Annie Kapur
Bio
190K+ Reads on Vocal.
English Lecturer
đLiterature & Writing (B.A)
đFilm & Writing (M.A)
đSecondary English Education (PgDipEd)
đBirmingham, UK
Stories (1942/0)
Book Review: "The Woman in the Purple Skirt" by Natsuko Mamura
Over time, I have read many books from the land of Japan. Japanese fiction is some of the most incredible, heartfelt and magnificent fiction in the world. You cannot go wrong with a traditionalist family gone awry like Junichiro Tanazakiâs âThe Makioka Sistersâ and you definitely cannot shy away from Yasunari Kawabataâs mind-bending narratives of the human psyche pushed to the edge such as: âDandelionsâ, âThousand Cranesâ and âThe Sound of the Mountainâ. Reading Yukio Mishimaâs âConfessions of a Maskâ, âThe Sound of the Wavesâ or the disturbing âThe Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Seaâ is like being on a trip through the less-explored and more explicit parts of modern 20th century Japanese Culture. In our own 21st century we have had great authors such as: Haruki Murakami, Yoko Ogawa, Hiromi Kawakami, the great Koji Suzuki and who can forget Koushun Takami - creator of âBattle Royaleâ. It is not uncommon to say that Japanese Literature from about 1930 until now has been in its golden age. We are witnessing some of the novelists that will go down in history as greats and legends and the same can be said for this newer novelist - Natsuko Mamura.
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Nowhere City" by Alison Lurie
Books about failed marriages, broken relationships and movement which is neither looked forward to nor wanted is a big thing for the modernist, realist and post-modernist eras. Authors such as Richard Yates and his moving âRevolutionary Roadâ, âEleven Kinds of Lonelinessâ and âA Good Schoolâ which all demonstrate different types of failed relationships between lovers, friends and acquaintances have been part of one of the biggest movements in the literary emotions of humans. Authors such as Christopher Isherwood have taken this one step further with both familial relationships and those with homosexual undertones at a time when the LGBTQ+ movement was still fighting for their human rights. Novels such as âBrideshead Revisitedâ all the way through to âCloud Atlasâ have explored the extremities of human emotion from love, to strength to suicide and back again. In the work of Alison Lurie though, I find that these relationships have a tendency to be slightly unrealistic in their sense of endurance. It is almost a romanticised emotional abuse that is more befitted to a mid-career Lana Del Rey song than a realist novel. Ever since I read her novel âThe Last Resortâ I can honestly say that I have felt this way more than once. Though she is a brilliant writer, sometimes her relationship writing can get carried away with any amount that a person can endure from another person. Not just making it unrealistic, but making the abuse of the mind a romanticised aspect that I certainly do not agree with.
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Geeks
- Top Story - July 2021
"The Picture of Dorian Gray" and ImmoralityTop Story - July 2021
Published in the summer of 1890 in Lippincottâs Magazine, âThe Picture of Dorian Grayâ by Oscar Wilde has been closely associated with the era of decadence and hedonism during the fin-de-siecle because of its presentation of the fall of the upper class man. The character of Dorian is directly representative of the upper class youth who, by spending time with his elders and not contributing to society in any good way, has descended into a life of debauchery and sin. In the Victorian Era, the novel was seen as an absolute scandal because of its reflection of an upper class man, who in that time was seen as a model for society to follow - in the light of something that was closer to the nature of the peasantry (in the eyes of the upper class). This uproar caused the book to be banned and then edited, republished without many of the âsinsâ that the public put it down to. Unfortunately, it caused the downfall of its author as well - landing him in a hard labour prison.
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Beautiful Things" by Hunter Biden
I remember when I first heard about this book and everyone was recommending it to me, but at the time I really just could not afford it as there were already many books on my âto be readâ list and âWishlistâ and any other list you can think of. I was pretty up in arms about it because everyone was reading it and discussing it at the time and I was feeling a little left out. When I finally did come around to buying it, I would have it on my Kindle purely because it was a little bit cheaper. I think I was actually pretty thankful because everyone had stopped talking about it and things were returning to normal. I was not coming across the book every three scrolls of Instagram, not seeing reviews of it all over Twitter and not being constantly advertised it. I felt like I was reading it in silence again and for me, that is the best way to read. Hunter Bidenâs autobiography is an amazing achievement of memoir. Obviously, his last name thrust his book into the spotlight once it was published and of course, during this time there were many people already talking about his drug use, his bad habits and blaming them on various things they did not know about. But this is the book that clears that all up.
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Paul Thomas Anderson: Masterworks" by Adam Nayman
I love reading books about filmmakers and their movies. Books that really include some information that I have not read on Reddit or 4Chan before are probably the best ones. The ones where I can say âyes, the heart and soul of the author who wrote this book is in here and it is presented through their love for filmsâŠâ I once read a book about Quentin Tarantino that did just that. Each film was gone through in meticulous detail, each film was analysed and, alongside pictures from the set, taken apart and then put back together again. I read a book about John Huston that was amazing, a famous work entitled âPictureâ that went through John Hustonâs thought processes and the creative mechanisms he used to create masterpieces for Hollywood. I have read the books of Derek Jarman which he wrote as diaries before he died - exploring environmentalism and homosexuality through filmmaking was amongst some of the most interesting aspects of the filmmaking process I had ever read. It blew my mind at the time and his book âChromaâ still blows my mind today. This book I read by Adam Nayman does relatively the same thing but this time, analyses the works of the legendary filmmaker, Paul Thomas Anderson.
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Geeks
5 Great Books I Read in June '21
June is a lot of things to a lot of people. For British people here it is the start of the real summer season with some of the hottest days of the year becoming a reality. People go to beaches and day trips and a bunch of other hot-day activities happen. This year and last year though, it has been considerably different. Less has been going on though people still insist on crowding beaches and making a day-trip out of car journeys to crowded shopping centres. Honestly, if you are out there please stay safe as vaccinations for COVID-19 have not ended and the delta variant is still out there.
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Dangling Man" by Saul Bellow
A few years back I read my very first text by Saul Bellow - the American realist author of the mid-20th century and I am not going to lie to you when I say that I hated everything about it. It was dry and droning on and on, I could not stand any of the characters or the writing style and yet, it was supposed to be one of the best books ever written according to a lot of people. The book was called âThe Adventures of Augie Marchâ. I read it some years later at the age of around twenty-three and, thinking my nineteen-year-old self had just had a bad day, tried to read it again. It was all the same. I could not stand it still. I tried some other books by Saul Bellow such as âHerzogâ and âIt All Adds Upâ, âHenderson the Rain Kingâ was also one of the fictions of boredom I tried. But all of them were terrible experiences for me. This is nothing on Saul Bellow as a writer, I can appreciate the fact that lots of people love his works but they are just not for me. I find that his characters spend far too much time talking about themselves instead of exploring the deeper and wider angles of life. But that changed slightly when I read a book called âDangling Manâ. This is the Saul Bellow novel which changed my mind ever so slightly, about him and his works.
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Geeks
A Filmmaker's Review: "Saint Maud" (2019)
I have seen a lot of these folk horror films in my short time. One of my favourite films ever is the original version of âThe Wicker Manâ purely because it is such a fun movie. It is something different and the way in which this sub-genre offers this almost fairytale-like and old world horror to us is still frightening yes, but it also makes us feel slightly more frightened because of the belief systems and behaviours being so far removed from our own that we could not possibly imagine them existing in the modern day. Lexicons are filled with cultish dialogue, beliefs and hierarchies rule the character structures and even the way in which death is viewed is something that seems to lack reason and logic, but is believed by a mass of small people who are succumbing to something fairly unusual. Folk horror, we have to see, is making a massive comeback after the films of Ari Aster got so big from their amazing watchability. The film âMidsummerâ especially, is a film I personally love to watch time and time again because of its sheer depth and analysis into the cultish behaviour of mass crowds. We can tell that when it comes to folk horror, as it is a reality we are removed from, a lot of research and work needs to go into making sure that it sends the correct message to the audience. âSaint Maudâ is a film that does that - but only most of the time. I feel like there was so much more that could be done, especially regarding the fact that the film itself is only about an hour and a half long.
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Horror
Book Review: "Three Martini Afternoons at the Ritz" by Gail Crowther
Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton are two female poets who practically changed the face of 20th century poetry. Many, many things have been written about the two poets throughout the years that range from their broken marriages to their fights with depression, their years of higher education and all the way down to their methods of ending their own lives. It is clear that we can draw parallels between the two writers and we can also see stark differences in their lives - such as Sylvia Plath moving to England whereas, Anne Sexton remained in America. But the one thing that I think I learned most about the two women was how their lives were marred by other people. I related to that and I think that this book really showed me that I am not alone when it comes to struggling with my own close relations. It is something that these two women not only struggled with, but in the end, it may have actually had a hand in both of their deaths. A brilliant book on two amazing women of literature, âThree Martini Afternoons at the Ritzâ is a biography that you will not want to miss this year.
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Humans
Book Review: "Dandelions" by Yasunari Kawabata
I love reading 20th century Japanese Literature. The books of Junichiro Tanazaki, Yukio Mishima and the beautiful commentary on extreme human conditions as written by Yasunari Kawabata are among some of the greatest books to grace the last one hundred years of literature. In the 21st century, Japanese Literature continues the tradition of accurately and beautifully putting into words what others have previously struggled with articulating. The works of Yoko Ogawa such as âRevengeâ and âThe Memory Policeâ have often analysed the feelings of national anxiety as channelled through one or a small set of characters. The works of Haruki Murakami have the Kafkan quality of despair raining over them whilst also managing to tell the most wonderful narratives through extended metaphors. But in this review, I would like to discuss the final work of the great Yasunari Kawabata. It is called âDandelionsâ and it is one of the most beautiful and incredible books to ever be written in Japan.
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "34 Patients" by Tom Templeton
I remember when I read a book called âWhen Breath Becomes Airâ and was fascinated about the amount of hard work, love, care and courage that goes into being a doctor and even more so, being a doctor who then requires a doctor for a terminal illness that he himself will later succumb to. It started a fashion off for me to become fascinated with the stories of people who work some of the most intriguing jobs from doctors to architects and honestly, they require the person to know exactly what they are doing as mistakes are hardly ever permitted. Along the way, I have come into contact with many books about doctors and the treatment of illnesses with the books of Oliver Sacks being among the most famous that I have read. But, when this book caught my eye, I have to say that I was not immediately taken by it. In fact, it was more of a curiosity as I had never really read a book on this scale before in which the doctor basically gives us 34 very different patients to look at over the course of their career. Fascinated for a long, long while - I could not even begin to see what was to come in this grand memoir of being in the medical profession.
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "The True Heart" by Sylvia Townsend Warner
Romance novels are more than often, one-sided affairs with predictable lines and plots. There have been, though, some better ones of the last one hundred or so years but rarely are they appreciated as much as they should be. Romance novels that do not fit the same piece as being something by Nicholas Sparks and that genre are often ignored but, as I have found recently, there is an author who pretty much has the perfect blend between light and dark though some of the plot may be assumed clichĂ©. The book in question is entitled, âThe True Heartâ by Sylvia Townsend Warner and it is one of the shorter books I have read this week as I wanted to have a nicer morning than my usual heavy reads. âThe True Heartâ is written incredibly cleverly and I have to say that the use of language is amazing for what it does for the atmosphere and characters. Though there are parts of the plot where I found myself guessing exactly what was going to happen next - the writing did shock me as something that was very different for its genre.
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Geeks