Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

by Lewis Carroll (Illustration by Camille Rose Garcia)

This is of course the classic story of Alice's Adventure in Wonderland...down the rabbit hole...the growing and the shrinking...meeting the white rabbit...the mad hatter. the duchess...the Cheshire cat...the Queen of Hearts (Off with her head!)...and the Mock Turtle and Gryphon.

I just read the story again because I got the new version with illustrations from Camille Rose Garcia. Well, firstly the book itself is like Mr. Carroll was on some hallucinatory substances. It reads like it's written by someone high whilst still maintaining some semblance of sanity, a 19th century stoner if you will.

Well, to add to the effect the new Garcia illustrations are just very very strange and add to this weird world that Carroll has created, though Garcia's illustrations have a more modern and dark undertone to it. See the cover there, you would wonder if Alice is a suicidal, pill-popping alcoholic who really is just tripping on too much medication. I always pictured it to be a colourful world, sort of like when the kids from That 70's Show smoke too much weed. That said, Garcia's is still a beautiful set of illustrations. Great book for any collector of classic fiction, updated with lovely modern artwork.

The Sorting Room

by Fred Petersen

I went to the world premiere of this play. Details below of the play from ASN website.

Fred Petersen is a Life Member of Garrick Theatre. He is a multi-award winning Director who in recent years has added Playwright to his long list of achievements. Fred has a huge following amongst our patrons and he knows what they like. We recommend that you book for this show as soon as possible.

When Mr. Sterner, manager of a charity clothing collection company, decides to employ a voluptuous lady with a predilection for fishnets and revealing clothing, in the sorting room, the well ordered working relationships and the happy dispositions of the other ladies fly out the window.

Throw in an innocent young truck driver, a drunken vagrant, a frustrated social organizer and a not too worldly Pastor, maintaining some semblance of order becomes a mammoth task for Mr. Sterner.

I found this play quite entertaining but not as intellectually satisfying as I would have liked. The humor was predictable and you sort of could have guessed what was going to happen next. The dialogue was also very ordinary where I would have preferred more wit. The emotions and tensions and humor could have been more intertwined and voluminous for it to be of more substance.

The acting was acceptable, thought I am not very sure what accent they were going with. It felt like it was interchanging between English and Australian accents. Some characters were better than others, but overall the plot carried through, but was a bit bordering on the feeling that they were reading from script. At least they did not stumble too much through their lines, only on one or two occasions did this happen.

I found it just alright. My sister enjoyed this play, whereas I perhaps enjoyed The Woman In Black better. So I guess not every one's cup of tea but it is still worth watching if you just want something not too heavy, not too immersive.

Eat Pray Love

by Elizabeth Gilbert

This book I guess pretty much everyone have heard about it now, seeing the movie version of it came out starring Julia Roberts. Only picked up the book again after the hype about the movie after I read about a quarter of the book when I first bought it a year or two ago. Well, I have not watched the movie and do not have much inclination to actually watch it. I don't know how it would translate well into a movie because what made it special was most of it was monologue of her experiences and speaking out all the lines or conveying it through action would be quite difficult to do. Everyone interprets images differently from their mind and the past experiences they have.

Here is the synopsis from the back of the book.

Elizabeth is in her thirties, settled in a large house with a husband who wants to start a family. But she doesn't want any of it. A bitter divorce and a rebound fling later, Elizabeth emerges battered yet determined to find  what she's been missing.

So begins her quest. In Rome, she indulges herself and gains nearly two stone. In India, she find enlightenment through scrubbing temple floors. Finally in Bali, a toothless medicine man reveals a new path to peace, leaving her ready to love again.

I liked the first two parts of the book of life in Italy and India. Perhaps these world are foreign to me and thus mystifying and unique. Indonesia is closer to to my sort of upbringing so I can understand what she says but it just brings out disillusionment. Or perhaps I was just in a bad mood while reading it. The writing is witty and smart. Her views are practical and easy to relate to. And she writes without pretensions, like a person now comfortable of explaining how she was uncomfortable in her own skin.

It is an encouraging story of an amazing journey. It gives one inspiration to stop, remove oneself from the pressures and white noise from day to day life, and be more rigorous in the pursuit of peace, contentment, love and happiness.