Finally I've finished the two books that I started a couple of weeks ago.


Eleanor Oliphant was a complete surprise. This book has been awarded the Costa Book of the Year and many more, also is in line for a movie production by Reese Witherspoon. I believe this book does deserve every praise it gets. It's a very warm, heartfelt and a beautiful story of Eleanor Oliphant, a woman in her 30s, who is completely content with her life. She is lonely, Monday to Friday she goes to work and back home as clockwork. Every Friday afternoon she gets a pizza and 2ltr bottle of vodka. And back to work on Monday. Her weekdays evening's are spent in front of the telly, Wednesday phone calls with her mother, and she lives in the tiny council flat since the last ten years after moving out of foster care. Her story is unique, enlightening, and gives a thorough depiction of 'adult loneliness' combined with mental illness, that she wasn't even aware about. The book makes us feel frustrated, angry, delighted as well as root for Eleanor as she finally triumphs against her fears at the end.

Close Quarters is a satirical book, and it's story is based in a tenement house in Glasgow. It starts off as a murder mystery; murder of one of the most hated man in the building. He is the infamous Walter Bain who has irritated and antagonized his neighbours, the local council, police and other services to the point of no return. He is a meddler and a muddler, a typical self appointed leader who had made every resident's life a misery. The story is essentially a huge backstory, of each resident of the building, of how they ended up buying or renting their flats, while being unaware of the disruption known as Walter Bain. Also the book gives quite a detailed view of the lives of Glaswegians during the 80s, the shops, pubs, and life in the University. This was possibly why I picked up the book in the first place.

 Interpretation of Murder, by Jed Rubenfield, is by far, the most exciting and fascinating murder mystery I've ever read. Rubenfield writes beautifully, and brings forth the period of Manhattan 1909 perfectly in front of our eyes. What mostly interested me is the pschylogical aspect of it, before reading this book, I had very less knowledge about Sigmund Freud or of carl Jung's works. This novel was absolutely brilliant, and is like a roller coaster ride which takes us from Gramercy Park, to Chinatown and its conditions, secret connecting passages, Mahattan bridge construction; through all of this the author tries to bring forward a piece of history itself. It also includes the characters taken directly from the period, like the famous psychotherapists Jung and Freud, Brill, Stanley Hall, the 'Triumvirate', the murderer Henry Kendall Thaw, the list goes on and on. 

On the morning after Sigmund Freud arrives in New York on his first - and only - visit to the United States, a stunning débutante is found bound and strangled in her penthouse apartment, high above Broadway. The following night, another beautiful heiress, Nora Acton, is discovered tied to a chandelier in her parents' home, viciously wounded and unable to speak or to recall her ordeal. Soon Freud and his American disciple, Stratham Younger, are enlisted to help Miss Acton recover her memory, and to piece together the killer's identity. It is a riddle that will test their skills to the limit and lead them on a journey into the darkest places of the city, and of the human mind.

I really hope this book is turned into a movie some day. A must read for everyone..

http://www.interpretationofmurder.com/

I was just reading an amazing yaoi fanfic in ff.net; where the author made comparisons several times to the Greek mythic story of Apollo and Hyacinthus. Curious; I researched it a bit. Here is what I found on wikipedia.

In Greek mythology, Hyacinth or Hyacinthus (in Greek, Ὑάκινθος — Hyakinthos) was a divine hero, the son of Clio and Pierus, King of Macedonia, or of king Oebalus of Sparta, or of king Amyclas, also a Spartan. His cult at Amyclae, where his tomb was located, at the feet of Apollo's statue, dates from the Mycenean era.

In the myth, Hyacinth was a beautiful youth loved by the god Apollo. The two took turns throwing the discus, until Apollo, to impress him, threw it with all his might. Hyacinth ran to catch it, to impress Apollo in turn, and was struck by the discus as it fell to the ground and he died.

Another myth adds that the wind god Zephyrus was actually responsible for the death of Hyacinth. The boy's beauty caused a feud between Zephyrus and Apollo. Jealous that Hyacinth preferred the radiant archery god Apollo, Zephyrus blew Apollo's discus off course, so as to injure and kill Hyacinth.

When he died, Apollo didn't allow Hades(Greek God of the Underworld) to claim the boy; rather, he made a flower, the hyacinth, from his spilled blood. According to Ovid's account, the tears of Apollo stained the newly formed flower's petals with the sign of his grief.However, the flower of the mythological Hyacinth has been identified with a number of plants other than the true hyacinth, such as the iris.

Its just so tragic; and beautiful at the same time. The following is an oil-painting "The Death of Hyacinthos" by Jean Broc. Hyacinth is the figure on the left of the frame being supported by his lover Apollo - the discus may be seen in the bottom left. (Courtesy Wikipedia)

 

( The Death of Hyacinthos(Not Worksafe) )