Rouge

Rouge(1) (Japanese)
by Yu Miri

Reviewed by zlel

At first glance, Rouge looks like a love story,
but it's really more like a story of the human
heart taking the form of a love story. It tells of
how the heart can change, and how people can
change across the generations. Had you read the
first chapter, you would probably have predicted
what the ending would have been, but just as life
is full of intrigue, how one person ten years ago
can be a totally different person today, it is the
journey that counted in this book.

Okay number one, this is not a trashy romance
novel. Yu Miri is a zainichi (Japanese
born Korean) writer who probably has some
screwed up family history to tell, but some of her
award winning(2) works like Full House and Family
Cinema, revolve around the family theme. Living up
to her reputation as a family writer, she
intertwines Lisa's (the protagonist) love, work
and family life to give us a glimpse of how a girl
so full of her own ideals could have given in to
the world. Yes, this book, at least to me, is
about the journey in Lisa's inner-world.

This book opens with Lisa. A photograph shoot for
a cosmetic company's advertising campaign, a model
who didn't show up. A make-up artist who decided
to put make-up on Lisa and make her the model
in-lieu. A successful shoot, and an amazingly
professional performance on Lisa's part - add to
that, a face totally transformed when Lisa had
make-up on. Everything was staged for a model in
the making, except one thing - Lisa hated makeup.

Lisa, without all the make-up, was but little
more than a plain looking girl and a fresh
graduate from a design school. She had entered
Shiseido an aspiring designer, but the
company, after her successful photo-shoot, wanted
to make her a model. But this was all wrong for
her - what she had wanted was just an
ordinary life, being able to live just as
she wanted - not a celebrity that the whole world
knew. And there was the problem with her family -
all the public attention from being a model would
invite too many unneccessary gossip from her
folks. She hated her mum, she hated her dad. She
grew up with her grandmother, who alone could
perfectly respect her personal space.

Ah yes, her grandmother. I thought that Miri was
quite skilful describing Lisa's relationship with
her grandmother. Lisa had picked up a cat because
it looked too pitiful, but when she had brought it
home, her grandmonther insisted that it was Lisa's
cat and had her name it herself. And it was only when
Lisa decided to move out to live on her own, did
her grandmother say that one phrase that seemed to
sum it all up - "and when you go, take your cat
with you".

Forward to the last chapters of the book. I thought
this was the most amazing thing, that it is within
the space of these few chapters, that we see
Lisa's transformation - from one who had personal
issues with cosmetics into a professional model.
By this point, Lisa had met Kurogawa, a renowned
art director - who fell in love with her. She
began living with Kurogawa and his boyfriend, and
that started the chain of events that led to her
transformation. But even as one reads these
chapters, one inevitably appreciates the backdrop
that was Lisa's emotional predisposition, built up
by her family and her relationship with others
through all the events that took up the rest of
the volume - that made it look all so natural.

I would have wanted to close my review with the
book's conclusion, because I think it really
depicted how Lisa had totally accepted her role as
a professional model - but that would have been
too much of a spolier. So maybe instead, I'll
recommend that you also read the appended
explanatory note by Satoru, as it touched
on how within her book, Miri had depicted how
women have changed in their thinking - making us
call to mind how Lisa and her boss each had a
different take on what cosmetics meant to them.

All in all, this has been a surprising read. I was
looking for books that dealt with the subject of
love - I got plenty of it, and much more. Ah yes,
did I forget to mention, that although this book
was a book about a journey that took the form of a
love story, it actually did had much to say about
love? Oops, sorry for that.

---

(1) Rogue means red, or lipstick in
French.
(2) Several of Yu Miri's works have either won
or been nominated for the Akutagawa award, one of
Japan's more prestigious awards for outstading
authors.

Quote for the Month of June

"A well-composed book is a magic carpet on which we are wafted to a world that we cannot enter in any other way."

Caroline Gordon

Claudine's Quote of the Month

Riding the Bus with My Sister

Riding the Bus with my Sister by Rachel Simon

Reviewed by Claudine

Very few books moved me as much as this one did.

This real life story revolves around Rachel Simon and the bus rides which she took for a year with her intellectually disabled sister, Beth. At first glance at the book blurb, you’d wonder what you can get out of bus rides since our experiences of bus rides here in Singapore are mundane and we don’t even bother to look at the driver most of the time! But I was amazed by how the lives of the drivers criss crossed with those of Rachel and Beth and influenced their perspectives on life. You see, the drivers in this story aren’t just drivers. They are also drivers with a life story and philosophy to share with riders on the bus during the long journeys, touching the lives of the sisters and mine as well as I read about their personal struggles.

The story also traces Rachel’s relationship with Beth, from distant discomfort and disdain to a somewhat touching if not, precarious, harmony between them towards the end of the book. What I like is Rachel’s honesty about her feelings which she doesn’t attempt to mask or package to portray herself as noble or carry the ‘Applaud me for the effort I spend on my sister” kind of tone. She admits readily that some of the feelings towards her sister aren’t positive in the least and she is not proud of them. In other words, she is not some superwoman - only human, just like the rest of us.

She includes flashbacks into her family’s past, recalling key incidents in their lives which serve to highlight the turmoil and emotions when you have a disabled member in the family. You empathise with the struggles and sacrifices Rachel makes to try to understand her sister and what makes her spirited sister tick. Yet at the same time, you learn from Beth - what it means to be regarded as different in a world where disabilities are still taboo and how she fights and responds with gusto against such discrimination and develops her own particular brand of outlook on life. You can’t help but develop a deep seated admiration and affection for her despite her eccentricities. Beth transforms not only the lives of the drivers, the lonely and confused life of her writer sister but anyone who reads this book as well. I certainly was.

This is one book I see myself reading over and over again.

You can learn more about this book from http://www.rachelsimon.com/
It is definitely worth the buy! If you are on a budget, borrow it from the Orchard library.

A Paragraph Which Moved Me

From Jane Green's Mr Maybe:

And later that night, while I'm lying in bed crying, because I never realised how much it would hurt to cause that much pain to someone who loves you, it suddenly strikes me that the reason Ed didn't say anything, at all, all evening, was because he was holding back the tears.

- after the protagonist Libby spends a silent evening with her soon-to-be-ex-fiance Ed

World Book Fair 2005

World Book Fair 2005

Suntec Singapore Hall 4
Friday 2 pm to 10 pm, Saturday to June 5 11 am to 10 pm

The World Book Fair is jointly organised by the Chinese newspapers division of Singapore Press Holdings and Times business information. It has the support of the Singapore Ministry of Education, National Library Board, The Straits Times, Lianhe Zaobao, Lianhe Wanbao, Shin Min Daily News, Friday Weekly and Suntec Singapore.

It will feature over 200 exhibitors from 12 countries - showcasing 300 000 titles.

Every $20 spent at the fair will entitle visitors to a lucky draw coupon. Prizes include tour packages to Gold Coast, Australia, Hong Kong and Bangkok, Thailand.