One reason why I share this book with all of you is that this book has an unusual title, which may attract all of you to read my review. “Gweilo” is a Cantonese word meaning a ghost-like man. Although the average Chinese person and some foreigners think that it’s no big deal and not at all insulting or racist to refer to or address a westerner as “gweilo”, it is actually rather insulting to do so. If a westerner calls himself or herself “gweilo”, that is another matter. By putting him or herself down, the westerner is being humorous and wants to be considered one of the locals. 

Besides having an unusual title, this book is a sincere book as well. It is written from the perspective of a young boy who sees the distinct differences in the two interestingly inter-mingled cultures. Martin Booth describes a Hong Kong familiar to all those who have lived here a long time. For example, the Dai Pai Dong where he used to visit and talk to local people and where he met and made friends with a street-sleeper who called herself the “Queen of Kowloon”; the amahs in black and white uniforms and their hair in a long, shiny plait; the temples with monks, fortune tellers and burnt incense; Hakka women with fringed hats at walled villages in the New Territories; the mysterious Kowloon Walled City where there were triad gangs and opium dens. Among other Hong Kong icons he mentioned are rickshaws. Until recently, there were still one of two at Star Ferry for tourists to take a try ride in or pose for photos. Now you’ll only find one in the Hong Kong Museum of History at Tsim Sha Tsui.

Lastly, I must mention why Martin Booth wrote the book. In 2002, Martin discovered he had a tumour in his brain. His grown-up children, who were in their twenties, asked him about his early life in Hong Kong. He was suddenly struck by the idea that he had never had the chance to learn about his father’s early life, which made it impossible for him to understand his father and to develop a good relationship with him. He wanted to share his life and love with his children by writing this book. He also wanted to pay tribute to Hong Kong.

I hope you may wish to read this book after reading my review on this book. Thank you.

Instead of a famous career entitling her to multimillion dollar sponsor deals playing tennis, she entered a period of coming to terms with what had happened and miserably failed, joining a multitude of other crime victims mostly unnamed and unknown in misery and depression. At the same time, her father and coach was diagnosed with cancer which proved to be terminal.

Trying to get back into the game during the nineties, she was constantly hampered by panic attacks, nightmares and a weight gain of 20 kilograms. She never got back into top form and numerous stress injuries bore prove of her weight struggle. As the link between her injuries and her weight was obvious, she became progressively obsessed with getting her weight down to her former sporting weight of 57 kilograms. Buying just about every book on dieting she could get her hands on, she became convinced that regaining her former weight was the key to success.

This set-up would make a perfect misery memoir so far. But Monica shows a sense of humour throughout and self-deprecatingly sees the funny side of many of the situations.

Obviously, the more she tried to diet, the more time she spent before the fridge stuffing her face. She hired a food coach whose duties included emptying the mini-bars in the hotels she was staying in and instructing the staff to not deliver any orders she might place with room service. When not in a hotel, he slept next to the kitchen to stop her midnight excursions to the fridge and the larder. This didn’t stop her from hopping round the corner to the next convenience store and getting just anything sweet she could get her hands on.

She also tells the story behind the scene of women tennis, the frostiness in the locker room and the strange atmosphere at the tennis events around the world. Quite opposed to men’s tennis where the top seeds are able to be not only respectful to each other, but might even be friends of the court, women tennis players seem to feel a need to keep other top seeds at a distance.

These days, Monica Seles is her confident self again, after realising that dieting was not solving her problems, but getting to grips with her past, her demons, and her grief for her father.

The book is very readable for everybody interested in tennis and personal achievement. Obviously, believers in Weight Watchers and other money generating scams will be highly disapproving, but for me it just showed again that eating and drinking don’t make you fat.

Monica Seles on Wikipedia

Most Shocking Tennis Court Moments

1. David Sedaris, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim: His previous book, Me Talk Pretty One Day formed the basis of Sedaris’ work. Though he had previous works published prior to Me Talk Pretty… this book signified his introduction into literary fame. His follow-up Dress Your Family… is a continuation of his sarcastic tone about the society and life in which he grew up. It is a heartfelt book that focuses not only on the societal pressures of one being homosexual and trying to hide it, but rather being trapped in a world where walls closed in around him. Sedaris brings about the injustices and cruelty of human nature no matter our race, gender, religion, or background.
2. Sarah Vowell, Take the Cannoli: This humorous book of essays truly identifies one woman’s struggle growing up in small town USA to big life USA. Her comparison of life on the farm to life in New York are humorous and goes to show that no matter where we grow up or how we’re raised, we end up, ultimately, where we want to be. This is a coming of age story that’s not as subtle as some might think.
3. Joan Didion, Political Fictions: This vicious commentary on our political process and politicians is chilling and offers solutions to our problems. But also, the book is a looking glass into our future as a people. Didion’s prose in this book is that of a fiction novel, and offers a glimpse into our future, politically. It is controversial and conversational. Political Fictions helps us ask the question, “How far does the rabbit hole go?”
4. Norman Mailer, Countless number of essays: While Mailer was an author of fiction, he made his statements through personal essays. His most famous essay, “The White Negro” Mailer discusses violence and sex in 1960’s America. Like so many of his essays, which have been attempted to be anthologized, but to no avail, are, much like Jack Kerouac, counter cultural. Mailer’s controversial lifestyle extended itself into his writings about the hatred of government and policy.
5. Tom Wolfe, The Pump House Gang: This book was a critique on society post-WWII. It emphasized the basis of American life in regards to our economy, politics, and society as a whole in regards to economic prosperity. This book caused much controversy due to his offensive language toward policy; however, his approach was heralded as unique and impactful playing off the Beat style of writing.

At the beginning of the book, Marji was only 10 years old. She attended a French Secular School, so she wasn’t used to being religious. When all the bilingual schools were closed down, she started to think a little more about her religion. She even thought she was the last prophet! Every night she had meetings with God, and read comics about the worldly affairs. She even read about Marxism and Leninism. She was surprised how much Marx looked like God. Her parents would go out demonstrating once in a while. Marji often had the urge to go and demonstrate. After all, she was a rebellious young Iranian girl.

Her Dad often used to tell her stories about early days in the Revolution. The revolution started when a young illiterate soldier named Reza wanted to follow Gandhi and Ataturk and create a republic. But British Officials tricked him into giving them the oil and creating another monarchy. Naturally, his son, the Shah, succeeded him. The emperor that was overthrown by Reza was Marji’s grandpa’s father. However, because Marji’s grandfather was educated, he was appointed Prime Minister. He and his colleagues argued that it was not Reza Shah Pahlavi, but the Queen of England that was the leader of Iran. Therefore, Grandpa became a communist. Of course, he was sent to jail. Marji was fascinated by these stories, and she would often go tell her friends about them. It helped her get a feel for what was really going on. She could tell her friends how her family was more involved in the revolution than others!

After school the next day, Marji met her grandmother again after a long time. Her grandmother told her how life had been during the Shah’s regime for “heir presumptive” to the Qajar throne. The Shah took everything from them and they lived in poverty. Her mother even had to spray scents to make it seem like she was cooking something good.

The Satrapis had a maid named Mehri. Mehri had been living with them since Marji was born. They had been good “siblings”, and got along. One day when Marji’s parents went to demonstrate, Mehri and Marji went also. They both got into a lot of trouble. After all of this demonstrating, the Shah tried to be more democratic, but being unable to do so, he was taken out of power.

Most of the political prisoners taken in the Shah’s reign were released again. Marji’s family knew two of them: Siamak Jari and Mohsen Shakiba. They talked about how life was like in the prisons. Another man named Ahmadi never made it out of jail because he was a member of the Guerillas.

Marji’s Uncle Anoosh was also a political prisoner. He told Marji about his adventurous times. He left from his father’s, who was also Ebi’s father, house to join his uncle because his father was loyal to the Shah. When he found out that the Shah’s men were after his uncle, he went back to his parents’ house, but he knew that he wouldn’t be safe there, so he went to Russia. He had become a student in the U.S.S.R. where is studied Marxism-Leninism, or Dialect Materialism. When he decided to return home because of a divorce, he came in disguise, where the Police found him soon and put him into jail.

One day, after school, Anoosh was supposed to pick up Marji, but he didn’t because he had been sent to jail by the Fundamentalists, the new political party in power. It was these Fundamentalists who started the Islamic Revolution. Marji went to meet him, where Anoosh said how much he loved her. Mohsen Shakiba was drowned in his own tub, so it wasn’t an accident; it was murder – probably by the fundamentalists. The Fundamentalists went to Siamak Jari’s house, and since he wasn’t there, his sister was killed instead. Siamak’s family escaped Iran hiding within a flock of sheep. The next day, Marji found out that Anoosh had been executed. She was in tears. God came to meet her – for the last time. Marji pushed her friend, God, out of her life that day.

A few years later, when Marji was twelve, a war was going on between Iran and Iraq. The Iraqis were bombing Tehran, and it had been ages since any good news had been heard. Then one day the radio buzzed with excitement that Iranian pilots had bombed Baghdad. The bad news was that at least half of them hadn’t returned. The Fundamentalists were still in power, and women were forced to wear the veil. At school, Marji and her friends would often make fun of the teacher because she supported the Islamic Regime. Parties, alcohol and cigarettes were still banned, but the Satrapis still had them every Thursday. One night, after a party, Ebi was still very drunk, and he was stopped by a soldier. He called home and told them to dump the alcohol. Unfortunately, when he got home, they had already tossed it out, and bribery was all that was needed to get rid of the soldier. Going to the U.S. was banned because the Fundamentalists had taken control of the Iranian Embassy. Universities were closed for two years. Marji’s dreams were torn apart with these changes. She knew that she had to grow up, so she tried her first cigarette. It was horrible, but she knew it wasn’t the time to give up, so she smoked on, until she declared herself an adult by “kissing her childhood goodbye”.

Her parents went on holiday to Turkey for some time together. They smuggled posters, coins, and jackets into Iran for Marji. She was very happy. She went down to buy some illegal -in Iran- tapes of the latest western music. On her way back she was stopped by some women from the Guardians of the Revolution, the Women’s Branch. They saw Marji wearing sneakers and a jacket with Michael Jackson on it. They were planning on taking her down to the committee, but she lied and pleaded to be set free so she was. She often used to go to buy clothes. Now that she was a teenager, she was in the latest fashion. Her mother was surprised how much things were costing. The currency value had dropped so much, that Marji’s mother was uneasy giving Marji the money, because it was so much. One day when she was buying something, she heard on the radio that the neighborhood that Marji lived in had been bombed. She ran home and found out that it was the neighbors’ house that had been bombed. Marji’s mother’s idea of keeping tape on the window worked. Even though a bomb had blasted, breaking all the windows, there was no glass pieces in the house!

At school, Marji and her friends would continually wear effervescent jewelry, an obvious no-no in Iranian society. One day her teacher decided that she’d had enough. She said that if she saw Marji wearing jewelry again, she would forcefully take it from her. The next day, Marji was wearing the same thing, and when the teacher asked to see it, they got into a catfight in which Marji hit the teacher. Of course, she was expelled. At her new Islamic school, she regularly created arguments around subjects of the Islamic Revolution. For example, when the teacher said that there were no political prisoners in Iran during the time of the Islamic Regime, she countered by saying that her uncle, Anoosh, had been jailed in the Shah’s regime, but executed under the Fundamentalists of the Islamic Regime. Marji’s political rebelliousness could not have gone on much longer, for she would have been killed by the Fundamentalists.

Her parents decided to send her to Vienna. It was the only way her rebellious spirit would be safe from the Fundamentalists. She could also continue her French education that she stopped four years earlier. With many tears, Marji went to the airport with the thought that her parents would come to Vienna sooner or later. It was kind of obvious that they would never come. So she was off, to escape the Fundamentalists, and to continue her education.

My favorite character from Persepolis is probably Marji. The first reason that I like Marji is because she is the only character that is really identified, as it is the author. I really like her rebellious spirit because I myself am not too fond of the Islamic Regime. She knew she wasn’t supposed to wear jewelry. She knew she wasn’t safe walking around with “punk” shoes. But she did these things anyways, and that is why I liked her. She is important to the story because the world of Persepolis is in her perspective.

Persepolis was a great book. It was filled with Iranian Culture and with rich details about the Islamic Regime and the Shah’s regime. What I liked the most was the part with Uncle Anoosh coming and talking about his times in the U.S.S.R. I would recommend it to all readers who could enjoy a comic. That’s how I enjoyed it at least. Readers who like history or tales of life in the past would love this book. There is a sequel to this book called Persepolis 2, and another book called The Complete Persepolis, which includes both episodes. That book was made into a movie, which contains all the features of both books. It has been released in French, with all the original cartooning by Marjane Satrapi in it. It has English subtitles, but I still can’t wait for the English version, so that I can enjoy it too. It’s not that I can’t enjoy it in French; it’s just that I could understand it better in English. After all, almost every sentence has a deep meaning to it. All in all, I really enjoyed the book. Many people say that comics are for children, but this one had deep meaning to it, so I liked it very much. I can’t wait to read Persepolis 2, and then watch the movie.

A gyrocompass is basically a compass on airplanes, ships

and submarines that gives very precise directional measurements. The

gyrocompass replaced the magnetic compass which was used before as a

navigational system, but was not very trustworthy. The reason for the replacement of the magnetic compass was because it needed to be leveled in order to work and if that’s not enough it gave very slow readings. The gyrocompass is a very complicated device. It works by holding a gyroscope which is spun by a motor all being held by a special casing which allows it to rotate freely.

It impacted the American society so much because it improved traveling and survival. Traveling was made safer. It made it safer because the gyrocompass is more reliable because you can trust that you are heading in the right direction and wont end up lost at sea or in the air. You also have a greater chance at survival because if a boat at sea or a plane in the air get lost in a patch of fog you can easily pass through it with out getting worried that you will get lost or crash just by heading in the same direction until you able to see.

Still today the gyroscope is used in ships and planes because no new compasses have taken the place of the gyrocompass. Even though there have been no new compasses there has been change to the original gyrocompass. The only change is that it is now smaller which means that it weighs less and takes up less room. With more room you can fit more important stuff that is key to flying or sailing.

Still today the gyrocompass is used. That’s why I consider it the best invention ever invented. The gyrocompass has passed the test of time and is the best compass today and it is all thanks to Elmer Ambrose Sperry.