My partial list

As Bethany mentioned in the rules, I am not planning to post a complete list of books (they may change any time) but I am determined to complete the challenge this year! So, here are the first few books that I already have in my collection, that I am very sure of completing!

1. Three Men in a Boat – Jerome K Jerome (England)
2. The Almond – Nadjma (North Africa)
3. Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert (France)
4. The Shipping News - E. Annie Proulx (USA)

The rest will follow... I will be almost done with Three Men in a Boat and be posting my thoughts on it soon!

OT challenge 2009

Last time I had not completed the Orbis Terrarum Challenge. And this time too, I am kind of unsure how to go about it. It is not so easy to get hold of books of authors of different countries (bad time for buying brand new books and no library in this town masquerading as a city).



However, I still plan to take part - with the unfinished books that I already have in our collection.

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

Struggling with 'Handful of Rice'

Following Kamala Markandeya's 'A Handful of Rice' is proving to be quite a task. It is not an easy read - neither boring nor stupendously exciting. But I am not able to put it aside - I hate doing it to a book unless it is absolutely a waste of my time. And right now, there is a big scarcity of time.

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