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I just completed Empire of the Sun by J. G. Ballard. It’s the book on which the film of the same name (from 1987) is based. I liked the movie, which is why I wanted to read the book. It’s the story of young British boy in Shanghai during World War II who becomes separated from his parents and endures many ordeals for the remainder of the war. One of my remembrances of the film (and it’s been a while since I’ve seen it) is that it seemed just a tad too sunny for the subject matter. But it was a Spielberg movie, so what did I really expect?
Anyhow, I’m happy to report that the book is much darker, as the many descriptive accounts of corpses whose faces are hungrily being devoured by swarms of flies can attest. In fact, towards the end, I actually might have preferred less rotting corpse-talk. Mainly I was intrigued by how the film and book differed. Like how the camp detainees are marched to a decrepit Olympic stadium filled with rusting luxury cars and looted furniture in the book – I believe the stadium is omitted from the film, but that would have been a rather dramatic tableau on screen. Also, in the book, little Jim’s American ‘friend’ Basie is much more of a scoundrel (although I couldn’t help but picture him as John Malkovich, who was great in that role in the film.)
So I liked this book a lot. My one complaint is about the ending. The potential reunification of Jim with his parents is an undercurrent throughout the book. However, it seems like it’s almost an afterthought tacked on to the book. I was expecting a little more elaboration and was a bit disappointed.
I also noticed that it’s labeled a novel on the cover, but is based on the author’s own experiences as a boy. Makes me wonder how much in the book really happened – even if only half of it’s true, it makes for quite a harrowing childhood.
So, I just wikipedia’d Empire of the Sun, the book. And apparently J. G. Ballard wrote a sequel to the book called The Kindness of Women in 1991, and get this: that book culminates with the filming of the movie version of Empire of the Sun!! Whoah, my mind is totally blown. I am so reading that. Plus Ballard also has written an autobiography called Miracles of Life, which gives the whole non-fictionalized story. Guess I’ll add that to the pile as well.
Generally I like to read 2 or 3 books at once. Well, not all at once, but you know, switch between several as I read. So I’ve started 3 on my list and below is a summary of my impressions thus far:
1. In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan: when I first started reading this and he started going off about the ‘lipid hypothesis’, I was like, Oh, boy – major snooze-fest. But since it’s on my list, I didn’t immediately post it on Swaptree – I plowed on. And it’s gotten much more interesting. The section I’m reading now is about the so-called ‘Western diet’ – its origins and why it’s not good for people, even Westerners. I believe the last section of the book which I’m close to approaching, has his recommendations about what one should eat, and I think that should be interesting too. I’m about halfway done.
2. Empire of the Sun by J. G. Ballard: again when I first started this, I was a tad skeptical. My first thought was, This is just like the movie – I’m not going to get anything out of this at all. But again, I soldiered on, and it’s actually gotten better too. The movie always struck me as painting a little too rosy picture of life in Japanese-occupied China during World War II. I mean, Rape of Nanking, anyone? But the book seems quite a bit darker. Which suits me just fine.
3. So after the slow starts to these 2 above-mentioned books, I just had to go for something that I had no doubt would be good. So I reached for A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami, an author whose imagination and wit never let me down. (If only I knew Japanese and didn’t have to read in translation – I can only imagine how much more amazing his works could be.) So he hasn’t disappointed. I haven’t gotten too far in this, but I know it’ll be pretty awesome. This is on Larisa’s list too, so I won’t go into the plot or anything, so I don’t ruin it for her.
So I’m planning to be done with one of these in the coming week. At that time, I’ll post again.
Samara
