The Reader-Bernhard Schlink (06/04/2010~06/09/2010)

The Reader (Paperback, Media Tie In) - Vintage International
베른하르트 슐링크 지음, Janeway, Carol Brown 옮김 / Vintage Books / 2008년 12월

Before I read the book, I confronted the movie first, and I was so impressed by plot. Although the plot is not much complicated or thrilling, it has a power to make the audience keep reading. Considering I had a week bombarded by homework, finishing this book in 5 days means this book was absorbing.

Before talking about the book, please give me a moment to compare the book and the motion picture. Usually, in the case that I went through both a book and a movie, I used to choose which one is better than the other. Even though I didn’t mean to do it, but I tend to prefer one to the other. However, in case of The Reader, I should break down some. The movie was good at describing the moment they were together, and the book was better at depicting the process of the trial and afterward. I will leave this here and continue at the movie review.      

The best thing I like about this book is it shows the stream of protagonist's consciousness through his monologues and dialogues, and thinking about how his consciousness(especially toward Hanna) changes as time passes is difficult but pleasant process of reading this book.

Personally, I think the kid’s love started as a complex of manic and erotic love and finished as Agape (I’m not perfectly sure about Agape, though).

When he met Hanna, two things I pointed out were he was fifteen and sick. It depends on people, but around fourteen to seventeen many people experience their puberty and he was in the moment of starting puberty. Going through puberty and his low self-esteem were the best condition for the kid to crush on older woman. Another point is he was sick when he firstly met Hanna near her house and Hanna took care of him by washing out his puke on the street and taking him back to the home. As Hanna got the kid out of physical illness, she got him out of dull life and immatureness. To the kid, she was the medicine for the body and the mentality. And then, he became totally crush on her. How much he loved and cared about her is well expressed by his a few comments after first fighting with Hanna.

	I understood that she was upset. I understood that she wasn't upset because I couldn't upset her. I understood that I couldn't upset her, but that she simply couldn't allow me to behave that way to her. In the end, I was happy that she admitted I'd hurt her.
	-p.48, The Reader, Paperbook, Published by Vintage Books in 2008

 This has two meanings; firstly, he was happy that he was imporant person to Hanna even having power to hurt her, and secondly, he was happy that as she admitted he hurted her, he got a chance to apologize and get the relationship back. I mean his love is just unconditional love which has power to embrace her upset by attributing her upset to his fault. He was totally into her.  

However, as time passes and he spent more time with his friends, his love became a little bit different than before. He still loved Hanna more than anything, but in the meantime, his sacrificing love was kind of faded away. 

	Then when I proceded to get bad-tempered myself and we started a fight and Hanna treaded me like a nonentity, the fear of losing her returned and I humbled myself and begged her pardon until she took me back. But I was filled with resentment.
	-p.73, The Reader, Paperbook, Published by Vintage Books in 2008

 He still asked her forgiveness, but he started to be captured by resentment. This is definitely a change from before and finally he became to lose her. Hanna suddenly took off to somewhere else. Then, he couldn't seem to get her out of his mind, and several years passed.  

When he ended up meeting Hanna again in the trial, his went blank as he said "I recognized her, but I felt nothing. Nothing at all." I was thinking about where his blankness came from. I would say it is the blankness coming from full of confusion between past and present, and also love and betrayal. He didn't feel anything but that doesn't mean he doesn't care about Hanna if you consider the fact that he went to the trial without absences. He did not know how to deal with this trial and Hanna's behavior standing in the middle of Hanna in the past and Hanna in the present. Anyway, finally she was sentenced to life and he became going back to his life.  

While she was in jail, he decided to read to Hanna on tape. He recorded all kinds of book and sent to her and finally she became literate. Then what he felt to Hanna was a proud. He thought he was proud of her. This is the moment that all kinds of his complex feelings turns into Agape. He respects and admires her. Beyond the sexual or manic love, he shows his homage towards her.  This is why this book is such a perspicuous book; as the boy becomes old and mature, his love also becomes ripe and mature. This jorney is quite bitter but worthy.  

I loved it. Especially the book elaborated the process of trial which the movie quite failed to describe. I did not discuss about Hanna and Nazi-related problem in this blog, because I only focused on the change of protagonist's consciousness but the political view this book takes was really interesting too.   

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English is pretty easy comparing to other books, and it is not that long as well. It's good for those who want to study English, I guess.

Kite Runner- Khaled Hosseini

The Kite Runner (Paperback)
칼레드 호세이니 지음 / Riverhead Books / 2004년 4월

I should have written down the review right after finishing the book not to forget what I felt at that moment.
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Hmm. Kite Runner. I didn't actually expect this book to be riveting. I confronted this book from 지식인의 서재, 이미도편 and this was one of his recommending books. How cannot pick it up and read it? I mean, come on. That is THE 이미도's recommending one. As soon as seeing that book, I ordered used one through Amazon. (Actually I bought two other books with it, The Blank Slate and The Sparks of Genius.) This book totally got my interest. It blew me away.  
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Isabel Allende praise this novel by saying "this is one of those unforgettable stories that stays with you for years. All the great themes of literature and of life are the fabric of this extraordinary novel; love, honor, guilt, fear, redemption." Like she said, this book has little bit of everything of our lives, but that doesn't bother me at all, because those flakes of our lives are really well fabricated in Khaled Hosseini's hand.

Sin and redemption. Amir wants to redeem himself from the sin that he observes Hassan get raped by Assef but escapes from that situation. The sin caused by fear puts him feel guilty through his whole life and makes him decide to redeem himself when Rahim Khan let him know the way to be good again. Sin is committed by fear, but redeeming himself is the process of overcoming the fear. When he confronted the fear against Assef in 1975, which I want to call first crisis, he denied Hassan by running away from the situation. However, when he met Assef after becoming an adult, which I want to call second crisis, he fought against Assef and fear. This is the only way to be good again like Rahim Khan said, and Amir totally redeems himself even adopting Hassan's child, Sohrab.  

The symbolic meaning of the kite is obvious. The thread of the kite is the passage connecting past and present, and also Hassan to Sohrab. To Amir, the past has two contradicting meanings. On the one hand, that was the time he was innocent and had enjoyable time with Hassan running kites. However, on the other hand, the past was his most sinful moments relating with low self-esteem which also comes from the love that Baba showed to Hassan not to him. By fixing the latter part, he wants to be totally good man, but he becomes to find out Hassan is already dead, so he is adopting Sohrab instead.  

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The book is unexpectable and enough to fascinate me. If I think about Afghanistan, I automatically relate it to some kinds of malecious terrorists, but there are children who are just like any other children in all over the world. Even though I have an interest in Middle East history, meeting Afghanistan by novel is another exotic experience. I might read Khaled Hosseni's another famous novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns.  

Lost Symbol- Dan Brown

로스트 심벌 1
댄 브라운 지음, 안종설 옮김 / 문학수첩 / 2009년 12월

댄 브라운의 글을 읽을때면 항상 느끼는건데 글을 영화같은 형식으로 진행해 나간다.
어떤 중요한 사건 터지기 바로 직전 챕터를 바꿔서 다른 인물의 이야기를 써내려가서, 챕터만해도 100챕터가 넘는다. 그만큼 영화같이 긴장감있다.
다빈치코드는 읽어보지 않았지만, 천사와 악마도 그랬고, 이번 로스트심벌도 그랬다.
로스트심벌이 영화로 만들어지는지는 모르겠지만, 읽는 내내 탐행크스가 워싱턴DC를 헤집어다니는게 눈에 선했다.ㅎㅎ

 

이 책이 나에게 특별한 이유는 spring break에 WASHINGTON DC로 여행을 갔기 때문이다. (옆에 사진이 us capitol앞에서 찍은 사진~ㅎㅎ 여행증명)


워싱턴으로 목적지를 정하고 워싱턴관광 공식홈페이지를 찾아들어가니, 댄브라운의 로스트심벌이 Washington DC에 관한것이라는걸 발견!
그때부터 책을 빌려서 열심히 독서에 들어갔다.
책을 읽고나서 여행가면 더 재밌을 것이라고 생각했기 때문에...ㅎ

한국어번역은 모르겠지만, 원서책은 500페이지를 훌쩍 넘는다.

워싱턴 가기전 반정도 읽고 갔다와서 책을 끝냈다.

이것이 큰 실수였다........정말 다 읽고 갔었어야했는데...라는 생각에 땅을 치고 후회했다.ㅠㅠ

 

이 책의 한줄 줄거리는 우리의 로버트 랭던이 또한번 음모에 휘말려서 워싱턴에 숨겨져있는 로스트 심벌을 찾아헤메는 이야기이다.
워싱턴 곳곳의 숨은 비밀들도 알게되고 더욱이 읽고나면 프리메이슨에 대한 관심이 급증한다는거! (아차 그리고 이 사진에 있는 us capital에도 비밀이!)


다빈치코드와 천사와 악마 등으로 논쟁에 휘말린 댄브라운이 조금 지쳤는지, 로스트심벌의 끝으로 갈수록, 에? 왜이렇게 댄브라운이 말이 많지? 이런생각이 든다. 끝쪽으로 갈수록 그만큼 자기의 신념(또는 모든 논쟁에 대한 대응,변명)을 로버트랭던이나 캐서린솔로몬의 입을 빌려 몇장을 걸쳐 설명한다.
뭐 나쁘진 않았다고 생각한다. 그 설명이 흥미로웠으니까.


무엇보다 영어를 배우는 입장에서 가장 크게 감명받은건, 댄 브라운의 무한한 단어량.
정말 세련된 단어들을 적재적소에 넣어서 문장을 만들어내는 센스를 보면, 아 진짜 난 언제 이 수준에 도달할까 싶은 생각이 든다.


재밌었다. 하지만 더이상 로버트 랭던은 그만!이라는 생각. 그리고 언제 영화로 나올까?라는 생각.

The Road (10/30/2009~12/31/2010)

The Road (Paperback, Reprint)
코맥 매카시 지음 / Vintage Books / 2009년 11월

작년 Thanksgiving Break에 나는 Atlanta에 있는 Amy네 집에 머물렀었다.
내가 지금 살고 있는 동네는 워낙 작은 동네라서, 큰 서점이 없기에, 항상 인터넷으로 책을 주문하곤 했는데,
아틀란타에서 Mall에서 빈둥빈둥 쇼핑하고 놀다가 Borders를 발견했다.
우리 둘다 '책 사는 데에는 돈 아끼지말자'라는 철칙이자 지름신의 변명거리가 있는지라,
바로 책 쇼핑하러 Borders로 고고씽!

무슨 책을 살까 한참 고민하던중 에이미에게 책 추천을 부탁했더니,
THE ROAD가 요즘 그렇게 유명하다며, 영화로까지 만들어진다고 했다.

영화로 만들어진다....라 뭔가 확 재밌을 것 같아서, 책 겉 표지를 보니 어떤 아버지와 아들이 걷고 있는 그림..
꽤 재밌을 것 같기도 하고, 영문자 타입도 다른 책보다 커서 눈에 쉽게 들어올 것 같기도 해서,
거금 15달러정도를 주고 질러버렸다.

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솔직히 책을 읽는동안 생각했다.
'What the hell.......There is no book as boring as this one....'
아버지와 아들(심지어 이름조차 안나온다.)이 전쟁 후 거의 아무도 없는 길을 계속 계속 걷는다.
그게 전체 책을 줄거리..........

물론 책을 읽는 동안에 작가에 대한 존경심은 들었다.
아 이래서 퓰리쳐 받았구나. 어떠한 뚜렷한 plot없이도 한권의 책을 엮어낼 수 있는 그 묘사력.
똑같은 내용을 다른 세련된 어휘로 바꿔가며 다른 느낌을 줄 수 있는 그 묘사력.
글을 이끌어가는 능력은 뛰어나구나 생각했다.


줄거리에 대해 그 때 느꼈던 불만은 좀 더 구체화시켜보자면,,,
거의 다른 거 하는 것도 없다. 음식 찾아서 먹고, 걷고, 자고, 또 음식 찾아서 걷고...자고..
물론 중간중간과 끝에 사건들이 일어나긴 하지만 그저 The Road를 계속 걷는 것에 대한 묘사가 이 책의 4/5는 차지하는 것 같다.  아버지는 아들 달랜다고 We'll be okay.라는 말만 무한 반복하고, 아들은 Are we going to die?라는 질문만 연발하고..
이 모든것들이 나를 지루하게 만들었다.


이게 나의 이 책 읽는 동안의 솔직한 심정이었다.
책을 집어들었기에 끝장을 봐야겠다, 라는 일념하나로 정말 웃기게도
12월 31일날 밤 11시정도 경에 끝냈다. (이 때 겨울방학이어서 Florida에 있는 Katherine-Alice집에 가있었는데, 12월 31일날 밤 늦게까지 책잡고 있는 나를 보고 KA가 독하다고 했던게 기억나네ㅎㅎ)
2009년이 가기전에 끝냈다는 그 생각에 너무 기뻤고 더이상 쳐다보기도 싫었다.

많은 사람들이 좋다고 하는 책도 나에겐 안 맞을 수도 있구나...라고 생각했었다.


그러던 중 Spring 10학기를 듣는데, 영작문 교수님이 Cormac Mccarthy의 글의 느낌이 헤밍웨이와 상당히 비슷하다고 하였다.
모르겠다. 아직까지도 그렇게 재밌다, 의미있다 이런것까진 못느끼겠지만, 한번 헤밍웨이의 작품과 비교해보고싶긴하다.


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영어로 읽기 쉬운책
서체는 세련됬다고 생각했음
글의 내용면에서는 밋밋했음