The Virgin of Flames

I first saw Chris Abani on TED.com where he shares stories of Africa in a heartfelt video but what struck me most about him was not his humor, not his candor but the way he read an the poem Ode to the Drum to the audience. His voice made my heart thump and with the silences in between the lines I could feel my heart expand with something I could not quite understand. I was struck by the poem's loneliness, its grandeur, its flowing heart. And from then on I couldn't keep Chris Abani from my mind.

I got hold of his book Virgin of Flames and started to read it with such gusto expecting stories of Nigeria or Africa as a whole. Of course I didn't read the back of the book which would have told me that Virgin of Flames is actually the story Black, a mural artist who lives in LA and who is surrounded by seemingly dysfunctional friends, Iggy who is a spritual tatoo artist catering to celebrities, Bomboy a Rwandan butcher who knows nothing but to be true to himself and Sweet Girl, the transvestite dancer who Black is obsessed with. Not to mention the angel Gabriel who appears to him sometimes as a 12-foot man or sometimes as a pigeon.

This is Black's story -- the dreamy travels from his past which connects to his present. His father's message that he can't seem to fully grasp or let go of and his mother's haunting obsession with the Virgin. This is his story of trying to come to terms with the childhood that he had, with an absent father and a mother who forced him to pray and pray and pray for forgiveness.

Another main character of the Virgin of Flames is LA itself. LA figures in the novel in a huge way. Abani describes its concrete ugliness, its dry rivers, its weaving freeways with a lyrical poetry which makes me want to visit LA again if only to see the city with open eyes. To appreciate the wasted buildings, the tourist-filled boulevards, the homeless-filled streets. Everyone waiting for a miracle, everyone waiting for the Virgin.

Black is a broken man with a confusing childhood which seems to haunt his every move. He is dogged by ghosts real and imagined, pained by obsessions and unfulfilled in his relationships. His is a sad and moving story because there seems to be no resolution for him. I closed the book feeling tired and empty, wanting to know more, wanting to save Black from himself.

But it also left me with a thirst for more of Chris Abani's stories. And like he said, "story's powerful, story's fluid and it belongs to nobody." For that, I will always remember him.

Snobs

The good thing about working in the book store is that when the internet is down and you've done all the non-internet stuff, there's no chance of you getting bored cause you're surrounded by books. Such was my day today. I came across the book "Snobs" while I was updating our website. Read the synopsis, thought it would be a good enough read. "Snobs" in a nutshell is a story of a British commoner marrying into royalty. Well not the prince/princess sort but the milord/milady sort nonetheless. The last time I read anything about British Society was during high school when I was hopelessly smitten about Judith McNaught's romance novels and I wondered how a contemporary novel about British Society would be like.

I was not disappointed. "Snobs" tells the story of Edith who by means of careful planning and forward thinking was able to snag a very eligible bachelor, the Marquess of Uckfield, Charles Broughton. The story is told by an observer but an essential character, Edith's friend, a commoner who by his honest charm was accepted by the various Lords and Ladies into their tight circle.

As things have a way of turning, Edith, dreadfully bored of her boring English lord decided it was time to take on a lover which she eventually did much to the chagrin of her mother-in-law, the delight of the media and the embarassment of those people who grudgingly accepted her as one of their own.

"Snobs" is full of secret codes and secret modes of behavior when moving around this elite circle. It dissects how families of royal lineage conduct themselves in public, in private and when they are ensconced in private clubs rubbing elbows with people they have known since birth who share the same lot as theirs. It is amusing to read about a seemingly alternate universe. We don't have entire families made up of lords and ladies, there are no country homes that are open for public viewing, no Ascot races to attend, no cocktail parties to give which can extend to dinner for some guests and straight home for others depending on how close they are to the host and hostess. Very confusing I must say. It's all very colorful in a weird way. We so like to look at things, people and places that are so far from our own reality.

But in the end, "Snobs" offers no revelation to the reader. It has no high point, no malevolent twist, no redeeming end and does not impart any nuggets of wisdom. It is merely a story about a common girl who thought herself high enough to be able to be one of "them." Momentum was the only thing that made me read this book from start to finish. From Judith McNaught to Julian Fellowes...the steamy romance may have changed to staid relationships -- other than that, it seems not a lot has changed.

Lolita. Lola. Dolly. Lo-lee-ta.

Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul.

No first lines have ever gripped me so. I visited Lolita for the third time and as was the case during the first time I picked it up in 2004 I was reeled in -- hook, line and sinker. This book is gripping and powerful now as it was to me then.

Nabokov's masterpiece, the story of an old-world, scholarly European named Humbert Humbert who finds himself in a bind whenever faced with the nymphets in the new world which is America is a tale of depravity, love and ultimately loss.

Humber Humbert had a predilection for nymphets -- young temptresses, unaware of their beauty and effect on men but powerful all the same. One such nymphet which our protagonist falls hopelessly in love with is young, twelve-year old Dolores Haze. Precocious, childish, naughty and rude, Lolita is the focus of his unwavering attention and old Humbert tries his best to be near yet to not be improper around this nymphet. Alas, Lolita is a temptress and maybe all too aware of her effect on our poor European chap.

The story takes on a depraved turn when he decides to marry Lolita's mom to have his dear nymphet closer than ever but what he thought would be an idyllic life of charmed domesticity turns out to be a life on the road, driving solo with his Lolita, flitting from one motel to the next, living by the day trying to be as low-key as any father and daughter tandem can hope to be. His crazed love for Lolita never wanes or abates but only increases in intensity.

Granted that the storyline is disturbing, there is no denying the genius in Nabokov's storytelling. His masterful use of words and imagery makes you love and hate Humbert at the same time. It makes you feel his yearnings, his confusion, it makes you root for him in his loneliest moments yet makes you wonder when will all his seemingly evil machinations catch up with him.

And Lolita. How can I feel anything but love, hate, dismay, delight for this charming nymphet? I see her for who she is, her rude and crass behavior, her spoiled and queenly ways but at the same time I pity her for being the heart of this gruesome love story.

I really believe that only a writer like Nabokov could have pulled off something like this. He makes the reader relate to the characters in different levels, he takes you on a journey across America and opens your eyes to its ordinariness, its ugliness, its splendor. His sentences run on and on loops in itself and makes you wonder whether things are up or down and you are willing to do it all over again if only to read a few more lines of his exquisite prose. Sometimes I am not quite sure what he is talking about and this third time is no easier than the first and yet the magic pulls me in.

I have finished Lolita for now but I don't think I will ever finish it. I will keep on reading it because each time I do will be a different experience. And I relish it. And look forward to the next time I open my dog-eared book.