Fu Changqing Changqing itibaren Dinabandhupur, Odisha 752035, Hindistan
This is the second book I’ve read by Gaston Leroux, the first being The Phantom of the Opera. What recommends Leroux most is his unique style. He was a journalist before becoming an author and he writes his books in the style of a turn of the century press release. There is very little moralizing and few philosophical asides. Instead he mainly sticks to the facts. My issue with this story is that I found it uninteresting. I really didn’t care to try to figure out the mystery, or find out who the perpetrator was. The only character I found interesting was the victim and she was not given much action in the novel, other than screaming. Outdated notions of propriety caused most of the roadblocks in discovering the identity of the attacker. The writing was very clumsy at times. An example: “I was interested only in the health of Mademoiselle Strangerson, which was daily improving, when something occurred that is even more mysterious than – than the mystery of The Yellow Room! ‘Impossible!’ I cried, ‘What could be more mysterious than that?’” I’m not sure if an exchange like that was supposed to be humorous, but I found it very funny and ridiculous. As a teenager I went through an extended Sherlock Holmes/ Herucle Poriet phase. This novel had the most similarity with Sherlock Holmes. It had a similar crime-solving genius/ confused friend dynamic going on between the two main characters. Similar to Sherlock Holmes, the novel is told from the point of view of the unenlightened friend, who is only given occasional clues as to what his more intelligent companion is thinking. This serves as a handy plot device because it keeps the reader in the dark on many important points until the author sees fit to reveal them. However, Holmes and Watson are infinitely more charismatic characters than the main characters of this novel. It seems unfair to compare Leroux with Arthur Conan Doyle, who is one of the great geniuses of mystery writing, but with all the similarities I found it impossible not to. Perhaps if I had read this novel first, I would have been more impressed. “Logic will upset you if you use it indiscriminately.” P.58
I thought I knew all there was to know about the immigrant experience in early 1900s New York. I was wrong. This book is touching, insightful and memorable, and best of all, it is mostly based on the author's life. The details about life in Brooklyn neighborhoods are precious. The scenes will stay with me whenever I begin to complain that my life is hard. What strong women! What a testament to life, and that it is possible to pull oneself up and better a situation.
House Rules was another masterpiece by Jodi Piccoult. She writes about the story of a young man struggling with aspergers syndrome. The book is partially written from the boy, Jacob Hunt,'s point of view. It is extremely insightful and mind-opening. You see the struggles that a kid with aspergers goes through on a daily basis. I was in awe at the things he had to deal with: how a single ritual change could throw him into a fit; how another human's touch caused him severe pain; how he tried so hard to fit in socially, but just couldn't pick up on other's cues to leave him alone, or that they didn't want to talk to him. Seeing things from his perspective made it so easy to relate to him and see the motivations behind the things he did that were perceived as strange. But when I put myself in the shoes of any onlooker I wonder what I would have though of him as well. It also explored the sacrifices every parent makes for their child, and we see how much Jacob's mother does for him. This book was written beautifully, and has given me a completely new perspective on aspergers syndrome. I think that it will be a revolutionary book in educating the public of the battle people with aspergers fight every day.