issue 54 - AsiaLIFE Magazine

ookshelf
Marilyn: The Passion and
the Paradox
Lois Banner
Bloomsbury
Fifty years after her death, Marilyn Monroe continues to
captivate. The blonde bombshell has inspired countless
biographies, films and Las Vegas impersonators. The icon
has been especially en vogue over the past year, with homage
paid in the film My Week with Marilyn, the US television
show Smash, and this recent biography by Lois Banner.
Marilyn: The Passion and the Paradox explores the actress’s
many contradictions, drawing from interviews and recently
discovered documents to provide new insight into the star’s
complicated life. The biography follows Marilyn from her
troubled childhood and early years as Norma Jean, on to her
sensational Hollywood career, her personal relationships
with husbands Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller, and the
murky circumstances surrounding her death.
Night Dancer
Chika Unigwe
Jonathan Cape
A Belgium-based Nigerian writer, Chika Unigwe is part
of an emerging wave of African women novelists. Her
third publication, Night Dancer, is narrated from the
perspectives of two women with different backgrounds.
Set in Nigeria during the 1970s, the first half follows Ezi,
a young, university-educated woman struggling to meet
expectations for a male heir. To the disappointment of her
in-laws, she becomes pregnant with a daughter. When her
husband’s affair with the maid, Rapu, produces a son, Ezi’s
position within the family is threatened. She decides to
leave her husband and raise her child alone, facing intense
stigma from her family and community. The second part of
the book follows Rapu’s own struggles to rise, mirroring
Ezi’s fall.
The Price of
Inequality
Joseph E Stiglitz
W.W. Norton & Company
In response to the notion that inequality is inevitable, Joseph
E Stiglitz begs to differ. The Nobel laureate economist
deviates from a purely economic lens to understanding the
shape of our world and considering the impact of politics.
As the gap between rich and poor widens, Stiglitz sees that
“while there may be underlying economic forces at play,
politics have shaped the market, and shaped it in ways that
advantage the top at the expense of the rest.” In his view,
inequality serves to weaken democracy, as well as create
fissures in economy and society when potential is limited by
lack of opportunity. Change, Stiglitz argues, can be achieved
when equal competition in the free market is safeguarded by
government oversight.
Vladimir Nabokov:
Selected Poems
Vladimir Nabokov
Knopf
Known best for Lolita and Pale Fire amongst other literary
feats, Vladimir Nabokov is considered one of the great
modern novelists. Less is known about his ventures into
poetry. This collection features selected poems translated
from Nabokov’s native Russian as well as 23 pieces
originally written in English. The earliest piece comes from
1914, when the writer was only 15 years old. Ever erudite,
Nabokov writes poetry with the same attention to structure
and depth as can be seen in his novels. In The Poem he
seems to encapsulate his own style of poetry: “In the tangle
of sounds, the leopards of words, the leaf-like insects, the
eye-spotted birds fuse and form a silent, intense, mimetic
pattern of perfect sense.”
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