Every 14 Days...(32)

The Housekeeper and the Professor (Yoko Ogawa)

After some slightly long and heavy reads, I was looking for a little light relief, so I dipped into my wife's book collection (larks!). Yoko Ogawa's 'The Housekeeper and the Professor' is just the type of book I needed: it's short, not too deep and full of maths problems.

With so many women quitting the role of the Professor's housekeeper, a single mother is lumped with the position, having to look after an aging man with a memory of only eighty minutes. Each day, therefore, she needs to reintroduce herself to him and go through the same routine before any work can be done. Sticking to her task that so many before her gave up, she befriends the Professor, bringing her son to her place of work. Obviously, this raises suspicions and it's not long before the housekeeper finds herself the next in a long line of formers.

This is quite a simple little narrative, told from the perspective of the housekeeper, who gradually starts to pick up a knowledge of simplistic maths problems and prime numbers while chopping the veg. As a result, the book switches between the narrative, forgotten baseball stars and equations, in what is a somewhat strange read, but entertaining enough.

Though this book delivered on my needs: a nice simple puzzler, a bit like 1 + 1.

Days to read: 8

Days per book: 14.8

Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure (Dave Gorman)

After my recent re-reading of ‘Are You Dave Gorman?’, I decided to pursue more reads from the ginger fur face. Getting something of a reputation for being a bit of a serial adventurist in his work – much like Tony Hawks – his second book, and subsequent stand-up show – was ‘Dave Gorman’s Googlewhack Adventure’.

Unconventionally for me, I decided to read his books in chronological order, and ‘Googlewhack Adventure’ starts off pretty much in the same vein of its predecessor: drunk and with unexplained travel purchased, he sets about on a journey that will take him into various parts of the world and deeper into debt.

A Googlewhack is something that probably doesn’t really exist anymore, at least not enough to be of interest to anyone in this day and age. Written a few years ago now, the idea of finding a single webpage entry that features two words typed into Google at random already seems old fashioned, with the ever-increasing scale of the WWW. Much like ‘Are You Dave Gorman?’ now feels like a nostalgic view of the past – with the journey not even existing beyond some quick Facebook searches these days – the idea of a sole webpage featuring two words from a search seems far too uninteresting from something many people now use many times a day.

But that’s probably part of the fun. The ‘adventure’ happening at a time when we were all getting used to increasing Internet usage, it shows how much more primitive we were with the Internet only a few years ago, before constant smart phone communication, having to beg, borrow and steal connection from others.

The final goal may be a little spurious and framing it around supposedly writing another book may seem a little farfetched, but it’s a tale of randomness and where it can take us, though one that might find itself already a little outdated.

Days to read: 10

Days per book: 14.8

Asleep (Banana Yoshimoto)

Furthering my needs for some light relief, I had another stab at the works of Banana Yoshimoto. Now, my response to reading 'Kitchen' was certainly from the male perspective (i.e. I was a bit Mike Newell).  Has this second attempt changed that opinion?

Probably not. 'Asleep' contains three short stories ('Night and Night's Travellers', 'Love Songs' and the titular) that improve as they go, but don't start from a great place (certainly not of the magnitude of Villa's beating of Bournemouth on the opening day of the season back in August).

The lead characters are all people that it isn't easy to sympathise with: young women, probably unemployed and quite directionless who get their knickers in a twist about something. If they kept themselves a bit more occupied, these problems probably wouldn't be so dominant in their lives. There's a lot of nostalgia in these stories, but it's all a bit too twee for me, which makes me start being a bit sexist in my response (again). But I can't be sexist, I enjoyed Yoko Ogawa's work (see earlier).

Like 'Kitchen', this isn't all bad, and there are some good moments here and there, though they're a little lost in the mopiness for me. Still, photos of Banana-san in her glasses do amuse.

Days to read: 12

Days per book: 14.8

America Unchained (Dave Gorman)

I’ve obviously been in a bit of a Dave Gorman mood recently, and with my third of his books –and indeed his actual third – we move across the Pond to another of his adventures, though this time, it’s slightly less drunken.

Despite my liking of ‘Are You Dave Gorman?’ first time around, I didn’t really follow ‘Googlewhack Adventure’ or ‘America Unchained’, and so have only just picked up both now. While his first two books now clearly seem dated in this modern world, ‘America Unchained’ is an actual crying out for the past.

Fed-up after a long tour of the US of States, he finds himself yearning for an America of his childhood – which, of course, was all viewed from a TV screen. In true National Lampoon’s style, therefore, he buys himself an old wood panel station wagon and decides to head from LA to New York, with the intention of only ever purchasing goods and services from old fashioned ‘Mom&Pop’ traders. And never The Man.

Funding the journey by having a companion film it for a documentary, he is once again not alone on this adventure, which sees him have to stay on track, but also leads him off course, and as such becomes a source of frustration for him with his initial female director, and there is a lot of frustration on this journey compared to his previous, lacking in some of the more playful, random and fun moments. But, where the previous tales were ones of random betting, here there is more social comment and heartbreak at the decline of the sole trader.

Perhaps a little sentimental at times, this is a much more purposeful journey than before, bringing with it greater frustration at the difficulty of the task, as a writer that struggles to find the past in the present.

Days to read: 17

Days per book: 14.8

Dave Gorman vs. the Rest of the World (Dave Gorman)

Four was probably too many to get through in a short period, and, as such, my reading of Mr Gorman’s fourth book, ‘Dave Gorman vs. the Rest of the World’ was less enjoyable than the previous.

Again, nostalgia sparks the idea: to play real games against anyone that’s willing to challenge, as you did as a child, though this time around, there is no particular target involved. And while he ends the book on that note, that there is no real ending, I can’t help but think this book was maybe a little forced and didn’t particularly have much substance. There is none of the randomness, the silliness or frustration in this idea. It simply seems more a collection of anecdotes, with little over-arching narrative to hold them all together.

Maybe I needed a little break from him before picking up this one, but while there are some okay moments, this is simply: meet someone, play them at a game, leave, on to the next, with the pursuit of playing games feeling a little less playful.

Days to read: 22

Days per book: 14.9