B for Books: four quick reviews

Title: De Perfecte Partner (The Perfect Partner)
Author: Esther Verhoef
Genre: Short Story
Publisher: B for Books
Pages: Hardcover 46
Language: Dutch
Rating: 5/10

Summary: Claudia is obsessed by plastic surgery and more specifically famous surgeon Marc Wagner. He loves to operate on her. She thinks it's love.

Spoilerish review
Maybe I'm prejudiced against people who go for plastic surgery merely for aesthetic reasons, but I thought this was very cliche. I didn't like Claudia from the start, no matter if Dr. Wagner is made to be the bad guy here. The question whether he not only screwed with her body, but also her mind is not relevant. The fact that in the end she doubts what actually happened between them outside the operatingroom (did she imagine their relationship?) simply confirms my belief that she wasn't very stable to begin with.


Title: Stikvallei (Choke Valley)
Author: Frank Westerman
Genre: Short Story
Publisher: B for Books
Pages: Hardcover 59
Language: Dutch
Rating: 6/10

Summary: Fumes from a craterlake in the highlands of Cameroon kill hundreds of people and animals. Volcanologist Haraldur Sigurdsson wants to find out what happened. Was there a vulcanic eruption or did the government allow nuclear testing, as the rumour among the survivors suggests?

Spoilerfree review
The story starts as lesson in history and mentions more occasions of toxic fumes before trying to seperate facts from fiction. This educational tone in combination with the introduction of many characters made it hard to care for the cause. Despite the intriguing whispers about a conspiracy I wasn't drawn in. This event deserved a more in depth investigation.


Title: Eerder Thuis Dan Townes (Home Before Townes)
Author: P.F. Thomese
Genre: Short Stories
Publisher: B for Books
Pages: Hardcover 46
Language: Dutch
Rating: 7.5/10

Summary: Two stories about roadtrips with J. Kessels. In the first one the men end up in the seedy nightlife in Hamburg. The second story has them travelling to a small town somewhere in the Netherlands to an obscure concert by Bluessinger Townes.

Spoilerfree review
Written from the point of view of an unnamed author, who obviously has a manly crush on J. Kessels in all his grumpy glory. I'm not a fan of this unpredictable character. He's a man with no regard for his travelcompanion and wants things done his way. However: the adventures of the two men are amusing and -sadly- recognisable. They drift trough towns without directions, and end up meeting people they'd rather not have or -even better- dreamed about spending time with. Yeah, I've been there. It was just as (un)cool without the drinking and the smoking. I prefer my own sober experiences, even if I love P.F. Thomese's writing.

Interested in P.F. Thomese? I wrote a review of his book Shadow Child earlier.


Title: De Grammatica Van Een Niemand (The Grammar of a Nobody)
Author: Abdelkader Benali
Genre: Short Story
Publisher: B for Books
Pages: Hardcover 46
Language: Dutch
Rating: 7/10

Summary: The Writer (who refers to himself by his profession and is the Nobody in the title) travels back to the small town in Morocco where he was born. While he remembers his childhood and moving to the Netherlands, he gradually accepts who his is to his family and to himself.

Spoilerfree reviewThis seems like a personal story, but by using the third person point of view it feels rather detached. I guess that is exactly what the writer was going for, but I already had problems relating to his feelings and the style only pushed me farther away. But in the end I did get a good impression of what it must be like for a foreing person to have to adjust to an unknown society. Mission accomplished.

FYI: Abdelkader Benali first novel Wedding By The Sea has been internationally praised and is still available in lots of languages.

BOOKbabbles: Cartoony comedy to feed your brain

Title: Heb Je In Je Hoofd Nog Ruimte Voor Waanzinnige Plannen
(Do You Have Room In Your Head For Amazing Plans?)
Author: Loesje
Genre: Politics
Publisher: A.W. Bruna
Pages: Paperback 192
Language: Dutch
Rating: 8/10

Summary: Slogans, thoughts and smart arse comments on politics, the economy, the world, love and other important stuff

More about Loesje
If you have ever been in the Netherlands, you probably have seen the posters signed by Loesje. Maybe she even turned up in your country;) The anonymous organisation behind that girl's name has been around since the early eighties and started plastering posters with comments on politics and society all over the Netherlands. I have been a fan from when I was a wee girl. Nowadays this activist group is also a writer's collective and regularly publishes books to get people to think. You can find international posters and information on the official website. Have some of my favorites:

STOP DREAMING ABOUT THAT KNIGHT - AND PUT ON YOUR SHINING ARMOUR




Title: The Lady and the Chocolate
Author: Edward Monkton
Genre: Poetry
Publisher: Harper Collins
Pages: Hardcover (no page numbers;)
Language: English
Rating: 9/10

Summary: An irresistible story from one of the world's most bizarre thinkers. It might just be genius. A lady and a chocolate bar have a life-changing conversation. Includes drawings:)

Snippet + author's website
"No chocolate," said the Lady. "I do not need you..." - "Ah," said the Chocolate, "but think of the rich, SILKY pleasure as I touch your lips."... Guess who wins in the end?
I love most, if not all poems by Edward Monkton. So I'm pimping his website: Interesting thoughts.

BOOK: Portnoy's Complaint - Philip Roth

Title: Portnoy's Complaint
Author: Philip Roth
Genre: Novel
Publisher: Vintage
Pages: Paperback 274
Language: English
Rating: 8/10

Summary: -"A couch side confessional by 33-year-old Jewish-American Alexander Portnoy to his psychiatrist. It's a sexually explicit exploration of Jewish identity that caused a storm of controversy when it was published in 1969."- Well, that's what I stole from a review I found on the internet. I wouldn't call it specifically Jewish, I would label it 'male' identity... Portnoy talks about his parents and how he feels they are to blame for how he deals with life. Specifically for how he can't handle relationships and for his everlasting obsession with sex.

Spoilerfree review
As with most books that are deemed 'classics' now, I had a bit of trouble understanding what the fuss was about. (I had the same with 'Catcher In The Rye' and 'Breakfast At Tiffany's'). That's doesn't mean the book was dissapointing, on the contrary: this was a very amusing read. Alexander Portnoy makes such a big deal over nothing, I had fun mocking him while he was pouring his heart out. The way he talks about his parents, with a mixture of love and disgust is something I think everybody can recognize. But a lot of his complaints come across as unnecessary whining by a grown up man, who is too dissapointed with his life to handle the boring truth.
Or it is possible that I'm such a sexual deviant that I fail to see what's wrong with him. Read it and let me know.

BOOK: Problemski Hotel - Dimitri Verhulst

Title: Problemski Hotel
Author: Dimitri Verhulst
Genre: Creative nonfiction
Publisher: Contact
Pages: Hardcover 110
Language: Dutch
Rating: 8.5/10

Summary: Bipul Masli, once a photographer in his own country, now lives in a Belgian facility for refugees. He is waiting for a decision from the authorities whether he will be allowed to stay and work in Belgium. In the mean time he observes his fellow refugees from all over the world. Each one of them has his and her own story to tell.

Spoilerfree review
Dimitri Verhulst, an investigative journalist, had himself locked up in the asylum seekers' centre for several days for a Belgian magazine. He then wrote a magazine article, but the experience would not let go of him and he wrote this book with several short stories. In his epilogue he lets the reader know "about half of these stories are made up, but none of them contains a lie."
Before reading this book I already had a preconception about asylum seekers and how they are treated in western 'civilisation' and even though I knew about the appalling conditions in these centres, this book still hit me in the gut. Especially since the refugees are not described as being helpless or in need of pity. They are people willing to go far to have a life worth living. I may not like them or agree with their point of view on the situation in the part of the world they fled from. But after reading about how they are treated like second rate people, who are not allowed to be in control of their life, I did understand why some of them exaggerate their story, even if the truth is already horrid enough. It pains me that 'we' make people defend their decision to seek a better life. This book made me even more cynical about us ever getting it right. The book offers no solutions, but I hope it inspires people to think about the issue. Highly recommended.

It's available in English!

BOOK: Red Carpets And Other Banana Skins - Rupert Everett

Title: Red Carpets And Other Banana Skins
Author: Rupert Everett
Genre: Autobiography
Publisher: Abacus (Edition May 2007)
Pages: Paperback 406
Language: English
Rating: 8/10

Summary: Actor Rupert Everett (probably best known for his role in My Best Friend's Wedding) gives a very detailed insight in his life so far. Not afraid to name names and to show the dirtier side of showbiz, he tells us all about the struggles and the victories behind the scenes.

Review with excerpt
I was looking forward to reading this book; I first saw Rupert in The Comfort Of Strangers (a film I watched for Christopher Walken) and I have paid attention to his work ever since. Plus I was promised some juicy gossip about other famous people *g*. The book certainly delivers on that issue, maybe even to a greater extent than I had hoped for. It confirmed some of my suspicions about the sillyness of the glitter and glamour. But the book is more than just a tabloid from a reliable source: it's really Rupert's life journey. Of course that is not all fun, some parts of the book deal with death and disease: he lost quite a few friends along the way. I was also saddened by his acounts of the homophobia he encountered in Hollywood.
It's a captivating story, from the first 'Tales From The Crib' about "Roo's" upperclass childhood until his rise and fall and rise in the Lubed Desert. The massive amount of pictures that are included are fascinating too.

I have only one tiny complaint, that I would like to illustrate with this little snippet from the chapter called 'London':
"At some point, biking from one latitude to another within that shimmering pink triangle, indulging, as I almost invariably did when alone, in waking dreams of the legendary screen career that was awaiting to unfold before me, I was beckoned from a passing Rolls-Royce and joined instead, for a brief amateur career, the ranks of the oldest profession.In the prevailing winds of change I was simply fulfilling my duty as a Thatcher youth. 'Get on your bike and work,' was Norman Tebbit's message to the unemployed. (He was Thatchers's gruesome henchman.) I got off mine and jumped into a passing limousine.

However, more than enough has been said about my brief foray into commerce, both by myself and others, so I will only quote my bank manager [...].

NONONONONONONO! Rupert: just because it was said before, doesn't mean everybody heard you. Dammit.

I also would have liked to read something about the plastic surgery, because I seriously think he ruined his face with that. But I still love his voice and that comes across all through the book, whether he talks about his 'Nanny' or his adoration for Julie Andrews...
I highly recommend this.