Afterthoughts - The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom

Man Alone Measures Time

Why does man measures time? Why, by measuring time is the start of all man's suffering? 

Mich Albom's The Time Keeper has been on the bookshelf for a long time, and recently I had the chance to re-read this classic. True to his usual style, Albom uses personification to humanize a concept, builds up the character and brings across the message through storytelling. In this book, he personified Time and created the character Father Time. Throughout centuries, folklore on Father Time with his long white beard, and possibly holding on one hand a huge hourglass, are common stories among children and adults. This is a story for adults, as Albom preached the key message of treasuring not Time itself, but the time spend with the loved ones as the true value of time. 

Father Time was Dor, a kid who was obsessed with measuring things. An obsession not unlike man's endless pursue of an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. What's the value of knowledge if we don't put them into good use? Dor was this one person obsessed with the pursuit and ignored the value behind his own action. 

Dor's life will at some point cross path with Sarah and Victor, two mortals in today's world, also obsessed with time. Sarah, her life just started and she couldn't wait for time to pass quickly; Victor, his life coming to a close and he wished to stop time and beat death. Albom used these 2 distinct characters to demonstrate regardless which era, what stages of life, they still did not understand the value of time.

In the early chapters, Albom developed these 3 characters and built a story surrounding their lives. Dor married his childhood sweetheart and had children, and he kept his pursue of measuring time even though no one understood why, not even his own mother. Once, the great king Nim wanted him to put his knowledge into good use rather than " putting holes in bowls", he refused. When he invented the world's first clock, his wife was alone, crying for their lives which was about to turn for the worst. He missed the implication of the hardship he was about to inflict on his family by turning Nim down, and also missed the miracle of a beautiful sunrise on the hill with his beloved wife as he focused on "capturing day and night in a bowl". An arrogance no less from Nim's desire to build the tallest tower to reach heaven. When Alli fell ill, Dor wanted to change time, and ran towards the only place he thought could reach heaven, Nim's tower. He didn't reach heaven, he fell into a cave and became Father Time.

Sarah was a young school girl infatuated with this handsome popular guy in school. She wanted to control time by wishing it to go faster while waiting for her date to start and then go slower while on the date. The story of Sarah is of one told and retold. A young girl from not too well-to-do family pinning all hopes on a popular guy and hoping for deliverance out of what she thought was a miserable life. The prince charming turned out to be a regular jerk of a boy wanting to take advantage of her. Sarah, as all young girls go, Sarah thought that in giving the boy a carefully selected watch would win her his heart and love. The irony of the carved message behind the watch, "time flies", made by Dor himself is the crust of the girl's desire, more time with her "boyfriend". Finally, when the "boyfriend" posted a nasty remark on Facebook, Sarah knew her life was over, there was nothing left except to kill herself. "End it now". Sarah did not need anymore time for herself, she wanted to end time in her life.

Victor had a good long life, and it was coming to the close for him with a tumor in his liver. However he wanted more, more time, more life, he wanted immortality. With all the world's resources and money at his disposal, he wanted Research to "go faster" and find out how to beat death. This was what Victor do, "see a problem, find its weak spot, and crack it open". When he finally realized this was one problem he cannot fix, he turned his attention to time, to stop it from running out, another arrogance of man. Cryonics seemed to be the solution, and key to beating death, and he will single-handedly do it without his wife knowing. For a dying man, Victor was not afraid, but impatient for his plan to circumvent death to kick into place earlier. 

There are many parallelism weaving throughout the stories, in particular the perspectives of Grace and Lorraine. Grace, the enduring wife of Victor, who was beside him all his life, quietly waiting for him to pay just a bit more attention to her and cared even a little more about her feelings. She waited all her life and now that Victor's end was near, she no longer see any reason for anything to change. She wanted Victor to "just come home". Lorraine was Sarah's mother. She lamented on how different Sarah was as she grew up, from a mummy's girl who loved to have a manicure together to one that barely communicated with her mum following the split of the parents.  Both wanted the same thing even though under different circumstances, just a little attention from their beloved. On the fateful day where Sarah and Victor decided to take their own lives, both Grace and Lorraine were kept in the dark. Was it out of love for them or was it out of plain selfishness that Sarah and Victor spared Grace and Lorraine of their decisions?

The story line of Father Time was nothing less than an exhilarating fantasy of time freezing, time travel and his acquiring of all the knowledge in the new world. Dor's journey really started after he fell into the cave. He was given the gift (more likely a curse) of not aging for another minute. He gave man the first fruit of desire - the counting of days, then hours, minutes, seconds and finally moments. The consequence is that man will feel the misery of measuring time and lost sight of the many wonders of the world. The desire to control time, faster, slower, more, less; floated up to Dor in his cave and became his slow torture. The irony of it all was apparently, he alone in the world was the only one that can control time and yet wanting none of this power.

"You marked the minutes," the old man said. "But did you use them wisely? To be still? To cherish? To be grateful? To lift and be lifted?". 

Welding the one power that every man wanted, Dor could start and stop time as he wished. He taught himself to read and acquired all the knowledge in the world. He spent 100 years observing a single day and completed his education of the modern world. He went to New York and saw the many skyscrapers that reminded him of Nim, and wondered if there was no end to man's ambition. Dor did not forget his mission of finding 2 souls, one who wanted too much time and another who wanted too little, and teach them what he learnt. And he heard "another lifetime" and "make it stop", and met both Victor and Sarah at the clock shop where he worked. What followed next was similar to the Ghost of Christmas Future, Father time put both of them together and showed future to them if their respective plans to end their lives actually took place. Lorraine was devastated by her daughter's choice and Grace hated being robbed the chance to say goodbye.  Just went both Sarah and Victor realized what they needed to do, Dor also learnt the greatest lesson in life - "with endless time, nothing is special. With no loss or sacrifice, we can't appreciate what we have".

Epilogue is a section of tying up loose ends. Dor finally got his wish. He learnt a six thousand year long lesson and returned to his wife on her deathbed in order to say goodbye and join her. Victor utter the one word that aborted the entire Cryonics operations. He never did forget Grace, the one person that mattered to him. Sarah fought for her life and was rescued from her own suicide attempt and grew up to find a cure on what killed Victor, and at the standing ovation of her success, she gave thanks. 

This is a story about Time, but it is actually a story about love. As the saying goes, time waits for no man. Being measured or not, time continue to press on, ruthless, relentless, regardless, all for the sole purpose of limiting our days - "To make each life precious." Be thankful of all things we have in life and treasure every moment we have with our loved ones. Count not the moments we have, but count the blessings that come with every moment of our limited lives. 

Book Review - The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto: A Novel

Mitch Albom produced another book that I loved so much. From Tuesdays with Morrie to the Five People You Meet in Heaven, and also my favourite, the First Phone Call from Heaven, he has not failed to produce great work that touched the heart in more ways then I can imagine. This book, The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto is a book about love; a wonderfully narrated story of the life of a musician, from the eyes of none other than music itself.

The chapters in the book are short for some. The entire life story of Frankie Presto was told through close friends, acquaintance and most of all, music personified. If you have some appreciation of music terms, you will be able to see the inferences littered throughout the novel. The love-hate relationship of Frankie with Aurora, for example, followed that of a symphony of four movements - Allegro, Adagio, Minuet/Scherzo and Rondo. Each movement was a significant stage of their lives; each movement was another phase of their relationship. What is truly enduring is the love Aurora had for Frankie. The faith she had that he still loved her and will always loved her was amazing to the point of incomprehensible. How simple was the love that surpassed all understanding, even through the times where Frankie was married to the actress Delores Ray. Below is one of my favourite dialogue from the entire book:

"Are you done with that actress"? She asked.

"Yes."

"Paperwork finished?"

"Yes."

"We can get married now?"

"If you want."

"The real way?"

"The real way."

Simple dialogue; uncommon love. 

Another uncommon love so deeply narrated in this book was the love of the hairless dog, the faithful companion from Frankie's childhood. The dog was supernatural in many ways, because it was a miracle sent by music to protect Frankie. The dog was there when Frankie learnt guitar from the Maestro for many years; he was there when the enemy caught Baffa and caused a diversion for little Frankie to escape. He miraculously stood outside the wall of the orphanage in Detroit, waiting to catch him when he sneaked out. He was with Frankie through those years he searched for Aurora, until finally when his duties were done, he jumped into his chose grave, the river. A faithful companion for Frankie through those lonely times of his childhood, the hairless dog renamed nameless in the story, but touched the heart of the readers more than any other named character.

At the late stage of Frankie's life, his love for his adopted daughter Kai kept him going even after Aurora passed. It was because of Kai that Frankie retraced the steps of his childhood and unrevealed many mysteries left unexplained in the earlier chapters. The memories and what he found in this life journey was painful even to the reader, but it was necessary, to close the loops of many stories that started but not quite ended. One very significant open loop was the mysterious heavily hooded person that popped up following Frankie and his family off and on in the last section of the novel. The love of this pitiful women, one filled with guilt all her life, was understated, but finally given full credit in the end. She finally revealed to Frankie the identity of his true father and mother, providing closure to Frankie on the disappearance of his beloved Maestro. 

When Frankie stood on the stage for one last time in his life, he played together with his beloved daughter and got the chance to be reunite with the first love of his music - Franciso Terrega's Lagrima. Like a teardrop, Frankie's mother sang this song to her new-born years ago. Thus it is fitting that Frankie would play this piece as his final song to the world. Because of this novel I was brought to the link below with a most beautiful rendition of this sweet sad music. Because of this novel, I knew love, bitter sweet love that existed so exquisitely in the world of Frankie Presto.

Everyone joins a band in this life; I am glad I joined Mitch Albom's band through the Magic Strings of Frankie Presto.

Book Challenge:A book with a title that's a character's name; a bestseller.

Book Review - The Girl on the Train

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

This story is not just about one girl, but 3 main female characters. It is told through the eyes of 3 ladies - Rachel, Megan and Anna. The narration comes in the form of diary entries, from the perception of 3 unreliable narrators. Seeing the same day and similar events through the eyes of 3 person is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle; the whole can only surface completely when all 3 pieces are interlocked at the right places. This immediately post a challenge to the reader, especially since Rachel's story started on 5 July 2013; Megan's story started 1 year prior to this date and Anna's story didn't start until 15 days later. The entire story spanned only 6 weeks, till 18 August, but if we add a whole year of Megan's story to it, it felt like we knew her and Rachel all their life. Megan's bits and pieces of the past was interwoven into the relevant events of Rachel's present, and thus, it is very easy to be misled by who exactly was Megan having an affair with that eventually led to her murder.

There was another female character who was a constant in this story, and that's Cathy, Rachel's sympathetic girlfriend. She patiently put up with Rachel's need for an accommodation, her uncountable times where she needed a drink and her sympathy for Rachel even after she found out that her friend had lied about her job.

And finally the two male characters who interacted with Rachel extensively - Tom, her ex-husband and Scott, Megan's husband. Not forgetting Kamal, the strikingly handsome psychiatrist who was my prime suspect for a good part of the book. The fact that Kamal was who I thought as an obvious answer to the mystery was largely due to the lagging storytelling of Megan's life in between the timeline of Rachel's. Megan's relationship with Kamal didn't exist; but the reader is led to believe it did, due to the cleverly placed timelines adjacent to each other. The really relationship was with someone else, and it wasn't reveal until the very end.

The only frustration while going through the book is Rachel's ever need to drink; it was just a little to much before Rachel started to sober up. The turn from addiction to drinking to fully free of alcohol was a great relief to the reader, especially since it was the drink that made Rachel blackout at the most crucial moments before Megan was taken away. It was frustrating seeing Rachel searching through her leaky memories to try to reconstruct those moments.

Rachel's unreliable narration was brilliant in bringing the readers into her world and seeing things in her perspective. She was not the only Girl on the Train; we all were on the same train with her.

Reading Challenge categories - unreliable narrator; female author; book made into film; debut novel.

Book Review - The Children Act by Ian McEwan

The Children Act is about choices. Choices that we make in life that have profound impact on the people around us. The impact could come only in weeks, or months, and sometimes, we may not even know what they are when it happens.

Fiona is a very level headed Judge. She has a big heart and cared that she made decisions that are well thought through in the eyes of the law, and always have in mind the interest of the children involved in the cases. The case of the Jehovah Witness and the legality of the blood transfusion is the main case that underlies the better part of the story. Other cases described in the books include the Chareidi children and the conjoint twin, Matthew and Mark. These cases are all controversial in nature, deeply rooted in religion and morality. The fact that there could be a legal stand and a very logical one in such cases, is an eye-opener for me. The law is always on the side of the decision that is made for the interest, and especially the health of the children in these case, but the religious backlash could also be tremendous. In the case of the conjoint twin, venomous letters came to refute Fiona's judgement. In the case of Adam Henry, he renounced his faith immediately upon getting well, only to die for his faith at a later stage. Did Fiona regret after making her judgement? To this end, McEwan did a great job portraying the real human being behind a fierce and intelligent judge. It is no longer about right or wrong, it is about the ability to live with the decision and move on.

It is worth noting the brilliant account of Adam Henry's psychological state after he recovery. He renounced his faith after he found out about the hypocrisy of his parents - how they thought they had manipulated the law to their advantage without having to sin against their faith.  He seemed to have gotten back to normal life of a teenager, however, his mind was already pinned on Fiona. He expressed his feelings through his letters and poems, and even acted out his fantasy for Fiona through his actions. All alarm bells should have sounded when he tracked Fiona down in the rain. What Fiona chose to do next was not realistic. With all the experience she had with children, being a protector of them through the Children Act, it is not believable that she would be so weak and so emotionally unstable as to kiss a 18 years old boy, especially one that exhibited psychotic symptoms. However, the final poem written by Adam with vivid description of what transpired was truly brilliant. I totally enjoyed the poem, especially the last sentence when the truth was finally revealed. The poem made much sense from the perspective of the boy. The kiss was the kiss of Satan; Fiona knew it was wrong and there are bound to be repercussions. The fact that McEwan chose not to address it could only be accounted by Fiona's character weakness. Finally the boy decided to get back to his faith and refuse a second blood transfusion. The book claimed suicide; I like to think sweet revenge - revenge for the parent who lied on their true intention in the first instance, and revenge on Fiona for the kiss and the first decision that caused him to deviate from his faith. Is it a good ending? Not at all, but it is an unexpected twist in the book and a very daring one.

What I definitely did not enjoy was the relationship between Fiona and Jack. Jack was portrayed as the husband that any woman would loved to have. He asked permission to have an affair! How realistic is that in real life? Surely there are more husbands who ask for forgiveness than for permission? What was truly enduring was the patience he exhibited to Fiona upon his return and how he truly wanted to make the marriage work. On other hand, Fiona was the principled wife that would not even see any virtue of her husband and kept pushing him away. At age sixty, maybe all that Fiona needed was her job. However, the emotional unstable state that she got into after a difficult case seemed to indicate vulnerability, yet not needing the only one that truly cared for her? It is always good that the ending is a happy one. It gives the reader a sense of completeness; and put the good and evil in the book right back to their rightful place.

The title of the book seemed to infer to the work done by the Family Division in using the Act to protect the interest of the children in family disputes. However, I wasn't really sure if the essence of the Act was brought out deeply in the book, or was it the original intention to do so? The children cases mentioned in the book were controversial, but they were hardly deep enough or detailed enough to warrant the book title. If this is a book about Fiona and her husband, it is rather difficult to follow that line of writing sometimes. The case of the conjoint twin was described while Fiona and Jack were having an argument, inserted somewhere in the middle of a conversation. The case was interesting but it was a distraction from the storyline of Fiona and Jack.

Overall, it is an enjoyable read for 2 hours, easy enough. Interesting ideas were built into the book, but nothing truly spectacular to ponder after.

Book Challenge: a book that you can finish in a day; a book on a difficult topic.

Book Review - The Secret Life of Anna Blanc by Jennifer Kincheloe.

There is a certain charm to this novel, especially with the endearing nature of our heroine, Anna Blanc. At the turn of the century, before the world hears of gender diversity and women in leadership, Anna Blanc was the epitome of a lady of proper upbringing. Boring, but proper. Respected. When she decided to use her brains rather than be a pawn to her father's business dealings, it looked like the men's going to get a good education of what the fairer sex can actually do. This is such a promising start to the story. It reminded me of Peggy Carter from the Marvel, also a lady of this era, born out of turn. What Anna lacks is the gusto, wits and intelligence of Peggy. I missed the resourcefulness and sharp insights that you see in Peggy. In many sense, Anna is the untrained Peggy, lots of potential, but just not there yet. Entertaining nonetheless, but left more to be desired of a stronger plot, unforgettable character and the intelligence of a clever crime.

Atonement by Ian McEwan - An after-thought

This story has an "unbalanced" structure that one would not have expected if you know very little of the story or the movie. The first part happened entirely in 1 day, whereas the second part is a long journey of war time stories and descriptions. The last part jumps to where Briony was 77 years old, and all things are now past.

The style is not what I normally would take to, given that I cannot relate to the intensive "discovery" of the world that little Briony was going through in Part I. As the events unfold, I began to form impressions that Briony is very self-absorb little girl who believed that the world needs to revolve around her and her tightly controlled world of make-believe.

A single stroke of jealousy was my thought, when Briony finally got the chance to punish the Robbie for choosing her sister rather than her. It was a very subtle theme well hidden until revealed only in the second part, amidst the war time horrors that Robbie was undergoing. I ran out of patience half-way through the narration. A pity to miss the more intricate part of Robbie's growing up but, nonetheless, the style really isn't one that captivates me enough to sustain the whole section.

"The writer is God". This is essentially the essence of the last part, the point to put across by Ian McEwan. This is a reflection that great novels are written where real tragedies lack. In the world of Robbie and Cee, they may very well be reunited and lived happily ever after. However, that would quite plainly make this novel very much less that extraordinary. Fairy tales leave no long impressions as tragedies do. So yes, in the world of make belief and master pieces, the write is God.

Shared during the monthly book club discussion 29 July 2012, and published in Goodreads.