It was still a long weekend, Friday being a holiday and so I found myself scurrying my growing collection of unread books bought in booksales. Booksales are one of the greatest things in this technology-ridden world. Laurels for businessmen who venture into booksales.
East of the Mountains is one of those road trip books. If you've watched Elizabethtown there are similar themes here, though the protagonist in the novel, Ben Givens is on the last days of his life due to colon cancer. In E-town, the main character is played by the unsympathetic Orlando Bloom, and his sudden road trip to self-rediscovery is prompted by the consequential failures in his life. East is contemplative while it touches on very similar themes given more depth in the perspective of death. Guterson displays his knack in descriptive narration, the setting ultimately becomes a main component in the storytelling. His renewed perspective is given substance by a string of encounters as he heads east. In the end, you expect Ben to come home to himself. I bought this for Php 65.
Chinua Achebe has been touted one of the prolific African writers of this generation. In Things Fall Apart, his narration of African culture, particularly the Ibo tribe of Nigeria is very rich and informative. There are accounts of the Ibo rituals on courtship, marriage, death, and leadership akin to human traits and experiences. Ultimately, it tells the destruction of one man and the death of a way of life brought about by Christianization. I bought this for Php 30.
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