OK, let me set the scene. I went to Tesco a while back to do the shopping and had a quick look at the book department. My eye was caught by the cover of this book - and once I read the synopsis on the back cover, I was more than happy to part with £3.73! Many of you know of my love of “oriental” books and so it should come as no surprise to you that I was dying to read it. However, my studies got in the way, then work got in the way and finally last week I was able to read and finish this book.
I will not lie to you, the first few chapters are a little disorientating. The book sets the scene for each of the main characters - different ages, different social backgrounds - all bound by one thing…Jin-Shei. What Jin-Shei itself is appears fairly unimportant (it is a language passed from mother to daughter which men must not know) but what *is* important is what Jin-Shei represents. I will not spoil any of the plot for you but I have to say that this is the best book I have read in a long long time. The characters, seemingly disjointed at the start of the book, start to interweave and the effect is stunning. My breath was taken away, the way that Alma Alexander describes physical scenes and characters is beautiful You could almost be in the temple in medieval China. Oh, as an extra thought, if you *do* read this book, then read the glossary first! I only discovered it after I had read the book and it would have been useful to know how to say the Chinese names before I started!
When I finished this book, I was truly sad. I felt quite bereft for a couple of days - as though I was somehow missing friends. I shall confess I shed a tear or two. I urge you to read this book, seldom do I read a book which I would want to read again. This is one of those books, so I shan’t be giving my copy to anyone - buy your own 
April 19th, 2006
OK, so I have been debating internally whether or not to watch “The Lion….” as it was my favourite book growing up and I know how often a film just doesn’t live up to expectations. However, David resolved this debate for me and last night we watched the Narnia film.
It was obviously lacking in areas - a two and a half hour film cannot do full justice - but overall I was impressed. Lucy was fabulous, I really warmed to her but it quite upset me wondering how much grief an eight year old was expected to go through! My other favourite was Mr Tumnus, just perfect casting and I was very intrigued as to how they made him walk. Naturally Ray Winstone and Dawn French were excellent as Mr and Mrs Beaver (loved the suit of armour Mr Beaver!). Quite how the white witch walked around in that dress I will never know. She was seriously scary and was wonderful casting - she was exactly how my six year old imagination thought she would be. All those memories of reading the Narnia books for the first time came flooding back to me.
The other interesting thing to me is that since the film came out there has been a debate raging about the books and Christianity. There have been some interesting articles on the bbc website oftentimes with reader comments. What does appear clear is that JRR Tolkien, one of CS Lewis’ friends - and author of another of my favourite series of books - did not like the Narnia books. Perhaps he was envious that it only took Lewis three months to write “The Lion…”! I have to confess that as a child reading the Narnia books, the last thing on my mind were theological themes - I just loved the fantasy aspect of the stories.
Finally, the other thing that irritates me is the ordering of the series. Naturally, “The Lion…” tends to be the first book that anyone reads in the Narnia series - of course it is the first film to be made as it has such great impact. The order in which perhaps the books should be read is considered here, although naturally no conclusion is drawn. For me, having read the books many times, I read them in the chronological order rather than the publication order. If you are a Narnia virgin, I urge you to read the books - no matter which you read first, “The Magician’s Nephew” or “The Lion…” - just read them!
January 8th, 2006