Raya is Coming~
Whew. I’m finally done laboring over the oven. Two days and I made three batches of those cheese things. Today I made good time. Started early and finished early. Didn’t have to clash with the meal rush getting prepared for the breaking of fast like yesterday. Yup, I am content.
Exam was over on Friday and celebrated with friends that night. Well, sort of. And man, met so many familiar faces at the shopping complexes. I was so happy I even borrowed this book from the uni library. I was actually looking for a different book, but I stumbled onto this one (and the one I was looking for wasnt there). Just thought I’d go for a light read between math and econs paper but ended up reading the book most of the time. So I just borrowed. Finished it just now heh.
The book was about the life of a woman in the Tang Dynasty. She was an adored concubine, courtesan and great poetess. I dont know what to make of the story, I mean, she was beheaded in the end for notorierity by the government. She had a short life, but pretty…um, eventful. The synopsis at the back sounded like she grew from a naive, submissive child and later a concubine and she gave up all those and searched for freedom and finally gained them, independent at last. But even thought her path to freedom wasn’t very smooth, she found them, but however she was still not emotionally independent. Its not exactly "Get mad, get even, get rich" Throughout the story, since she was made concubine, even after she separated and divorced herself from her husband, she still loved him. Even though she won’t admit it after they bantered back and forth. But it was evident. Even at the last night of her life, when he visited her in her cell, the affection was still there. They still cared for each other. The story kept going back to the past and ‘present’ where her husband was old dying and the past when she was still alive. He still holds memories of her and kept dreaming about her. Despite the stupidity and the absurdity of the people at those times, the old and dying husband still dreamt of good days spent with her.
And also, may I add the narrator dwelled too much into the personal lives of the woman. There were areas that I thought were inappopriate.
…I felt like a pervert into someone else’s personal life.
Overall, the book is not too shabby. It gives us an insight into what life was like back then for the women. The author noted that the Tang Dynasty was when women had the most freedom before the twentieth century. Freedom as in the form of being allowed to become nuns and courtesans. Glad I didnt live in that period.
Oh and by the way, the characters are all real. The core of the story is true, the author just added fiction in the form of feelings, narrations and dialogues. A good read.
…Cant wait to send it back. I wanna go and buy Inheritence Trilogy: Eldest. Been itching for that book hehehe. After reading that book, I feel like going back to one of my fics about priestess getting sucked in books and into a another world. Just had some inspiration after reading that story, but not sure if it is strong enough to write a whole story.
Tomorrow, registration day!
Ta’ra!
And happy becoming hari raya!
