Tea Factory
Earlier last week I was at Tea Factory in Nuwara Eliya, with me fam. The town is full of races and the Colombo elite summering like proper colonials… and I wasn’t there. Tea Factory is way up in the hills somewhere, Kandapopo or something. It’s actually chilly and you can wear long sleeves, a blazer even. I spent most of my time reading books in an effort to stave off travel-induced anxiety. These are my impressions of two of the bigger ones, ‘A Cause Untrue’ and ‘American Psycho’. We had to return to Colombo for a grand-uncle’s funeral, which were just as well cause I’d run out of books.
A Cause Untrue
This book is a well-written thriller in need of some editing. The start is riveting, and the action is well-paced, but after about the 8th terrorist attack I lost track of what was going on. The narrative is initially centered around one Army character, but it then splinters into multiple stories with different centers. I found it a bit jarring, but maybe that’s me. I think the thing would make an excellent film if they could whittle it down to maybe three terrorist incidents, with higher emotional import. As is, the author has the LTTE going on an international post 9-11 spree, basically attacking Canada without any real consequences. I also find the portrayal of Sri Lankan Intelligence as competent a bit baffling, but I’m no expert. Anyways, it’s all very good, it just lacks the satisfying thread-tie of a good thriller. Most thrillers I’ve read have one binding hero and one objective that gets accomplished. It’s an ancient model, and functional. A Cause Untrue, on the other hand, reads like a series of vignettes that could’ve been stitched together into something that makes more sense. Well worth the read though, very entertaining. Most ruminations on the war are hand-wringing, but this a more of the neck-wringing variety. I should repeat that I think this is much needed. It is about time for a kick-ass book to come out of this mess.
American Psycho
I’ve read this before, I just bought it at Barefoot and it’s still pretty fucked up and good. Bret Easton Ellis’s thing is wrapping a veneer of commercial name-dropping over absolutely depraved violence and sex. It’s stylized text, Tarantinoesque, covering a sorta modern ennui that ends not in the destruction of the self but of everything decent and human. The book reads like a bloody GQ, literally.
I like Ellis’s style and I once went through his whole Opus Dei at the library. ‘Less Than Zero’ has some distinguishing features, but even there he seems to be playing the same card – pristine and psychopathic prose. ‘Glamorama’ is, as far as I can tell, the same book as ‘American Psycho’. The style is (was?) shocking and new, but it gets old. Anyways, I digress.
American Psycho is an interesting book, and a good movie. What is curious is that Jason Bateman’s flatness of effect is reflected in the prose itself, meaning that the book has almost no emotional impact of its own. The prose itself is psychopatic. As Bateman says,
There wasn’t a clear, identifiable emotion within me, except for greed and, possibly, total disgust. I had all the characteristics of a human being – flesh, blood, skin, hair – but my depersonalization was so intense, had gone so deep, that the normal ability had been eradicated, the victim of a slow, purposeful erasure. I was simply imitating reality, a rough resemblance of a human being, with only a dim corner of my mind functioning. Something horrible was happening and yet I couldn’t figure out why – I couldn’t put my finger on it. The only thing that calmed me was the satisfying sound of ice being dropped into a glass of J&B. Eventually I drowned the chow, which Evelyn didn’t miss; she didn’t even notice its absence, not even when I threw it in the walk-in freezer, wrapped in one of her sweaters from Bergdorf Goodman.
You could say as much about the book. It is literally a dead puppy wrapped in a designer sweater. As such, it’s a very interesting experience, especially in that it makes you feel the same detachment as its characters. For example, the scenes of women being tortured with a nail-gun are almost indistinguishable in style from the obsessive machinations on getting dressed or eating out. What you, as a reader, feel in these situations is a vestigal revulsion, but there are no emotional cues contained within the book. There is no narrative ‘Voice of God’, and the absence makes you wonder if he exists.
I find American Psycho disturbing because they spend literally all of their time looking for booze or food. When I find myself doing the same things I feel strangely guilty now. Anyways, all these books should be available at Barefoot. I think I may order some other stuff from Amazon. Reading seems a more wholesome procrastination than TV.
View From Tea Factory
So glad you are reading, Indi.
and to let you know that I have shipments coming in from four different publishers-
lots of fiction and non.
paying a bit more attention to the bookshop again, results of which should be seen soon.
‘Kandapopo or something’ ?
This is a bit shocking. It’s Tea Factory, Kandapola
Naz’s last post on her own blog and now this…blatant plugs. Bad, bad Naz. Heh heh…
I agree with Hasanga. You are usually great at verifying your facts-
do not become lackadaisical just because it’s not important to you.
eh? Was a joke, I never use the real name for anything
Sophist: Aren’t you happy that I have ordered more books? and your recommendations /thoughts on improving the bookshop are more than welcome.
naz : that’s great about the bookshop. i’ve always liked the somewhat unique collection you have in your bookshop, and hopefully it will be more exciting soon?
indi : american psycho was fantastic. i usually dont dig that kind of writing (i was overwhelmed by the violence in say, the exorcist), but american psycho was great. precisely, as you say, because of its tarentino-like style of being somewhat so over the top that you become detached to the reality of it…and it just becomes…surreal. like kill bill.
Naz the bookshop is superb, it’s easily my favourite in SL. A few things you might try;
i) Have a table of “Barefoot recommeds” books (which i think is already there but could be spelt out more)
ii) Waterstones does a very neat thing where they have a little post-it under some of the staff’s favourite books with a short review (in pencil) of literally a paragraph. It gives a wonderful personal touch despite it being a big bad chain store.
iii) The odd couch for ppl to free ride. But space might be an issue. If not a small reading area. Again gives a personal homely touch.
iv) For the cd’s (again nice collection) it would be super to have a way of sampling the music then and there.
v) The ultimate bonus is to have a staff well versed in the books and CD’s, but that’s kind of obvious.
vi) Second hand books! A nice table full of them, each with a bit of history (make it up even).
I haven’t been there in an age so you might have done all these for all i know. But yeah, keep up the good work.
Naz… not really a book recommendation but more a suggestion of improving the service rendered.
Purchased a wildlife book about 3 weeks ago and the cashier forgot to get my signature for the cc receipt… on alerting him to this fact I was duly informed by the salesman that the cashier was fondly known as “pissu huththa”… so basically not letting the salesman greet a customer in raw sinhala language would be by suggestion.
BTW have you ever given thought to a book club?
T: thanks for info. not acceptable at all! Apologies that you had to hear it.
Book club, have thought of it, need young people to get it going.
Since the post is about literature, I am going to be pedantic. I am pretty sure you didn’t mean to say Opus Dei – which is basically a Catholic cult. May be you meant ‘corpus’ ( his whole body of work)’?
Again, playing with language. Opus means work, Opus Dei being work of god. In this context it’s a joke, a play on words. Something that big probably isn’t a typo
Never though it as a typo, more of a confusion. Sorry, didn’t get the joke.
I don’t know if it was intended to be such but this has got to be one of the funniest comments I’ve read for a long time. Got a lot of “have you finally been pushed over the edge you poor bastard” sorta looks from the coworkers for laughing out loud reading “urgent client e-mails”.
What’s a book club? (Just trying to educate myslef.)
Spectral a book club is really very simple – a bunch of people gather each week/fortnight/month to discuss a book (the title is agreed upon earlier). It could be an individuals perspective on the story, any insight gathered from the book, basically anything goes… there are no firm rules to follow and there are no dues to pay either so its just a great way to spend a couple of hours with a diverse bunch who’s commonality remains a love of reading. Every week someone from the club hosts the rest to dinner/coffee and discourse. It’s all very informal.
There’s a book club where I work and we meet about once every two months (work and exams get in the way) and you really get to see your collegues in a new light and make some good friends in the process. One of the most memorable meetings was when our club hosted Nihal De Silva (Road from Elephant Pass, The far spent day and The ginirella conspiracy) to dinner.
Actually Naz it needn’t be just young people, I’ve always found that a mix of ages generally works best.
T: Young people tp organise, T. I will definitely be a participant.
Naz: I know a few in the wala who’ll definitely be interested… I’ll ask around and let you know… will post results on your blog
Ah excellent! Sort of like the ‘Dead Poets Society’.
Pissu huththa story…fabulous. Please Naz we need more salesmen with character.
You asked so I’ll be honest. It’s a great shop but most often the people manning it (not all the time) don’t have an effing clue. Also the books that I needed for University were almost always availabe exclusively at Barefoot and it was bloody expensive when I was a student of Yinglish.
We think (me and my imaginary friend) No. 1 and No.2 should run it.
we think (me and my imaginary friend) sophist is a pervert (most of the time).
Guilty as charged….