Thursday, May 31, 2018

2409 : Reading list of 2018 #6 & #7 : Sense of an ending by Julian Barnes

Very few books have left me with a such a strong sense of unease (as the Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes). It’s eerie (not evil), and it hits you hard. Especially in the last 25% of the book.

I do make it a point to read books that I like again. This is one of the few times when I have read the book twice in successive months (March and April).

This has to hands down one of the best books of my life. Haunting is the only way to describe it. A bit like Samantha Harvey’s The Wilderness....just that “Sense of an Ending” is written by a master and it shows.

On a scale of 10 I would rate this book 11. Goes straight into my top 10 book list, maybe even at the top, only if Rushdie and Kundera did not crowd it out so much.

Pp 163 pages of pure literary magic. It’s like reading poetry.

I am going to so far as to say, that if I am dying...I want someone to read this book slowly to me. Thre is a truth here, that is more perverse than the lie.

Overall 11/10 (ha ha !!)

Brings my 2018 reading total to ~ 2610 pages




“I certainly believe we all suffer damage, one way or another. How could we not,except in a world of perfect parents, siblings, neighbours, companions? And then there is the question on which so much depends, of how we react to the damage: whether we admit it or repress it,and how this affects our dealings with others.Some admit the damage, and try to mitigate it;some spend their lives trying to help others who are damaged; and there are those whose main concern is to avoid further damage to themselves, at whatever cost. And those are the ones who are ruthless, and the ones to be careful of.” 
― Julian BarnesThe Sense of an Ending


“I know this much: that there is objective time, but also subjective time, the kind you wear on the inside of your wrist, next to where the pulse lies. And this personal time, which is the true time, is measured in your relationship to memory.” 
― Julian BarnesThe Sense of an Ending



Tuesday, May 01, 2018

2408 : When genius failed (Amy Winehouse @ North Sea Jazz festival)

Amy Winehouse singing “What is it about men” @ the North Sea Jazz festival is so divine, its almost evil !!

I am truly obsessed with this song in the past couple of weeks. The vocal are sublime, they are melluflous; the jazz is so melancholic...and the lyrics are simply great poetry.

I can never get over the fated fact that Amy would rhyme words using the tongue and its twirls. If there are days, when I feel depressed about “death”, its only during times like this - when I have glimpsed what it is be floating in God’s own dream.

Amy is dead, long live Amy....

Lyrics


Understand, once he was a family man
So surely I would never, ever go through it first hand
Emulate all the shit my mother hated
I can't help but demonstrate my Freudian fate
My alibi for taking your guy
History repeats itself, it fails to die
And animal aggression is my downfall
I don't care 'bout what you got, I want it all
It's bricked up in my head, it's shoved under my bed
And I question myself again, "What is it about men?"
My destructive side has grown a mile wide
And I question myself again, "What is it about men? What is it about men?"
I'm nurturing, I just wanna do my thing
And I'll take the wrong man as naturally as I sing
And I'll save my tears for uncovering my fears
Our behavioral patters that stick over the years
'Cause it's bricked up in my head, it's shoved under my bed
And I question myself again, "What is it about men?"
Now my destructive side has grown a mile wide
And I question myself again, "What is it about men?"
Ooh, it's bricked up in my head and it's shoved under my bed
And I question myself again, "Now what is it about men?"
My destructive side has grown a mile wide
And I question myself again, "What is it about men? What is it about men?"