Tuesday 28 July 2015

Every 14 Days...(27)

The Hungarian Girl Trap (Ray Dexter)

I thought it best to read this book just after I'd married a Hungarian...

***SPOILER ALERT***

This was part of a genius book  double Christmas present for my wife-to-be last year. Along with the Hungarian language version of Tony Parson's 'My Favourite Wife', I decided 'The Hungarian Girl Trap' - Ray Dexter's diary of his year living in Budapest, having followed his Hungarian wife-to-be, working as an English teacher - was quite literally the most hilarious present I could buy.

Is it? Well, as an account of a year living in Hungary, it is a funny read - more so if you are actually Hungarian / have lived in Hungary, as my now-wife displayed, often eager to read me passages. Dexter ends up in working for an English language school in Budapest for the international children of paying parents. Employed on the promise of being a science teacher, under the guidance of his incompetent Head Teacher he ends up teaching each and every subject under the sun, while he and his fellow international teachers grow increasingly frustrated and unpaid.

A lot of the book focuses on his employment and its lack of good management, which can grow a little repetitive at times, though outside of work, the book probably gives me some insight into some aspects of life I may have to get used to. There is drinking, bad English, drinking, worse Hungarian, drinking, football watching, drinking, wedding traditions, drinking, eating, eating, eating...It's at this point I exaggerate. Though this book is laced with geographical and historical facts about Hungary and how these have been ever changing.

This book probably has a limited appeal, largely aimed at English men marrying Hungarian women...and their Hungarian brides. The publication shows this, lacking the proof-reading of a bigger publishing house release, full of mistakes throughout...or maybe this is a parody of Hungarian work ethic, which Dexter refers to throughout.

This book does what it says on the back of the book. If you are from neither one of the parties involved, it may not appeal too much to your interests. But if you are, it could prove a very important read. 

Days to read: 20
Days per book: 14.9


An Artist of the Floating World (Kazuo Ishiguro)

I've known of Ishiguro for some time, but I always forget what his name is and so never got around to reading any of his works. But with the recent release of his latest novel, 'The Buried Giant', I thought what better place to start than with his second book.

Ono is an aging artist in post-war Japan. Now, he lives with his younger daughter in his large house that he acquired before the war. His elder daughter visits with his grandson and discussions of the younger daughter's wedding negotiations begin. But the more the negotiations develop and the more his daughters speak, the more Ono reflects on his past, meditating on his development as an artist before the war and how he no longer is sure of the life he previously led.

From an artist of ukiyo-e, he gradually finds himself creating work to be used for nationalist propaganda. His discussions with the youth of post-war Japan show changing attitudes and moral questioning of the life he had previously led. Ono becomes torn between justifying what he did as for the good of the country in difficult times and a sense of guilt he feels when thinking about some of the characters of his past.   

The book is slow and diverges at any given moment, as the old man meditates on his life, trying to find answers in his decreasing memory; though if he can't remember the exact details, he will come to the conclusion that he was probably correct.

Days to read: 13
Days per book: 14.9


A Pale View of Hills (Kazuo Ishiguro)

Keeping it post-modern (or foolish, whichever you prefer), I next decided to read Ishiguro's first book, 'A Pale View of Hills', and started to notice something of a theme emerging. Like the book that came after it, it features a single, middle-aged Japanese with two daughters reflecting on their younger days, with a somewhat dark undercurrent.

In 'A Pale View of Hills', Etsuko, now living in rural England having left her native Nagasaki, has recently lost her eldest daughter, Keiko, to suicide. Her younger daughter, Niki, visits her from London, with seemingly nothing better to do with her days. It is at this point when Etsuko starts to recall an old friend in Nagasaki, Sachiko and her daughter Mariko. Sachiko plans to take her daughter to America to escape post-war Nagasaki, much to Etsuko's doubt and Mariko's protest. The more the story develops, the more Sachiko's life appears to reflect Etsuko's later life, with her own daughter failing to settle in England and taking her own life.

Through the act of reminiscing, Ishiguro leaves lots of gaps in the story and things never fully explained, such as Etsuko's re-marriage and moving to England, perhaps a deliberate ploy to make Sachiko and Etsuko's lives blur more into one. While the narrator's remembrance of their own past also features in 'An Artist of the Floating World', there the aging protagonist often refers to how he is perhaps remembering things inaccurately. But here it seems that Etsuko is remembering the past as she would like it to be. Perhaps a classic 'I've got this friend...' hiding of her own acts or displacing of her own guilt for her daughter's demise.  

Either way, Ishiguro plays on the nature of how we create our own realities through memory and interpretation of what we see, much like Akutagawa with 'In a Grove.'

I've read that 'Remains of the Day' is essentially 'An Artist of the Floating World' in another country, so I won't bother reading that then. I wouldn't want to remember it wrong...

Days to read: 13
Days per book: 14.9


The Psychopath Test (Jon Ronson)

There are two main reasons why I bought this book:

a) From not really knowing who Jon Ronson was, I recently listened to the RHLSTP (RHLSTP) he featured on and learnt that he is the writer of 'The Men Who Stare at Goats'...a film I've never seen.
b) It was £2.99 at Camden Lock Books at Old Street Station.

And I'm glad of these two reasons. On the RHLSTP (RHLSTP) he came across as a man with an interesting story to tell; a bit like Louie Theroux, only Welsh. 'The Psychopath Test' confirms this.

No, I wasn't reading this because I'm recently married (tee-hee); in fact I had no expectations on starting it. But as I progressed, it developed into a very interesting read, starting from his being contacted by a Neurologist who had been sent a strange book. From there, he begins to investigate its possible source, soon finding himself drawn into the definition of a psychopath: something not so much resulting from trauma, but more a trait borne in the individual.

He soon learns of the 'psychopath test': a checklist by which to identify psychopaths, learning it from its creator. A fully-formed psychopath identifier, he goes out in search of meeting those that could be identified as such.

The book is nicely written, with Ronson an anxious journeyman in the world of madness, with revelations well-paced throughout the book, striking when emerging from his objective standpoint. Theories of a world run by psychopaths are thought-provoking, and Ronson acknowledges the good and bad points of the psychopath test and those that use it.

Days to read: 11
Days per book: 14.8