Purple Hibiscus - Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie

Last year I read Ms. Adichie's novel "Half of a Yellow Sun", a novel about the civil war in Nigeria. It was a great novel - well written and informative and one which I highly recommend. I hadn't known anything about the war in Nigeria (nor did I even know that there had been a war in Nigeria) prior to reading that novel. I enjoyed that book so much that I was eager to read more by the same author. Purple Hibiscus was Ms. Adichie's first novel. Set in Nigeria and interspersed with local dialect and imagery about life in Nigeria, Purple Hibiscus is about a 15 year old girl, Kambili, who grew up under an authoritarian and extremely religious father who kept a strict household, a household with no smiles, no freedom and lots of beatings. When the political climate in Nigeria turns sour, Kambili and her brother are sent to stay with their aunt and her family. There they learn to sing, to smile, to have fun, relax, and more importantly to assert themselves. She begins to see her father not as a man who inflicted pain for her benefit, but as a kind of tyrant, but she continues to love him. This book examines the problems created by religion and overzealous faith, domestic violence, and personal development. It was a quick read but an enjoyable one.

Bliss by O.Z. Livaneli

An eye-opening book, Bliss captured my attention from the first page and I was unable to put it down. This is a story of three unhappy lives brought together by circumstance. Meryem is a young, Muslim girl living in a fundamentalist family in the East of Turkey. When her uncle rapes her, Meryem's family shames her and hides her away in a shed while they decide her fate. Meanwhile, a university professor - Irfan - is dissatisfied with his life of luxury which he feels has no meaning. Faced with the choice between suicide and escape, he chooses to leave everything behind and set sail on the Aegean sea. While Meryem sits in the shed and Irfan sails the sea, Cemal, Meryem's cousin, is finishing his military service in the remote mountains of Eastern Turkey where death by PKK rifle hangs over his head each day. When Cemal returns from the military, Meryem's family informs him of Meryem's "sin" and gives him the mission of killing the girl in order to erase her sin. Cemal's father (the uncle who raped Meryem) decides that the best way to get rid of Meryem is to take her to Istanbul, a huge city where no one will notice two new people and where it will be easy to dispose of the girl and then return to his hometown. So Cemal and Meryem set off on a journey that will change their lives...

I enjoyed this book because it showcases the contradictions and confusions inherrent in Turkey: Religious fundamentalism vs. mainstream practicing muslims vs. secularism, to wear a headscarf or not, Western vs. Eastern culture and family demands vs. own conscience.

Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie

This book came highly recommended from a friend of mine, but I was reluctant to read it as other people claim that Salman Rushdie is not an easy author to read. Midnight's Children won the "Booker of Booker" prize in 1993 as well as a number of other book prizes.

Midnight's Children is divided in to three "books" and it follows the life of Saleem Sinai - a telepath with an extraordinary nose - who was born at midnight at the exact moment that India gained Independence from the British. The story follows Saleem's life as well as the turmoil within India once it gained Independence.

Saleem's telepathy allows him to communicate with the other children born around the midnight of India's independence. The children meet inside Saleem's head for midnight conferences. Each child has his or her own power and the ones born closest to midnight are the most powerful. According to wikipedia, these midnight children represent the linguistic, cultural, religious and political differences of the people in India at that time, and through Saleem's telepathy he is able to bring them together.

Saleem's story follows a number of different conflicts in India and concludes with Saleem more or less losing everything as a result of Indira Ghandi's cleansing and sterilisation campaign. Once everything is lost, Saleem shares his memoir with his wife-to-be, Padma , and thus comes the novel "Midnight's Children", a story which has magic, tragedy, romance, war and huge political changes.

The novel is beautifully written and I enjoyed reading it, but I think I would have appreciated it more if I was better versed in the political history of the time. That being said, I don't think that it was a difficult novel to read

Another interesting book that I read (a long time ago) about the Indira Ghandi period in India is called "A Fine Balance" by Rohinton Mistry.

No Man's Land - a movie review

I just finished a movie entitled "No Man's Land" which is set during the Bosnian-Serbian war and I needed to blog about it immediately as it was SO good. This movie won an Academy Award for best foreign film in 2002 and I think you need to watch it.

Three enemy soldiers are trapped in a trench in no man's land. One is lying on a land mine that will explode if he moves. The soldiers manage to have the UN notified of the situation and a French UN sergeant battles with a British colonel (who would rather play chess) to negotiate their safety. But as usual, the UN proves useless because of its own internal problems and it's mandate of neutrality. This movie uses dark humor to portray the absurdity of war, with neither side knowing precisely why they are fighting each other, and with the UN unable to help.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. At times I laughed and at times I cried. The movie brought out many emotions and I was quite stressed throughout. I will definitely be thinking about this movie for a long time and I think it is time that I learned a little bit more about this conflict (if you, like me, don't know much about this conflict, the book "The Cellist of Sarajevo" is a good place to start).

The Secret Speech by Tom Rob Smith

If you read and enjoyed Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith then you should read the sequel. At the end of Child 44, Leo finds his humanity and compassion and leaves his post as an MGB officer in Stalin Soviet Union to open a new branch of law enforcement - the investigation of murders, something previously swept under the carpet by Stalin's regime (you can't have murder in a perfect society). The Secret Speech continues to follow the now-reformed Leo and his wife Raisa, as well as their two daughters. Stalin is dead and Krushchev has publicly denounced the Stalin era. Prisoners are being released from the work camps, policemen are being identified as enemies of the state, and someone from his former life is out to get Leo in the most painful way: by tearing his family apart. This novel was a page turner and I enjoyed it as much as Child 44. It took me one day to read it because I couldn't put it down.

Ankara Excursions - Embassy girl

Last Friday I went to the American Embassy Happy Hour. It was weird. There were Americans, lots of them, and only Americans. They were army type, muscled and tattooed. They sang songs in praise of America on the karaoke machine (but let's not get carried away - they also sang the lastest hits). They served the cheapest alcohol to be found in Turkey - all imported. They also had - gasp - DOCTOR PEPPER AND ROOT BEER. Surprisingly, I didn't have any. Being that we were in little America, everything was imported from the Coca Cola to the cleaning products in the bathroom. I'm pretty sure the toilet paper was American made. Although the experience was ... interesting... and it was nice to get cheap alcohol... it brings a question to my mind: why be an expat, why leave your country, if you stay secluded and segregated in the land of little America, drinking only American products and shopping at the army canteen? Part of the experience of living in this country for me has been finding substitutes for my favourite foods back home, trying new things, and leaving foreigner land to roam the streets with my Turkish boyfriend and friends.

Santa Claus in Turkey - a link

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8432314.stm

What is this?

It's a cold and snowy day today in Ankara, Turkey. Julia's boyfriend is out of town and he left her with his car. It's not often that us foreigners have a car at our disposal so we decided to take advantage. An exciting trip to Real ensued. Real is our grocery store, it is overpriced and unfriendly, yet we can find most of the things we need - albeit at an exorbitant price. It's just the luxuries that we lack. I would kill for Rice Krispies and I never again want to eat another Corn Flake in my life. Cheddar cheese would be a dream come true. Salsa would make me dance a jig. Nevertheless, we can find the necessities and a few small luxuries at Real. So anyways, we drove to Real and we found THIS vegetable:

It seems to be a cross between a cauliflower and a broccoli. We cooked it in the same way as it's parent vegetables and it was nice enough. But what is it? Is it a mutant vegetable??? Life in Ankara is so exciting that I feel inclined to share my vegetable findings with you. But you have to agree, this vegetable is a freak!

Happy New Year from Ankara

Apparently I am an old lady. Yadi and I did not to go Ankara's one and only western bar. We did not go to the house party that we had intended to go to. We did not drink. To be honest, we did go down to the store and buy alcohol. The alcohol purchasing happened at 5 pm, we ate dinner and then decided to watch a movie (after all, New Year festivities don't really get going until around 10). We watched part of a movie and then decided to take a nap. Bad idea. Needless to say, New Years consisted of cuddles on the couch and Lord of the Rings - bed by 12:30.

2010 started with brunch at Emir Lake and a trip to the gym. I'm going to re-try Jillian Michaels workout (I tried it once before but didn't follow through). It's a 12 week program where you go to the gym about 4 times a week and do different exercices targetting different areas. We'll see how it goes.

I want to wish a Happy New Year to anyone who actually reads this little blog. I hope that 2010 is fantastic for everyone.