Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice - A Graphic Novel

This graphic novel is meant for young adults, an effort to spur their interest in classics. This book is published by Campfire, a unit of Kalyani Navyug Media (essentially an Indian venture). To be honest, we bought this book to be given as a gift to somebody, but I changed my mind in the last minute and decided to keep it for myself :P

The story is not new to me, having seen it in all formats (novel, tv series, movie), but I was curious to know how it would pan out in a graphic novel. I thoroughly enjoyed the book. The script is extremely well written – crisp, and not too complex so as to keep the young readers engaged. To be able to cover a novel like Pride and Prejudice and do justice to the original is no small feat, and Laurence Sach – a UK based writer/theatre lecturer – has successfully managed to achieve this.

The illustrations, however, are a slight disappointment. The drawings of the characters are inconsistent (even a little ugly in some places), and hugely influenced by the existing formats (movies/tv series). At one point, I even found an image of a real photo in one of the panels.

Despite this I would heartily recommend this book for all book lovers, young and old, simply because of the prose.

I would rate this book a good 3.5/5.0

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz

I have not read any other books by Junot Diaz but I definitely plan to. He is an amazing writer and rightly deserved the Pulitzer Prize for this book.

Another borrowed book from the library, I found it difficult to put it down once I got past the initial few pages. The book interweaves the history of Dominican Republic during the violent era of dictatorship (under the dictator Rafael Trujillo in 1950s) with the stories of the individuals (a family affected by the atrocities of dictatorship). The story is told from the perspective of three characters, although the omniscient narrator is present throughout the book.

Oscar Wao is an overweight Dominican who mainly does two things in life: falling in love with beautiful women and writing sci-fi and fantasy books (“the next Tolkien”) and fails fantastically at both. The other main characters in the book are Oscar Wao’s sister Lola, their once-beautiful, domineering mother, and their grandmother named La Inca. Wao’s luck seems to be clouded by a powerful fuku (curse) that the family is burdened with, which is also linked to the evil eye of the dictator.

The language is fluid, and the storytelling is effortless. The bleakness of the story is only manageable because of the wonderful humour that is present throughout the book. There is a liberal usage of Spanish sentences in the book throughout, so much so that it was annoying – every time I was forced to stop reading and do a google translation. After a point, I quit in frustration: the translation part, not the reading.

What I loved the most was the extensive footnotes, which becomes part of the storytelling. After a point, I looked forward to the footnotes – they are the window to the country’s bloody history and the perpetrators of the violence. The footnotes at some point stopped becoming just factual information, they also ended up becoming part of the story itself.

A must read for people who enjoy political, social commentary along with a well-crafted story.

I would give it a 4.0/5.0

The Englishman's Cameo - Madhulika Liddle

Talk about finding a wonderful writer by chance. This is the second time it has happened to me. (First was Annie E Proulx via her book Shipping News.)

I was reading an online interview of a writer in an article posted on twitter and she happened to mention Madhulika Liddle as one of the influences on her own writing. She had heaped praises and I found that other tweeters also had mentioned how much they had enjoyed Liddle’s books. The name stuck in my head. Later, when I was browsing through my online library book lists, I found a book from Madhulika Liddle and I decided to borrow it. I am glad I did so.

The Englishman’s Cameo is a debut novel from Madhulika Liddle. In this detective story set in the 17th century Mughal era, we find the young nobleman Muzaffar Jung trying to help his friend who has been accused of murdering a rich businessman. Jung stumbles from one mystery to the other and in the end, all ends well.

I loved the story. The writing is very lyrical and engaging; the writer effortlessly creates the milieu with careful and detailed descriptions of the rich, decadent Mughal era. I liked the way she evokes the images of a bygone era with the details of the food, clothes, jewellery. I could have read on and on. The characters were well developed; intriguing people with a hint of enough baggage of the past such as, Jung’s intelligent sister who is almost old enough to be his mother, Jung’s boatman friend, and a mention of the long-lost love; I wanted to know more and more about them. Since this is the first book, I am guessing she developed them further – Muzaffar Jung continues his adventures in the next few novels and short stories.

Despite all these positives, the very mystery solving process falls pretty short of expectations. There is nothing gripping in terms of the suspense or the mystery per se. If one was expecting something on the lines of Agatha Christie stories, one would be greatly disappointed. Yet I am willing to try the next few books from this author. Now that is a first for me.

Though I would love to recommend this book highly, I rate this 3.5/5.0 purely because it does not do enough justice to its genre.

To do or not to

I wonder if I should add an image of the book cover along with the post I write on a particular book.

I remember a couple of years ago, I was shocked to discover that the same book could have multiple cover designs - what opinion I form of the book could be completely different from other readers all because of a different design. Now come to think of it, it makes sense even to myself to remember what I read long ago.

A good idea. Yes. Considering I am the sole reader of my blog (bit sad actually but I shall wallow in misery some other day) I can do ABSOLUTELY whatever I want! (the only good part)

The Bridges of Madison County – Robert James Waller

I had heard so much about the book and the movie that I was prepared to be disappointed. I was lucky; I didn’t have to worry about such a probability. Of course books get hyped, and movies even more so, but this book manages to scrape through, although, only by the skin of its teeth. I can’t say the same about the movie: I have not seen it.

Can anybody fall in love, deeply and instantly with a stranger? Can it be reciprocated with the same fervour if not more? Can two people feel the bond so strongly that they want to spend the rest of their lives together after having spent just four days with each other? Possible. Probable? I don’t know, considering both of them have already spent a major part of their lives elsewhere, with other people. But that is what remarkable love stories are made of, and Bridges of Madison County is a through and through love story.

Set in Madison County, Iowa, the story is about two such people – Robert Kincaid, a photographer who is working on a NatGeo project, and Francesca Johnson, a house-wife whose life seems to have come to a standstill. They fall in love the moment they set their eyes on each other and later discover they were the meant to be together. However, real life considerations and social obligations are equally strong and the affair remains as a beautiful experience for the rest of their lives.

The book is high on romance and the character Robert Kincaid, if ever there was a man like that, is a memorable one. I am on the fence when it comes to this story – the cynical in me shakes her head – the romance is too fantastic to be believable, yet, there is something charming about how desperate they are to be together and how impossible it all is.

The prose is pretty okay – it does not sweep you off your feet – in some places, it is quite ordinary. It is the story that carries the book upon its shoulder.

I can say I did enjoy the book. I didn’t fall in love with it though.

McCarthy’s Bar - Pete McCarthy

I have developed a taste for the travelogues and McCarthy’s Bar by Pete McCarthy certainly ranks high among the travel writing books that I have read so far. Irish, quirky, funny and touching in the way many situations were described, this book was a difficult beginning. The reasons are many – It jumps right into the travel documentation, the cultural references are not easy to understand for a non-British, non-European reader, and I feel I had not prepared myself to put in an effort to understand and absorb it. After a few pages it was a merry ride across the Irish coast along with the author.

The book is about the author (half-British and half-Irish) tracing the Irish coast looking for the stone ruins of the past (his favourite hobby) and stopping at any pub that is named after his own. He finds the country rising up to meet the demands of tourism and the resulting consequences of that haphazard growth is not too much to his liking. In addition to the native Irish who are wonderful if not slightly eccentric, he also meets others – many British, Germans and other Europeans – who have traded their city lives to be at the country side, to live at their own pace. The commentary on the social changes (more accepting of the outsiders), cultural transformations (exchanging Irish architecture of stone and wood for UPVC, pyrex glass windows), and on food is delightful and sharp. There are references to religion and its heavy impact on Irish life, also a hilarious account of a religious trip that the author took on a whim. It is an extremely well-written book.

I would highly recommend it for its humour, pithy observations about people, and a country at large.

After the Quake - Haruki Murakami

Although Murakami isn’t my ‘favourite’ writer, I find him highly original and hence, respect. I usually enjoy his stories, with some exceptions of course; one thing is for sure, the stories are always bizarre. I have always been a fan of short stories and prefer reading a collection of short stories or anthologies over a novel. These collections give freedom to the reader to start and end wherever they want to.

One of the few quirks in my reading life is that I prefer to start reading newspapers or magazines from the middle or the last few pages. It somehow makes the whole process very enjoyable. I seldom use this approach to short stories though. I don’t know why. Probably that is why it is a quirk and nothing else.

Back to the book, ‘After the Quake’: I did flit from one story to another like I usually do in a magazine. I had a good time too. The six short stories in this collection involve the earthquake that shook Kobe, Japan, during the year 1995. Not the center in each of the story but always lurking in and around – never letting the reader forget about it either.

‘UFO in Kushiro’ – is a story of a woman leaving her husband and going back to live with her parents because she feels living with him is like living with air; no depth, no emotions. It is a baffling story – I wanted to know more about the woman and why she felt the way she felt about her husband. The story doesn’t really give much information on that.

‘Landscape with Flatiron’ – depicts two people, a man and a girl, who have left their respective homes and what bothers them in life. The girl is afraid she cannot feel anything anymore. The man is afraid of dying alone. This had an eerie atmosphere all through. The cold night and the bonfire on beach was the most arresting imagery that stayed much after the book was over.

‘Super Frog Saves Tokyo’ – a giant frog and a loan recovery agent get together to save Tokyo from a giant, evil worm. The whole story is surreal with an unreliable narrator (the recovery agent). I totally enjoyed the story.

‘All God’s Children can Dance’ – I was so bored with the story that I cannot even remember clearly what it was about.

‘Thailand’ – a woman goes to Thailand combining work and leisure together. Her chauffeur is a mysterious Japanese man who seems to have an answer to a problem that she doesn’t know she has. Loved it.

‘Honey Pie’ – more normal than the rest, this is a love story that had had a break and seem to find a closure. Again, I enjoyed the story mainly because it just made realise how the author tenderly paints a picture of the human emotions.

It is a strange book as most of his books are, but that does not take away the fun from the reading.