This week I finished reading The Earth Shifter by Lada Ray.

The Earth Shifter by Lada Ray

The Earth Shifter is the first part of a paranormal YA trilogy written by the prolific Lada Ray.

Humanity is unaware how close the Earth came to ending on June 30th 1908. On that occasion it was saved by the mysterious Earth Keepers. The world is now under threat once again from the Comet of Karma and the The Earth Keepers must decide if the Earth is worth saving or if it is beyond redemption.
Teenager and Moscow resident Sasha Elfimova possesses powers that could change the fate of the Earth, as she is a Time and Mind Shifter, whose developing abilities are yet to be fully realised. Sasha’s mentor is a Siberian shaman named Tengis, who resides on the shores of the largest fresh water resource on the planet, the beautiful Lake Baikal. On the other side of the world in Chinatown, New York City, live Kei and Win, two enterprising twins of Chinese origin, one of whose destinies when combined with Sasha’s could alter the fate of mankind. Will destiny bring these two together to form an alliance that will decide the fate of our planet or is mankind destined to face annihilation?
The Earth Shifter is essentially a complex and diverse tale with a good versus evil theme, in which the author is adept at merging real world events such as the aforementioned meteorite explosion and explaining their continued relevance today. Though the book could best be described as a cosmic adventure thriller, it also combines fantasy and mystery elements and this along with its compelling narration of Russian history, embrace of the natural world and fascinating insights into Geopolitics assures that The Earth Shifter will not only appeal to a younger audience.
The second instalment is due for release next winter and it will undoubtedly be eagerly anticipated.

Follow Lada on Twitter – @LadaTweets

This week resident book reviewer Adam  reviews Flaubert in Egypt by Gustave Flaubert.

Flaubert in  Egypt by Gustave Flaubert

(Translated and edited by Francis Steegmuller)

In 1849, the twenty seven year old Flaubert read out the first draft of his hallucinatory masterpiece The Temptation of St. Anthony (see earlier review) to some friends.  Less than encouraging, they urged him never to publish it.  With only a couple of short stories to his name, but possessing the sort of fierce literary ambition incompatible with his mother’s suggestion that he find ‘a little job’, he set out with one of them, the writer and photographer Maxime du Camp, on a six month tour of Egypt, taking in Cairo, the Nile, the pyramids of Giza, the temples of Karnak, the Grotto of Samoun (a bizarre pit of mummified humans and animals), and numerous bordellos and bathhouses along the way.

The result is a vivid, sensuous account of a travel experience, as Flaubert pays attention to details that lesser writers would cast aside as insignificant: a handshake between a man on a camel and a man on the ground; a monkey pleasuring a donkey in the street; a boy offering his mother for five paras and wishing him a ‘long prick’.  These last two demonstrate the largely lubricious tone of proceedings.  Street rapes by locals are dispassionatley reported, brief homosexual encounters in steam rooms are casually averred, while his brothel experiences are meticulously set down, particularly his fondness for the courtesan Kuchuk Hanem, whom he visits multiple times.

As sleazy as this sounds, akin to the wanderings of a Burroughsian sex tourist (see review of The Soft Machine), it could perhaps be viewed as part of a wider literary sensibility.  Flaubert was apparently bored by du Camp’s painstaking photographic work in the temples and tombs, and his descriptions tend less towards apprehending the ruins of antiquity than the life of the people in the streets.  However, his fascination with the ancient world is in evidence, for example in his rapturous, almost fearful prose upon seeing the Great Sphinx rise out of the desert at Giza, a statue that he would have known only from drawings.

Flaubert’s eye for scatological detail can be seen later in his brilliant classical epic Salaambo.  No doubt this trip was a major inspiration.  A visit to a hospital provides ample material, such as, not wishing to be too graphic, the anal chancres of a group of syphilitic Mamelukes.  Perhaps, that was too graphic.

From copious letters and journals, Francis Steegmuller has edited a coherent and palatable account, providing useful explanatory notes along the way.  Although it is certainly a book of interest for Flaubert fans, there is enough piquant material to make it a lively read.  If you like things like anal chancres, of course…

Though I am a prolific reader of both Fiction and Non-Fiction I rarely read short stories or novellas.  This week however I made an exception and read a novella for the Kindle called Texting Orwell, by Ian Little.

Texting Orwell by Ian Little

Daniel and Debbie are employed at the same delivery company, Daniel is a delivery driver and Debbie works in the depot.  Daniel really likes Debbie and is keen to start a relationship with her.  However Daniel is a timid creature and has to date been unable to express his feelings for Debbie.  On the day in which the story is set Debbie phones in sick.  Daniel sees this as an opportunity to show that he cares for Debbie and decides to text her.  However as Daniel goes about his rounds he realises that he is quite uncertain what to say.   The unfolding story narrated from the perspective of both Daniel and Debbie follows their procrastinating efforts to communicate with one another.

Texting Orwell is essentially a light-hearted and humorous love story, in which the author’s lavatorial sense of humour is in evidence throughout.   I look forward to reading the author’s second book, Hell in the Kitchen.

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If you haven’t already you might be interested in checking out the Book Review section of this website.  There are currently twenty-five reviews for a wide range of books by authors such as John Steinbeck, George Orwell, Bret Easton Ellis, Hilary Mantel, Gustave Flaubert and many others.

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Guy Portman is the author of Charles Middleworth,  a humorous tale of the unexpected.  Charles Middleworth is available from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk in both paperback and on the Kindle.

The following is the blurb for Charles Middleworth:

What happens when Adrian, an actuary, has his banal and predictable existence turned upside down by sinister forces that he can neither understand nor control?  How will he react to a revelation that leaves his life in turmoil?  Will he surrender or strive for redemption in an altered world, where rationality, scientific logic and algorithms no longer provide the answers?

See what reviewers are saying about Charles Middleworth:

‘An insightful and humorous tale of the unexpected’

‘A sardonic delight.  If Thackeray had lived in the 21st century, then he might have written Charles Middleworth.’

‘Charles Middleworth is a literary masterpiece with a carefully woven plot.’

This week I read another Steinbeck book, Sweet Thursday, which I review below.

Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck

Set after the end of The War, Sweet Thursday is the sequel to the popular Cannery Row.  The nostalgic return to the setting of the first book finds Cannery Row, Monterrey, largely unchanged, with the Palace Flophouse, The Bear Flag, the store and Western Biological all still in existence; only the canneries have closed, a result of over-fishing.  Mack, Hazel, Whitey number one and the others still reside in the Flophouse; only Gay is missing, having perished in The War.  The new madam of The Bear Flag is the affable Fauna and an enterprising man named Joseph and Mary has replaced the departed Lee Chong as the owner of the store.

Doc, recently returned from war duty, finds that his marine specimen business, Western  Biological, has been so poorly managed in his absence that it is close to collapse. The generous and popular Doc is also depressed, lonely and struggling to find meaning in his life, much to the concern of his devoted friends, who are determined to do anything they can to help him.  Fauna makes the decision to match Doc with the latest addition to The Bear Flag, the attractive and argumentative Suzy.  The book follows the close-knit community’s well meaning, often humorous and sometimes disastrous efforts to get the two of them together.

Sweet Thursday is in essence a love story, in which the author’s wisdom and humanity is in evidence throughout.  This is one of Steinbeck’s lighter and more optimistic novels; less disturbing than the epic Grapes of Wrath or the political novel, In Dubious Battle, for example, but none the less a profound work in its own right.  Whilst the reader would undoubtedly enjoy this book more having read the prequel Cannery Row first, it is not essential to do so.

This week’s blog post takes the form of a review of Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse, a fascinating and insightful book that I was given for christmas.

Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse

Published in 1927, Steppenwolf is a complex and influential book that achieved cult status in the 1960’s when it was embraced by the counter-culture as a reaction against the modern world. The psychological impact of this highly original and thought provoking work continues to resonate even to this day.

The book’s central character is a reclusive intellectual by the name of Harry Haller. Harry, who is in the midst of a prolonged and severe mid-life crisis, not only despises his bourgeois existence, but is also afflicted by physical ailments including gout, in addition to suffering from a mental illness that has tarnished his very soul. So incapable is Harry of embracing all that life has to offer that he is continually deliberating on the potential benefits of suicide.

Ever obsessed with his condition, the introverted academic has surmised that his character is made up of two separate and non-reconcilable parts, one of which is human and the other wolf. Harry believes that the human elements of his psyche consist of the aesthetic and intellectual attributes, whilst the wolf, which he names Steppenwolf is responsible for the uncontrollable part of his nature; his impulses, instincts and urges. This conclusion causes Harry great distress and contributes to his overwhelming sense of self-loathing and increasing disdain for life.

One night after a solitary visit to a drinking establishment, Harry comes across a lengthy pamphlet that refutes his theory as being oversimplified, stating that in reality an individual is made up of a multiplicity of souls, a concept incidentally embraced by Nietzsche. In typical fashion Harry deliberates upon the pamphlet’s theory before rejecting its contents. The course of Harry’s life is set for change however when shortly thereafter he meets the mysterious Hermione, who introduces him to dancing. A belated sexual education through a girl named Maria follows, before events culminate in a masked ball and a trip to a magic theatre, where sequentially Harry is confronted with his various selves. These selves connect with his memories from childhood, sexual inhibitions and even his reaction against a modern world in a scene where he finds himself shooting at cars.

Steppenwolf is essentially an autobiographical account of the examination of the development of a character. It has been argued that the author wrote this narrative for self-therapeutic purposes, in order to rid his soul of the negativity that had blighted it and that one of the book’s characters, a non-judgmental and liberal musician by the name of Pablo is in essence a psychotherapist. Certainly there is an existential philosophical aspect to the book, both in the manner in which Haller probes his psyche and the role of ‘the immortals’, the author Goethe and Haller’s own hero Mozart, whom he meets in one of the sequences at the magic theatre, when a relaxed, benign and accepting Mozart is soaring contentedly through the sky, Haller clutching to his hair; surely symbolic of freedom in a timeless reality, a world that has transcended our own.

The book has been compared to a sonata, not only because it consists of three distinct parts, but also because the prose is flowing, rhythmic and poetic, giving Steppenwolf an almost magical quality. Though there are many aspects of this diverse, profound and intellectual book that can be deliberated upon, it is above all the fact that people have been able to identify with the main character’s self-hatred and inability to accept life that is the reason for Steppenwolf’s lasting legacy.