The Robin's Nest

Week 49: Couple’s Therapy

The Comfort of Strangers by Ian McEwan

pages: 140

Holly Robin’s Rating: 3.8 out of 5

*

This book makes me never want to leave the country! (That’s a lie, but almost.)  It’s a haunting tale about two lovers on “holiday” (as the Euro’s say), who’s trip is marred by the introduction of a local couple who are a little too friendly to our touring main characters.

Mary and Colin are on va-cay in what is most likely Venice, Italy.  They’re British, and having difficulties adjusting to a different culture and language, thus causing them to view the city from the safety of the hotel balcony.  Through their time spent at the hotel we learn about their relationship—and relationships— in general.  Mary and Colin are described by McEwan as one of those couples comprised of two gorgeous people (like Bradgelina or GoslingMcAdams).  They’re the types that leave you hopeful for the future of mankind solely because their offspring are going to be fantastically beautiful.

M and C have a super intense connection.  One minute they can’t stand the others’ voice/look/aura, and the next they’re making love like crazy all around the hotel room.  It introduces one of McEwan themes about man’s emotional dependence on another.  Is commitment to another person inherent, or brought on by society?  And is man really an animal that is meant to be attached to one individual for their remaining years?  Are we a monogamous species?  Love the one you’re with…unless of course you don’t love him/her, then maybe it’s not a good idea.

So after spending a long afternoon rolling around in the sheets, Mary and Colin go out into the world to tour the city.  The problem is, it’s late and all the places are closed.  The couple meets a man named Robert who leads them to a hidden bar known only to the locals.  A bottle of wine later, Robert tells them his whole life story— about his strange father and sad childhood and lots of other details you wouldn’t expect a stranger to tell you on the first night of meeting.

Mary and Colin are thankful of Robert’s hospitality but a little concerned by his openness (as they should be).  Days go by and they continue to run into Robert out on the street.  He invites them to his place where they meet his shy and demure wife, Caroline.  The real trouble begins when Mary finds multiple photographs of Colin in their apartment, suggesting that Robert and Caroline have been following them during their whole vacation.

Things get really, really scary when Caroline opens up to Mary about her sex life with Robert.  It involves a lot of sadistic role play that I won’t repeat for fear of blushing.  Anyway, I won’t spoil the ending for you, but things go very badly.

The major message of the book, I believe, is the dwelving into of different kinds of relationships.  On one pretty, manicured hand we have M and C, struggling to discover if their love can last forever in holy matrimony.  The other twisted, scarred, mangled hand holds Caroline and Robert, two married people in love, but in a very sick way.  They are the definition of a relationship gone wrong because they bring out the very worst in the other person.  A relationship is meant to highlight an individual’s strentghs, teaching them love and compassion, and essentially patience/compromise.

Thing’s I’ve learned from The Comfort of Strangers: don’t get too friendly with the locals.  Avoid sex maniacs.  Don’t go inside an apartment of a stranger.  Being polite isn’t always a good idea.

This book was also made into a movie with Christopher Walken as Robert.  Creepy!!

Week 48: Down with Zoos

“No one will ever believe this,” I said…

“You must be joking,” [my grandfather] said. “Look around.  Think for a moment.  It’s the middle of the night, not a soul anywhere.  In this city, at this time.  Not a dog in the gutter. Empty.  Except for this elephant—and you’re going to tell you idiot friends about it?  Why?  Do you think they’ll understand it?  Do you think it will matter to them?…something like this—this is yours.  It belongs only to you.  And me.  Only to us.”

 The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht

pages: 338

Holly Robin’s Rating: 3.6

*

Holla at yo’ girl, Tea Obreht.  She’s only 26 years old, and has published her first novel, The Tiger’s Wife, which won the 2011 Orange Prize.  She’s the youngest to ever win that award.  So distinguished!

Tea grew up with a hard-knock life.  Born in Yugoslavia, her family had to ship out during the wars in the early 90’s.  They hopped from Cyprus to Cairo until finally settling in the good ol’ US of A in 1997.  Her novel is largely inspired by her grandparents and the conflicts that arose during the 1900’s in the Balkans.

Tiger’s Wife, doesn’t have too much about the Tiger’s Wife, surprisingly.  It focuses mainly on the stories of our narrator, Natalia’s, grandfather.  The novel begins with Natalia learning that her grandfather has died while traveling away from home, and thus beginning her journey on discovering the hows and wheres of his death.

There are two central stories being retold by Natalia: one about the Tiger’s Wife and one about the Deathless Man.  The Deathless Man subplot was by far my favorite.  In it, Natalia’s grandfather tells her about his work as a young doctor.  He receives an urgent call that leads him to a funeral where the man being buried has begun moving and moaning within the coffin.  Enter: the Deathless Man.  He meets Natalia’s grandfather throughout his life, each time proving that he is immortal, and thus causing her grandfather to question the science and medicine he has practiced.

The Tiger’s Wife is a woman who lived in the village where Natalia’s grandfather was raised.  One day, a tiger is spotted in the woods on the outskirts of their village.  It had escaped from a zoo and traveled a great distance.  But no one in the village has ever heard of or seen a tiger before, except for the grandfather (who is a young boy) and the butcher’s wife (a.k.a tiger’s wife), who is also a mute Chinese woman.  Natalia’s grandfather knows it’s a tiger from reading and seeing pictures in The Jungle Book, but he is too young and scared to stand up to the others in the village who all believe the tiger is the devil.

The novel is a slow read, possibly because it’s as Tea writes in her own words “a family saga”.  Not my favorite genre.  It does have a lot of really cool fantasy elements in it, but subtly, almost like a magical realism story. 

The message that stuck with me after reading is the significance of holding on to imagination.  Belief versus non-believing is major tension, which comes through with the fairytale-like stories passed down through Natalia’s family.  Natalia isn’t sure whether to believe in her grandfather’s stories, just as he was skeptical of the Deathless Man.  The tiger from his childhood village forced all the villagers to face something unfamiliar, something they had never heard of.  Do you back away?  Or do do you approach it?

Best moment:  Natalia when she was younger is taken by her grandfather late at night into the village where they see an elephant roaming the streets.  Wouldn’t that be unreal to see?  An elephant walking through empty streets at midnight.