The Canterbury tales

The task of adapting Geoffrey Chaucer's timeless classic of mediaeval literature into a graphic novel may seem like an impossible undertaking.


In rich and rhythmic Middle English, Chaucer's original 14th-century magnum opus follows the sojourn taken by 24 pilgrims to the Canterbury Cathedral. They decide to organise a story-telling contest to while away the time spent on the road.

Chaucer himself takes on the rather metaphysical role of an omniscient narrator; his colorful observations of human nature are peppered with ribald humor. Not a single pilgrim is spared, from the nun to the knight.
So illustrator and designer Seymour Chwast's bold adaptation of the Tales may come as something of a shock to purists.

Chwast has taken each of Chaucer's tales and pared them down to their bare bones. He has done away with Middle English, choosing to imbue his characters' speech with a more modern vernacular - 'Hey babe, let's party'.

Nothing To Envy: Ordinary Lives In North Korea

New York - The world scanned last Wednesday's closely guarded funeral for North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, seeking more clues about the politics of the most closed society on Earth. But readers looking for insight into North Korea have better options.

The most acclaimed recent book on the country is Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick, a foreign correspondent for The Los Angeles Times. It was a finalist for the 2010 National Book Award and took home the Samuel Johnson Prize in Britain.

In his review of the book in The New York Times, Dwight Garner wrote: 'Ms Demick's book is a lovely work of narrative non-fiction, one that follows the lives of six ordinary North Koreans, including a female doctor, a pair of star-crossed lovers, a factory worker and an orphan. It's a book that offers extensive evidence of the author's deep knowledge of this country while keeping its sights firmly on individual stories and human details.'


In the same review, he considered The Hidden People Of North Korea: Everyday Life In The Hermit Kingdom by Ralph Hassig and Kongdan Oh (US$32.53, Amazon.com), saying it was 'wonkier than Ms Demick's and less reader-friendly, but it covers more ground'.

SORRY by Zoran Drvenkar

By Zoran Drvenkar, translated from German by Shaun Whiteside




Sorry is an ingenious and thought-provoking thriller that should be read for the reasons that make it hard to read.

First is German writer Zoran Drvenkar's use of the second-person point of view. In the beginning, this seems a clumsy conceit meant to make readers sympathise with the serial killer antagonist. Later, it proves to be a brilliant red herring that masks the speaker's identity until the very end.

Second is the book's theme. Like authors from Reginald Hill to the late Stieg Larsson, Drvenkar has an agenda. He writes mystery as a mirror of the world, reflecting in fiction the dark truths readers often choose to ignore in real life.

THREE SISTERS

Oppression and discrimination - Chinese novelist Bi Feiyu captures it all too well through the lives of three ill-fated Wang sisters growing up during the Cultural Revolution.

The story may be a figment of Bi's imagination, but it is unsettlingly real for those who lived in that era.

It centres around Yumi, Yuxiu and Yuyang and how they make use of, respectively, their steely character, charm and diligence to get ahead in life despite their fallen circumstances.

The fall from grace happens when their philandering party secretary father, Wang Lianfang, is caught in bed with a soldier's wife (which was, at that time, a heinous crime).

He loses his position, and with it, his power and wealth, and decides to become a painter. The household is left in the charge of Yuxiu, the oldest of his seven daughters. He also has a son.

Amazon Kindle 3 Commuter Series

Well known for tough casings that protect mobile devices, OtterBox has released a protective shell for the Amazon Kindle 3 e-book reader.

This casing has two parts: a silicon rubber that envelopes the sleek device and a hard plastic that further wraps around the rear to protect the thin reader.

Even with the silicon rubber over it, the reader's Qwerty keyboard and navigation buttons are still easy to reach. There are also openings for the rear speakers.

Click for more: Otterbox Commuter Series Amazon Kindle 3

The Paris Wife

Fiction based on real figures in history is a fraught field. Hilary Mantel pulled it off with Wolf Hall, told from the perspective of Thomas Cromwell, an adviser to England's King Henry VIII.

Success hinges not just on quality of research but also the writer's ability to bring characters to life.

McLain takes on an ambitious project: little- known Hadley Richardson, first wife of Ernest

Hemingway, the early 20th-century American writer of classics such as The Sun Also Rises, not to mention war hero and Great White Hunter of beasts and beauty (four wives, numerous lovers).

Hadley who? You well might ask.

WISH YOU WERE HERE

WISH YOU WERE HERE
By Graham Swift

In literature, the polysyllabic, multi- word sentence enchants with its eloquence. In real life, short, simple phrases strike straight to the heart.

When truly deep emotions are expressed, three words or four easily suffice to enthral, wound or captivate: 'I love you', 'I miss you'. In the case of British writer Graham Swift's latest novel, it is: 'Wish you were here.'

While a teen, the book's protagonist Jack Luxton writes this phrase on a postcard to his star-crossed sweetheart. He is unaware that the wording is considered trite. Neither would he care, for those four words, pulled out of him like a deeply rooted tooth, hold sagas-worth of love, yearning and sorrow.

He is capable of alarmingly deep sentiment and incapable of ever expressing it adequately. A scion of solid farming stock, he is of the type referred to as 'the salt of the earth', and other similar idioms around the world.

Seemingly unshaken by bad weather, crop disaster and cattle disease, his kind put in harsh, 16-hour-long days, until one final drought or blight leads them to the back barn and the solace of a noose or gun, leaving neighbours to wonder and mutter.

Death, the attendant grief of survivors and the ability or inability to express sorrow are themes Swift has visited before in the Booker Prize-winning Last Orders (1996), about friends with a shared war history carrying out the funeral wishes of one of their number.

In Wish You Were Here, he describes with quiet splendour the tight descent into anguish and raw emotion as a man, unable to say what he truly feels for his loved ones, is forced to deal with the demise of a beloved younger brother.