Trying to Float by Nicolaia Rips: book review

Trying to Float: Coming of Age in the Chelsea Hotel (2016) is set in the Hotel Chelsea, New York, from 1998 to 2015. This is a Young Adult book - the memoir of a 17-year-old school girl who has lived her whole life in the infamous Hotel Chelsea.

This is not just a memoir, it is also about the historic Hotel Chelsea, famed since it was built in 1966 for its legendary guests, such as Arthur Miller, Dylan Thomas, Gore Vidal, Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Satre, Leonard Cohen, and Patti Smith.

Father Michael, a writer, and mother Sheila, an artist, moved into a one-room apartment in the hotel and set about finding a school for Nicolaia (Nicki). Slow academically, and slow to fit in socially, Nicki was nevertheless gifted in public speaking. Shy at school yet precocious in her home-hotel setting, this is her story of trying to make friends among a motley crew. For not only is the school the institution for children of well known celebrities or wealthy people, but it is also a school of cliques, and the hotel is not only a place for the artistic but also for home to drug addicts, ladies of the night, misfits and mavericks.

At school there are Pippi the dance teacher, Doris, Uhura, Fan, Janie, Greta, Noah, Roberto, Ned and the secret group. In the hotel there are The Crafties, an 80-year-old sexually ambiguous Storme, the Capitan, Artie and his wife Colleen and daugher Dahlia.

Although there is a cast of characters, this is predominantly about outcasts and awkwardness, friendlessness and loneliness. There is nothing fancy in the writing, but there are witty and comical life-episodes, with a blend of self-deprecating humour and sassy initiative.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

Comments

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. That

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass

Sister cities discussed: Canberra and Islamabad

Two months ago, in March 2015, Australia and Pakistan agreed to explore ways to deepen ties. The relationship between Australia and Pakistan has been strong for decades, and the two countries continue to keep dialogues open. The annual bilateral discussions were held in Australia in March to continue engagements on a wide range of matters of mutual interest. The Pakistan delegation discussed points of interest will include sports, agriculture, economic growth, trade, border protection, business, and education. The possible twinning of the cities of Canberra, the capital of Australia, and Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, were also on the agenda (i.e. called twin towns or sister cities). Sister City relationships are twinning arrangements that build friendships as well as government, business, culture, and community linkages. Canberra currently has international Sister City relationships with Beijing in China and Nara in Japan. One example of existing

FEAST OR FAMINE

Search This Blog