Short Story September: October's Chair by Neil Gaiman

I love Neil Gaiman so I was expecting to love this story and I did, it's really a story within a story.

The month's of the year have all been personified, with their various personalities and appearances linked to the month they represent. They met reguarly as a council to tell short stories, and this month it is October's turn to lead the meeting. Their actually turns out to be a lack of stories, and a fair bit of squabbling, and then you get to October's gorgeously told short story.

Runt, is as you may have guessed from his name, the youngest, skinniest and most bullied child in the family, and generally doesn't quite seem to fit in anywhere. As life moves on Runt dreams of running away, and accumulates all the items he deems necessary in a tubberware container: Mars Bars, Beef Jerky and 30 odd dolars. When he pulls out the tub one day and realises it is full, he knows that this is the day that he has to run away, to try and make a new life for himself. Despite all his dreams of freedom, Runt has little belief that he will last much longer than a day without being found, but he makes a run for it anyway.

Arriving in a new town, Runt meets a young boy called 'Dearly', this boy knows that he once had another name, yet it is so rubed away he can no longer read it. Runt has no apparent problem with meeting and hanging out with a ghost, they spend the night having fun and enjoying each others company. When it comes to time to part, Runt asks if he can stay with Dearly for good, Dearly points him in the direction of an old and derelict house, saying that in that place they could make that dream come true.

This story was told really well, and would make an excellent read for any short story lover. I found a copy of this story in Gaiman's short story collection, Fargile Things.

RIP III: Two in One

Two books read for the RIP challenge, one a graphic novel and one a kids book, I will get to a novel soon.

Three Shadows (Graphic Novel) ****

Back then, life was simple and sweet. The taste of cherries, the cool shade, the fresh smell of the river...That was how we lived, in a vale among the hills - sheltered from storms, ignorant of the world, as though on a island, peaceful and untroubled.
And then...
Then everything changed.

Three Shadows starts of with an idyllic family life, out marching in woods, picking fruit and warm nights by the fire. And, as we all know, idyllic family life never lasts. Upon the hill appears three shadows. Everyday the loom over the little family, some times a little closer some times a little further away, but still each day they are there, a threatening presence.
As it becomes clear that is is Jochaim's life they have come to take, the massive father decides to steal his son away, to escape the threat of death. But death is inescapable and will always follow.
The graphics are stunning, full of bright whites and deep blacks to reveal the ever present shadows in the distance. This is the first graphic novel I have read, where the text is fairly sparse, and at first I wasn't sure I was going to like it, but the pictures quickly grabbed my imagination.
Challenge: YA Challenge, RIP III, Olympic Challenge (France), Unread Authors Challenge

Other Reviews: Bart Shuffleboil

Varjak Paw (Kids book) ***

I was really looking forward to reading this novel, but it never quite grabbed me. I read a lot of YA fiction, and this book was aimed at children of 8-10 (I'd guess), which may have been the problem, it was just a little too young for my tastes. Having said that, I think it would be a great book to read to a child who relished scary tales.

The story is about Varjak Paw, a pedigree cat who has spent his whole life inside one house, as his family is believed too precious to risk letting outside. When their owner disappears (a trip to heaven) a man in black enters the house, with his two vicious black cats, Varjak warns the family of the trouble to come. Being the odd one out in the family, Varjak is ignored, so he goes on a hunt to find a dog to help him rescue his family.

Life outside has many lessons for Vajak to learn, some new things he is taught by his new friends and some as part of a dream sequence. The question really is, is outside more dangerous than the threat in the house. Outside you have to face gangs of cats and deal with the Vanishings. And Varjak also has to find and talk to a dog - with one big problem, he has no idea what a dog is.

The illustrations in the novel capture the story perfectly, and add to the scary tone.

Challenges: RIP III, YA Challenge, Olympic Challenge: Lebanon, Unread Authors Challenge

Book Windfall!

These are all the new books which entered my house today; 5 via a bookcrossing bookbox, 4 from a charity shop. Most of them won't see the top of mount tbr for a while at least

My Thoughts: Goodbye Tsugumi by Banana Yoshimoto

I've heard about Banana Yoshimoto on various blogs and have been meaning to check out her books for a while when I came across this one in the library sale, it also made a great first read for the Japanese Literature Challenge.

Maria has lived in her aunts inn by the sea for the whole of her life, her parents are together yet apart as her dad is having an affair with her mother while he tries and arranges his divorce. Despite the strange living arrangements Maria seems to enjoy her life were she is, living next door to her teenage cousins. Her cousin Tsugumi has a lifelong illness which leaves her tired, feverish and often in and out of hospital with the possibility of death looming frequently.

Because of Tsugumi's illness she gets away with her terrible manners, fierce behaviour and sharp comments - yet underneath this fierce exterior is a young girl desperately battling to stay alive and be treated like a princess by everyone.

Maria, finally gets her family living together in Tokyo and spends one last summer at the seaside in her cousins inn, before it gets sold off. In this summer a boy arrives, who seemingly disolves Tsugumi's emotional barriers.

I'm not sure what I was expecting with this book, but it was completely different to what I expected. It never felt Japanese, which sounds silly, but this seaside and the life they led could easily have been England.

Challenges: Japanese Literature Challenge, book 1 of 3 YA Challenge Book 10 of 12, 20th Century Challenge: 1989

Other Reviews:

Ready When You Are

Book Reporter

If you have reviewed this book, or any of the others on my blog please leave a link and I'll add it to my review.

Sunday Salon: My Thoughts: Skin and Other Stories by Roald Dahl

Having to go back to work this week after a lazy six weeks holiday has meant that I haven't had a great amount of time to read this week, I did finish Roald Dahl's Skin, (see below) Portrait in Sepia by Isabel Allende, a novel I really enjoyed and I have decided to do the Olympic Challenge in time for London 2012, a challenge which has been going on over at the BookCrossing forum for the last few years, this challenge will mean I'll be checking out authors from far fling places across the Globe.
As for reading today, I hope to get finished reading the graphic novel, Three Shadows by Cyril Pedrosa however, I have an essay to type up and about 50 essays to mark, plus housework so that maybe wishful thinking!

I read this collection of short stories for the RIP III challenge, the Short Story Reading Challenge and for Short Story September, several of the stories I had read before at some point, but I really enjoyed the collection, it was perfect for picking up whilst dinner was cooking or whilst in the bath. I had included a mini review of some, but not all, of the stories in the collection
WARNING: I have tried to avoid saying what the outcome of each story is, but with short stories this is hard and in some descriptions I come pretty close to the end of the tale.

Skin
"I want you to paint a picture on my skin, on my back. Then I want you to tattoo over what you have painted so that it will be there always."
As a young man Drioli admired and loved another man's art, so-much-so that he begged this artist, to tattoo a portrait of his wife on his back. He taught the artist to tattoo, and ended up with his whole back as a portrait of his wife's face.
Years passed, 2 World Wars have caused Drioli's tattooing business to fail, and he is left a poor old man. Walking through the streets of Paris he sees a picture by Soutine in the window of the gallery. Going in to admire the art he ends up revealing an early work by Soutine, his tattoo. A poor man he may be, but he is a walking talking masterpiece, the gallery owner wants a piece of him. Just how far will he go to get it?
The African Story
When the Second World War started a young man joined the RAF as he loved to fly. On his first mission his flight failed and he spent two nights at a lonely, desolate farm. There, lived alone an old man who relished the pilot's company. The old man shared a strange story with the pilot, which the pilot later recorded "not in the old man's words, but in his own words, painting it as a picture."
The old man's tale tells of a relationship with his employee, a man with who gets obsessed by repetitive noises, the noise of his masters dog chewing leads him to kill his masters beloved dog. The man's tale tells his story of revenge.
Galloping Foxely
A regular commuter, used to the routine of his daily commute is suddenly struck with horror when a stranger appears and spoils his daily commute, having the audacity to share his carriage. Not only does this stranger upset the daily commute but he also recognises that face as the school bully who tortured him through his days at (a very stereotypical) boarding school. How does he react?
The Wish
A lovely and very short story about the imagination of a small child trying to make his way across an immense carpet of red hot rocks and black child eating snakes.
The Surgeon
In the surgeon, one mans ordinary day as a surgeon ends up turning his life upside down as he saves the life of the Prince of Saudi Arabia. He is given a rare, rather large diamond as a gift of thanks. With no way to store the diamond safely it is locked away inside the freezer in a bock of ice. He returns to find his house destroyed and the diamond missing, yet it turns up again in a rather strange and unfortunate place.
The Champion of the World
When I saw this title my first thought was Danny, but this has nothing to do with that small boy. I'm sure I've read this story before somewhere, maybe when I was at school. The Champion of the world is about Pheasant poaching, all the ways and means of doing it, slyly without the park keepers catching on.
A pair of men believe they have found the ideal way to poach these birds, and having come up with this method they can't just leave it at poaching a few birds, they go to the extreme and get over a hundred birds. But, as we all know, sinners never win.
Lamb to the SlaughterThe husbands annoying you, home late, expecting dinner on the table, he's got quite boring in his old age, and you just want out. Most people would just walk away, but not this lady. A quick smack to the back of the head and she no longer has a husband to worry about anymore, but she does have the small matter of covering up the murder to deal with. What better way than to ensure the the poilce remove all trace of the crime themselves.

The Olympic Challenge: London 2012

This is a challenge that I'm participating in through Bookcrossing. There's no prizes etc, its just a chance to challenge yourself and broadern your reading and knowledge of the world. Some people completed this challenge in the run up for the Bejing Olympics, this was the original post:"The goal is to read one author's work from the 202 participating countries by Summer Olympic Games by 2008. I will use my bookshelf to post all countries listed and suggested authors but the list is open to other authors or works. The only requirement is the author must be a citizen of that country (or was if deceased). Who will carry this torch with us?"

Several members didn't finish and are aiming to complete it by the winter olympics or London 2012, so I thought I'd give myself another challenge and attempt this, by London 2012.

As always it's great to have fellow challengers, for company and recommendations, so if any bloggers wish to join me let me know in the comments section. You don't have to read a novel per country, it could be a novel, essay, poetry, non fiction or graphic novel, just so long as the author is a citizen of that country

As I'm aiming to read around the world anyway, this challenge will help me focus and gives me a date to work to:

This is my mamouth list to get through:

ANOCA AFRICA

ALG Algeria

ANG Angola

BEN Benin

BOT Botswana

BUR Burkina Faso

BDI Burundi

CMR Cameroon

CPV Cape Verde

CAF Central African Republic

CHA Chad

COM Comoros

CGO Congo

CIV Côte d'Ivoire

COD Democratic Republic of the Congo

DJI Djibouti EGY Egypt

GEQ Equatorial Guinea

ERI Eritrea

ETH Ethiopia

GAB Gabon

GAM Gambia

GHA Ghana

GUI Guinea

GBS Guinea-Bissau

KEN Kenya

LES Lesotho

LBR Liberia

LBA Libyan Arab Jamahiriya

MAD Madagascar

MAW Malawi

MLI Mali

MTN Mauritania

MRI Mauritius

MAR Morocco

MOZ Mozambique

NAM Namibia

NIG Niger

NGR Nigeria The Famished Road, Ben Okri

RWA Rwanda

STP Sao Tome and Principe

SEN Senegal

SEY Seychelles

SLE Sierra Leone

SOM Somalia

RSA South Africa

SUD Sudan

SWZ Swaziland

TOG Togo

TUN Tunisia

UGA Uganda

TAN United Republic of Tanzania

ZAM Zambia

ZIM Zimbabwe

ONOC OCEANA

ASA American Samoa

AUS Australia Rabbit Proof Fence, Pilkington

COK Cook Islands

FSM Federated States of Micronesia

FIJ Fiji

GUM Guam

KIR Kiribati

MHL Marshall Islands

NRU Nauru

NZL New Zealand

PLW Palau

PNG Papua New Guinea

SAM Samoa

SOL Solomon Islands

TGA Tonga

TUV Tuvalu

VAN Vanuatu

OCA ASIA

AFG Afghanistan

BRN Bahrain

BAN Bangladesh

BHU Bhutan

BRU Brunei Darussalam

CAM Cambodia

TPE Chinese Taipei

PRK Democratic People's Republic of Korea

HKG Hong-Kong

IND India Sea of Poppies, Ghosh

INA Indonesia

IRQ Iraq

IRI Islamic Republic of Iran

JPN Japan Goodbye Tsugumi, Yoshimoto

JOR Jordan

KAZ Kazakhstan

KOR Korea

KUW Kuwait

KGZ Kyrgyzstan

LAO Lao People's Democratic Republic

LIB Lebanon Varjak Paw

MAS Malaysia

MDV Maldives

MGL Mongolia

NEP Nepal

PAK Pakistan

PLE Palestine

CHN People's Republic of China

PHI Philippines

QAT Qatar

KSA Saudi Arabia

SIN Singapore

SRI Sri Lanka

SYR Syrian Arab Republic

TJK Tadjikistan

THA Thailand

TLS Timor-Leste

TKM Turkmenistan

UAE United Arab Emirates

UZB Uzbekistan

VIE Viet Nam

YEM Yemen

EOC EUROPE

ALB Albania

AND Andorra

ARM Armenia

AUT Austria

AZE Azerbaijan

BLR Belarus

BEL Belgium

BIH Bosnia and Herzegovina

BUL Bulgaria

CRO Croatia

CYP Cyprus

CZE Czech Republic Metamorphosis, Kafka

DEN Denmark

EST Estonia

FIN Finland

MKD Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

FRA France Three Shadows, Pedrosa

GEO Georgia

GER Germany

GBR Great Britain

GRE Greece

HUN Hungary

ISL Iceland

IRL Ireland

ISR Israel

ITA Italy

LAT Latvia

LIE Liechtenstein

LTU Lithuania

LUX Luxembourg

MLT Malta

MNE Montenegro

NED Netherlands

NOR Norway

POL Poland

POR Portugal

MDA Republic of Moldova

ROM Romania

RUS Russian Federation

SMR San Marino

SRB Serbia

SVK Slovakia

SLO Slovenia

ESP Spain

SWE Sweden

SUI Switzerland

TUR Turkey

UKR Ukraine

PASO AMERICA

ANT Antigua and Barbuda

ARG Argentina

ARU Aruba

BAH Bahamas

BAR Barbados

BIZ Belize

BER Bermuda

BOL Bolivia

BRA Brazil The Valkyries, Coelho (12/09/08)

IVB British Virgin Islands

CAN Canada

CAY Cayman Islands

CHI Chile = Portrait in Sepia by Isabel Allende (o5/09/08)

COL Colombia

CRC Costa Rica

CUB Cuba

DMA Dominica

DOM Dominican Rhythm Republic

ECU Ecuador

ESA El Salvador

GRN Grenada

GUA Guatemala

GUY Guyana

HAI Haiti

HON Honduras

JAM Jamaica

MEX Mexico

AHO Netherlands Antilles

NCA Nicaragua

PAN Panama

PAR Paraguay

PER Peru

PUR Puerto Rico

SKN Saint Kitts and Nevis

LCA Saint Lucia

VIN Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

SUR Suriname

TRI Trinidad and Tobago

USA United States of America

URU Uruguay

VEN Venezuela

ISV Virgin Islands

My Thoughts: A Portrait in Sepia by Isabel Allende

A Portrait is Sepia has made me want to devour the rest of Isabel Allende's work. The novel tells the tale of a young girl's life through to adulthood. Aurora is born an orphan, her father had disowned her whilst she was still in the womb and her mother died within hours of her birth. But Aurora will never be alone, she spends the first five years of her life in the constant care of her grandfather Tao. Not for one second can a girl child be left alone in Chinatown, there is too greater risk of a kidnapping and a life in training as a prostitute. For five years Tao is her world.

When he dies she is taken by her grandmother and left with her paternal grandmother; a woman she has no recollection of meeting, a business woman in a world where women stay at home, a women with a huge ornate golden bed. Aurora's grandmother, Paulina, is one of the richest women in San Francisco, a vast number of business deals have left her with a mansion, a cheating husband and lazy, unloving sons. She is not used to caring for anyone, when suddenly this small and emotionally demading child enters her house, a child wracked with shyness and nightmares.

As time passes Aurora becomes used to her new grandmother, and used to the lavish lifestyle that she grows accustomed too. The family move back to Chile, surrounding Aurora with a whole host of relatives, many of whom are ahead of their times: Nivea, who learnt sexual seduction from novels and uses it to bring her husband from the brink of death, and the politcally led men and women who live within her grandmother's house.

Still suffering with her shyness, Aurora develops a passion for photography, which she uses to see the truth about life, a passion which in later life reveals the reason why her husband is so unloving towards her. When she marries she moves away and starts a new life, yet the marriage is short lived she is soon back in Chile, living the life of a seperated woman, with a secret lover in tow.

Allende fills this novel with strong powerful women, women who defy the demands of society and fulfill their needs and wishes. This maybe a feminist comment yet Allende's women are only capable of loving one person, sometimes to the detriment of their love for their own children. The men on the otherhand vary between the saintly, who worship the women they are with to those less desirable types who are too self absorbed. It was like Allende reversed societies judgements, normally powerful man are praised but powerful women are not trusted, but not in this novel.

A Portrait in Sepia contains characters, and descendents of characters from some of Allende's other novels, as I'm fairly new to Allende I had only read one of these novels, but even if I hadn't read any this would still be a fantastic book, because the history of what has gone before to influence their lives is explained in the novel.

Challenge:
The Olympic Challenge: London 2012

Others responses:

I Me My

If you've reviewed this novel please leave a link in the comments and I'll add it in here.