Every 14 Days...(49)

Familiar Things (Hwang Sok-yong)

I liked the cover of this book, and the premise drew me in somewhat. However, on reading, I was less than captivated.

Bugeye is a teenager who moves into a landfill site with his mother after his father is sent away. Starting their new life collecting thrown-out scraps to salvage and sell on, they befriend one of the site chiefs and his son, Baldspot. What follows is the developing relationship between the two sons, the strange characters they meet and their dips into the big city, before a rather predictable turn of events.

The setting is one that feels slightly like ones you have encountered before: a post-apocalyptic-like world of waste left behind in the wake of modern progress. The characters are the forgotten ones, cast aside by society, much like the waste the scavenge through. Nothing here particularly feels that original.

The style of writing also has some moments of cringe, particularly in describing the Nintendo that Bugeye buys; written as if an MP trying to be down with the kids. There are also some slightly more fantastical elements that to some extent lose me.

That said, this is an enjoyable enough read and plods along relatively nicely enough. But the fact that this isn't the most exhilarating writing or original work makes this a little too familiar to stand-out too much.

Days to read: 12

Days per book: 14.7

Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years (Sue Townsend)

Yet a further installment in the Mole series ticked off, in chronological order, no less.

This, being the fifth, starts a couple of years after "The Wilderness Years", Mole now a soon-to-be-divorced father of one, then two sons. In his thirties, he sees some minor fame as a TV chef, and is finally offered the chance at his dream: being a published author.

As always, he fails in all these things at the start of the Blair Years in the late Nineties. He has successfully alienated his wife, abandoned his son - and not even aware of the second - shown a pure lack of charisma for the camera and simply incapable of writing the simple words he so often yearns for.

Luckily for him, life finds a way of rewarding him: inheriting a house off a man he barely knew; with his mother essentially saving him in everything.

The longer diary entries suggests the sophistication he believes he has, but in his thirties and back living at home, relying on his mother and bemoaning his parents' marital problems, he is firmly back at 13 3/4.

Days to read: 19

Days per book: 14.7

Straight Outta Crawley (Romesh Ranganathan)

When riding a wave of success, it's pretty much standard now for a comedian to write a cash-in book, however necessary one may be. Ranganathan is no different. Pretty much always on the television these days, that cash cow must be milked. As indicated in his introduction, this book was bought for me as a gift and I thus felt obliged to read it.

As the title suggests, this book breaks down his life into various themes, with a pun on a hip hop "classic" as the title for each chapter. The key issues covered are: his start in stand-up ("Could the Real Romesh Ranganathan Please Stand up?"); his childhood obesity and subsequent veganism ("Lose Yourself)"; his mother ("Mama Said Knock You Out"); etc.

Despite switching the chronology up a little, there is a general timeline that is followed throughout, and the earlier parts are the more interesting. His dabbles with hip hop, his career as a teacher, his parental problems during his childhood and his start in comedy are the more interesting parts of the book.

Once fame comes into it, it gets a little bit more boring, anecdotes usually ending "I died on my arse" and with his profile now so great, it feels little more than a DVD extra of "Behind the scenes" tales from the recording of TV shows.

Luckily, his fame comes late on, so this doesn't take up too much of the book, the more enlightening and interesting points in life coming before all that. In fact, his stories from his days as a teacher, starting to try-out the odd bit of stand-up, is where the most interesting moments come from, with some genuine advice on how to deal with unruly teenagers. And I didn't mind this accompanying my Tube journey in each morning - there is enough variety here to keep you entertained.

These books are written at a time when fame is at its peak, so sales will be greatest. His life as a real person is more interesting, and writing about his post-fame days will be best off written in a fair few years' time when there is more interesting stuff to say. But by then, will anybody be reading?

Days to read: 9

Days per book: 14.7

Journey by Moonlight (Antal Szerb)

Reading Antal Szerb's "Journey By Moonlight", I couldn't help but keep Umberto Eco "The Name of the Rose" in mind. That's what happens when two books have an Italian setting and feature some sort of monk.

Mihaly's recent marriage to his new wife Erszi is something of a fallacy for both of them. Mihaly still yearns for the days of his bohemian youth in 1920s Budapest, yet feels the need to conform to society's norms; while Erszi has left her older, rich husband for more of a sense of adventure with Mihaly. The truth is that neither is getting what they truly want from the other.

Starting their honeymoon in Italy, Erszi learns some more about Mihaly's past, with the revelations soon seeing the pair split on their journey. Going their separate ways, Mihaly digs deep into his past with some soul searching, while Erszi sets off for Paris and days of nearly being wild. Both soon find themselevs, however, back where they were before they met.

Mihaly is essentially a man who doesn't want to move on from his student days; wanting to keep the friendships and sense of whimsy he had then. His training and job are explained as trying to conform, but are not for him. Though in reality, he is a man clinging to a past while others have moved on and grown up. This sense of nostalgia is one he will have to grow out of.

While full of convenient coincidences, Szerb's tale is one of the dangers of living too much in the past and allowing thoughts of youth to take over. Gut-wrenching whimsy at what might have been and what happened to those yesteryears is dangerous and can see your present crumble without even realising. Perhaps it's better to be happy with what you've got than think too much about what you left behind.

Days to read: 12

Days per book: 14.7

The Book of Tokyo (Various)

As part of a series of short story collections centred around certain cities, it's fair to say that "The Book of Tokyo", like any city, is a mixed bag of the good the bad and the weird. It can often be the case with Japanese shorts that they can veer off into strange and dark alleyways, and this is no exception. With contributions from some big international names and some less-so, whether or not you get an accurate portrait of Tokyo from these is anyone's guess. A bit like how to interpret Tokyo itself.

Of the ten included, a couple pass-by barely noticeable: Kaori Ekuni's "Picnic" and Nao-Cola Yamazaki's "Dad, I Love You" can be completed without really remembering much of what you read. Another couple plod along nicely, but fail to really leave you with any firm conclusions: "A House for Two" by Mitsuyo Kakuta has some nice moments; and Osamu Hashimoto's "Vortex" likewise. The weird is delivered in the form of the book's opener, Hideo Furukawa's "Model T Frankenstein", which is perhaps best got out the way early; and the biggest name in the book, Banana Yoshimoto's "Mummy".

Two authors with recent successful novels, Hiromi Kawakami and Shuichi Yoshida deliver nice efforts with "The Hut on the Roof" and "An Elevator on Sunday" respectively, but, for me, the strongest efforts come from the perhaps less-known Toshiyuki Horie and Hitomi Kanahara. Horie's story of essentially a hostel for female tourists who end up working hostess bars offers some interesting social comment on foreigners working in Tokyo; while Kanahara's deadpan humour as her heroine fantasises about having sex with every man she walks passed, with some explicit but nonetheless humourous detail of these encounters.

There are definitely better short stories from Japan out there, and better collections. What this collection offers is a slightly less obvious portrait of the lives of those living in the city and confirms that whatever it is it's definitely not normal.

Days to read: 9

Days per book: 14.6

Every 14 Days...(48)

Telephone the Queen: It's the 200th book spectacular! Yes, I have now made my way through two hundred books since starting this pointless venture back in 2010. But, two hundred books better-read, I am no more intelligent than I was when I was 28 years old...In 2011, I was 28 years old. Can you guess which of these four books was the magical 200th?

Yes, correct, it was that one...

Record of a Night Too Brief (Hiromi Kawakami)

This is something of an oddity. Three short stories from the definitely trendy (in Foyles, at least) Japanese author of "Strange Weather in Tokyo". I'm not quite sure if I can adequately account for the first, titular story, though I can confirm that the three tales get more comprehensible and better as they go.

"Record of a Night Too Brief" as the opener is essentially a stream of consciousness about an evening of peculiar events. I can't particularly say I remember much of it and the ever-changing and strange nature of the story left me switching the off button a fair amount. I, therefore, offer little in the way of opinion.

The second, "Missing" is still of the bizarre variety, though not quite as weird, but still definitely there. A sister's brother disappears, something of a trait in her family, leaving behind his fiancée. The second brother steps into the absent's shoes, though his spirit lingers on in his sister's universe.

Lastly, "A Snake Stepped On" is the story of a young woman working with an ageing couple in their shop. After stepping on a snake, she is visited by an elderly woman in her flat each night, claiming to be her mother, though is indeed the spirit of the snake. Again strange, but this is certainly the strongest of the trio.

Definitely more one for the hardcore rather than casual fan, as "Strange Weather..." is, I kept this one quite brief.

Days to read: 5

Days per book: 14.8

Iza's Ballad (Magda Szabo)

Not a huge number of Magda Szabo's works have been translated into English; and from those that have you'd believe her to be a woman who writes stories about intergenerational female feuding. That's based on the two I've read, anyway.

Written several years (like decades and that) before the more famous "The Door", "Iza's Ballad" is, for me, the stronger of the two tales where a younger woman deals with her frustrating relationship with an older woman. This time a daughter takes in her widowed mother, moving her to Budapest after the death of her father. But, while seemingly the ideal solution, the more the days pass, the clearer it becomes that it is indeed the worst possible scenario for both.

My gripe with "The Door" was that I didn't particularly like either character. Here, however, at least the mother is more likeable, but the exploration of both characters (and others) is well developed throughout, with the motivations and lack of an easy solution well worked.

Themes of selfishness, love, generational differences and the ambitions of a younger generation against their parents' are all covered, with Iza a woman who is so right about everything that those around her simply can't accept it.

Days to read: 16

Days per book: 14.8

Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years (Sue Townsend)

With the third installment, "TrueConfessions of Adrian Mole", taking a more bootlegs and B-sides collection approach, it was nice to return to the good ol' fashioned diary format for this fourth look into the "growing" of Mr Mole.

Now nicely in his twenties, Mole sees his failed love life in Oxford transfer him to London where his love life is equally failed, though at least he is now officially qualified for his job as dish washer in a Soho restaurant.

It is a move back to the witty humour of the first two books, with the well executed comic timing from the diary format. And though Mole is now ageing physically, he is still 13 3/4 at heart.

Days to read: 9

Days per book: 14.7

Kwaidan: Ghost Stories and Strange Tales of Old Japan (Lafcadio Hearn)

Greek-Irish-British-American-Japanese man of unusual name Lafcadio Hearn is someone any Westerner studying Japanese culture will have come across. Moving to Japan in the late Nineteenth Century, he became a leading scholar of Japanese culture for English-speaking consumption.

"Kwaidan", is one of his most famous works, made into a notable film by Masaki Kobayashi. Offering a glimpse (and only that) at traditional Japanese ghost stories and folktales, this is somewhat an inconsistent and unusual collection of short tales and essays.

One thing that is notable is just how short some of these short stories are. They are mere anecdotes as opposed to stories, with little in the way of real storytelling and development. One gets a patronising tone throughout from Hearn, feeling fully aware that he is telling us about the story, explaining points along the way, rather than telling us a story. You get the sense Hearn wanted us to know that he had discovered them.

These two elements: the over-explanatory (to you, you simpleton) tone and lack of storytelling skill, don't exactly make this the most enjoyable read. However, enough of the stories are intriguing enough to make this a worthwhile collection, but it will probably require some further reading. Luckily, however, Hearn references his other works throughout, so you know where to go...He's like the BBC once a programme hits the end credits.

Yes, this was the book that was the magical 200th.

Days to read: 8

Days per book: 14.7 

Every 14 Days...(46)

True Confessions of Adrian Mole (Sue Townsend)

After reading the first two Moles, I was unsure of what I would make of his "growing" into an "adult." The third instalment, "True Confessions of Adrian Mole", still has the at-heart idiot stamped all over it, though the format lacks the effortlessly humourous flow of its predecessors.

But as a book the "True Confessions..." are a bit false: It is more a collection of writing and BBC Radio Four pieces written in the period following on from "The Growing Pains..." as Mole develops into an equally unsuccessful adult. There is also a holiday diary from Townsend herself, as well as the obscure writings of young Margret Hilda Roberts.

Not as enjoyable as the first two books, but there is enough to keep you wanting to read the fourth; Margret Hilda Robert's diaries, blatant in their satire, closing this collection nicely enough. 

Days to read: 7

Days per book: 14.9

Another Kyoto (Alex Kerr with Kathy Arlyn Sokol)

Kerr's "Dogs and Demons" felt quite bitter in its tone and content. Well, maybe bitter isn't the right word, but certainly lacking in positive spirit. From it, you would not believe Kerr is a man who has chosen to live in Japan for many years and has an affinity with its culture. His latest book, however, "Another Kyoto" has more in common with "Lost Japan"; Kerr writing more from the perspective of what has kept him in Japan rather than what drives him to leave.

Starting with an anecdote from his days at Oxford University and stuffy old English professors critical of his modern, American ways for writing on Asian culture, Kerr has spun those criticisms to be his approach to this book. Based on his "walks" with Kathy Arlyn Sokol, Kerr has taken the idea of writing his musings down, aiming for a conversational tone, as if you were moving step-by-step with him as you read each word. In that sense, "Another Kyoto" is a travel guide for the pseudo-intellectual, Japan-obsessed onanist that I am.

What the book actually is, however, is a detailed and in-depth appreciation for the artistry and detail that has gone into the design of so many of Kyoto's buildings and gardens, making it one of the most visited cities in the world. The title "Another Kyoto" refers to offering another way of looking at the buildings, so if one were to visit again, a new appreciation will be available.

As his opening gambit suggests, this is not an academic analysis, but more a genuine and heat-felt pleasure from all things Kyoto - well, maybe not all things. And I certainly won't be looking at a wall or door in quite the same way again...but that's largely because I've been drinking.

Days to read: 14

Days per book: 14.9

Convenience Store Woman (Sayaka Murata)

A few years ago when I spent a few months in Japan, I soon amassed a quantifiable amount of the rather unnecessary play money that is the ¥1 coin. One activity, therefore, in which I frequently partook was waltzing (literally) into the nearest 7Eleven/Family Mart/Lawson and buying a bottle of ¥147 Pocari Sweat or Calpico, paying with a ¥100 coin and forty-seven ¥1 coins. I would then happily watch the machine-like efficiency with which the shattered, dead-eyed and excruciatingly polite konbini worker would meticulously count each and every of the forty-eight separate coins, thanking me for my trouble. It is one of the few joys in life.  

But what's it like from the other side of said transaction?

Keiko is an oddball from a young age, and in trying to conform to "normal" society, she takes a job at a convenience store at the tender age of 18. However, eighteen years on and Keiko is still working at that same convenience store; half her life in the store has seen it become her life. As such, Keiko now views herself, and her fellow workers, as simply "convenience store workers," and not normal human beings, like you or...well, not me. The food she eats is bought from the store and all life choices are designed to make her ready for each day earning a low income. It is when society's questions as to her career and marital status keep arising that she decides that maybe it is time to make some changes, though sadly, she has no idea how to make them.

Written by someone whom is "38 years old and works part-time in a convenience store," there is a quirky nature to the writing that is charming in its subtlety. Keiko's inability to view her world and those in it as human offers a humour, with her first person narration lovingly self-unaware.

You could read something into the social comment as to the nature of working life in Japan, society's' attitudes towards unmarried women and low income employees and Japan's growing reliance on migrant workforce, but this isn't exactly hard literature, but is light, quick and ingeniously convenient.

Days to read: 6

Days per book: 14.8

The Burning of the World (Bela Zombory-Moldovan)

Bela Zombory-Moldovan's memoirs is a book that essentially was never intended. Published to mark the hundred year anniversary of the start of The Great War, this is an English translation of discovered memoirs given to his London-based grandson and translator, Peter Zombory-Moldovan. Published several decades after they were written; "edited" by Bela's wife on giving them to her grandson; and then translated and edited for publication further, what is read is perhaps not what the Hungarian artist and former soldier intended.

But this is something which Peter is quick to note in his informative introduction. Zombory-Moldovan is perhaps not a name of great renown, and so a picture is painted of the grandfather, his life and the context in which the memoirs were written. While holidaying on the beach in 1914, Bela is suddenly called up for service with the outbreak of war. Returning to Budapest, he is then sent for training and an unnecessary regime of long marching - shattering the troops before they'd even started - before being sent to the eastern border to fight the Russian army.

Injured early on, much of these memoirs focus on his recovery back in Budapest and holidaying among friends and family. Back home he encounters people with views very different from the war he experienced firsthand. The air of optimism doesn't reflect what he knows of the army, its tactics and resources, seeing only defeat, while others see victory.

There are no huge revelations here, but it does paint a portrait of the outbreak of war and fighting on the eastern front from a firsthand experience probably in short supply.

Days to read: 15

Days per book: 14.8

Every 14 Days...(43)

The World Goes On (Laszlo Krasznahorkai)

One thing I know when I pick up a Krasznahorkai book off a shelf is that I'm in for a couple of weeks (I hope) of unrelaxing Tube journeys. A series of shorts - some much shorter than others - this isn't quite in the same vein as "Seiobo There Below".

However, while not being a series of self-contained stories that somehow come together under a theme, there feels a lineage across all of what you read (I've had a beer). All (or at least most of) the stories follow the theme of man hitting a moment of truth; something that may seem insignificant, but can be a huge turning point for the individual. From a man about to set-out on a journey to a Chinese translator waking up hungover in the centre of a network of overpasses, Krasznahorkai digs deep to deliver an in-depth analysis of a single moment.

"The World Goes On", therefore, seems like a collection of extensively rambling haikus, which is probably a huge contradiction in terms, but captures a collection of points in time that could form a single lifetime as man laments, laments and laments. References to his earlier works, notably "The Melancholy of Resistance" crop up from an uncertain lecturer.

Rambling in both sentences and geographical location, as appears Krasznahorkai's life, "The World Goes On" is again a work of obscurity, thought and long sentences...contained largely between Tooting Bec and Goodge Street stations if you're me, where I fail daily to come across any moments of truth...and then I got off the bus (Tube).

Days to read: 14

Days per book: 15.0

The Book of Dave (Will Self)

Will Self appeared a lot on "Have I Got News for You" in yesteryear. Apparently he's written a book. Several in fact. And for a long while I've been trying to bring myself to read one. £2.99 in the Balham Oxfam for 477 pages eventually got me there.

To start, I was mighty confused. "The Book of Dave" is perhaps both an excellent and terrible starting point for Self at the same time. We start in a future, where London is divided by both extensive waters and dialects. It is almost written in "that foreign," and as such, is a rather irritating read to get into to make the 0.63p per page seem justified. But then we get to the second chapter, and things start to become a little clearer.

Taxi driver Dave, left by his wife and son, descends into middle age world-weary and bitter. He pens a rambling book as to his worldview of how families should be structured for his son, but after being committed and having therapy, decides to write it off as drivel. However, unwittingly, the book becomes a holy text of the future; his views on family structures followed to the letter by future generations.

With the splitting between the present and the future, "The Book of Dave" is an inconsistent read: The present the more enjoyable half; with the future more a ramble of nearly incomprehensible words that become a struggle to follow. However, the nature of the book means that this is necessary, not that makes reading these chapters any more enjoyable.

As such, it becomes quite easy to drift in and out of the long read, at times a good social commentary, at others a dull struggle. Whether or not I choose to take the plunge with another Self-penned (haha) book is undecided, but the more surrealist elements of his work may prove something of a barrier.

Days to read: 28

Days per book: 15.1

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 and The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole (Sue Townsend)

Born in 1983, Adrian Mole is one of those things that I recognise but can't actually recall. For me, Adrian Mole is a book with a tube of toothpaste on the cover and the theme song to the ITV adaptation. But, I don't remember actually having read any of it. Adrian Mole was only ever a teenager (aged 13 3/4 to be exact) in my memory, though I do also seem to remember something about "Dan!" from Alan Partridge.

In fact, Sue Townsend mapped out a whole lifetime for Adrian Mole over a series of books; the image of him as a perennial teenager perhaps coming from 1980's television, though the BBC did adapt one of the later books ("The Cappuccino Years") starring Stephen "Dan!" Mangan. But what of the books? Well, starting with the first two, we see Adrian in the first half of his teens getting to grips with spots, sex and the Falklands War.

Reading them now, aged 34 and several months, the first thing that strikes is the comic timing. Written as diaries with a paragraph or so serving each day, what seems an innocuous comment one day, builds up the laughs for several days in the future. His teenage naivety as the world around him is in chaos, his mundane, self-absorbed obsessions see him unable to detect his mother's affair, his parents' separation, his mother's subsequent pregnancy and dad fathering an illegitimate child.

Throughout, we are not laughing with the young "intellectual", but thoroughly at him, in much the same way many comedians bring out their teenage diaries on stage to recount what massive bellends they once were (and still possibly are). A mother at a young age, Townsend clearly draws on her experiences with her own children, and as such, these are very much books for those a little older than 13 3/4, though can be appreciated by any age.

The early teenage angst is the Adrian Mole I have non-existent nostalgia for. But, will I like the man he will become? Perhaps I'll try volume three, or leave the idiot where (I believe) he belongs.

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4

Days to read: 6

Days per book: 15.0

The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole

Days to read: 8

Days per book: 15.0