xcviii. the family law, benjamin law
the author is basically an asian-australian david sedaris, the book was a collection of family/personal essays about growing up as a multiple minority. and so hilarious!!! literally swallowing my burst out laughter / pretending to have a choking fit on the train-type funny. i also got a lot of the in-jokes that you would not necessarily get unless you have also spelled out cantonese words in english and know what a strange language it is. basically this is the closest thing that i have to identify with that i’ve read in a really really long time. maybe ever. he might be the male version of me.
xcix. granta 88: mothers
i don’t know how i didn’t know that granta existed until recently. anyway the theme of ’mothers’ was much like you might expect, many men reflecting on their childhood relationships with their mothers, which i found strange because it is so far away from what my relationship with my mum is like. but they were also slightly cliched in that oedipal way. also pregnancy, breast cancer and mothers-in-law were covered, as might be expected. overall i quite enjoy anthologies.
film roundup:
lxi. agora
sometimes you just can't trust margaret and david. they loved this film, i think. i found it really disjointed and inconclusive. religious war comes in cycles, blah blah etc.
lxii. bridesmaides
this was ok. the toilet humour was overdone but eh. overall quite enjoyable.
lxiii. hanna
this was not ok. the premise started out with interest but i kept feeling like cate blanchett was reprising her role in indiana jones. she had better hair this time around though.
lxiv. julie and julia
did julia childs really have such a swoop swooping voice? did she really have to stoop to chop onions at knee level? i mean really. it was ok, overall.
lxv. moon
this was really good! i like this kind of science fiction whereby once a currently non-existing premise is assumed then everything else follows logically. i like how they were all different. (vague but otherwise i'll give it away)
lxvi. the conspirator
holy depressing, man. injustice! *shakes fist* given the cartoonish opening i was pleasantly surprised by the dramatic force sustained during the courtroom scenes.
