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book review for english

Book Review

THE TIME TRAVELLERS WIFE

Hannah McMillen

The novel, The Time Traveler’s Wife is written by Audrey Niffenegger as a debut novel that became a national bestseller in 2003. The novel has a unique concept and structure. Niffenegger was able to hold my attention for 518 pages, it is the kind of book that probably sounds like it would be difficult to follow but it was indeed very engaging and easy to follow. It’s a story about love, longing andvwaiting told from the perspectives of two charming characters

            The book is not the average time travel fantasy with a time machine and scientists. Henry DeTamble wishes he did not have the disorder known as Chrono-Displacement Disorder. It causes him to involuntarily travel in time, he drops in and out of various moments in life and when he does, he wakes up in another place and time, naked, nauseous and hungry. Henry's time travel drives the story, but is not really what the story is about. The story mainly revolves around a romantic relationship between a simple librarian guy called Henry and an artist, Clare who specialized in sculptures. From the outside, it seemed like a normal dating relationship. But the novel pushes questions of meaning and purpose, its built around the connection between Clare and Henry, and Clare’s longing for Henry.

            There is  so much real life-description in the novel, family tensions, friendships, rock shows, jobs. She describes a very realistic world, finding yourself believe people can really have involuntary time travel. The novel does not follow linear time, which makes the love story somewhat hard to understand. The novel is very compelling and will give you much to think about and feel.

            Throughout this book, Claire meets Henry a number of times throughout a young age, her teens and adulthood. Claire was six the first time she met Henry and he was a grown man. She found him in the meadow next to her house and they started talking. The story, you follow the times that Henry and Claire meet. Henry's age was usually switching between his twenties, thirties and forties whenever he visited Claire. Claire's life progressed chronologically throughout the story, whereas especially in the beginning, Henry was entering her life at different ages.

In Claire's present, Henry may only be gone for fifteen minutes, but to him, he has been visiting other years of his life for significant periods of time and reliving him. Henry is unable to change the past during his time travel - he can only replay the past. In some cases, Henry even watches himself in the same moment at two different ages in his life.

Claire knows from puberty that she is in love with Henry. Henry never "takes advantage" of her crush on him, even though she makes attempts to sway him in her teenage years. Their romantic encounters do not begin to happen until Claire is an adult.

“Our life together in this too-small apartment is punctuated by Henry's small absences. Sometimes he disappears unobtrusively; I might be walking from the kitchen into the hall and find a pile of clothing on the floor. I might get out of bed in the morning and find the shower running and no one in it. Sometimes it's frightening.”

In conclusion, this book is a must read. The love story is quite amazing. Claire and Henry go through quite a bit to be together. Henry disappears with almost no notice, and there is no way to know if he is ever coming back.

Work Experience Feb/March

sorry this is so late !
 For work eperience i went to Independant Studios and DIT for 2 of the days.
Here are some of the things i did there :-)

Mural at DIT.

      

 Painting i did for a charity exhibition.

Spray Painted Stencil 

Charcot Drawing

English Book Review

    The book i read was 'The Bell Jar' by Sylvia Plath. This book is Plath's only novel, and personally my favorite piece of her work.
    The story follows Esther Greenwood. In the Beginning she wins an internship in New York, and we expect for her to have a bright future. But, she begins to worry about her troubles with men and this is the beginning of her slow breakdown. Esther slowly beginnings to forget all of her hopes and dreams. She loses faith in everything, drops out of college and lifelessly lives at home, until her first attempt when her mother sends her to a psychiatrist, who later refers her to a hospital specializes in shock therapy. The improper therapy causes Esther to commit suicide unsuccessfully several times. She then gained support of a friend who paid for a centre who didn't believe in inhumane shock treatments. 
   She slowly starts to recover, unlike Joan, the friend she has made at the hospital, who is a gay woman who has fallen in love with Esther, she claims to be cured until one night she commits suicide. Dr. Nolan helps Esther improve and life-changing events help her regain sanity. The novel ends with Esther entering the room for her interview which will decide whether she can leave the hospital.
     The book is autobiographical that relates to Plath's life and descends into the madness of her alter ego Esther Greenwood. Easily Esther is the favorited character, which no shown reasons to admire Esther the reader is always wanting her to recover. The character has so much depth and emotion. She has just finished her junior year in college. She grew in in Boston with her mother and brother, her father died when she was nine. Esther was living in a societal word, expecting her constant happiness, and cheerfulness, but her melancholy dark nature resists. Esther is expected to obey society and remain a virgin until marriage, she sees the hypocrisy in this rule. She embarks on a loveless sexual search, before suicide, but fears of pregnancy greatly so gets help even with this. Later, her illness makes her become selfish, not considering the effects of her suicide on her mother or her friends, And her own thoughts occupy her entire world completely.
   This is most defiantly one of the best books i have ever read. The images she creates are so beautiful and emotional. Ill be reading it several times, and i would recommend it to anyone appreciating good writing. 
  

so so exciting HIPSHOCK

For the past few weeks, we're officially selling :-)
we have so much to sell.. already making a profit, is a good sign.. a very good sign.
if you already ordered than come to us at lunch and just ask for yours :-)
we pretty much remember everyones orders so we'll try to find you, but do come and say hello :-)
and BUY BUY BUY :-D
we have like 30 left to sell just this round, so even just come and see what we have, it COULD BE YOURS !

the plays

last week, we finally performed our fantastic works of art in Mullingar,
It was so good to see other peoples plays, after the past few months getting so caught up in our own plays, its nice to know we're not the only ones stressing over it so much.. and also to know.. that ours is better than theirs :-3
It felt so right to be backstage again, ordering people around like in the 'Sound of Music', and to watch the performances from up close :D
Also to see some of King's Hospitals plays, about the nuns.. awfully boring.. but looked like a lot of work.
It was a fun day overall :-)

young scientist

probably the best part of ty.

if your doing ty next year, try your best to get in, like really.
Its the best experience, at first i was dreading it because we felt so unprepared and it was just godly stress up until the actual day. it was a crazy few days before the exhibition, but so worth it.
Brian O'Driscoll was there... whoever that is.. and just you know.. The Taoiseach.. and the president.. and it was cool to even see all the other schools, from around ireland, who put so much work into it. i would advise staying the nights in dublin for it.. waking up at 6am and home by 6pm... 12 hour days get rather tyring..
the people that you'll meet there, and just the whole atmosphere, is amazing.
all i can say, is good luck to next years ty's :-)