Book Review: Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert

Eat, Pray, Love was such a big hit to me that when Elizabeth Gilbert delivered her second installment entitled, Committed, I did not have second thoughts buying it. Both books are more of a memoir rather than a novel because Ms. Gilbert recounts her personal experiences in coming up with her own definitions of a relationship (Eat, Pray, Love) and marriage (Committed). Her wisdom is borne out of the heartaches she went through while forming her own life rules. What is most admirable is her humility to accept what she lacks, a first step in improving oneself before moving on to another relationship.

Elizabeth Gilbert's first marriage did not work out. Since then, she became skeptic in the sacrament of matrimony. But unexpectedly, while soul searching in Bali, Indonesia, love knocked on her door again. She and her lover, a Brazilian named Felipe, was content not to rock the boat by getting married again (Felipe was also divorced). Felipe would periodically go in and out of the United States to be with Elizabeth and this setup was perfect for them. However, one day the US Immigration noticed this frequency and Felipe was barred from re-entering the country. The status quo was as good as it lasted, but if they wanted to stay together, they had to break the status quo. The only solution was for them to get married and legalize Felipe's citizenship as an American.

In Committed, Elizabeth Gilbert made a blow by blow account of the process she went through to make peace with marriage. For her, she did not want to get married just for her and Felipe's convenience. Rather, she wanted to re-explore it and understand it better so that this second time around, marriage will be much better and nurtured compared to her first union.

Throughout the book, perhaps the most important thing that Ms. Gilbert clarified is that she wrote that book to help herself and not for anybody else. Thus, once in a while, it is possible to come across something she holds true that may be contrary to a reader's belief. However, she is not concerned with that because it runs contrary to the main purpose of writing her memoir. One of the more debatable issues in her liberal views about marriage is that she is not keen on bearing her own child. It was one of the reasons that caused the downfall of her first marriage. With Felipe, this is not a problem because the man already had children from his previous marriage and had no desire anymore to bear more children from Ms. Gilbert. This alone immediately got things going for the couple. Many steadfast believers on procreation being the center of marriage will find Gilbert's stand quite radical, but it works for them so that's what matters most.

It was not an easy journey for Elizabeth Gilbert. She went as far as going to various places to learn about different cultures on marriage and find out what she could apply to her own life. It was all in the effort of grasping a realistic take on marital union that so many people uphold. It can all be very institutionalized but the fact remains that two people are in it together to make it as real and workable as possible. Commitment, compromise, trust and respect are just some of the words to live by every minute until death do you part.

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Review: Eat Pray Love

"There's a reason we refer to 'leap of faith' - because the decision to consent to any notion of divinity is a mighty jump from the rational over to the unknowable, and I don't care how diligently scholars of every religion will try to sit you down with their stacks of books and prove to you through scripture that their faith is indeed rational; it isn't. If faith were rational, it wouldn't be - by definition - faith."


Eat Pray Love recounts the detailed bits of the Elizabeth Gilbert's sabbatical leave from her usual world to dedicate one year of her life to traveling and soul-searching. Gilbert, the author, is jumping out of norms when she decided to end her marriage with a divorce, quit her job, and travel to 3 different countries to come to terms with herself again.

Incidentally, these 3 countries all begin with "I" - Italy, India and Indonesia. For 4 months in each country, Elizabeth tried to learn new things. In Italy, she learned the pleasure of eating and speaking Italian. In India, she confined herself to a meditation camp where she found her own definition of prayer. And finally, in Indonesia, she tried to find balance between the earthly and the divine.

Just how many of us could really do this? If I can sum up this book in one word, I'd say it's all about faith. And it's not just about believing in a great transcendent being, but in my opinion, also more about believing in oneself against all forms of rationality.

I am forever in search of my own god whom I can totally trust and depend on. Much to my dismay, I have been a very passive traveler of this temporary world. Thus, it's the main reason I am totally gripped by Elizabeth Gilbert's book, Eat Pray Love. She didn't wait for any big and dramatic transformation upon herself, instead changed her life by taking small and rather tedious steps.

Elizabeth Gilbert charmed me with her very candid narrative that I felt I was only listening to her storytelling instead of reading it. I loved her honesty, from how she gained 23 lbs because of all the eating in Italy, to succumbing to her physical sexual need. Perhaps, her honesty is one of her strengths that led her to a very magnificent transformation. After all, it all starts with one's acceptance of insecurities and misgivings.

Incidentally, Eat Pray Love is now a movie. It will be shown this year starring Julia Roberts.

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What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (Book Review)

I grabbed this book on a whim when I saw it. The title immediately caught my interest because I'm into running lately. It was so wonderful to learn that one of my favorite authors, Haruki Murakami, is into running as well. I'll shun the bad review written by the New York Times as it mainly attacked the "laidback" and sub-mediocre prose of the book. Yes, there were a lot of pretty redundant and tiring phrases from this pretty much short memoir and that makes the NY Times pretty much right about it.

But What I Talk About When I Talk About Running is non-fiction after all, and I delved more on the personal account of Murakami on his passion for running, while at the same time revealing the parallelisms of running and writing. I consider myself a serious runner in the sense that I always aim to beat my own PR (personal record) and try to run regularly, but I am nothing compared to the passion of Murakami. He discovered his love for running at age 33, and has since geared up himself to run one full marathon a year (that's equivalent to 42 kilometers or 26.2 miles). He runs six days a week at an average of six miles per day. And for once in his life, he completed an ultra-marathon in Japan that covered a distance of no less than 62 miles! That took him 11 hours to complete!! Wow. I feel tired just saying that.

As for me, I only joined 5km events in the last 2 years. It's only now that I had the guts to level up to 10km. I will only be attempting my second 10km run this Sunday while hoping to beat my 1:04 time. Surely this is nothing compared to Murakami's feat, determination and love for the sport. In his book, he said that though he feels older now (60 this year) and his muscles getting tired, he will continue to run full marathons once a year even if he could not train as rigorously anymore and even if he could not beat his own PR anymore.

I could relate to Murakami as he described how it really feels like while joining a race (albeit with my 5km and 10km runs in contrast to his full marathons). As your legs step in rhythm from one foot to the next, there comes a time when your legs feel it has a mind of its own already and you are running mechanically. You could look up to the sky for sympathy but it will stare back at you with indifference. You are on your own. And that's the best feeling at the finish line as you absorb the idea of your own feat.

I am not bound to compare myself with Murakami (I will fail in every aspect). But he has inspired me to be the best I can in my pursuit of long distance running. I could someday finish at least a half-marathon before my legs give up on me. I have written once in my blog how I consider running my personal prayer. It's that solitary moment when I take it one step at a time to the finish line, stay attuned to my breathing and listen to my heart pump. If only for this, maybe I will also be able to sustain running until in my 60s.

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Book Review: My Sister's Keeper

Spoilers are in white text. Highlight to read.

I picked up this book to read it before the movie version hits the theaters. It's the first I've read by Jodi Picoult. My Sister's Keeper is well written in my opinion and the plot is very interesting. It is a different kind of drama that revolves mainly around the thirteen year old girl by the name of Anna Fitzgerald. Anna came into this world in a very unique manner. She was specifically designed to match the rare blood type of her sister Kate. Her parents thought this was the best solution to help Kate who is suffering from an acute type of leukemia. The day Anna was born, the doctors drew blood from her umbilical cord to donate to Kate. And as years passed, whenever Kate will be hospitalized, Anna would most likely be made to tag along too. In the course of treating her sister's fatal illness, Anna was made to donate her bone marrow, stem cells, and blood.

Fast forward to the present and Anna is now thirteen. She is now being asked to donate one of her kidneys for Kate. This time she wants to refuse, and Anna resorts to legal counsel for help. She wants medical emancipation. And this is where the whole gripping drama starts to unfold. The legal battle is emotionally difficult for everyone because Anna is suing her mother, not to mention that Anna is a minor. The court proceedings are held in utmost care to avoid unnecessary trauma to all the parties involved.

I liked the story if only for the fact that it emphasized the importance of making your own decisions in life and relying on no one else other than yourself. At thirteen, even with trembling and cold feet, Anna stood up for what she thought was right. It was not a matter anymore of being selfish or loving a sister any less if she does not want to donate an organ. It's just all about having enough and saying NO because she feels it so. It did not diminish the love she feels for the family as well. How many of us at such an early age could muster that kind of courage and actually get a lawyer to get what you want? It is no easy decision especially when faced with a dying sister. Although it is fictional, Anna is an inspiration to me because she has the spirit that I don't have to get the kick I want to happen in my life.

In my opinion however, Jodi Picoult wasted her efforts in building up the scenes to a very compelling climax and then afterwards settling for a very safe albeit highly improbable denouement. It could have been a very fitting end in the courtroom when the judge knocked his gavel down after deciding the fate of Anna. But the author went for a more sensationalized twist in the last few pages. Spoiler: Sure, the judge granted medical emancipation after all. But then, on her way back home, Anna figured in a car accident that left her brain dead. Her kidney was donated to Kate before the plug to her respirator machine was finally pulled. And miracle of miracles, the organ worked perfectly and Kate lives.

Other than the disappointing twist, I loved My Sister's Keeper. I liked the way Picoult presented the story by shifting first person narratives from one character to the other. It allowed readers to peer through the minds of each of them rather than just being focused on Anna. This style of writing was very effective in conveying the fact that there is no clear delineation to morality. Judging what is right from wrong is never as simple as black and white because we are presented with different perspectives always. It is not easy to judge the parents who are just doing their best to save a dying daughter. It is neither Anna's fault to refuse to give up her kidney. But as differences arise in a family, love is the only thing that emanates to respect differing opinions and keep them together.

I can't wait to see the movie! I'm guessing it will be overly dramatic, but I love Abigail Breslin. :)
Here is the poster:

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Paulo Coelho Plurks

I may not be a fan of The Alchemist because I find the book quite preachy, but I adore Paulo Coelho’s other works, like Eleven Minutes and Veronika Decides To Die. I have some of his other books also. This is why when I learned that he has a plurk, I immediately added myself as a fan of his page. He twits also but he posts the same things. I found it cool that an author internationally famous as he is would use these mediums to reach his fans from all over the world.

It is a delight to know Paulo Coelho remains so grounded despite his fame (and riches). He takes simple joys in taking pictures of his latest book, The Winner Stands Alone, displayed in stacks in different bookstores of countries he visits. Fans would follow his lead and take pictures of it in their own local stores also, and Coelho will happily post it in his plurk site. Isn’t that amusing? I mean, I imagine that a veteran author like he is should already be used to seeing his books in the shelves while constantly making it in the bestseller list.

At the recently concluded Cannes Festival which Coelho attended, he shared to his fans trivial things about the event, the heavy traffic going to the venue, or the sandwich he was eating at the moment.

But most importantly, I’m humbled at his earnestness. The mystery behind the crashing of Air France AF-447 gave him sleepless nights. He scorned authorities pointing fingers with hardly any of them owing up to the tragic incident.

And now, just recently, he shared that the doctor who tried to revive Neda (the girl shot to her death amidst election protests in Iran) is actually one of his best friends. He disclosed his email correspondences with this doctor that left me chilling while reading it. That is as real as it can get! I can only imagine the feeling of living in uncertainty and telling your friend to take care of his family in case anything bad happens. Geez. This is not a movie anymore, but real life turbulence in Middle East Asia.

I hope to encounter more authors online who not only write with passion but live with passion as well.

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Book Review: The Wind-up Bird Chronicle

*Dedicated to boyfie =)

We were in the mall last Sunday when I asked boyfie if we could pass by National Bookstore to browse the shelves for a while. I might be able to find an interesting book that would keep me preoccupied again in the next few days. But instead of accompanying me to the bookstore, he argued against buying me another book when he just gave me one recently. Ok now, to set things straight, "recently" was actually last May, and that was when he lovingly surprised me with A Wind-up Bird Chronicle, a novel by Haruki Murakami. Now the problem with "recently" is how to properly categorize it in terms of days or months. Will three months ago still qualify as "recently"? I answered boyfie, told him I finished reading his gift two months ago! His reply reminded me of my mother who used to quiz me about the books I read when I was a kid. Boyfie asked me what the story was about, that is, if it were true that I was done reading. And so, I write the book review below not to sound geeky but for the sole purpose of wooing boyfie to buy me another book to read. Please! =)

First of all, since Haruki Murakami is a Japanese author, I believe that there were some things lost in translation while reading the English version of the Wind-up Bird Chronicle. This book is over 600 pages long and took me a month to finish. Not only was it a lengthy novel, it was also a difficult book with so many metaphors to decipher, and so many sub-plots to stitch together. I will not feign intelligence and state with confidence the central theme that revolved in the story. Truth is, the story confused me. If I may boldly express my lowly opinion, I think that the novel had many loose ends that didn't have accurate resolutions up to the last pages. But then again, just as there are many ways to kill a bird (no pun intended), there are many ways to deal with the story of the Wind-up Bird also. And since I believe in flexibility (excuses!), I choose to focus on one of the more glaring main ideas that the story is trying to impart -- Hope.

Toru Okada, the main character, just lost three things in life -- his job, his cat and later on his wife. As he set out everyday in search of the missing essentials (with no intention to demean), he met several ladies each with her own eccentricities. Through constant dealings with these ladies, Toru comes to some sort of introspection and analyzes the life he led lately. He is brought to terms with his own insecurities. Being jobless and losing a wife who claims to have fallen in love with another man were both initially overbearing. And this is were the complexities in the story started. Burdened with problems, Toru becomes an unreliable narrator, mixing realities with his dreams and vice versa. But one thing was apparent. Throughout his rollercoaster problems, Toru kept one constant in his life, and that was his undying love for his wife.

Toru showed hints of positivism and hope in his ordeal. One subtle hint was when his cat unexpectedly found its way back home. He and his wife named this cat Noboru Wataya, after a man they abhorred. When the cat returned home, he immediately changed its name to Mackerel, the brand of a cat food. It was then just as soon as he decided to let go of his worn out tennis shoes that he wore everyday, and buy a new pair. He was now having a different perspective at his problems. A year passed by with no signs of his wife coming back, yet he carried on with his life and remained steadfast in getting his love back.

There were parallel tones of hope retold in Toru's friend named Lt. Mamiya, a former Japanese lieutenant who served during the Russia-Japan War in Manchuria in the 1900s. Lt. Mamiya witnessed a great deal of suffering from the Russians but believed in his heart that he could one day return to his homeland alive. In a lot of ways, Toru found strength in Mamiya's experiences during the war, and this urged him to go on believing that his wife will one day return.

In the course of finding a lost love, Toru slowly found himself along with his inadequacies and weaknesses. It was not an easy reacquaintance. He brought to the fore a mediocre guy who was in between jobs, and was dumped by a wife for a "better" man. At one point, I can say that he was becoming delusional which made me say he is unreliable. His dreams were mixing with reality. What he claimed to have seen may not have been so.

Will I recommend this book? Yes, if you are patient and fond of connect-the-dots game. There were some gray areas for me, and I couldn't really put the subplots in their right places. This book made me feel that I'm done with Haruki Murakami's surrealism for the meantime (I planned on getting Norwegian Wood). I'm moving on to the Twilight series of Stephanie Meyer. And with this humble and very honest review, I hope boyfie will find it in his very, very, very generous heart (and pocket) to buy me this four-book series. Yey! =)

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(Book Review) Don't Judge a Book By Its Cover

I read self-help books once in a while. Every time I try to read one, I always think that being pushed to a certain level of discomfort and discontent are essential in gauging a book’s effectiveness. This is because a self-help book I presume must aim to move the readers to be a better person. And this is what sets apart Bo Sanchez from the other authors. Bo is an effective writer. His books are all written in plain and simple English, yet he makes BIG sense. He can make you stop in your tracks for a while and reflect on your life. He can make you nod your head vigorously in absolute agreement.

I got to read Rhonda Byrnes’ highly sensationalized book, The Secret. It’s a good book, no doubt. But in my opinion, everything that Rhonda said, we already know. More than its content, what fascinated me is the marketing people behind this publication. The title alone, The Secret, is enough to pluck the curiosity of the readers. And the way the book was written, it’s as if the “secret” which has been kept clandestine since the days of Albert Einstein has now made its grand revelation through the author. Kudos to the marketing team. But in my opinion, this book is just a hype and is overpriced. Never mind the glossy pages.

Then I picked up Bo Sanchez’, 8 Secrets of the Truly Rich. This is just half the price of The Secret. Yet I noticed in every chapter the striking similarities of the two books. In essence, the law of attraction that The Secret is underscoring is also told in Bo Sanchez’ book, and is told more emphatically, if not more effectively.

What I like about Bo Sanchez is that he writes concisely yet he injects good reasoning. Take for example his advice on giving 10% of your income to your church, otherwise called tithing. I was never in favor of being required by my religion to give tithe. Bo doesn’t impose on the action too. But out of all the people I asked why tithe must be given, Bo is the only person who didn’t use bible verses to justify it! Instead, he explained that by giving 10% of what you earn, you create a vacuum that must necessarily be filled. Anything that’s void will be naturally filled. And the vacuum sucks in three times more. Aliw!

I’ve also read Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad, Poor Dad. It’s all about making money work for you. It’s about 500+ pages worth of reading and in essence, he’s just telling the same things which Bo managed to explain quite simply and direct-to-the-point in 8 Secrets of the Truly Rich. Learning about passive income, linear versus exponential income, the money market, and different types of investments. Yaiks! It’s overwhelming.

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Book Review: A Thousand Splendid Suns

This was a good book to pick up at the start of the new year. A Thousand Splendid Suns definitely turned out to be a thousand splendid read. It was a big eye-opener to an oblivious like me who used to see Afghanistan as just another country somewhere in Asia. I just have to take my hats off to the equally splendid author of this bestseller, Khaled Hosseini, who brought his readers up close to the toughest last three decades that the Afghans had to endure. Perhaps the most heart-wrenching was the plight of women during the abusive Taliban rule in the 90’s. Afghan women were stripped of their rights to education and work, and were ordered to cover themselves from head to foot when going out in public. In this dark age happened the most unthinkable brutalities to women as the husbands demanded for subservience.

Unlike The Kite Runner (Hosseini’s first novel) which was a page turner, this second installment required more patience from the readers as the author slowly wove the connection of his main characters while the story progressed. Hosseini used his time and tested formula of vivid and descriptive writing to once again capture the emotions of the readers and make A Thousand Splendid Suns another thoroughly engaging novel to read.

In this modern age, it is difficult to imagine that the practice of arranged marriages still exists somewhere across the globe. It is hard to fathom a man who will want to father only a son, and maltreat a daughter whose only fault is her womanhood. It is insane to think that there’s a law that’s blind to the abusive ways of husbands to their wives; beating them as they please. My gadh. And all this time, a lot of us Filipinos have taken for granted our gift of democracy. Maybe it’s quite timely that for the start of Year 2008, let’s take a moment to realize that we have a thousand splendid reasons to be thankful for the life we live. :)

Btw, A Kite Runner will be in the cinemas soon! Happy 2008 everyone!

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Book Review: The Zahir

Zahir is described in the book as something which, when touched or seen, can never be forgotten. In the narrator’s case, his zahir was his wife, Esther, who left him for mysterious reasons.

Zahir may not be the best novel of Paulo Coehlo but it sure struck my emotional cords and made me reflect on life and my dealings with other people. It dropped meaningful lines here and there which made me want to reread some paragraphs before moving farther on with the story.

I believe that reading books or watching movies are sometimes dependent on our current moods or present circumstances. A book that I once didn’t like may become a splendid read a second time when my mood shifts. When I first watched The Notebook in the theater, I found it to be overly dramatic to the point that it seemed corny. I couldn’t understand why my peers liked the movie so much. But seeing the movie again on HBO gave me a different feeling about the movie. It was still overly dramatic for me, but the dialogues became stronger and thus more piercing.

I mention this because I knew that on another given day, I would have found Zahir to be quite preachy about life and relationships, and I frown on preachy literature. Today I can forgive Paulo Coehlo and just absorb his wisdom without a fuss. I wonder why he subtitled it, “A Novel of Obsession.” Was the narrator obsessed with his quest of winning back his wife? I wouldn’t term it as obsession, but rather determination to seek answers as to why he was abandoned without explanation, and determination to once again set his eyes on the girl he considers to be his zahir.

The nameless narrator’s search for his wife is part of his closing circles. It hardly mattered if his wife will reject him anew or welcome him back in her arms. He just firmly believed that the answers to his questions would give him freedom and thereby help him to come full circle with his chapter on Esther.

A good friend once told me that life could be quite tricky. We may think that we are living a life, but are actually just drifting along time, like floating in wild abandon in the ocean. Living our lives would require us to think, ask questions, seek for answers, make decisions and face the consequences of our decisions. How many of us can be really brave enough to actually live a life? Just how many of us will go through great lengths to conquer our zahir?

There came a time in my life when I saw myself as that brave lady who knows what she wants to do. But lately, I find myself in a scary and undetermined stance, trying to be aware about my character, thoughts and beliefs once more. The answers I once held as truths thinned out without much of a trace. I find myself in a pool of uncertainties once more. I am trying to find out what I really hold dear and weighing the things I must consider important. I am beginning to redefine my existence.

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Book Review: Life of Pi

And the moral of the story is... I don't know. =) Does it matter? There is no just one lesson to learn anyway. That's why Philo classes back in college were a little uninspiring because if you don't hit bullseye the teacher's train of thought then you get a low score. If you fail to hit on the right words the teacher is looking for, then that's probably not the whole point. But hey, we all have our own lessons to learn in every story told. The focal point for the Ph.D-grads may not exactly be the same as that of one student. And I would therefore prefer those discussions that would encourage students to look into every corner of higher learning.

Defensive!

Because I'm no genius like Chocnut (hehehe!) and Life of Pi shoved me to the peripheries of the central point of the story. If the book was supposed to be all about religion disguised under animals and under the whole idea of survival in the middle of the sea, gee, I really didn't see! And if it tackled religion or faith at all, then what about religion did it really tackle, eh?

Pi (as in 3.1416....) is an Indian boy whose father is a zookeeper by profession. When he turned 16, they sailed to Canada together with some of their animals in hope of a better life. But along the way, the ship sank, and Pi turned out to be the sole survivor of the whole catastrophe. It was survival of the fittest in the lifeboat. The animals killed and ate each other until Pi was left with a bengal tiger for companion. What transpires next is Pi's detailed survival story for 227 days alone in the middle of the sea, with his struggles to keep his stomach full, while at the same time maneuvering the tiger with wits to keep himself out of the food chain. After sailing like forever he finally reached Mexican land. His survival story with the animals seemed to be unbelievable to his interviewers. So he made up a second story this time making the animal characters human.

At this point, the readers were left to choose whether to believe the whole story that Pi related in the book, or to dismiss it as an unreliable tale with Pi's right faculties left in question. But the way I see it, Pi could be criticized to no end, but at the end of the day, he is the victor who survived his difficult bouts with the sea, with hunger, with the tiger, with his insanity and hopelessness.

In his childhood, we see Pi with his indecision with religion, thus he embraced three -- Hindu, Islam and Christianity. And this probably helped him in his later ordeal with survival. He had three gods to call on to for help, who all pushed him safely to the land of Mexico. In the brink of death, one is stripped off to only the bare essentials of life. The different religions that are ironically divisive will not matter anymore. The different gods will somehow lose their proper names and will fall down to their common name -- just god. In the brink of death, god will be just god, one that we all know to be good in whatever faith we embrace. Did Pi ever realize that it was only one great god after all who saw through his safe arrival in Mexico? I think it was not three. Ok, maybe this book is about religion after all. ;-)

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Book Review: Eleven Minutes

I find it very difficult to write about Eleven Minutes because I know I will be dealing with matters on sex, and who knows who will be able to read my stuff? Anyways, here's a try.

Eleven Minutes I think is a difficult read especially for the youngsters who believe they know everything about sex already and are in full control of their sex life but are in fact at the height of their sexual curiosity and their libidos rising almost instantly in little provocations. Paulo Coehlo's descriptive texts on sex is very dangerous because it heightens unnecessarily the curiosity of youth readers. He even vividly described the process of female masturbation. Though I honestly think this is a good book, a far cry from the preachy The Alchemist book he wrote, Eleven Minutes should be dealt with caution and deep understanding.

Maria was a Brazilian girl who wished to tread on greener pastures but ended up as a prostitute instead. She immersed herself in the sex trade while at the same time hoping she can experience true love again.

Coehlo brings us to the private thoughts of a prostitute, complete with all her frustrations, disappointments, ambitions and inner struggles. I envision the whores I always see lining the popular quezon avenue, pumping money through pumping motions. We are talking about girls who are hardly turned on anymore. They are girls who do for a living what should be a priceless act of intimacy. And yet, through Maria, we see that these girls also hope to experience orgasm, to experience the truest meaning of sex done in the context of love and intimacy, and to be touched with respect. Because after all, sex is the highest form of communication between couples.

Stories on prostitution will always be sad because sex is tainted as cheap and dirty. If for anything, I think Coehlo pushes the readers to be more understanding on prostitution and to be less judgmental to women who are in the sex trade.

Enough. Further thoughts on sex are for sale already, hahaha! BTW, why "eleven minutes"? Because Coehlo calculated eleven minutes for the whole sexual process until one reaches orgasm, not including seduction and the time it takes to remove clothes.

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Book Review: Five People You Meet In Heaven

This book by Mitch Albom is I think his second release after his best selling work, Tuesdays With Morrie. Although Five People is 200 pages short, it took me a month to finish this otherwise easy reading. This probably drained all the initial hype I have in reading this book. I finished the last page feeling indifferent and kind of lost as to what the whole book was all about. Well, it dealt with life after death but surely the five people met in heaven each had its own lesson to tell.

What made me somewhat uncomfortable reading this fiction was that from the very beginning I did not believe in meeting five people in heaven as one dies. Yes it was fiction and Mitch Albom presented one theory of life after death to create a book. Still, all those scenes in heaven with people who Eddie (the main character) encountered in his earthly life one way or another, failed to touch me because first of all, I think the whole re-meeting in the after life is, well, not exactly true.

Maybe my corporeal mindset about death and the after life completely burdened me in my reading. I don’t want to turn this review into cynicism. Suffice it to say that the book failed to give me this certain feeling I was looking for when I read Tuesdays With Morrie. TWM was more real and poignant. It touches the heart. It presented real life drama of an old man dying with invaluable lessons imbibed throughout the book.

Five People is good but maybe it’s just not for me. Eddie, after his death, met five different people in heaven who all helped him analyze his earthly life, the fifth person being a Filipino child, just for trivia. Each of them had a story to tell Eddie, tried explaining his mortal life, and all had a lesson to share. With the help of these people in heaven, Eddie came to realize that his ordinary life in the amusement park was not exactly a failure. He achieved his own mark on earth and that was enough. My only problem here is that what are all those lessons for once you stop breathing? If a soul regrets, does he regret forever? If not regret, then what purpose serves his late realizations and understandings of his life on earth? In the first place, does a soul stay forever? If I go deeper, I will touch on religion already which remains confusing even after four years of Jesuit education (forgive me, Fr. Nebres!).

It was a simple book yet I failed to grasp its essentiality. I was waiting for something more to happen but I reached the last page feeling empty. Like so? What happens now that Eddie met those five people? He learned from all of them. What now after all the realizations? I was even looking forward to a twist in the end, like maybe the girl he tried saving in the amusement park he worked for also died, and that girl would be the last person he’ll meet in the list of five. But no. The last person he met in heaven was a Filipino child who burned during a war here in the Philippines.

Anyways, perhaps my dissatisfaction merely stems from my different view about the after life. But I cannot label this book as crap, especially when a lot of bookworms are all raves for it. Let me just quote this lone sentence which for now remains my only attraction in the book: Strangers are family you have yet to know. That has got to be the most positive angle given to a stranger. Very nice. =)

Currently reading FRUITCAKE by Eraserheads. No offense to Mitch Albom but I guess this is much better. I'm also looking forward to reading NEVERWHERE by Neil Gaiman which I bought secondhand just recently.

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