Have you ever waited for someone who was supposed to come fix your water tank, at a time you both agreed on, only for them to turn up seven hours late?!
Well that happened, only also it wasn’t fixed and the whole thing has to be replaced… (another appointment, another time) I am just going to use the word frustration here.
Anyway, the only thing to keep me from going mad whilst waiting was to read and boy did I read! Two. Books!
The first book was ‘fever dream’ by Samanta Schweblin (I wrote about this a few post ago about translated women writers).
I finished it in 2 hours, ok it is a short book by the way.
But I couldn’t put it down.
Maybe it was the way I was feeling too… the waiting, anxiousness, it added to the feeling of a hazy fever dream.
Because you’re also anxiously waiting in the story, to find out why, and the boy is also impatient and intrigue is driving the ferocious turning of the pages.
I read it with a pit in my stomach because you know something bad happens but for those who need a definitive answer/closure then this may not be for you. The story weaves a mystery that involves supernatural/superstitious folklore and the dire situation of a country anguished by the ‘poison’.
Next, I read Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, ok so it’s more like a comic but it’s still a book!
I watched this a long long time ago (it’s also an animated film if you didn’t know) so when I came across it at the library I decided to pick it up.
It gives you a real insight into how a country can change and that scary feeling when you don’t agree with the ethics your country is enforcing. If anything it should invoke empathy for people who choose to immigrate or send their children abroad in hopes of a better freer life with opportunities that we can sometimes take for granted.
So all this reading helped me to stay calm and sane when the guy finally arrived… but as I already eluded, unfortunately, it wasn’t the end of this story.
by Law: to feed my creative soul 