pause to question them. The cast of characters is not small, many drawn with empathy, but some are quite caricatured. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this book immensely and found myself thinking about it weeks later. Prior to this, I knew little about Korea's past; this novel provided for me, an intimate account of modern Korean history plus some insights into the country's culture and traditions.