Book Review: THE TWILIGHT ZONE: STORIES FROM THE FIFTH DIMENSION

Title: The Twilight Zone: Stories from the Fifth Dimension

Author: Several authors, letterers and illustrators

Publisher: IDW Dark

Pages: 128

My GoodReads Rating: 

The Twilight Zone: Stories from the Fifth Dimension is inspired by the Original CBS Television Series. I got excited when I saw this title on Edelweiss. In my excitement at finding stories based on The Twilight Zone, of which I am a huge fan, I missed the fact that this was not Fiction, but in the genre of Comics and Graphic Novels.

 

There are no good guys or bad guys in these stories. There is just the Twilight Zone and how there is no coming back from it, whether for good or evil. Entering the Twilight Zone spells the end of the world as the characters know it. It is either a new beginning or the end for them. Interestingly, each story was exactly 22 pages long.

 

Blanks by Dan Watters (writer); Morgan Beem (artist); Sandy Tanaka (letterer), Nicolas Niño and Ellen Boener (co-editors); Rating:  ⭐⭐⭐  

A billionaire, Edward Kane, has contributed enormous sums of money to fund research into finding a cure for the ills of the human condition. In other words, to eliminate disease and ensure longevity and immortality. This research is being undertaken on an unknown island. Suffering from stomach cancer, with less than a year to live, Kane insists on being subject Zero for the ‘benevolent virus’ which is expected to infiltrate the body and wipe out the immune memory, removing all traces of decay and degeneration. 

He wakes up from the experiment, feeling 20 years younger, only to learn from the doctor that everyone at the research facility has been rendered faceless, without thought or feeling, as the virus mutated, stripping them of the very things that make us human.

As Kane seeks to escape on the helicopter on which he arrived on the island, the doctor destroys the helicopter, saying that the only way to contain the horrible phenomenon is to ensure that no one ever gets to leave the island. Kane, forever young, healthy and ageless, is now doomed to spend eternity with the “Blanks”.

Like the TV series, the story here succeeded in hitting long after we turn the last page, as we imagine the fate of Kane, who will likely spend eternity longing for death. The story also sounds a note of caution, reminding humankind not to mess with the essential nature of life and humanity. Mankind can play God only at its own peril.

 

World of Your Wildest Dreams by Tom Scioli (writer, artist and letterer); Rating:  ⭐⭐⭐

The story is set many centuries in the future. First Officer Arlo Chapel is leading a team into outer space. When the vessel finds a planet with an atmosphere like that of earth, they decide to make a landing. They find life on the planet, in the form of vegetation and insects. Soon they realise that the world is responding to them based on their thoughts. Presently, people show up and take them away, accuse them of killing and jail them. The crew realise that shouting out bad things causes the prison walls to weaken and disintegrate, enabling them to escape.

The captors catch up with them and reveal that theirs is an asylum world. People come to them from other worlds to seek help. The terrain on the world is such that it mirrors the individual’s inner world, forcing them to confront it and deal with the fallout. 

The beings on this planet can change their external form in order to engage with visitors based on their psychological trauma. The beings scold the earthlings for not having learned to deal with their trauma, even as a species. However, the good news is that help is at hand. This planet is a resort, where visitors stay as long as possible to get their issues resolved, days, weeks, months, years, even centuries.

While the others choose to stay back and heal, Arlo decides to head home. Once he returns to his base on Planet Earth, he is committed to an institution. Everyone thinks that he abandoned his crew, and has now constructed an elaborate fantasy to explain his guilt away.

Centuries later, human greed remains unchanged. Space vessels are being sent out to look for minerals and to open chains of coffee shops and malls, in pursuit of power and wealth. When Arlo and his team espy an animal, one of them asks, “What should we name the new species?” – a classic colonial move, establishing supremacy on lands that have rich cultures and don’t need your dominance.

There was altogether too much text here. Graphic novels and comics work only with minimal text. Here, characters keep speaking, as if they are in a novel. A lot of the conversations involve characters telling each other things they should rightly know. As a concept, I found this story interesting, but the execution fell short.

In between, there was a page from the first story that seemed to have crept in inadvertently. 

 

The Relic by James Stokoe (writer, artist and letterer); Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This story is about a cruel king who, on the strength of his army, has been plundering other lands, dominating their tribes, seizing their wealth and trampling upon their gods. Most tribes either flee when he attacks or pay obeisance. One tribe, professing to worship the Voice of the True God, refuses to flee or bow low. The plunderers break into the stronghold of the tribe. There they destroy the people completely, leaving just one prisoner, and find a power that overpowers their own. The king tells the prisoner to show him how to wield the power of this god. The prisoner leads him to their sacred temple (a museum) the first chamber of which contains the skeletal remains of creatures long gone (dinosaurs), the second chamber contains guns, tanks, fighter planes, and other weapons of destruction, and the third and final chamber contains a kitschy brand, which is being worshipped.

The story asks us to mull over a very important question. Many years, centuries or even millennia hence, when war has destroyed every vestige of progress and development that mankind has spend millennia garnering, what will the people living then worship? Our art, our learning, or something debased. The Voice of the True God, it is revealed, is a cheesy jingle created to sell a sugary sweet and unhealthy drink.

The final page tells us: In the centuries after the bombs fall, when human progress hasn’t just been taken down a rung but thrown violently off of the whole ladder, what treasures of our age might survive for those ignorant souls that follow?

Will they be drawn to a piece of exquisite art that fully encapsulates the cultural footprint of our time? Maybe some fragment of wisdom from one of our greatest thinkers that lights them a path out of squalor and darkness?

Or perhaps something more common…A throwaway gag of consumerism, dreamed up in a boardroom to catch as many thirsty eyes as possible, misremembered, deified and mistakenly placed on the highest plinth amid the ruins of mankind’s greater histories.

A kitschy advertisement for the world that was, here in the Twilight Zone. 

 

False Bottom by Nate Powell (writer, artist and letterer); Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐

Twins Chet and Laura and Laura’s husband, Gabe, hire a houseboat to celebrate Chet’s first step towards independence, moving out of his mother's basement and getting his first apartment. Laura is happy for Chet but he persists in behaving in a curmudgeonly manner and resents the help she extends to him. They discover that the main deck of the houseboat has nothing in the way of furniture, except for a single futon and a rectangular opening filled with water in the middle of the room.

Laura is not happy that Chet didn’t go for a job interview that she has secured for him. He thinks that she is too condescending and controlling while she thinks that he’s not a functioning adult yet. They are still bickering. when Gabe hears some music coming from the cutaway, the rectangular opening.

Chet jumps into the water, and Laura and Gabe jump after him, but they cannot find him in the water. He has vanished into another world. Chet steps out of the water, and finds himself in a dark place, welcomed by some hairy beings. Their faces are in darkness, and he has a bad feeling about it. When Laura and Gabe come out of the water, they can’t find Chet at all. What’s more, it’s as if he was never on the boat. The boat itself is beautifully appointed now, furnished well with everything one might want on a holiday. Gabe tells Laura to forget about Chet. He is content to move on without deadweight Chet but Laura won’t give up on her brother. Except that now they are in the Twilight Zone and the situation is out of their control. Laura jumps into the water once again and comes up to the floor of the cutaway. There he is. Separated by glass, the siblings can never find their way to each other again.

 

Silent Warning by L Marlow Francavilla and Francesco Francavilla (writers); Francesco Francavilla (artist); Sandy Tanaka (letterer); Rating: ⭐⭐

In a world in which the biggest danger is the sound you cannot hear, Dr Emily Sorensen is a soundwave virtuoso. But other scientists look upon her work with scepticism and even derision. When a meteor crashes into the ocean, Dr Sorensen is called in. A research nearby has picked up sonic pulses and the government needs Dr Sorensen’s help to decipher their meaning. At the base, Dr Sorensen meets four men, Chief James Eddington who heads the mission, marine biologist Dr Andy Carson, seismic expert Lt Arthur Jeffreys and Lt Michael Oguri, the pilot.

The men have no regard for Dr Sorensen’s competence. There may also be some dismissal of her because she is a woman. The men decide to step into the water to investigate the activity below, despite Dr Sorensen’s warnings and reservations that there may be toxic gases around.

This story was more like a disaster flick, where the destruction is mindless, and not as a result of an act of hubris on the part of the characters. 

(I read this book on Edelweiss. Thank you to the author, the publisher and Edelweiss.)

Book Review: WHEN THE RAIN CAME

Title: When the Rain Came

Author: Matt Eicheldinger

Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing

Pages: 314

My GoodReads Rating: 

Aurora, 17, lives with her foster parents, Niko and Jada, when the rain begins. A relentless mix of drizzle and downpour that scientists call an unprecedented global disaster. As the water levels rise, the mansion they live in gets flooded. Niko and Jada are preppers and they have prepared for the worst eventuality, with emergency bags all ready for use. They also impress upon her the rules. Rule no 1: You prep for you and no one else. Rule no 2: Two is one and one is none.

Niko and Jada provide for Aurora but show her no affection. One night, Jada lets her guard down and shows Aurora her vulnerable side. The next morning, Niko and Jada have disappeared, gone with their emergency bags. Once they have gone, Aurora finds a map to a place called the Hill, which promises a refuge. When the mansion is attacked by men with criminal intentions, Aurora escapes, intent on getting to the Hill.

Along the way, she befriends a young boy called Kota and learns of the Dark Pools, supposedly controlled by Shui gui, a supernatural entity, that swallow everything in their path. Both Aurora and Kota are in a vulnerable situation and they settle into a protective sibling vibe. For Aurora, who has never had a family, Kota is the nearest thing to one.

In the midst of terrifying challenges, the two learn to prioritise and think on their feet. Will they ever manage to get to the Hill? When they reach it, will they find it a place of safety or danger?

 

This is Book 1 of a trilogy, and is written in the 1^st person POV of Aurora.

 

WHAT I LIKED:

The chapters are short. The author has done a wonderful job with the setting. The writing was urgent and atmospheric, making me feel sadness, fear and concern for Aurora and Kota.

The descriptions were beautiful:

Each drop explodes like tiny bullets, turning the surface of brown liquid into a roiling battlefield of ripples and waves.

When that sky meets the horizon of the water, steam rises in a ghostly fog, shrouding the scene in an apocalyptic mist.

Rain pounds everything in sight, a thousand tiny hammers drilling into the surface of the churning water.

The action keeps us on edge, as Aurora battles dangers as varied as cruel humans, wild animals and the wrath of nature. The characters’ actions and the description of the setting and the situation complement each other.

There is an ironic foreshadowing in the words, Today … ended as a memorable day. A good day. And maybe tomorrow will be even better, that piqued my interest.

The thing that struck me about this book, from the very first paragraph, was the voice of Aurora, how strong and expressive it was.

We get a sense of disaster and chaos, a dismantling of order. The disaster helps us understand what is truly significant, and how we humans chase the wrong things. Things that people owned and took pride in, cars, bicycles, fences, all trapped under the moving slush of filth and debris.

The tagline of the book 'If everything falls apart, what will you hold on to?' was something that the book succeeded in living up to.

 

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE:

This book would have fit squarely under the genre of Climate-fiction, a genre of literature that is sorely needed these days, but no one, not even the preppers, ever addresses why it is raining for months on end.

The world is in chaos, and yet some systems are working. Even when Niko and Jada begin to run out of food and water, there is no mention of sanitation issues. In one building where the children take refuge, Kota uses the toilet, so sanitation is apparently fine. None of the characters talk about bodily discomfort issues. There is a nightmare on, and sewage entering homes should have been the first consequence.

There are some things that don’t make sense. How is a parking lot dry when tall buildings are flooded, with only the tips visible?

I would have liked to have had a little more back story about Kota. He seems to be a token diversity character. We are not told anything about his background, except that his grandmother has told him about the shui gui, spirits from Chinese folklore, while he calls his father Baba, a term for father in Indian, Middle Eastern and African cultures.

 

WHAT DIDN’T WORK FOR ME:

The situation isn’t rooted in time and place. We get no sense of when this is happening, a future time, or even a parallel earth.

When Kota steps into an abyss inside a building to get a canoe, Aurora gives him a flashlight which he clenches between his teeth, before swimming away. Moments later, both Aurora and another character, Markell, ask him a question, and he answers both questions easily. We are not told about him having taken the flashlight out of his mouth to answer.

Aurora didn’t act as if she was 17. She seemed to me to be younger, around 14 or 15. Also, for someone who has lived all her life in the foster system, she has no experiences, positive or negative, related to foster homes. Just an indifference to that part of her life, which is strange. Also, she never talks about herself in the near future, her plans for when she turns 18. This adds to the impression that she might be younger.

 

ALL SAID AND DONE:

Living in a city with poor infrastructure, I have seen enough of the damage that flooding can do to assess how much worse things could get when worst-case scenarios become real. There are some kinks that should have been edited out. Despite them, I enjoyed this story about a modern-day deluge of Biblical proportions.

(I read this book on Edelweiss. Thank you to the author, the publisher and Edelweiss.)

Book Review: INDIAN CHRISTMAS

Title: Indian Christmas

Editors: Jerry Pinto and Madhulika Liddle

Publisher: Speaking Tiger

Pages: 234

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐1/2 

This book consisted of a series of essays on the subject of Christmas as it is celebrated in India. I would have loved to contribute to this collection. If there is another edition, I hope the editors reach out to me.

 

Unto All of Us a Child Is Born by Jerry Pinto: I could totally relate to this essay. Jerry spoke about the lack of snow in Bombay at Christmas and how we aspired to have snow because that is what we saw in Christmas cards and films. Older people talked about Jim Reeves; he was the cornerstone of secular Christmas music. Jerry also spoke about the crass commercialism that Christmas has been reduced to, and reminded us that Christ and his family were migrants, relating the fact to His teaching, Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, that you do unto Me.

Jerry highlighted the fact of Jesus’ Birth, and related it to the title, Unto All of Us a Child Is Born. That single word, All, makes us all party to the great miracle, and invites the least of us to partake in the message of joy, hope, peace and love.

This was by far my favourite among the essays. Jerry’s essay reminds us of the reason for the season, which often gets lost amid the commercialisation of Christmas. This was also the only essay that referenced what it means to be an Indian Christian.

 

Christmas in Many Flavors by Madhulika Liddle describes the diverse ways in which Christmas is celebrated in India, in terms of foods, sweets, snacks, songs and décor, as also the diversity of religious (as per the different denominations of Christianity) and secular celebrations. As she says, “We adopted the faith, but reserved for ourselves the right to decide how we’d celebrate its festivals.”

The Child by Rabindranath Tagore: This lyrical poem contains the last two sections of one of Tagore’s finest long poems, inspired by the life of Jesus Christ. The poem roots the Nativity amid the rhythms and struggles of Indian rural life.

In the Spirit by Salman Rushdie: As an atheist Muslim, neither Rushdie nor his family celebrated Christmas. But Christmas entered his life several times in other ways.

At Midnight the Shepherds Saw the Light (Author Unknown) was a poem translated from Hindi. We read the original Hindi and the English translation and, in both languages, the words ‘Aadhi raat’ and midnight, repeated several times, are soothing and affirming.

Cake ki Roti at Dua ka Ghar by Madhulika Liddle: Here the author tells the true story of her own surname and how it came to be. Dua ka ghar (house of prayer) was the name of the author’s family home, built by her grandfather. This recollection was warm and fuzzy. The author shares her childhood memories and reiterates a point I believe: that Christmas and Christianity are not Western constructs. They belong to Indian Christians as much as to any believer.

The Sunset Club by Khushwant Singh: This excerpt takes us into the lives of the Hindu Mr Sharma, the Sikh Boota and the Muslim Baigs. Later in the excerpt, Begum Baig points out that Christians make merry but don’t go to church to give thanks to their Maker. I enjoy reading Khushwant Singh, but the Christmas reference here was incidental.

A Merry Vindalee to You by Anupama Raju: The author gives us the story of Vindalee, the Keralite version of the Goan-Portuguese Vindaloo, and her mother’s recipe. A Christmas Wedding in Kottayam by Elizabeth Kuruvilla: The narrator and her husband, on a road trip on their Enfield from Delhi to Kerala, are now in Kottayam, her hometown, to attend their reception. Both these stories were fuelled by nostalgia, but they were more about food than about Christmas.

I’m Dreaming of a Goan Christmas by Vivek Menezes makes a reference not only to the sweets, but also to what Christmas means to Catholics and those of other faiths in Goa. I liked this essay.

Nothing Compares to the Joys of a Village by Mary Sushma Kindo (Translated from Hindi by Renuka Chatterjee) was a lovely eye-opener to how Christmas is celebrated in small villages in the Hindi heartland. They don’t have enough but manage to mark the day with joy.

My Memories of Christmas by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar also talks about Christmas in her childhood, when she was fascinated by the festival, but from a non-Christian perspective. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri: The excerpt shows a Bengali family in the US beginning a Christmas tradition.

In Search of an East Indian Christmas in Mumbai by Debbie Rosario describes the tradition of Christmas celebrations that she witnessed when she was young.

Did Your First Christmas Cake Come out of an Ammunition Box Too? By Easterine Kire was interesting. Santa Comes in a Rickshaw—Christmas in Bow Barracks by Nazes Afroz was too short and ended abruptly. I would have liked to read more. Christmas in the Moon Place by Veio Pou was a lovely depiction of life in a small Christian village in Manipur around Christmas.

Yuletides of Yore by Minoo Avari was a recounting of several Christmas memories, one of which was the 28^th birthday celebration of her mother, which coincided with Christmas. 

In A Village Christmas by Damodar Mauzo (Translated from Konkani by Jerry Pinto), the author talks about the Hindu festival, Ganesh Chaturthi, and Christmas being his favourite festivals, and links these favourites to the strong secular fabric of his village.

How India’s Pluralistic Past Shows the Way Forward by Manimugdha S Sharma: Here the writer talks about festivals in general, and Christmas in particular, and mourns the fact that India’s pluralism is on the decline.

Armenia Christmas Food in Calcutta by Mohona Kanjilal is a detailed description of the title.

In Christmas Memories of a Family by Nivedita Mishra, the writer, born and raised in a multi-cultural multi-religious family, tells us that she is not very religious, but that she does have a strong faith in God and that her faith is rewarded one Christmas. This was another one of my favourite essays in this collection.

Last Christmas in Bandra by Aravind Adiga was a random unrelated recollection of a judge. Christmas was only incidental here.

Christmas Carols Punjabi Style (Translated from Punjabi by Nirupama Dutt: There is no mention of the writer’s name.

Made in India and All of That by Nilima Das is a charming account of the childhood of a woman of mixed parentage who received the best of both worlds.

A Christmas Prayer—Words and Music by Alfred J D’Souza; Arranged for choir by Leon D’Souza

Most of the essays were about the secular nature of Christmas and the celebrations, rather than any affirmations of faith. This collection can be read by anyone who misses the secular appeal of Christmas. 

I loved the beautiful cover of the Holy Family in Indian garb.

(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.)

Book Review: MYTHOS: THE ILLUSTRATED EDITION

Title: Mythos: The Illustrated Edition

Author: Stephen Fry

Publisher: Chronicle Books

Pages: 512

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

This was my first time reading a book by Stephen Fry, but it won’t be the last. The style of this book was unlike anything I’ve ever read. The author successfully introduced me to Greek mythology while connecting disparate elements together with a distinct voice that was friendly and humorous.

The book began with a detailed family tree, which became clear as I read on. The narrative was divided into The Beginning Part 1 and 2, which detailed the Greek Creation Myth, the birth of the gods, their passions, egos and mischief. The Toys of Zeus, Part 1 and 2, featured mortals, because the gods obviously treat human beings as their playthings.

This book was a delight from start to finish. The myths were written in delightful prose, a tongue-in-cheek style, successfully surprising, educating and entertaining us in the same breath. I was able to see instances of Greek myths and their place in the English language, besides subjects like Science, History, Mythology, Metaphor, music, semantics, etymology, cinema, art and computer hardware.

The illustrations were beautiful, and the writing incorporated just the right sprinkling of psychological insights. The footnotes were a joy.

Along the way, we are treated to the origin myths for how honey, medicine, alcohol and spiders came to be, how human beings got fire, and how the seasons came about. There are so many ideas and concepts from literature, fiction and pop culture that this book helped me understand in the context of their origin story. The author even points out specific instances of the origin of sex, incest and murder.

Overall, the Greek gods were an unruly lot, always getting into trouble and behaving in ways that they shouldn’t have. There’s a lot of feasting and cavorting.

There were specific instances of the English language being enriched by Greek mythology. For instance, the word, hermetically sealed, owes itself to Hermes.

The characters I recognized from literature and other readings included Aphrodite, Zeus, Prometheus, Hera, Hermes, Apollo, Midas, Sisyphus, Persephone, Pandora, Hades, Cupid, Narcissus, Hero and Leander, Pygmalion and Poseidon. The list is a long one, and reminded me of the stories I’d enjoyed without considering the mythic culture they belonged to.

The author even links the myths to children’s animation classics like Tom and Jerry. With all that knowledge, he doesn’t come across as a know-it-all. And that was the selling point of this book.

It was a special delight to read about my own namesake under Artemis, one of whose names is Cynthia. I was aware that my name meant the Greek goddess of the moon, but this detailed picture was welcome.

While the book was remarkably detailed and inventive, I understood that there were many myths that the book had not covered. Icarus was one Greek myth that I recall that did not feature here.

The author recommends a reading of theoi.com for a further reading of 1500 pages of text and for a glimpse of 1200 images.

 

(I read this book on Edelweiss. Thank you to the author, the publisher and Edelweiss.) 

Book Review: THE MURDERER'S APE (Sally Jones #2)

 

Title: The Murderer's Ape

Author: Jakob Wegelius

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Pages: 605

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Henry Koskela, Chief to Sally Jones, the gorilla he rescued, is arrested for the murder of Aphonse Morro. He has motive. It was Morro that had sent him on a misadventure that caused him to lose his beloved boat, the Hudson Queen, and their hard-earned savings. But Koskela has no way to prove his innocence.

Only Sally Jones knows that her Chief has done nothing wrong. That he did not seek to kill Morro. That Morro fell by accident. But what can an ape do? Particularly when powerful people are determined to keep him imprisoned forever.

Now Sally Jones is on the run from the powerful men who want to bring anarchy to Portugal. Luckily, she meets Ana Molina, a young woman with an angelic voice who works in a shoe factory. Soon Ana’s friends become the friends of Sally Jones, but danger is never far away from Sally Jones.

 

The story is told in the first person past tense PoV of Sally Jones, not Sally. Always Sally Jones. It is, in fact, being typed out by her on a typewriter, long after the incidents described in the book are over.

This book started well. I didn’t realise who the narrator was until the last line on the first page when she said that her fur is itchy with coal dust. As a character, Sally Jones had great potential. She is literate, she can type, repair stuff, play chess and she serves as first engineer on a ship.

 

As a rule, I don’t read fantasy, but this one was targeted at children and promised to be warm and fuzzy. So I made an exception. The characters were all sweet, but not really unforgettable. Sally Jones herself didn’t live up to her potential. The adversaries weren’t really evil, in keeping with the target audience. This is children’s fiction after all.

The writing was sweet, especially the scenes where Sally Jones meets the Chief after their prolonged separation.

The writer does a good job with the time period. Set in the early 20^th century, there are accordions, motor boats, steamers, typewriters etc. Illustrations of these would have helped young readers to get an understanding of older technologies.

But there was tremendous room for improvement. For the greater part of the book, the Chief was in jail, serving a sentence of 25 years in prison. Considering that the Chief and Sally Jones were the main characters, they both should have a greater role to play in the book. As it is, the story picks up the thread of the plot only with about 100 pages to spare.

With the Chief stuck in jail, Sally Jones is sent off on a grand adventure, heading off to Egypt and spending a long spell in India, beating a king at chess and being his confidante, but not really advancing the plot of the story. Given that the title of the book is The Murderer’s Ape, I thought that Sally Jones should have been shown to be doing more to get the Chief released.

It’s a fantasy after all. If the author could make her literate, able to understand English, why not get her to grunt some words? If she is good at “fixing broken things”, why not make her use that skill to enable the Chief’s release rather than spending time fixing broken accordions with nothing to break the monotony for the Chief. The poor guy spends years in prison.

Also, at 605 pages, it is much too long and the pace far too slow. Young ones are bound to lose interest in such a heavy tome. I do think the author could have done more to bring out the themes of love and friendship, loyalty and innocence. As it is, with Sally Jones travelling around the world, those themes get diluted a fair bit.

The illustrations, the grainy pencil sketches were charming, quaint and inviting. 

(I read this book on Edelweiss. Thank you to the author, the publisher and Edelweiss.) 

Book Review: THE FIRST ADVENT IN PALESTINE

Title: The First Advent in Palestine

Author: Kelley Nikondeha

Publisher: Broadleaf Books

Pages: 214

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The First Advent in Palestine was a beautiful book that stripped Advent of all the holiday revelry that pervades this holy time today and set it in the context of the conflict-ridden milieu in which Christ was born. It wasn’t a peaceful time by any means, and yet very few people point out the violence that that era of human history was fraught with.

The Palestine of the first Advent was just as conflict ridden as it is today. The types of dangers that people faced differed, but life then, as now, was unpredictable and frightening.

 

The author juxtaposes the past with the present. Most newspapers and TV channels won’t even talk about the truth of what people in Palestine are grappling with. The sheer trauma on account of Israel’s cruelty. Tear gas, stun grenades, rubber-coated bullets and an ongoing genocide are the reality of the people of Palestine.

The author draws parallels between then and now, helping us to see their humanity and empathise with their struggles. Shepherds, she tells us, were the “essential workers” of that time. Today’s tyrannical and insecure leaders is what Herod was.

The author upturns our long-held notions about how there was no room at the inn, telling us that’s not how Palestinians are.

Along the way, she introduces us to Israeli Messianic Jews, Jews who believe that Jesus was the Messiah.

The book is non-fiction, but the writing is literary and luminous.

One thing you can do in the dark is light a candle. Another is tell a story.

In fraught places, childhood is complex.

There is a fierceness that coexists with kindness.

I must admit that I haven’t read much of the Old Testament. But reading this book, I got a better understanding of the force of God’s promise of peace to the world. It helped me to understand the context of the Gospel, how Christ wasn’t born in a picture-perfect crib. Reading this book took away the tinsel and holly and made the season real.

It’s ironic how it’s now the Jewish state of Israel that is visiting death and destruction on others, namely, the people of Palestine. We don’t speak enough about the pain being unleashed and perpetrated in Palestine.

The book looks at the traumatised people of Palestine through the lens of humanity to acknowledge their suffering. It takes us along to bear witness to Zachariah’s story and Mary’s too, the former of disbelief, the latter of acceptance. Alongside these, we read the stories of Palestinians today, Sliman Mansour, Nafez Assaily etc.

The book forced me to think of things I hadn’t considered. Like how silent night, holy night doesn’t necessarily mean peaceful because nightfall brings dangers. Only privilege can equate silence with peace. I realised that as we go from year to year, from Advent to Lent and back, the need for that peace remains.

Flight to Egypt, a painting by Palestinian painter Sliman Mansour, has been used on the cover. The image of Mary, the infant in her arms, with a UN care package, reinforces how the Holy Family was seeking normalcy and peace in their lives.

This is the book I didn’t even know I wanted.

(I read this book on Edelweiss. Thank you to the author, the publisher and Edelweiss.) 

Book Review: THE VILLA AND THE VORTEX

Title: The Villa and the Vortex: Selected Supernatural Stories, 1914–1924

Author: Elinor Mordaunt

Editor: Melissa Edmundson

Publisher: Handheld Classics

Pages: 306

My GoodReads Rating: 

 

The Villa and the Vortex: Supernatural stories, 1916‒1924, by Elinor Mordaunt was a treat. I suspect that the editor selected these two stories for the title of this collection because of the alliteration, which works well. My favourite in this collection was Hodge. 

The short stories have been selected and put together by Melissa Edmundson, who also gives us a detailed introduction to Elinor’s life and her writing. A glossary by Kate Macdonald, at the end of the book, brings us up to speed on the archaic words used in the stories.

The stories in this collection were as follows:

The Weakening Point (1916): Bond, the scion of the high-born and privileged Challice family, is plagued by nightmares on the night of his birthday, since his very first birthday. A fine boy, he grows up to be a handsome man with nothing to mar the happiness of his life other than these dreams.

The Country-Side (1917): The Reverend Robert Wister and his wife Margaret have been married for five years in a poor and overcrowded South London parish. Life is hard but there is a sense of purpose and they are happy, in their marriage and in their vocation. When Robert is offered the living of a parish in the countryside, their life changes. Robert adapts quickly to the life of leisure, hunting and drinking, slowly drifting apart from his wife who is shunned by the villagers. But when she receives the greatest betrayal, there must be the ultimate sacrifice. The poor Margaret is blamed for her behaviour, but is she more sinned against than sinning?

One quote from this story stood out for me for its truth. The root of all religions lies about what we – in connection with our own beliefs – call ‘faith’ and – in connection with other people’s beliefs – ‘delusions’.

Another quote says: Your true rustic is suckled on spells, incarnations and superstitions.

Both these stories are about the hold exerted by the primitive over the modern. I wasn’t so impressed with the first story, but the second one sparked my interest, and the following story, The Vortex, held it, never letting go.

The Vortex (1919): Lawrence Kerstervon escapes a dismal home life at age 18 to become a playwright who is attracted to the tragic and the morbid. His play is backed by a famous actor, and rehearsals begin. Slowly the actors get into their characters, getting a little too far into the skin of their characters. Soon we realise that the story has them a little too tight in its vortex.

Hodge (1921): Rector Fane’s children, Rhoda and her younger brother, Hector, having lost their mother, are best friends. The two children spent hours in innocent play, conjuring up the ancient, natural world through their imagination. One day, they find, close to the sea near their home, a charmed forest in which they find the remains of what might be a creature older than Homo Erectus, but younger than Neanderthal Man. The creature is alive. The trouble begins when the creature, who the children name Hodge, is smitten with Rhoda.

 

The Fountain (1921): A woman named Sylvia Colquhoun, too pure for this world, is married to a man with base and voracious appetites. His failure to understand her pains her, and when she learns that he has betrayed their marriage vows, it breaks her heart, and she drowns in the pool of the fountain that Harry had built for her in the early days of their marriage. After her funeral, the household discovers that the pool and the seven springs that fed it have all run dry, but the house has taken on a damp, dank air.

‘Luz’ (1922): A young nurse finds herself at the mercy of a stranger who offers to guide her home on a foggy London night. By and by, she discovers that her guide is blind and that he is leading her far away from home. She will soon learn just how evil his intentions are.

The Landlady (1923): A young, married couple, having rented the genteel and beautiful home of a Miss Julia Champneys, begin to see the disembodied spirit of their landlady around their house. They guess rightly that she is not dead but alive and unable to part with her home. 

Four Wallpapers (1924): Eva Erskine and her husband, Tom, have inherited a beautiful house which needs a lot of repair work to be rendered habitable. Then Eva notices four layers of peeling wallpaper and sees the ghosts of the former inhabitants of the house in four previous decades, and gets a glimpse into their tragic lives. 

The Villa (1924): is a vengeful house that unleashes death upon those who live beneath its roof after its rightful owner meets with her death by foul means. 

Each story plays upon the supernatural theme in vastly different ways. No two stories are set in the same circumstances. Yet in their different worlds, they conjure up the inexplicable and the supernatural for us. Elinor is a very talented writer. Each story is a beautiful piece of writing. 

(I read this book on Edelweiss. Thank you to the author, the publisher and Edelweiss.) 

 

Book Review: ANCIENT GHOSTS

Title: Ancient Ghosts

Author: Edel Marit Gaino

Translator: Olivia Lasky and Lea Simma

Illustrator: Toma Feizo Gas

Publisher: Inhabit Education Books

Pages: 200

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

This book is a collection of ten paranormal stories from Norway. The stories are accompanied by illustrations, black and white impressions, daubs of black ink that grew to resemble the picture that the artist had in mind. There are 25 illustrations in all, including 15 full-page ones.

I found the cover, with its image of a ghastly, skeletal body with sharp claws and fangs, disturbing, yet intriguing.

Unfortunately, most of the stories barely measure up to the fear evoked by the cover image.

The Old Graves On Our Moor: The narrator, a child, learns from his uncle of the finding of a 1000-year-old undecomposed corpse. Later, the child has an encounter with it.

The story isn’t really scary but the sense of brooding atmosphere that the author incorporates into the telling might frighten a child on a dark night.

The Copper Kettle: Three friends set up camp at a wild reindeer bog, where one of them has a frightening experience with a supernatural being.

The third story, The Grouse, is preceded by a note with a trigger warning for sexual assault and the numbers of two helplines. This story was really scary but there is nothing paranormal about it. This one is about the depravity of men.

The Mudhole is another story about the real danger posed by quicksand.

In The Mirror, two teenage girls, playing around with an old superstition on New Year’s Day, learn a lesson.

In The Raven, the shooting of a raven ensures the end of a hunter’s shooting adventures.

The Dream-Seers: This one was more of an anecdote than a real story.

None of these stories are likely to give you sleepless nights, but even the momentary sense of unease can be effective in a well-written story.

But the heavyweights, it seems, had been saved to bring up the rear in this book. The Four-Eyed Dog was one story that really gave me the shivers.

The Invisible Dog started out really scary. It even built on the promise, but the conclusion undid the effect.

The scariest of the lot was the last story, The Fishing Trip, which was beautifully written. This was the only story in which the terror was actually palpable and not something to be nurtured by one’s imagination. 

(I read this book on Edelweiss. Thank you to the author, the publisher and Edelweiss.)