3 moral values we can take from breaking bad

Everyone we meet lately is talking about Breaking Bad, except for someone last night at uke group who said, What's that? 

 

My response was, Where have you been hiding?

 

Reactions are mostly enthusiastic and animated, but there is also a less dominant theme of moral repugnance running through reactions as well which I completely understand.  I'm sure this moral tension has been deliberately designed by the producers, as it provides a large part of the hook which strongly attracts avid watchers of this confronting series.

 

The term 'moral values' may not fit comfortably in the same sentence as 'breaking bad' but indulge me here. 

 

Moral Value 1:  Loving your family includes risks, commitment and respect

 

There's no denying that Walt loves his family to bits and wants the best for them.  He is thinking beyond his own finite existence to the future of his loved ones and taking great risks to achieve them.  Walt loves his extended family too, even though tensions run at varying degrees of intensity.  His sister- and brother-in-law are present at family meetings, medical appointments and are involved in gut level dialogues.  Walt operates his relationships with these people at an interesting level of transparency - in some areas.

 

Jessie is also considered 'family' in Walt's moral radar, as Walt is there in Jessie's darkest hours.  They are honest with each other through wild and unchartered experiences which challenge the relational boundaries.  But these very experiences lead them each to discover the value of what each other can contribute to the strange relationship between these unlikely partners.

 

Moral Value 2:  We all want our contribution of skills & knowledge to be valued

 

Walt's job as a teacher is a worthy and prized role by many, but it doesn't push Walt's buttons.  Walt is over-qualified, bored to death and unchallenged.  An old tension between uni-friends of years before who had taken Walt's ideas and built an empire, leaving Walt out of the picture, has rubbed salt into his wound.  Walt is battling an impending sense of failure.  His family is broke.  His wife is expecting.  He works a second job washing cars at a car wash where many of his students get their cars washed.  The whole thing is humiliating for Walt.

 

When Walt finds himself cooking crystal meth, and hating himself for it, he discovers something else unexpected.  His expertise is highly valued.  He has a reputation on the streets.  His product is of the highest quality.  His skills are in demand.  This brings Walt an incredible sense of internal satisfaction.  It feeds a hunger in Walt that cannot be denied any more.  Years of demoralising grind and hard work as a teacher have brought him financial hardship and humiliation.  But when he finds an outlet for his passions, Walt is a new man.

 

Moral Value 3:  Live your own life

 

In a family conference, Walt expresses his feelings regarding his reluctance to accept treatment.  He had never been able to make his own decisions, he explained.  He had spent his life living other people's expectations.  Now as he faces his mortality, Walt is tasting for the first time what it feels like to be his own man.  He discovers how gutsy he can be.  He can take risks, make his own choices and plan strategies which pay off. 

 

When his health begins to show promise, Walt feels strangely sad that his reason for cooking has diminished.  Walt is on a journey of self-discovery which is risky, dangerous as hell but also is the most exciting adventure.  Walt is finding his own voice and tapping into his own vat of personal power.  "I'm awake," he tells one person.  Walt is no longer shackled by the template of expectations placed upon him by anyone.  He is starting to live his own life.

 

Maybe it is a long bow to find moral values in such a series, but hey, don't we just love it anyway? 

 

Comments welcome.

review: fiddler on the roof

We went to see Fiddler On The Roof 
last night at the Cessnock Performing Arts Centre.  


We sat for 3 hours (with a short break) totally engrossed in this beautiful story, told through songs, acting, dancing and all the trimmings of a first-rate full-blown threatre production.


What a cast!  There must have been 40 people on stage at some points.  All in their costumes and singing with their beautiful voices.  


In fact, the singing was outstandingly beautiful.  There were solos, duets, trios and ensembles.  The harmonies were spot-on. I was so impressed by the level of professionalism and calibre of musicianship from Opera Hunter,  who produced this first-rate show.


I totally loved the Russian dancing in this show! Yes! There were scenes of Russian blokes doing those squat-kicks, leaps, and unbelievable moves requiring legs of steel springs. It was fantastic to watch. Just incredible.


a bit about the story
Set in a Jewish settlement within Russia circa 1880-1905, the Jewish community uphold strong traditions - particularly surrounding arranged marriages. A poor father has 5 daughters and each time one gets married, he is torn between the traditional ways of marriage, and love for his daughters.  His daughters are pushing the boundaries of the all-important Jewish traditions by the way they find their own husbands, agree to engagements without the father's consent, and in one case even agree to marry a non-Jew!


If you're quick, there's still time to catch this production. Check out the links here for details.


Have you ever seen this production?  Did you enjoy it?

book: it's so easy & other lies

I'm only up to chapter 8, but I am loving this book by Duff McKagan (a founding member of Guns N' Roses).


After the first page I commented to Meyles, 


"This guy is 

• articulate, 
• smart as hell; and 
• emotionally intelligent. 

I'm really going to enjoy this book."


what's it about?
It's the story of Duff McKagan's rise to the pinnacle of fame and fortune, his struggles with alcoholism and drug addiction, his crash-and-burn, and his transformation.


recent release
First published in 2011. So very recent. Hot off the press, even.


quote (page 20)
"I let myself lose track of what I thought was meaningful in life even as Guns N' Roses began to become meaningful to others. Back then - on the few occasions that I thought about it at all - I could think of a million excuses for going off the rails. But in the end it seems to have hinged on a failure to grapple with a few basic definitions:

• of what it meant to be successful,
• of what it meant to be an adult,
• of what it meant to be a man.

The way I liked to define myself diverged from the actions that actually defined me. And this disconnect proved a nearly fatal level of self-deception."


last bit
How's that for transparency? Not bad, eh? I am hooked and enjoying this guy's beautiful use of words to describe complex concepts.  


So, are there any Gun N Roses fans out there?  Anyone at all?

book review: the lollipop shoes

This great piece of chicklit, The Lollipop Shoes (Joanne Harris), is a fairytale for grown-ups and sequel to Chocolat.  The scene is a chocolaterie in Paris, with Yanne and her two daughters struggling both financially and to live anonymously without any history to attract any undue attention.

The story

At first the appearance of the gregarious but ruthless Zozie, is welcomed into the family as she breathes new life into the struggling business.  She builds unusual but secretive friendships with Yanne’s oldest daughter, Annouk, who is grappling with school yard behaviours. Zozie, however, has her own dark secrets and reasons for her devious manoeuvres. A male suitor offers financial security to Yanne, but will he love Yanne the way the ‘river-rat’ Roux once did?

As the threads of this story intertwine and build to a climax, Yanne must decide to either pack up and move on, obeying the call of the wind, or to unveil her anonymity and fight to save her family, business and self-respect.

food porn

Many mouth watering descriptions of rich chocolate blended with cinnamon, cardamom, vanilla and bitter orange are provided to bring alive the simmering flavours which insistently but silently lure. If you enjoy food porn, you will enjoy reading the descriptions of scented, spiced and beautifully crafted handmade chocolates.

what i thought

I enjoyed this book a lot. Being a fairytale (having a touch of the woo hoo) I found the story intriguing and enjoyable. This is a great story to get into which doesn’t take a lot of effort. Light entertainment with all the elements which make chick-lit so enjoyable.

Recommended

book review: the mascot

This book, The Mascot (by Mark Kurzem, published 2007), tells the truly astonishing story of the author’s father, Alex Kurzem, and his amazing survival during WWII.

The story

Alex was a 5 year old Jewish boy who was hiding as he watched his family and whole community get murdered by a German-led execution squad.  Hiding in the forest for some months, he was eventually captured by soldiers. One soldier discovered Alex was Jewish and made him promise never to let anyone know of his Jewishness and to forget everything of his past life. Alex then became the soldiers’ mascot and travelled with the soldiers for some time. He became well known amongst the Nazi troops, all the time keeping his Jewishness a secret, and forgetting his own name.

Afterwards, Alex lived with a Latvian family and in time, he grew and immigrated to Melbourne, Australia where he married and had children of his own – none of whom knew anything about Alex’s history or his involvement in the Nazi activities. Eventually, Alex begins to share his secrets, triggering a search to find out who he really was. This search led to amazing discoveries and stories from others who corroborated the truth.

My reaction

Words include: powerful, remarkable, shocking, tragic, beautiful. I read this book within a few days and could not put it down. I found the story at times repelling, but compelling at the same time. I am grateful that my meagre understanding of history and the impact of war into the lives of people has been extended greatly by this book. 

60 minutes

I found this link to a US 60Minute story about Alex Kurzem – who lives in Melbourne. (click the video, and you'll have to endure a commercial first before the real story starts.)

I highly recommend this book. 

book review: in the sanctuary of outcasts

In the Sanctuary of Outcasts, Neil White, memoir

This beautiful book, by Neil White, is a memoir of 18 months the author spent in Corville Prison, USA, for bank fraud.  Corville Prison is an isolated institution which served not only as a prison facility for US Federal prisoners, but also served as home to the ‘secret people’ – a community of leprosy patients, who are also cared for by a small group of nuns.

By his early 30s Neil epitomised the meaning of success with the world at his feet.  Married with two small children, Neil was a self-made man with a glittering and fast-moving business of glamour, power and status.    

Then suddenly, Neil is plunged unwillingly into a collection of society’s most feared and unwanted people – criminals and leprosy patients.  The outcasts.  

As the layers of self-reflection and honesty are acknowledged, Neil begins his own transformation.  He begins to see himself more honestly.  Concurrently he learns about leprosy and the cruelty and stigma that sufferers of this disease must endure.  He begins to build friendships with the 'outcasts' and learns from them.  These significant friendships have a huge impact.  He notices that his initial horror and revulsion at the sight of the ‘secret people’ disappears as he learns to respect and love them.

Finally, in a sanctuary for outcasts, I understood the truth. Surrounded by men and women who could not hide their disfigurement, I could see my own.

Within this unlikely mix of leprosy patients, nuns and felons, this story is powerful and moving.  Very real and very, very readable.

Highly recommended.

book review: the whisperer

Whisperer = a person who is able to communicate subliminally. 

(So imagine a ‘Whispering’ psychotic killer)

This book, by Donato Carrisi,  is about a team of police on the hunt for a ‘whisperer’ serial killer who kills multiple kids by psychologically training others to do the killing for him. 

The main character is one of the investigative team, Mila, who has her own dark history.  The team is led by a brilliant but eccentric criminologist, Dr Goran, whose personal life is in ruins.  Within the team the dynamics ebb and flow, with a developing respect between Mila and Dr Goran.   

What i liked

The development of the characters within the police team and the relational dynamics between Mila and the other members of the team. 

What i didn’t like

1.    Grisly detail of death or descriptions of murders

2.    Getting inside the heads of the sickos doing the murders

3.    The disjointed climax with significant developments on every second page which were not unpacked in enough detail

4.    There was a mind boggling number of murdered bodies

5.    The attempt by the writer to create twists to the tale which seemed (to me) to be more melodramatic than readable

6.    The way it ended

On the whole I didn’t enjoy this book.  I persevered through it for the sole reason that I am due to facilitate the discussion about it at the next bookgroup meeting.  Otherwise, I would not have finished this book.  I’m glad it’s over.

Not recommended.

book review: the elegance of the hedgehog

This unusually named book – The Elegance of the Hedgehog (by Muriel Barbery) – sparks such a sense of curiosity in me.  But what a book!

Set in modern France, this translation is the story of an equally unusual concierge, Renēe, who, exhibits a facade of a short, fat and grumpy concierge in a grand Parisian apartment building.  But this is no ordinary concierge – Renēe has a secret and is living a lie.  Under her prickly surface, Renēe is cultured, educated, well-read and extremely knowledgeable – more so than the rich and professional residents who live in the building – the same people who find her invisible, due to class distinctions.

At the door stands a courier, chewing what must be a piece of gum for elephants, given the vigour and range of mandibular activity to which he is compelled

As it happens, two other unusual people live in the same building, and as these 3 somewhat eccentric individuals begin to build a relationship across the class divide, the ‘Hedgehog’ (Renee) begins to be unveiled and revealed.

This book is not one to read if you are in a hurry.  And it’s not always light reading.  It is, however, charming, at times hilarious, and also moving, with a level of insight and depth that is more meaty than your average novel.   

I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a novel with teeth.  

bookgroup anniversary: 1 year on

We have just celebrated one year of a successful bookgroup.  Our celebration consisted of lunch with dishes of food which represented the countries in the books we have read over the year including Malaysian, Vietnamese, Spanish and English tasty dishes.  Sangria rocks!  

Over the past year these are the books we have read:

·         Eat Pray Love	·         The Book Thief	·         The Angels Game
·         The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo	·         The Girl Who Played With Fire	·         The Elegance of the Hedgehog
·         The Great Gatsby	·         Tuesdays with Morrie	·         Lady Chatterley’s Lover
·         The Happiest Refugee	·         A Spot of Bother	·         A Tale of Two Cities
·         Jasper Jones	·         The Guernsey Literary & Potato Pie Peel Society

We read a book a month and meet for breakfast at a cafe once a month to discuss the book and catch up on any other girly gossip while drinking coffee and eating eggs on toast.  What a great bunch of women!

The most hated book

Eat Pray Love.  This is unfortunate because I was the only one who liked it!  Yes, I did get bogged down in India, but enjoyed the rest of the book greatly.  Everyone else hated it and can’t stop saying how self-possessed the writer was.  We also didn’t do so well with classics – especially when the first sentence of a book takes a whole paragraph on the page. 

Most enjoyed books

·         TheHappiest Refugee – without fail, we all found this pure positive enjoyment

·         JasperJones – loved it and so did our husbands!

·         TheGuernsey Literary & Potato Pie Peel Society – could possibly be at the top of this list. So gripping and beautifully written. My mum loved it too.

·         TheAngels Game – this sparked great discussion. I could not put this one down.

·         The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo; and The Girl Who Played With Fire.  What could I possibly add to these?  These books have taken the world by storm.  Excellent reads. 

Bring on the next 12 months.  There is a world of great stories out there just waiting to be devoured.

Have you read any good books lately?  Do you want to recommend a book?  Please let us know by leaving a comment below.  Thanks.

the last supper

It’s the last night of freedom before we both face work again.  Major downer :(  So to cheer ourselves up, we made a Jamie tea:)

Catherine Wheel Sausage:  buy a string of good quality snags, untwist and push the meat together, wind it up & secure with skewers, stick fresh sage in the gaps, season & grill
 Horseradish Mash:  mashed potato with horseradish cream mixed in for a kick
 Apple Salad: the bottom layer has ryvita bits spread with creamed cheese, lemon zest, apple and lettuce
 Sage & Leek Gravy:  made with sage, leek and cider and thickened with flour
 Stuffed Apples:  the stuffing is delicious – egg, almonds, apricots & sugar.  These were cooked in the microwave and browned off under the grill when the sausage was finished being grilled. 

This recipe comes from Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals book – the best recipe book I have ever owned.  It's called “30 Minute Meals” because of the time it’s supposed to take to prepare the meals.  Ahem… errr… it took Meyles and I 50 minutes from scratch.  But even so, we’re happy with that.  Next time it will be quicker, because we won’t have to keep checking the book every 5 seconds.

I love this book because the meals in them are full of flavour and puts combinations of food together which are delicious.  If you haven’t already got this book, then do yourself a favour!

Be warned though - the kitchen ends up a freaking mess!!

book review: jasper jones

This is a great book by Craig Silvey.  Set in an outback Australian mining town in the mid-60s, it tells the story of dramatic events that occur in a small town through the eyes of an intelligent and articulate 13 year old boy.  

Writing style

The characters are strong and very believable.  I love the expressiveness of the author as he masterfully creates atmosphere and establishes cultural attitudes of the small town.  Here’s an example:

But the rarest and most revered feat is to snatch a peach from the large tree that grows by the flank of the cottage like a zombie’s hand bursting from a grave.  To pilfer and eat a peach from the property of Mad Jack Lionel assures you instant royalty.

Themes

The story navigates beautifully through huge themes of injustice, discrimination, loyalty, friendship, love and unfaithfulness.  With the Vietnam war as a backdrop to this story, inter-racial tensions also create a mix of opposing flavours.  Charlie’s best friend, Jeffery Lu, demonstrates his delightful and skilful wit with constant bantering and arguments with Charlie about whether Superman is better than Batman.  

The story

Without giving away too much, Charlie is a bookish kid who dreams of kissing Eliza Wishart and being a famous writer.  He loves to read and adores the story of Atticus Finch in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’.  His best mate is a Vietnamese boy who is smart as hell.  Charlie also has a curious friendship with Jasper Jones – a boy the whole town is suspicious of.  It is this friendship that causes Charlie a whole lot of trouble.

Recommendation

Read it.  It’s beautifully Australian and carries a purity of intention and thrust which is a powerful combination.

Have your read this book?  What did you think?

book review: the Guernsey literary & potato peel pie society

By Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, this book is a novel composed entirely of a collection of letters.  Fiction based on fact, the story is set in 1946 in England.  It’s about Juliet – an author – in post war England who is looking for the topic of her next book.

She begins writing to Dawsey, who lives on Guernsey and mentions the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society which intrigues Juliet.  Soon more and more letters are exchanged between different members of the society.  Bit by bit, their story of the war and life during their German occupation is pieced together.

It turns out that one night a few friends on Guernsey got caught by the Germans when they were out after curfew.  Elizabeth, one of the group, boldly stepped up.

A bit from the book

"Then Elizabeth drew in her breath and stepped forward. Elizabeth isn't tall, so those pistols were lined up at her eyes, but she didn't blink. She acted like she didn't see any pistols at all. She walked up to the officer in charge and started talking. You never heard such lies. How sorry she was that we had broken curfew. How we had been attending a meeting of the Guernsey Literary Society, and the evening's discussion of Elizabeth and her German Garden had been so delightful that we had lost all track of time. Such a wonderful book — had he read it?" 

My response

I was so intrigued by the story that I looked up on the internet to find out where Guernsey was and I found it truly was occupied by Germany during WWII.   I was impacted by the beautiful theme of community from the book and how an unusual collection of varied characters formed a society that formed friendships bonded through the troubles of war, as they shared their highs and lows together.

This is a beautiful book with a historically factual basis.  I would recommend this book highly.  It sort of gripped me.  I absolutely loved it.  Ten out of ten.  Read it!

book review: the angel's game

I devoured this intriguing book in 10 days flat.  It has some dark, spooky themes and a host of diverse but engrossing characters.  This author, Carlos Ruiz Zafon, knows how to create a sense of atmosphere in his writing, that’s for sure.

The angel’s game

Dave Martin is a writer who lives in Barcelona.  He lives in a spooky house with a shady history, and writes under a pseudonym.  He meets a publisher who promises him a fortune to write a book with a particular theme.  But as he writes, David Martin becomes aware that there is a connection between the dark tales he writes, the house he lives in and its history, and the strange never-ageing publisher who he is contracted to.  By the end of the book, there are bodies piling up with bizarre deaths.  There are lots of interesting characters throughout the book who bring it alive and mystery and intrigue to burn.  

A bit from the book

“As I advanced, the flickering light held high, I expected to see something or someone emerge at any moment from one of the doors on either side.  I knew I was not alone; I could smell it.  A sour stench, of anger and hatred, floated in the air.  I reached the end of the corridor and stopped in front of the last room.  The lamp cast its soft glow over the wardrobe that had been pulled away from the wall and the clothes thrown on the floor – exactly as I had left them when Grandes had come to arrest me two nights ago.  I continued towards the foot of the spiral staircase and warily mounted the stairs, peering behind my shoulder every two or three steps, until I reached the study.  The ruby aura of twilight flooded in through the windows.  I hurried across the room to the wall where the trunk stood and opened it.  The folder with the boss’s manuscript had disappeared.”

Final comment

The bookgroup women who had read this book were just as hooked by this twisty plot as me.  We tossed it around and discussed it excitedly.  Quite a different book to what I would normally read, but that makes it even more enjoyable because of its differentness.

A great read!

blog bookgroup: A Spot of Bother

A month ago, I blogged about doing a sort of online bookgroup blog on this book – A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon.  Read that blog here.

Over the last week I have spent considerable effort finishing this book, even to the point of waking up at 5.30am to read in bed before I have to go to work.  I’m pretty useless when I try to read at night in bed because I just fall asleep after a page!

So.  A Spot of Bother.  A very close-up look at an adult dysfunctional family who swing wildly between happiness together and getting on each other’s nerves.  A lot. But in spite of their weaknesses and individual ‘spots of bother’, they still love and protect each other when the going gets tough.  There are moments of shared beauty and also moments of sheer darkness usually experienced alone by the characters.

The characters.  George the main character is suffering depression and anxiety and is in denial.  He has never learnt to talk to his wife, Jean, who is having an affair.  Their daughter, Katie, has announced her second marriage to Ray – who everybody hates.  And their son, Jamie, is gay but is feeling alone and unaccepted.  So now the family prepares for a wedding and suddenly all sorts of tensions erupt.

Questions for Blog Bookgroup:

1. What do you think is the spot of bother of the title?
2. Did your opinion of Ray change during the book?
3. Why do you think Jean had an affair?  
4. Are the family’s problems largely self-inflicted?
5. What was your favourite moment in the book?
6. Any other comments?

Go ahead and make a comment.  Answer any or all of the questions above in relation to A Spot of Bother.