Casino Royale by Ian Fleming

I could honestly "take or leave" this book. The format fit well into my busy schedule recently with nice short chapters and a pretty fast-moving plot line. It held my interest; I just didn't love this book. I need pretty language and lovable/hate-able characters, but Casino Royale was more of a straight forward, (to me) stereotypical boys' book. James Bond, like in the movies, is that man that everyone wants to be...he has a hot girl, a cool job, and he gets to eat/drink/play like he's filthy rich. Bond, however, hasn't completely become that stereotypically "cool" guy. This time, he actually falls in love with the girl and gets burned...which is what probably sparks the detached Bond of the later movies (I've only read Casino Royale of the 007 book series, and I think I may keep it that way). I think what really kept me from loving this book was Fleming's preoccupation with "boy" things; he focuses on the gambling exchange between Bond and Le Chiffre for way too long, the torture scene is close to being too graphic for my taste. Generally, Fleming paid much more attention to the plot line or his own personal hobbies (like gambling) instead of fully developing the characters.

Sorry I didn't give much of a plot line or anything; just one of those books where you have to read it (or watch the movie) to get the story, but there's nothing in the novel to really pick up on and discuss.

My rating: 7.5/10

Next up: Labyrinths by Jose Luis Borges. I love Latin American authors, but this book seems a little out of my typical comfort zone for reading. It's a compilation of many of Borges' fiction, essays, and parables, most of which are explorations of physics and social theories, so I may end up struggling a bit. At least when I get bored of one story, it's probably going to be relatively short and can move onto the next one soon. I'll update you as I go or when I'm finished, depending on my time constraints.

So Long A Letter by Mariama Ba

I read this novel as another part of my required reading for my Gender in 20th Century Africa class, and, like God's Bits of Wood, I really liked this book. It's a super-fast read, only about 90 pages or so, and I'm interested to see what we're going to do with it during class discussion.

The novel is set up as a letter between the main character, Ramatoulaye, and her friend Aissatou; both are women who went to school to become teachers in a time when African women's limits in professions were limited largely to being either midwives or teachers (rather reminiscent of an article I read recently that discussed Saudi women's limitations in education to teaching or medicine...makes you kinda rethink the pervasive stereotype that Africa is far behind any place else in the world). The novel begins as Ramatoulaye finds out that she has been widowed by a husband that she married for love soon after school and who had recently broken the trust in the marriage by taking a second wife and beginning to ignore her and their children together for the sake of a younger girl, who was forced to marry by her mother in hopes of increasing that family's material standing.

Although the story is fantastic, I was much more fascinated by the underlying theme that I saw in the story: a discussion of the place that marriage should have in a "modern" African society. The story ends happily, with two of Ramatoulaye's daughters marrying/planning to marry for love (one completely by choice; the other's marriage is accelerated due to an unplanned pregnancy), rather than material wealth. None of the main characters at the end of the book were taking social expectations for granted. Very early in the novel Aissatou leaves her husband for taking a second wife and takes her sons to the U.S., where she works as a translator. Ramatoulaye has forsaken expectations, turning down marriage proposals from her husband's brother and another well-to-do man to begin courting. The novel contains ample amounts of heartache throughout the story, but, by the end, I think that it presents a realistic hope for improvement for the lot of women in Africa.

My rating: 9/10

Reading Update

Just a quick update on my 1,001 Books reading process:

I think I might give myself a bit of a break from The Autumn of the Patriarch. The set-up of the book is just not conducive to my reading habits. I love Gabriel Garcia Marquez's writing style with long, descriptive sentences and hugely symbolic language, but it's hard to follow when I'm trying to read a few lines in between classes and such. So, I'm pondering my next book choice a bit. I'm thinking Casino Royale by Ian Fleming or taking a break from the 1,001 Books list for Isabel Allende's Zorro (I adore her...I'm sure I'll be writing a retroactive review of House of the Spirits sometime soon), which was recommended to me a few years ago.

And just a warning in general: reading and, therefore, posting will be a bit infrequent over the next few weeks as my last! semester winds down. I have some papers and tests (and job applications!) that are going to be more important than reading for fun over the next few weeks.