Making a difference

This is my review of Borgen: Series 3 [DVD].

I have met someone who enjoyed `Borgen' starting with Series 3 Episode 9, but recommend watching this from the beginning of Series 1 to understand all the relationships and the context of events!

Promoting this as the last in a series of three is a strategy worthy of Birgitte Nyborg, leaving the audience wanting more yet with the door open for another series in the future, although enough loose ends have been tied to make a 'satisfactory ending'.

Birgitte opens Series 3 as a glamorous, jet-setting corporate executive with a suave English architect as her love interest, but disappointment over the loss of principle in the Moderate party and the addictive challenge of influencing events through negotiation lure her back into Danish politics. In the second major ongoing thread of the saga, the cynical and emotionally conflicted Kaspar Juul has perhaps unconvincingly left the cut and thrust of politics for the at times trivial world of the TV political chat show. Katrine Fønsmark, now the mother of his child, is excited by the risk of leaving her star role as TV presenter to act as Birgitte's new spin doctor.

The new series takes a few episodes to 'settle down', with the political twists delivered at the usual cracking pace, and too many scenes handled in short sound-bites as one struggles to catch both the subtitles and the actors' body language. It is sometimes as if the writers cannot bear to leave any angle uncovered. Once episodes begin to concentrate on fewer issues, such as the overuse of hormones in pork, or complex questions of immigration or the rights of sex workers, real `hot topics' in many European countries, the series improves.

It's a relief yet unnerving when the subtitles disappear and Birgitte begins to converse in flawless English, somehow changing her character in the process.

'Borgen' maintains its edge over most series by covering often in some depth a range of personal issues to at least some of which everyone can relate: a woman's problem in juggling a small child with a career, the ongoing intimacy or moments of jealousy after a relationship has officially ended, the strain of working with an ambitious young boss who wants to work in a different way.

Yes, this is essentially high class soap opera, but it is often moving, humorous or thought-provoking. Consistently entertaining, it avoids a conclusion that is either corny, oversentimental or predictable in its detailed outcomes.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4 Stars

Borgen: Series 3 [DVD]

Qui sommes-nous au juste?

This is my review of Ce Que Le Jour Doit a La Nuit by Yasmina Khadra.

When Younes is transported from dire poverty in the slums of 1930s colonial Algeria to live under the new name of Jonas with his prosperous uncle, good looks ease his path but do not save him from the snobbery of new acquaintances who will never forget he is an Arab. The story is strong on descriptions of native poverty, and also on Jonas's conflicted emotions and loyalties when civil war breaks out over the demand for Algerian independence. Jonas is continually drawn back to his old home, haunted by memories of relatives and neighbours. Under pressure, he feels impelled to speak out on behalf of the oppressed Arabs, he even begins to learn about the history of the struggle, but although you may be carried along by the expectation that he is about to take up arms against his former friends, this may not be in his passive and introspective nature.

Against the background of the deteriorating political and social situation, Khadra confronts Jonas with a moral dilemma which changes the course of his whole life. I sympathise with readers who are unconvinced by his behaviour – which is of course necessary to sustain the plot – and admit to finding him almost masochistic, wallowing in adverse situations.

The story seems long, often repetitive and over-reliant on coincidences. The passages describing carefree teenage years with friends are rather dull and stereotyped, although perhaps necessary as rose-tinted memories on which he can dwell in later life. The style of emotional passages is somewhat overblown. This suggests the likelihood of a rather sentimental film version, which I plan to avoid.

The text is cliché-ridden, a mixed blessing for a non-French reader: I noted many idioms, but it was time-consuming looking them up. Does Khadra use so many stock platitudes because he was taught English as a second language? Khadra is of course a man, who adopted the female pseudonym of `Yasmina' to avoid adverse repercussions whilst he was still employed by the Algerian army.

The novel fosters a greater appreciation of the term `Nostalgerie', coined to describe the tendency of 'pieds-noirs', exiled in France, to exaggerate the pleasures of life in pre-independence Algeria, refusing to face up to recent changes, rather like some of the characters at the end of this novel, although not Khadra himself.

Jonas reaches some telling conclusions about life, but these might have come better at the end. For me, the dramatic climax and appropriate ending is Chapter 17, which could have been revamped to come after Chapter 19, thus removing the Final Section 4, set in the early C21, which ties up loose ends, but drags the story on too long into the realms of sentimentality and leaving nothing to the imagination.

Much shorter, more tightly written and plotted, `Les Hirondelles de Kaboul' seems a considerably more profound and moving work, perhaps ironically in view of Khadra's Algerian origins.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4 Stars

Ce Que Le Jour Doit a La Nuit

Love and grudges growing underground

This is my review of The Progress Of Love by Alice Munro.

Alice Munro, whose short stories remind me of the work of the "groundbreaking" Katherine Mansfield, seems to break every "rule" of creative writing courses. On a rough estimate frequently up to around 13,000 words in length, stories digress and ramble from a central theme that has to be deduced, although it may remain unclear until the end. Plot is unimportant, although certain "key" events emerge in what sometimes proves to be a carefully planned order.

Tension may arise over shocking events – like a person drowning – with anticipation fed by the knowledge that the crisis may come in the middle of the tale, then may be allowed drift away to a bland, even incomplete-seeming ending, or the drama may itself be defused abruptly, or ebb away. Munro's attention flits between people's insights, often derived from the minor events of life, a strong sense of place, or scraps of conversation which have an authentic ring, as if based on comments overheard (say, young children talking) but embellished to fit the situation.

Munro explores the thoughts and relationships of ordinary people carrying out their daily tasks in smalltown Canada against the backdrop of lakes, forests, changing weather and shape-changing winter snow. She draws heavily on her own situation: father a farmer, mother a perhaps stern teacher, who fell ill when Monro was still young, possibly creating the dilemma of whether the latter should sacrifice herself to stay at home as a carer, like many of the women in her tales, or strike out to claim her freedom as Munro did. She writes of early marriages, motherhood, divorce and second partners, all part of her own life. The question of losing one's memory with age clearly interests her, together with the way we sometimes distort the truth, almost deliberately twisting memories to how we would have them be, or accepting the convenient assumptions of others and making them the truth.

I agree with the view that her stories, though clearly too short to be novellas, are packed with as much content in terms of events, relationships and insights as many novels. I was also relieved to read that Joyce Carol Oates's review did not baulk at finding some stories wanting. It is true that what seem like important aspects, like the course of a developing relationship, are glossed over, leaving the reader feeling unengaged with "central" characters. Also, some stories seem overcomplicated, appearing to cover too much as what seems to be the central theme emerges.

For me, the most successful stories are `The progress of love' about a woman's relationship with her mother whose life she has clearly made huge efforts not to imitate, `Fits' which explores people's prurient reaction to violent death and almost angry disappointment with a witness who declines to feed their ghoulish curiosity, and `White dump' about the collapse of a marriage in which a mother-in-law may have played an unwitting part, and its lifelong effects on the daughter of the union.

Readers will draw different meanings from each story, and vary in those they prefer, or believe they understand. This anthology will repay rereading in the future, when one's perceptions may have changed.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4 Stars

The Progress Of Love

Found without translation

This is my review of Bel Canto (Italian Edition) by Ann Patchett.

In a botched attempt to capture the president of an unnamed South American dictatorship, terrorists resort to taking hostage a disparate group of foreigners who happen to be attending the birthday party of Japanese CEO Mr Hosokawa, where the star turn has been the performance of Roxane Coss, the renowned international soprano with whom he has become infatuated.

The potential for a tense drama is rapidly dissipated by the author's soft-centred, overblown style. To be fair, an exciting and pacy plot is clearly not her major concern. The siege of the Vice-President's house serves as a means of creating a bubble, isolated from the rest of the world, in which, relieved from normal pressures, routines and expectations, the characters have time to take stock of their lives, observe their surroundings from a fresh viewpoint, form unexpected relationships and identify talents they never knew they possessed.

At first, the uneven quality of the prose, the wordiness and focus on mundane details made tedious reading and I was tempted several times to give up. There is a child's fairy tale quality in the lengthy attempts to provide some logical support for unlikely situations. It was hard to engage with the large number of characters, most of them male but with a rather similar and female "voice" – the author's? Perhaps the slightly contrived, stagey nature of some scenes is part of a deliberate attempt to make the hostage-taking into a kind of opera.

Looking for reasons to continue, I noted the unusual, imaginative nature of the story. Ann Patchett creates a wide range of characters who prove to be quite interesting. There is the odd striking description, or telling insight, such as the fact that for many hostages and terrorists, the new way of life created under siege may be preferable to and more real than that outside, to which perhaps there can be no tolerable return. There are many moments of comedy, and others of real poignancy. An ongoing and fascinating theme is how people manage to communicate when they do not share a language.

So, I began to find "Bel Canto" more absorbing yet remain unconvinced that Gen, the Japanese interpreter, could be quite so skilful in so many languages, or that a young hostage could be quite so word and note perfect in imitating Roxanne's singing, to give two examples of implausible aspects. Unlike some reviewers, I thought the ending quite effective, although perhaps the epilogue went a bit too far in tying up loose ends.

Even if you have serious reservations over the quality of the writing, or the development of the plot, this is likely to stimulate lively and wide-ranging discussion in a book group.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4 Stars

Bel Canto (Italian Edition)

Riding the devil you know

This is my review of The Enigma of Capital: And the Crises of Capitalism by David Harvey.

Reading this feels like galloping over rough terrain on a spirited thoroughbred out of control. The recent financial debacle of 2007-8 inspired Harvey`s analysis of the periodic crises in capitalism which seem to be inherent, together with the attempted solutions, and suggested future actions. Harvey, a "Distinguished Professor in Anthropology" and originally a geographer, quotes selectively and cogently from Marx, and clearly favours radical alternatives to "conventional" casually accepted capitalism.

His basic premise is the current consensus amongst economists and the financial press that a healthy capitalist economy in which most capitalists make a reasonable profit needs to expand at about 3 per cent per annum. "Credit-fuelled capital accumulation at a compound rate is a condition of capitalism's survival. Capitalism must generate and internalise its own effective demand" backed by money to pay for goods in the market.

Succeeding chapters explore the potential barriers to the accumulation of capital- lack of money, labour, resources, technology, resistance or inefficiency in the labour process and lack of "effective" demand. Although most of the ideas are likely to have been encountered already, it is useful to have them combined in one place.

I welcomed the lack of abstruse economic theory with equations and graphs, which may reflect the author's expertise as a geographer. He asserts that an obsession with mathematical models blinded economists to the danger of the early C21 debacle that few foresaw. However, I would have liked a more precise explanation of the new financial products, credit default swaps and derivatives which caused so much trouble. I also found many of the explanations e.g. of the relationship between the availability of labour and wage costs, too condensed and hard to follow for someone with no prior knowledge of economic theory.

Although the topics and relationships covered are wide-ranging and fascinating, the book has a breathless quality, fed by long complex lists of diverse examples which undermine the line of argument. Harvey seems unable to resist the temptation to qualify points with brief asides, often in brackets, thus adding to the disjointed effect. Many passages seem written in a semi-digested hurry. For instance, I wanted a deeper exploration of the implications of the "Walmart phenomenon" by which cheap retail goods produced by relatively cheap labour are imported from an ironically still communist China for American consumers, some of whom will lost their jobs in the process.

The radical ideas put forward in the final chapter seem too vague and undeveloped to be called solutions. Asserting that "an ethical, non-exploitative… socially just capitalism that redounds to the benefit of all is impossible" and "contradicts the very nature of what capital is all about" he concludes: "The accumulation of capital will never cease. It will have to be stopped. The capitalist class will never willingly surrender its power. It will have to be dispossessed."

Is he calling for bloody revolution, likely to lead to world wars and prolonged greater suffering and chaos than exist even now? He says lightly that it is good in itself to be utopian, but as a distinguished academic, does he not have an obligation to present rather more cogent and well-conceived proposals than this? Necessity being the mother of invention, many educated young people in developing countries are beginning to devise alternative life styles. Rising anger over social inequality and growing evidence of the dangers of under-regulated capitalism, exhaustion of natural resources, pollution and overpopulation, may give governments the impetus to modify capitalism with the support of the people. This is the only future I can see, rather than what sounds at time like an unrealistic rant from an ivory tower.

⭐⭐⭐ 3 Stars

The Enigma of Capital: And the Crises of Capitalism

Learning the largonji

This is my review of Slang ! : Dictionnaire d’argot et d’anglais familier by Harrap.

Many modern French novels contain a good deal of slang, and although there are some very comprehensive online sources of information, it is always useful to find a hard copy dictionary with a good coverage.

Fairly compact with words and idioms highlighted in bold and mainly concise definitions, this has the additional feature of "Spotlight on" boxes on e.g. "L'alcool et l'ivresse", "L'argent","La colère", "Le corps", "Les insultes" and so on. There are also "Slang Sleuth" boxes e.g. on "L'Argot des banlieues/des cités". On most pages there are one or two entries to expand information e.g. on the suffixes "aille" or "ard". I like the way the origin of words is often supplied.

As an English speaker, it is interesting to read the first half in French explaining English slang. My concern here is that I do not recognise quite a lot of the supposedly English slang used. Under "rhyming slang", I was bemused to find "Britneys=Britney Spears=beers" – perhaps this is an example of American slang, but not the more authentic "apples and pears=stairs" or "trouble-and-strife=wife".

It is enjoyable simply to "dip into" this, in the hopes of building up a bank of knowledge to reduce the need to break off reading to check on a term. I would say that it complements Barron's "Dictionary of French Slang" which I acquired some time ago, which is "one-way French to English, has a slightly different coverage of terms (hard to tell if less or more) and tends to provide more examples of words in different contexts.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5 Stars

Slang ! : Dictionnaire d’argot et d’anglais familier

Handy slim guide

This is my review of Delhi, Agra and Rajasthan (Travellers) by Melissa Shales.

If you are looking for a compact guide to take on holiday, this is useful if your focus is on Rajasthan or "The Golden Triangle". Since I was only visiting Delhi and Agra, I found the relevant sections a little too brief, in particular on the "main sites" such as the Taj Mahal or Red Fort at Agra which you are mostly likely to visit. Quite good on background practical and potted cultural information, the guide includes such telling insights as: "You will return home enriched and bemused and whether you loved or loathed the country will never be quite the same again!" Some of the main sites e.g. in Delhi are marked on maps, which could have been larger, but at least this helps orientation.

It's frustrating at times in covering off-the-beaten-tourist track itineraries and pictures of fascinating places you do not get to see on a standard package tour, but I suppose these support further reading you may feel inspired to undertake after the tour.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4 Stars

Delhi, Agra and Rajasthan (Travellers)

Flawed rendition

This is my review of A Delicate Truth by John Le Carré.

Fergus Quinn, an ambitious New Labour Foreign Office minister, picks a biddable Whitehall bureaucrat to oversee "Wildlife", a sensitive counter-terrorism operation – an odd choice, since "birdwatcher Paul Anderson", does not have a clue what is going on, before, during or after an exercise that goes badly awry. So, after accepting a clearly undeserved promotion into a sinecure followed by lord-of-the-manor retirement in a decaying Cornish mansion, what could induce "Anderson" to become a whistleblower? The same could be asked of the hardbitten commando employed in the secret operation, and of young Private Secretary, Tony Bell, whom Quinn tries to keep out of the loop altogether.

This is the basis for a gripping modern thriller with a mission to arouse our consciences over such issues as the erosion of democracy, the corrupt involvement of corporate power in government e.g. for defence contracts, the frightening power of intelligence organisations to spy on ordinary people in the name of national security.

My problem was an inability to believe in much of the dialogue – artificial, with too many characters speaking in the same upper crusty old Etonian voice, or in some Monty Pythonesque portrayal of "a working man". Le Carré gives the impression of being slightly out of touch, as with the school teacher who talks of teaching "arithmetic up to A Level". Most characters are thinly developed, and heavily stereotyped. Frequent placing of important conversations in flashbacks reduces the potential dramatic tension. There is too much "telling", often repeating what the reader already knows. Plot content is slim, and as other reviewers have said, even the wrong at the heart of the novel, although shocking, seems insufficient to awaken consciences to the extent of creating whistleblowers prepared to stake all. Is Le Carré resting too much on his laurels in this latest work?

Chapter 2 provides a lengthy telling of Tony Bell's rapid rise, mentored and advanced by the caricatured éminence grise mandarin, Giles Oakley. At one point, Tony acts out of character, also giving a hint of things to come, with an inward diatribe against the immorality of the Iraq War, including special condemnation of Tony Blair, whose "public postures are truthless". This sounds like Le Carré indulging in a personal rant of his own. Truth being stranger than fiction, it might have been more effective to produce a non-fiction analysis.

I could only cope with the first part of the book by treating it as a parody of upper class, or would-be establishment figures fudging truth and sacrificing principles for the sake of a cushy life.

In the final chapters, where the key players belatedly try to take responsibility and expose the truth, Le Carré creates a real sense of menace and tension. Is struggle futile or will they be able to have the last word? If so, at what personal cost? With the end in sight, the quality of Le Carré's prose improves to what one has hoped for. "What the gods and all reasonable humans fought in vain wasn't stupidity at all. It was sheer, wanton, blood indifference to anybody's interests but their own".

Although style and structure often make for an irritating read, it seems a good choice for a book group, both as regards discussion of issues, and exchange of what are likely to be conflicting opinions on the quality of the writing.

⭐⭐⭐ 3 Stars

A Delicate Truth

Hanging on for dear life

This is my review of Gravity [Blu-ray] [2013] [Region Free].

This technically brilliant film contains beautiful shots of the earth viewed from space, there are some tense moments as the two space workers (Clooney and Bullock) struggle to survive when they find themselves stranded after a disaster not of their making and it is intriguing to watch them floating about surrounded by a motley collection of objects and dealing with weightlessness in a matter of fact way, at least until calamity strikes. As with most adventure films, the desire to create ever more exciting situations sends plausibility spinning into the outer galaxies and it is probably an advantage to be ignorant of some of the basic laws of physics. At the end, despite the ludicrous twists, the film succeeds in leaving you with a sobering sense of mortality combined with the strengh of the will to survive.

“Gravity” is definitely greatly enhanced if seen on a large screen in 3D.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4 Stars


Gravity [Blu-ray] [2013] [Region Free]

Culture clash

This is my review of Sept histoires qui reviennent de loin (Folio) (French Edition) by Jean-Christophe Rufin.

Rufin’s impressive career as a doctor, with involvement in Médecins sans frontières, and as a diplomat have provided ample material for these short stories, often set in former colonies such as Sri Lanka or Mozambique, or involving migrants from France Outre Mer trying to adjust to life in l’Hexagone.

Varied in subject matter, the stories share a clear style, vivid descriptions of places, touches of humour with an underlying serious concern over moral dilemmas and man’s inhumanity to man, and a gift for building up a sense of anticipation. The denouement is generally predictable but that does not detract significantly from the enjoyment of the skill of the telling.

One of the best stories for me was “Les Naufragés” narrated by a woman consumed with nostalgia who cannot come to terms with changes to the island of Mauritius where she grew up in a world of white colonial privilege which is now giving way to the claiming of rights by the local people – to the extent of erecting a statue of Shiva on the secluded beach where she likes to swim. She persuades her husband to help remove the offending statue, but we know this is a vain attempt to deny the fact that, like the symbolic Paul and Virginie in the famous tale, the white residents of the island are all “les enfants d’un naufrage”, the wreck of their former lives.

Another is “Garde-robe”, topical in view of David Cameron’s recent highlighting of the plight of the Tamils in Sri Lanka where the story is set. In a lively dialogue seasoned with ironic humour, a man explains his distress over the discovery that an amiable servant on whom he has come to depend heavily should hold such rigid and bigoted views, and has probably been actively involved in violent acts in support of the rebels. He describes his fruitless attempts to convince the man that in adopting the criminal methods of a corrupt state, the rebels are in danger of becoming worse than those they wish to replace.

There are lighter tales, such as “Le refuge de Del Pietro” about an obsessive mountaineer. Also one very different and apparently autobiographical “Nuit de garde” about a young doctor who bears the heavy responsibility for declaring formally that a patient is dead, even though it is obvious to much more experienced underlings that this is the case. In the hierarchical world of medicine, his role is like that of a priest.

I understand the view that, given a style that is consistently objective and stripped of passion, some readers may feel a sense of disengagement which prevents them from relating strongly with the characters, but I feel that many, although clearly flawed, also evoke sympathy.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5 Stars

Sept histoires qui reviennent de loin (Folio) (French Edition)