Years ago when i was young (but definitely not stupid), during a five minutes break of my chaotic Otorhinolaryngology practical class, a dear friend of mine asked me out of nowhere - What do you want in life - the most? Without much ado or thought i babbled - happiness of course. My friend piped another unexpected question- what's happiness for you? And i was dumbstruck. Such a simple question and i was in short of answer (Granger effect wearing off!!! ).
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© Panacea 2015
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Million of thoughts crashed my mind - a smile from a stranger, giggles, the sound of laughter, the soothing breeze, the sound of the rain and the scent of earth afterwards, dancing in the rain, music, perfumes, colors, a shoulder to cry on, a cup of piping hot tea on a cold day, surprises, a field full of flowers, rainbow after a beautiful shower, bright shining stars in the indigo sky, shooting stars, the first ray of morning sun hitting my face, a library, chocolate cake, staring at the flying falcon and its royal tune, a deep gratitude filled satisfaction... million of things.
It was impossible to pinpoint happiness..... or was it? Simple minute things, happening around all the time, needing a bit of thought and appreciation; probably that was happiness for me at that brink of time... I think or that was what i thought. But i really don't know. Things changes, perspective changes and the minute things start to lose their meaning. Materialistic matters, judgmental attitude and ego takes over and the definition is renewed over and over.
I still don't know! Probably happiness is a five minute coffee break in your hectic schedule or a happenstance meeting with a long lost friend or a music by your favorite singer blaring out loud from your radio or finding a penny in your portion of Christmas pudding. May be its a pursuit; a journey to transform yourself to something better or otherwise.
Ernest Hemingway said - Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
And
Albert Camus thinks - You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of.
Its confusing; controversial even....
Queen Rowling said - Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one remembers to turn on the light.
But at this moment, either my switch box is broken or my light bulb is burnt out, i don't know. But i am not giving up on my quest. Nope not that easily.
The movie was insanely brilliant. But it took me a week to realize, it was a book adaptation (My ignorance is celebrated every now and then.. phew!). A sad moment because I prefer to devour on books before jumping into movies.
The "plot" of two imperfect, immoral, flawed people getting together in an unrealistic dream of a perfect life, ultimately creating havoc is the star of this creation.
I knew it all in greater detail (thanks to the movie which is a must watch), but the casual writing style with elaborated options and some details missed in the movie made the read- fun. The major turn off were the swear words thrown over your face every now and then. May be its the modern literature thing but for me its was an enigma.... boring, unwanted and irritating.
Lance Nicholas Dunne, a New York journalist falls for Amy Elliott, a personality quiz writer. Their story of falling in love amongst the sugar clouds is almost magical. But no love story is without flaw. They lose their job in downsizing and they relocate their life in Missouri as Nick's mother is dying of cancer. Nick and his twin sister Margo starts a bar with Amy's money. Amy who was used to a good New York life style suffocates in their new home and Nick suffers from a decreased confidence after his lost job. Their marriage become dysfunctional but nobody surrenders. On the eve of their fifth marriage anniversary, Amy goes missing. Nick becomes the primal suspect. Amy's diary, the money problem, spiking her life insurance, his cheating on Amy with his student, circumstantial evidences - all points towards Nick; but the story gives an unexpected twist.
SPOILER ALERT***
Amy is not as humble and sweet as portrayed. Slowly her manipulative and controlling behavior attracts attention. Actually she planted all the false evidences to frame her husband to revenge his adultery. She is so cruel, she even murders her admirer who helped her after she is convinced that her husband has learned the lesson (Nick starts to plead her to come back through tabloid). But Nick understands her like the back of his hand and tries to expose her, but in vain. In the mean time Amy forces him to fake his love in front of the media and to control him- gets pregnant by invitro fertilization. Nick gives himself up to Amy, in an attempt to save his unborn child. The book ends in a strange note.
Not a big fan of this writing style (though I love the first order writing style that helps you understand the character better, I was not impressed with the lack of depth here...). What about comeuppance? No bad guys are hurt instead an innocent life is lost. Life is not fair after all! But the story is absorbing, a potent psychological thriller that makes an incomplete attempt to read through the uncharacteristic mind of two strange people. I loved how this book portrays the way tabloid worships victim and how some "manipulative victim role players" abuses them. The simple fact that - everyone thinks, marriage is supposed to be perfect, embodied with stars and rainbow, but perfection really does not exist and its all about small compromises to gratify one another's need - is taught in a very painful and unconventional manner. It is a weird, dark, imperfectly gripping yet fun read. The end gives you an unsettling feeling though. Its not all rainbows and butterflies here.
Read it if you have time or just catch the movie. Whatever suits you.
A UK translated copy of Swedish book- Solstorm
Sharing the last name with the millennium trilogy genius Stieg Larsson, the book is sure to demand attention. It will definitely be scrutinized minutely for every details to see whether it can compete with the story of protagonist Lisbeth Salander of the popular Dragon tattoo series. Rebecka Martinsson do not disappoint. Though she is a tax lawyer with Meiijer and Ditzinger, she amazes with her skills of a perfect experienced detective and even does not mind going through mortal peril mixed with action to shine the light over the truth.
Victor Strandgard ('The paradise boy'), author of a best seller 'Heaven and Back' and a pastor of crystal church in Kinura (frozen northern Sweden) is found dead in the aisle of the church. The body is mangled brutally with slashed wounds, severed hands and eyes gouged out. His sister, Sanna (mentally disturbed yet bitchy enough to manipulate people for her own use), is the first one to discover the body and informs the police. With the fear of being the first murder suspect, she calls her long lost friend Rebecca Martinsson for help. Rebecka, a young Tax lawyer working in Stockholm, has a terrible past hidden in that old city of Kinura and is reluctant to return but her old habit of empathy takes over and she comes back home to help her friend Sanna. While digging through the depths of the church and the pastors: Thomas Sodenberg, Vessa Larsson and Gunnar Isaksson's secret, she comes across Curt Backstrom; a convicted psychotic murderer with feelings for Sanna. With Sanna in jail and Rebecka taking care of her daughters Sara and Lova, the digging exposes unexpected facts. She finds herself in mortal peril before revealing the truth and in the end all is well.
A nice suspense-thriller for a quick read that will soothe your detective mind, just enough to keep the suspense pumping up adrenaline. A day for this book will suffice to enjoy the easy writing style and simple details. Sweden's Best First Crime Novel award well deserved!
Having trouble reviewing Mr Coelho books. The Alchemist was one of a kind. A different track story with measured amount of philosophy, it exhumes you from the depth of indecisiveness in real life, every time you read it but sadly I cant say the same about Brida.
"I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams"
- W B Yeats
Brida, a 21 year old young Irish lady is in search of knowledge- to learn magic, to become a witch. In the process she meets a teacher and loner Magnus who describes her that true knowledge can be obtained by following the tradition of moon and the tradition of sun. He leaves her in the middle of the forest to understand the tradition of sun but she gets confused with his process of teaching henceforth finds another teacher, named Wicca who teaches her the tradition of moon. After some rituals, a journey through self and a witches sabbath of spring, she finally discovers the very thing she was searching for.
Any story with a plot of Witchcraft is supposed to be intense and consuming, isn't it? I was unable to understand the core of the story. The witchcraft plot with frequent mention of tradition of moon and tradition of sun, neither explains what Brida really wanted in life (except finding her soul mate), nor explains her special gift or whether she found what she was searching for. And the voice she kept hearing; it was supposed to be the voice of the ancestors, right? But what were they trying to imply?
"Imagination is the highest kite one can fly" and making a world out of non existent things is a work of a brilliant mind (or may be the insane one but both of them are just a line apart). Being a potterhead and living half of my teenage days submerged in imaginary world, I don't mind an offtrack story with plot that begs to be different. Witchcraft is such dark yet fascinating plot but Brida fails to hold my attention. The attempt is fickle.
The only thing the book was trying to shout out loud repeatedly was to find your soul mate by looking at the light in their eyes and light over their shoulder or something (duh-uh). And i sincerely doubt finding oneself means finding a soul mate and surrendering yourself emotionally and physically. The twist again is that you can have more than one soul mate in one life. (Kill me!!!) And falling in love with your 'non soulmates' is possible and so is being jealous if your love interest find their own soul mate... Argh... Can you make any sense out of this? Why not ditch the brilliant witch plot and make a simple high school drama of love triangles.
The only part of this book that i really appreciated was when the writer explains that everything has an explanation. The fish wonders how the birds fly and the bird wonders how the fish breath under water. But is it a mystery? Well its not. You don't know the reason does not mean its a mystery. You just need to change your perspective and have an open mind.
Besides this, all the soul mate and surrender mumbo jumbo glided over my head. I think i am gonna stick with the tweets and status updates in facebook by the writer for a while cause although "the stories" have no story, his one liners are brilliant and good enough to inspire.
My favorite lines:
- When you find your path, you must not be afraid. You need to have sufficient courage to make mistakes. Disappointment, defeat, and despair are the tools God uses to show us the way.
- Nothing in the world is ever completely wrong. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.
- None of us knows what might happen even the next minute, yet still we go forward. Because we trust. Because we have Faith.
- Every moment in life is an act of faith
- Accept what life offers you and try to drink from every cup. All wines should be tasted; some should only be sipped, but with others, drink the whole bottle.
- How much I missed, simply because I was afraid of missing it.
- Don’t bother trying to explain your emotions. Live everything as intensely as you can and keep whatever you felt as a gift from God.
- You will never be mine, and that is why i will never lose you.”
- Feelings do not grow old along with the body. Feelings form part of a world I don’t know, but it’s a world where there’s no time, so space, no frontiers.
- Finding one important thing in your life doesn’t mean you have to give up all the other important things.
- Being human means having doubts and yet still continuing on your path.
- I’m afraid of love, because it involves things that are beyond our understanding; it sheds such a brilliant light, but the shadow it casts frightens me.
- Love is above everything else, and there is no hatred in love, only the occasional mistakes.
- Emotions were like wild horses and it required wisdom to be able to control them.
- The most important and the most vulnerable of emotions -love.
- Problems of the heart always bruise the soul.
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