ayla_derammelaere's reviews
162 reviews

'East of Eden' is a story about 2 families. It's situated in the Salinas valley, at the end of 1800's, beginning of 1900's.

The book starts with the childhood of Adam and Charles. 2 brothers who have the same father but not the same mother. Adam is the eldest and his fathers favourite, and Charles is well aware of that. Adams father wants Adam to join the army while Adam is a very soft young man, not willing to go. He asks his father why he needs to go while that life is more suited to Charles but their father had recognized something dark in Charles and didn't want that part of his son to grow.
At the hight of Charles' envy, he tries to kill Adam but fails. When Adam arrives home, both his father and stepmother understand what has happened. His stepmother makes up excuses for her son while his father starts walking around the town to find and kill Charles, but doesn't find him.
Adam goes to the army, answers his brothers letters and feels very out of his place in the world. When he leaves the army, he wonders for a very long time before he goes back home. Home now is a place where only Charles lives : his stepmom has died and his father had told lies about his past, and rised to become a very political man.
When Adam has a conversation with his father to understand his fathers choices, his father answers this : " I love you more. Why else would I have troubled myself to hurt you?"
It gave me the chills to read this and made me wonder at the same time if this is true..
Adam and Charles find a balance between them and live together on the farm.
When Adam saves Cathy, she becomes a knife that cuts the bond of the brothers.
Adam leaves the farm with Cathy and travels to the Salinas Valley where he buys one of the most beautiful parts of the valley to build an 'Eden' for him, Cathy and the child she is exspecting.
Cathy tells him from the beginning she wants a different life but Adam is sure she will come around. One week after she delivers the twins, she shoots Adam, leaves the valley and goes to the big city as 'Kate', to become a prostitute (again).
Adam is completly stuck within himself and only with the help of 2 close friends, he finds a way back to himself and his sons, Cal and Aron.
When they are teenagers, sadly, history has a way of repeating itself and even worsening. Cal has a darker nature than his brother and envies the love his brother gets naturally while Cal needs to work very hard to gain respect but not love. He becomes more and more jealous of his brother until the point he does something he can not forgive himself.

There are a few moments in the book that made me think about what I believe and wonder how I (would) react :

1.The moment when Li tells us that he and 4 wise Chinese men have studied Hebrew to really understand the story of Kaïn and Abel, to try and find out what the strenght of the story is since, only stories that contain a message that are important and useful for everyone, are stories that are remembered. And what they found, was massive and probably the basics of all religions : 'we choose' or 'timshel'.
We don't 'have to', we are not 'guaranteed a certain outcome' ; 'we choose' and one day we'll follow the path and the next we might stray but it is never written in stone and we can always choose.

2.When Kate is dead and the sheriff is at Adams house, Adam calls for Cal and asks him where his brother is. Cal answers with the words Kaïn also spoke in the Bible when his father asks if he knows where Able is :"How should I know ? I'm not my brothers keeper", already hincing to the ending of the story.

3.I think this book is about the mix of good and evil in everything and everyone, and not just in the obvious themes but also in the details : how a righteous person like Adam, for who honesty is the most important thing, can afford to build himself a life with money his father had stolen with his lies. How Kate used the money Charles left her, to continue the whorehouse. How Aron, who wanted to be a minister, receives his mothers money..

4. I think that, in the end, complexity makes the world and yourself more difficult to live in and with, but when we work through the struggle, we arrive on the other side stronger.
Simplicity might be what we long for but it fragile and can be destroyed very easily (and us with it). I believe this is the lesson Li tries to give to Cal.

Traumagevallen: Katharina, Dora, de Wolvenman en de man Mozes by Wilfred Oranje

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informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.0

This book contains 3 case studies of individuals (Katharina, Dora and the wolfman) and an intruiging analysis of Mozes.

The 3 case studies give us an insight in how the psycoanalytic process works : Freud gives us a little bit of information about the patient he is treating (he stays aware of the fact that he doesn't want other people being able to recognize his patients), then he tells us about their symptoms and their dreams and explains to us what priciniples he uses to explain them. A lot of times he only gives us a short summary of his theory, assuming the reader of the case study is familiar with his theory.
The 3 case studies don't contain a complete analysis since he didn't do that with all of them and he uses these studies as an example to explain more of his theory so there was no need, once the principle was explained, to continue writing down the rest of the analysis.

I found the case studies intruiging to read, sometimes being in awe of how he managed to recognise things, sometimes wondering if there wasn't another way of explaining.
The work that really amazed me, was his analysis of Mozes.

Freud, being a Jew himself, starts with the premisis that Mozes must have been an Egyptian and not a Hebrew. He allows us to follow his train of thoughts using the analogy of origin stories of other religions and 'hero' characters. Besides that, he uses history to explain that 'Mozes' is an Egyptian name, the act of circumcision is an Egyptian tradition and if Mozes really was a Hebrew, then why would he want to keep using an Egyptian name and tradition if all they wanted to do was escape Egypt ?
He refers to the existance of Ichnaton (the first pharao who believed in only 1 god, so a little knowledge of ancient Egypt is requirred) and then draws lines and interprets the stories in that light. He also refers a lot to his previous book (totem and taboo) and combined all of it to explain that God wasn't always Jahweh, that there has been a rejecting of the monotheisme after the accepting of God by the Hebrews, that Mozes was killed by his people and that finnaly, when another Mozes (same name but another man, they never met) came in contact with the descendants of the 'original' Mozes, compromises were made and Jahweh was 'born' as the one and only God.
At the end of this explanation, Freud also combines his idea of memories shared by a whole people in stead of memories of one person (collective memories). For him this must be a condition for a religion to grow and remain.

I really loved reading the book, especially the part about Mozes. It inspires me to look more into this idea and see if there is more about this subject I can find.

Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler

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dark emotional inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

In the second book, we follow Lauren shape her life and her belief. A first community of Earthseed, Acorn, if being shaped and more people come to live with them and believe.
Sadly, as often happens in a world gone mad, there is one religious man who decides all other beliefsystems are wrong and should be destroyed.
Acorn is destroyed, Lauren looses her husband and best friend and all adults are forced to work as slaves. All of the children are taken from them and given to good Christian families so they can be properly raised.

This book is a combination of Laurens diary and words written by Larkin, Laurens daughter. Larkin was only a baby of 2 months old when she was taken from Acorn and has no memories of her real parents. She been brought up by a very distant Christian family who see it as their duty but don't do it out of love.
When she leaves their house, she is found by her uncle Marc, whe has a high position within the Christian church. He tells her Lauren is dead and treats Larkin, raised as Asha Vere, as his own daughter.

Lauren has never given up on finding her daughter and has never given up on teaching Earthseed.
Larkin is able to figure out that Lauren is her real mother and wants to meet her. But Larkin (again) feels as if her parent has preferred an other 'child' over her and only meets Lauren once. She is certain Lauren only put time and effort in Earthseed and doesn't see nor understand the pain and confussion Lauren feels when the lies of Marc come to the surface.

For me, the title of the book, is as the parabel teaches us : you are given talents at birth and you're supposed to make them grow and use them (for good). If you don't, they're a waste and they should have been given to someone else (if that would have been possible). You need to learn and grow and be a good person, a humain person, a helping person. Someone who loves others and doesn't want to inflict pain or harm.

This second book, to me, is more focused on Earthseed and therefor a bit more 'religious'. Although it made me cry with the ending.

I have some quotes that really touched me and I want to share them with you :

"We are born. Not with purpose, but with potential."

"We can, Each of us, Do the impossible. As Long as we can convince ourselves, that is has been done before."

"In order to rise from its own ashes, a Phoenix First Must Burn."

"Did she struggle for life only out of habit, or because some part of her still hoped that there was something worth living for ?"

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

A friend of mine gave me this book (and the sequel). I wasn't sure if I was going to like it since it isn't my normal style of book but I really loved it. I finished the book in just one day, so that says it all..

The main character in the book is Lauren, a black young girl. She lives in a small community in the US in a time not that far from now. The world we all know, is strange to her since climat change, war, individualism, money and greed became bigger and bigger in the world, turning the cap between rich and poor even bigger. Lauren doesn't live in a wealthy community but they don't want for much extra. One night, pyromaniacs (a new plague of addicts) set fire to the entire community. She is one of the only ones who escape.
She's a ministers daughter, so she not a stranger to religion or sermonts but her way of looking at the world, made her 'come up' ( read 'show people') a new religion : earthseed. All we can be sure of, is that everything changes do God is Change.

The story makes us think about what we think is important in life, what is worth fighting for, how do we treat others, what do we believe in ? Not just in the book but also in nowaday life : how can we make sure we don't end up in a world like that, where a neighbour can be a murderer if you don't pay attention ?

The story isn't a sad one, it has a happy ending (somewhat) but not the typical 'hollywood ending' ; the story strikes me as believable when you think about the time you were 18 years old and were convinced you could change the world. Since, Change is God.

For me, the title (parable of the sower) tells about the ways people can respond/react in different ways to similar circumstances : some will become hard and violant, others become depressed and scared, some become leaders and others become followers, some will forget about human values and other will persue them, no matter what. What do you when your entire world, when everything and everyone you loved and all that you ever knew,.. what if all of it, dissapeared. Not just at once, for then it would be obvious, but little by little ; one little step (law) after the other. When would you say stop ? When would hold your ground ? When will you stop believing that the one who shouts the loudest "make America great again", isn't necessarily the one who will lead you in the right direction. When will you trust on who you are and when will you believe enough to stand your ground for humanity as a whole ?

De tweede sekse: complete editie by Simone de Beauvoir

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emotional informative reflective medium-paced

3.0

I started this book with a lot of enthusiasm, I'd always heard a lot about her and was very intrigued about what and how so wrote.
The book I have is a combination of the 2 books that combine into the complete book of 'the second sex'.

The style of writing is very easy to read ; she does use some specific words but she explains them in the start of the book and she does her best to write about a philosophical theme in nowadays language.

In the first book, she writes about what it is that defines someone as a woman viewed from a specific point of view. She starts with biology, continues to psychoanalysis and ends with history. The information she gives is very wide and shows us there is not a single themed definition to explain what it is to be a woman.
I really enjoyed reading the historical part since it shows a way of thinking that I had never tried : she follows the position of a woman starting when humans lived as nomads and worshiped women as they are able to produce life, just as Mother Nature does. Men were in awe with women, thinking she was the divine living amongst them.
That position changed completely once men found a way to work the earth : once men were able to grow food themselves and physical strength turned out to become of great importance, the women became a 'lesser' gender since we lacked the strength to do all that men could do. Ever since that moment, women became less than men ; they were important to produce children and to create bonds with other families. Women were traded by the father/(older) brother / uncle/ .. or sold.
In Ancient Greece and Italy, the wealthy women barely had more rights than slaves : they were in charge of the household but were not aloud to have an own opinion, had no right to spend money the way they wanted, were not aloud to vote, … Men didn't even believe women would be intelligent as well so education wasn't needed. All women needed to know, is how the make the life (inside the house) as pleasant as possible for men. This status remained for many and many centuries until after the French Revolution, women started to (re)gain some rights and were aloud to go and work outside of the house, earn money of their own (of course not the same amount as men) and surround themselves with artist and even try to write themselves.

In the second book, she continues about to explain the life of women in her time. Little girls are given a different education than boys : girls are thought to be cute, friendly, beautiful, .. they are waiting for approval by men, waiting for love to come and change their world, .. Girls are not aloud to play rough since that is something boys do and of course are not aloud to wear comfortable outfits but are put in tight dresses. Boys however, are aloud to have an opinion of their own, learn how to stand up for themselves, are thought to be independent and successful. The world is made by and for them.
The book continues to show us how the upbringing of girls already makes them start with a deficit : all girls were thought is to give, while boys were thought to take.

There are parts of the book I found very intriguing and interesting but a lot of times, for me, she writes a lot of prejudice ideas. The story becomes very black and white, where men become heroes and women are painted as lazy, unmotivated and sad reflections of humans.
Maybe I don't know enough of life in her time and I'm not able to place myself in her position but I think there was and is a lot more grey in the world than is read in the book.

The Child's Dickens: David Copperfield, Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens, Annie Douglas Severance

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adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

3.0

Charles Dickens lived his childhood in poverty and with little education. When he grows older, he learns himself how to become a legal journalist and works his way up.
The story of Oliver Twist was published in small parts and was a way to make the wealthy look in a different way to the poverty laws that were created to 'save the poor'.

Oliver Twist is a story about a young orphan who is brought up in poverty. He tries to find his way out of it but the poverty laws make it really difficult to change your position. Almost all of the poor characters Dickens writes about, have a bad personality : they steal, they lie, they put a knife in your back if that can help themselves. Oliver is different in that way : he is honest, tries to do the best he can, he is kind and compassionate.
When Oliver finally runs away to London, to escape the terrible life he has, he is picked up by a gang of robers, lead by Fagin. Fagin tries to mold the boy into a rober but Olivers fine character can not be stained. When Oliver becomes ill, he is picked up and nursed to health by a wealthy elderly man. And this is the start of unraveling the true story of Olivers background.

For me the story is a bit too black and white : where Dickens wants the rich to change their view on the poor, he still writes about the poor in negative ways (their actions and personalities) while the rich are the people who want to find our the truth and are kind and giving.
Maybe this is my prejudice, but I find it hard to believe that a rich man would take up sympathy for a poor child and take him in and nurse him. There are so many other poor children that it sounds strange to me that all the wealthy characters in the book, are struck by Oliver and want to help him but that is the first time in their lives they do so.

For me, the story doesn't sound real enough, I find it more as a feel-good story. But maybe I was exspecting something of the book that only existed in my mind and not in the intention of the author.
I do however, love the way Dickens writes. The words he uses, the painting of the invirroments, the discriptions of the characters,..

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ayla_derammelaere's reviews 162 reviews

ayla_derammelaere's reviews
162 reviews