Back from the self-imposed exile

Hollow, ungratifying and frustrating are the 3 ways I can best describe my past week. All the reasons why I was away without a conclusion and an intro to the next book.  I haven’t railed off B-52 yet. The Bluest Eye is done and the next book has been started. Our Kind of Traitor by John le Carre.

But first concluding words on The Bluest Eye. I think I know why it didn’t move but only touch the readers. It started off in all directions, doing all things, talking about the different characters and their background, history but the whole time I was waiting on Pecola to ask for blue eyes and blond hair. After all, that’s what the book was about! So finally Pecola’s wish is thrown to the audience but it wasn’t grown. I wasn’t convinced she wanted those eyes so badly, more than anything else. Then, there is the other issue (no, I won’t spoil it for any potential readers). Psst, people who have read it, you know, the one towards the end that the book concludes with? That’s what I am referring to. She barely mentioned it. It was just a blip in the entire book and could have been totally ignored amongst her trance of words. Now, I am not telling Toni Morrison how to write, far from it, but had she expanded on that issue and Pecola’s fascination with blue eyes more it would have been a moving book.

I have to say though, the words are lyrical. She writes so well the prose becomes poetry, simply exuberant!

Alright moving on, Our Kind of Traitor – the only reason I picked up this book is The Constant Gardener. I didn’t read the book but saw the movie with Rachel Weisz and thought it was brilliant; actually I didn’t even know there was such a book. So if the movie was so good, the book had to be better, right? Well, Our Kind of Traitor, 55 pages in, is making me drool. It better pick up or I am looking to abandon it.

So what’s it about? The book is about a young British couple, vacationing in Antigua (tennis vacation) and come across some Russian mafioso-type-honcho, Dima. For some reason, the British service is very interested in this Dima guy so on the way back to Britain the couple (Perry & what’s her name) are extensively being interrogated by the MI-5 or someone who works in those spooky places.

As I said, so far boring very boring. I am forcing myself to read it and it better pick up. It does promise some adventure and politics between Russia, City of London and the British service so I will go on for a wee bit longer. We’ll see how it goes.