Double entry: The Devil and Miss Prym

The Devil and Miss Prym is written by Paulo Coelho and is about Chantal, a village orphan in Viscos and a Stranger that visits with a task and a reward.

Conflict.

"What?"

Her question came out like a yell.

"Exactly what I said. I want them to commit a murder."

I chose just a few lines for the theme "conflict" because I think these three lines are all that's needed to illustrate the story's conflict. The Stranger is telling Chantal about his plan; if the people of Viscos commit a murder within seven days they will me rewarded with ten golden bars that would make the village a wealthy village. None of the inhabitants will need to work for the next thirteen years. And the Stranger will get the conclusion: we are all evil. But if a murder is now committed he will conclude that we are all good, and if Chantal's steals the one gold bar he has shown her where is buried, he will conclude there are both evil and good. Chantal is given the task to either tell the inhabitants of Viscos about the offer, or he will in the end of the week and then, if they decide to kill someone, he says; "it would probably be you". She could also run away with the one gold bar.

These lines illustrate the paragraph because it tells us about the main conflict of the story: "will the inhabitants kill someone?" And that's why these lines were chosen.

Self-realization and Relationship.

She smiled to herself, glanced to her left and blew a discreet kiss. She was not a useless woman; she had something important to do: to save the place where she has been born, even though she had no idea as yet what steps she should take.

The "she" person in this paragraph is Berta, the old widow living in Viscons. She can "see" people, and she can se the evil by the Stranger's side, and the good and evil fighting in Chantal after she have met the Stranger. This paragraph goes under both relationship and self-realization. Relationship because it illustrates Berta's love for the village and that she is very bonded to Viscos. Also, in this chapter we get to know more about Berta's husband.

But it goes under self-realization because of two reasons. One: In this chapter, we also get to learn about why Berta can see people and how she realized her purpose in life after her husband died and why she is the woman she is today.

Reason two is that Berta helps Chantal realize something important: who her enemy really is and who she is "hunting". This realization sets the story off in new direction.

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The Devil and Miss Prym

So, after a lot of back and forth I had to chose another book to read in English class. Of course, I am going to read Emma, but not now. Emma is a book that deserves more attention than I got time to use on reading right now. Besides my "job" as a book critic/reviewer (I am not sure which word would be right to use..) I don't get much time for other reading. After all, I have other school work besides my job and social life ;-) So I had to find a shorter book this time, and ended up with "The Devil and Miss Prym" by Paulo Coelho. I wanted to read "The Alchemist", also by Coelho, but it was sold out everywhere.

I started reading the book today and it caught my attention after just a few pages. Which is a good sign! Soon there will be a post with "double entry journal" about this book. ;) Stay tuned!

A Jane Austin novel

For our English class, I am reading Emma by Jane Austin. In this blog entry, I will write about what I think about this book(as far as I've read).
My expectations for the book were few, but I had heard it wasn't actually easy reading. At the time it was written, people had another way of writing than we have today. The book contains a lot of descriptions and "unimportant" information about various characters. The first three chapters rarely contains any dialogs, which makes the book taught to read because of it's lack of, well, action. The sentences are very long, some 7 lines with letter size 9-8. The language is very formal and deep. the first chapters have still not managed to engage me much, and I'm waiting for the story to really begin.

I am not sure about the time the story takes place, but the place is somewhere in a two hours diameter from London. Or so I have understood.

In the book, we meets Emma, who lives alone with her father. The books starts with describing the character gallery in the book, we get to know about a whole lot of people that Emma knows. Quite boring information, but if you've read Anna Karenina, this is no worse. 

The Kite Runner - entry 1

At school we're reading the Kite Runner. I have heard so much about the book, but never read it. Thought I have read Khaled Hosseini's second book, A Thousand Splendid Suns, which is one really amazing book. So I was really looking forward to the Kite Runner. Hosseini is an amazing writer.
I have been sick and very busy lately so I haven't got much time for reading, but as far as I have come, I really like the book. My favorite part until now must be on page ten, where Ali tells the boys about their nurse and her lovely singing voice and he sings for the boys:

On a high mountain I stood,
And cried the name of Ali, Lion of God.
O Ali, Lion of God, King of Men,
Bring joy to out sorrowful hearts.


The the paragraph continuos:
"Then he would remind us that there was a brotherhood between people who had fed from the same breast, a kinship that not even time could break.
Hassan and I fed from the same breasts. We took our first steps on the same lawn in the same yard. And, under the same roof, we spoke our first words. 
Mine was Baba.
His was Amir. My name.


I think this paragraph shows very clearly the bond between the two boys and that the bond is to strong to ever be broken. Thats why I really liked it. It tells us something about the rest of the story, that it will be about those boys, their relationship and their destinies.

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