The Sense of an Ending

After a long time, I chanced upon a beautiful, thought provoking book - The Sense of an Ending, by Julian Barnes.
The book resonated with me like no other. The author uses a clever tool: he talks about how memory can color our perception and our idea of the past, while the memory itself is colored by what we perceive as the right thing, the good thing. The theme involves regret, remorse, the emotions every human being will go through in his/her life at least once. Lost opportunities, past mistakes, suppressed feelings, oppressed thoughts - it could be anything. 

An unusual way of finding treasures

Recently I went to Blossoms - a wonderful bookshop on Church Street that sells new as well as second hand books. I had been looking around to pick up Zadie Smith's 'White Teeth' and these pretentious Landmarks of the world didnt have it. I thought I would give it a try in Blossoms - I was delighted to find a clean copy of White Teeth in their second hand book section.

Now that is what i call luck.
I have been getting a wee bit lucky with books - touch wood.
I had never heard of Annie Proulx or The Shipping News before I picked it up on an impulse in a road side second book sale; it was more like a garage sale - piles of books worth 10 bucks, 25, 50 and so on.

Even today, I cannot believe I got The Shipping News for just 10 rupees. It was like buying a box of tissue papers only to find diamonds in there when you opened it at home. I will never ever part with the book, ever. It is like a goodluck charm. I dont think anyone else has ever had a better experience in 'discovering' a brilliant author. Ah, the joy!!

Mosquito and Other Stories

Mosquito and Other Stories by Premendra Mitra was a surprise find in the library. I didnt know anything about the author but the blurb sounded very interesting so I held on it.
I am glad I picked it up - otherwise I would have lost such an opportunity to read some brilliant writing by this Bengali author.
The original short stories are in Bengali; however, the translated stories give us a glimpse of how and why the protagonist "Ghana-da" was a cult hero in Bengali literature.

Ghanashyam Dass, known as Ghana-da to his friends in the hostel, lives in the hostel, where he mysteriously disappears during the end of the month when it comes to paying food bills and, borrows countless number of cigarettes from his friends. As the book clearly says, every story is a tall-tale so brilliantly narrated by Ghana-da to his friends who double up as listeners. Although we as readers and them as listeners are clearly aware of the reality, it does not stop us from enjoying these stories and looking forward to more of them.

I loved the book. It is surprisingly interesting and later I found out, factually accurate. The book is made-for-the-young-minds. I hope that the future generation gets hold of this amazing book and enjoys it as much as I did.

The Reading List - 3

Completed:
7. The Shipping News - Annie E. Proulx (literary)
8. Birthday Stories - Selected By Haruki Murakami (Short stories by various authors)
9. Diamond Dust - Anita Desai (Short stories)
10. Mosquito and Other Stories - Premendru Mitra (Short stories)

Another good thing that has happened to me is that I have come across a wonderful library 'Just Books' - I relish borrowing books; reading them at a nomical cost - this way I can separate the wheat from chaff (except the first one in the above list, all were borrowed from the library). I get to choose from a wide variety; I can afford not to complete a book although I dont use that option much (I usually HATE not finishing a book no matter how horrible it is). If I get lucky, as I did with 'On Beauty', I will go and buy a copy for my bookshelf. What a wonderful arrangement!
I know, this is what is supposed to be with libraries. And it is no secret by any stretch of imagination, yet, I feel good about it.

The Reading List - 2

I have managed to read some more :)
6. On Beauty - Zadie Smith
A brilliant book.
I am a fan of Zadie Smith now; I never thought that a story of two families could be "so" very interesting, absorbing, could have so many layers, could make me think about the characters long after I completed the book.
The story spans between England and the U.S., and speaks of two families - the Belseys and the Kippses - whose rivalry has sprung up due to seemingly stupid reason such as academic differences between the heads of the family - Howard Belsey and Monty Kipps, two leading (apparently) professors. Adding to this, Jerome Belsey, the eldest falls in love with Veronica, 'Vee' only to be left heart-broken. The Belseys already have enough issues on their hands and Kippses move to the same university and their neighborhood doesn't help matters anymore.
The tense, somewhat hilarious interactions between the family leads to many twists and turns in the plot.

Well, to be honest, the plot outline I have provied does not do any justice to the beautiful story woven inside this 400+ pager. (If I could write as beautifully as she did, I would be writing a story instead of this!)

The relationships, their mundane-ness, their beauty, the human nature of taking things for granted, and infidelity: all feature in this poignant tale. The beauty lies in the way Smith has dissected each characters, the grey shades - we cannot hate any character; each his/her own weaknesses that is so real and so human. One can not but empathize with them. Smith's writing is also extremely witty and hilarious; I could not help laughing out aloud in many places.
I adore this book; I had borrowed it from the library. Now, I plan to buy this. This is certainly worth owning.

Currently reading: The Shipping News - Annie E. Proulx (another FAVOURITE author)
I must confess this is a re-read and I love every bit of it.

New Reads: A Beginning

Books read till now, with a one word observation. (Longer versions will come out, later)

1. Going Postal - Terry Pratchett (Hilarious - worth a read)
2. Making Money - Terry Pratchett (Hilarious - yes once again, as most of his books are supposed to be)
3. Almost Single - Advaita Kala (Not bad - light read and witty)

Currently Reading

1. Escape - Manjula Padmanabhan

Brooklyn Follies - Paul Auster

This book was highly recommended by Sid. Usually I trust his choice, but this one didnt work for me the way it did for him.
The story criss-crosses many lives in Brooklyn and probably the author's intention was to ensure everyone finds a connection somewhere. If so, then I feel it backfired bigtime.
The storyline has Nathan Glass, a retired insurance sales guy, with lung cancer trying to spend his life, whatever is left of it, in a quiet place. So he moves to Brooklyn. He meets his nephew Tom, who is working in a bookshop and the two together have some good time. In comes his niece's daughter who refuses to speak and, as claimed by the blurb in the book, their lives change drastically after this.
If you ask me, that is where the book starts going downhill. Initially the book managed to hold my interest, I kept thinking, something bigger is just around the corner, but more than halfway I realized it isn't going to be anything like that. The plot is stretched unnecessarily and few parts are too tacky and unconvincing. Not even once, do we see the protagonist (who is supposed to be a cancer patient) having any trouble with his health. I am not saying he should be in bed or have some major scenes in hospital, but, it simply does not allow me to believe in this character. In addition, the father daughter (did I not mention the hero had a daughter? well, yes, he does) relationship is not depicted strongly, that we can feel empathy for him when he had a 'fight' with his daughter.
However, the writing is good - simple and easy to read so I didnt have to tax my brain too much. There were some parts that I enjoyed reading - the nephew Tom's infatuation, Tom meeting his future wife (i forget her name, though) and umm, some more (not so memorable, I guess).
Overall, a decent read, with few good parts thrown in between.
Rating: 3/5

The Days and Nights of Shorty Gomes - Ahmed Bunglowala

This one is an old and a low-key detective fiction by Ahmed Bunglowala, published in 1993. I am not sure if he wrote more, he probably did, but google doesn't show much (hence, no image to go with the post). The main reason for reading this book is that it is HD's 'comfort book'. I was curious to know more about it so, this time, I picked up this book.

The story line goes like this: Shorty Gomes is a detective who is tired of working for a bigger agency, and now is trying to work independently with few cases trickling in. This has three short stories (a case of a wealthy and beautiful client seeking protection from own husband and dying premature death, a shady lawyer outsourcing the job of shadowing a high class hooker, and finally an aging royalty requesting protection against a soothsayer).

The stories are not great by any stretch of imagination but the style is what one remembers after one puts down the book. It has tongue-in-cheeck dialogues almost every time Shorty Gomes speaks. There is a liberal dose of sarcasm, again slightly highhanded I must say...
But, the good part of the book is that you get the feeling that the author enjoyed himself thoroughly while writing this. It is as if he deliberately wanted to give those ludicrous twists and chases in the story, just to have some fun. Another thing I liked about the book was that it had no pretense of pleasing a wider audience whatsoever. The scenarios, the background setting (Bombay, it says) and the characters, they are all truely on the Indian soil which made it more endearing.
Definitely not for readers who want some classic moments and a great story line, but probably once a while when you really have lot of time to spend and light reading is what you require, you can peek into this book.
I checked in Amazon, they don't have this book in stock and apparently none of the bookshops have even listed them in their stock, so says HD.

But, I am glad I read it - not just for HD's sake, but mine too.
Rating: 2.5/5

Breakfast of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut

This was my first tentative step into the world of Kurt Vonnegut and despite many warnings on the net (observations by other readers) that this may not be the best book to start with, I enjoyed the book tremendously.
Highly satirical and incisive in nature, 'Breakfast of Champions' provides a striking picture of the bleakness, the purposelessness and self centered life that the American society is so deeply mired in. Although the book is quite old, the observations are still relevant in the current times.
What is good about the book -
A unique narrative style which allows you to breeze through the pages despite the heavy content.
Drawings interspersed through out the story: although they highlight what has already been said in the story, it does provide an interesting angle to the narration.
And of course, brilliant writing.

The story is about two men, (no actually, three people - including the author, who makes an appearance in the book) a science fiction writer (Kilgore Trout) and a well-to-do car dealer (Dwayne Hoobler) who meet in an unlikely circumstances and the interaction leads to the dealer going completely insane. The emptiness of Dwayne's rich but aimless life (a dead wife, a disowned homosexual son, a mistress who is not able to fulfill the lacuna of his life) which sounds all too familiar even at this age. The mindless pollution and insensitiveness towards the environment so as to fill the corporations' already rich coffers seems to have continued from the time of industrialization.
Although pithy and humourous, it is quite bleak and leaves you with an unease that settles down on your sensibilities.
All in all a wonderful book and I am looking forward to the other books by the author.

I would rate this book 4.5/5 (why not 5? well, I don't know why, but I am just not able to do it)

Evening is the whole day - Preeta Samarasan

I am done with the job now. I am so relieved and relaxed. I feel free - probably this is how most prisoners would feel after getting out. I know this is not a permanent option; the realities of life would force me to look into the mirror soon and push me again towards another job, another drudgery.
Till then, let me enjoy.
I am done with J.D. Salinger's 'Franny and Zooey' but I have not really had the time to put my thoughts in order. Instead, I jumped on to Preeta Samarasan's 'Evening is the whole day'.

It is a story of an Indian family caught amidst changing times - occurring within the family relationships, within the society that the family has reluctantly embraced and in Malaysia post colonial departure (although not much of this). The story starts with sending away the maidservant Chellam for committing a sin in the 'Big House'. Each member of the family (Appa, Amma, Uma the oldest-eldest, Suresh and Aasha the little one who sees ghosts in the house and 'knows things somehow') has his/her own personal sorrows, agenda that somehow adds on to the emotional burden that the family bears. In the later chapters one gets to know the nature of relationship shared between Amma and Appa, the underlying tensions and the lack of intimacy. Appa, the ambitious lawyer who wanted to make it big in Malayan politics and make a difference to the society. His wealth, education or his ideals cannot really hide the selfishness lying underneath. Amma, the girl from the lower class who was grateful to Appa for rescuing her from the misery of her aimless life inflicted by the parents, enters the big house only to realize that the disappointments of life here are camouflaged in silk sarees, jewellery, and mindless tea parties. Paati (the grandmother) with her emotional games using her sons and grandchildren against the daughter-in-law. The oldest-eldest girl Uma who plans to leave for America for studies, harbouring anger at the family for having betrayed her trust. And additional ghost characters floating in and out of the story at various intervals.

I found the first half unnecessarily heavy, verbose. It was not very easy to go on with the book considering how slowly the plot moved - the details were too detailed, the descriptions too vivid. The character development of the 'ghost' - a little girl who died earlier in the house feels slightly overdone. It makes the novel a little too clever for comfort. The political unrest of Malaysia as depicted in the novel does little to hold the reader's interest since it seems like a small subplot thrown in as an after thought. However, in the second half the plot picks up pace and suddenly the writing is crisper as if the author suddenly decided to shed the descriptive narration. I enjoyed the plot build-up. The writing in most parts is powerful and holds one's attention - the simple hopes and fears of chellam the maidservant, the manipulativeness of Aasha, are wonderfully captured. One feels sorry for Amma, who struggles till the very end to attain the upper-classiness, in the process alienating her children and husband.

Overall, the book is a good read and I probably would pickup her second book if the author comes up with an other one.

Rating: 3.5/5

Estate of Mind: What a deceptively interesting name

It has been a real long time since I got on to the net and looked around. I can say too much of work and stress in the new job is the only reason. However, I had promised myself that I would continue updating this blog all the time. A failed promise.
Anyway, let me not mope around much. I have not been reading much of late. My orbis terrarum challenge has flown out of the window. 'A Handful of Rice' is still lying around somewhere.
Meanwhile, I went furniture shopping and on the way found this unbelievably great bargain book store. H and I went crazy and ended up buying seventeen books. Of course, it offered good and some downright bad books.
One such book was 'Estate of Mind' by Tamar Myers. The story on the cover seemed nice, so I picked it up. I have never read Tamar Myers before and I didnt know she was popular. It took me all my willpower to finish the book. It is so painful - flimsy storyline, highly irritating smart-alecy main character, and a very annoying style of writing. I read it only because I had to write about this book and warn others not to venture anywhere near the book. I found out later that this book was one of the 'Den of Antiquities' mysteries!! I mean, there is a whole lot more of such books. I cant imagine who would want to read such stories.
The story is about a woman called Abigail who is the owner of antique shop, who finds a priceless painting in a church auction and a bunch of idiots who want to steal it from her. The story is meandering, all the time losing its way in the overly stylized dialogues and the author suddenly realizes she has lost the thread and comes up with more muck.
Anyway, there isn't much to write about this. Please avoid this book if you are smart.
Rating: 1/5

I have started on J.D. Salinger's 'Franny and Zooey'. Will post about it soon.

Lord of the Flies - William Golding

I finished William Golding's 'Lord of the Flies' yesterday. It is not difficult to figure out why some authors stand out distinctly as compared to the rest of the crowd - Lord of the Flies is a testimony to this fact.

My initial reaction to the story was a stunned silence at the shocking violence and depravity that a human mind is capable of.

The story revolves around a group of British school children (the exact number is never known) who survive a plane crash and land on an uninhabited island. There are no grown ups and this causes merriment initially and the boys form their own method of governance. Ralph is chosen as the chief by the boys and his main aim is to find a rescue ship. Jack, an equal to Ralph has a mind of his own. Piggy is a shortsighted, fat, physically weak but intelligent boy who supports Ralph in his endeavours. Gradually, differences crop up between two main characters Ralph and Jack (who goes on to become a successful hunter and is power hungry ) and slowly the order collapses with Jack building his own tribe and enticing the rest of the boys to join the tribe. The book goes on to describe the incredible evil that crops up from these seemingly normal kids and finally ends in a rescue, depicting the loss of innocence and the ability to believe in goodness of the people.

The book is incredible in its style of narration and the build up of the story. It leaves you with a feeling of helplessness, in that, completely succeeds in hitting home the point.

However, there are loopholes that cannot be so easily ignored. Although it can be excused for being allegorical in nature, certain aspects seem too contrived to be believed - for example, the survival of kids with no adults aboard the plane, the age group of the children (the 'littleuns' being six and 'biguns' about twelve). One cannot really imagine such young children hunting pigs, killing them and roasting the meat (may be I am too skeptical about their capability)

All in all, the story is dark and completely gripping.

Rating: 4/5

Weight Loss - Upamanyu Chatterjee

It has been three long days since I planned to write about the book 'Weight Loss'.
Frankly, I dont really know how to put my emotions down on the page- such rollercoaster ride of feelings forcing me to think and not proceed further. I am not actually surprised because major book critics were stumped by this unusual book so, a mere book burrower need not worry.

Weight Loss is about Bhola and his obsession about two things in life - sex and fitness. Bhola is an intelligent guy who at his ealiest age displays lust towards any human being who otherwise is dispicable/lowest in the social rung/horribly dirty. During his school days, he lusts after his teachers and in college his land lady. His obsession with two lowly people - Titli and Moti, a couple selling vegetables and later assistants of a quack, causes many upheavals in his life. His friends Dosto and Anin are equally crazy. The story tracks Bhola's tragic life via the people who are part of his life.

Firstly, the book is horribly bleak. The situations are completely bizzare, straight out of fantasy land only Mr. Chatterjee was capable of finding. None of the characters save the protagonist's father are believable. The descriptions of Bhola's sexual adventures are, at best, disgusting.
However, the book is immensely FUNNY. I mean humourous. There is no way one can deny the grossness of explicit sexual adventures of the protagonist, but the very absurdity of the situation makes it quite palatable. With the kind of morose subject regarding futility of life, humour is the best weapon to explain it I guess. As an example, I can open any page of the book and find something to smile about - sarcastic, ironic, slapstic, witty.
It makes one wonder about the human nature and the complexity of emotions - at the end of day, I would not be surprised if there is a Bhola hiding somewhere out there behind the facade of a 'respectable' (in the general sense) human being.
It takes a genius to handle such a difficult scenario with such absurd humour and lightness at the same time. Upamnyu Chatterjee is definitely one of the best.
One should venture out to read this book if one has the capability to enjoy the beautiful writing while safely ignoring the ugly details.

Rating: 3.75/5