Gaiman's effect

Reading The Ocean At the End Of the Lane reminded me of the reason a started devouring and loving books. There is this special privilege given to people who, book in hand, get transported to another dimension, another reality while safely curled up in bed. I especially love Neil Gaiman for bringing me to the realms of dreams and nightmares with just a turn of the page.

Four Sisters and A Wedding: Not Just Comedy

Four Sisters and A Wedding was unexpected. Although I was told beforehand that the movie was “dramedy” (mix of drama and comedy), I thought it would portray the family on a light note, cracking jokes and witty comments in every scene, like with any Filipino feature film. Boy, was I partially wrong.

I said “partially” because the witticisms are still intact but the story about the family dynamics and the relationship among siblings brought the heart-warming, tear-jerking and effective drama into the screens; it drove me, and the rest of the cinema audience for that matter, into tears. As I am writing, my eyes still burn from crying for half of the movie.

So what’s with the drama, really?

Review: Return to Ribblestrop

Return to Ribblestrop continues the confusion, weirdness, friendship, suspense and chaos that Andy Mulligan started in Ribblestrop. The series is about a strange boarding school– quite an understatement, really– established by a quixotic Dr. Giles Norcross-Webb with even stranger students in impossible situations. In Return, Mulligan adds several big cats and reptiles to the school.

Honestly, I do not know where to start with the summary (or the review even!) of the novel. With the amount of characters and each his (or her) own sub-plot, it is a dizzying tale. Try keeping mental images of the students: Sanchez, Millie (the first and only girl student of Ribblestrop High), Sam, Ruskin, Miles, Henry, a dozen or so orphans (sorry, I lost count); and several grownups, while following the plot twist and turn into oblivion and finally resolution. Plus the geography of the Ribblestrop – the towers, the tunnels, the lake and the hills – adds to the confusion. But, I believe the complicatedness and Mulligan’s masterful presentation of it are the major factors that make the book unique and enthralling.

Of Love

Yesterday, I finished reading Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It has similarities with the movie Love and Other Drugs starring Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhal. The book must have been its inspiration, but I won't dwell here.

Of Love and Other Demons is about a tragic love story between a rebellious, copper-haired girl, who was raised by her family's slaves, and a bookworm of a priest, who was sent to "fix" her. This happened in the coastal tropics of the South American seaport during the colonial times.