Book "Review"

Marble Skin by Slavenka Drakulić

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is not a book, it's a stream of consciousness that envelops you, even after you've put it down it haunts you, and it should because it's a haunting, beautiful, terrible tale, told not so much in words but images that bleed together, there is no obvious structure, no square frame to keep the story in place, to keep you in place, in the story, there's just you and the pages and these two women, and they're not characters for you to observe, they're flesh and blood (under the marble skin) and you are one with both of them and they are one, and there's also the man somewhere in your peripheral, just a by-stander, this is not about the man although he plays an important part, he's just someone to see and touch and thus bring out the body, your body, so that you can understand it, and then he's gone, he's served his purpose, and all that's left is you, and the silence and the memories, and whatever comes next.

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Nothing important happened today

I'm reading this amazing book, I don't remember if I told you that already, but it's called "Marble skin" and it's by Slavenka Drakulic. I'm loving every page of it so far, I'm on eighty out of a hundred and eighty-eight.

I worked in the indian restaurant last night, it was actually busy for once, but not in a good way. It was stressful, things went wrong, not big things like I'm used to from the previous place I waitressed in, but enough to be annoying. I also worked later than usually and missed the bus and the train that I usually take to get home when I've worked in this place, instead I had to take another bus, the tube and then a second bus, and of course there was lots of waiting and walking in the cold rain in-between those, which did wonders for the building cold I felt that previous morning, I can tell you. I was meant to work tonight as well, and I really should have because I really need the money (if I even get paid, which remains to be seen), but I sent my boss a text message and told him I felt too ill to come in, which was an exaggeration but not a complete lie, because I am feeling rather under weather, and last night undid the magic my last yoga session performed on my body and posture completely, and now my back and shoulders hurt again. Plus I woke up not too long ago and just finished making my coffee (the old-fashioned way, in a pot on the stove!) and if I were to work again tonight, I'd have to leave now, since it's Sunday and it'd take forever to get into town. And it still looks like rain. Not the refreshing kind, but the cold "I'm going to eat away your bone marrow" kind.

I also went to the theatre with my friend Min the other night, well the night before last actually, and saw "Inception" - I'd seen the posture of that film the night before and really didn't feel like I wanted to watch it, but when Min suggested it I figured there was hardly another movie showing that would be remotely better, and it did have two of my favourite actors in it (Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marion Cotillard) so I agreed to it -  and we were both pleasantly surprised, it was a lot better than we had anticipated! I especially loved the different levels to the story, and I'm not saying anything else because you I think you should watch it, it's entertaining if not nothing else, so you'll most likely enjoy it even if you don't think it's a masterpiece or anything. One thing though, towards the end, that I just didn't buy (not in terms of the actual story, more like the telling of it) and after you've seen it I'll tell you what and why...

When I got home from work, all shivery and miserable and aching, I didn't go to bed as I should have, I warmed up the meal the boys in the kitchen had made for me (I didn't even ask for it or remind them I was avegetarian this time, which I thought was really cool, they just made me something vegetarian and put it in take out containers and gave me the little bag before I was leaving.) and sat at my computer until seven this morning, watching Cesar's youtube clips and browsing facebook and blogs and my own pictures from my time in Vancouver, missing him and Ana and Mike and Emmanuel and Brett and Stephen and the good times in VFS, even some of the bad ones, and feeling generally nostalgic and lonely. That could have had something to do with today's morose pity party as well, I guess. I need a yoga session. And a place to live. And an original idea. And an acting gig. And a future.

Well, as always, this has been a rewarding conversation... what do I owe you for this session? Same time next week? Okay then.

P.S. obsessing over The X-files again. This is the fourth time around. Which means it definitely in the top five of the most recurring obsessions, still after seventeen years, that's quite cool, don't you think.

Magpie Mentality

I got in, first of all. Those of you who actually somewhat follow this blog probably knows this already, but I thought I'd document this happy occasion anyway. So the 17th of August I'll be a student of the Dramatic Institute and argue about cinematic symbolism and word choices in dialogue with like-minded yet again. I can't wait!

So I move on the 1st of July. I haven't even started packing yet and I get nightmares just thinking about it. All my stuff and my clothes and I'm supposed to take as little with me as possible, and of course that is an actual impossibility in the world of Ida. I have the hunter-gatherer mentality of a magpie, doesn't matter if I should end up on the street with the living area of 1m2 inside a cardboard box, I'd still fill it up with garbage within hours. I can't help it. I need to keep things. Collect things. The first thing I see to when I move to a new place to start over is the location of the nearest library and securing a library card... and yet, I need to own the books I like, I need to have them, all the time, and not have to ever give them back, even if I never end up reading them again, I need them to be mine -- I'm Gollum with books! -- And movies! Speaking of which.. There was a big sale on this swedish movie site and I got these DVDs for barely anything and one of them was Suicide Kings, which is a classic, with both Christopher Walken, Denis Leary and my new obsession Jeremy Sisto, not to mention a whole lot of homoerotic subtext which is always fun. I also that Daniel Craig movie that caused a bit of an uproar in the UK, The Mother, where he falls in love with his girlfriend's mum or something, I haven't seen it yet, but I bet it's going to be great and I got it for 10 SEK (that's like less than a dollar!)

Anyways.. I'm supposed to re-write this script, right. The one for the feature I'm probably doing, and I've been putting it off for over a week now, and I really need to get to it, but I just don't want to!