Marga K.'s posts with tag: fiction
Link: http://www.booksie.com/marga_manlapigMost of my stuff was originally posted either here on Multiply or on LiveJournal. This nifty little site helps me get my work through to a larger audience.
And so, my dear Vanilla Marmalade / Le Besoin de Reponses readers, I give you the next exciting chapter of No Need for Normalcy!Chapter Four: [Don’t] Get Thee to a Nunnery
“Oh m’gawd!”
Luce didn’t have to turn to know who just screamed. She would know that incredibly nasal, rather effeminate, yet utterly charming voice anywhere. She spun around and waved at the speaker, a wide grin threatening to split her face.
“Yuya-chan!” she shouted, pushing her way through the wave of new arrivals at Narita.
Yukinojo Yamazaki – nicknamed Yuya – was Pleiades Project’s lead guitarist and one of Luce’s closest friends. Back when Luce was still the band’s publicist, they had tons of fun playing pranks on everyone, shopping in Harajuku, and pigging out on the magnificent tonkatsu over at Tonki in Meguro with the band’s rhythm guitarist Shura Hasegawa. Even after she left, they’d kept in touch and he was always the one who picked her up from the airport whenever she came to Japan for her summer vacations - and the one who helped her raise hell almost as soon as she got settled in.
“Gawd, you are just so too beautiful!” Yuya shrieked as he enveloped Luce in a rib-cracking hug that seemed at odds with his ethereally slender appearance. Playfully, he poked the tip of her nose. “And to think you wanted to enter a convent!”
Luce groaned and nudged him in the ribs with her elbow. “Don’t remind me!” she exclaimed as they made their way out of the airport. “So: did you drive over here in that rickety old jalopy of yours or did you finally ditch that wreck for a new car?”
Yuya laughed – a totally wicked cackle. “Still insulting Cress after all these years!” he declared, shaking his head. More soberly, he added that he finally sold his old car and bought a new one. “But I didn’t drive my new baby over here,” he said. “I came in Shura-kins’s Roadster!”
As if on cue, a crimson BMW Roadster pulled up and stopped in front of them. The driver’s-side window rolled down to reveal a cheerful young man with a ready smile and short hair dyed a reddish blond.
“Oi, Luce!” he greeted her. He jerked a thumb towards the trunk of the car. “Just chuck your stuff in the back and we can hightail to Tonki for some grub!”
“Hey, Shura!” Eagerly, Luce stowed her luggage into the trunk and practically flew into the car. She slammed the door loudly (the way everyone in Pleiades Project did) and shouted, “Let’s go!”
“Hasn’t changed much, huh?” Shura asked Yuya, grinning at the latter through the rear-view mirror.
“Nah,” Yuya drawled as he draped himself artfully over the backseat. “Same ol’ nutcase Luce.”
Luce stuck her tongue out at him. “And someone’s still as bitchy as he was when I left!” she snorted.
“One has a reputation to keep, darling,” Yuya declared loftily.
Everyone laughed at that. On the way to Meguro from the airport, the boys filled her in on what the band was currently doing. Shinichi was currently starring as a feudal warlord in a taiga drama on national television. Their bassist, ‘Zuma, was presently touring with another band; in his place was a slightly younger guy who did some major-league bass work. Ranmaru, their producer, had his hands full (as always) with making everyone toe the line and stick to schedules. Of course, this was particularly fruitless as far as Shinichi was concerned.
“Shinichi’s acting again?” Luce’s eyes twinkled mirthfully as she posed the question. “I thought he gave that up after Into the Silence bombed at the box office!”
“You should watch Genji no Monogatari,” Shura suggested. “He’s positively brilliant as Hikaru Genji!”
This prompted Luce to slide a glance at Yuya. The former raised an eyebrow while the latter was trying his darndest best to stifle his giggles.
“Um, I’m pretty sure he is, Shura,” Luce murmured with a faint smile.
***
“Hey, waiter; more cabbage and rice here, please!”
“Gods, how I’ve missed Tokyo!” Luce declared as she happily tucked into her tonkatsu lunch. Perfect pork cutlets – fillets and loin cuts – with endless helpings of rice, sesame-infused cabbage, and tea were a great way to start her week-long vacation. “I mean, really: we don’t get pork cutlets like these back in Manila.”
“I’m just happy we can eat rice right now!” Yuya exclaimed between bites.
“Is that Shinichi’s latest fad?”
“Yeah!” Shura grunted as a waiter plunked down a tray bearing bowls of cabbage and rice before him. “He wants to have as little body fat as possible, so he’s scrapped carbs off his diet – along with everyone else’s!”
Luce paused and raised both eyebrows at him. “Tell me if he still eats croissants.”
“He does!” Yuya snickered. “He says they don’t count because he works off the calories ASAP!”
“I don’t really mind,” Shura remarked sheepishly.
“Meh!” Yuya sneered. “Don’t you always go along with what Shinichi says?”
Shura frowned at that. “Well, we’ve been best friends since high school,” he began somewhat defensively. “We’ve always done things together.” He busied himself with demolishing the food in front of him. “It’s what friends do.”
Yuya and Luce looked at each other and rolled their eyes.
“Speaking of friends,” Yuya went on, leering a little at Luce. “Got anyone special back home?”
Luce threw him a dirty look. “Puh-leeze, Yuya!” she groaned. “After what Martin did, I haven’t been in the habit of looking for potential partners.” She speared the last slice of tonkatsu somewhat savagely with her chopsticks. “I meant what I said years ago about entering a convent,” she continued.
“Bah!” Yuya sneered. “I remember when that happened! You were so distraught…”
***
“Have you gone out of your mind, Lusia?” Yuya shrieked as he sat at the foot of Luce’s bed. Luce was busy pulling dresses out of her closet, yanking them off their hangers, and tossing them to the floor.
“I won’t need them where I’m going,” Luce declared as she tossed two Atelier BOZ frocks. “They frown on such clothes there.”
“Where are you going?”
“The Pink Sisters’ convent in Tagaytay. They’re a cloistered order, so I can effectively seclude myself from all this madness.”
Yuya’s expressive eyes went round at this. “You’re throwing your life away on account that some libidinous bastard broke your heart?” he asked archly.
Luce stopped what she was doing and snarled at him. “What I do with my life,” she grated, “is none of your business.”
“Darling, I happen to know for a fact that you aren’t exactly nun material.”
“That’s what my kid brother said when I told him,” Luce muttered as she went back to work. At the time, Luce’s younger brother was a seminarian in the sophomore year of his graduate course in Theology. “He says I’m entering the convent for all the wrong reasons.” She slammed her now empty closet hard. “What’s wrong with turning one’s back on the world and swearing off men forever?”
At this point, despite the grim look on Luce’s face, the tears were already streaming down her cheeks. Miserably, she plunked herself down beside Yuya and began, in earnest, to cry.
“It’s just too damned unfair!” she wailed as Yuya hugged her. “Where did I go wrong? Is it because I was never around? Or was it because I never put out?”
“Hush!” Yuya murmured as he patted her back. “Don’t say such things, Luce. Never blame yourself for something that obviously isn’t your fault.” He chucked up her chin and met her teary eyes with a kindly look. “I could have warned you ages ago, but you would have accused me of meddling.”
“Yeah,” Luce agreed, dabbing her eyes with the hem of one of her dresses. She eyed him curiously. “Do gay guys like you have it harder than us girls?”
“Believe me, darling, it’s much, much worse,” Yuya assured her. “There will be others, you know.”
Luce shook her head adamantly. “There won’t,” she spat emphatically. “Who would want a control freak like me? Most men want women who give in easily.”
“And just because of that you want to throw yourself into a nunnery?” Yuya shook his head. “Lusia, Lusia, Lusia! Such an intelligent girl as you has more options than that!”
“Yeah, so everyone tells me,” Luce sighed. She had a somewhat lost expression on her face, a distant look in her eyes. “I’m taking a break from PR and publicity for a while,” she told Yuya. “Maybe I’ll teach or something, or go into the diplomatic service like my dad and granddad.” She dimpled, albeit sadly. “Maybe try something new like make software or something.”
“Will you ever come back?” Yuya asked her gently.
Luce threw him a stricken look and shook her head. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “I really, really don’t know.”
***
“Well!” a deep, familiar voice announced. “Look who still hasn’t entered the convent!”
After lunch, the guys took Luce back to Pleiades HQ, the posh office in Harajuku from which the band held court. Luce delightedly immersed herself in everything that was old and familiar to her. She discussed PR plans with Akiko, once her assistant and now her successor. Ranmaru Yoshida, the band’s producer and father-figure, welcomed her back with open arms, and gleefully chattered about the image for the upcoming album. She jammed a bit with the band and was more than a little impressed with Jules, the new bassist who was half-English and Oxford-educated.
It was now pushing eight in the evening. Ranmaru ordered out for supper and now poured glasses of a particularly fine Merlot for everyone. Almost as soon as he uncorked the bottle, they heard soft barks coming from the lobby and a familiar voice snapping orders left and right. The door to the conference room slammed open and Shinichi appeared, leaning in his usual cool fashion in the doorway.
“Howdy-do, chief!” Luce greeted him irreverently, raising her glass to him. Her dark eyes sparkled with fun. “How was filming?” She grinned rather evilly at him. “I caught an episode of Genji just now,” she told him. “I’m amazed at how much your acting’s improved. May I say that your new drama coach is probably a great lay?”
The room burst into laughter at that, and Shinichi threw his trademark smirk at his former publicist. Gamely, he clapped his hands as he entered the room.
“You honestly think any convent will accept you with that sort of mouth, you shameless little fiend?” he exclaimed as he dipped an exquisite bow and kissed her hand.
Luce laughed aloud and shrugged. “Hey, I might just get away with it!” she replied in a challenging manner.
Shinichi threw his head back and laughed. He regarded Luce most fondly. “Damn it, but we’ve missed you, Luce!” he said. He stooped down to pick up a tiny puffball of a Chihuahua yapping at his heels. The little beast barked and wagged his tail at Luce. “Have you met Koyuki?” he asked her. “Latest addition to the zoo I call home.”
“What a darling!” Luce exclaimed, gently patting the tiny dog.
“Jules’s Shiba Inu’s cuter,” Yuya muttered. “And Shura’s dog is just plain goddamned fugly!”
“Don’t be nasty, Yuya,” Luce chided him with a smile. “You’re just jealous because you’re not Shinichi’s pet anymore.”
“Oh, he was never the pet,” Ranmaru snickered. “That‘s Shura.”
“So, tell me how you’ve been, woman!” Shinichi said as he settled into an armchair, Koyuki flopping into his lap.
“There’s not much to tell,” Luce admitted. She told him about her life at IntelliSystems, how she felt challenged by her work and how interesting it was. She mentioned her brother’s ordination to the priesthood some months before and her younger sister’s graduation from high school. “It’s been a quiet life,” she said with a shrug. “Not what I used to have, but I don’t mind.”
“How’s your social life?” Shinichi asked her.
Luce laughed at that. “What social life?” she asked in return. “I get to work at seven in the morning, leave at six. I go straight home. I do my grocery shopping, browse the bookshops, and try new restaurants.” A look of deep pain marred her face. “I’ve been trying to steer clear of situations that might draw me into the same circles as Martin.”
“Still smarting, huh?” Shinichi remarked soberly. “But surely someone must be paying attention to you?”
Luce smiled rather forlornly. “There’s no one, chief,” she said. She added somewhat wryly, “Unless you count the pesky guy who tried to sell me some software a couple months ago. Damn, he was persistent!”
“How persistent?”
“I mean, he called me every day for two weeks straight!” Luce exclaimed. “Isn’t that a little too much just to get someone to buy a product?”
Shinichi and everyone else fell silent at that. He looked to the others and, judging from the looks on their faces, knew they had the same suspicions.
“Well…” he drawled slowly. “Who knows? He just might get lucky.”
Luce didn’t have to know, of course, that Shinichi meant that in more ways than one.
+++
As with all my other writing projects, you probably know the drill already. Did you like this chapter? If you did, please feel free to write your comments at the end of this post. Plus, if you want to get more updates regarding No Need for Normalcy or any of my other writing projects, drop me a line at midge.manlapig@gmail.com.
Link: http://vanillamarmalad.livejournal.comMy literary blog. I usually post most of my stuff here and it automatically gets cross-posted here on Multiply. The usual barrage of poems, stories, and essays make their debut here.
 | Category: | Books | | Genre: | Literature & Fiction | | Author: | Anne Rice |
All I can say is that this is the most human depiction of the Lord I have ever read. This volume in Rice's Christ the Lord series jumps from the Finding in the Temple in the previous volume (Out of Egypt) to Jesus on the verge of starting his mission.
Yeshua ben Joseph is thirty and people are beginning to wonder why such an eligible young man has elected to stay single despite the obvious affection of his kinswoman Avigail and his own social standing as an expert carpenter and the son of one of the elders of Nazareth. The drama begins when two boys are stoned to death for what the villagers euphemistically call an "abomination" and snowball down into a series of events culminating with the miracle at a wedding in Cana.
For a writer best known for her novels about vampires, Anne Rice has written a compelling depiction of village life during the time of Christ and presents him as a sympathetic figure who meets many temptations on his way to fulfilling his destiny as the Son of God, Savior of Mankind.
If you're either a really pious Catholic / Christian (why, oh why should there even be a distinction?!?) or are truly into good fiction and stirring tales, then this is one book you should really find time for. 
 | Category: | Movies | | Genre: | Horror |
Nearly twenty years ago, Johnny Depp was the baby-faced cop on the primetime series 21 Jump Street. It was surmised by many televiewers at the time that that was all he was meant to be: a matinee idol to make the teenyboppers scream. Time has disproved this supposition and Depp has been duly vindicated by winning this year's Golden Globe for "Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical" - as the nefarious title character in the film version of Stephen Sondheim's long-running musical.
Depp's take on the role of Sweeney Todd is particularly poignant yet totally hair-raising all at the same time. You can feel the character's pain at the beginning of the film, the horrible sense of loss that follows him from London to Australia and back. But Sweeney Todd is obviously one of those "don't-get-mad/get-even" blokes and his sorrow is transformed into a simmering rage as he slashes through one victim after another, eager to finally get his hands on the neck of the bastard who did him wrong.
Apart from Depp, the film's cast is equally stellar and every scene a deliciously macabre masterpiece. Alan Rickman (Severus Snape in the Harry Potter series) is nefarious as the unfair judge and reeks of pure, unadulterated evil from every pore. Helena Bonham Carter is coy and fetching as the baker Mrs. Lovett - so much, that you'd actually want to buy a pie from her even if you know you'll be eating someone else. Borat's Sacha Baron Cohen all but steals the show as the foppish, tight-trousered Signor Pirelli, but Depp truly remains the centerpiece of the film.
The film is dark - as virtually all of Tim Burton's films are - but it transcends the gothic horror genre by way of the stirring music and the masterful depictions of Victorian England. If you'll only be watching one film this year, this is definitely it.
 | Category: | Books | | Genre: | Literature & Fiction | | Author: | Banana Yoshimoto |
One of Banana Yoshimoto's most recent masterpieces is a testament to the power of the human spirit over physical frailty.
The tale is told from the point-of-view of Maria who's the title character's cousin and the closest she has to an actual confidante. Her cousin Tsugumi has been ill since birth, is just waiting to die, and has the nastiest manners of any female fictional character barring the most atrocious of villains. When Tsugumi's parents decide to close down their inn, the invalid calls her cousin over for one last summer by the sea before her family moves to the mountains.
Yoshimoto's Tsugumi is a highly abrasive young woman who makes up for her physical weakness with wounding sarcasm and a zest for life as manifested in the zaniest of activities. (She tries to kill a young thug whose gang tried to kill a friend's dog by burying the young ruffian in a hole beneath her house.) Despite her seeming callousness, it becomes obvious that she really cares for the people around her and will do anything for them - even if it means compromising her own health.
My sole complaint is that most of the other characters, particularly the narrator Maria, weren't so well-developed. Otherwise, this is a delightful read.
 | Kitchen | Jan 8, '08 12:22 AM
for everyone |
 | Category: | Books | | Genre: | Literature & Fiction | | Author: | Banana Yoshimoto |
This has to be one of those rare gems of literature: a small tome, but so full of meaning that it has become a modern classic.
Originally released in English in 1988, Kitchen was the debut novel of Mahoko "Banana" Yoshimoto and is actually two short novels in a single volume. Both stories are first-person accounts narrated by their main protagonists, both of whom are young women who have gone through the worst losses possible.
The novella that shares the book's title is the story of Mikage Sakurai, a young woman who recently lost her last living blood relation and is taken in by a young man named Yuichi Tanabe and his mother/father Eriko. This particular story is a touching one, almost painfully bittersweet in its tenderness, and touches on the things that make human existence so interesting: life, death, sexuality, and food.
The second story, Moonlight Shadow, is also about death and the grief that grips the living. This time, the narrator is Satsuki whose boyfriend recently died in a vehicular accident. With the appearance of a mysterious woman named Urara, the grieving Satsuki finds herself on a journey of acceptance and ends the tale by bidding her deceased lover a final goodbye.
Yoshimoto's depiction of each woman's situation is unique in the sense that there is a sort of wonder behind even the most mundane of experiences. Her use of food as a sort of metaphor for building bridges between people (Mikage's quest to bring a katsudon to a hungry Yuichi / a gift of KFC sandwiches from the brother of Satsuki's dead boyfriend) is amazing and so is her approach towards such sensitive issues as transsexuals and transvestites. Her portrayals are sympathetic but not cloyingly so and her descriptions of everyday life in Japan give the reader a good look as to how things are actually done by women over there.
I recommend this book for anyone who has ever gone through numbing grief or brutal depression, but it's also a great read for everyone who appreciates food, books, and the simple pleasures of life.
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