The Color Complex

  The book starts, like many others, with an historical perspective of how we arrived to the problem associated with modern colorism we are so familiar with today. I like when ideas are presented from its very beginning, its fundamental core leading to its outstretch roots, that is the problem itself. That is something the book or at least its first chapter is able to do really well on. So basically, after slave trade would commence in the Americas and different human races began to coexist together, the problem of color complex would result. The first chapter play a huge emphasis on colorism( discrimination base on color) and its impact in society. Even though the origin of the color complex probably dates back to 500 years or even more it is still plays a major restriction on individual in modern days. The chances of even finding a job or a love partner for that matter can be influence by your skin color or backgrounds. In the US and many other places in the world, you are most likely to land a job if you had a lighter skin and have a "white" name. I like to think of this problem as to being more influence by society and the media rather than individual themselves. To be honest i think it limit us as human beings and as "intelligent" beings. A persons qualities should never be define by the color of their skin but by their actions and perhaps even their inaction toward certain things. Seeing as this problem is really old and unlikely to change from one day to another, it will be something we continue to live with and possibly our posterity as well.

Gary Shteyngart: Little Failure

  Little Failure was definitively a very interesting memoir, one i was personally skeptical at first but soon found myself consumed by every single page of it. The book itself is very fascinating, jumping from a very funny event on one sentence to a super sad one on the following. Basically the story revolves around Gary's life, from his youngest days to his adulthood, leading to the famed author he is today. One thing that i really like about this particular memoir, is that the author is willing to shared any events despite how embarrassing or scary they would be. For a person to potentially shared their whole life to the public, even the darkest of secrets, it takes a lot of courage and determination. Prior to arriving to the United States Gary's life was perhaps more "normal" or in a sense it was a life he was very familiar with. After getting to the US, the author has tons of limitations that he has to overcome especially the language barrier. This is something i can personally related to the author since it was a process i had to overcome myself. Speaking from experienced it is not a easy one especially in the beginning. As time goes by and we get better assimilated into the new culture, well it becomes easier or in the very least bearable. Back to the actual memoir, i think its a very alluring one. Even if a person is familiar with most concepts, it is still someone else life experience and worth looking into to. what really connected me to the book was not the actual story but the events that lead to it, that is to say the hilarious/super sad events that lead to it.