A Novel that Waxes Off Stereotypes

Three young women are meeting once a month to get their legs (and other parts of their body) waxed. They live in the Netherlands, they have a strong friendship and they talk freely about their choices in life: about their career, their lifestyle, their fears, their love stories and about sex. No, it's not the story of Carrie and her friends teleported to the land of the wooden shoes, and it's not an orientalist depiction of an escape from the Harem. De Harsclub, translating literally as "The Wax Club" is the story of Bahar -single girl living with her parents, Arzu -independent flight attendant living alone, and Yelda -married to the "perfect" husband. Stereotypes? No.

Senay Özdemir's novel goes far beyond its "Mediterranean Chick lit" label and its unoriginal cover. De Harsclub is a sincere novel and it is why it's such a pleasure to read. The author doesn't try to manipulate your thoughts about a certain community. In this novel, like in real life, Mediterranean/Turkish/Muslim women do care about and have a life full of fun, love, success and sex, and that is just ... natural. No stereotypical depiction of the "non Western" woman caught in the terrible-web-of-her-so-thought-doomed-culture. Being herself of Turkish descent, Senay Özdemir has a legitimate voice to tell the story of these three young women of Turkish origin living in the Netherlands. Because indeed, having Turkish roots does influence their thoughts and action, and it does shape their identity. But it does not ipso facto imply that they are trying to escape from an-OTHER world. These women are perfectly feeling in harmony with their identity, because it is composed by more than just nationality or tradition. Arzu, Bahar and Yelda are before everything else women, and Özdemir does not feel she needs to justify their needs, their passions, their stories, in any way. She doesn't have to and it feels so good. I recognized myself in these characters, I also recognized my mother, my aunt and my girlfriends, all with their own backgrounds, all with their own identities, all sharing stories of life as women, in their own way. I enjoyed their company and moreover, I enjoyed not having been put in a box again.

De Harsclub, by Senay Özdemir (Archipel Amsterdam - Antwerpen, 185 pages). In Dutch.
Senay Özdemir's blog: http://senayozdemir.blogspot.com/

Margo Rabb, she's YA and she's OK!

Thanks to a very well written essay about Young Adult literature published in the New York Times Books Update of 21 July, I have discovered an even nicer author. Her name is Margo Rabb, she is a writer of YA books ... and more (she also writes for adults). If you want to know more about YA and her work, read her essay entitled "I'm Y.A., and I'm OK" and visit her website. She also has a blog called "Books, Chocolate, Sundries" (it's about books and food... a delight!). She has only started blogging in the end of June, so it's not too late to catch up! Her last book Cures for Heartbreak (pictured above) has received praise from Michael Chabon (you can read it on Margo Rabb's homepage), and I hope to review it on this blog soon.

An Ode to Women

After her internationally acclaimed The Bastard of Istanbul, Elif Shafak is back in the book shelves since the end of November 2007 with a new work in Turkish: Siyah Süt. It has not been translated yet but I am sure it will in a short while. And if no editor has already thought about publishing an English or French version, I can hereby state that I am very much open to work on it in French.

Siyah Süt -Turkish for "Black Milk"- is Shafak's first autobiographical novel, as clearly stated on the cover (see right side bottom). It subtitle says: "Yeni baslayanlar için Postpartum depresyon" -Postpartum depression for beginners. At first view, it wasn't a book for me I thought. I am not a mother and I have no wish to be one, even though I stay open to change my current vision on my life is baby-less. But then I really like Elif Shafak's work, especially her English written novels The Saint of Incipient Insanities and The Bastard of Istanbul - I have to be honest, I have difficulty reading the language she uses in her Turkish novels. I wanted to know more about this writer, because I was sure, no matter what, that she was going to tell her readers about her writing and not about her baby splitting on her nightgown only. And I have been impressed, even more than expected. Black Milk is a brilliant work. During 200 pages and even more, Shafak specifically writes about herself and the many voices inside of her before her pregnancy, enabling her readers to really understand the postnatal depression she went through. Inviting her readers to reflection, Shafak tells about her fears, her wishes, her doubts and moves to the wider theme of being a woman in society. She describes women writer's lives and vision on motherhood and feminism, making parallels with her own states of mind. She gives voice to the different women within her, and talks to herself through these six different characters throughout her story. Artist Latif Demirci's drawings also add another dimension to her storytelling, allowing an outside eye to draw the author's experience.

Shafak thought that she could never write again, but she intelligently and movingly transforms her black-turned maternity milk into ink. However, she wants this ink to be ephemeral as she tells her readers right from the beginning that this book has been written so it could be forgotten as soon as it has been read. "Suya yazi yazar gibi..." - as if you would write on water.
I don't know if it had been designed on purpose, but the ink of the title on the cover of my book has vanished after I read the novel... No matter what, I will not forget this book because for me, it is above all an ode to women.

Elif Safak
Siyah Süt
Dogan Kitapçilik
303 pages
Published November 2007 in Turkish

Look 10 Years Younger!

I was walking in the street, coming back home from a quiet end- of- the- season- working- day at BOZAR, and I saw a magazine in the window of a bookshop with a "LOOK 10 YEARS YOUNGER" printed in huge red-pinkish letters on the naked shoulder of a beautifully photoshop-ed creature. I couldn't help but think, why? Why should I look 10 years younger? Because I'm only 28, well yes, that's one point, but even if I were 38, or 48 or 58.... can anyone give me just one reason why one should LOOK whatever years, months, even seconds younger? Trying hard, I could see one good though... if looking younger can make you get all those years back and do whatever you wanted to do but couldn't, or correct any mistake or whatever... then maybe, there could be a point. Still, I did a lot of mistakes between 18 and 28, but I wouldn't change one bit of my life, because what I am today is because of what I did during the years that preceded my present age. And to the editors of these cheaply repetitive women's magazines, I would like to suggest searching for new topics, because one thing I'm sure of, is that for the last 10 years, I haven't read any other headline than "Look 10 Years Younger" or "Weight 10 Pounds less" and their billion of paraphrased versions. So, glossy piece of paper, you can go on trying to put some more imperatives on your cover for a few more decades, but you will always fail with me, because the older I'm gonna get, the less I would want to read how I can look younger. And yes, aging means dying in a way, but looking younger is not going to stop the process, but being ashamed of one's age, therefore of one's self, will certainly not help living one's own decades.

Girl Talk from Brussels to Antwerp enzovoort...

Five girls, all of them having worked together at least at one moment of their careers, in the same office, for the same purpose. Each of these girls are going through different experiences, aging 24, 28, 33 and 37, one has two children, three of them none, and one has a baby on the way... And what do these girls talk about? Babies, guys, love, sex, friends, work, politics, leisure, culture... ? Well all of it, mixed in between salads and home-made speculoos ice-cream! Conversing both in Dutch and French, but most importantly, in sincerity and simplicity. It is indeed that easy just to enjoy being together. And that's the way I like my friendships. Lieve, Leen, Stéphanie and Eve-Marie, thank you for being here and there... from Brussels to Antwerp enz.

Autopsy on a female soul

It was quite clear from the beginning,
it was just a physical matter.
That's what he said
"It's just sex"
It's not his fault
if you have feelings.
He's not supposed to see what's inside you.
So leave,
run,
go away before you fall.
Go away, run, leave,
or you'll be sorry after.
Don't take any risk and
run before he leaves.
Loneliness is something you know,
don't you?
So leave, go away, run.
Let's run away together love.
Let's leave them.
Let's just go, let us go
life.
It's midnight already.
Cindirella's waiting.
She lost her shoe. No one's getting it. No one will find it anymore.
You'll wait forever Cindirella,
for a shoe that will never come.
It's five past midnight,
Cindirella isn't waiting anymore.

The First Time

They say the first time is the most important of all, especially for a girl. Honestly, I don't even remember how mine was, and believe me, I am a sensitive girl. I guess I can be happy to remember with whom it was at least... First time on a blog, I should remember this one. Everything I'm going to post here is supposed to stay, as long as I don't decide to delete it. Well, deleting memories is quite the same isn't it? You only keep what you feel is "necessary", not to say vital. Let's see how it feels like to share it now.