The Garden of Eden

The Book

How did I come about this book? Jason showed it to me when I was hanging out at the hammock in the hideout. It was a lazy Sunday. And there was this old book. It was donated by the National Book Development Board from the United States- and they have the pleasure of donating an old copy of a Hemingway, while us mortals exhaust all means to get our hands on one for whatever personal purposes there are. All of the Hemingways I have read are borrowed from the university library.

Ernest Hemingway's The Garden of Eden is a good one. And his genius shines through.

The dust jacket has many holes, but it is hardbound in cloth and the binding is excellent. It was published in 1981, a few years before I was born- so this copy is older than I am. And yet, it is still alive. This is the beauty of hardbound books. The pages can be felt-touched. They are still crisp but yellowed. Aged. But the book is always worth reading.

The borrowed book, quite a treasure regardless of its age and condition

The Style

How do I begin to describe Ernest Hemingway's style?

He is sensual. He knows how to describe in such a simple manner what goes on between two people, in their private moments together. He writes about the weight, the scales of a fresh fish, the taste of the wine, the sea. The life that is unwired.

The dialogue is short and simple. It's in the narration Hemingway gets back at. He does not believe in commas. And I would like to think that whatever rare commas are inserted in the dialogue is for the sake of clarification- and augmentation. The book was published years after his death, one of the unfinished manuscripts, and some parts were edited to make it in time for the release. Apart from all that, Hemingway is intriguing.

I shall pressure myself to understand more about his style.

The Setting

I've never been good with memorizing names which may sound French or Spanish. But I do get the feel of the location as how he describes it and its people. It is quaint provincial life. Simple living, and the simple pleasures of food and wine, lazy seaside life-lying awake at night and falling asleep when the day is about to start, this is the kind of routine Hemingway describes for a couple on their honeymoon. 


The Author

Ernest Hemingway, one of the beloved authors of English literature of all time 

How do you describe one of the literary geniuses of our time whose works are all literary treasures? He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. Type in the name in any research engine, the answer will be there.

Other titles by Ernest Hemingway

• The Old Man and the Sea
• For Whom the Bells Toll
• A Moveable Feast
• The Sun Also Rises
• A Farewell to Arms
• In Our Time
• Islands in the Stream 

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

The Book

It started as one of those writing jobs I do for my freelance work on the side. I complete book guides for a company where I choose titles from a list and submit the outputs every month.

And the title caught my attention. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. At first I thought this was an Asian writer, and I have high regards for Amy Tan and Haruki Murakami. But here I was, about to discover Stieg Larsson. Years ago, I had plans of obtaining a dragon tattoo and some circumstances probably prevented me from doing so. I was born in the year of the golden dragon, according to Chinese astrology. Family and friends around me thought that this was a good sign since the dragon brings good luck.

And reading this particular book tickled my imagination. So I bought a hardbound copy, signed my name on the page and finally have the luxury or reading my very own copy of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson.

And I took it to reading as soon as it arrived. Could not wait any second longer, I literally waited for the delivery man from the courier outside our house that Friday afternoon for my weekend reading.

The book was translated from the Swedish by Reg Keeland.

My very own hardbound copy at bargain price of Php 250 (approximately $5)

The Style 

Details and character sketches are paid enough detail in this novel. Desert Snow is carefully and reasonably explained. "Carl" Blomkvist is given an honest description, enough to show that he is human with the unusual pet peeves, coupled with an on and off relationship with Erika Berger and considers himself her "occasional lover".  So does Armansky whose observations about Lisbeth Salander provide an honest character sketch. Stieg Larsson has this gift of being "in the character", immersing in how each one thinks and acts.

Just when you think the description and enumeration of events show the plot, dialogues between characters provide the story underneath. Larsson captures nuances between professionals in the journalism, financial and security field.- Larsson has done his homework.

When the reader assumes he understands the full story, the underlying events are uncovered-and the plot takes on a new development, and becomes more interesting. This is espionage, romance and power in a very different angle and on a whole new level.

-first spotted on an online bookstore, dreamt about, lusted after, and now is absolutely mine.-

The Setting

Contemporary Sweden has defeated capitalism in its industries and have successfully promoted democratic practices in its ranks- or that's what its leaders think.

The book's setting is as relevant today, as when it was first released and published in 2004. Women are still in a position fighting for equality, even for their rights in most aspects of society. If there were a Vanger Family in Sweden today, they would be an interesting lot to observe. 

The Author

The man behind Lisbeth Salander, Stieg Larsson 

Stieg Larsson lived in Sweden and was the editor in chief of the magazine Expo and a leading expert on antidemocratic right-wing extremist and Nazi organizations. He died in 2004, shortly after delivering the manuscript for this and two subsequent novels. He passed away at the age of 50. 

Other Books by Stieg Larsson

The Millennium Trilogy include: 

1. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
2. The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
3. The Girl who Played with Fire

Book Collector

Here I am then, with my thoughts and latest reads. I am an avid reader whose endless love affair for books make it impossible to turn away from floor to ceiling bookshelves- and just admire at all those printed pages. I do buy books almost every month for a good read, and sometimes my wallet argues. In most cases, my wallet wins the battle, but I take note of the titles and put off book collecting for another month and come back to online bookstores, salvage book sales, and if lucky, an out-of-town trip to the bigger metropolitan cities which boast of National Bookstore and Powerbooks. And cheaper finds are out there in Multiply.com and Facebook too.

Despite the lack of resources, the love affair still blooms. I started from colored, illustrated books from childhood to pre-teen Archie Comics, and I admit to having read Harry Potter and Paulo Coehlo in my high school years. And now the shelf occupants are Gregory Maguire, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Neil Gaiman, and of course Ernest Hemingway requires all my patience.

My work of writing book guides have led me to this mini-project. I will be writing about my latest reads in the next posts. There will be a few observations about the books I come across, and some personal thoughts about what makes each read special.

So, here I am.