Scrisoare de dragoste





















Count Zero
















I did an easy read for Mario Puzo’s Omerta, one of his last novels, in the Mafia series.

Unlike his previous novels, Omerta is much shorter and focuses on a single event, with fewer characters and less extent into psychology.

We are presented with the life of an old Don, Raymond Aprile, who took into care a small child from his old mentor who passed away, Astorre. We see glimpses of Astorre’s childhood, how he was raised in America, but also in Sicily, and learns the ways of the Mafia, and it’s unwritten rule book, the Omerta.

Don Aprile is the owner of a dozen banks, and cleans out his business, and keeps his three children away from his life. He prepares Astorre for what he believes will happen, and actually does: his enemies try to force him to take away his banks for drugs money laundering. He pushes his children to follow successful careers, and helps Astorre to grow his own small business. All until one day, when he is assassinated in front of his children.

Astorre begins a very patient and long term plan, to protect his cousins and to avenge Aprile’s death. He tries through several connections to uncover the plot for the assassination, and discovers on the way that Portella, the strongest drug dealer Don and the FBI are also involved.

We see here the measure of a man, what a profoundly correct man, the FBI agent that is the artisan of catching all Mafia leaders, can do to achieve his goals. We are asked the question of how far the end goal excuses the ways, as we find out that FBI allowed Aprile to be murdered to get more information and to be able to have evidence against Portella.

Then we see a mastermind at work, Astorre, who uses his girlfriend to seduce his uncle’s killers and bring them to his own justice. Then we see his weakness, he won’t allow innocent to be killed for his goals, he unveils Portella’s plans and turns him against the FBI.

In the end we see one determined man, educated in the old Omerta way, that avenges his uncle, protect his beloved, and finds a way to be eventually happy, to move to old Sicily where he felt at home, and find his happiness.

Omerta is clearly written for television, sometimes moving very quickly from subject to subject, without clear depictions, it looks a bit unfinished, and more like a movie script. The story is a bit faded, Mario Puzo tries his best to recreate something similar with his masterpiece The Godfather, but, this novel is only a small reflection of his Mafia series.

In search of a distant voice

I started 2021 with a Japanese author, Taichi Yamada, and his short novel In search of a distant voice.

The novel is a fantastic story of a man, Tsuneo, who is caught in late 20th century Tokyo, Japan, with all its customs, good or bad, and also caught in a bleak history, which circles around him all the time, not allowing him to get past and get a normal life.

Tsuneo is working at the immigration office, catching illegal immigrants in Japan. It all starts one day, when he loses a criminal, by experiencing intense erotic emotions, culminating with an spontaneous orgasm, that makes him feel very vulnerable and ashamed.

Things continue when he starts to hear a woman’s voice, who wants to communicate with him, at first slowly, with a few words, but with time, the bond is stronger.

We see a strong motif, with higher impact in modern Japan, the one of solitude and craziness. Tsuneo is very lonely, has one single friend, and most of his time is dedicated to work. People around him though, want to help him, and even his office’s director fights to find him a suitable girl for marriage.

While preparing his traditional wedding, with a woman he has no feelings for, after just four meetings; he continues to discuss with the distant voice, the distant woman, at first he is reluctant to believe it, gets mad, ignores her, tries to drive her away, but eventually realizes that the only other being in the world that is close to him, or appears to understand him, is this far away entity, woman, voice, or his own imagination.

The distant woman is able to inflict very powerful feelings for Tsuneo, and manages to ruin his wedding ceremony, by making him uncontrollably laugh, then cry, which makes people consider him totally rude and cancel the wedding completely, and his future wife to be hastily sells the rings and starts to find another catch for herself.

Tsuneo gets closer to the woman, and in the end he decides to tell her his life story, as a young student and immigrant to the United States, where is taken in by an older man, who forces and sodomizes him, eventually to be killed in an action that is caused by Tsuneo himself.

He wants to meet the woman, and she plays with him, proposing various meeting places, makes him run around and chase her, but she does not reveal herself. He touches him after she blinds him, but we cannot really know if she is real or again, part of his imagination.

Tsuneo banishes her, and for six months, she hears her no more. His life is in a downward path, he takes treatment, and after six months, she claims to finally meet him. At the meeting point he meets a blind girl, who was payed by a woman to meet him, the first and only real thing that makes the woman believable.

Tsuneo is subject to a fantastic experience, which looks to be a connection beyond time and space, to an entity that appears to give evidence of existence, which completely turns his world upside down.

An interesting novel, about extrasensorial perceptions, In search of distant voice is about loneliness, fulfillment, the place of man in society, the pain of compliance, the eternal search for happiness and accomplishment.

The mists of Avalon







































The devil upon two sticks

I read a very old and intriguing novel, The devil upon two sticks, by French author Lesage.

Even if this book is written more than 300 years ago, it has a very familiar feeling, outlook, and many of the things presented are still applicable today.

The wrap of the story is the myth of the limp devil, one of the devils in ancient tales which is responsible for lust. Named Asmodee, after the demon Asmodeus, he is freed by a young man, Don Cleophas, and takes his liberator unto a journey of a night and a day around the city of Madrid, observing the life and actions of the people in the city.

In this way, we are actually presented with plenty of short stories, the life of many people in this town, at the time of the writing, in 1707. We can see how the people used to live, what was important for them, how they treated matters of life, death, marriage, inheritance, money, and so on.

Actually the novel is a comprehensive moral fresco of the 18th century. We see certain patterns that are definitive for this era: the morality of women, which is of utmost importance, even widowed or divorced women, have a high standard of apparent morality, for which men get to duels, killing and insults, but the real morality behind them, is almost completely missing: women commit adultery, spend their nights in secret with different men, without any remorse. The only thing that matters is the image outcome in society.

Thus as a picture of a society, we see people wanting to become rich overnight, people wanting to steal, to find a suitable betrothed, and moral and class rules are opposing them at every turn.

One story that was central in the novel is the story of a man trying to fool a young girl into becoming his lover, with promises of marriage, all with a twist involving her brother, her father, in the end with a happy ending, where the treacherous man really is sorry for his actions and offers to marry the girl. I have a feeling that this probably never (or almost never) happened in real life of the 18th century.

Another interesting story is the story of a murderer who falls in love for a widow, only to get caught by pirates, sold as a slave and freed together with his lover, to be with her at the sight of their best friend committing suicide, only to fall off his horse and dying in the end.

The Devil upon two sticks is a funny interesting novel, presenting short stories of people’s lives more than three centuries ago, with aspects that are still very applicable today, and some that have changed and evolved. It is an interesting imagination exercise for people today, to try to understand how people used to think, many years ago.

The Marble Faun

I took some time to read an older novel this time, The Marble Faun, by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Interesting novel, presenting a deep psychological subject, but the shape of it is in the 19th century’s fashion, without a strong objective observation, and with strong emotional implications from the author.

We have four characters, each with a different story, each being biased by the author in a specific way. All of them live initially in Rome, the city of arts, around 1850, young, and in love with arts. We see very well the life in the 19th century, what was important for people, and how they spent their time, and how they did interact at that moment in time.

We start with Miriam, an immigrant in Rome, coming from a land far away, she is mysterious, with a somehow dark secret that nobody knows. Even though she is young, she looks to be the most mature character, and also her beauty is highly praised by the subjective comments of the author. Miriam is followed by a strange character, believed to be her art model, but this is really unclear for everyone.

We have Hilda, another immigrant in Rome, who is not catholic, rather protestant, in a world where religion plays a very big role. In here we can see clear observations from Hawthorne against the catholic church, and I can say that personally I was positively impressed, that in the 19th century, an American author has such kind of hidden attacks. The author again subjectively emphasizes that Hilda is an innocent virgin young girl, with no experience of the world, focused on restoration of the work arts of the great masters.

Donatello is the sole survivor of a long line of counts in Italy, the Monte-Beni, and he is again a very young man, with no life experience, and he is the Marble Faun, as his friends all declare that he really looks like a Faun, a mythical character that was present in many art forms like paintings and sculptures from the ancient times.

Kenyon is an American , a sculptor, the only one with a very balanced mind and soul, but is deeply troubled and has a crush on Hilda. He tries to find enlightenment through love and sculpture.

The four friends live in a dream and fantasy world, Donatello, young and fierceful, falls for Miriam, and is willing to do everything for her. Everything falls apart in the moment of the sin, where Donatello pushes over the cliff the man known as Miriam’s model, Miriam’s catharsis, killing him, but only when Miriam’s look pushes him to do it. So they are united in guilt, in sin, thing that breaks them completely, especially Donatello.

Donatello, young, passionate, find the sin of the murder too strong for him, and in contrast with his initial declarations, that he would do anything for Miriam, finds himself in the impossibility to even see her anymore. Full of remorse and guilt, he retires at his castle in Italy’s mountains.

Hilda unwillingly assists the crime scene, and is completely shattered by the view. She denies her friendship with Miriam, and isolates with an unbearable burden on her heart and shoulders.

In the end, we can see that the four friends start to be more mature, and find some kind of balance in their lives. Donatello finds a way to repay for his sins, trying to punish himself for the rest of his life, by confessing his crime. He manages to get back together with Miriam, to be united with her in their sin.

Hilda understands that being a friend does not mean to deny Miriam, but a true friend is there when she’s needed. She finds a relief of her burden by confessing it to a priest.

We are also invited to understand a very important thing, that only trough sin, a man can understand what is the value of life, the value of sin, the value of redemption, and to understand what it means to make mistakes, and to grow.

A classic novel, presenting the idea of the sin, in a specific way, The Marble Faun is an interesting book, with deep implications, which could be rewritten in a more objective and strong way, but by keeping it’s original design and color, it has it’s own value.


I had time for another Joseph Conrad read, after The rover . This time a short story, named Falk.

Being a short story, we do not have many characters, and the story is focused on one, namely Falk. Everything is depicted through the eyes of another character, a boat captain, who is in the far east, trying to work with commerce, by delivering goods.

In this harbor , he gets friendly with another captain and his family, a German, who is also in the same business. They spend evenings on his boat, drinking, playing, chatting and other things people used to do in the 19th century. The German captain has a very nice and interesting young niece, and our character looks at her with at least curiosity.

We also have Falk, who at start is a very silent and distant man. He is the captain of a tractor boat, the only option that everyone in the harbor has to be hauled out of the harbor, as the sandy and windy entrance is very dangerous for anyone without a strong engine to attempt.

Everything turns bad when our main character is left stranded as Falk skips his turn in being hauled out of the harbor, and instead takes out the German ship.

Our first person story teller begins to investigate what is happening, and his only way out is to convince Falk to haul him out. Eventually he understands that Falk left him out on the bay because he considers him a rival towards the German’s niece, which Falk has a crush on.

Even if he had slight interest in the girl, his business is far more important, and he can’t risk being stranded in the harbor indefinitely. He has to convince Falk that he has no interest in the girl, and more than that, to help him to convince her uncle to allow Falk to get more close to the girl.

We also find out Falk’s greatest secret, the reason why he is so strange and he thinks that he has no hope in life. He was lost at sea for months, on a boat, with a small crew, with no food, no water, which made him do horrible things, including cannibalism, but , he survived. The news of this from Falk’s history was not taken good by the German, who casts him out.

The main character finds somehow a way to convince the German that his sins are not so bad, and they were done just out of pure survival instinct, without any intention, as a sole measure to survive. And overall, it would be a good catch for the niece.

In the end, Falk manages to get close to the girl, who also seems interested in him.

Falk is a short story, which focuses on one character, who has a big secret that is revealed, and we can see how this event affects his life further, and how it unfolds from other people’s perspective.

A maggot

I read the novel A maggot, by John Fowles.

Even if it starts like an old 18th century novel, A maggot slowly slides towards a very risky and keen type of writing, presenting facts from either an agnostic observer, or from newspaper slips, or from judge – trial interview with key witness, people, from the presented events.

As usual , Fowles is very attracted to supernatural and unexplained events, by which he wants to transmit certain messages, and to leave the reader thinking about the meaning and the symbolism behind it.

We have a certain event in time, the strange travels of a group of people, who spend a few days crossing through the western England, with one apparent purpose, but with many hidden ones. We can also see the result, one dead man and many missing.

From a third person perspective we can only see one day and one evening, and we learn from the rest of the trip from testimonies by the involved people, starting from the most insignificant people, up to the final testimony of Rebecca Hockner, the main character, a woman who worked in a brothel, was hired for some unknown purposes , and ends up in ‘enlightenment’, being recruited by a Christian protestant sect, and being impregnated in the whole process. Rebecca is due to give birth to Ann Lee, the founder of the Shakers religious sect.

Fowles imagines with such high abundance of details, a kind of supernatural experience that happens to Rebecca during her travel, in which she claims to experience future, past, and heaven in the same time, to meet her God and the image of the God Mother, which completely changes her. Initially being a brothel worker, full of sins, unable to conceive, she believes she was absoluted, turned into a saint, a kind of Virgin Mary, being impregnated by a handicapped servant who performed suicide. She finds every reason to live in poverty and turn to the bible and wait for the second coming of Christ, which is the main reason of belief for her religious sect.

She finds a bunch of nice people, even her equivalent of Joseph, who accepts her as a saint she claims to be, and her unborn bastard child, to take them into his family.

Fowles imagines a modern 18th century conception of Jesus, in a fantasy way, full of details, with plenty of in depth century depictions, in a very interesting novel. He also manages to be very neutral in this book, and does not raise fingers, nor accuse the way of life of religious sects, leaving the author to draw the conclusions related to the fantasy in the mind of the believers.

The hunger games: Mockingjay

I finally completed my read of The hunger games trilogy, with the last volume, titled Mockingjay. Although I quite feel that the series was reaching a stale point, I managed to continue to see what the author can invent for a third book.

The previous two volumes review is here and here.

Ever since the beginning, the darker theme of this book is revealed. I don’t know if for everyone, the author managed to change the book paradigm from a simple teenage good-evil eternal battle to a more psychological and deep novel, but for me it didn’t quite succeed. I can see the attempts, but the success is a bit far.

What I mean by this, is that our hero, Katniss, is no longer eager to do all the ‘good’ deeds against the all-evil capitol and president Snow, and this time she weights in all her actions much better. We can see inner struggle, the fight for freedom, which is merely an illusion, and we can see that every action and act has a consequence, rather than categorizing each based on the good or evil label.

We are presented with District 13, the initial potential savior, which eventually turns more and more into a second version of the Capitol. I have a feeling that District 13 was the capitol initially in the first wars, and the author wants to tell us that history had a reason, and it’s repeating itself.

We see a devastated Katniss, full of anger, pain and remorse. We see much more bleak and death compared to the other books. I feel the other books were a hero novel, this time, Mockingjay is a novel of pain. Pain on all fronts, inflicted, self-inflicted, unavoidable. I would even call it an encyclopedia of pain.

We see pain on Peeta, who is completely rewritten, into something new, from a simple initial character, driven by a kind heart and pure love for Katniss, turned into a confused mind, an ill body, and a relic of a spine complete man.

We see another president, Coin, the president of 13th, who is willing to do anything to keep power and get more power. Including turning into Snow, and doing again the main one thing which brought down the Capitol: the Hunger games, with the children of their enemy as the main protagonists.

The author emphasizes again on the remote control: hurting people we care about to keep us in control. The whole Hunger Games idea, the idea behind hijacking Peeta, torturing the close ones, the loved ones. To urge everyone to comply to their desires.

We see death and despair, and the end is again bleak. The author kills off several characters, including Prim, Katniss’ sister, Finnick, but keeps Peeta, or the new version of himself.

Katniss is no longer the young girl we met. She turns into a relic of pain, but we still have hope in the end, that humanity can thrive, and happiness and joy maybe still exists somewhere.

In the end, the author tries to shift the trilogy paradigm, from teenage hero book to a psychological novel, but, up to you to understand if she managed it or not.