holes. louis sachar. (181)

i remember learning about holes when the movie came out with shia labeouf.  i didn't see the movie or read the book.  i was in high school when the book came out and in college when the movie came out, so i didn't think much of it.  i wasn't above shia labeouf, i used to love watching even stevens, it just wasn't in my realm of interest at the time.  i also was a bit sexist, a story about boys digging holes at some prison-like camp did not sound interesting to me.  however, fast forward years later when i discovered that louis sachar wrote the book!  i loved sachar's wayside school books, they were my absolute favorite growing up!  i especially loved that one chapter in the sequel that you had to read backwards!  how cool!  based on my love of sachar, i finally decided to give holes a chance.

i decided to make it a winter break read with brother bear.  it started out well but when i left to vegas for new years, he didn't keep up with his reading and when i came back, he had lost interested.  i, in fact, didn't finish then.  i also dropped by copy (it cost me 50 cents) in a puddle when moving so that didn't help with my finishing of it.  then i sat in a line for about 8 hours to see shia labeouf do this art installation (i sadly did not get in) but that motivated me to give holes a read so i could watch the movie on netflix.

so i buckled down and read it in a day and it was amazing.  i was a bit disappointed in myself for being so judge-y before.  i am now trying to get my brother to finish it.  my mom is reading it with him.  it is a great children's novel and deserved the newbery medal (i have also started this mini mission to read all of the newbery award winners).  it is a wonderful book demonstrating the importance of creating your own destiny, how sometimes you have to lend fate a hand to obtain your destiny.

without giving too much away (because you should really read it), holes is the story of a young boy stanley yelnats (a palindrome).  bearing the curse of his "no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather", stanley was sent to a camp, camp green lake, for "stealing"shoes.  he didn't steal them but they fell from the sky and hit him on the head, an example of that curse in action.  at the camp which is a correctional facility for boys, stanley spent his days digging holes and trying to avoid yellow-spotted lizards.  stanley befriended another boy, zero, who he taught how to read. zero and stanley then go on a random adventure which helped both boys fulfill their destiny.  seriously, the ending was great, everything came full circle.

what i enjoyed most about holes is that it also included the backstories of stanley's great-great-grandfather and town of green lake.  the historian in me enjoyed reading these backstories and seeing how they all came together in the end.  i have always loved books that allowed me to see how point a and b resulted in c.  

stanley's great-great-grandfather's backstory takes the reader to latvia, where the reader discovers the cause of the curse.  stanley's great-great=grandfather was in love with a girl.  he asked his friend, a gypsy, madame zeroni for help.  she helped him but he doesn't hold up his end of the bargain and he and his generations become cursed.

stanley's family is also tied to the backstory of green lake because his great-grandfather was robbed by the bandit, kissin' kate barlow.  camp green lake stands where the town of green lake used to exist.  green lake was not always a desert, it too was cursed.  kate barlow was not always a bandit, in fact, she was the schoolteacher of the town.  she became a bandit, after she fell in love with sam, an african-american onion seller.  since interracial relationships were not accepted at that time, the town turned against kate and sam.  i don't want to spoil the story for those who haven't read it but kate became a bandit and the city dried up.  i also want to add kudos to sachar to promoting interracial relationships in this book!

these backstories are sad, but as i mentioned before it all comes together in the end and leaves you going wow!  it reminds you of how crazy life can be and how it the end if your heart is in the right place and you try your best, it will all work out for you.  

i want to add that holes was listed in a buzzfeed post about books you should read based on your favorite childhood novel.  their suggestion was junot diaz's the brief and wondrous life of oscar wao, which i absolutely loved.  yes, as buzzfeed says 

Both Holes and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao read as modern mythology, featuring two curse-afflicted protagonists who can’t catch a break. They’re tales of misfits and survival, and the cruelty that Oscar faces as an overweight Dominican-American teen obsessed with sci-fi is just as harsh and alienating as that of Stanley Yelnats’ prison camp.

however, i feel a better fit for this book would have been joanthan safran foer's everything is illuminated.  both stories have family myths especially that pertaining to a grandfather's legacy.  both include a story with a gypsy (okay that is kinda of a loose connection.)  but i did i see parallels between stanley and zero's relatinship and alex and jonathan's relationship.  oscar was too much of longer, while stanley learned the importance of friendship.  (though i have to admit, i don't remember too much from the brief wondrous life of oscar wao, so buzzfeed is probably right, i just have to add in my 2 cents.  i mean oscar wao is a wonderful book and should be read, i was just reminded of everything is illuminated as i read.  

but back to holes, read the book!!!

everything is illuminated. movie version.

as i mentioned before, after reading the book, i decided not to watch the movie because i was certain it would disappoint me. however, after rereading the book, i decided to give the movie a chance.

i was right. the movie did disappoint me. if i had never read the book, i would have loved the movie but that is not the case. and i understand it was a difficult book to adapt and that it would have been impossible to fit everything from the novel into a 2 hour film. but still it was only half of the book and it was not the part i wanted. i wanted to see the story of trachimbrod, it was so mythical that i imagined in done in the style of "amelie" or "big fish". but instead it was the less whimsical (but still endearingstory) of jonathan looking for augustine. i think liev schreiber did a great job, but that he chose the wrong storyline to portray.

i think eugene hutz did an amazing job as alex. he was everything i imagined alex to be and more. he was alex. and after a while i found him extremely sexy in his retro ll cool j outfits. (i recently looked up his imdb and swoon when it comes to his stache!) hutz' voice even sounded as i imagined alex would sound like. (so blonde moment: just realized that eugene is the frontman of gogol bordello and i have seen them twice at coachella!)

again i know not that movies can not be exactly the same as the book.  but there were some changes that seem to harm the story versus help it.  one thing was the friendship that grew between alex and jonathan, their closeness was missing from the movie. at the end of the book,  it was sweet to see how much helped each other grow; especially how jonathan gave alex the courage to try new things in life.  however, this was not present in the movie which was odd because they had been through a lot during the film. they shared the linking stories of their grandfathers and with alex's grandfather's ending, there good bye did not seem that special.

before i give my next critique, i will say that this movie had me in tears.  it is a very emotional and beautiful movie but i was distracted by the change to alex's grandfather's storyline.  without spoiling it for anyone, in the book, grandfather's link to trachimbrod was more powerful and complex than the movie version.  i'm not sure why schreiber changed it.  being of jewish descent may have resulted in him wanting to tell a different tale.  i googled "liev schreiber change grandfather story line in everything is illuminated" and i came across this article liev schreiber is illuminated.  after reading that article, i excuse him.  because a) his film is based on the short story in the new yorker and b) perhaps it parallels his grandfather's fate as well.  with viewing alex's introduction to his jewish background at the end could mirror schreiber's upbringing and in both cases the grandfather is the link to embrace of judaism.

please know that i don't think this was a horrible film.  like i mentioned before it was beautiful.  elijah wood was adorable in it.  i loved his large frames.  i loved how he put everything in ziplocs so that he could remember everything.  i loved how augustine's home was surrounded by sunflowers.  and i loved seeing all of the boxes that filled her house.  it was a great film and you should definitely check it out of the library or cue it up on your netflix.  and you should also read the book, neither one will ruin the other and you can get the bonus of visualizing elijah wood as jonathan.

everything is illuminated. jonathan safran foer. (38)

i first read "everything is illuminated" back in 2005.  i read somewhere that elijah wood was making a movie based on it, so i decided to read the book before the movie came out.  however, after reading the book i could not imagine someone capturing the beauty of it in a film, so i decided to not watch the film.  i knew the film would break my heart and disappoint me.  (check out my blog on the movie version.)

i loved this book the first time i read it.  and after my re-reading, i can add it to my list of favorite books of all time.  there is so much that i loved about this book and when i re-read it, it was just as good the second time around.  

the novel is the story of jonathan safran foer's (the protagonist and the author have the same name) search for a woman, augustine.  augustine is a woman in a photo that his left to him by his grandfather.  it is assumed that the woman helped him escape nazis and so foer goes on a search for her.  this is the basis and i would go into more detail but i want you to check it out and i don't want to spoil it for you.

first and foremost i loved reading alex's narrative because of his poor yet clever english.  the best description of his english was written by francine prose for a new york times review, "not since anthony burgess's novel 'a clockwork orange' has the english lesson been simultaneously mauled and energized with such brilliance and such brio."  (i think this is on the back cover.)  alex really does butcher the english lesson but it was done brilliantly.  and just as i loved picking up the slang of that alex and his gang, i loved reading alex's bad yet clever translations.  

alex's vocabulary:

dub-  nickname:  ". . . my many friends dub me Alex"

spleening- to make angry:  "If you want to know why I always spleening her, it is because I am always elsewhere with friends, and disseminating so much currency . . ."

to be carnal- to have sex:  "Many girls want to be carnal with me in many good arrangements, notwithstanding the Inebriated Kangaroo, the Gorky Tickle and the Unyielding Zookeeper.

miniature-  little:  "I have a miniature brother . . ."

promenading- walking:  " . . . Father dubs him Clumsy One, because he is always promenading into things."

the novel is divided into two narratives, alex's letters to jonathan about the search for augustine and jonathan's family history.  as much as i loved reading alex's letters to jonathan, i looked forward to reading the sections written by jonathan.  jonathan writes about this ancestors and their lives in trachimbrod before the nazis come.  his family history is a delight to read because they are like myths and with foer's (the actual author) colorful language, there is an element of magic to them.  

my favorite myths were:

the celebration of trachimday and how they would recreate the day that trachim b died and brod was found.

tale of the dial.  which is actually a gold cast of jonathan's great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, who while working in a mill has a saw lodged into his head.  his statue becomes a symbol of good luck and young men pay tribute to him on their wedding day.

the wisps of ardisht.  which are a clan that are worried about running out of matches, which would prevent them from smoking cigarettes until a child figures that one cigarette can light another which results in a smoking schedule.

one myth that kinda grossed me out was, safran, jonathan's grandfather and his wimpy arm.  his arm didn't gross me out but his sex life that started at the age of 10 grossed me out.  

i also loved the list of the 613 sadnesses which were found on brod's body.  my two favorite sadnessws were the "sadness of could-have-been" and "sadness of love without a release" (i feel like this one would be a great band name.)

here is an excerpt from that part:

The following encyclopaedia of sadness was found on the body of Brod D. The original 613 sadnesses, written in her diary, corresponded to the 613 commandments of our (not their) Torah. Shown below is what was salvageable after Brod was recovered. (Her diary’s wet pages printed the sadnesses onto her body. Only a small fraction [55] were legible. The other 558 sadness are lost forever, and it is hoped that, without knowing what they are, no one will have to experience them.) The diary from which they came was never found.

SADNESSES OF THE BODY: Mirror sadness; Sadness of [looking] like or unlike one’s parents; Sadness of not knowing if your body is normal; Sadness of knowing your [body is] not normal; Sadness of knowing your body is normal; Beauty sadness; Sadness of m[ake]up; Sadness of physical pain; Pins-and-[needles sadness]; Sadness of clothes [sic]; Sadness of the quavering eyelid; Sadness of a missing rib; Noticeable sad[ness]; Sadness of going unnoticed; The sadness of having genitals that are not like those of your lover; The sadness of having genitals that are like those of your lover; Sadness of hands…..
SADNESSES OF THE COVENANT: Sadness of God’s love; Sadness of God’s back [sic]; Favourite-child sadness; Sadness of b[ein]g sad in front of one’s God; Sadness of the opposite of belief [sic]; Sadness of God alone in heaven; Sadness of a God who would need people to pray to him….
SADNESSES OF THE INTELLECT: Sadness of being misunderstood [sic]; Humor sadness; Sadness of love wit[hou]t release; Sadne [ss of be] ing smart; Sadness of not knowing enough words to [express what you mean]; Sadness of having options; Sadness of wanting sadness; Sadness of confusion; Sadness of domes[ti]cated birds; Sadness of fini[shi]ng a book; Sadness of remembering; Sadness of forgetting; Anxiety Sadness…
INTERPERSONAL SADNESSES: Sadness of being sad in front of one’s parent; Sa[dn]ness of false love; Sadness of love [sic]; Friendship sadness; Sadness of a bad convers[at]ion; Sadness of the could-have-been; Secret sadness….
SADNESSES OF SEX AND ART: Sadness of arousal being an unordinary physical state; Sadness of feeling the need to create beautiful things;…Kissing Sadness; Sadness of moving too quickly; Sadness of not mo[vi]ng; Nude model sadness; Sadness of portraiture…..

(see how brillant and clever it is.  you need to check it out.)

without spoiling it for anyone, the story of alex's grandfather was so sad.  it is easy to judge however to be in that situation, i'm not sure many of us have the courage to do the right thing.  it is also a demonstration of what a challenging and horrible time in history the holocaust was.  it made monsters out of average people. 

i could go on and on about how great this book, is but i think i would give away too much.  i would also have quote after quote to the point where the blog would pretty much be just the book.  so i will stop here and just encourage you to read it.  it really is an amazing book and i love it dearly and know that you will love it dearly too.

quotations:

"if there is no love in the world, we will make a new world, and we will give it walls, and we will furnish it with soft, red interiors, from the inside out, and give it a knocker that resonates like a diamond falling to a jeweller's felt so that we should never hear it. love me, because love doesn't exist, and i have tried everything that does."

"one day you will do things for me that you hate. that is what it means to be family."

"the more you love someone, he came to think, the harder it is to tell them. it surprised him that strangers didn't stop each other on the street to say i love you."

"the only thing more painful than being an active forgetter is to be an inert rememberer."

"from space, astronauts can see people making love as a tiny speck of light. not light, exactly, but a glow that could be confused for light - a coital radiance that takes generations to pour like honey through the darkness to the astronaut's eyes."