Elantris

 ”Prince Raoden of Arelon awoke early that morning, completely unaware that he had been damned for all eternity.”

As of a few months now, I work at a library. Around january, I was assigned to gather all Fantasy-books – no matter what language - and put them in their own section. This section has now become my little baby, and I have rediscovered the wonderful genre Fantasy. I took it on myself to read Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time-series (which may or may not have had something to do with it being a certain boy’s favourite), but never made it further than halfway into the second book. Some day I might review The Eye of the World. But it made me very intrigued about Brandon Sanderson, the author who took over and is now in the process of finishing Jordan’s series with the help of the notes he left behind when he died in 2007. I saw we had nothing written by Sanderson in my new favourite section and made that a priority when I got to buy ten new books. So along with nine other Fantasy novels, Branson Sanderson’s Elantris made it to the “New books-shelf” at the library. I was the first to borrow it, and for a few days I was like a woman possessed.

The quote above is from the very first sentence, and it sets the mood for the entire book. It is fast-paced, exciting and full of mysteries.
The Shaod has come upon Raoden. Once, it made people into demigods, fit to live in the city of Elantris. Now, it condemns him to an eternal life of pain. To hide the shame of his son’s affliction, the king throws Raoden into Elantris to reside with all other doomed Elantrians. He tells the world that his son had died, and this is what Sarene, Raoden’s intended wife learns when she arrives.
Because of a clause in the marriage contract (for the marriage was arranged of political reasons), Sarene is married and bound to Arelon even though there is no longer any prince to marry. A widow before she was married, she grieves her husband. She grieves the man she had learned som much about through correspondence, and loves him even more when she learns how much his people loved him. She grieves, unaware that Raoden is alive.
Raoden has discovered how filthy, hopeless and desperate the life of the Elantrians is after the Shaod changed. He – with his great love of the people – tries to save the Elantrians.  He tries to clean the filthy city. He tries to produce food. He tries to give their lives a meaning. He tries to make their pain bearable. He tries to fix the magic that is broken. 
Hrathen is the high priest of Fjordell, sent to Arelon to convert its people, or to exterminate them. The Derethi priests has decided that all must bow to Holy Jaddeth or be killed. Now is the time for world domination. Their god is the true god.
The fates of these three people intersect in the tale of Elantris. They all fight for what they believe is true and right. They all try to find a solution to their problems.
Sarene wants to find Raoden. Raoden wants to know why the Shaod changed. Hrathen wants to save the people of Arelon – but from what?

This Fantasy novel stands apart from many others. It has a unique plot and is very original. Many Fantasy-books follow the pattern of:
“Young boy grows up as no one, find out that he is destined for something and that he has to go on a quest for something. He gets help from someone he had never expected to be more than a grandfather/blacksmith/maid/something other mundane and travels the world(or worlds), learning more about himself and picking up companions along the way. He fights the Great Evil and after many journeys and dangerous quests – wins.”
Elantris takes place in Elantris and the city of Kae, just below the walls of Elantris. There is no clear villain. The book is also easily read on many levels. First, it is a thrilling story. Then, below, it is a story about politics, theology and the difficulties of running a country. Hrathens story may seem dull at first, but when you realise the pain he is in, how much he struggles in his faith, how very unsure he is of everything, it becomes clear that he is a very well-written and complex character. He becomes interesting.
The world Sanderson creates in very interesting and I love his use of new and made up words. He does not explain them, bur rather lets the reader figure it out for themselves. Sometimes the pieces of the puzzle comes fast and sometimes you do not understand the word fully until the very end. As English is my second langauge, I loved the way I never really knew if a particularly difficult word was made up by Sanderson, or just one I had not encountered before.
Sanderson writes a very compelling novel and captures the reader with the magic,  his characters, his world, his plot, his language. 

Good? Very intriguing! 7.4 points.

Svindlande höjder

“Han har varit min enda tanke i livet. Om allt annat förgicks och han ensam blev kvar skulle jag fortsätta att existera, och om allt annat fanns kvar och han förintades skulle universum bli främmande och otillgängligt för mig och jag skulle inte anse mig höra dit. [...] Min kärlek till Heathcliff är som den eviga klippgrunden; den är en föga synlig glädjekälla men den är nödvändig. Nelly, jag är Heathcliff. Alltid, alltid är han i mina tankar  – inte till glädje, lika lite som jag alltid är mig själv till glädje, men som en del av mitt eget väsen.”

 

I det fantastiska lilla antikvariatet Lectura på Torpa i Jönköping hittade jag en dag en underbart fin utgåva av Emily Brontës Svindlande höjder. Blå pärm, med text och krusiduller i guld. Den var så klart tvungen att följa med mig hem. Ett par månader senare fick den följa med mig upp till Stockholm, när jag och en vän åkte upp för att fira att vi hade klarat av våra slutprov. Jag minns bussresan tydligt: hur jag satt där och läste den första boken på länge som jag själv hade valt. Det blir så när man går IB. Gick är det ju nu. Svindlande höjder är ju en klassiker, och av en bra anledning. Den grep tag i mig från första stund och släppte aldrig riktigt taget.

Boken är skriven på ett annorlunda sätt. I bokens början ber Mr. Lockwood sin hushållerska Mrs. Dean (Nelly i citatet ovan) att berätta historien om hans nya hyresvärd, Heathcliff. Så det är från Mr. Lockwoods perspektiv vi upplever berättelsen. Genom en blandning av hans egna upplevelser och det Mrs. Dean berättar får vi läsare en uppfattning om vad som har hänt. Det är en berättelse som söker sig tillbaka i tiden för att finna svar, för att förklara Heathcliffs vansinne.
Svindlande höjder handlar om ofattbar, besinningslös, oförklarlig kärlek. Om en kärlekshistoria vars like jag inte varit med om tidigare. Den handlar om Heathcliff, en hittebarn som får ett hem hos familjen Ernshaw. Fosterfadern älskar honom, men hans två nya syskon reagerar på helt motsatta sätt. Hindley – fosterbrodern – avskyr honom omedelbart. Slutar heller aldrig göra det. Fostersystern Catherine, eller Cathy som hon ofta kallas, älskar honom. Den kärlek som utvecklas mellan de två fostersyskonen växer snabbt till något mycket större än vad alla anser passande. Något större än de kan förstå. Hindleys konspirationer resulterar i att Heathcliff lämnar gården och att Cathy gifter sig med en passande man: Edgar Linton. Heathcliffs reaktion när han kommer hem igen och upptäcker detta är minst sagt stark. Hämnd blir hans mål. Och men ändå, trots alla planer, giftermål, barn, maktspel, resor, sjukdomar och pengaproblem så finns deras kärlek alltid där.
Vild, rasande, okontrollerbar.

Svindlande höjder var en fantastisk läsupplevelse. Den passion och intensitet som finns i Cathys och Heathcliffs kärlek är fantastisk att läsa om, och berättarperspektivet är väldigt intressant. Eftersom det är någon som står helt och hållet utanför hela historien så ser man berättelsen i ett annat ljus än om det hade berättats från Cathys, Heathcliffs eller ens Hindleys perspektiv. Att boken gör att så starkt intryck och förmedlar så oerhört mycket känslor – trots att berättaren inte är en av eller ens har någon personlig anknytning till huvudpersonerna – är nog det som gör att den har fastnat.
Emily Brontë skriver fantastiskt bra. Det syns i hennes ordval, hennes meningsbyggnader, handlingens uppbyggnad, sättet hon beskriver miljön.  Hennes karaktärer som är så väldigt, väldigt mänskliga. Hon bygger upp en värld full med karaktärer man kan känna igen sig i och relatera till.
Jag tror att Svindlande höjder är en bok som många missar. En del läser nog den “för att man ska ha läst den” och ger den då inte en riktig chans. Andra buntar automatiskt ihop den med andra klassiker som Krig och fred, Den gamle och havet eller Moby Dick, blir matta av tanken på att läsa den och låter helt enkelt bli. Jag är glad att jag gav den en chans, för det var den väl värd. Så om du vill läsa en riktigt realistisk roman (trots de övernaturliga inslagen), skriven av en riktigt duktig författare så kan jag starkt rekommendera denna.

Bra? Utan tvekan. 8,4 av 10 poäng.

Factotum

“I was a man who thrived on solitude; without it I was like another man without food or water.”

When I turned eighteen, my aunt gave me the most fantastic present: Eighteen books, most of them classics. I had read none of the books before. So of course I was eager to start reading, and I tried my luck with one of her personal favourites, namely Factotum by Charles Bukowski. He was hard to get to know at first, Henry Chinaski. No, that was a lie. It was extremely easy to get to know him because of the very open, frank language the book is written in. Nothing is concealed; nothing is hidden. But he was hard to like, in the beginning. Henry is a very selfish protagonist, and cares little of other things than getting a drink.

To describe the plot of Factotum is either very easy or very hard. Easy, because it can all be summarized in a few sentences. Henry Chinaski is a drunk, who jumps from job to job, without staying in one place for longer than a few weeks. He always does something stupid – like stealing – and ends up losing his job very quickly. His world is centered on nothing but sex and alcohol. He sleeps with many different women, and though the book is not very graphically explicit, it really gives a lot of details. So what happens in the book is basically that Henry is looking for a job, gets a really crappy one, and then looses it. Over and over again. meanwhile, he is constantly drunk, and has sex with – sometimes very random – women.
On the other hand, it is hard to summarise because it is really much more complex than that. But you will have to read it to understand.

I started reading this with extremely high expectations, and it turned out to be somewhat of a letdown. It was nowhere near as good as I had been told, but it still had its charm. I liked that it was written in such an open and honest manner, though it became a bit too much at times. But I think that is part of the point of the book, as it really is a reiteration of how the world really is. The book is honest to a fault. It was very refreshing, and also quite an eye-opener, to see the world from Henry’s point of view, because it is so very different from my own. I could never imagine what it is like to be dirt-poor, hung over, craving more alcohol, having just been dumped and lost my job because I slept in the loo instead of cleaning it. But the book has opened a new perspective for me, and I think that it has broadened my understanding of the world, just a bit.

Good? well… A bit to honest at times. But worth the time! 6 points out of 10.

The Bluest Eye

“Slight as it was, this deformity explained for her many things that would have been otherwise incomprehensible: why she alone of all the children had no nickname; why there were no funny jokes and anecdotes about funny things she had done; why no one ever remarked on her food preferences-no saving of the wing or neck for her- no cooking the peas in a separate pot without rice because she did not like rice; why nobody teased her; why she never felt at home anywhere, or that she belonged anyplace”

After having read Song of Solomon and loving it, I decided that it has to be  Toni Morrison’s writing-style. Therefore, I thought that I would read The Bluest Eye as well, and it is a decision I did not regret. It was, like all of Morrison’s books, a bit hard to get into in the beginning, but really great when I understood what it was about.

The Bluest Eye is a book about many things, foremost a young girl who wishes to have blue eyes, as that would make her beautiful. The book deals with Morrison’s favourite topic, the black heritage, culture and roots. Moreover, it deals with identity, family and self-esteem. At first, we are introduced to Frieda and Claudia MacTeer who are two young african american girls. Their life is not easy as they do not receive much attention from their parents, but they are economically well off. Pecola Breedlove is another girl just like them, but with much less money and a much more troubled home. She moves in with Claudia and Frieda for a while, when the Breedlove family had nowhere to live.
Later, Pecola moves back with her family, and the tragic backgrounds of the people who make up it are revealed.

When reading this, I became very intrigued by the way Morrison dealt with name and identity, and how the two are interconnected. Mrs Breedlove is called just that even by her own children, which is contrasted to her being called Polly by the people she works for. This very distinct difference clearly shows that your name is connected to identity, as she loves her work and thrives there while she does not really like her family at all. Furthermore, Soaphead Church and The Marginot Line are also interesting examples of this.
My favourite thing about Morrison’s books is the fantastic language; the long sentences, the similes, metaphors, anaphoras, asyndetons and most of all the colourful, original and vivid symbols. I loved the marigolds being a symbol for Pecola’s baby.
Tomi Morrison often deals with the topic of cultural heritage, and then especially the black heritage that she is very eager to pass on. In the book, Pecola wishes for blue eyes as she thinks it is the only way for her to be beautiful. She sees whiteness as a sign of beauty. By bringing this up, Morrison shows the prejudice that exists towards people of colour. In the end, when Pecola believes that she has blue eyes even though she does not, she also believes that she is beautiful, showing that confidence is very much connected to appearance.
Toni Morrison’s books are always a joy to read due to the wonderful language, but the book can be difficult to understand for those untrained in the art of understanding symbols, metaphors and reading between the lines. Her books becomes twice as good when one understands the underlying themes the book deals with.

Good? Yes. 8.6 points out of 10.

Outlander

“It was first when I was slipping into the land of dreams as the first rays of sun touched the window that I remembered the weapon which was tucked away above my head and once again wondered what kind of constant threat it was that made a man sleep so cautiously and armed in his wedding chamber.”

Trying to postpone having to write my Internal Assessment in Mathematics, I decided to look through my bookcase and add another book to my blog. As I am the master of procrastinating, it is actually going very well… As I looked upon the rather big amount of books I have accumulated during my 18 years in this world, there was one which really caught my eye.
The book was Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. The reason to it sticking out is not only that it is an extremely fat book, but also that it sort of is one of my favourites. As most avid readers can attest to, it is very hard to pick one favourite when one has read a lot, but there is something special about this book. It does not have an extraordinary plot and it does not really stand out in a crowd,  but there is something about it that makes me come back to it, over and over again. By now, I have read the 850 page-monster four times, and the five other books in the series at least two times each. As they are each about 1000 pages long, it really shows that Gabaldon has a fantastic ability to keep her audience captured, interested and attentive. 

Claire Randall is on a vacation in the Scottish highlands with her husband, when she happens to walk through an ancient stone circle, and is transported almost 200 years back in time. Very confused at first, she quickly manages to gain both friends and enemies when she wanders through the woods, lost and dressed in what at the time she now is in is no more than a nightgown. She meets the Mackenzie clan, and is forced to marry a young man, Jamie Frazer, to avoid being captured by the ruthless Jack Randall, who is one of the ancestors of her other husband, Frank Randall.
Claire tries to escape and go back to the stone circle, but finds herself more and more attracted to Jamie, and finds more and more reasons to stay. Together with Jamie, she fights being accused of being a witch and she also tells Jamie of the great war that is to come. It is a great book, filled with romance and adventure.

The first time I read Outlander, I did so in Swedish, as that is my native language. I was about fourteen at that time. Since then, it has only gotten better, especially now when I read it in the original language. Diana Gabaldon has a way with words which really captures the reader, and makes it almost impossible to put the books down. That is the best thing about the 5717 pages long series of books: if you want to know what happens next, there is a lot to read. That number is without having counted the newest book, An Echo in the Bone, which lies in my mother’s bookcase, waiting for her to read it so I can finally get at it.
Anyhow, the book is really amazing, one of the few I can read over and over again. It is quite raunchy at times, and that was most likely what made it so exciting for me to read when I was fourteen. Now however, I have grown to appreciate it for many more reasons than that; it is beautifully written and has a very intriguing plot. The best thing about the book is how Gabaldon manages to make Claire, Jamie, Murtagh, Column, Geilie and all the other characters come alive. It feels as if I know them all personally; they are my friends.
Claire’s struggle with her conflicting feelings about the two men in her life is portayed in a very believable way, and I am amazed each time about how very REAL the characters seem to be. What perhaps is the most impressive thing about Outlander is the extreme attention Gabaldon has to facts, it is as if every little event in the book is connected to history, and it is all very, very well researched. I envy Gabaldon her patience to do all that research, I would never have the energy. But the result is a book that is so well written that it feels as though it is taken directly from history, not a single thing in it feel fake or exaggerated. It is all in the small details, like the small coins Hugh Munro carries, and the gaelic names for everything. With this book, I fell in love with gaelic, and would love to learn it some time, or meet someone who knows it. How romantic would it not be to be called “mo duinne”?

Good? Hell yes! Totally worth 10 points out of 10.

This Charming Man

“Up to that point she’d lived her life incomplete and skewed and it was a joyous revelation to discover that he was as hungry and empty as she was.”

Once in a while, my mother shows up with a new book she thinks I should read. This time, it was This Charming Man by Marian Keyes. As I have actually read all of her previous ones, my mother was just right with the newest of Keyes’ novels. This book tells the story of four women, and the man who connects them all.

Paddy de Courcy is getting married. Lola is his girlfriend, but she is not the woman he is getting married to. Alicia is, however. Heartbroken, Lola escapes the city, but is chased down by Grace, who wants to know the truth about Paddy. Grace is a reporter, with a personal interest in the story as her sister, Marnie is still hung up on her first love: Paddy himself.
The reader gets to follow the four women during the time after it is announced that Paddy is getting married, and dark secrets are revealed.

This story is a bit different from the way Keyes usually writes, though the structure strongly reminds me of one of her other stories, The Other Side of the Story. I evolved different relationships to the four women in the story, and Lola became, without a doubt, my favourite character. She is written with a completely different language which really sets her apart and creates a more vivid and lively character. Moreover, she is characterised in a very humourous way, something I always appreciate.
What seems to be another story about the lives of women turns after a few chapters out to be a story much more serious than that. The dark underlying messages and the big secret these women hold sets the book apart from Keyes’ other work, it is much more serious, especially with the topic it deals with: abuse.
Marian Keyes shows that she is able to write in a great variety of ways by writing the perspectives of the different women in different styles and thus giving the women their own voices and. This enhances their different personalities and makes it easier to tell them apart, though that is never much of a problem when it comes to Keyes.

Good? Yes. 7.5 out of 10.

A Little Princess

“But it was a perilous thing for Ermengarde and Lottie to make pilgrimages to the attic.”

Wandering the streets of Krakow, I happened upon a wonderful little bookshop. In it I met a friend I had not seen in years, but whom I well remembered. Her name is Sara Crewe, and she is the protagonist of A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I met her as a child, when I took part of the magic fairytale that she was in, but also again five years ago. My English-teacher told me to read the book, and I did. Even though it was now the third time I read the book, it has lost none of its charm.

A little Princess is a curious book about the young, rich daughter of Captain Crewe, who is placed at Miss Minchin’s Select Seminary for Young Ladies. She is no longer allowed to live with her young father as he travels in India. Instead, she becomes a border-student, and Miss Minchins new show-pupil. Sara makes friends, and becomes something of a leader to the other girls who call her “princess”. Upon her eleventh birthday, Sara is told that her father has died, and that all her money is lost. She is forced to become a maid at the Seminary, ridiculed and spat upon. But one day, a curious man moves into the house next door…

This tale of the fortunes and unfortunes of Sara Crewe is extremely gripping, and would bring out sympathy in even the most cold-hearted bastard. It is beautifully written, and Burnett paints a picture of a small, “queer” child with the most vivid imagination. together with her, the reader is brought on an adventure which alone would be fantastic, but which together with the magic Sara infuses into every situation is breathtaking. When Sara lost her father and had to move up to the attic, I almost cried. But when Sara fancifully tells to Lottie how beautiful the attic is, I was almost fooled, in spite of just being told how dirty, cold and lonesome the place really was. The story of this young girl has been an inspiration to me for years, as she always tries to behave like a princess, with the manners that entails. Sara is such a perfect creature that she is not entirely a full character, but she still seems so very real.
Sara’s tendency to “suppose” just about anything is fantastic, and I envy Burnett the ability to write with such power and imagination. The book is not merely a children’s tale, but much, much more.

Good? Yes. 9.2 out of 10.