"I was not sorry when my brother died."

And that, my friends, is the first line of a really great book called Nervous Conditions.

It's pretty amusing that I'm STILL READING The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, even though I finished Oracle Bones, which is probably around the same length, in about three to four days. I started Nervous Conditions, which is around half the size, on Saturday, finished it the next day. I've been ready The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle for at least two months.

It's an amazing book, so it's not because Oracle Bones is a better/easier read. TWUBC shits all over Oracle Bones. As much as I hate to admit it, it must be because despite the fact that I can find eBooks for...well, free, they are still not easy for me to read, compared to their physical copies. Bummer. [To be fair, I also rarely have time to give TWUBC the dedication I gave to the other two. My laptop rarely leaves my room, so I only read TWUBC when I'm here, which isn't too often. I can take regular books anywhere, and usually do-- dinner, class, wherever.]

But as I was saying, Nervous Conditions is an amazing book. I would like to say it reminds me of Jamaica Kincaid's "The Autobiography of my Mother" but the comparison might not actually be very fitting aferall. The only similarity that I can think of is that they're both black female protagonists with semi-similar personalities...maybe. But the settings of each novel and the voices used by each author are completely different. If I remember correctly, The Autobiography of my Mother takes place in the Caribbean, whereas Nervous Conditions happens in Rhodesia, or colonial Zimbabwe, in the 1960s. Further, while I got the distinct impression that Kincaid was a poet first and a novelist second, Tsitsi Dangarembga, the author of Nervous Conditions, doesn't give me that impression. In fact, she kind of reminds me of a Black female Nathaniel Hawthorne, if only in that her sentences are pretty long.[In my book, an automatic plus-- Hawthorne-iness is as close to godliness as most can get ] But both protagonists are kind of fierce, or at least Tambu, Nervous Conditions' protagonist, is. If the first sentence didn't demonstrate that she's a sort of tough cookie.

The book is pretty heavily feminist, I'd say-- perhaps only second in focus to race in the novel. The author also says so in an interview in my edition of the book, I think. There are a lot of bad men in this novel, from Tambu's father on up-- bad women too. But Tambu is a very strong character, and though I think I remember being bothered by her at times, I really was rooting for her the whole way through. She has to go through a lot of mess.

This is seriously one of the best books I've read in a while. I feel like I read a lot of crazy books most of the time, or at least books that aren't very connected to my life or anything that I can relate to-- stuff from Victorian England, Japanese Post-Modernism, what have you. But, as a young black person I guess, I really related to this book. And even if you're not young or black[if you're not a person...we'll probably have issues], there's still a lot to gain and a lot of struggle to relate to. And it's extremely well-written. Probably one of my favorite books of all time.

I'll try to write an actual review at some point-- it deserves one. Unfortunately, this isn't my book-- I borrowed it from a friend,. So I should probably write it soon, before I forget most of the details[too late?] or before someone else wants to borrow it.

Speaking of Victorian England, I've really got an urging to reread some Proust. That's another writer I like-- he's French. He's amazing. If you like old, stuffy writing, then you will probably love Proust, if you don't already. He wrote Swann's Way/A Rememberance of Things Past/Whatever's the Current translation for his trilogy.

So, that's what I've got to say about books.

Otherwise, things were fine-- my week always sucks on Monday[class from 8-7:30...that's right], sucks less on Tuesday[Class from 1-7:30], and starts getting great from Wednesday onwards. And it's Wednesday night so...holla. Went to class, hung with the classmates/friends, typical stuff.

Also, this typhoon business is done now. And somehow, when I woke up this morning, all of the water was completely gone-- I have no idea where it went, but I can only say that Chinese sewage systems must put American sewage systems to shame. Back in Jersey City, were we to get as much rain as we just did over here, we'd have water in the streets for years. I like to think there are some elves trapped away at this school and they all whisked the water away in their fancy boots.

Otherwise I, predictably, decided I wanted to censure my previous entries about Pablo. I'm not sure if I'll go in and edit. Maybe, probably not-- they were my honest thoughts for the most part, afterall. But the reasoning for this censuring is that I think I've regained some of my confidence and sanity. I don't know what it is about boys that makes me turn into a neurotic ass-- I was reminding myself of all of my female friends, combined into some homotional monster, haha. "Why is he texting me? What does he want from me? Should I say that-- what if I come off too obsessive? Why didn't he text me back-- it's been three hours." My goodness. It's such an odd position to be in.

So, to fix the situation, I decided to watch Noah's Arc and Queer as Folk. QAF really did the trick-- as much as Brian grosses me out, he is such a pimp. Such a true pimp.

Anyway my head is back on straight, I think-- one boy is rarely worth that much stress. In fact, I'm pretty sure I just haven't been using my time well enough, which is why I always seem to have the time to think about him. So, I decided I need more stuff to do.

I kinda forgot about my goal to step my reading into overdrive, so that will be back on. Also, one of my friends was thinking of running a marathon, and I think that's a great idea. So I think I decided I was gonna start training, Steven-style.[Which really means running on the track with incremental increases.] Plus, I really need to focus more on Chinese-- I speak with people and do my homework, but I don't think I'm doing the most I can to improve. So there's that.

I also decided I should probably get other prospects/hoes so that I'm not thinking about Pablo so often. I will keep you updated.

That's about it, for now. I'm pretty tied as well and I want to go to the gym in the morning tomorrow, so I will be heading off to bed now.

Deuces.