Beyond an HDB flat
… to see for one day how life could be lived, so that for all the rest of her dull, eventful days, when things grew bad, she could look back in her mind and dwell on the time when for one perfect day she, Miss Pettigrew, lived. I had read several positive reviews about Miss…
Read More
When I was a child, I loved reading mystery and detective stories. At the beginning, I hung out with Jupe, Pete and Bob late into the night all the time. There was also Enid Blyton and her group of little friends who called themselves “The Secret Seven“, and let’s not forget Julian, Dick, Anne, Georgina and their dog…
Read More
I wasn’t familiar with Graham Greene until about a year ago when I came across several of his books at Nijinski, my favorite secondhand bookstore in Brussels. My first book by Greene is a 1983 copy of “Stamboul Train” that was published by Penguin Books. I chose it partly because I like the cover artwork by Paul Hogarth, and…
Read More
What if you could be someone else yet retain your memory and thoughts? I recently bought a secondhand copy of Hanif Kureishi’s The Body at Nijinski. The eponymous novella, which kicks off this collection of short stories, revolves around Adam, a successful playwright in his 60s who has seen better days. Like most people of his age, he sees and feels the…
Read More
Review of Swimming Home by Deborah Levy: It is devastating, unsettling and intense. A fascinating disaster that you cannot, and do not want, to turn away from.
Read More
Published in 1961, The Winter of Our Discontent was John Steinbeck‘s last novel. I came across this 1975 copy at Nijinski, my favourite secondhand bookstore in Brussels. I had not read Steinbeck previously but the title caught my eye. The cheesy book cover – of a man, standing in front of a dramatic painting of a…
Read More
I’ve never participated in the Weekly Photo Challenge as I rather blog whatever/whenever I feel like. Until today. This week’s topic: Selfie Oxford Dictionaries declared “selfie” as the International Word of the Year 2013, emerging ahead of other shortlisted words such as: Twerk – all credit to Miley Cyrus for bringing it to the forefront…
Read More
When I was in Vienna last December, I went to the Lucian Freud exhibition (ending 6 January) at the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Each of the 43 paintings on display was accompanied by a short narrative, all of which were compiled into a handy booklet for visitors to the exhibition. It was my first time seeing Freud’s works…
Read More
After too much champagne and white wine earlier this week, I decided to take it easy last night. I was in bed at 8pm, reading Binocular Vision by Edith Pearlman (published by Pushkin Press). I had started on this excellent collection of short stories in July, going back to it on and off over the…
Read More