Anatomy of a Disappearance; Hisham Matar

Title: Anatomy of a Disappearance
Author:  Hisham Matar
Publication Year: 2011 
Publisher: Dial Press (Random House)
Edition: eBook
Source: NetGalley
Date Completed: 12/10/2011 
Rating: 4/5
Recommend: yes

"There are times when my father's absence is as heavy as a child sitting on my chest.  Other times I can barely recall the exact features of his face and must bring out the photographs I keep in the old drawer of my bedside table.  There has not been a day since his sudden and mysterious vanishing that I have not been searching for him, looking in the most unlikely places.  Everything and everyone, existence itself, has become an evocation, a possibility for resemblance. Perhaps this is what is meant by that brief and now almost archaic word: elegy."....so begins the semi-autobiographical novel by Hisham Matar, whose own father, a Libyan dissident was captured by Qaddafi's men and imprisoned. The story, in some ways was similar to the author's debut book, In the Country of Men, a story which I enjoyed. In that story, a young boy is trying to understand his father's secret activities and subsequent disappearance in a country experiencing political unrest.

In Anatomy of a Disappearance, Nuri is a fourteen-year old boy of privilege from an unidentified country. His life is about to change significantly when his mother dies, presumably of an overdose. Two years later, Nuri and his father, spot a beautiful young girl on the beach. Nuri thinks she is beautiful, and so does his father. While Nuri is shipped off to boarding school, his father ends up marrying the beautiful Mona. This causes Nuri much sadness and resentment, he feels lonely and lost.  He silently wishes that his father, Kamal,  an advisor to the King, would just "disappear", and soon after he gets his silent wish --his father is abducted.

The novel is a somewhat quiet introspective story,  about the sadness that resolves from Nuri's unresolved loss, in this case the disappearance of Nuri's father.  I liked the flow of this novel, and the writing was vivid and descriptive as well. Specific details like ones about the beautiful Mona with her silky hair and yellow bikini stick with me even now.  The intro paragraph about a young sensitive boy's deep sense of loss, was particularly touching, especially sense he was never able to form a close relationship with his father prior to his disappearance. Even in the end Nuri never gives up hope that his father might return. The one thing I that left me wanting more was the fact we never really learn what happened to Nuri's mother or father.  Despite this, it is still a worthy read.

Waiting on Wednesday ~ Cold Light; Jenn Ashworth

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we are eagerly anticipating! Want to participate? Post your own WOW entry on your blog, and leave your link at Breaking the Spine. My pick is by Jenn Ashworth . (I adored her book, A Kind of Intimacy).

Cold Light; Jenn Ashworth

William Morrow - March 2012

(about the book) -
I'm sitting on my couch, watching the local news. There's Chloe's parents, the mayor, the hangers on, all grouped round the pond for the ceremony. It's ten years since Chloe and Carl drowned, and they've finally chosen a memorial - a stupid summerhouse. The mayor has a spade decked out in pink and white ribbon, and he's started to dig. 

You can tell from their faces that something has gone wrong. But I'm the one who knows straightaway that the mayor has found a body. And I know who it is.

This is the tale of three fourteen-year-old girls and a volatile combination of lies, jealousy and perversion that ends in tragedy. Except the tragedy is even darker and more tangled than their tight-knit community has been persuaded to believe.

Blackly funny and with a surreal edge to its portrait of a northern English town, Jenn Ashworth's gripping novel captures the intensity of girls' friendships and the dangers they face in a predatory adult world they think they can handle. And it shows just how far that world is willing to let sentiment get in the way of the truth.

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros

Every Tuesday, I'll be posting the opening paragraph (maybe two) of a book I decided to read based on the opening paragraph (s). Feel free to grab the banner and play along. This week's "intro" is from a review copy, so please realize that the final copy could be different.

January 23, 2012 - WW Norton Co

 Heft; Liz Moore 

(ARTHUR) 

"The first thing you must know about me is that I am colossally fat. When I knew you I was what one might call plump but I am no longer plump.  I eat what I want & furthermore I eat whatever I want.  For years I have made very little effort to reduce the amount that I eat for I have seen no cause to.  Despite this I am neither immobile nor bedridden but I do feel winded when I walk more than six or seven steps, & I do feel very shy and sort of encased in something as if I were a cello or an expensive gun.

 

"I have no way of knowing exactly what I weigh but I estimate that it is between five and six hundred pounds. The last time I went to a doctor's office was years ago and back then I weighed four hundred eighty pounds and they had to put me on a special scale.  The doctor looked at me & told me I was surely on a path toward early death."

Would you continue reading this one? I definitely plan to, but am curious why (even through it is and ARC) that both "and", and the ampersand..." &" were used in the first two paragraphs?

Mailbox Monday

 Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia of  A Girl and Her Books and the December host is Let Them Read Books.  Here's what arrived last week. Hope you had a good week as well.

• Eustace and Hilda; L.P. Hartley (purchased) about the book - The three books gathered together as Eustace and Hilda explore a brother and sister's lifelong relationship. Hilda, the older child, is both self-sacrificing and domineering, as puritanical as she is gorgeous; Eustace is a gentle, dreamy, pleasure-loving boy: the two siblings could hardly be more different, but they are also deeply devoted. And yet as Eustace and Hilda grow up and seek to go their separate ways in a world of power and position, money and love, their relationship is marked by increasing pain.
  
  L. P. Hartley's much-loved novel, the magnum opus of one of twentieth-century England's best writers, is a complex and spellbinding work: a comedy of upper-class manners; a study in the subtlest nuances of feeling; a poignant reckoning with the ironies of character and fate. Above all, it is about two people who cannot live together or apart, about the ties that bind—and break.

• The Go-Between; L.P. Hartley (purchased) about the book - Summering with a fellow schoolboy on a great English estate, Leo, the hero of L. P. Hartley's finest novel, encounters a world of unimagined luxury. But when his friend's beautiful older sister enlists him as the unwitting messenger in her illicit love affair, the aftershocks will be felt for years. The inspiration for the brilliant Joseph Losey/Harold Pinter film starring Julie Christie and Alan Bates, The Go-Between is a masterpiece—a richly layered, spellbinding story about past and present, naiveté and knowledge, and the mysteries of the human heart. This volume includes, for the first time ever in North America, Hartley's own introduction to the novel.

• The Girl in the Garden; Kamala Nair (paperback swap) about the book - The redemptive journey of a young woman unsure of her engagement, who revisits in memory the events of one scorching childhood summer when her beautiful yet troubled mother spirits her away from her home to an Indian village untouched by time, where she discovers in the jungle behind her ancestral house a spellbinding garden that harbors a terrifying secret.

• The Wandering Falcon; Jamil Ahmad - (paperback swap) - about the book -
  
  The Wandering Falcon begins with a young couple, refugees from their tribe, who have traveled to the middle of nowhere to escape the cruel punishments meted out upon those who transgress the boundaries of marriage and family. Their son, Tor Baz, descended from both chiefs and outlaws, becomes "The Wandering Falcon," a character who travels among the tribes, over the mountains and the plains, into the towns and the tents that constitute the homes of the tribal people. The media today speak about this unimaginably remote region, a geopolitical hotbed of conspiracies, drone attacks, and conflict, but in the rich, dramatic tones of a master storyteller, this stunning, honor-bound culture is revealed from the inside.
  
  
  Jamil Ahmad has written an unforgettable portrait of a world of custom and compassion, of love and cruelty, of hardship and survival, a place fragile, unknown, and unforgiving.

The Cat's Table; Michael Ondaatje

Title: The Cat's Table
Author:  Michael Ondaatje
Publication Year: 2011 
Publisher: Random House Audio
Edition: audio
Reader: author
Source: Library
Date Completed: 12/6/2011 
Rating: 4/5
Recommend: yes

The Cat's Table led me on an enjoyable voyage from Columbo (Sri Lanka) to England, aboard the Oronsay.  The story unfolds as a man thinks back on a 21-day voyage he took as a young boy. A voyage that shaped his life. Since the author himself took a similar voyage when he was a young boy, this story is believed to be in part somewhat autobiographical.

In this story, Michael, is an 11-year old boy aboard the ship who is traveling to see his mother in England; he hasn't seen her in a number of years.  He and several other colorful, underprivileged characters are delegated to a portion of the ship referred to as "The Cat's Table", at mealtime.  The area is located as far away from the "captain's table" as possible. Michael is also referred to as Mynah, because he likes to go around and spread gossip about what he learns from other travelers aboard the ship. He is not to be pitied, for he and two other boys, Cassius and Ramadhin, go from one exciting adventure to another. With such antics as sneaking to the first-class deck to swim in the pool and to eat better food, the boys are always up to something.

The most impressive thing about this story for me was that while I thought I might feel sorry for these boys, I did not.  What happens to them on the journey, shapes their future lives, exposing them to individuals and experiences which teach them a lot about life and human nature. Literature, jazz, performers, a prisoner in chains, and the alluring power of women are just some of the experiences that occupied their time and opened up their minds.  It was interesting to see that even though the boys go their separate ways, what they experienced together, played a part in the men that they become.

While the beginning of the story seemed somewhat choppy and disjointed, a patient reader, or listener in my case, will be rewarded with beautiful writing, at times poetic, fully developed characters and a story that comes together in the end.  There were several beautiful passage which I can no longer recall since I was listening to the audiobook, which was read by the author who did a terrific job. The scenes were easy to visualize and a good listening experience overall.

Saturday Snapshot ~ Full Moon and Black Cats

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Alyce @ AT Home With Books.

Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don't post random photos that you find online.  Last night when I came home I was wondering what photo I could use today. All I had to do was look up at the sky and hope my camera would capture the somewhat eerie, night before the full moon.

 Full Moon ~ Black Cat
(and it's not even Halloween)

 Buddy

2012 ~ No Willpower Here

I've always been pretty much an immediate gratification type person whether it be shopping for clothes, books, or even eating something delicious and not worrying about the calories (until later). Well the same seems true when it comes to reading challenges. For 2012, I was pretty sure I'd be going "challenge-free", but then I started thinking how much I really enjoyed the (6) I participated in in 2011, and I completed 5/6 so far and am close to completing # 6 as well.  So why not join - it feels right.

2011 Challenges -

• 100+ Book Challenge (110/100 -  right now)
• Reading from My Shelves ( 50/50
• eBook Challenge (17/20)
• Europa Challenge (5/4)
• Audio Book Challenge (33/20)
• RIP VI (5/4)

So why not join a few in 2012? Just a few, no pressure, ones that seem doable -- reading the kinds of books I want to read anyways in the process.

  2012 Challenge Plans:

• 100+ Book Challenge
• eBook Challenge (goal of 25)
• Audio Book Challenge (goal of 25)
• Back to Classics Challenge (Steinbeck and Dickens plans)

For a full list of 2012 Challenges Currently being promoted, visit...A Novel Challenge, or are  IN, or are you going challenge-free in 2012 ?