The Greatest Showman

Hi Guys,

I just posted a serious post but now I want to talk about something that I am loving. The Greatest Showman. It is an original musical that came out on Boxing Day and I have seen it three times in the cinema. I went with my family, I went with a bunch of friends and then I went by myself and I just love it. This post is probably a little bit useless now, if you want to see it in the cinema because, at least where I live, it is starting to leave the cinema or has already left it, but you can get it when it comes out on DVD, which I can't wait for. :):):):) And when I went to see it with my friends at the cinema, two of us knew all the lyrics already and we were just singing along and it was amazing. (No one else could hear us because we were sitting away from the other people in the cinema.) 

In case you have no idea what I am talking about, the Greatest Showman is based on the story of PT Barnum, the man who invented the circus and also the whole idea of show business. It has an amazing cast: Hugh Jackman, Michelle Williams, Rebecca Ferguson, Keala Settle (who sings This is Me), Zac Efron and Zendaya. Before I say anything else, I think that it is safe to say that the film is LOOSELY based on his life. Yes, they talk about his wife and his children and the circus and the fact that he found 'unusual' people but, at the same time, they smooth over a lot of details. PT Barnum was about 60 when he started the circus and also the circus was not the best place, morally, in that sense. In the circus, animals and people had to endure horrific treatment and they were excluded from society for being different. If you want to see an accurate representation of the treatment of people who were different and shunned from society, I think The Elephant Man is a better film but, at the same time, I don't think that the purpose of this film is to accurately represent his life. I think that the point is to celebrate difference and uniqueness and PT Barnum definitely did that.

The soundtrack is the best bit, without a shadow of a doubt. In fact, even critics that don't think the story line is solid or believable, (although, personally I have no problem with it) admit that the songs are great. They are the kind of songs that you just want to start singing the minute that you leave the cinema and, once you have learnt the lyrics, they just have so much meaning and are so emotionally charged.

The theme song of the film is 'This is Me' and Keala Settle sings it and it is so beautiful and the song actually won a Golden Globe, earlier this month. And below is a video in which I think she sings it best:

And this one is amazing as well. 

So check it out, if you like musicals and hopefully you will enjoy it as much as I did :D

Clare 

Fallen by Lauren Kate/Books vs Films in general/Bechel Test ???

Hi Guys,

Another book review.

I recently started reading Fallen by Lauren Kate. This is a young adult romance/fantasy novel based around the Biblical story of Lucifer's fall from Heaven.

I saw the film on Netflix and started watching it just from the description and I didn't really enjoy it. It had sounded very interesting and a bit like Hush, Hush, (which is also about fallen angels and is very good) but it was a bit slow for me and the script wasn't brilliant.

So, in typical ME fashion, I went online to read some of the reviews from critics and other people who had watched it, just to see whether I had missed the point of the film. I saw a lot of reviews from people on Goodreads and other websites, saying that the books were so much better and they hadn't liked the film because it didn't do the books justice. So, I was very excited, because, 9/10, I enjoy the book much more than the film and I find that the films often can't capture the unique nature of the book. (e.g. The Mortal Instruments, Eragon, The Percy Jackson Series ...


***Actually, on a side note, this is something that has always annoyed me about film adaptations of books. If a book is very popular and does very well with audiences, why would a film company think that they will have the same success by taking that name, (and everything that is associated with it) and changing the story line so drastically that it doesn't even resemble the book anymore. *cough, cough* PERCY JACKSON - SEA OF MONSTERS. That wasn't the ending in the book, why would you do that?!  I understand that a film can't include EVERYTHING, obviously, but it shouldn't try and make a new story and new characters, unless it explicitly says that it is only BASED on the book, and not trying to make an ADAPTATION. And, along the same lines, if it isn't trying to be explicitly about the book, they should make that clear to the audiences beforehand.***

Anyway, rant number one over. Moving on to rant number two. :) So, Fallen. OF COURSE, IN MY REVIEW, THERE WILL BE SPOILERS.

It is the story of a girl called Lucinda, (or Luce) and she has to go to a rehabilitation school, because of her association with the death of a boy that she liked. His name was Trevor. She can also see these strange 'shadows' that have followed her around for her whole life. She has been on medication for hallucinations and mental illnesses. At the school, she quickly meets two boys who both attract her, Daniel and Cam. Luce is almost immediately attracted to these two boys at the school. She feels a strange connection to Daniel but she can't explain it. He is also very mean to her. Cam is very nice to her and is clearly attracted by her in some way.

This was a very popular book when it came out in 2009. It was a bestseller and there was a lot of hype around the film etc. There are also great review in the book from other authors and so I was very excited to read it.

To be honest, I haven't finished reading the book and I don't want to make assumptions from the film but I have read about 2/3 and I have some opinions about it that I want to share. They know that they might be slightly harsh :/


1) I don't like the portrayal of the 'love triangle'. Luce is presented as a very insipid, needy, whiny kind of girl and all of her thoughts, all the time, are taken up either thinking about Daniel or about Cam. To put the extent into perspective, in one scene, she is at a funeral of a boy called Todd. Todd died in a fire caused by the shadows that follow Luce around. It is a very serious moment. It was the way that the other boy Trevor died. (Actually, in the film, this was one of the scenes I did like.) Luce's best friend, Penn, liked Todd and is distraught. And Luce is thinking about the flowers that Daniel sent her. She is still trying to choose between Cam and Daniel, right there in the middle of the funeral. I just find these types of female protagonists to be so annoying. I am not saying that every book needs to pass the Bechdel Test or be directed at a pure feminist crowd, but this persistent representation of (usually) girls who just lose their minds over a boy is just something so archaic to me that we should try and get rid of.

2) Daniel is so mean to Luce and Luce likes him anyway. In their first encounter, he gives her the middle finger and, every other moment they meet for about half of the book, he makes it clear that he doesn't want anything to do with her. She shouldn't like him or want to be in a relationship with him. It might sound very old fashioned or naive but I don't think that this is a positive message or positive idea about a relationship for our society. As they end up together, it almost 'justifies' the way he treated her and the way she obsessed over him and, personally, it just makes me annoyed.


I know that I am probably reading too much into it and, if that kind of romance genre and story line is something that you enjoy reading, then you may love this book. I will say that I have bought the second book in the series and I will finish Fallen, despite my complaints about it because I do want to give it a chance to redeem itself. However, I do stick by my opinion about the shallowness of the whole story, on the romance front and how much it annoys me. I just think that is perpetrates the stereotype that if a boy likes a girl, he has to be mean to her and that should keep the girl interested. I don't think that should be something that we promote.

Anyway, just some food for thought as always,
DISCLAIMER : I love books and I love reading and most authors work very hard on their novels and try and come up with something original and enjoyable and I commend that. :D

Clare 

Rebooting, Reviewing and Cloning

Hey guys ...

Long time, no see. I'm kick-starting this blog again. With a book review. I just finished reading Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. This book has been sitting on my shelf for a while and I finally got around to reading it. First of all, I had to persevere with it. In fact, when I first starting reading it, I stopped because I didn't get the story line but then I came back and I can assure you it is a very good book. :)

A little synopsis: Never Let Me Go is set in a skewed modern English society. It follows the lives of three children, Kathy (the protagonist who narrates the story), Ruth (her best friend) and Tommy, growing up in a boarding school called Hailsham. Hailsham is completely isolated from the rest of the society. From the beginning of the book, you can tell that something isn't quite right about the school and the society that they grow up in from the way that Kathy recalls her childhood and subsequent teens there. Through the book, Kathy reveals what the society is like and raises very interesting moral issues, questions and dilemmas about the modern world.

Okay, a heads up. I am going to discuss some of the most interesting themes for me in the book but that means that there WILL BE SPOILERS. So maybe go and read the book first and then come back or proceed, whichever you prefer. :)




The most interesting part of the book for me was the question about clones. SPOILERS!!! In Never Let Me Go, the children in Hailsham are clones of members of society and, when they get to a certain age, they start donating their organs and they eventually die. So, basically, they exist solely to harvest human organs. During my Spanish and French A level courses, I had to do some research into animal cloning and human cloning. Is it okay to clone humans? Should we clone ourselves in order to have a 'second chance' at life? Is it okay to use clones to harvest organs, as in this book?
In our world today, people clone their pets in order to have more time with another identical version of their dog or their cat and animal cloning is widely used in different industries. The key issue when discussing human clones is whether they deserve the same rights as 'normal' humans and whether they are capable of experiencing the same things as humans, on a physical and emotional level. Now, if clones are NOT capable of feeling or experiencing the same emotions as 'normal' humans, perhaps using them as donors and harvesting them as such is okay. Food for thought ... Personally, I don't agree with using cloning like that because, for me, it assumes a higher place than what humans should have.
But, the thing about this book that was quite chilling for me, was that we didn't discover that they were clones until we had seen them experience the same complicated emotions that we do: anger, happiness, frustration ... etc. Also, they were already resigned to their fate. They had no realistic aspirations for their lives because they knew how they would play out and how they would end, from very little children. They would joke around about being a doctor or a movie star or even a secretary or assistant and a teacher would say that they had to stop thinking like that. Their lives and their purpose was predestined and there was nothing that they could do to change that. Just think about that. Imagine waking up and knowing that your whole life had been determined and none of your hopes and aspirations meant anything.


Another very interesting theme for me was the role of art and creativity in the book. As someone who has always preferred more creative subjects at school and wants to be an author, creativity is very important for me. In Hailsham, creativity played a crucial role. The children were valued by the teachers and by the other students based on the quality of what they could create and write and draw. One of the main characters, Tommy, isn't very good at all of these things and he is bullied, quite viciously for it. But, the key thing here is that the teachers were looking at their art work to reveal their souls. I know that sounds overly dramatic but, in other words, they were trying to work out whether the clones had the emotion to create art, in whatever form that took. In the book, it is revealed that there were other boarding schools like Hailsham  but none of them used art in the same way. Hailsham was an experiment in itself, to prove that the clones had the ability to be like 'normal' humans.
At certain times throughout history, in Communist Russia and Franco's Spain for instance, the teaching of art and creativity was prohibited because it encouraged people to think outside the box and challenge ideas and therefore the government. There is a very interesting story about a Russian composer who wrote a piece for a orchestra that was literally three or four notes and the last page was a page of the same note, over and over again. Looking at that, we see huge restrictions but it shows the extent to which we, as humans, create and appreciate creativity.
At the moment, there has been a lot of talk about cutting school funding for creative subjects and pushing forward Maths and Science. For me, this is very sad. I have never been good at Science and I was abysmal at Maths. I don't have a very logical brain and I think that by cutting that funding, we limit, as a society, the ability to do something that makes us inherently human.
The society in the book saw clones as evolved computers. They could function by themselves, they could live a 'normal' life but they couldn't appreciate things as humans. Hailsham saw them as more than that and that's where the importance of art came in. The clones could create beautiful things and appreciate the world around them in a way that is exclusive to human beings, showing that they were more than just donors. They could be people, like everyone else.


Anyway, I hope that made sense and I hope that it made you think about a few things. I just read through it and realised that it is a lot of rambling but hopefully you took a few things from it.

I believe that there is also a film of Never Let It Go with Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan and Andrew Garfield. I've never seen it but maybe that is something that you would like to look into before/after reading the book.

As usual, thanks for reading,
Clare

So it goes...

Hello everyone...

This is a book review but it won't be structured like the other ones because I wanted to discuss some stuff in more detail. So get ready for a lot of writing...

On Monday, I finished reading Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut. This is an anti-war novel which is slightly autobiographical because it speaks about the bombing of Dresden, the capital of the German state of Saxony, during the Second World War by the Americans and Vonnegut was present there. 

However, the main storyline follows a man called Billy Pilgrim, who was also at the bombing. Billy Pilgrim has the ability to travel through time and experiences moments in the past, present and future. So, within Billy Pilgrim's story, there are two stories: Pilgrim's experience of the war and his experience of moments of his life, in the past, present and future and not in chronological order either. 

It is a mind-blowing novel and strongly competes with The Picture of Dorian Grey for being my favourite novel of all time. When it was published as well, it was so controversial, because of all its depictions of war and people in the war and it was one of the first books, I believe, that pointed out that homosexuals were also victims of the Nazi Holocaust, something that wasn't widely acknowledged. There were so many themes in it that messed with your ideas about time and the point of things that we do and, in essence, the pointlessness of the time we spend worrying about useless things. I will not be able to do it justice by explaining it because I believe that it is far more effective to experience it personally but I will try...

Some of the main themes...

The most interesting idea in the book was one about moments in time. Many people around Billy Pilgrim were dying, some in the war and some members of his family as well. When Billy Pilgrim travelled in time, he met a race called the Tralfamadorians from the place called Tralfamadore. They were aliens and they taught him this idea about moments. Humans can only see in three dimensions but Tralfamadorians can see in four. In the fourth dimension, moments in life are all occurring and then re-occurring simultaneously and endlessly. A person's life is a period of time, the past, the present and the future where there are thousands of moments. And, at some point in that person's life, they was a moment when they were happy and alive and well, even for just a second, or a split-second. And, when they died, it didn't matter that in that moment, they were dead and you weren't going to see them again because there were always moments that they were happy and alive and these moments keep replaying in the fourth dimension. 'The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exists.' This race, the Tralfamadorians, said that they saw human beings as millipedes with their baby legs at one end and their adult legs on the other end. Just an object made out of time and moments. I believe that it would be very interesting to try and live life, imagining every moment to not be lost but instead strung on a line in front of you and you could revisit them as you pleased. 

Linking on to this idea about moments, there was an idea about the illusion of free will. If every moment is continually re-occurring in the fourth dimension, a dimension that we cannot access because we are blind to that part of the universe, we have no free will because our life is already written out and happening, even if we, in the present, of whatever dimension we are in now, do not realise it. We think that we are choosing to do something really original and that we can do that because we have free will but it has already happened, even while you are debating whether or not to do it. One of the controversial ideas about this book and a reason that it was banned from a lot of schools in America, was because it was considered to be anti-Christian. But, that is an variation of an idea in Christianity, that God knows everything that will happen and is happening and so your life is in His control and you don't need to worry. Interesting.

There was also a repeated phrase. So it goes. and it was linked in with an idea about the uselessness of massacres and wars. Whenever someone died, Billy Pilgrim would say 'So it goes'. That means, whatever happens, happens and there is nothing that you can do about it. Death is inevitable and the only thing that we know for certain, above all else, is that we are going to die. There is no escaping it.

For example. 'His name was Howard W. Campbell, Jr. He would later hang himself awaiting trail as a war criminal. So it goes.' and 'The Germans carried the corpse out. The corpse was Wild Bob. So it goes.' By saying 'So it goes' after every death, it also puts every death on the same level. It didn't matter whether they were a major, colonel, private, Nazi, American, English or whatever, their deaths were all the same because they were the same in life, human with ideas and morals and faults, just the same. One death isn't even a pinprick on the entire universe and it meant nothing if put against the whole picture, even though it had devastating consequences on those affected.

This book also gives you a sense of where humans are in the world. During World War II, so much was devastated and destroyed, the city of Dresden was annihilated, so many people died and so on and so forth. However, when combined with ideas about the scope of our planet and our world and therefore us, living on this tiny world, the devastation is lessened in a sense. It isn't that it no longer affects us, but even though, it may destroy us, it doesn't matter at all to the rest of the universe. (I know I didn't explain that very well, but hopefully you will understand.) 

Another thing that I love about it, is the irregularity of the writing. In a way, nothing flows but at the same time, it does. I don't know how to explain it exactly. The storyline jumps around a lot and isn't chronologically written either. At the beginning of the novel, it can be quite difficult to understand what it going on but then you re-read certain parts and they make complete sense. Like I said, it is mind-blowing. 

Okay...I'm done. 

Clare 

La Mujer Muerta and other stuff in Segovia

Hey everyone...

So, I promise that this will be my last post about my holiday. But I wanted to talk about Segovia because I really enjoyed it and it was our last day in Spain and so it was a very special time. Okay, whatever. By the way, this is probably going to be a really long blog post, simply because there are a lot of pictures that I want to put in, so if you don't like that, I suggest you don't start reading.  

Segovia is part of the region of Castille and León. It is not too far from Madrid and it takes about an hour, give or take, to drive there. We crossed the mountains by driving through a tunnel that went underneath it and then you are pretty much there. Now, I was with my brother, godmother, her husband and their child and at first, we all went to these gardens that were close to Segovia in this little town. Word of Advice to anyone travelling around Europe: bring identification if you are a student. Pretty much every price is reduced to get into castles and monuments and things and some places are free (like the Prado) if you are a student. So bring something!

These gardens were free to get into, though. There was also a large house, as you can see in the photo above. I was told that no one is living there at present but we didn't go inside it, so I don't know. (I would just like to say that while I am writing this, the sky is very overcast and I am looking at that sky above the house and just wishing that I was back in Spain...anyway! Back on track!) I don't know who made these gardens so I won't be able to tell you anything about that but I can say that it was very exotic. There were all these different fountains and pools that were decorated with statues. Some statues were gold, some were silver, some were bronze. It was really incredible. They were all different shapes and sizes, some were on different levels, some were square, some were in a semi-circle. It was amazing. Also pictured above  are some of the statues in front of the house that we saw. I have to say some of those were slightly odd, there were sphinxes and women with children growing out of their backs but some were cool so you know. Each to his own, I guess. 

And then, we went to the actual city of Segovia. In terms of geography, I think it must be quite high up but then again, it is surrounded by mountains, so I am not sure. We did have to climb many stairs to get up to it though. In the picture, you can see the cathedral in the background and that was the first place we visited in Segovia. Now, being a Catholic, I have been in so many cathedrals in my life across the globe, in Italy and France and Brazil and everywhere. But Segovia's cathedral wins the prize for being the best. Whoever built it, *applauds*. You did your job well. Even the organ was covered in gold leaf and icons and decorations and things. It was mind-blowing. And all around the edge of the cathedrals were these shrines to different saints and every single one of them was decorated in a different way. If you like cathedrals, for some reason, this one is a must see. You can even climb the tower but it was closed when we went there. I think you have to go in the morning or something. The detail on everything was extraordinary; the gates were all decorated, the ceiling was decorated, the floor was decorated. Above every archway there was some decoration or design. It was amazing.

The three pictures above are different shrines. I am not sure which saint they were dedicated to but you can just admire the general atmosphere

This is the tower that you can climb

Just look at that. How incredible is that!

 And then, after the cathedral, we went to the edge of Segovia where there is a Roman aqueduct. Apparently, in the past, Segovia used to be a river and so the Romans built this aqueduct to channel the water. And here it is. (Sorry for the people in front of it but it was so crowded.) If you at centre in the top row, there is a little statue of Mary. I was told a legend that had to do with pagans and Christians but I am not sure of the exact details. The story went that some pagans were going to try and build the entire aqueduct in a night and they managed it except for that little bit there and so the Christians put the statue there instead. I don't know. But it was something like that. And then you could climb up this huge flight of stairs and be at the same level as the top level of the aqueduct. And you can see all these mountains surrounding Segovia and there is one that the locals call the 'La Mujer Muerta' which means the dead woman because it looks like a woman who has died in childbirth.

La Mujer Muerta
You can see her head, her pregnant stomach in the middle and then her feet at the end

And did you know that knockers on doors on old houses, when they are really high up, is not because everyone in the past was really tall but because they used to knock on the door when they were sitting on a horse? I didn't know that. And also, we saw a jail that had been converted into a library and a bunch of buildings that were decorated in something that looked very Celtic but obviously wasn't (because we were in Spain) but was from the Medieval period.

But, I think that is it, finally. I know that it was long but we did see a lot. I hope you enjoyed parts of it, even if I seem to get overly excited about the most mundane things. Anyway, I think the last blog post of July will be my favourites and my second novel is coming out really, really soon! Finally!

Clare

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Hey Everyone...

The second book I read over my holiday was Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen. It is now also a film, starring Robert Pattinson, but I have never watched it. Water for Elephants is the story of a circus in America during the 1920s approximately. The protagonist, Jacob Jankowski loses his parents in a motorcycle accident and jumps onto a circus train travelling across the country, where he is recruited by the circus 'Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth' as a vet. During this time, the 1920s, America had Prohibition. The Prohibition Amendment and the Volstead Act of 1919 and 1920 meant that the consumption, production and selling of alcohol was illegal across America. Because people still wanted to drink alcohol, they produced their own alcohol (moonshine) or smuggled it in from Canada, Mexico or the Caribbean. Brewing your own alcohol was very dangerous, as I am sure you can imagine, and, although during the period of Prohibition, there was a decrease in the number of deaths on the road from drunk driving, doctors reported an increase in cases of blindness and poisoning due to the consumption of moonshine. 

What I liked about the book
This book is really easy to read and the plot is really easy to follow. It does not take a lot of effort to read. The book is also really accurate to the time and does not beat around the bush about the effects of Prohibition, of the illegal practices that started to become normal practice and the tragedy of the Jamaica ginger paralysis, which came from drinking poisoned alcohol. And I learnt a lot about the practices of circuses and the cruelty with which they treated their animals. It was really eye-opening. 

Issues discussed in the book 
Obviously, circus life plays a huge part in this book. Sara Gruen did extensive research into the life of the circus in America during the 1920s. I don't know whether you have seen or read the Elephant Man. A slightly different time period but the cruelty inflicted upon the 'Elephant Man' because he was what they called a 'freak' was horrendous. I don't know whether 'redlighting' was a common procedure in many circuses, but in the Benzini Brothers, if you weren't performing properly, or there was something wrong with you, they pushed you off the moving train. I think that it is incredible that people believe that they are justified in doing things to others. This for me applies to so many different areas in life, from the heinous deeds of terrorists, where they think that they are justified in killing thousands of innocent people to the smallest things, when the smallest person in the class is picked on, for example. I don't know whether this is my religious inclinations shining through (;/ Whoops) but it really is interesting. What is the thought process that allows you to do that? I don't understand it.
Similarly, in Water for Elephants, many of the animals are treated terribly. I don't know a lot about circuses now but, you know, during that time, they used every animal as a money-making machine and every person as well.  The elephant in the book is called Rosie and there is a 'problem' with her that, at the beginning, is not understood by most of the circus staff. Due to this problem, she would not perform well at the shows. And when that happened, they just beat her and beat her. At the back of the book, Sara Gruen spoke about two circus elephants, Old Mom and Topsy. If you want to know more about them, look them up. Their stories are heart-breaking. :(
Now, in a lot of these reviews, the issues discussed directly affect human life. This review is slightly different, in that it affects animal life. To me, using animals as entertainment is a cruel process. There are many ways that you can entertain yourself; animals don't need to be used. That is why I so strongly disagree with bullfighting and using animals in circuses. Unless an animal was made to do something, I disagree with making it do it.  

Recommendations 
The Dancing Bear by Michael Morpurgo - If you have read my review on Before I Die (here) and my holiday reading recommendations, then you will have seen this. If not, this is the story of a bear cub adopted by an orphan. They become very close until a film crew comes to the village and wants a dancing bear for the film that they are making. It is a very short book and very easy to read. (I know some of the books I recommend can be quite daunting) However, it completely discusses the issues that are brought up in Water for Elephants and I think that it is an amazing book. Michael Morpurgo is an author who has written some of my favourite books of all time. If I could have half the career in writing fiction that he has had, I would be extremely honoured.


Wonder by E.J. Palacio- This book is sort of a modern day version of the Elephant Man. It is the story of a boy who is severely physically disabled but lives the normal life of a teenager. It shows how cruel children can be towards one another and how unaccepting people are of each other, when others look a little different. You know that phrase, Don't judge a book by its cover. On the back of this book, it says, Don't judge a boy by his face.' And it shows that we all do, judge by physical appearance when it doesn't matter at all. I really recommend this book.

BUY WATER FOR ELEPHANTS ON AMAZON
BUY THE DANCING BEAR ON AMAZON 
BUY WONDER ON AMAZON

Well, that is it for this blog post. I hope that you enjoyed it.  

Clare 

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Hello everyone...

So this is my first review. I read Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and overall, I really enjoyed it. I would recommend it to middle-ish teens and going up as it can be a little disturbing at times because there is domestic abuse. 

It tells the story of a girl called Kambili, living in Nigeria after colonisation. Because of this, there are many political and economic struggles for the people,which results in conflict throughout the novel. Kambili lives with her parents in Enugu. Her father is Catholic, but in a very oppressive and sometimes cruel way, subjecting Kambili and her mother and brother to beatings when they do something that he does not like. The novel is the story of Kambili growing up, told from Kambili's perspective and essentially breaking free from the restrictions that her father has put on her and the restrictions that she has put on herself, trying to live up to her father's expectations. Many themes are explored in the book, such as maturity, sexuality, civil unrest as well as the struggles that a girl faces growing up.

This book was the debut novel of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and it was highly acclaimed, winning the 2004 Hurston/Wright Legacy and the 2005 Commonwealth Writers' Best First Book Prize. It was also shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2004. This doesn't always guarantee that a book will be enjoyable for every individual to read but it does mean that many people enjoyed the book. 

Why did I like the book?

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (the author) is extremely good at capturing Kambili's thoughts and feelings and relating her struggles to the reader. Kambili faces difficulties that are relatable to all girls and boys growing up and Chimamanda is able to really bring that across in the writing. There is a lot of beautiful description in the book and the storyline is really interesting and developed. Although the first few pages are quite slow, once the story takes off, it really picks up pace and is very gripping until the end.

Issues discussed in the book

One of the main themes running through the book was religion and how it affected the lives of many different people. Kambili's father, Eugene, for instance, is a Catholic but extremely radical, one might say, in his views and practices. He teaches his children that pagans are all going to hell, for instance and he beats them when they do not follow his will, saying that it is because they have been possessed by the devil. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie wrote a small message at the end of the book, saying that she did not want people to see Eugene as the 'villain' but simply someone who did horrible things but was not a horrible man. Eugene uses religion in the wrong way, utilising it not only to pray for himself and his family, but also to influence, in the wrong way, Kambili's ideas of religion and to judge and look down upon those who are not Catholics.

However, Kambili's grandfather, is a heathen, or traditionalist, as he calls himself, worshipping many gods and speaking to his ancestors. Needless to say, Eugene does not approve of this and will not speak to his father and will not help him in his financial distress. However, Kambili notices that her grandfather is not at all the person that Eugene makes him out to be. Although a 'pagan', he understands more about compassion and humility and also seems to be a lot freer in his religion than Eugene who follows a stricter, more accepted religion. (Catholicism).

I personally also believe that the issues of religion that are highlighted in this book are contemporary issues that we can now see in our world today. In the book, people use religion as an excuse to do wrong and today, we can see radicalists and terrorists uniting under a banner of religion in order to do wrong. I believe that there is nothing in any religion that says that killing and/or physical/mental abuse is justified and in this book, these issues are highlighted. 

Recommendations

But of course, this book is not for everyone and therefore, here are some other great books that I have read, that relate to Purple Hibiscus in some way but are also slightly different. 

The Prisoner of the Inquisition by Theresa Breslin. This novel tells of a difficult time for Spain, during the Spanish Inquisition when King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella were hunting out Muslims and Jews, whom they believed to be heretics and burning/imprisoning them if they did not convert to Christianity. The novel follows the two stories of a poor boy called Saulo and a rich merchant's daughter called Zara. It relates strongly to the oppressive theme of religion in Purple Hibiscus and is also a really great book. 

Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian. This novels tells the story of William Beech, a young boy evacuated to the country during the Second World War. He goes to stay with Tom Oakley. I chose to include this novel because it has an underlying theme of breaking away from oppression and growing up, learning about love and the beautiful things in the world, despite the horror of the Second World War all around them. William Beech's mum is a Christian and does use religion in a similar way to Kambili's father but that is not the overall theme of the book. It has a wonderful ending and I really enjoyed reading it.  

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So that's the end of this post. I hope it interested you. I am now reading Still Alice, so hopefully I should review that soon. I
:) 
Thanks for reading,

Clare