If Craziness Had a Name

If craziness had a name,




What would it be?



If love had a face,



How would it be?



Would it be your name,



I see in the wind?



Would it be your voice,



I hear in the waves.



Rejoice, I could not,



Seeking that face in the dark.



Blinded by those tears,



No one could see.



A little stabbing of the heart,



A little sob escaped my lips.



All these you could not feel,



All these you could not hear.



Like them,



You had gone deaf,



Ears frozen in the cold winter night.



Eyes wide shut,



Beneath the moonlit night,



We had missed the millions of twinkling lights.



Under the stars,



We used to lay.



But they had all gone out.



Like me,



They had burnt out.



Like me,



They had fallen like those shooting stars.



A falling star,



Hit the soft, damp earth.



A fallen heart,



Buried,



In the darkest corners of the earth.

Sometimes you need to be fearless...

Time

Haven't gotten much time to read these days. Instead of books, I spend most of my time reading journal articles now... Perhaps I should do article reviews instead of book reviews. Ahh... Sounds like a very exciting plan.....NOT! Currently reading tony parson's new book men from boys. Doesn't seem to be off to a good start. Prefer his older books like my favorite wife .. Anyhow more reviews in June coz it's the school holidays after the 13th! Finally some reprieve from work.

The Great Gatsby

An old classic that I had never gotten round to reading. Didn't quite enjoy Mr Fitzgerald's style of writing, perhaps it is a little too old for my liking. Jay Gatsby, a man of unknown wealth and mystery, lived in large mansion in West Egg, in New York in the 1920s. Lavish parties were synonmous with Gatsby. Nick Carraway, the main narrator of the story, was Gatsby's humble neighbour and across from his modest abode, lived Tom and Daisy Buchanan. The Buchanans were well-off but Buchanan was a sorta has-been and Daisy, was seemingly flighty and possessed a superficial girly charm. 

So the story goes, Tom was seeing another woman behind Daisy and somewhere in West Egg, Gatsby was pining away for Daisy. They had met and fell in love 5 years ago when he was a lieutenant in the US army and was stationed near Daisy's hometown in Louisville. But due to his lack of financial status, Daisy eventually married someone else- Tom. 

During those 5 years, Gatsby tried his utmost to accumulate his wealth so that Daisy could "see" and admire him. Through Nick, Gatsby and Daisy eventually reunited and carried on a secret affair (rather bold dont you think for the 20s?). 

Daisy then invited Gatsby and Nick to her house, in the presence of Tom and her friend, Jordan Baker. During the visit, Daisy flirted openly with Gatsby, incurring Tom's wrath. In the final hotel scene, Daisy proclaimed to Tom that she was leaving him for Gatsby. After Tom started divulging Gatsby's business in the bootlegging industry, Daisy started to waver. Everything went downhill from there. In Gatsby's car, Daisy drove recklessly and killed Tom's mistress, who was married to Wilson. 

Tom, insinuated to Wilson that it was Gatsby behind the wheel. Wilson, in his fury, killed Gatsby and later himself. Although Gatsby's parties always saw hundreds of people, noone came to his funeral, except his father and Nick. Nick tried to find anyone that he could to attend Gatsby's wake but to no avail. Even Daisy was gone. He later found out that the Buchanans had moved away from New York.  

A rather sad story of a man's utter devotion and love for a frivolous girl. A girl, who was portrayed as a "careless" character, and who did not think nor care for the consequences of their actions. In the end, it was the people around them that suffered and cleared up their messes, whilst they continued on their careless ways. I have only pity and sadness for Gatsby, whose only fault was loving the wrong person.

Her Fearful Symmetry-Audrey Niffenegger

Seriously, I can never get this author's last name right! Sheez... Loved Niffenegger's writing to death. As usual, her book starts off a little stale but as the story progresses, you just can't put the book down. I admire her for the novelty and obscurity she brings into her stories. Stories, that you can never imagine or expect. This is a strange story of Elspeth and Edie, twin sisters and Edie's daughters, Julia and Valentina, who were twins too. Elspeth died of leukemia right at the beginning of the story, leaving her lover, Robert, behind.
What happened after is, depending on your beliefs are, incredulous. Elspeth became a spirit, lingering behind in her old apartment, unable to leave. Came Julia and Valentina, one vivacious, loud, and bossy, the other timid and mousy, to take over Elspeth's apartment.

Robert and Valentina, fell in love, shortly after, and despite their age difference. Julia, of course, felt jealous, to have Valentina "leave" her for Robert, the ghost of Elspeth felt the same and started getting ideas, when she realised she has the power to take another's soul away.

The story is strange but hauntingly beautiful. It makes you sad, makes you gape in incredulousness... leaves me despising Elspeth, feeling sad for Valentina and Julia, and then applauding what happens to Elspeth at the end of the story.

Julie and Julia

Finally managed to find some time to do some catch-up reading, in between school assignments and 9-hours of sitting in the office. I have not much to say about this book, just that it is quite an interesting read about a slightly crazed woman, who risks her husband, her cats, her job to cook the 524 recipes in Julia Child's famous book: "Mastering the Art of French Cooking". You have to admire her determination and guts to do that, especially when you have read MtAoFC. Incidentally, I have a copy of MtAoFC and I can tell you that it is no mean feat to cook the dishes in there. I have only done 2 recipes from that book, and both were relatively easy, and thats the reason why I have only done them, and not the rest of the 522 recipes. Everything else is just too darn difficult and time-consuming! And you probably will not be able to find most of the ingredients in Singapore...and I guess the ingredients needed may be a tad expensive as well. So yes, it took a lot for her to manage all 524 recipes in a year, no less (especially when the recipes call for killing lobsters, making aspic with cattles' calves, yikes!).

A bit like Julie, myself, I am the sort that never does finish up projects. I often start something with gusto, but nearing the end of the project, I would start to feel bored and find the need to do something else. Yes, i can name many things I have started learning on a wimp and quit halfway through: French, Japanese, Spanish, piano, knitting, scrapbooking, etc.

Committed- Elizabeth Gilbert

If you had enjoyed Eat Pray Love a little too much, then this book might not be for you. The book is quite a disappointment, with a lesser raw feel to it. It’s more like a social discourse on marriage, while “Eat Pray Love” is more of a memoir, which feels so much more private and "real".
I definitely didn’t enjoy this as much as EPL, and I would classify Committed as more of an educational reading and it does read kinda like someone’s dissertation on the history and culture of marriage. What I found interesting is the description of the Hmong's (a small tribe in Laos) wedding practice, which is very very similar to a typical Chinese wedding in Singapore.
 
For instance, the wedding couple would invite tons of people to their wedding dinner, even people they do not know. These people would give money in a packet to the couple during their wedding dinner, which were then collected in a box. After the dinner was over, the couple would stay up all night to count the money they had received, and document the amounts and from whom the money was from, in a book.
 
This amount would be returned to the person who had given it to them, when it was his/her turn to get married. And this amount would often be more than what they received from this person, taking into account inflation/interest rate.
 
Exactly like our practice.
 
It's kinda funny how a lot of people yearned to get married, when marriage is not necessarily beneficial to them. Most women are still expected to be in charge of the household chores, taking care of the kids, etc. In our moden society, this expectation also comes with the additional stress of having to contribute to the household income, due to so-called EQUALITY of the sexes. So you see, marriage, most often, do not benefit women. Men always get the longer end of the stick. But of course, I am not saying this is always true. I, for one, do not do as much homework or contribute as much to the household income. I guess, I did get the longer end of the stick.