Birth of Venus
Alessandra Cechi is the main protagonist of this historical novel that eloquently describes the Florentine Renaissance. For someone whose experience in art criticism is limited to Da Vinci Code, this novel has carefully baited and stroked my interest in art and history. Alessandra is a woman artist who hides her skills (and talent) because she was born in a period where women were limited to 3 roles — mother, wife and perhaps, a nun.
Sarah Dunant carefully weaves in a murder and love story with debates about art, religion and politics. It was a “rich” story. It wasn’t something that I read in one sitting but despite having taking my time and reading other books in between, I was continually drawn to the book and its characters.
How the beginning and the ending intertwines makes this a very worthy reading. I will not tell you the spoiler but that main spoiler was quite a good twist that really caught me offguard.
Perfume on-screen lost its scent
It must have been 10 years ago when I read Patrick Suskind’s novel “Perfume.” I was blown away at how well-written and how descriptive it was. It was amazing how he described different scents through Jean Baptiste Grenoulli. When my husband and I learned that it was going to be a movie we both agreed that we wanted to see. He has read the book in German and was equally impressed by it. Last night, my husband and I managed to catch the 640pm show at the Horton Plaza. We were a little late by still opted to watch it (over Borat!)
The opening scene where Grenoulli’s mother gave birth to him under the fish stall was a promising start. The ending, however, had me shaking my head with incredulity. Was the ending really like that? The mob of Grasse intent on persecuting the murderer upon smelling the virginal perfume turned into a lovefest?! Furthermore, upon arriving in Paris and returning to his birthplace (the fish market), he poured all of the perfume on himself then droves of people swarmed and ate him. Hmmm.
Certainly, the book has wonderfully described how Grenoulli thought he can rule the world with The Perfume. It didn’t sound ridiculous in the book but in the film it was. So I guess, Stanley Kubrick was right about the book being unfilmable. Amazing how words seem to be more powerful that the visual in this case.
What I definitely need to do is read this book again.
Demystifying Z
As I leaf through the last pages of Zorro by Isabel Allende, it had me wondering up to the final chapter who was the supposed writer of the story. Ofcourse, anyone who can read the book cover will say that it was Isabel Allende who wrote the novel.
I just find it inreresting how writers can effectively take the persona of the charaters in their novel that you actually start believeing that somebody else other than Allende wrote it. OR you start wondering if Allende was the voice of the storyteller and she actually knew Zorro. In this novel, the storyteller is Isabel, one of the Zorros. Wondering what I’m talking about? Read the book! I’ve never really paid much attention to the movie with Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones, so I can’t tell how much likeness the novel has with the movie.
What fascinates me about Allende is the amount of history and description that flows into every page. I am usually left half wondering how much historical truth is in the book. She writes about Spain, California and the political panorama of the 1800 with such detail that I found myself picturing bustling Madrid and newfound California.
It tool me a while to take the book off the shelves. I just thought that Zorro was a passe figurehead and who would want to read about him when there’s a movie that preceeded it?!? But despite my initial hesitation, I’m way too drawn to Alllende’s eloquence and humor to let my initial relunctance win.
It’s not exactly a must-read like Eva Luna is but it is certainly entertaining.
