'Seoul Survivors' by Naomi Foyle

Naomi Foyle did surprise me with twists and turns  and the way she captures the bustle of Seoul.

I enjoyed the first three quarters of this book. It was a prize Miriam won in a competition on twitter from @JoFletcherBooks; a specialist science fiction, fantasy and horror imprint of Quercus Publishing, publisher of 'Seoul Survivors'. This first novel by Naomi Foyle is a near-future Sci-fi story set in Korea - which sadly is still divided in North and South Korea - with high tech fashion, sex, underground clubs, robotics, bio-engineering and interesting yet strange and sometimes twisted characters.

Mostly with science fiction, I find myself either liking or hating the book. This was different. I enjoyed the way in which the main characters developed and how all their stories started to weave into one another as the book progressed. The Canadian model, the British fugitive, the American-Korean scientist, Mr. Sandman the psycho and the North Korean idealist are all in unfamiliar territory trying to survive in different ways. And with a huge meteor threatening to seriously impact life on earth ... what would you do?

I did not particularly like the ending though - for me it left some key questions unanswered and seemed to end rather suddenly.  Then again the impact of a meteor is probably not much different. It is a shame because this is not a bad debut. Naomi Foyle did surprise me with other twists and turns.  She captures the bustle of a futuristic Seoul and I can imagine how it would feel. What really bothered me about the last part of the book is that the synopsis on the back cover gives too much away.  I wonder if authors write their own back-cover summaries. It should entice you and spark your interest, but when I was two thirds through the book, there were still specific parts of the story which were 'unknown' while they were already revealed on the back cover. It is very difficult to stay interested in the build-up and suspense of a story line if you know the outcome. Call me strange, but I like to be surprised.  Part of the attraction of sci-fi is that anything can happen.

Maybe I am a special case.  I don't even like to look at trailers of movies, because I like the surprise elements, the wow-factor. If I know I want to see a movie because it is a sequel to a film I've liked before or I have read a review and the story seems interesting or I like the cast, then I avoid watching the trailer and go watch the movie. It makes the experience so much more enjoyable. A while after I have seen a film I tend to forget how it ends, which means I get to be surprised again. Aging isn't that bad. I guess I have to rip the back cover off 'Seoul Survivors' and read it again once I can no longer remember how story ends.

 If you are interested in reading this book avoid the back cover and read the abstract on the publisher's website instead.


Guest blog by BPR

@naomifoyle

Naomi Foyle 
ISBN: 9781780875989 

'The Proof of the Honey' by Salwa Al Neimi translated by Carol Perkins

A book that celebrates female sexuality, desire and self determination. The language used to describe the search for words that describe female desire and passion was like eating a box of my favorite chocolates

'The Proof of the Honey' seems to talk about sexual discovery but that is only at first.  Then the book's focus changes to the language of sex (personal and public) as well as eroticism and how they are all linked to long neglected Arab erotic works.  Funny enough, it was not the sex that caught my attention, it was the author's language.  Carol Perkins is a sensitive woman, if this translation captures the feeling and rhythm of Salwa Al Neimi.  The language used to describe sex and passion is elegant and straight forward.  Even the language used to describe the search for words that describe female desire and passion was like eating a box of my favorite chocolates.

The author soon introduces us to a sexual partner she calls "The Thinker".  At first he may be a real man and then I realize that he need not be a real man, but rather thoughts, intelligence and memory.  Never the less, Salwa Al Neimi is gentle and explicit at the same time with herself and with her reader.  She takes nothing for granted and questions everything about her own sexuality.  In this way, I too questioned and probed my sex life.  It is a feminine book.  It is a book that celebrates female sexuality, desire and self determination.  One of the first conversations I had with my husband as I read this book was about the adequacy of language today when it comes to women and sex.  I felt it was lacking but my husband argued that what was lacking was the courage for women to use out loud what is available, even in western Europe.  How delicious that such a slim book would take my knowledge of my marriage further by encouraging a new conversation with my husband of many years.

The book is a confession of an Arab woman's sexual discovery.  She is led by beautiful literature and language, though she admits that modern language is not always adequate to describe or explain a woman's desire and experience.  'The Proof of the Honey' is courageous in that it takes back what has been taboo for the past 40 years from Arabs of both sexes, sexual freedom; this includes sex in the bedroom, on the streets, in language, literature, academia and in the mind (creativity, imagination).  As she says in the end... "sex is not the scandal, the secret is the scandal".  How true.

A friend of mine read the book around the same time I did.  She told me she had a difficult time not thinking of the narrator as a whore.  I had two replies to that.  First, if the narrator were a man, no one would call him a whore (or the male equivalent... is there a word?)  Second, then we are all whores.  We all have an imagination and most adults have a sex life, satisfactory or not.  We all have curiosity, desire and the wish to know and be known.  Moreover, most of us would like to seek sexual satisfaction without shame.  Literature explores with us some of these paths as Arab erotic literature and erotic works from other cultures can attest.  Humans both male and female may then explore sex in their own lives without shame.

@SalwaAlNeimi
Salwa Al Neimi 
ISBN: 9781933372686 

'Sex and the Citadel: Intimate Life in a Changing Arab World' by Shereen El Feki

gave me a sense of perspective and hope for all our futures

I thought this book was about Arab women and politics.  Instead, it is about humans and their most fundamental rights, hopes and of course, desires.  The first time I tried to describe this book I said it was about human sexuality.  The rejoinder was "homosexuality?"  No, it is about all of sexuality.  Humans as sexual beings and the power attached to the control of sex.  It is a vast topic, but the setting (the current Arab world, especially Egypt) narrowed the scope.  The author focused beautifully; Shereen El Feki discusses a taboo topic in the Arab world with grace, curiosity and openness.

Her questions and observations sometimes looked frighteningly familiar.  As a woman in Western Europe, life seems quite free with guarantees and rights that give me control of my own body, regardless of marital status.  But here is the rub... many guarantees are recent.  It is not too long ago that babies were taken away from single mothers and abortion was illegal (often at the same time in the same country).  My daughter does not imagine life without her rights, I do.  The Americas are still struggling with reproductive rights, no thanks to religion for that.

Shereen El Feki made me think about freedoms I take for granted, especially with regards to information and my rights as a married woman.  But she also reminded me of how much social expectations and generational differences affected my teen years and my young adulthood in conservative South America.  I still remember, a female relative in despair over my attitude about school work said, with some force: "If you continue like this you won't even marry a virgin!"  I think she meant me, rather than the groom... It was the worst fate she could think of in that moment... Not so funny once I read 'Sex and the Citadel'.

The Western World, thanks to money and belligerence, considers itself an influential society.  And it is.  But the expectations of change and growth we have are at times unrealistic in other cultures.  This is not to say that "culture" justifies the rape of someone's sister as a punishment to the man and his family for his moral lapse, like I saw on the news some months ago... The rights to the sister's body belong to her family, her husband or a court, if not by law then often by tradition. Laws, culture and attitude do not easily change with only outside pressure; new laws must mean something to those people affected by them.

If any message is obvious after her interviews and research, it is that the Arab youth have some important challenges and often have their own fantastic solutions.  If only their elders would listen; fear holds the Arab world captive in their own beds with repressive sexual rules and expectations... the most repressive of all is the inability to talk about sex at all. El Feki does a wonderful job of asking good, open questions to normal people in all kinds of socio-economic and sexual situations.  Her experiences with a group of house wives is both funny and tragic... But she also talks to homosexuals and prostitutes and anyone who has a sex life or wishes they had a sex life. 'Sex and the Citadel' gave me a sense of perspective and a sense of hope for all our futures in a shrinking planet.


@shereenelfeki
Shereen El Feki 
ISBN: 9780701183165 

'Fifty Shades of Grey' 'Fifty Shades Darker' by E L James

The perfect Summer read; light, easy on the brain and so naughty

I could write about 'The Secret Garden', one of my favorite Summer books, which I just finished rereading.  I could write about 'Mistress of the House: Great Ladies and Grand Houses 1670-1830', which is empowering as well as instructive and entertaining; I've also been reading it this week.  But, truth be told, what I must admit to reading, because they're so often on my mind, are the first two books of the trilogy by E L James.

They are indeed the perfect Summer read; light, easy on the brain and so naughty.  And if your curiosity and stamina leans that way, also very instructive.  I have gifted this trilogy twice this Summer.  I have not managed to read the third book myself because someone close to me ( I won't mention names in order to protect the not so innocent) got to it first.  But what followed the reading of these books were some interesting conversations, questions and dare I say it, ... flirting requests.  My own thoughts and comments I will not elaborate further because in truth you should read the books yourself and have some thoughts of your own; with luck also some action.  In fact give it to your significant other and promise a prize if he or she completes it.  And yes, there will be a test.

The thing about erotic (for lack of a better word) literature, at least for women, is that they are not instruction manuals but a source of inspiration.  Pornography, by definition, is so explicit it takes away all kinds of imagination.  I consider this book erotic, some may consider this book more.  How do I draw the line? I use a rule I read in 'Afrodita' by Isabel Allende...

"Erotic is when you use a feather, pornography is when you use a chicken."  Or something like that.

What this book, in spite of its clichéd premise, does so well is to entertain both sexes.  There is enough description of the lady in suggestive or explicit positions to satisfy most men.  For the ladies, on the other hand, there are descriptions that excite our other senses.  The protagonist is constantly describing the wonderful smell of her lover or the way his skin feels.  I can personally relate.  I cut off relationships when young because my nose simply said no.  As for what skin feels like, or the rough chin of an unshaved man, well, you see where I am headed.

In short, I was interested and kept interested by my own senses.  The book made me curious about how to explore my own relationship further.  Then, earlier this week, I picked up an old issue of 'Time' magazine in my gynecologist's waiting room.  It had an article about these three books and their legion of fans.  It seems I am not the only long married woman who wished to 'proactively' explore her sex life after reading these books.  The article said that the author herself refuses to discuss her own sex life (good for her, why should she?) and is rather shocked at how explicit women who come to book signings can be.  Ok, so I get to meet my literary hero and I start gushing about all my new found joy... my issue is, do I want to have all the strangers waiting in line behind me listening in and perhaps nodding vigorously as I speak?  Worse yet, making some suggestions?  Em... no.  Not really.  It struck me as funny as I was at the gyno's office anyway.

Not to change the topic too much but I've been thinking of something else.  The writer is British and she lives somewhere around London, or so we are told on the jacket.  So, isn't it strange that she set her book in America?  The land of the free? Presumably? or freer than the British?  It puts me in mind of the film 'Love, Actually'.  In the extras of the dvd the writer/director talks about one of  the characters who has been silently in love with a co-worker for three years.  This, (British) writer decided that no sane woman could stick to unrequited love with an Englishman for three years.  So they got a gorgeous foreigner to be the object of love and desire.  The director told this story and laughed.  Now I wonder if E L James thought of Richard Branson, even for just an unconscious moment, and promptly moved her rich hunk to America.

Anyway, go read the book, enjoy yourself and do go shopping to some of those tasteful, discreet shops that have popped up on the internet.

E L James
ISBN: 9780099579939

'1Q84' Books 1, 2, 3 by Haruki Murakami

Sex, violence, unpredictability, a keen awareness of the unknowable, perception of reality, love, indifference, happiness and secrets

Finally, I finished reading them as one book!  It has been ages since 'Kafka on the Shore'.  In the mean time, I read several of Murakami's other books.  The length of 1Q84 made me salivate (mentally, of course, it's been years since I drooled on my books).  It was so much more than I had hoped.  Murakami and his surreal worlds are imaginative, completely subjective yet believable.

This time his story has an under current of menace.  It is a faceless sense of danger that I could not relieve.  Every now and again I would put the book down to catch my breath.  Of course, it would not be long before I picked it back up and got that creepy feeling again.  The book covers just too many topics to discuss here; sex, violence, unpredictability, a keen awareness of the unknowable, perception of reality, love, indifference, happiness and secrets.  Each one of these themes are worthy of independent essays.

Murakami must be a firm believer in individuality and independence, especially when in love.  Live your life based on who you are not who you think you should be or who people tell you to be.  The key, according to this book, ( I think) is to act on that 'belief in yourself'.  You must live according to your principals without the need for a uniform to give you authority and respect.  You also do not need an overbearing, ill-tempered god to give you comfort and security provided you follow a set of arbitrary rules.  Would you act on your belief to protect the weak and innocent if it meant you had to murder one man?  The key is belief in yourself and when in love... belief in each other.  The story uses love in such strange ways that surreal is once again the only way I could describe it.  Reading what I just wrote I realize that this theme of belief and love may not be new but it felt fresh and unique in this book.

1Q84 is a surreal world being subtly contrasted to 1984.  Several of the protagonists realize that they have entered a surreal (alternate) world.  They become aware of the power of narrative and belief.  Religion as the focus of belief is treated as a prop and dismissed as unyielding and cruel.  If you believe in yourself strongly enough God comes to exist, but not in a religious sense.  She becomes a partner, who helps at your request.  Belief in yourself, respect and the willingness to act become the miraculous tools that can change your reality in tangible ways.

The lives of the protagonists down to their most personal relationships change radically in 1Q84 without reason or logic.  1Q84 does not follow the same rules as 1984.  Perhaps the mysterious 'little people' know the rules?  Our protagonists are vulnerable and at the same time powerful because they have patience and a growing belief in their own narrative as opposed to a tale handed to them by family, religion or 'little people'.

By the way, secrets and the unknowable are very different.  A secret is or was known, understood, even if the secret went with someone to the grave.  The unknowable is just that... no beginning, no end, no answers and no apologies.  The protagonists enter 1Q84 without knowing why and must make up their own answers as they go along.  Then they have to believe in those answers.  Just like you and me, perhaps we live life a little more blindly and don't often notice how much we warp reality and create little 2Q12s of our own.


@harukimurakami_
Haruki Murakami 
ISBN: 9781846555497