Of love and other demons - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Another delayed review... Sigh getting lazy at this. 

I quite like the prose in the book and the plot was relatively enticing- priests, a mysterious girl, demons, exorcism, mysticism.... 

It did get a little creepy at some parts of the book yet there's a hint of romanticism as well, albeit a strange one.

The book opened with a foreword by the author himself, recounting a visit he made to the burial crypts of the convent of Santa Clara. Tombs were being hacked and remains were to be transferred to a common grave. He was taken aback by one of the crypts, when upon hacking, a stream of vibrant copper hair flowed out. The hair measured more than 22 meters long and belonged to a girl named Sierva Maria de Todos Los Angeles. This Sierva Maria became the title character of the book. 

Sierva was a beautiful, enchanting girl who was bitten by a dog who was later found to carry the rabies virus.

After being seen by a multitude of physicians, mystic healers, pharmacists, she was suspected to be demon-possessed. This brought the intervention of the bishop and his assistant (for lack of a better word), Father Cayetano Delaura, a learned man who loved books. Sierva Maria was brought to the convent of Santa Clara and locked up in a cell, to await her exorcism. Cayetano was tasked to do the job. However, he began to fall for the wiles of Sierva and began to desire her so much that he was ready to give up his priesthood. 

He was constantly tormented by the images of Sierva Maria, eventually he began stealing into her cell and spending time with her reading poetries and in each other's arms. 

We couldn't be quite sure if Sierva Maria was truly possessed or if it was superstitions at work. At one part of the story, her hair coiled like serpents and she spewed green spittle and displayed an insurmountable strength, leading Cayetano to despair at the fact that she truly was a demon. 

Yet he was unable to free himself from her. Cayetano was then banished to a hospital for lepers and never was he able to return to Sierva Maria. Sierva Maria waited in vain for him and eventually died of what I supposed was starvation and sadness. 

On her deathbed, Maria looked radiant and lovely copper hair sprung from her shaved head mysteriously. 

A very strange story but captivating nonetheless. 

There are days when lethargy sets in and you just want to disappear and give up. 

Into thin air - Jon Krakauer

One really shouldn't delay writing a book review because the momentum just gets lost and you tend to forget the story. I thought Krakauer was really brilliant to be able to bring to life the Everest tragedy of 1996. However, one also gets the sense that he is trying a little too hard to over-write his guilt. Krakauer was lambasted by Beck Weathers and Boukreev (?) for not helping the victims and instead stayed in his tent when the tragedy unfolded on the mountains. At several points in the story, Krakauer mentioned how he had helped with tasks such as hacking ice for water, setting up tents and ropes, etc. he also mentioned that he had offered to help Beck Weathers down to camp when he had found him waiting in the miserable cold for Rob. I guess the book was one of the avenues he used to explain his actions. He also seemingly vilified Sandy Pittman, a millionaire socialite mountaineer married to Bob Pittman, the co-founder of MTV. Pittman was on the Scott Fischer's team and was filming the ascent for NBC interactive media. Krakauer mocked the fact that Pittman had brought a ton of filming equipment, an espresso maker, dean and deluca's coffee powder, and chocolate eggs for Easter, etc, which taxed her porter/Sherpas. He added that she had arranged for delivery of fashion magazines to base camp and had her sleeping bag and backpack packed every morning by a Sherpa. I think he did a pretty good job in casting a bad light on Pittman. You can't help but feel a little disgusted at Pittman's whims and demands. In the later part of the story, when things went awry, Krakauer observed that one of the Sherpas (Lopsang?) had been short-roping Pittman to the summit, which implied that she was kinda ferried to the summit instead of getting there through her own efforts. It was because of this that Lopsang was too exhausted to help out Rob hall and the rest of the expedition members when tragedy struck. 

I admit that I really disliked this Pittman character but after reading a little bit more about her on the Internet, the dislike diminished a little, as I agree that perhaps Krakauer had over-dramatized her "Queen-like" behavior. 

It's also really funny that people were being overly-critical of those who died on the mountains, as well as those who survived. Krakauer was critical of Broukeev, who was on Fischer's team as a guide. He claimed hat Broukeev had went ahead of the expedition members when a guide should have stayed close to them and that Broukeev had guided without supplemental oxygen. Krakauer also seemed to imply that competition between Rob Hall and Scott Fischer might have clouded his judgement in pushing for the summit when it was beyond the "deadline" he had set. It seemed that Hall had really wanted Doug, who had previously failed to summit on another expedition with Hall, to make it to the summit this time round. The decision eventually caused both of their lives. 

The amazing part of the story was that of Beck Weathers. He was left to die when the rescue team decided that his chance of survival was very low and hence, not worth the risk involved in ferrying him back to camp. Weathers was left exposed in the freezing weather overnight and suffered severe frostbite in his fingers and nose. He was unconscious for 12 hours when a light just went on in his mind, and he awoke. With one eye blind, he was able to navigate safely to camp and even there, no one thought he would make it through the night but he did. He was a miracle. 

I really hated the part when Rob Hall was trapped and no one was able to rescue him because of the severe weather. Yet, it was beautiful at the same time that he was able to talk to his wife before he died and that his words were not that of a dying or fearful man. His parting words were: "I love you. Sleep well, my sweetheart. Don't worry too much."

All in all, I really liked this book and I am truly amazed at how detailed the narration was although one can't be 100% sure of its accuracy. 

  

Relationships

I've been wanting to start a spiritual journal since God knows when and yet, it's almost coming to the end of the year, and I've not done anything. The power of procrastination. Sigh. 

Things have been a little strange these days and I'm starting to believe what our mentor said about spiritual warfare. I've never been truly convinced about the spiritual realm and believed that it's mostly man's doing or evil nature that causes chaos. I guess sometimes you just have to believe that these things exist, that sometimes our flesh is weak, and we can't fight against the thoughts the evil one tries to plant in our minds to cause division. 

I've not been praying much nor have I been reflecting on the way things are now. A lot of discord has been sown in our cell group and it's weird, one by one people start dropping out like flies. It's been one incident after another. At the end of the day, I think, man's downfall is his pride. I admit that I've too much of it and always remain the one unwilling to back down from a fight. If only, I've such endurance for other things in life... anyway, I'm determined not to let things affect the group. 

In other realms, work has not been great. I'm feeling a sense of lethargy and wonder where I'm getting to. I absolutely abhor the secretariat work that I've been tasked to. Relationship wise at work hasn't been all roses as well. Difficult times.