Waiting on Wednesday: Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

This is my fourth edition of Waiting on Wednesday, a weekly event held by Breaking the Spine.

It’s official, JK Rowling’s new book is out for pre-order. But at $20 for an ebook version – will you order it?

The consensus on Kindle seems to be to wait it out. Twenty bucks is a lot to shell out for an ebook especially when no one has weighed in on whether it’s any good. On the other hand, Potter die-hards like myself are just itching to get our hands on this book because we secretly hope it’s a continuation of Harry Potter in some shape or form.

Sadly, it’s not.

Here’s what it’s actually about:

When Barry Fairweather dies unexpectedly in his early forties, the little town of Pagford is left in shock. Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war. Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils…Pagford is not what it first seems. And the empty seat left by Barry on the town’s council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?

Blackly comic, thought-provoking and constantly surprising, The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling’s first novel for adults.

And it was recently revealed that Rowling is withholding her novel from some foreign publishers till after the English edition is released. Those poor souls in Italy, Finland and Slovenia will either have to wait or risk reading badly translated versions of the novel because they’ve been deemed high-risk for leaking pirated copies of the book. No doubt, a counterfeit version will be published in China before the English ones get close to bookstores.

Ahem: @JKRowling #BringBackDobby, k thx.

No, not that kind of pirate.

Broken Penguins does documentaries

One of my favourite festivals in Toronto is HotDocs. It’s film festival that showcases some of the best documentaries from Canada and around the world. Oh, and it’s half the price of TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) and half the hassle. Of course, George Clooney is unlikely to show up for HotDocs but I’m too snooty to stalk celebrities anyways.

Another awesome thing about HotDocs is that students and seniors get in free before 6 p.m. screenings. So I got hooked when I was in university. This year’s HotDocs took place from April 26 to May 6.

Here are the docs I saw and what I thought:

The Final Member

The Final Member features an Icelandic man, Siggi, and his collection of penises (peni?). It seems creepy until you realize he merely collects them as a study in anthropology. As he puts it, “There’s nothing pornographic about it”. Siggi has penises from all over the animal kingdom, from field mice to sperm whales but he’s missing “The Final Member” – a human penis.

The doc turns super creepy when an American becomes hellbent on getting his penis in the gallery before anyone else, even if it means he must get it removed before he’s dead. This American is very, very creepy indeed. The doc is interesting but moved a little too slow to my liking.

The Job

We’ve all been on job interviews but The Job features a job interview from hell. A number of candidates are forced to complete a number of absurd activities to prove they are person for the job. But they are told almost nothing about the position they are applying for.  The first activity involves candidates trying to sell another candidate as the one best qualified for a job they know nothing about. At one point, most of the candidates are eliminated and subsequently asked to speculate as to why they’ve been eliminated.

It’s absurd and according to the director, it’s real. This company in France takes great pride in their interview methods, or should I say psychological torture. What’s more, the candidates learn at the end that the job pays minimum wage. Ouch.

Interesting doc but I found it too long and treacherous considering the entire film was talking heads.

The Ambassador

I saved my favourite for last. The Ambassador is like a Borat movie – only funnier because it’s real. And even sadder because it’s real. Danish journalist Mads Brunner buys a Liberian diplomatic passport on a quest to acquire blood diamonds from the Central Republic of Africa. “If Congo was the Heart of Darkness, the Central Republic of Africa is the appendage,” he says.

On his hilarious escapades while trying to acquire blood diamonds, he meets a number of other so-called diplomats on roughly the same path. They even offer themselves as mentors! This is, of course, a satire on the situation around blood diamonds. The Central Republic of Africa has all of the world’s most valuable resources (diamonds, uranium, oil) and yet, has managed to keep none of the wealth for itself. Mads shows just how easy it is to exploit a country and how it takes place every day.

The Fat Years ridicules until it gets ridiculously boring

Sorry Penguins, I meant to blog more this week but it’s been a busy week! But that’s not my real excuse. No, my real excuse is that I’ve been buried in The Fat Years by Hong Kong media veteran Chan Koonchung.

I picked up The Fat Years because it was banned in China. And while not all books banned by China are good – this one was probably one of my favourites. Based in the near future, The Fat Years features a Taiwanese journalist named Lao Chen living in China.

Lao Chen is beyond happy, he’s elated and he’s not the only one. And he’s not entire sure why – except that the economy has fallen in the West and China has become the greatest superpower. Lao Chen begins to doubt his own happiness when he runs into an old friend who tells him that the whole country has forgotten about a whole month. A month that was filled with turmoil.

Dystopia fans take note – this is a fantastically, puzzling dystopia. Except in the preface you learn that this isn’t a dystopia, this is simply Maoist China. Which explains why Chan Koonchung was able to write such a detailed dystopia. I actually really enjoyed the book with its rich use of facts from Chinese history and translated proverbs.

The Gao Brothers

But the story takes a dive when the characters kidnap a government official and interrogate him. The official gives a very, very long speech which resembles something out of my university political science textbooks. Only duller. Mind you, I think this was a satire of all the rhetoric The Communist Party likes to feed its citizens but it was a very long satire.   I couldn’t read all of it because it was so long and tedious.

I mean, even the characters in the book fall asleep during the monologue. And I fell asleep several times reading it.

The Execution of Christ by The Gao Brothers

Photo credits: gaobrothers.net