He first came to the Iris one day just before the beginning of the summer season.
I was really excited when I received Hotel Iris from Picador in the mail. I hadn’t requested it, but because I loved The Housekeeper and the Professor so much last year, I knew I would want to read this one. The problem was, though, that I didn’t know what it was about. It has a very different ‘love story’ — one that didn’t appeal to me at all.
Mari is a seventeen year old girl working at the front desk of her mother’s hotel when she meets a middle aged man whose voice and manner intrigue her. As they get to know each other, it leads to a sexual relationship involving SM. It wasn’t extremely graphic, but still just not my cup of tea nonetheless.
I still enjoy Ogawa’s writing style and the translation was great, but I just didn’t like the subject matter so unfortunately I was extremely disappointed. However, I’d still read another Ogawa novel — I just would learn more about the storyline first.
Thousand Cranes by Yasunari Kawabata, was first translated into English in 1958. Kawabata won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968, and he died in 1972.
I found Thousand Cranes interesting, but a little hard to follow. Two of Kikuji Mitani’s father’s mistresses insert themselves into Kikuji’s life. He falls for one of them, and later her daughter. A tea ceremony is central to the story, but it’s meaning is a little lost on this Westerner. It’s a short novel, but one I’m afraid I just didn’t ‘get.’
I also own Kawabata’s Snow Country, which I still plan on reading at some point, but unfortunately I didn’t find Thousand Cranes to be all that exciting.
1949-1952, 1958 for the English translation, 147 pp.
‘Math has proven the existence of God, because it is absolute and without contradiction; but the devil must exist as well, because we cannot prove it.’
Absolutely wonderful — I loved this book!!
Have you seen the movie 50 First Dates? It’s one of my favorite movies, and a very similar situation occurs in this book. A mathematics professor has only 80 minutes of short term memory due to a car accident, but he remembers everything clear as a bell that happened before his head injury. He continues to solve mathematical proofs and has an uncanny ability to know exactly where the North Star is in the sky, even when there’s no visibility. He is kind and has a great love for children. But, he remembers only 80 minutes at a time in the here and now. His sister-in-law lets him live in a cottage next to her main house, and she has hired a ninth housekeeper to cook and clean for the professor.
The housekeeper does her best to please the professor and works around his disability. She tells him about her 10 year old son, and he insists on letting the son come to his cottage after school, even though it’s against the cleaning agency’s rules. The professor writes notes to himself to help remind him of the housekeeper and her son. The boy and the professor both have a love of baseball, and the professor uses this to teach the boy mathematics. Soon a strong bond is formed among the three of them.
There is quite a bit of math in this book, and of course I enjoyed those references tremendously. I have an engineering degree, and mathematics has always been a love of mine. I don’t think you have to know math like I do to enjoy this book, but you will certainly appreciate the beauty of it a bit more if you do.
‘Eternal truths are ultimately invisible, and you won’t find them in material things or natural phenomena, or even in human emotions. Mathematics, however, can illuminate them, can give them expression — in fact, nothing can prevent it from doing so.’
Very highly recommended!!
2003, 2009 for the English translation by Stephen Snyder, 180 pp.
[Disclaimer: This copy was received from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.]
Hans van den Broek and his wife Rachel are living and dealing with post-9/11 New York City. Hans is a banker and originally from the Netherlands, while Rachel is a British attorney. Rachel believes New York has become too unsafe and leaves for London, taking the couple’s son with them.
With his new-found spare time, Hans spends more time playing cricket in the park and meets a Trinidadian named Chuck Ramkissoon. Chuck has some big dreams and schemes involving the sport of cricket and brings Hans along for the ride. The question is whether Ramkissoon’s dealing are on the up and up. Hans begins spending more and more time with Chuck while also travelling back and forth from London so he can see his son.
Some have compared this book to The Great Gatsby, and while it does have a little of that ‘vibe,’ I don’t think the book really merits that comparison. The real question of the book is whether or not Hans is a reliable or an unreliable narrator. If he’s reliable, I don’t think I really got the point of the book. If he’s unreliable, it certainly makes the novel more interesting with all the ramifications of what that might involve. I wasn’t really clued in to the fact that he might be unreliable until I looked at some other reviews of the book.
Discussing and discovering the truth of the reliability of Hans’ narration would really make this novel a good choice for a book group. Too bad I can’t tell you more. Come back and email me if you end up reading the book, I’d like to hear your thoughts!
Zia is the sequel to the Newbery-winning The Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell. If you have read and enjoyed that book, you’ll like Zia as well.
Zia is Karana’s 14 year old niece, who desperately wants to find out what happened to her aunt. Along with her brother, she first heads out alone, but then realizes she will need help from others if she is to find her aunt on the island. Many of you already may know this, but these stories are based on real events. “It is based on the true story of Juana María, the “Lone Woman of San Nicolas,” a Nicoleño Indian marooned for 18 years on San Nicolas Island off the California coast.” (Wikipedia)
This makes both stories so much more fascinating. Of course, it also helps that Scott O’Dell is such an amazing writer. In both books, he writes in first person as the female character. He really does a convincing job of it! I highly recommend both books as well as The Black Pearl, which I read earlier this year. I’d like to read more of O’Dell in the future, so if you can recommend another title, I’d appreciate it.
Ramon Salazar is 16 years old and lives off Baja, California. His father is in the pearl diving business, and Ramon is eager to help him by being a diver. He finds a very expensive pearl that ends up bringing a lot of trouble to his family and community. Or does it?
This was a Newbery Honor book in 1968. I enjoyed the story very much, but it is hard to write a review on a book so short without giving too many details away. It is a brief, but very enjoyable read. Scott O’Dell also wrote Island of the Blue Dolphins, a Newbery Award winner.
"For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil." Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? (1 Peter 3:12-13, ESV)
Thousand Cranes
Hans van den Broek and his wife Rachel are living and dealing with post-9/11 New York City. Hans is a banker and originally from the Netherlands, while Rachel is a British attorney. Rachel believes New York has become too unsafe and leaves for London, taking the couple’s son with them.
Zia is the sequel to the Newbery-winning The Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell. If you have read and enjoyed that book, you’ll like Zia as well.
, a Newbery Award winner.
