2016. december 05. írta: andyou

When winter comes, the page turns

When you leave in the morning, the street lamps are still flickering and they turn on again just as you leave for home at the end of the day. You cannot go bar hopping and clubbing without freezing your rear end off, there are no festivals and no beaches to go. It doesn’t matter how much time you spent on styling it, you always got hat hair. It doesn’t matter how badly you concentrated on not leaving your gloves at home, your hands are always stone cold, because you can’t use your smart phone in gloves and you have to take them off every time a pal texts you. Hell, you cannot even take the trash out without spending 10 minutes on dressing up! Does that ring a bell? To quote the obvious: Winter is coming!
But let’s just face it: winter is the least eventful and the most dreadful of all the seasons. Sure, there is Christmas and New Year’s Eve, but what about the remaining, long, dark four months? Or more, if we are particularly unlucky. Those who have some experiences with Hungarian winters know that the chances of a decent snowfall are pretty small around here, so skiing and snowballing are out of the question too. In my opinion, you are simply better off staying at home and trying to make the most out of this dull time of the year in the comfort of your bed. To that end, we made a list of all the books you must read this winter. Trust me, each and every one of these is worth the time!

For those who want to take the whole ’stay at home’ thing seriously, I strongly advise you to read Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. Why? Because it will put you in such a mood that you will not want to go anywhere or see people for days. Flowers for Algernon has the most heart-breaking story I ever encountered and it is guaranteed to make you cry like a little kid. In the book, a mouse, named Algernon, undergoes a surgery that increases its intelligence significantly. The success of the surgery encourages the doctors to test it on humans too and their choice falls on Charlie Gordon, a mentally disabled man, who works at a bakery. The novel is written from the viewpoint of Charlie, which makes it even more unique and painful. Will the surgery be successful? Read the book to find out!

If you are craving for something more exciting, Stephen King is your man. Personally, I love all of his works, but my absolute favorite is Pet Sematary. To be honest, the plot of the story is so chilling that this book cannot be put down. A family of four and their cat, Church, moves to a new house in Ludlow, next to a highway responsible for many fatal accidents. The family’s new neighbour, Jud, shows them a place in the woods called Pet Sematary, where local children bury their deceased animals. One day Church gets hit on the highway and Louis, the father, buries Church. Not in the Pet Sematary, but in the supposed Indian burial ground behind it, which is said to bring the dead back to life. The next day, Church appears, but there is something different about him. Something sinister. And after that, all hell breaks loose. If you are keen on finding out the rest, you should see for yourself. Just don’t read it at night.

The next novel I recommend for you is The Life Before Us by Emile Ajar. Don’t feel dumb if you are unfamiliar with the title, because it is an incredibly unheard-of and underrated book. The plot takes place in Paris and the two protagonists are Momo, a Muslim boy who was abandoned by his parents, and Madame Rosa, an Auschwitz survivor ex-prostitute, who operates a daycare for the children of the local prostitutes. This bittersweet story can teach you many things about growing old and growing up, caring and love, it is the kind of story that stays with you for a long time.

Contrary to The Life Before Us, you should feel really bad if you have never heard of The Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann, because it’s a true classic. The story is about three young, ambitious women, Neely, Jennifer and Anne, who try to make it in New York. The greatest thing about this story is that it’s painfully honest. It shows how hard it is to get to the top of the showbiz, the dark side of fame and glamour and that staying on top is really demanding, and what’s even better is that it tells these things in a very relatable way. I hate to break it to you, but the life of superstars is not all joy, because it’s intertwined with unrealistic expectations, pills, alcohol and inevitable downfall.

Battle Royale, written by Takami Kósun, is the book for you if you are a Hunger Games or Lord of the Flies fan. A bus full of students gets hijacked by the totalitarian government of the Asian country in which the plot takes place and the teens are forced to slaughter each other off. Only one can win, the one who stays alive. What is great about this novel is that it’s much more brutal than Hunger Games and Lord of the Flies, which makes it extremely realistic. Yes, I know that the names tend to get confusing, but believe me, it is worth waiting until you no longer mix up the characters with each other.

And last but not least, another true classic: Death is My Trade, written by Robert Merle. The story leads through the life of Rudolf Lang, a young boy raised in strict, Catholic discipline, who later becomes the person responsible for the unspeakable and incomprehensible horrors of Auschwitz. I’ve racked my brain really hard to find the words which can describe this book the best and I came to the conclusion that this is a piece that cannot be labelled or categorized. The process of Lang turning into a soldier from a religious priest-to-be and later into a Nazi is a fascinating eye-opener, the description of how he planned and executed the extermination of Jews is astonishingly sickening, his attitude towards his duties and his perception of his deeds is simply daunting. Death is My Trade is an excellent read, it’s a shame to put it down!