Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday: book review

Asymmetry (2018) is set during the early years of the Iraq War in 2003; in 2008 at the time Barack Obama won the American presidential election; and in 2011. The novel is written in three sections: Folly, Madness, and Ezra Blazer’s Desert Island Discs.

In Folly, in 2003, 25-year-old Alice is an editorial assistant and aspiring writer in New York. Internationally acclaimed Pulitzer Prize winning writer Ezra Blazer meets her in a café and dares her to begin a relationship with him. Ageing at 70, in pain due to several back operations, Ezra is a manipulative old man.

In Madness, Amar Jaafari, an Iraqi-American, having just finished an economics degree, is at Heathrow Airport in 2008 to see his foreign correspondent friend Alastair in England, before he leaves to visit his brother in Kurdistan, Iraq. The British Immigration Office detains him for the weekend. The details are told in the first person, from Amar’s point of view.

The last section is the transcript of an interview with Ezra Blazer, recorded at the BBC Recording House in London on 14 February 2011. He is 78 years old. The program is called Desert Island Discs – Blazer is questioned about the songs and music he would take on a desert island – and the songs are played for the audience.

Blazer is also questioned about his childhood, ‘the origins of his romantic life’ and the beginning of his writing career. Readers learn of the connection between the seemingly two disparate stories of Folly and Madness.

Asymmetry explores uneven, imbalanced, asymmetrical relationships and their power dynamics. It highlights the differences in age, gender, culture, justice, talent, fame, wealth, place of birth, lifestyle, and politics. The writing is simple, yet the issues are complex. Section three is the best, in which the it appears superficially to be about art and music, yet it is also a probing interview; one that reveals the hidden secrets of Ezra Blazer.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), 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

The acacia thorn trees of Kenya

There are nearly 800 species of acacia trees in the world, and most don’t have thorns. The famous "whistling thorn tree" and the Umbrella Thorn tree of Kenya are species of acacia that do have thorns, or spines. Giraffes and other herbivores normally eat thorny acacia foliage, but leave the whistling thorn alone. Usually spines are no deterrent to giraffes. Their long tongues are adapted to strip the leaves from the branches despite the thorns. The thorny acacia like dry and hot conditions. The thorns typically occur in pairs and are 5-8 centimetres (2-3 inches) long. Spines can be straight or curved depending on the species. MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), 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 Suda...

Hop on hop off bus tourism comes to Tbilisi, Georgia

City Sightseeing buses have arrived in Tbilisi. The iconic red double-decker buses, a feature of many cities around the world since the company was established in Seville, Spain in 1999, is now in six continents and almost 100 cities. The company established its Tbilisi business in November 2013, with its operations commencing in February 2014. The 90-minute tour stops at 11 major locations in Tbilisi (with 2 to 5 minute waiting times at each location): the Old City (where it commences), Freedom Square, Rose Revolution Square, Marjanishvili Square, the Dry Bridge, Konka, Avlabari, Metekhi, Akhundov Museum, the Sulfur Baths, and European Square. Passengers can hop off at any stop and see the sights, hopping back onto the next bus at any time. Alternatively, passengers can remain on the bus for the whole tour and take photographs when the bus stops at each location. There are one day (24-hour) passes (for 35 lari – about $20) and 48-hour passes for 55 lari, with family d...

The Knight in the Panther Skin by Shota Rustaveli (2015 translation): book review

The Knight in the Panther Skin (12th century, this edition 2015) is a recent translation by American poet and author, Lyn Coffin. The author, Shota Rustaveli, is Georgia’s most loved poet. This poem is mammoth, a magnum opus – it is 1,656 verses long, separated by chapters. But readers, don’t give up, because every verse is worth reading. It is akin to 1001 Arabian Knights, Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, or Shakespearean poetry. King Rostevan of Arabia has a daughter, Tinatin. She loves the knight Avtandil and he loves her. Verse 368 from Avtandil: ‘The doctor’s could do nothing. A dark twilight on my heart now pressed, I was on fire because of love, but nobody knew or guessed. They blamed my blood. The king decided bleeding my arm would be best; I let it be done to hide the suffering I had not confessed.’ But a knight in panther skin is seen weeping, and subsequently kills the king’s soldiers, sparing the king. Before Tinatin weds Avtandil she r...

FEAST OR FAMINE

Search This Blog