NICHOLAS SPARKS’S A WALK TO REMEMBER

NICHOLAS SPARKS’S A WALK TO REMEMBER
A Book Review by Joel Cardinal
IV- Madame Marie Curie
Two lovers being tested upon by a condition that seems to be rarely seen among any relationships. This story has been the most remarkable among the previous once that I had read. Striking and reminiscing always in my mind. A two-hundred six-page book that will surely made your heart beat untimely. It’s something you could finish reading in one Sunday.
A Walk to Remember is set in Beaufort, North Carolina in 1958. The story focuses upon 17 year-old Landon Carter, who falls for Jamie Sullivan. Jamie happens to be the daughter of the town's Baptist minister. The story unfolds during Landon and Jamie's Senior year of high school. I'd love to tell you more, but it would involve disclosing major plot details. I was pleasantly surprised about how much I enjoyed this story. It was far from the sappy, hokey love story I was expecting. Though the main characters are teenagers, their experiences are adult in nature and very touching.

The author has selected his words very carefully, so that several of the readers' emotions are affected. This book made me laugh, cry and everything in between. A word of caution however: sensitive people will be bawling at the book's ending. Sparks has written a sweet tale of young but everlasting love, and though he's told us to expect both joy and sadness, the tears will still come. Sparks once again demonstrates skills built on a sure understanding of his characters and the scene and times in which they live. A well written love story.

I don't feel there are any drawbacks to A Walk to Remember. I was able to predict the plot's events before they happened. However, I'm not sure that was such a bad thing in this case.

This short Nicholas Sparks novel should only take a day or two to read, so it makes an ideal library selection. A Walk to Remember also makes a good gift. It offers wonderful lessons in love and faith from which anybody could benefit.

A story that is full of different themes of profound love, trust, faithfulness and fortitude that happened throughout the story. A story that will surely make your heart pumped fast and be overwhelmed. This story can be a plot of all the memories of the year.

Like water for Chocolate

Like Water For Chocolate
Laura Esquivel
Some times love is really out of our realms

Like water for chocolate is a story that has this theme, of which sometimes love is unfair and not on our side. This book shows trials of love, and life; the life and experiences of Tita. This book is written by Laura Esquivel, with passion on recipes, romances and home remedies.
Laura Esquivel (born September 30, 1950) is a Mexican author making a noted contribution to Latin-American literature. She was born the third of four children of Julio César Esquivel, a telegraph operator, and Josefa Valdés.
In her first novel Como agua para chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate), released in 1989, Esquivel uses magical realism to combine the ordinary and the supernatural, similar to Isabel Allende. The novel, taking place during the revolution in early twentieth century Mexico, shows the importance of the kitchen in Esquivel's life. Esquivel believes that the kitchen is the most important part of the house and characterizes it as a source of knowledge and understanding that brings pleasure. The "title refers to a colloquial phrase used by the Spanish that means an extremity of feeling. It refers to a boiling point in terms of anger, passion and sexuality." The idea for the book came to Esquivel "while she was cooking the recipes of her mother and grandmother." Reportedly, "Esquivel used an episode from her own family to write her book. She had a great-aunt named Tita, who was forbidden to wed. Tita never did anything but care for her own mother. Soon after her mother died, so did Tita." "The book has been a tremendous international success: The No. 1 best-selling book in Mexico for three years, it's also been translated into 23 languages."
Like Water for Chocolate was developed into a film, which was released in 1993 concurrently with the book's English translation. In the United States, Like Water for Chocolate became one of the largest grossing foreign films ever released in the US. Esquivel earned the Mexican Academy of Motion Pictures award; she received eleven in all, from Ariel Awards.]
Esquivel's second novel, The Law of Love (1996) takes place in the twenty-third century Mexico City and combines romance and science fiction. Reportedly, "the theme of romantic love, particularly love thwarted, appears repeatedly throughout her novels, as does the setting in Mexico."

The story revolves on the way Tita lives her life, the way he make choices on her love Pedro. Tita, when was still a child has this bad memories of loneliness which is onky healed with the presence of her grandmother Nacha. Nacha is her only ally, which she also prefers as her mother unlike Mama Elena, and is really good in cooking. Tita was born on the kitchen, which might explain her excellence on cooking like her grandmother Nancha. But sometimes tings are not always what we expect of them, Nancha died before the wedding of Tita’s sister Rosaura.
The wedding was one of the greatest twist in the story, the wedding of Rosaura and Pedro. Pedro was Tita’s only love and life, likewise , Pedro also love Tita but because of this twist and turns of fate he turn-up to be with Rosaura, the elder sister of Tita. And this begins the story of love, trials, and sometimes miscommunication on te family pertaining to Rosaura, Pedro and Tita. The end is also quite unexpected, not like the ordinary happily ever after stories. The twist and turns led it to a fiery ending in the ranch.
Tita is the main character on the story of Like water for Chocolate of Laura Esquivel, Pedro’s true love, Mama Elena’s daughter.
Pedro is the love of Tita and the husband of Rosaura
Rosaura is the wife of Pedro and the older sister of Tita
Mama Elena is the so strict mother of Tita
Nancha is the grandmother of Tita and her only person to run to during her problems, she is also the one that teach Tita on her cooking skills
Gertrudis is also a sister of Tita
The story was this unique taste of a love story turn to every bad turn which makes it a perfect thriller for the readers. The part of the recipes, cooking, and remedies also fits the sequence of the main plot, which also gives some idea on what Tita is feeling on the story with her life and her love.
This also proves that love can also find a way, parallel to what they say in science that nature will find its way. Love, love, love is some awesome thing presented in this book of Laura Esquivel, finding some answer on the way to the peak of Tita’s own love life


Andy M Guevarra
IV-Marie Curie

Tale of Genji - Book Review by Rhomuell C. Bernardo

Murasaki Shikibu's epic-length novel, The Tale of Genji, probes the psychological, romantic and political workings of mid-Heian Japan. The novel earned Murasaki Shikibu notoriety even in the early 11th century, some six hundred years before the printing press made it available to the masses. Court society, which served as the subject of the novel, sought out chapters. Ladies-in-waiting and courtiers even pilfered unrevised copies, according to legend. Some thousand years later, Murasaki Shikibu and her novel continue to delight an enthusiastic audience. Stamps, scrolls, comic books, museums, shower gel, movies, parades, puppet plays, CD-ROMS: Murasaki Shikibu and her creation Genji have achieved National Treasure status in Japan and admiration all over the world.

The tale spreads across four generations, splashed with poetry and romance and heightened awareness to the fleeting quality of life. Murasaki Shikibu's tale of love, sex, and politics explores a complex web of human and spiritual relationships. This focus on characters and their emotional experience, as compared to plot, makes the novel easily accessible to the modern reader. It explains, in part, why many scholars consider Genji to be the world's first great novel.

Readers through the ages have especially admired Murasaki Shikibu's depiction of the Heian court society's deep aesthetic sense. Beauty—in flesh, flowers, sunsets, musical notes—moved and influenced the society. The title character, Genji, flourishes in this atmosphere. He is a master of speech, poetry, music, manners, dress.

Many Japanese scholars cite as an influence Chinese poet Po-Ch-I's classic narrative poem, The Song of Unending Sorrow. Murasaki Shikibu writes in her diary of reading the poet's work to the empress. She also refers to it several times in The Tale of Genji. Importantly, the novel also marked Japan's liberation from Chinese influence. According to Richard Bowring in Landmarks of World Literature: The Tale of Genji, "Japan had just emerged from a time of substantial Chinese influ-ence and was going through one of its periodic stages of readjustment, during which alien concepts were successfully naturalized. The Genji is thus the product of a native culture finding a truly sophisticated form of self-expression in prose for the first time."

The Tale of Genji has had a pervasive influence on later Japanese and world-wide art. It has inspired Noh theater, waka poetry, scroll paintings, pop music and dances. It has had an especially profound influence on Japanese literature. Court fiction for hundreds of years after openly modeled itself after Genji. Present-day writers, including Kawabata Yasunari in his 1968 Nobel Prize acceptance speech, still cite The Tale of Genji as a great influence.

The Tale of Genji centers on the life and loves of a handsome son, Hikaru Genji, born to an Emperor during the Heian Period. In the story, the beloved concubine of the Emperor gives birth to Genji and dies soon after. Raised within the Royal Family, Genji has his first illicit affair with Fujitsubo, the young wife of the Emperor. She gives birth to a boy who was raised by the unknowing Emperor as his own son. Although feeling guilt because of this affair Genji goes on to have numerous other affairs with other court ladies including Utsusemi, Yugao, Murasaki-no-ue, and Hanachirusato. At one point, Genji's adultery with a lady of the opposite faction results in his being exiled for a period to Suma After a short time, he returns to the capital, where he rises further in status and position being appointed to high official ranking reaching the apogee of his career. However, his newly wed young bride, Onna-Sannomiya, has an illicit affair that results in a child, Kaoru, reminding Genji of his own similar past actions. Then Murasaki-no-ue, Genji's real love and wife, in fact, if not in law, of more than twenty years, passes away. Left in deep despondence Genji decides to leave the capital to enter a small mountain temple. The Tale of Genji continues, although without the hero Genji. In his place are Kaoru, his grandson, and Niou-no-miya, Kaoru's friend. These two youths carry on the Genji tradition with the princesses in the palace at Uji. The story centers on the young lady, Ukibune, whose heart and mind is set a flutter by the courtship of these two young men.

A Book Review on Arundhati Roy’s “The God of Small Things”

A Book Review on Arundhati Roy’s “The God of Small Things”

By Marian Denise G. Basallote

I. INTRODUCTION

A. About the Book

The God of Small Things (1997) is a politically charged novel by Indian author Arundhati Roy. It is a story about the childhood experiences of a pair of fraternal twins who become victims of circumstance. The book is a description of how the small things in life build up, translate into people's behavior and affect their lives. The book won the Booker Prize in 1997.

The God of Small Things is Roy's first book, and as of 2009, is her only novel. Completed in 1996, the book took four years to write. The potential of the story was first recognized by Pankaj Mishra, an editor with HarperCollins, who sent it to three British publishers. Roy received half-a-million pounds (approx. $970,000 USD) in advances, and rights to the book were sold in 21 countries.


B. About the Author

Full name: Suzanna Arundhati Roy

Born: November 24, 1961

Mother: Christian woman from Kerala

Father: Bengali Hindu tea planter, whom Roy barely knows and prefers not to speak about

Arundhati grew up in Aymanam, until she was 16 years old, when she ran away to live in a squatter's camp. She eventually attended the Dehli School of Architecture, and married a fellow student, Gerard Da Cunha. Four years later, the marriage ended and Roy took a job at the National Institute of Urban Affairs. A film director discovered her on the street, and she had a small role, but she got a scholarship to go to Italy to study architecture. While in Italy, Roy realized she was a writer and met her current husband. Together they wrote several TV scripts before Roy decided to focus on writing her book.

1997: God of Small Things is published to immediate acclaim, and wins the Booker Prize in England. Roy was the first Indian woman, and the first non-expatriate Indian to win the award.

1997: Also the 50th anniversary of India's independence from Britain.


II. SUMMARY OF THE CONTENT

A. Plot

The novel The God of Small Things reveals a young woman’s painful journey of recollection into her gloomy childhood. It tells about a mysterious love affair that is suppressed by the conventions of a society in India with the caste system deeply etched in its custom and traditions.

Rahel, the protagonist in the story, returns to her family home in Ayemenem after twenty-three years to find her long lost twin brother, Esthappen. Slowly, she recalls her childhood and the dreadful drama that has caused a drastic change in their lives. These memories mainly revolve around the roots and consequences of the tragic accidental death of her young cousin, Sophie Kochamma.

In their childhood, the young two-egg twins, Rahel and Estha, were inseparable, had a very special tie between them, and felt as if they were one and the same person. They lived with their mother, Ammu, along with their uncle, Chacko, grandmother, Mammachi, and grandaunt, Baby Kochamma. in the Kochamma family home. When Chacko learned that her former wife, Margaret, lost her second husband named Joe from a car accident, he invited her and her daughter, Sophie, to India.

The story reaches its climax when Mammachi finds out from Velutha’s father the forbidden love affair existing between Ammu and Velutha, an Untouchable or Paravan, who is a handyman around the Kochamma house and a trusted employee at the factory of the Paradise of Pickles and Preserves, owned by Mammachi. Mammachi, with rage and anger, locked Ammu in her room. Ammu got frustrated and quick-tempered with her children, sending them away.

Meanwhile, the twins, already feeling insecure with their mother's love, were severely affected by their mother's sharp words. The unexpected tragedy occurred when the twins, together with Sophie, ran to the river near the Kochamma family home late at night. With the boat that Velutha built for them, they decided to cross the river and to go to the abandoned house, known as the History House, situated on the other side. Their boat got turned over by the current. Fortunately, the twins, who have often swum in the river, survived and were able to reach the other side. Sophie, on the other hand, was drowned and was found dead the next morning by a fisherman.

In order to protect their family’s name and reputation, Baby Kochamma went to the police and accused Velutha of rape. She insinuated that he had abducted the children. The police set out to find Velutha, who coincidentally was with the twins on the other side of the river, particularly in the History House, where he and Ammu meet each night. When the police found Velutha, they beat him to death. Baby Kochamma cajoled the twins to falsely accuse Velutha by threatening them that something bad will happen to Ammu. Ammu tried to tell the police the truth after Sophie’s funeral, but it was too late.

Chacko, with a poisoned mind, expelled Ammu from the Kochamma home. Sad, sick and alone, Ammu died at the young age of thirty-one. To complete the cover-up, the twins were separated. Estha was sent away to Calcutta to live with his father, Baba, and his father's second wife as Rahel remained in the family home. After the tragic event, Estha became a withdrawn and reserved person who uttered no word at all and did not communicate with the rest of the world. He lived in his own silence. When his father worked abroad, for after so many years, he returned to Ayemenem. Likewise, Rahel felt a permanent emptiness inside her. At a young age, she went to live in Delhi and studied architecture. When her marriage with an American fell apart, she also returned to India, specifically to their old home in Ayemenem.

B. Characters

Ammu Kochamma

 She is Rahel and Estha’s mother. She is a beautiful and sardonic woman who has been victimized first by her father and then by her husband. While raising her children, she has become tense and repressed. She grew up in Delhi, but because her father said that college was an unnecessary expense for a girl, was forced to live with her parents when they moved to Ayemenem.

 Ammu’s latent “Unsafe Edge,” full of desire and “reckless rage,” emerges during Sophie Mol’s visit and draws her to Velutha. After the horrific climax to the affair, Ammu sent Estha to live with his father and left Rahel in the Ayemenem House. She looked for work, but lost a succession of jobs because of her illness. She died alone in a cheap hotel at the age of thirty-one.

Baby Kochamma

 Nicknamed “Baby,” Mammachi’s sister, Navomi Ipe Kochamma, is a judgmental old maid with tiny feet. She lived her life backwards as she renounced the material world when she was young, but became very materialistic when she was old. Throughout her life, she was an insecure, selfish, and vindictive person.

 During the time of Sophie Mol’s visit, she is a nuisance who pestered the twins because she disliked them and Ammu. She is later revealed to be cruel and insidious. In her old age, she became a bitter and lonely woman addicted to the television.

Chacko Kochamma

 He is Ammu’s intellectual and self-absorbed older brother. He was a charming but a very unclean Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. He met Margaret while she was working in an Oxford café. Deeply in love with Margaret, in part because she never depended on him or adored him like a mother, he married her without telling his family. But after a year, she grows tired of his squalor within and divorces him.

 With his divorce and her daughter’s death, he grew fatter and became obsessed with balsawood airplanes, which he unsuccessfully attempted to fly. He was also unsuccessful at running the pickle factory, which started to lose money as soon as he attempted to expand the operation. A “self-proclaimed Marxist,” Chacko attempted to be a benevolent employer and even planned to organize a union among his own workers.

Estha Kochamma

 He is Rahel’s twin brother. He is a serious, intelligent, and somewhat nervous child who wears “beige and pointy shoes” and has an “Elvis puff.” His experience of the circumstances surrounding Sophie Mol’s visit is somewhat more traumatic than Rahel’s, beginning when he was sexually abused by the Orangedrink Lemondrink Man at the Abhilash Talkies theater.

 He never went to college and acquired a number of habits, such as wandering on very long walks and obsessively cleaning his clothes. He was so close to his sister that the narrator describes them as one person, despite having been separated for most of their lives.

Mammachi Kochamma

 She is an elegant woman in her old age, although she is nearly blind. She is Rahel and Estha’s grandmother. Brutally beaten by her husband, she nevertheless cries at his funeral and shares many of his values, including an extremely rigid view of the caste system. She began the pickle factory and ran it successfully, and she was an “exceptionally talented” violinist. She loved Chacko with blind admiration and deeply disliked Margaret Kochamma. Nevertheless, she tolerates and even facilitates Chacko’s affairs with factory workers.

Margaret Kochamma

 She is Sophie Mol’s mother and Chacko’s ex-wife. She is from a strict, working-class London family and was working as a waitress in Oxford when she met Chacko. Marrying him because of his uncontrolled personality that made her feel free, Margaret soon realized that she did not need him to accept herself, and she divorced him. When her second husband Joe died, she accepted Chacko’s invitation to Ayemenem for Christmas, and she was haunted by this decision for the rest of her life.

Rahel Kochamma

 She is Ammu’s daughter and Estha’s younger sister by eighteen minutes. An intelligent and honest person who has never felt socially comfortable, she is something of a drifter, and several times the narrator refers to her as the quality “Emptiness.” When she was a girl, her hair sits “on top of her head like a fountain” and she always wears red-tinted plastic sunglasses with yellow rims.

 Although Ammu often chastises her for being dirty and unsafe, she loves her very deeply, and Rahel is equally devoted to her mother. She also loves Velutha and her brother, with whom she shares a “single Siamese soul.” She was traumatized by Sophie Mol’s drowning, Velutha’s death, and Ammu’s death. Although these events did not seem to deprive her of her quirkiness or brightness, they contributed to her sense of sadness and lack of direction in later life. She entered an architecture school but never finished the course, married an American named Larry McCaslin, and lived with him in Boston until they were divorced.

Kochu Maria

 She is the Kochamma family’s “vinegar-hearted, short-tempered, midget cook.” She does not speak any English and, although she has always “noticed everything,” she eventually stops caring about how the house looks and becomes addicted to television.

Sophie Mol

 She is Chacko and Margaret’s daughter. She is a frank and spirited English girl characterized by her bellbottoms and her go-go bag. Although the twins prejudged her because they have been insistently instructed about how to behave when she arrives, she managed to win them over. This was partly because she is charming and outgoing, and partly because she rejected the advances of Chacko, Mammachi, and Baby Kochamma in favor of befriending Rahel and Estha.

Velutha

 An Untouchable worker at the pickle factory and a close friend to Rahel and Estha, he was blamed for killing Sophie Mol and raping Ammu. But, in fact, he had nothing to do with Sophie Mol’s death. He carried on a brief yet passionate and voluntary affair with Ammu until Inspector Thomas Mathew’s police officers beat him to death.

 His name means “White” in Malayalam, so-called because he has such dark skin. Mammachi noticed his prodigious talents in making and fixing things when he was young and convinced his father to send him to the Untouchables’ School founded by her father-in-law. He became an accomplished carpenter and mechanic, and acquired an assurance that scared his father because it was inacceptable among Untouchables.

C. Themes

The God of Small Things is dominated by powerful themes pertaining to social discrimination, freedom suppression and oppression, family disintegration, and unpredictability of circumstances.

Social Discrimination
Velutha, an Untouchable worker at the pickle factory, assumed a low position only because of his social standing. He belonged to the Untouchable caste and thus, he was deprived of many other privileges that the others could enjoy. He was even accused of something he never did. He was beaten to death by the police even if they have not proven him guilty of rape. He lived in a society where injustice, prejudice, and inequality ruled over.

Freedom Suppression
Ammu and his twins were suppressed with freedom because of things they never intended to happen. Ammu fell in love with Velutha, who was way below her level, and so their illicit love affair was stopped immediately. She had no power and no voice at all to protest against her family, who thinks only of their name and reputation. She never had a choice to do what would make her happy. Her life was solely dictated by the conventions of the society that she lives in. When it comes to her twins, they were deprived of the freedom to love, to belong to a family, and to discover who they really were. They were confined in the barriers of frustration, emptiness, and misery.

Unpredictability of Circumstances
The precarious turn of events was evidently shown in the story. Ammu and Velutha extracted only one small promise from each other each time they parted because they knew that things could change in an instant. Estha experienced the quirk of fate when he, still on the verge of innocence, was sexually abused by the Orangedrink Lemondrink Man. This brought him trauma and made two thoughts linger in his mind (“Anything can happen to anyone.” and “It is best to be prepared.”)


III. ANALYSIS OF TEXT

The God of Small Things is a highly stylized novel that tells the story of a very fractured family from the southernmost tip of India. Through flashbacks and flashforwards, it gradually unfolds the secrets of the characters’ unhappiness and misery in life. First-time novelist Arundhati Roy twists and reshapes language to create an arresting, startling sort of precision. The average reader of mainstream fiction may have a tough time working through Roy's prose, but those with a more literary bent to their usual fiction inclinations should find the initial struggle through the dense prose a worthy price for this lushly tragic tale.

The great pleasure of The God of Small Things flows from its language, and its delight in verbal comedy. Arundhati carefully played with words. One way she does this is through repeated phrases. Some of the most often repeated are "A viable, dieable age." and "Little Man. He lived in a caravan. Dum dum." Likewise, she regularly used symbols for depth and profundity. Roy’s use of language was so imaginative, vivid, eloquent, and convincing that it made us immerse in its creativity. Thus, I believe Roy exemplified the intelligent qualities of writing – logical, realistic, simple, clear, and persuasive.

As quoted by Roy, “It is not just about small things, it's about how the smallest things connect to the biggest things - that's the important thing. And that's what writing will always be about for me… I'm not a crusader in any sense.”


IV. EVALUATION

Personally, I enjoyed reading The God of Small Things and loved everything about it – the impressive style of the author in writing, complex storyline, and amazing characters. Moreover, I appreciated the lessons it had left behind and the values it had inculcated to its readers. I learned that a family’s support in one’s endeavors would always portray a crucial role in molding success in his/her life. I realized that anyone who becomes a victim of freedom suppression and oppression would always feel emptiness and misery in every fiber of his/her being. Lastly, I discovered that anything that we do could alter the course of our lives both in positive and negative ways. Earning four out of five stars, The God of Small Things is indeed an exquisite and outstanding novel written with truckloads of color, craft, and ambition.

BOOK REVIEW - Laura Esquivel's Like Water for Chocolate

Like Water for Chocolate


I. INTRODUCTION

THE BOOK

A magic realism made by first-time Mexican novelist Laura Esquivel. The title, Like Water for Chocolate, refers to the temperature that water must be brought to in order to melt chocolate; it is also used as a slang to describe anger, sexuality, and passion. A magical book it is. The original Spanish version, Como Agua Para Chocolat, was the top-selling book in Mexico in 1990. As a work of Latin magical realism, it can't be topped by any other work to date. Tita, youngest of three daughters, was born to one of the vilest mothers ever, Mama Elena, the cruel matriarch of the family estate, the De la Garza ranch. Tita is rather special: even while still in Mama Elena's womb, she wept so violently as her mother chopped onions that she caused an early labor which meant that Tita quite literally was born on the kitchen table where a fragrant noodle soup was being prepared. Tita was both blessed and cursed to be one with the food — more than a mere cook as her cooking is truly magical.

It was made into film in 1992. The film based on the book, with a screenplay by Laura Esquivel, swept the Ariel awards of the Mexican Academy of Motion Pictures, winning 11 in all, and went on to become the largest grossing foreign film ever released in the United States. In 1994, Like Water for Chocolate won the prestigious ABBY award which is given annually by the American Booksellers Association. The book has been translated into thirty languages and there are over three million copies in print worldwide.

LAURA ESQUIVEL
From bookbrowse.com

Laura Esquivel was born on September 30, 1950 in Mexico City, Mexico. She was born third of the four children of Julio César Esquivel, a telegraph operator, and wife Selena Quintanilla. She began writing while working as a kindergarten teacher, writing plays for her students, and then went on to write children's television programs during the 1970s and 1980s.

Her writings often explore the relationship between men and women in Mexico. She is best known for Like Water for Chocolate, an imaginative and compelling combination of novel and cookbook, published in Spanish Mexico in 1989 and in English in 1992. The movie version, written by Esquivel, was released in 1993 and became one of the largest grossing foreign films ever released in the US; and in Mexico it won the Mexican Academy of Motion Pictures award. Once married to director Alfonso Arau, Esquivel is divorced and lives in Mexico City, Mexico.

II. SUMMARY OF CONTENT

PLOT

In a style that is epic in scope yet intensely personal in focus, Laura Esquivel's Like Water For Chocolate tells the story of Tita De La Garza, the youngest daughter in a family living in Mexico at the turn of the twentieth century. Each installment features a recipe to begin each chapter. The structure of Like Water For Chocolate is wholly dependent on these recipes.

Like Water for Chocolate tells the story of Tita De La Garza, the youngest daughter in a family living in Mexico at the turn of the twentieth century. Tita's love, Pedro Muzquiz, comes to the family's ranch to ask for Tita's hand in marriage. Because Tita is the youngest daughter she is forbidden by a family tradition upheld by her tyrannical mother, Mama Elena, to marry. Pedro marries Tita's oldest sister, Rosaura, instead, but declares to his father that he has only married Rosaura to remain close to Tita. Rosaura and Pedro live on the family ranch, offering Pedro contact with Tita. When Tita cooks a special meal with the petals of a rose given to her by Pedro, the still-fiery force of their love has an intense effect on Mama Elena's second daughter, Gertrudis, who is whipped into a lustful state and flees the ranch in the arms of a revolutionary soldier. Meanwhile, Rosaura gives birth to a son, who is delivered by Tita. Tita treats her nephew, Roberto, as if he were her own child, to the point that she is able to produce breast milk to feed him while her sister is dry.

Sensing that Roberto is drawing Pedro and Tita closer together, Mama Elena arranges for Rosaura's family to move to San Antonio. This separation devastates Tita. A short time later, news arrives that Roberto has died, most likely due to his removal from Tita's care. The death of her nephew causes Tita to have a breakdown, and Mama Elena sends her to an asylum. Dr. John Brown, a local American doctor, takes pity on Tita and brings her to live in his house. He patiently nurses Tita back to health, caring for her physical ailments and trying to revive her broken spirit. After some time, Tita is nearly well, and she decides never to return to the ranch. No sooner has she made this choice than Mama Elena is injured in a raid by rebel soldiers, forcing Tita to return. Tita hopes to care for her mother, but Mama Elena bitterly rejects Tita's good will. She refuses Tita's cooking, claiming that it is poisoned. Not long after, Mama Elena is found dead from an overdose of a strong emetic she consumed for fear of poisoning.

The death of Mama Elena frees Tita from the curse of her birthright and she accepts an engagement proposal from John Brown, with whom she has fallen in love. In the meantime, Rosaura and Pedro have returned to the ranch and have produced a second child, Esperanza. Immediately, Pedro's presence throws into question Tita's love for John. The night that John officially asks Pedro to bless the marriage, Pedro corners Tita in a hidden room and makes love to her, taking her virginity. Soon after, Tita is certain that she is pregnant and knows that she will have to end her engagement to John. The affair between Pedro and Tita prompts the return of Mama Elena, who comes in spirit form to curse Tita and her unborn child. Tita is distraught and has no one in whom she can confide.

In the midst of Tita's despair, the long-lost Gertrudis returns to the ranch. Tita is overjoyed at the return of Gertrudis, who is just the companion she seeks. Gertrudis forces Tita to tell Pedro about the pregnancy. He is gladdened at the news, and he drunkenly serenades Tita from below her window. Outraged, Mama Elena's ghost returns, violently threatening Tita and declaring that she must leave the ranch. For the first time, Tita stands up to Mama Elena and, in forceful words, declares her autonomy, banishing her mother's spirit, which shrinks from an imposing presence into a tiny fiery light. As she expels the ghost, Tita is simultaneously relieved of all her symptoms of pregnancy. The light from Mama Elena's ghost bursts through Tita's window and onto the patio below where Pedro still sits, setting fire to his entire body. After rescuing Pedro, Tita is consumed with caring for him and helping him recover. John Brown returns from a trip to the United States and Tita confesses to him her relations with Pedro. John replies that he still wishes to marry her but that she must decide for herself with whom she wishes to spend her entire life with.

Years pass, and the ranch focuses its attention on another wedding, this time between Esperanza and Alex, the son of John Brown. Rosaura has died, freeing her only daughter, Esperanza, from the stricture that had previously forbidden her, as it had Tita, from marrying. With Rosaura dead and Esperanza married, Tita and Pedro are finally free to express their love in the open. On their first night together, Tita and Pedro experience love so intense that both are led to a tunnel that will carry them to the afterlife. Tita turns back, wanting to continue in life and in love with Pedro. Once she does, she realizes that Pedro has already crossed over. Wanting desperately to be with him, Tita attempts to ignite her inner fire by eating the candles that had lit the room until they extinguished themselves at the moment of Pedro's death. When she succeeds in recreating the climate of true passion, she reenters the luminous tunnel and meets Pedro in the spirit world. The final union of their bodies and spirits sets fire to the entire ranch, and the only remnant left of their love is the recipe book in which Tita recorded her wisdom.

CHARACTERS

Tita - The protagonist of the novel. Tita is the youngest daughter of Mama Elena, prohibited by family tradition from marrying so that she will be free to take care of her mother later in life. The novel follows Tita's life from birth to death, focusing mostly on her tortured relationship with Pedro and her struggle and eventual triumph in pursuit of love and individuality.

Mama Elena - The tyrannical, widowed matriarch of the De La Garza clan, Mama Elena is the prime source of Tita's suffering. Her fierce temperament inspires fear in all three of her daughters. She keeps Tita from her true love, Pedro, and it is later revealed that Mama Elena herself once suffered from a lost love, embittering her for the rest of her life.

Pedro - Tita's true love, and the father of Roberto and Esperanza. Denied marriage to Tita by Mama Elena, he agrees to marry Rosaura, breaking Tita's heart. Nevertheless, he asserts his continued love for Tita throughout the novel and pursues her secretly. Pedro dies after he and Tita are finally blissfully united while making love at the novel's end.

Rosaura - The second daughter of Mama Elena, Rosaura marries Pedro, much to the despair of Tita. Rosaura leaves the ranch when Mama Elena sends her and Pedro to San Antonio to keep Pedro and Tita apart. Her first child, Roberto, dies as an infant; her second child, Esperanza, was prohibited like Tita from ever marrying but weds Alex after Rosaura dies.

Gertrudis - The eldest daughter of Mama Elena, Gertrudis escapes the ranch after reacting mysteriously to one of Tita's recipes. She runs away with a rebel soldier and eventually returns to the ranch as a general in the revolutionary army. It is eventually revealed that Gertrudis is the offspring of a hidden, extramarital affair between Mama Elena and her true love, a mulatto man.

Dr. John Brown - An American doctor who cares for Tita when she experiences a breakdown, and the father of Alex. John eventually falls in love with Tita and helps rehabilitate her soul, revealing to her the nature of the fire that resides in each individual. Tita becomes engaged to him, but eventually denies him marriage to pursue Pedro.

Roberto - The first child of Rosaura and Pedro, Roberto dies in America after being taken away from Tita's care.

Esperanza - The second child of Rosaura and Pedro, and the mother of the narrator of the novel. She is raised by Tita in the kitchen. Her marriage to Alex breaks the De La Garza family tradition that disallows the marriage of youngest daughters.

Alex - The son of Dr. John Brown, and the father of the narrator. He marries Esperanza.

THEME

In Like Water for Chocolate, Esquivel extends the religious-mythical themes of magic realism to the everyday world of the domestic realm of a female-dominated household. Though not a story of the battles, great figures, and moral challenges generally associated with the epic form, Esquivel elevates this story of women, and one woman in particular, to such proportions. This strategy leads the reader to explore the feminist properties of Like Water For Chocolate, which are evident in the depictions of Tita's struggle to gain independence and develop her identity, and also in the fact that this struggle is depicted at all. In creating this female-centered cast of characters, Esquivel imagines a world in which men are physically present only occasionally, though the legacy of sexism and the confinement of women to the domestic sphere persist. Esquivel does not offer her readers the vision of a utopian sisterhood, but rather insight into the way women are restricted by standards of societal propriety perpetuated by other women.

III. ANALYSIS OF TEXT

Like Water For Chocolate belongs to the genre of magical realism. The structuring of Like Water for Chocolate as "A Novel in Monthly Installments with Recipes, Romances, and Home Remedies" as it is subtitled, establishes the filter through which the reader will experience the world of the novel. Like Tita--whose knowledge of life is based on the kitchen-- the reader must explore the work through the role and power of food, guided by the recipes that begin each chapter. The division of the novel into "monthly installments" conjures up the image of serial narratives published in periodicals. This organization, along with the matter-of-fact weaving of recipes and remedies into the fabric of the narrative, underscores the fact that the novel offers substantial opportunities for feminist analysis.

IV. EVALUATION OF THE TEXT

I love the book. It was written creatively. Esquivel uses cooking as an extended metaphor throughout her story. The recipes and their preparation fit in with the story. The story often takes on aspects of fable or myth that sometimes seem out of place with the very matter of fact presentation of the story line. For example, the magical tunnel and Mama Elena's reappearance who tries to kill Pedro.

There are also elements of spiritualism and magic that make this book difficult to classify as straight fiction or as a fantasy. For the most part, the text reads as like a typical historical novel, but with increasing frequency toward the end of the novel, Esquivel includes obvious fabulous elements.

One could read or study Like Water for Chocolate at whatever depth desired. One could analyze the symbolic meaning of the various foods, the connection between the increasing number of fabulous events to Tita's decreasing faculties of love, desire, and mental abilities. Esquivel leaves the door wide open for a multitude of interpretations. And yet, the plot is a relatively simple story of a woman who is an expert in preparing food and very inexpert in handling her own life and affairs.

Presented by: Rochene J Relator of IV-Madame Marie Curie

Like Water For Chocolate book review - Laarnie Casil

“Like Water for Chocolate” is Mexican novelist Laura Esquivel’s first novel and was published in 1989. This novel serves as the start of Esquivel’s magical realism genre. This book has been made into a film, translated into 23 languages and was the best-selling book in Mexico for three years.

The story centers on Tita, whose family lives in a ranch near the US-Mexico border. Her family is comprised of Mama Elena, her iron-fisted mother, and Gertudis and Rosaura, her older sisters. Pedro, Tita’s admirer tries to ask to marry her, but Mama Elena refuses because of the family tradition that the youngest daughter must never marry to take care of the mother until she dies. Pedro marries Rosaura instead. Even though he insisted that he married her just to get closer to Tita, she was still heartbroken. Tita expresses her sorrow through her cooking. Unconsciously, Pedro is lured with the power of Tita’s creations. To prevent Pedro and Tita from being together, Mama Elena forces that Pedro and Rosaura go to San Antonio. The two lose their son, Roberto. Later , Rosauro is made sterile after the birth of their daughter, Esperanza.

Tita, having learned about the death of her beloved nephew, blames her mother who then beat her with a wooden spoon. Tita then locks herself in and refuses to come out until Dr John Brown talks her into coming out. Mama Elena thinks that Tita a lunatic and says that the ranch didn’t need someone like her and wants her to be put into a mental institution. Dr Brown takes her away, but not into an institution. He takes her into his home and takes care of her. Eventually, they get into a relationship even though Tita still has feelings for Pedro.

Without Mama Elena to stop them, Pedro and Tita can freely love each other. For the first time, they finally make love. It was so passionate that Pedro dies while making love with Tita. Upset by the sudden death of her love, Tita lights and lights matches. This causes a fire in the ranch and the two are burnt to ashes. Nothing remained except for Tita’s cookbook. Tita’s niece, Esperanza later marries Alex, Dr Brown’s son in a previous marriage.

The story’s setting was chosen perfectly. The kitchen is considered the very heart and soul of a Mexican household. The title really means the boiling point or explosion of emotion…an explosion of feelings that the two separated lovers released. It exploded like the steam coming out of a pot of boiling water. Had it not been forced inside, it would not have caused much damage and the two would still have been alive.

It was a very touching story, but I did not like the ending at all. It would have been better if the two had just run away with each other. But, Tita only became rebellious later on the story. But, the story opens the reader’s eyes on a very real social problem. Even in today’s modern society, even without old family traditions, parents still try to control their children’s relationships and want to make decisions for them. I think that people should read this novel.

BOOK REVIEW...

Maybe God has a bigger plan for me than I had for myself. Like this journey never ends. Like you were sent to me because I'm sick. To help me through all this. You're my angel.

These words are written in his 1999 novel, “A Walk to Remember”. It is a story of love and friendship that endures all despite the disparity of their personality.

It was published in the fall of 1999 although it just was written in the summer of 1998 and its story was inspired by Sparks’ sister. The novel had a movie adaptation, which is set in the 1990’s with Mandy Moore as Jaime Sullivan. . It spent nearly six months on the best-seller list in hardcover, and an additional four months on the paperback best-seller list.

The story reminiscence of a certain Landon Carter back when he was just seventeen years old. He tells of the story of a certain Hegbert Sullivan, a minister that only the person he will find out as the closest person to someone he will love. He support his only daughter Jaime by writing a play called “The Christmas Angel” which tells of the story of a father sacrificing his whole self for his daughter.

Landon sees Jaime as beautiful one although she’s always been simple but later this part he knew why he really appreciate Jaime that much.

It was a homecoming dance due to running out of choices Landon asked Jaime and she agreed but in just one condition he must not fall in love with her. It’s quite funny to tell it directly to a guy but she did it. They had a great dance but after it was not the end. Jaime thanks London for inviting her for it was her first time and she asked a favor that he must play the role of Tom Thornton and plays it for the orphans which she’s taking care of.

Once they talk about what they want in the near future. Jaime has a simplest wish only… that is to be married.

The outcome of the play was success. He did his best due for being inspired by Jaime. He also did his promised to her he collected donation cans for the orphanage.

Everything seems alright, they do exchange gifts and Jaime gave her Bible… a greatest gift that Landon ever received. But then, it all turn out for Jaime diagnosed to have Leukemia. Because of it Landon tried to make her feel the best or very special as possible. They read Bible often. He made the wish of Jaime come true… they married and even if it was forty years ago, nothing has changed it was just like when he was seventeen years old.



Nicholas Sparks’ style was plain or easy to understand but it could touch ones heart. It was realistic and spiritual for the reason that the role of Jaime was modest. Love also made the story revolves for it made things possible to happened, transforms everything to happiness.

Love can conquer the hearts. For the book show the great meaning of true and pure love. It will surely leave a legacy to someone who could read it especially to the youth whose that not open-minded it the terms of love.

I can relate to story for once it touches my heart as for how love can change everything. How it made me believe that there are lots of steps to make in our life that indeed... some walks to remember.


Juancho Tisoy Grajo
IV - Curie

I. Introduction

Love is not a thing you can find sprawling around. It is the deepest, most meaningful thing that could ever happen in your life. Memories come by, but you try to bear with them all in all.
This is what Nicholas Sparks wants to tell us. This can be found in one of his 14 published novels, A Walk to Remember (October 1999). This novel is inspired by his sister, Danielle Sparks- Lewis, who died of cancer in June 2000.Certain parts of this story were based on the real experiences. An example of this is when her sister’s husband, proposed to her despite her sickness. He said “I suppose I wrote this novel not only so that you could get to know my sister, but so that you would know what a wonderful thing it was that her husband once did for her."
It is a story of Love and Friendship that surpasses all. This tells us how faith can create miracles.

II. Summary, Theme, Characters
The story is set in the 1950’s. It tells the reminiscence of a certain Landon Carter, back when he was just seventeen years old. He tells of the story of a certain Hegbert Sullivan, a person he will find out as the closest person to someone he will love. Hegbert is a minister. On one occasion, he wrote a play called “The Christmas Angel” which tells of the story of a father sacrificing his whole self for his daughter. It is quite the same as his own story, because he supports his only daughter Jaime by himself.
Landon also tells the story of his father, who is a congress man. His relationship with him doesn’t work well, mainly because of his present absence. He also tells of a drama class, of which he is one of the only two boys attending it. Miss Garber, the teacher, tells of a rendition of Hegbert’s play, of which his daughter Jaime as the Angel. Though most of the time she is very simple, during that moment, he sees her beautiful. It wasn’t until later that he would know the reason why he appreciates Jaime.
As the homecoming dance approaches, Landon finds it hard to find a date. Running out of choices, he approaches Jaime. It seems weird, but it is his only chance to have one. Jaime agrees, but says that he must not fall in love with her. They end up dancing with each other, but then the night doesn’t end up quite nicely because the two of them also end up cleaning his ex-girlfriend Angela’s vomit.
After the dance, Jaime thanks Landon for inviting her. It is probably her first time, but indeed something to remember. The she asks a favor, of which Landon approves of. He has the lead role of Tom Thornton. In addition to it, she also has the idea of playing it for the orphans whom she takes care of.
Landon brings Jaime to his house before going to the orphanage. She is amazed of Landon’s house and tells that he is very lucky with his mom. They also talk about the future. She tells him the simplest wish she has, and that is to get married. Then they go to the orphanage, only to get quite disappointed because they cannot perform for the children.
The day of the play approaches. And at the end of every rehearsal, they Landon walk Jaime home with an unexplainable feeling every time. They talk about almost anything that comes in mind. But one day, Landon walks her home in a very bad mood, causing him to burst his emotions, making Jaime feel sad.
The play comes, and it is a success, due to Landon being inspired by Jaime. He nails all lines, especially the one when he needs to tell her that she’s beautiful.
As Landon promises to make it up to Jaime, she tells a way to do it. He is asked to collect donation cans for the orphanage. He is disappointed with the outcome, but secretly adds something to it.
They hold the program for the children, and everyone ends up happy. After this, they exchange gifts, and this leaves Landon speechless. It is Jaime’s bible, the greatest gift ever. He is in love with her. And the most unforgettable day comes, the day they first kissed.
But then, when all is good and happy, the worst thing that could ever happen comes. Jaime’s secret is out, and it is the worst secret ever. She is diagnosed with leukemia, the rarest form of it. Landon tries everything to make her feel the best way as possible. Every time he comes to her house, they read the Bible and talk, all in the Lord’s plan. Then he comes to the idea of making Jaime’s wish come true.

They married. And forty years later, Landon still feels that day. When he is 17, his life changed forever. Thus, he now believes that miracles can indeed happen.
The plot is the key element to make the story as much real as possible. It proves to be very effective in creating the atmosphere of the usual teenage story made special. It is the most important element for it has all the content and essence of Landon’s memoir.
The theme of the story is the beauty, power, and innocence of true love. It is indeed shown; therefore, the whole novel proves to be in accordance to it.
The characters are as real as possible. Landon is indeed the rascal teenage boy, Jaime the divine, ethereal girl, Hegbert the overly caring and protective father, Eric the supportive best friend, and Landon’s family the usual rich, American household. They are very effective in showing the true spirit of a good love story.
III. Analysis
Nicholas Spark is a very good writer. He did not use complicated words that made his novel understandable to all audience. These simple words that he used made his story expectable. But the story is indeed realistic. The scenes are not far from everyday life. The character of Jamie is spiritual. This was showed through bible which she always brings to her everywhere she goes.
The story, actually, made my tears fall. I just want to read this book again…
IV .Evaluation
The strength of the story is that it is very simple yet very touching. The story may make the readers fall in love. Again, the story is very realistic.
There are no other weaknesses except that the simplicity makes the story quite expectable.
The book left a mark in my mind and heart. This proved that Love will conquer all. It will make your tears fall. And make your heart love…
I can somehow relate to the story. The story of “True Love”. London did not fail in making a mark in my whole personality. It is truly a Walk to Remember…









Book Review:

“A Walk To Remember”

John Michell Lucena Hundana
IV- Madame Marie Sklodowska Curie

GIANAN book review

A GLIMPSE ON AN EVERLASTING LOVE STORY I’VE EVER READ

A Book Review on Nicholas Spark’s A Walk to Remember

Upon reading once again the story that pertains to two lovers to face an unusual condition to test the strength of their relationship, I felt to be much overwhelmed for this story is rarely different from that of the previous ones that I had before not even anew sophisticated Romeo and Juliet or any other remarkable film. I relieve that year often in my mind, bringing it back to life, and I realize that when I do, I always feel a strange combination of sadness and joy.

Behind the greatness of the author lies a life of having a wife and three sons. During that time the book was written, he was living in North Carolina. The author made already remarkable expertise in authoring New York Times bestseller books such as The Notebook, Message in a Bottle, and The Rescue and also a co-author of Wonkini: A Lakota Journey to Happiness and Self-Understanding. He has shown passion and focus in his works and to coincide with that was his timeless inspiration from his sister whom he promised would be remembered through her life and courage. An inspiration that would somehow parallel to some writers’ reason of why they resulted to write great novels.

The setting took place in Beaufort, North Carolina in 1958, wherein he was 17, a time wherein teenagers seek a life of adventure and happiness. He met Rev Hegbert Sullivan, the Southern Baptist minister of the town. After some time, he encountered a major turn in his life that began in his portrayal in a Christmas stage play. His feelings toward Jamie Sullivan, the shy daughter of the minister, began to develop through the times they did things together, enabling Landon to be more matured that what he was. A time came when a dilemma came across their life. Jamie suffered under leukemia until the day came that their wishes came true through their wedding. Henceforth, ironically accepting the death of Jamie, Landon realized that even if Jamie died, all the memories that were left with him were worth treasuring after four decades and would still remain forever.

A story that is full of different themes of profound love, trust, faithfulness and fortitude that happened throughout the story. A story that will surely make your heart pumped fast and be overwhelmed. This story can be a plot of all the memories of the year.


The story was written by the author in an omniscient point of view. He presented the story with himself as Landon narrating his life through the different flashbacks and its further explanation of the story, thus revealing good elements.



Simplicity is one edge of the book. Though, it does not mean that every thing is too literal when the reader sees it. There are some parts that were given some touch of depth in terms of language. However, the author has a good sense of words that may not get the reader into topsy-turvy paths of vocabulary. Some parts that need further clarification are also written well. Through simple vocabulary, the events are given justice from misunderstanding of the readers. And a good edge of it is imagery. Some scenes might just be pictured by the reader upon a glance.



By the simplicity, clarity is induced. Simple words make the reader understand the story further and faster. Reading between the lines can be done also upon the happenings that the reader needs not to think deeper.



The theme presented through the different things mentioned above also keeps a person to continue reading the book. It might have been talking something that has been beyond what is teenage romance because of their activities. However, it makes such great persuasion through kisses and different things that are still wholesome. Without the use of any obscene elements, such sweet love that can happen by that time is well-presented.

And most of all, the logic of the story is outstanding. The serial events show many interrelations with all the other events, the characters, even with the theme. Explanations are somehow given justice except when the narrator says “don’t ask me why” instead of saying it in a more gentle way. Thoughts and arguments presented throughout the story may also amaze the readers because something done might be far from what is possible.

Upon the touching of emotions, it talks about romance. As said earlier, the kind of romance presented is wholesome that the parents of the young readers have nothing to worry. It just touches the touches the feelings of the readers through the different events that show the legacy of their love through the ordeals and through the years of solitude. It also keeps the reader on track especially when the lead characters talk as couples.

There are some events that tackle humor in such a way that it does not raise too many eyebrows. Good examples of these are the eating of peanuts in the graveyard and the calling of Landon to the minister directly through his name. These hilarious deeds then make the reader smile even a little.


A different form of tragedy is also a touching quality in the story. His wife may have died already but one will see that throughout her life, every thing was done at the right time. These then makes the story bittersweet, touching the reader further as the narrator summarizes all of it after four decades.


After all the analysis, it is clear that the book suggests that in any walk of life, a person may see another side of a negative thing and its best way is through the heart, making him mature further than what he is. This then leaves everyone to accept that a loss that uplifted someone else shall remain living forever even in the memories.

All of these then leave out almost all points convincing. Some might not be. But those are too little to find out because one reader will relate to the novel one way or another. A good example is the love from my friends and my families, who might be far away from me in the soon future. But it will leave such beautiful memories worth watching because it became the secret construction material to make such good structure of my personality.

It’s hard to find something beautiful these days. This movie makes me want to be a better person. I don’t just look at it as a love story more as a way of viewing life. I think we would all be lucky to have the chance to show the love and compassion that Jamie and Landon shared, as far as the differences between the book and the movie goes...there were things that were changed...they left out some things in the book that were nice and romantic...but they also added they're own...for instance; the star Landon named for Jamie. The first time Landon kisses Jamie in the book is at her house while she greets him at the front door...to get the best of both worlds. I would suggest reading the book and watching the movie. It’s only 206 pages. It’s something you could finish reading in one Sunday

.

The Search for A Dog that Headed for a Star: A Book Review on Henning Mankell’s A Bridge to the Stars

The Search for A Dog that Headed for a Star: A Book Review on Henning Mankell’s A Bridge to the Stars

submitted by: Renz Danielle Dugenia

Henning Mankell was born in 1948 in Stockholm, Sweden. The Swedish author of a series of adult mystery novels featuring Inspector Kurt Wallander, Mankell has been very much popular in Europe for a number of years. A BRIDGE TO THE STARS, written in 1990 and published in October, 2005 by Andersen Press, the first of Mankell's novels for young adults, which, although very different from his Wallander series of police procedurals, nevertheless are worthwhile for younger audiences to discover as well.

Mankell has received international literary awards for his books, plays, films, and television adaptations. Dividing his time between Sweden and Africa, Mankell is devoted to working with AIDS charities. He is also the director of Teatro Avenida in Maputo, Mozambique.

Joel Gustafson finds two things in life hard to cope with: 'not knowing why, and not being able to do anything about it', in an adult world he doesn't quite understand, and dreams of entering.

Twelve-year-old Joel sometimes feels like his life is just one big mystery. Why does his father, a former sailor who loves to tell stories of exotic places and longs for the sea, now work as a lumberjack in far northern Sweden, about as far from the sea as one can get? "How could he find any satisfaction in going into the forest every day to chop down trees when he'd never succeed in felling enough for him to be able to glimpse the open sea beyond?" Joel asks.

Most of all, Joel wonders about his mother, Jenny, who disappeared when he was a baby, leaving Joel's father moody and Joel to feel "like a mother to myself." Joel’s father keeps a single photograph of Jenny but refuses to talk about her, and Joel wonders why his mother abandoned them so long ago. Now, as his father keeps company with their small town's barmaid, Joel grows increasingly concerned that he is about to be abandoned for a second time.

It is then that Joel forms a Secret Society, with a specific mission - he keeps a logbook of each day's events, hidden under his father's glass-covered model ship, the Celestine.

Joel’s secret place is the rock that splits into two. Here he could alter reality to his wishes. During night excursions, Joel makes the acquaintance of colorful local folks - Simon Windstorm, confined in an institution for ten years, who drives about in his lorry under the night sky; and Gertrud No-Nose, who wears a handkerchief where her nose used to be. Walking to his secret split rock, Joel meets a newcomer to town named Ture, who announces to Joel that he'll be running away from home in a few weeks. Joel invites Ture to join the Secret Society. Joel shows Ture around town at night, believing that he is the leader. But Ture plans pranks that make Joel doubt his new friend's character and intentions. To prove to Ture that he's not a coward, Joel takes a life-threatening dare, discovering in the process his father's real love and the concern of friends.

Imaginative Joel is a private fantasist; this is the source of his creativity. Ture is an activist - he has no imagination. "The purpose of a secret society is to create fear," he says, and sets about inveigling Joel into tormenting one of his neighbors, one of those things he does not want to do but seems powerless to resist - but already he can see through Ture's superficial glamour. The other boy may be a whole year older than Joel, but Joel's nature and circumstances have made him a faster developer. He is beginning to appreciate the company of others on the fringes of society, an area where he places himself.

The greater part of this loosely autobiographical novel takes place during the long, dark winter and slow spring of 1956, beginning one starry night when Joel looks out of a window and sees a dog running in the street. He encounters it only once more but it haunts his memory and he tries to coax it into his dreams. The secret society is dedicated to "The Search for A Dog that Headed for a Star". He knows that it is a childish notion but he also knows that his childhood is ending - not with regret but with anticipation - and Samuel has promised that when Joel leaves school they will go back to live near the sea. His silly revenge fantasies of wandering into the forest to freeze (you'll be sorry when I'm dead) are terminated by the accident that kills one of Samuel's workmates. Death, he decides, is not an awfully big adventure, but life can be, and the book ends as Joel's winter of discontent is about to burst into glorious summer.

One of the things I've most enjoyed about Henning Mankell's A BRIDGE TO THE STARS is the way the author probes into the psyche and emotions of his protagonist. It is a very effective portrayal of a boy on the cusp of adolescence. Searching for independence on his nightly forays with his charismatic new friend, Joel nevertheless still longs for safety and security, as represented by his desire to remain close to his father and to discover more about his absent mother.

Like Joel, I, myself is also longing somebody’s presence, my father. I have not known my biological father since birth and I wanted to discover more about him. And I could say that somehow Joel’s story and mine to a certain extent is parallel. As Joel investigates his father’s mysterious absences and continues to search for the dog, he discovers his own inner strength and learns about adult disappointments and needs.

Joel is an attractive character, his adventures in his town at night will, I imagine, be highly interesting and slightly magical for children to read. As are Joel's discoveries about himself and his family.

It's written in a style ideal for its audience, has an excellent, slightly offbeat story, and Joel exhibits a kind of imagination that many children will find familiar. Not only that, but it says some rather touching and important things about growing up. This is a deep, serious story, written with the lightest of touches and no hint of condescension.

The blurb presented me with a book that seemed both interesting and mature. I read the first pages and was enraptured in the majestic world of the boy, a world which is both magical and incredibly touching.

I would recommend this book to anyone who's looking for something that is easy to read but still gives you a brilliant story with characters that give you insight into the complexities in mid 21st Century Europe and the horror that comes attached to losing your mother.

Joel's thoughtful story is enhanced not only by the boy's imaginative fancies and by Mankell's lyrical writing (capably translated into English by Laurie Thompson), but also by the array of memorable and eccentric characters who populate Joel's small town. Hopefully Mankell will expand his portrait of this northern Swedish village --- and further explore Joel's compelling character --- in his other books about Joel Gustafson.

The fundamental driving force of Henning Mankell as an author is to create a changing world we live in. It becomes worse and worse on every level. It is about exploitation, plundering and degrading. He has a small possibility to participate in the resistance. Most of the things that He does are part of a resistance, a form of solidarity work. He wishes that he could do more of value and that the world changes to a place of decency.

Of Love and Recipes: A Book Review on Laura Esquivel’s Like Water For Chocolate

Of Love and Recipes: A Book Review on Laura Esquivel’s Like Water For Chocolate

By Zatia Denise Danao Gammad

IV-Madame Marie Curie

        “That afternoon, when the uproar had subsided and the water had been dried up by the sun, Nacha swept up the residue the tears had left on the red stone floor. There was enough salt to fill a ten pound sack—it was used for cooking and lasted a long time.”

       Nothing is more exquisitely indulgent than culinary twists in the greatest gamble man can ever participate in. No creative literary touch can ever defeat the unique mix of emotional flavors in a cauldron of tradition, sorrows, remedies, and even prestidigitation. If one is the typical person who would pig out depression or delight, then divert to this 1989 Mexican adult fairy tale. Truly a mouthful for a title, Like Water For Chocolate – originally published as Como Agua Para Chocolate – is a compelling combination of novel and cookbook written by Laura Valdes Esquivel.  The book has been a tremendous international success, being the number one best-selling book in Mexico for three years and it has also been translated into 23 languages.  Like Water for Chocolate was developed into a film, which was released in 1993 concurrently with the book’s English translation.  In the United States, Like Water for Chocolate became one of the largest grossing foreign films ever released.  Esquivel earned the Mexican Academy of Motion Pictures award and she received eleven in all from Ariel Awards.

       Of Spanish heritage, Esquivel made an international entrance with Mexican culture laced around magical realism. It is a monthly installment of memories, each started off a traditional recipe. As the procedure is narrated, the suppressed emotions of Josefita “Tita” De La Garza, the main character, are gastronomically approached, thus, whipping up the story of a young lady having the kitchen as her domain. It is undeniably ethereal and sensual.

       The novel takes place during the Mexican Revolution at the ranch near the Mexican-US border. As soon as she is brought to this world, Tita’s life becomes uneasy, as complemented by the great tide of tears that floods the kitchen floor. Unable to produce milk because of her husband’s shocking death, Mama Elena, Tita’s tyrannical widowed mother built on repression and bitterness, hands her premature daughter to Nacha, the ranch cook who from then on takes care of Tita. In spite of learning from Nacha the world according to food, Tita is having the greatest woes at an early age of fifteen. She is a very passionate girl who longs for the love of Pedro Muzquiz. But because of family tradition – that the youngest daughter in the family must dedicate her life in taking care of her aging mother – she is not allowed to be married, a command her mother firmly emphasized. Instead of her, Mama Elena insisted Rosaura, Tita’s older sister, for Pedro. He agrees to marry her for the purpose of being near Tita, which she is not yet aware of. Therefore, she takes revenge in which she allows her passions to surface through her cooking. Every person who comes in contact with the food she prepares experiences the sentiments an unjust society has buried deep inside her.

       Each chapter starts with a recipe that relates to an episode in Tita’s life. In between the procedures to make Christmas Rolls, Chabela Wedding Cake, Quail in Rose Petal Sauce, Turkey Mole with Almond and Sesame Seeds, Northern-style Chorizo, and the rest, the narrator, Esperanza Muzquiz-Brown, tells us the misfortunes of Tita’s life, how those foods become the natural outcome of her emotions, and how it affects the society in a very strange and magical manner. For instance, the wedding reception of Rosaura and Pedro turns out to be a disaster. The guests wallow and mourn as they taste the Chabella Wedding Cake Tita had baked containing her tears, and they all feel an immense longing on their lost loves, except her. Also, when Tita makes Quails in Rose Petals after Pedro gives her a bouquet of roses in her first year anniversary as the ranch’s head cook. It serves as an aphrosidiac for Gertrudis, her eldest sister. Then, she begins to have lustful endeavors and goes away with Juan Alejandro, a soldier from the army.

        It is a gripping tale of emotional suppression, self growth, and tradition. Basically, this novel deals with the shift from a traditional to a modern society and women’s liberation from the oppressive judgment of the society and the traditions that degrade them as well. At the beginning of the novel, Tita was a generally submissive young lady, humbly bowing to any of Mama Elena’s command. As the novel progresses, Tita learns to disobey the injustice of her mother and gradually becomes more and more adept at expressing her inner fire through various means. At first, cooking was her only outlet, but through self discovery, she learned to verbalize and actualize her feelings, and stand up to her despotic mother.

        The author simply placed a signature that pioneered the world of culinary literature. Her writing style outshines every book placed beside hers. She formats her potentially weighty subjects, such as Mexican tradition, in a light-hearted manner that infuses humor and grief in every page. Simmered in a magical realism genre, the novel shows that Esquivel managed to alter her writing from sweet giggles to bitter acceptance with occasional surrealistic fantasy sequences interspersed between the commonplace goings. Thus, it accumulates persuasiveness and logic under an enchanting narration. Though fictional happenings are read, it extends to history and society, especially women who represent a distinct version of femininity. It is incidentally much more than hyperbole.

        The way each chapter is introduced with a recipe containing both literal and figurative ingredients made this book irresistible. Each ingredient has its history and symbolism that are only understood when the food is finally cooked. It correlates to what is currently happening to Tita and the feelings she is undergoing. As a result, many of the characters complained about physical ailments, in which the metaphors of illnesses are impressive. The physical ailments represent emotional turbulence. They are either exceedingly humorous or grotesquely repulsive. For instance, there came a point in the novel in which Tita and Mama Elena’s relationship was almost completely abolished. Mama Elena could no longer eat Tita’s food because she believed that the food tasted as though it has been poisoned. She refused to eat and began to lose weight. The phenomena of food tasting like poison can be approached from the viewpoints of each of the women. From Tita’s point of view, it can be seen as if Tita placed poison in the food, not physically, but emotionally. Out of her sheer hatred for her mother, she was unable to cook for her out of the goodness of her heart, which resulted in the production of a poison-like flavor. On the other hand, it can also be seen that Mama Elena tasted the bitterness in the food due to her own emotions. Mama Elena was unable to expel her feelings of jealousy and loathing for Tita. This is the reason for the bitterness in the food. Mama Elena’s bitterness towards Tita led her to taste poison in everything she eats. Although she finally consented to let Tita prepare her meals, she secretly expelled the food from her body with syrup of ipecac, and eventually, died from vomiting.

       For a passionate cook such as myself, to transmute feelings into cooking provides an enthralling feast for the senses and the soul. It is flawless for there is no novel and cookbook better than what Esquivel started. From the moment I received a copy of this book, I easily experienced what Tita had undergone. I know how it is to have cooking as an outlet of emotions, though not as distressed as hers. If one is a keen observer and has a vast knowledge of culinary procedures, he can see that every ingredient complements the other to be able to tell as story, from its presentation, to the fragrance, to the mouth-watering taste. Although contrary to her maternal relationship, it constantly reminds me of how my mother taught me the secrets behind great cooking. That no sweat and torn apron can ever express hard work if one cannot passionately start the fire.

       With its winning blend of poignant romance and bittersweet wit, Like Water For Chocolate earned her a title of “Princess of Modern Latin Literature.” Esquivel basted a gustatory judgment in mound of suppressed emotions that made her book a best-selling phenomenon. The various recipes that introduce each chapter hide within themselves a story. Behind the story are people, events, and traditions. The recipes are passed through the generations, which is in fact a crypt within a crypt. Each generation adds a new layer through the events experienced in their lives, and each time a relative cooks one of the family recipes, a story is being told, a memory is being recalled. Overall, it is a 241-page cookbook narrated to a thousand-page of stories.

Book Review: "A Walk To Remember" by tristan^^

Book Review by

Mark Tristan Angelo Morena Cabatac
IV- Madame Marie Curie

A Walk To Remember

I. Introduction

A Walk To Remember by Nicholas Sparks. He was born on December 31, 1965. He is an internationally best selling American author. He writes novels with themes that include Christianity, love, tragedy, and fate. He is currently the author of 12 published novels; including: Message in a Bottle, A Walk to Remember, and The Notebook. He lives in New Bern, North Carolina with his wife Catherine and their five children.

It is inspired by his sister’s life and courage. The story takes place in the real-life city of Beaufort, North Carolina, in 1958 and 1959. Beaufort is a small coastal port city that was established in 1722. The story is about love that conquers all. It shows how love and faith can change a person. The novel was written in 1998 and it spent almost six months for the best-seller hardcover and four months on the paperback best-seller list. When you read it, you will laugh… but then you will cry…


II. Summary, Theme, Characters

Nicholas Sparks writes about a young man and woman in 1958 on the coast in Morehead City in Beaufort, North Carolina. This is the story of their first love. Morehead City is the type of town where the kids walk around barefoot from April through October and the townspeople wave hello from their cars whether they know the person or not. Landon Carter is a seventeen-year-old high school senior whose father is a United States congressman. He and his father are strangers --- his father is on the road quite a bit of the time and he spends the majority of time being raised by his mother. His father insists that he needs to run for student body president to increase his chances of getting into a good college. His father believes that "We Carters always win" and he wants to mold Landon into a miniature version of himself.

Landon wins the election and one of his responsibilities is attending the homecoming dance. Due to the fact he has just broken up with his girlfriend, he doesn't have a date and in a panic, he pulls out his yearbook and scans the pages for someone available. He finally decides on Jamie Sullivan, a junior, who is the minister's daughter, knowing that nobody else will ask her to the dance. Jamie wears old sweaters, plaid skirts and her hair up in a bun. She carries the Bible wherever she goes and believes that whatever happens in life is according to the Lord's plan. She is obviously not your typical high school student and not someone in whom Landon or his friends would be interested.

Both Landon and Jamie star in the school Christmas play that Jamie's father has written. The play details the personal story of his life after his wife's death and his search for love and the meaning of life within his daughter. Jamie plays the angel and Landon, the lead male role. Over time, in rehearsals and occasional talks together on her front porch, Landon starts to like Jamie. As a result, he becomes a better person, helping her do good deeds and accompanying her to the orphanage. The opening night of the play, he is amazed when he first sees her walk on the stage dressed as an angel, with her hair loose and flowing down her back. She glitters onstage and he falls for her true beauty.

After many dates, Landon finally learns that Jamie had terminal leukemia and has stopped responding to treatment. Landon wants to fulfill Jamie’s wish list example by building a telescope so she can see a comet. Through this process, Landon and Jamie learn more about the nature of love. The book ends with Jamie's death, but only after the couple are married in the same chapel as was Jamie's deceased mother, the event that topped Jamie's wish list.

There are many themes that revolves around the novel and these are love conquers all, God’s plan, change, and faith.

The characters are Landon Carter, a 57 year old man who narrates the story of his seventeenth year, Jaime Sullivan, a daughter of a Baptist minister and changed the life of Landon, Hegbert, the father of Jaime who tries to discourage the couple being together, Worth Carter, Landon’s Father and a local congressman, Eric Hunter, Landon’s very supportive best friend.


III. Analysis

His writing style manages to both pull in the reader and touch their heart. An example of this would be how he introduces you to each of the characters so you get to know them in-depth. He writes with deep emotion and really knows how to express feelings in an array of situations. As you start to get into the book you learn to love the characters and feel as if they are real people by the way Sparks writes. Something I could learn from this author could be to have a more positive outlook on life and to live it to the fullest because you never know when it will end.

I believe his purpose for writing this piece was to show how opinions and special feelings for certain people can change in a short period of time. I think this because we seem to judge people before getting to know them. From reading this book it has shown me to not judge people from what they look like on the outside because they can turn out to be the complete opposite of what you imagined them as.


IV. Evaluation

The strength of the novel is its very emotional scheme. And when you it, you’ll never regret reading it. The themes are applicable to everyone.

For the novel’s weakness, there’s not much of it maybe it’s just the simplicity of the story and the events are easily predictable.

The book left an inspiration to the youth and to everyone. It gives a great idea to change a person and it shows how miracle happens.

I can relate to the story, because there are events that occurred in my own life. I am just a quite person and an anti-social one but she changed me to a more sociable person. But it turned out that she didn’t change at all. She’s still lazy and she always comes to school late. And now we broke up I hope someone will change her into a better one.

Some walk to go away and some walk to enter our lives. But either way, if we walk to remember, we will see ourselves of how we do in our own lives. We can see what great things we’ve done to change a person’s life even your time ended so soon.

Genji Monogatari Book Review by Kevin Ross Nera

GENJI MONOGATARI

THE TALE OF GENJI

Kevin Ross D. nera

Iv - curie


“The moon I love has left the sky,
And where ‘tis hid I cannot tell;
I search in vain, in vain I try
To find the spot where it may dwell.”


I. Introduction

Considered as one of the greatest classics of all time, it is deemed as Japan’s magnus opus of prose narrative. Written nearly 1000 years ago by no other than Murasaki Shikibu, this 54 chapter long romance is set within the Heian period of Japan. It is written in pure Japanese thereby serving as a testament to the rich, unique culture of Medieval Japan. Several translations of the book are published but so far Edward G. Seidensticker's work has been considered the best and even required two volumes due the length of this timeless romance. Critics and scholars worldwide label it as perhaps the earliest true novel in the history of the world. As a testament to this, the novelist Yasunari Kawabata said in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech: "The Tale of Genji in particular is the highest pinnacle of Japanese literature. Even down to our day there has not been a piece of fiction to compare with it".

Murasaki Shikibu was a Japanese novelist, poet, and a maid of honor of the imperial court during the Heian period. She is best known as the author of The Tale of Genji, written in Japanese between about 1000 and 1008, one of the earliest novels in human history.
"Murasaki Shikibu" was not her real name, which is unknown. Some scholars have postulated that her given name might have been Fujiwara Takako, recorded as a name of a lady-in-waiting ranked shōji on the 29th day of the 1st month, Kankō 4 (February 19, 1007) according to Midō Kampaku Ki, a diary written by Fujiwara no Michinaga. Her own diary, The Murasaki Shikibu Diary, states that she was nicknamed "Murasaki" ("purple wisteria blossom") at court, after a character in The Tale of Genji. "Shikibu" refers to her father's position in the Bureau of Ceremony (shikibu-shō).
It was the custom among aristocrats in those days to call a court lady by a combined appellative taken from a) her clan name and b) some court office belonging either to her or some close relative.
Lady Murasaki Shikibu was born about 973 in Kyoto, Japan. She was born in a family of minor nobility and a member of the northern branch of the Fujiwara clan.
Murasaki's mother died while she was a child, so Murasaki was raised, contrary to customs of the time, by her father Fujiwara no Tametoki, a scholar and officer of the imperial court. During Heian-era Japan, couples lived separately and children were raised by the mother and her family. Also contrary to customs of the time, her father gave her a male education. Men were taught kanji and classical Chinese literature as the requisite culture, while women were taught kana and poetry. Her father praised her intelligence and ability, but lamented that she was "born a woman". She was married in her early 20s and had one child, Daini no Sanmi, who was a poet in her own right and believed to have written the latter parts of the romance.
At the royal court, she was the lady-in-waiting for Empress Shoshi (Akiko) and may have been hired by Fujiwara no Michinaga to serve the Empress.
Murasaki died either in 1014, when records show that her father suddenly returned to Kyoto from his governor's mansion, or between 1025 and 1031, when she would have been in her mid-50s, fairly old by Heian standards.
The only other writer which could have rivaled her work during the Heian period would be Sei Shōnagon, the author of The Pillow Book, a collection of lists, gossip, poetry, observations, complaints and anything else she found of interest during her years in the court. Murasaki Shikibu wrote about Shōnagon in her diary, The Murasaki Shikibu Diary.

II. Summary of Content

The tale of Genji is roughly divided into three parts.
Genji's rise and fall
Youth, chapters 1–33: Love, romance, and exile
Success and setbacks, chapters 34–41: A taste of power and the death of his beloved wife
The transition (chapters 42–44): Very short episodes following Genji's death
Uji, chapters 45–54: Genji's official and secret descendants, Niou and Kaoru

Summary: Genji’s rise and fall

Genji, the hero of the tale, is an Emperor's son by an Intimate who has lost her father and so has no support of any kind beyond the Emperor's personal devotion to her. It is not enough. The Emperor longs to appoint Genji Heir Apparent over his firstborn, who is the son of a Consort, but he knows that the court would never stand for it. He therefore decides to remove Genji entirely from the imperial family by giving him a surname (the Japanese Emperors have none), so that he can serve the realm as a commoner and a senior government official.
Genji is married to the daughter of a particularly powerful courtier. He and his wife continue to live separately as was the custom during their time. He has no recollection of her mother but he hears that his father's future Empress (Fujitsubo) resembles her closely, and in his earliest adolescence he comes to adore her.
Due to the disparity of their age, he finds another woman. He finds Murasaki, who is Fujitsubo's niece and resembles her, is about ten when he first sees her. He brings her up personally, and when she is old enough he marries her.
In chapter 2 ("The Broom Tree") the teenage Genji listens while three young men share the secrets of their love lives. Later in the same chapter he goes exploring, and in several succeeding ones he begins more affairs. However, the narrator insists several times that Genji never forgot any woman he had once known, and the tale bears this out.
Genji possesses such wonderful traits that entice women to him. He is devastatingly handsome, charming, and eloquent combined with such wit in dealing with women. As time goes by, he increases in rank and political opposition increases against him. Being himself, he cannot resist making love to one of the daughters (Oborozukiyo) of his chief political enemy, and disaster strikes when the gentleman finds him in bed with her. Unfortunately, the girl's older sister (the Heir Apparent's mother) is not only powerful but evil tempered. In her outrage she sets out immediately to destroy Genji, and he has to retreat into self-exile.
He goes to Suma, a stretch of shore on the Inland Sea that is now within the city limits of Kobe, and since he is in disgrace he must leave Murasaki, his true love, behind. The narrative dwells at length on the poignancy of his suffering as he languishes in the wilds. Then a great storm threatens his very life. He has strange dreams of his late father and of other supernatural beings. As soon as the storm begins to subside, an eccentric and wealthy gentleman (the Akashi Novice) arrives by boat to invite him to be his guest at a place called Akashi which Genji accepts.
At Akashi, Genji comes to know the gentleman's daughter (the lady from Akashi), who is pregnant when at last he is called back to the City. He already has a son (Yugiri) by his first wife, who died some years ago, and of course there is also his secret son by Fujitsubo, the future Emperor Reizei. This new child, his last, is a girl, and in time, after Reizei's long reign, she will be the Empress. It is she who will lift Genji toward the supreme good fortune of a ranking non-imperial noble: that of being the grandfather of an Emperor.
After his triumphant return from exile, Genji becomes a man of power. Although still susceptible to the charms of certain women, he does not commit any new affairs.
Genji's only serious courtship between chapters 14 and 33 is addressed to a Princess (Asagao), with whom he clearly had some sort of relationship as a very young man which does not last long, and is a complete failure.
By chapter 33 ("New Wisteria Leaves") Genji has risen to extraordinary heights. He has built a magnificent complex of four interconnected mansions, each linked with one of the four seasons and housing a lady important to him, on land that seems to have passed to him from an extremely distinguished lover, the Rokujo Haven (Rokujo no Miyasudokoro, now deceased). This is his incomparable Rokujo ("Sixth Avenue") estate. More remarkably, the Emperor, his secret son, has appointed him Honorary Retired Emperor.
Then, in chapter 34 ("Spring Shoots I") Genji responds to an appeal from his half brother, Retired Emperor Suzaku who wants Genji to marry his favorite daughter which Genji agrees to. However, she lacks the rank that would allow her to be a wife even for an Honorary Retired Emperor.
When Murasaki becomes ill, Genji looks for her while a young man secretly makes love to Suzaku’s daughter. Genji soon finds out, and he is furious. She then bears a son named Kaoru and soon thereafter the lover dies of guilt and shame.
Murasaki dies two or three years later, in her early forties. Genji, then in his early fifties, survives her as a mere shell of his former self. It appears that after the reader sees him for the last time, he leaves the world, retires to a temple, and dies within a year or two.

III. Analysis of Text

Based from the translation of Kencho Suematsu, I would say that the writer’s style is more of realistic than anything. It is a mixture of the rich Japanese culture, the predominant Heian Court lifestyle and a revelation of society’s actions during their period. The focus on Genji, rather, on his innumerable love affairs, implies the state of discrimination between women and men at that time. The numerous mentions of concubines also serve as a testament to this. However, this sense of realism stems from the fact that the plot is not the mutual focus of this tale. It actually develops rather slowly because the focus lies on the individual character’s development and their emotions. This leads to a great development of all the dramatis personae. The realism also occurs as the events occur with such consistency especially with regards to character development despite the multitude o f characters. It almost seems as though it were a multiple biography. Genji’s love affairs, may also be described as a man’s weakness in finding the closest resemblance to one’s true love albeit, causing harm to others. This particular style of writing is elevated to greater heights due the fact that the writer is a woman. This is because this style and writing prowess is not attributed to women of their time because of the cultural aspects that are being taught to the different genders. Her raising by her father, seems to account for her foundations, which in turn is richly developed as she progresses in age and experience. However, I find her writing style as not being simple at all. Yes, it is extremely detailed but the length of the chapters and the text itself is probably due to the fact that some of the descriptions are rather superfluous as was stated by the emissions of some parts of the text by the translator.

I find that the style of writing is interesting as it goes deep within the emotional recesses of the characters as each unfolds their own share of experience and the amount of variety just goes to show the amount of creativity and the vast well of inspiration that the author draws from. I personally find Genji’s eloquence in dealing with all sorts of women as humorous and true to life that such sweet-talkers really do exist. The women of this tale also reflect the different types of character which can be found in them even up to this date.

The Heian culture is also well expressed due to the amount of poetry found within the regular conversations in order to convey their emotions. These poems include within them a great deal of the Japanese culture and without the footnotes, a normal reader unknowledgable of the culture would definitely be missing out on a lot of its essence. These four line poems, called Waka, earned it a place in the study of poetry.

In addition to this, the text contains a vast amount of allusions which are, thankfully, pointed out. Save from these points, it also contains a great deal of information regarding prior literature, mythological and fictional characters, Religion, Japanese beliefs and customs as well as other literary devices. It is by all means, a masterful classic written in pure Japanese language which proves the amount of talent that the writer has.

IV. Evaluation of the Text

The book, being written in pure Japanese, poses a great difficulty in translating. As such, when I have read it, it is evident that the structure of the sentences is different from the literature that I am familiar with. I also found great difficulty keeping track of all the characters as they are not in possession of their real names. The usage of titles, which was common among the aristocracy of their time, had been out of my palate due to the length and unfamiliarity of such terminologies to me. Aside from this, the descriptions which are truly vivid and depict real life also seem excessive in some parts which could tire out the impatient reader. In here, I am speaking for myself. It also contained some words which I did readily know the meaning. Some of which I understood through the use of context while others I just left out.

However, the main thing I liked about this text is the fact that it is a narration of experience. It is very easy to relate to and one can just put himself in the situation of the character. It’s apparent realism reflects the strengths and weaknesses of the human being. It is a great love story made complicated by the numerous affairs which Genji had wrought upon himself. What also interested me is the Chapter in which Genji supposedly dies. It is only a title Chapter with nothing as its content. Such ingenuity stimulates my mind although it also poses a few questions to me.

Was it really the way that the author had ended the story to end? Is it a reflection of the author’s life experiences? I am well aware that the author is greatly represented by one of the characterers, lady Violet. The usage of such a device to represent one’s self and personal experiences in one’s work is truly brilliant and served as a basis for works that came thereafter. The best thing about this work is the fact that it was written in the 10th to 11th century yet it remains as something one could relate to even if I live in the 21st century. The disparity of 1000 years or so is made negligible by the author’s writing prowess and the amount of human nature as is implied in the whole text.

The book has left out a little background on some of the characters as some just appear suddenly and become vital to the plot. The first chapter is a vivid description of the history and origins of Genji and I guess this had set the standards for the other characters as well.

The latter part of the text also becomes a subject of much debate as to the authorship as the inconsistencies also become more apparent as compared with the earlier parts. It is highly believed that the authorship passed down from Mother to daughter. However, this remains as a debatable notion subject for further discussions.

I have read only a very few books in my life which included the novels of Warcraft, the novels of Rizal, Greek Mythology and Bob Ong’s works. Therefore, I am no literary expert and usually take more time to realize and appreciate reading such works. However, I would say that The Tale of Genji interested me because I thought it was similar to Samurai X or some other Japanese Meiji Era war period text. Instead, I found myself with such a rich historical romance which in no way disappointed me.