Daughter of Heaven

Daughter of Heaven

by Nigel Cawthorne

The historical biography of Empress Wu Chao, who rose to power towards the beginning of the Tang dynasty and left a legacy for women and Emperors after her. The story of her life is something worth admiring - sure, she was pretty ruthless, and had a tendency to kill off her own relatives and/or lovers, and liked to build uselessly large temples venerating her as a goddess, but she also became a ruling regeant in an age when any political power was off-limits for women, made a lot of nice changes to the civil service examination systems and such, and paved the way for her succeeding Emperors to bring the Tang dynasty to its glory days. The last chapter or two of the book is dedicated to exploring what happened after Wu Chao died, and it gives a good idea of the kind of legacy she left her successors. Women in the palace, one after another, entered the court and bid for power in the same fashion as Wu Chao had done, and the idea that women were helpless little kitchen maids took a backseat in the decades following Wu Chao's abdication and death. This is amazing, considering the Confucious ideas that dominated Chinese historical thought. Plus the number of coup de tats was astounding - Wu Chao really shook things up in court before she left it for good.

Cawthorne has done an amazing amount of research into Wu Chao's history, and draws from a variety of sources in order to bring out the most complete picture of what was going on at the time. He often brings in extraneous information about the culture of palace life, or records of small episodes that don't hold much weight in the grand scheme of politics, just to provide a more comprehensive look at what life was like in the Chinese palace at the time. Some of it feels useless, but others definitely add an interesting perspective. For instance, when describing Wu Chao's early entrance into the palace as a concubine, Cawthorne spends an almost obnoxiously long amount of pages giving details about sex life in the palace - this feels pretty useless considering the book is more about Wu Chao's political contributions and intrigues. However, later on Cawthorne narrates small vignettes that occurred between ministers and  Wu Chao (e.g. a minister speaks out bravely against Wu Chao's promiscuous private life, and contrary to everyone's expectations that the queen would shout "OFF WITH HIS HEAD!!" she bestows a reward on him for his honesty) to flesh out the figures that inhabited her palace.

The narrative voice tends to get a bit dull and repetitive - Cawthorne is more of a historian than a writer. He does a fairly good job of giving an objective, foreigner's look at this highly charged historic and political figure, and leaves it up to the reader to judge Wu Chao based on her promiscuous love affairs, her violent rise to power, or her helpful reforms that did much to improve China's socio-economic situation. However, he tends to use the same adjectives and narrative phrasing one too many times and often uses plainly awkward sentence structures. There are also some grammar mistakes - not frequent, but enough to get annoying after a while. This is probably more the fault of the editor than the author himself, but it still shows a lack of attention (or a lack of grammatical skill) to the work as a published document. 

Be prepared to memorize names. Lots of them. Foreign, Chinese names that have been desperately romanized and cannot be pronounced in any form of English without some tongue-twisting. The author was kind enough to include a "Dramatis Personae" at the end of the book cataloging the names of everyone who appears, but who wants to be going back and forth looking up names at every sentence? I just chugged through it. It sometimes makes it easier because most of the characters end up dying within a few pages of being introduced. 

Overall a nice introduction to some Chinese history. It was a pretty basic volume of information, but I liked that it was very elementary level reading because I had to be reading a lot of more advanced, difficult books at the same time for school. 

Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night's Dream

by William Shakespeare

Is this a classic?

Yes.

Does it deserve to be?

Yes.

I will be the first to admit that I didn't get around to actually reading this thing until taking my upper div class: Early Shakespeare plays. But that doesn't mean it wasn't good! On the contrary, if I didn't have to move on to Hamlet in the next week (and more plays after that), I'd want to read through it again because it sure holds a lot of delicious monologues and startling questions for me to ponder.

Having read this with approximately 80 fellow students in the English department, I'd say the biggest turn-off of this book is the plot.

...Not to say the plot is bad. Only that it comes off as slightly confusing.

Ok, maybe a bit more than slight. That love rectangle between Lysander, Hermia, Helena, and Demetre can send any Korean Drama junkie on a run for her money, just because it's so hard to keep track of! At least in Korean Dramas and soap operas, the protagonists love the same person the whole time (disclaimer: this generalization does not apply to certain dramas with indecisive love interests). Here, Lysander and Demetre switch back and forth between the two women more than once. It does not help at all that Hermia and Helena have extremely similar names!

But drawing out multiple relationship charts for yourself will solve this problem. Do not let the confusion of hearing two men spout two different sets of romantic confessions turn you away, because this play really can get you thinking about the fundamental nature of love.

As most are aware, in this story the love potion of the little love flower plays a vital role. In a word, it creates a love disaster. Ironically enough, the mischievous fairy Puck uses this same flower to resolve the problems in initially caused, ultimately rounding out the play with a happy ending. It may be easy to move on at this point, nodding amicably at the nice resolution with 4 happy couples celebrating their love in the last scene. Yet the question of the love potion still remains - especially because Demetre remains under the spell at the end of the story. "What, so he's cursed to be in love with Helena forever, under a magical love potion?" some may ask.

I myself expressed doubts at the prospect of marrying someone he may not even love, but I realized that the question runs even deeper than this. What if Demetre's love for Helena isn't a lie? Sure, he's under a love potion spell, but he thinks he really loves Helena. He himself (and everyone else, especially Helena) is happy with their marriage. Then who are we, as outsiders, to question their feelings for each other.

Besides, his initial love for Hermia wasn't very convincingly justified either. Why in the world did Demetre love Hermia? The play never tells us. He never tells us. He simply feels himself in love, and acts upon it. Then how is that any different from the love induced by an outside source?

Following this train of thought brings the readers into a messy territory, where love remains undefined and the nature of the relationship between man and woman is challenged. The fact that the play never even attempts to answer this question amuses and inspires me all the more. If people wonder how scholars find so much to write about in a Shakespeare play (volumes upon volumes of literary criticism!), here's a tiny little sliver of an answer to that question.

The question of love definitely remains ongoing and unsolvable, but trying out brains at it through fictional romantic comedies like Midsummer Night's Dream always proves a worthwhile challenge.

Firstborn

Firstborn: A Novel

by Lorie Ann Grover

I . . . what?

I feel that I'm usually a pretty generous reader. Books that have been published generally pass a certain standard of "good," but this time I really wanted to question the publishers behind this novel. When I first picked it up, the story appeared interesting: a desert fantasy setting, about a girl born among an oppressed people, who must live as a boy. But as I read on, the downward spiral began...

As a reader and a lover of all written works, I found very little in this book to redeem itself. 

First off, the back-story has much to be desired. What is this world? What kind of society is it? What are the social structures, and how do the two major religions play a role in it? Though these questions are addressed in the book, they are never fully explored; at least, not enough to immerse me into the world that she is creating. This is a brand new world here, with new countries, customs, people, cultures....it seems too half-baked for me to invest my interest into it.

Same goes for the characters. There just isn't enough of them. There are a standard amount of characters, by number, but none of them are fully fleshed out. Even the main character, who is speaking in first-person, fails to draw upon my empathy. This may be because her emotional reactions to the situation around her doesn't seem to match up (she frequently gets overly upset or extremely happy in response to things that wouldn't draw out such emotions. Either that, or the author does a poor job building up the drama towards that moment), or because I am not given enough information about her from the start. I don't feel like I got to really know who she is as a person, even though I journeyed through almost 300 pages with her.

And the geographic description is, well, hazy. I don't expect penmenship on par with Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, which is notorious for its detailed description of the landscape of his world in the first book of the trilogy. What I do wish to see is a place I can imagine, even if it's not 100% accurate according to what the author is imagining. Instead, I get something like:

"My glance skitters over the open vista. Beyond the rocky desert and the distant humped dunes are other lands." -pg. 59, Chapter 13, "The Trek"

I realize that books these days try to keep bare descriptions short to keep the reader engaged, but here the description is so brief that I don't have time to picture it before I need to move on. 

Also, the sentences are a bit...short. Not that I have anything against short sentences. Many fantastic books have been written with short sentences. But the imperial tone of the narration, and the setting of the story, makes it sound incompatible when the entire book consists of sentences that don't go past  two lines. In a book that casually throws around phrases like "For certain" and "Our subservience to you" and "I still my centerself," I think the author can afford to use a comma or two in her sentences. In short, I felt awkward reading it, because I felt that the author felt awkward writing it.

And lastly, the ending. The ending that left many, many knots unfinished, and resolved maybe two problems out of the many other ones the author laid out for us. And one of those resolved issues was only introduced in chapter 80, five chapters before the end. The gist of it is that she runs away from her community, but that seriously doesn't solve any of her problems. I don't even think there's a sequel for this, so not sure how she'll survive on her own in a new country that hasn't even been introduced throughout the book's entirety...

The idea of the plot itself was intriguing. But the execution was poor, at least in this reader's opinion. I have seen many reviews on Bookreads and Amazon that rate this book positively, but sad to say, I can't agree with them. Hopefully my next Christian fantasy novel has more to offer.

The Karamazov Brothers

The Karamazov Brothers

by Fyodor Dostoevsky

"Two extremes . . . remember that a Karamazov can encompass two extremes, and both at one and the same time!" -Ippolit Kyrillovich, in his prosecution speech during Mitya's trial

First off, this book is not thought-provoking. It does a lot more than just provoke. It's a book that smashes your preconceived, half-baked conceptions of good, evil, free will, and happiness . . . it'll smash them to smithereens, and then maybe, perhaps, will give you a solution on how to rebuild the shattered pieces into a whole again.

Dostoevsky does this not through the plot or the storyline, but through his presentation of the characters: their life, their personalities, their psychology, their development. The plot had very little effect as a whole. There were more monologues and dialogues than there were sequences of action, and though a lot of readers may be put off by the lack of "doing" in the story, I found the characters' speeches far more interesting than the descriptions of where they went or what they did throughout the day. 

First there is Dmitry Karamazov. Oldest brother, an incorrigible man who seeks pleasures and passions with wild abandon. He carouses with women, spends money like water, assaults people who get on his nerves. The resident playboy and bad boy. But he is also one of the most spiritual characters in the novel; he claims that he will love God even as he rots in Hell. He confesses, "I may be damned, I may be base and despicable, but I kiss the hem of the robe that envelops my God..."

What are we supposed to make of this man? Clearly he is not righteous; he can't be called religious or pious even in very loose terms. Yet he holds a genuine capacity to love and his desire to seek out happiness. So then, is he good? What is a good man? What defines a noble spirit, a man of honor? Dmitry claims this title for himself, and though he is a "scoundrel" who commits sins and wrongs left and right, he displays a personal set of morals that truly convinces him that he is a noble man. The inexplicable fact that the townspeople love him even though he is so base, makes it even more convincing that he may actually be an honorable person. 

As Ippolit Kyrillovich describes, Dmitry is a man of "two extremes." He is extremely spiritual and extremely worldly, both passionate and repentant, both loving and hateful. 

Secondly we have Ivan Karamazov. Argued by some to be the true protagonist and final victor of the story, this 2nd Karamazov brother is an intellectual, who rejects the existence of God and goes mad in his descent into a mire of immorality and consequences. The most disturbing aspect of Ivan is not simply that he doesn't believe in God. That describes all atheists, in general, and Ivan is not an atheist. Rather, Ivan is an anti-theist, and a lover of mankind. He cannot understand human suffering; he wishes for human happiness, and this leads him to reject the existence of God even if God really did exist. He explains this to Alyosha by comparing the entrance to heaven as a bus ticket: "It's not God that I don't accept, Alyosha, only I most respectfully return him the ticket."

But later on, Ivan is tormented. His notion that "everything is permitted," that man can do whatever he wants in the absence of a good God, begins to take on shapes and forms that he never anticipated or prepared for. A murder is committed by another, who reasoned his actions based on Ivan's teachings, and suddenly Ivan finds his personal philosophy haunts him through the conscience he never thought he had. He hallucinates about Satan, who throws him into utter confusion as to the nature of his beliefs: does Ivan really want to reject God? Or is he desperate to find God, is he waiting for someone to come along and disprove his claims? 

Again, a most extreme and divided man. Ivan both rejects God and seeks God with all his might. Yet his final madness in the last chapters reflects a mind that was perhaps a little too knowledgeable in his own concepts, and far too unaware of the universal truths that govern the human heart. Most of all, it is a heart that may have, in fact, been seeking to find God after all.

And lastly we have Alyosha. The least talkative, the most spiritually centered, and thus potentially the most boring character in the book....except we find out as the book progresses, that Alyosha is also inescapably a Karamazov. The youngest brother of the three aspires to be a monk, and is always the kind "cherub" to whom others look to for spiritual guidance. Unlike his other brothers, he does not reject God or His doctrines, serving wholeheartedly alongside Father Zosima, his spiritual mentor and model. But when misfortune strikes, Alyosha finds that he is just as prone to falling into the evils of the world--his visit to Grushenka displays one of the most profound and staggering moments of the book. The pure, kind, angelic Alyosha, actually wishes to be corrupted.....the Karamazov tendency surfaces all the more shockingly.

But Alyosha's faith ultimately wins. He discovers the good in the very place where he sought to find evil, and in the process becomes completely strengthened in his belief in the goodness and saving love of God. 

These three brothers, and many more people in the small Russian town where the story takes place, experience changes that will also leave the reader changed in his own way. 

It is not a book I would recommend to anyone, yet everyone should read this, for better or worse. Just be aware that after this book has been finished, it is impossible to walk away completely unaffected by it.

Whether or not the book answers Ivan's critical questions of God's goodness in his plans for humanity appears ambiguous at best. But I believe Dostoevsky found his answer. The characters seek a way to justify their own actions, they seek to know if God really exists, if God is really good, if morality is indeed something that rules our actions. 

The answer is yes.

Not an answer that comes about through logical arguments or structured reasoning. It is an answer from the hearts of the characters: the heart of Ivan, who confessed to a crime in order to seek redemption, the heart of Mitya, who sought conviction to atone for his sins, and the heart of Alyosha, who extols the boys in the story onward to love and hope in God. In the parting moments of all these men--there lies Dostoevsky's final answer to the questions he poses through the voices of these selfsame characters.

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Officially known as one of the most influential Post-colonial works of the 20th century.

Not that I knew. I only found out a week after finishing the entire book.

To be perfectly honest, these titles that get attached to books can really skew your opinion. "Best" or "most influential" or "historically significant," what is it about these that automatically guarantee a book merit?

“It's the book all Post-colonial professors must teach in their lectures.”

“It's the book that started it all!”

“It's the book everyone knows and loves (well, I don't know about this part).”

When I read the book without knowing its celebrity status in the literary world, I found much to be happy about and much to disapprove. But after I discovered that this paperback actual sold in the millions, the unpleasant parts actually faded a bit from my memory. I stopped caring as much about them. Those weird or faulty bits? The author must have had some deep, philosophical, literary reason for having them.

 Huh. Conditioned reaction, I suppose. One can't help but find themselves bought in by renown.

But despite all this, I did do my best to shelve my bias onto a faraway bookshelf while I took a more critical look at Achebe’s work.

The book is what modern people would call a book "worth reading." It has all the elements that make it a time well spent, a project worth completing. There lives the main character: NOT a cliché, well-rounded Mr. Nice White Guy who swoops in to save the damsel at the end of the day. There is the village: NOT a quaint, rustic country town surrounded by hills in an area of England nobody has ever heard of. In an era where cliché, "normal" stories are ripped to shreds by critiques and readers alike, I'm positive this is one book that won't fall into that banal category of literature. In a word, it isn't canon (AKA it's an English book not written by a middle-aged white guy)—a trend that's been settling into our literary world for quite some time

I really appreciated that, I did. If only the author's language had been a bit more . . . rich. Sentences are short and choppy, descriptive adjectives appear once in a blue moon. I couldn't tell if it was written in such an abrupt voice because the author wasn't familiar with the English language, or if he was trying to convince me that he wasn’t familiar with the English language. In either case, it interrupted my flow of the reading quite a few times, because the appearance of a period for the 20th time in the same page tends to throw me a bit. At least throw in some more semi-colons for variety, please.

Also, Achebe uses a great deal of indigenous vocabulary to describe the setting, which, while it does convey a sense of locality and unique flavor, tended to confuse me after a while. Sure, the author does a fine job of weaving in the definitions of the terms he sprinkles into the story (like agbala, ogene, agadi-nwayi, obi, etc.). But a more in-depth explanation of the meaning behind these terms, and their significance to that particular culture, are lost.

I admit, that sort of cultural depth is hard to come by in a fictional novel, but a reader can always hope.

Still, the story deserves merit for its ambiguous, thought-provoking ending that questions the definition of right or wrong, challenges socially accepted perceptions and notions, criticizes the paradigms that shape this world and its inhabitants...all that jazz. The lessons to be learned from this book seem boundless. It points out the folly of stubbornness in one's own beliefs; as both Okonkwo and the Christian missionaries that settle in his village clash over their contrasting ideals, we get a picture of a bunch of men refusing to understand each other. The author does a pretty good job of portraying the flaws of both parties relatively equally. He could easily have made out the African tribe as the poor, innocent victims who got exploited by white explorers. Instead, he says they're both at fault.

Okonkwo, for being stubborn and violent.

Everyone else, also for being stubborn and forceful.

I hesitate to say that the book is 100% accurate in its portrayals, not to mention it might be just a liiiiiittle biased coming from an oppressed people's representative author, but the questions and discussions that can be pulled from this book's pages are worth pondering. Yes, the characterization of the white settlers and missionaries definitely carries bitter undertones. Most of them come off as aggressive, condescending, and unwilling to listen to the voice of the people. We don't know if this sort of behavior was common among white settlers in Africa during colonization, but we do know that most explorer and missionary publications at that time did not portray these figures in such a rude and violent light. We're all familiar with the age-old European belief: they are the light of the world meant to save the ignorant savages from their own sins...yeah. Achebe really takes a stab at this misconception in his book by showing just how vulgar this attitude would have seemed to the natives. It's pretty refreshing to read.

But regardless of the emotional responses this book might elicit, it must be given credit for its ability to leave the reader feeling not quite satisfied.

It's not that I don't feel satisfied with the book itself. Rather, I am left feeling unsatisfied with the world I live in.

The book holds up a mirror in front of you, shows an ugly side of human nature that cannot be erased, cannot be ignored, and cannot be blamed on anyone except ourselves. It makes you aware of all the imperfections around you. That's not something you want to be reminded of at the end of the day. But it's also necessary. Achebe brings that necessary probe to the surgeon's table, one more tool in the hands of a reader to help him better understand humans, their world, their minds. It may not be a solution, but then again, we'll probably never find one.

The protagonist Okonkwo's supposed solution certainly doesn't work, but neither do the remaining people achieve a happy ending.

It's not about the happy ending or the solution that satisfies everybody. This book isn't nearly close to that stage of the process yet. We're at the foothold of the first step, where understanding the "other" becomes each reader's entryway into a place where a solution might become introduced.

Gods at War by Kyle Idleman

Well, I definitely cringed and winced and twinged at quite a few pages in this book...

Idleman definitely is not the most eloquent writer out there--and he is not aiming to be. His words hit bluntly, and they hurt. His call for the audience to re-evaluate his or her life based on the things that take the most of their time, efforts, money, and thoughts really aims spot-on at the central problems in my life. Though it took me a very long time to get through, for the sheer amount of time I needed to chew my way through some of these challenging and convicting chapters, I feel that every page was worth my time, even those that did not directly apply to me.

What is a god? It is something you worship, something you revere, something you sacrifice things to, often very valuable and important things. Kyle Idleman takes this familiar concept--something that even non-Christians would agree is a pretty standard, well-rounded definition of what a 'god' is--and replaces the word "god" with other things: your money, your spouse, your work, your schoolwork, sex, love, material possessions, even your pursuit of simple pleasure or success....all of these things, and many more, can become a god. You put your time into it, often sacrificing other things in your life just so you can devote more energy into that ONE thing that you simply can't do without. Your life doesn't feel complete without this. You need it. You revere it. And Idleman calls this idol worship.

It's not a nice book by a long run. Heck, it's pretty mean. But the heart of the author comes out here, in his desire that no man or woman should be wasting time, money, energy, and their very lives going after stuff that isn't as valuable as we make them out to be. He states pretty clearly that all of that, it's a waste. Period. Wow, what a way to think about all those times I spent during summer breaks back in high school reading comic books or playing video games. But he is also uplifting in his repetitive exhortation that the reader turn to Christ, the one God that is actually worth everything we might give Him, and so much more. I won't go into the nuances here, but let's just say Idleman rams this point home by giving it a good mention at the end of every, single, chapter. Yeah, the point gets across all right.

The checklists and examples given at the end of every chapter were really nice. They were formatted into pretty boxes, so it felt like I was reading something new every time, and it kept my mind from wandering too far from the topic at hand by presenting a fresh look at the chapter's main argument. It also gave some questions to think about: these were the things that had me thinking on them long after I inserted my bookmark and closed the book for the day. Little details and extra touches like these can really go a long way.

There's nothing quite like a light Christian read to get myself back on my feet. I think taking a break from my normal reading list for this was a very good choice, and if there are any Christians out there, I would recommend this book to them as a way to get their life prioritized and re-focused onto the truly important things.

And for those of you who aren't Christian, it's still a helpful read. Admit it, we all have something in our lives that we spend way too much time on. Here's an entire book that'll help you convince yourself that it's not worth it. You have better things to do with the 100 years or so that you have to spend as your life.