Book reviews

The Strange Library

2015-07-25T15:50:00.005-04:00

- Haruki Murakami (Translated by Ted Goossen)

Strange library looks like a love child of coffee table book and a pop-up greeting card. The book is is just fifty odd pages with bizarre illustrations and large font text. That is where the associations end. With coffee table books and usual Murakami stories. Of course this book has a weird story, unique characters, surreal environment, suspended reality and all that. But there are no references to music, no puzzling women, clueless men or cats.

This story is about a teenage boy imprisoned in the bowels of a library by a wicked old man who orders the boy to memorize three fat books on Taxation of Ottoman empire or else face a terrible destiny. A man dressed in sheep ( you may know the sheep man from Wild Sheep Chase) takes care of the boy when he is in the prison and a young beautiful girl brings him food. Both of them are hapless prisoners themselves, their situation much more desolate than our hero.

Whatever happens next, did the boy trick the old man and escape? Did he succumb to the fate and stay in the library? You don't have to wait for long to know, the book would end in a few pages. This leaves very little room for character development, internal monologues and philosophies but the book doesn't fail to make an impact.

Libraries looked normal and boring till now, but I wonder what mysteries it has been hiding from me?

The Last Girlfriend on Earth and Other Love stories

2015-06-12T20:09:00.001-04:00

The Last Girlfriend on Earth

and Other Love Stories by Simon Rich

I was tired of looking for that elusive book which had romance in it, but didn't make you gag at the same time. It must have some funny moments, must provoke some warm fuzzy feelings and must steer clear of stereotypes.

Most of the books start out with good humor, but turn philosophical and dragging when the author gets a sudden conscience to make their characters grow.

I have not grown in twenty years, I don't think I will mature and become all philosophical in 300 pages. Neither would I find the 'perfect' love and have the world stop for me then and there. Life isn't like that.

Other books take a deep dive emotionally and gets way too serious until the author throws in some humor like bacon bits over an ice cream. Again - gagging.

The Last Girlfriend on Earth is about every aspect of love, the falling in love, the hesitant proposal, the long wait, the blissful dating, jealousy, insecurities, power struggle, falling apart and breakups.

All the stories are short and to the point, about human interactions when they are exposed to wacky circumstances of love. The best part of a well enjoyed book is to interpret it your own way, without having spelled it out for you, and many of the stories leave you with a lot of avenues to explore.

Each story begins with a novel approach, but this is not a serious book, most of the stories are presented as is, but almost every story tickles our funny bone and some tug our heart unexpectedly.

I was surprised by the story openings, was surprised that this book approached love stories beyond cliches so much that I finished the book in a single stretch. If you are looking for a different experience on reading about romance, this book is a must read.

A walk in the woods

2015-05-28T21:58:00.000-04:00

Book: A walk in the woods

Author : Bill Bryson

I picked up this book at a local flea market in the hope of knowing more about the Appalachian Trail (AT) , for my plans to travel to the AT valley at the peak of the fall season, the touristy time of the year had gone haywire, all thanks to a major blowout at work.

Bill Bryson is a popular travel writer, but travelogue was not my thing, until I read one, reading about nature was not my thing, until I read one. When Bryson decided to hike the AT all the way from Springer Mountains in Georgia to Kathinad in Maine, he knew he was setting himself a harsh target. About Two thousand miles, in much more realistic terms: a five day car drive.

Why would one attempt such a strenuous and daunting stretch, knowing very well that it is going to be a backbreaker? At least Bryson had a reason, to write a book about it, but what about Katz, his co-hiker, the guy who accompanied him; with his drinking problem, eating problem, and TV addiction; he didn't even reform himself at the end.

Bryson is funny, entertaining, and informative, all characteristic of a well written short essay. To sustain that over 300 pages is sheer genius, in the trail hiking terms, a steep walk of perseverance. At times he was so funny that I had to roll on the floor or hit a soft bed to stop from laughing. Apart from the two major characters, the narrator and his partner, the irreverent Mary Ellen they meet in their first leg of the journey will have you in splits with her bewildering commentary and arbitrary knowledge.

This is no philosophical book, but there is an inescapable feeling about the purpose of life, the question of what are we doing at this moment when the wilderness awaits with so much adventure and sunshine. Hikers wake up to difficulties every morning, so much like many of us in the corporate world, they walk, scamper uphill, saunter downhill, and swim across streams, until the sun vanish from the sky. And then they eat some minimal food, and slip away into sleep under the shining stars, mostly because they don't have enough food, and their tent is torn or lost half way into the hike.

Bryson, at his evocative and humorous best paints a picture of what goes through the mind of a hiker, the craving for good food, for a proper bath, or for shelter above his head when he is in the middle of the woods staring at the stars. How he wants to give up everyday, but how not giving up makes him stronger the next day, only to think about giving up again. This is especially true for an ill-prepared hiker, which is what a normal person like me can aspire to. The book has piqued my interest in hiking, although hiking across the AT is out of question, there is a part of me which wants to do at least a day hike along the blaze of the AT.

Killing Jesus - Not really a book review

2015-05-01T23:23:00.000-04:00

This Christmas, I learned a lot about Jesus – the man, not the son of God, not the King of Jews. It was fascinating to traverse through the historical period of Jesus’s life – Roughly from 4 BC to 30 AD with ‘Killing Jesus’ – A history by Bill O’Reilly’ and Martin Dugard.

First things first, I knew nothing about Jesus when I began reading the book, and I don’t assume I know everything about Jesus after reading the book. One swallow doesn’t make a summer, and one book doesn’t make anyone an expert. I’m no expert, but definitely captivated by the man who has been living for over two thousand years in the hearts of millions of people all over the world.

I knew only one thing about Jesus, that he was killed, that he was crucified. Most of the events in the last few days of Jesus’s life happen at the Temple Mount, Jerusalem– the second Temple of Jews that was destroyed by the Romans a few decades after Jesus’s crucifixion. A part of the Temple Mount called Western wall still remains in the current Jerusalem.

Intricate political and economic oppressions have led to several rebellions in different parts of the world – the most recent one being the Egyptian pink revolution. The reason for Jesus’s rebellion against the oppressors of his time was no different from any other modern rebellion –it was one man’s crusade for his people against political and economic suppression. Thousands were crucified by Romans to keep people from rebelling against the all-powerful Roman Empire. Everyone wanted an alternative to the high priests of Judaism and the all-conquering Roman Empire. There were several rebels, there were several leaders, but he stood out with his messages- and his messages still stand out.

Jesus gave - an inspirational figure, a charismatic orator - them alternative to the atrocities of the period. He gave hope for a life after suffering in what he called the Kingdom of God- a novel message at that time. He asked them to suffer through difficulties, to endure and reach his Kingdom. One can even assume he was instigating a rebellion and was literally talking about a kingdom ruled by him instead of philosophical life in heaven after life.

Jesus was definitely charming - he became a champion of the masses not only because of his ideologies, but the efforts of the gospel writers who wanted a head figure to fuel the hope of a new world. Believer or non-believer, you cannot ignore Jesus, no matter what. These facts might matter very little when it comes to matters of faith. For matters of faith, there is no reasoning. Isn’t that why it is called faith? Faith, after all, can be very liberating.

Asterix the Gaul (First volume in Asterix and Obelix series)

2014-08-14T17:32:00.001-04:00

Written by: Rene Goscinny
Illustrated by: Albert Uderzo

The first of the famous Asterix and Obelix series is written by Rene Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo. It kicks off with a brief history about the rebellious Gaulish village and its chief occupants.

Asterix - The warrior Gaul with superhuman powers thanks to a magical Gaulish potion.
Getafix - An old ancient wizard with a lot of cunning and sarcasm who brews the potion to make the entire village stand against Caesar's regime. Getafix though old and obstinate, is equally clever and cunning and he can get out of any tough situation with the sleight of his mind.
Obelix - The trusted friend of Asterix who looks like a boar and likes wild boars. When not involved in adventures with this best friend, he works as a Menhir deliverer at the village.

Along with these characters, readers would also come across Vitalstatistix - the village chief, Cacafonix - the village bard, Fulliautomatix - the village blacksmith and Julius Caesar - the villain to the entire village!

In the first volume, 'Asterix the Gaul', Caeser's centurion Crismus Bonus implants a spy in the Gaulish village to learn about their inhuman strength. When he finds out that the reason for Romans' defeat is a magic potion, he kidnaps the wizard Getafix. Torture, death threat and bribe does not convince Getafix to churn the magic potion for Romans, and soon Asterix joins the party to rescue Getafix.
What follows is a flurry of rib tickling humor, as Asterix and Getafix use their strength, obstinacy, wit and charm to escape the Roman soldiers.

Rene's narration and Uderzo's illustrations are individually brilliant, and each go hand in hand to create a masterpiece. It is no wonder that Asterix is not forgotten even after five decades.

Obelix is pretty much obscure in this series, he makes a mark in few strips carrying huge stones or eating huge chunks of boars. The narration and character development becomes better with each series, but the first volume has enough magic to catch you hook line and sinker!

With Cheers to Gauls, there's more to come!

Inferno

2014-02-13T02:17:00.001-05:00

Dan Brown's most popular hero Robert Langdon wakes up at a hospital in Florence with no memory and with a tampered copy of Botticell's 'Map to Hell'.

The plot has all the usual elements you would expect out of a Dan Brown Novel. 24 hour deadlines, unsuspected antagonists and Robert Langdon racing in and out of various monumental buildings.

Inferno has Langdon jump through hoops to find out the source of an unknown plague that will change the world we know. With very little information and no recent memories, the hero valiantly ploughs through the unknown with almost no help or support. It is amazing how Dan Brown manages to plant clues in Florentine architectures which makes for a very interesting read. The world of symbols, associations and imagery unfolds slowly to Robert as he seeks the answers he so desperately wants.

After a soaring start, the novel plunges halfway as though the author lost interest in writing. Dialogues are just as witty, there are brilliant nuggets of information, but the novel fails to shine as a whole unit. The reader is just loaded with facts after facts on Florence and the story simply fails to move on. Robert Langdon undergoes that tiresome journey without any light at the end of the tunnel. The author is being unreasonably whimsical by changing heroes to villains and back to being heroes and it is plainly ridiculous to even bother why. The climax doesn't give any sense of completion, nor does it give any closure to the people involved in the story.

Inferno had the premise of an excellent plot, the most suitable hero already tailored for the plot, highly intellectual background for supporting the plot, but failed with a weak and defensive writing with no end purpose in any sense.

The author should have stuck to his guns with this one!

The Sirens of Titan

2013-12-30T20:09:00.000-05:00

My first book of Kurt Vonnegut, acquired in a second hand bookshop with dusty papers smelling of mothballs had an alluring title. My crooked mind was partly influenced to pick up this book after a microsecond glimpse of the Tajmahal at the cover, and a thirty second mental imagination of the title.

I finished this book during a non-stop five hour plane journey, this book is not something that grips you with strong arms, it doesn't make you gasp or make you feel like you should kiss the author's hands because you got a momentary revelation of the sacred and the unknown.

Instead this book gently coaxes you as an angler who would casually wait with a hook which you can nibble at your own pace. The seeming casualness with which the entire story moves forward is mixed with deliberate randomness and misdirection.
Let that not fool you, this book is a gem, a forerunner for another gem†.

The book starts with the primary antagonist Niles Rumfoord and his loyal dog Kazak who become waves when they encountered chrono-synclastic infundibulum and as a result could only visit Earth once in 59 days. He is vehemently hated by his wife who never forgave his careless mistake of becoming a waveform without consulting her, and his materializations on earth vexes her much. The genial Rumfoord is honored as a valiant hero for getting caught in such a timeless error, but he brings upon a surprise marital invasion on Earth by his Machiavellian moves.

He silently kidnaps a lot of people to Mars, brainwashes them and organizes a stupid army to invade Earth. Then once the alien army is thoroughly destroyed, he establishes a new religion on Earth and becomes its God, without any public advertising. He foretells parts of these events to his wife and a rich playboy Malachi Constant, and also tells them that they would be helpless to alter their future as they would be bred forcefully to give birth to a boy named Chrono in a colony in Mars. His final engineering brings his wife, Constant and their son Chrono to Titan, as Rumfoord ruminates on the purposelessness of all of his actions!

Without much pop and fizzle, the story continues on how Rumfoord was used as a pawn and by whom to what extent. Even if I were to narrate you the story from start to finish in this review, it would not be a spoiler alert! For this book is not about the story at all, it is rather the experience you get from reading this book. Characters refuse to be typecast, hero is not courageous and dashing, heroine is not seductive and the villain is not completely cruel. And there is no moral punched out when the story comes to an end, nor is there a 'they lived happily ever-after'.

I loved how the author painted a dystopian setting in humor which made it even more poignant, and questioned about the effects of free will when people are forced to follow it. And the best of all, it gives the reader a sense of peace to know that their mess, problems and screw-ups are just pin points when compared to the giant happenings around us.

Trivia:
It is said that Vonnegut completely put together this book, his second, over a single night because someone at a party requested him to!
Reference: http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1968/12/17/the-cuckoo-clock-in-kurt-vonneguts/#

† I was intrigued by the similarity in plot direction of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and this book. Douglas Adams has indeed mentioned that he was influenced by Sirens of Titan to question about the life, universe and everything!

The Calcutta Chromosome

2013-04-27T21:47:00.000-04:00

Intriguing title, and a pretty fish on the cover made me pick this book from a second hand shop from Moore market in March. Story starts slowly at a unknown future date, but steady enough to look for what is coming next.? Antar, a data scientist of sorts discovers L.Murugan's notes refuting Sir Ronald Ross's brilliance.

Who's Ronald Ross?

Sir Ronald Ross (13 May 1857 – 16 September 1932) was a British doctor who received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1902 for his work on malaria. He discovered that malaria was transmitted through mosquitoes, and this discovery led to the ways of finding cure to Malaria.

From the unknown future date, the story goes back to the end of twentieth century, enter Prof.L.Murugan, and the momentum pick-ups like an express train. The brashness, the wit, and the expletive laden dialogues of Prof.L Murugan gradually grow on the reader. I wanted to know more about why Prof.Murugan is ready to give his life and leave a cushy job to go to Calcutta. L.Murugan comes with a theory of an Indian hand in Sir Ronald Ross's discovery of malaria parasite. Who are those people? Why are they hiding behind Ronald? Ronald is just a tool, but who wields the tool?

Murugan meets Urmila and Sonali at an award ceremony of a famous fictional Bengali writers in Calcutta. The two beautiful sari clad women, Urmila and Sonali are an integral part of the story, they are vivid, may be the vividness has lot more to do with my exposure to modern cinema than the authors caliber. And then the story goes to a narrative from the late 1890's, describing the time when Sir Ronald Ross came across malaria for the first time, his extraordinary Indian helper, and his insufficient knowledge about malaria. Pulling of three different times in a short book is not a mean task, but Amitav has done that with supreme clarity.

What I didn't like?

Things I did n’t like has more to do with technical aspects than the plot or character development. The usage of “suddenly” as a tool to bring twists in the narrative is never easy to carry along, especially if the author has a tendency to use it too often. It stands out, and makes the flow of story artificial. Of course fiction is made up of coincidences, but the charm of a good book is to paint a realistic tone to the coincidences.

Instances of building climatic hype too often can fall flat at time, Amitav rises the hype too high, just to burst it in the end like a prick to a balloon. I felt like a fool for believing in the tension. Unless there is a very strong reason, it is never a good ploy to raise the tempo too high.

May be it is a style thing, or a personal preference, I never liked too much of semicolons and colons- standing in the way of the rhythm of the words on the page. It is like humps on a road already filled with potholes. Far too many distractions in that aspect.

In the end, The Calcutta chromosome falls into too many categories; thriller, science fiction, medical mystery, colonial history- a genre defying book. A decent read.

Full facts book of cold reading

2013-02-10T04:11:00.000-05:00

Author: Ian Rowland

Haven’t you heard about that famous astrologer who can tell you everything that happened in the past? That man who can read your future on your palms? Or for that matter the man who can tell you things from your past life?

A frequent topic of discussion is that of supernatural; Astrology, Palmistry and other psychic readings. I call it supernatural because all these systems have rules as flexible as the rubber band used to hold a pile of currency notes. It flexes to your whims with the money that it holds. So do you want to know how the astrologer knew about that incident in your childhood? Do you want to know how the lady adept at Palmistry could predict your life partner? Or do you want to become an amateur psychic reader?You must pick up this book and test it for yourself.

I did not become a skeptic after reading this book. I was already one. It just gave me a lot of information to persuade more people to become skeptical about such supernatural scams. Of course that author is an accomplished psychic reader helps a lot in understanding intricacies of the trade. Yes, a trade just like any other. That requires certain skill, training and persistence to project that mysterious air around their workplace. Armed with the content of the book, you can probably reason educated people who think that modern astrologists are a symbol of our rich tradition. In my opinion, it is a myth most often used to encourage monetary manipulations.

There may be learned men apart from the crooks and charlatans of this trade. But exceptions cannot be taken as examples. In fact by debunking fake psychic readers, the book is actually promoting real Psychics, of course if such a breed really exists. I like a good fight, and if you like them too, this book will not fail you.

And then there were none

2012-10-02T02:02:00.004-04:00

Author : Agatha Christie

One of the best Agatha Christie novels that does not feature Hercule Poirot. One does not expect literary master class from Agatha Christie, and that holds true for this novel too. Suspense and thrill are her forte and the reader is on the edge till the end. Suspense and thrill lasts till the last page. The story is puzzle with an assortment of characters meeting in an Island. A book that can be read under three hours, perfect book for a rainy day.

Set in 1950's, Ten people from various walks of life are invited by a mysterious millionaire Mr. U. N Owen to his Island. They arrive at the big house in the small island off the coast of England.The big house is empty except for the exceptional furnishings, and poems framed in every room. A nursery poem on ten little Indian boys. But the Owens' are no where to be seen. No one else other than the ten guests, and the first murder occurs on the first day. A classic closed box situation.

Spoiler Alert :

While at dinner on the first day, they hear a voice from the hall listing treacherous crimes committed by the guests. The voice turns out to be from a gramophone. Secrets begin to tumble, every one of them has an unaccounted murky past. They all have something to hide. They exchange stories and realize how they were elaborately duped to come to Mr.Owen's island, and they have no way back as the weather has turned ugly. Mr. U N Owen is an extrapolation of UNKNOWN.

Little did they know that they are to be killed one by a predetermined order and manner. There is no one other than the ten guests in the island, and surely, the murderer must be one among them.

An interesting dialogue from the novel.

"You could be cold in that thin dress."

"Cold, I should be colder if I were dead"

In the words of Vera, one of the ten guests, It is like some horrible child playing a game. And then there were none. A true page turner.

ARTHUR C CLARKE's MYSTERIES

2012-08-15T22:03:00.000-04:00

Authors: JOHN FAIRLY and SIMOW WELFARE

What do you think about the doomsday conspiracies? Do you feel that unexplainable things are signs by Aliens? Is Bermuda triangle an enterprise run by ghost ships to absolve men and material into the swirling depth of sea? Or is it because of a heavy magnetic current in that region?

What real? What is more alluring? What will you choose? Do you think fiction is more romantic and therefore more meaningful? Should all things unexplained on earth be on a grander scale?

Hear this story then!

Darkness always scared me when I was a child. I put on a brave front before others, but inside the heart of hearts, I was always looking for a monster in the closet! Especially after 8 PM, I dared not go near our balcony, because I had found a monster's torch!

A round disjointed ball of light used to shine at the edge of our compound after dark. It cast an eerie glow when seen from our balcony. I made a careful inspection of compound after school each evening. But there was no light source in the compound; nor any monsters. The fear drew me like a magnet towards our balcony every night, and I scratched my head over the reason. That orange ball of light occupied my thoughts every evening and my nights turned to nightmares.

Many months later I finally hit upon the reason behind that spectral glow - a glass piece laced on our compound wall reflected light from some faraway source. The mechanism to prevent intrusion was transformed to a monster's torch with my fertile imagination. From then on I realized that the mysteries are not really mysterious once we know the truth behind them. Of course a monster's torch made a more fascinating story, but I'm more glad with the truth!

What if you got a book which took the most baffling mysteries/superstitions happening around us and cracked the truth behind them? Compiled by John Fairley and Simon Welfare, the book "Arthur C. Clarke's mysteries" analyzes the truth behind some of the dramatic phenomenon happening around us. This book has all the thrilling components of a whodunit novel; each story has a proper build up, and the spookiness added in the narration keeps us on toe till the end of the chapter where facts are explained.

Building up over the TV series by Arthur C. Clarke, this book contains the probable facts by the master SF writer himself. This book made me believe that though this world is strange, it is still logical!

So does the end of Mayan Calendar in 2012 mark the end of the world? Or did the Mayans stop counting after that? Food for thought!

Arranged Marriage

2012-03-11T05:33:00.000-04:00

Author: Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni

Eleven short stories, each one engrossing and enlightening. That is Arranged marriage in one sentence. I began to read the book hesitantly, for my first impression was a boring title by an NRI who had no other work . First impressions are not necessarily true, in fact I was blown away by the eleven stories.

Chitra Bannerjee brought alive two places, the suburban America and the crowded Calcutta , two places I have never been to. I can never go there, for the stories are set in the recent past. The characters in the stories are real, be it the helpless heroes, the chauvinistic old world men or the capricious, yet unafraid women; they are very real and vivid.

Magical titles; at least the titles gained a magical touch after reading the story; they gained a different shade at the end of each story. What did you think the titles were? Philosophical? No, just mundane titles: The bats, the clothes, the door, what does it have to do with arranged marriage? Whatever it is, I cannot think of bats or clothes without thinking about Chitra Bannerjee's Arranged Marriage.

That perfect life is only an illusion; the women who are living in the developed nations have no better conditions than those living in India is the underlying theme apart from the Arranged marriages in each story. How far it is true? How far is it the author’s imagination? I have no answers for that. Times have changed, but the minds may not have.

The book is honest, so honest that it is shocking and pricking at times. It made me wonder if I would have done anything different had I been part of the story. Probably not. So strong is the characterization and attention for details that it is easy to fall into the mood created by the book.

Sometimes happy, sometimes sad. Just like an Arranged marriage.

After Dark

2012-02-29T01:14:00.001-05:00

Author: Haruki Murakami

In one of the interviews, Murakami recalls this: "There aren’t any new words. Our job is to give new meanings and special overtones to absolutely ordinary words.”

"After Dark" is yet another book which made me discover the specialness of Murakami's world. From 11.56PM till 6.40AM, the characters of Murakami come alive in the city of Tokyo, and a special, camera like 'viewpoint' gives us an account of what happens through the midnight hours, when the whole city sleeps.

Mari Asai, a scholarly, but tacit girl, is out of her house to spend the whole night outside. Takahashi, a 'would-be' law student is on the streets for his last 'all night' jazz practice. Kaouru, a retired female wrestler is on her night shift as a manager at a hotel called Alphaville, along with two helpers Komogi and Korugi.

Whereas the 'viewpoint' focuses on Eri Asai, the beautiful elder sister of Mari, who in her deep coma like sleep is transported to another room inside her disconnected bedroom TV.

The characters mingle with each other without any drama, and yet, the experience turns surrealistic. Murakami builds up the story in such a way that would make us forget about the ordinary world around us. Instead the story draws us into its deep vortex, slowly without realizing where it is taking us, till it's end. And not a second of pause to question about it!

Murakami refers to the characters from "After the quake", and also brings in cats in his story. What's his obsession with cats? Do you know that the bar he used to run was also named 'Peter Cats'? The character Takahashi also looked like a sketch of a younger Murakami, the shy Jazz Musician!

"After Dark" gave so many meanings to mundane things happening in the universe around me. I not only enjoyed reading it, but also enjoyed listening to the music quoted all through the book. This book is not just for 'reading', but for 'experiencing'.

Some of the interesting music albums mentioned in the book is listed below. Try to listen to them, they complete the feeling of reading this book!

Go Away Little Girl – Percy Faith and His Orchestra
Five Spot After Dark – Curtis Fuller
The April Fools- Burt Bacharach
More – Martin Denny
My Ideal – Ben Webster
Sophisticated Lady – Duke Ellington
Jealousy – Pet Shop Boys
I Can’t Go for That – Hall and Oates
Theme from Love Story - Francis Lai
Sonnymoon for Two – Sonny Rollins
Bomb Juice - Shikao Suga

Reference: Murakami’s Interview.

The winner stands alone

2012-02-21T13:29:00.000-05:00

Author: Paulo Coelho

My friend once boasted that he knew what exactly to expect from a Paulo Coelho novel. Paulo stopped writing anything different after Alchemist, he assured me.

But for me, each story held a promise of fresh characters and unexpected behaviors; they were appealing to my senses. The Winner stands alone, really stands alone in my list; despite the same theme; despite the references to Santiago, and finding about one's destiny; this book lacks a provoking story to support them all.

'The Winner stands alone' is about a Russian business giant Igor, in search of his estranged wife, now married to a fashion couturier. He travels to Cannes, where he knows that his wife and her lover will appear to present their collections in fashion shows, scheduled along with the film festival. Igor is ready to do anything, even kill people, to get her back.

He gets about 'destroying universes', in other words, kill strangers during the film festival, so that his wife gets the message. But half way through the killings, he pauses to think if the killings were actually worthy? Suddenly his angelic wife becomes an ordinary mortal.

Paulo gets sloppy in handling this transition, and instead theorizes a lot of dogmas about super class and the world of glamour. Just like the protagonist, the author too seems to lose his motivation he had in the beginning, and the book spirals down to an unsatisfactory ending, without the reader getting any 'message' out of it.

Pros:

The almost cynical, yet fresh take on the life of super class is amusing.
The philosophies apart from the main story.
Some beautiful quotes which lingered with me long after I finished the book - which are of course not at all related to the story! :-)

Cons:
Too much preaching
No skeleton story to support the author's ideals.
Would have been good as a non-fiction.

Some interesting quotes, which I came across:

People are never satisfied. If they have a little, they want more. If they have a lot, they still want more. Once they have more, they wish they could be happy with little, but are incapable of making the slightest effort in that direction.
Everything you know comes from experience accumulated over long years of work. If you wanna be creative, forget that you have all that experience.
Talent is a universal gift, but it takes a lot of courage to use it. Don't be afraid to be the best.

Disclaimer:

It's always good to share the agony of reading through a long book, without actually getting the desired value/expectation, especially if an unwary reader ends up with such a book. But the review is truly a personal opinion, and opinions always vary!

HARD-BOILED WONDERLAND AND THE END OF THE WORLD

2011-12-21T08:39:00.027-05:00

Author: Haruki Murakami

Can you imagine a book where the characters have no names? How about imagining a human calculating machine with junction boxes in his brain?

The hero/narrator/calculating technician (Calcutec) works for the ‘system’, a firm which helps in protecting valuable data for clients. He gets a strange assignment from an old scientist to help him do some data manipulation. The scientist fears that the data could be stolen by a rival firm called the ‘semiotec’, and it would lead to catastrophe. The scientist also gifts him a unique skull as a parting gift.

The Calcutec meets a beautiful librarian and with her help researches about the skull. He learns that the skull belongs to a mythical creature, and begins to doubt his sanity. His life tumbles upside down, when a fat guy and a lean man get inside his apartment and smash his whole house. They warn that the scientist has skewed the Calcutec’s mind with the data he gave, and the world is going to end because of this. The lean guy asks the Calcutec to run away from the place and find the truth. They demolish all his belongings and finally slash his stomach to make the drama look convincing.

The hero receives a call from the fat granddaughter of the scientist, who pleads him to rescue her grandfather, as she fears he has been kidnapped by either the system or the semiotic. The Calcutec finally understands what has been done to him and the mystery unfolds into a painful nightmare.

In another narrative stream, there is a town surrounded by a wall, monitored by a Gatekeeper. The town is completely perfect, and the people do their respective tasks. They do not have shadows, and they cannot leave the town. A person enters the town, without his memories, and his shadow, and tries to make sense of all of it. He is given the task of reading dreams from old animal skulls placed in a library. The Dream reader is assisted with a librarian, who is familiar to him, but still doesn’t know anything about her.

The Dream reader’s shadow contacts him, and together they plan to escape. Did they escape? Did the Calcutec finally find the key to the puzzle? The story makes you anticipate till the end as the two worlds converge. The Calcutec is a laid back character, averse to making decisions, and lets his life flow from one point to another. His reactions on being forced to something unpleasant are described in a way unique to Murakami. Also some allegories from this book are borrowed for his later work “Kafka on the shore”.

The author traverses between two realities and we can no longer believe which is the real one and which one imaginary. Murakami does it every time!

KAFKA ON THE SHORE

2011-11-21T23:29:00.001-05:00

Author: HARUKI MURAKAMI

Japanese authors are slow, a long standing opinion. But Murakami’s Kafka on the shore speaks a unique style. A mixture of surrealistic events and thought provoking metaphors, Kafka on the shore impresses from page one.

Kafka, the fifteen year old boy from Tokyo is a runaway; he has long decided to go to Takamatsu. He leaves behind his dad, a sadistic cat killer and his only known relative, fearing that he would become like him. His father had supposedly cursed him; the Oedipal curse.

At the same time, Nakata, a 60 year old illiterate man who speaks better with cats than men gets entangled in Kafka’s father’s death. Nakata confesses the crime, but no one takes him seriously. For the first time in his life, Nakata leaves his town and travels westbound. He doesn’t know why he is travelling; only that he has to cross a big bridge.

Kafka, with the help of Oshima, finds refugee in a private library in Takamatsu. Sakura, a twenty year old girl helps him out of a difficult situation. Ms. Seiki, the head of the library is very kind towards Kafka. Slowly, Kafka theorises that Ms. Seiki to be his mother and Sakura to be his long lost sister. He is angry at them for abandoning him, but worried about the oedipal curse.

Nakata introduces himself to others as, “Nakata is not bright, Nakata can’t read.” He lives on a subsidy for mentally challenged. Apart from earning occasional meals by finding lost cats. One such expedition changes his life forever. The intriguing reason behind the accident that turned him incapable of understanding words adds to the mystery and depth of the character.

How did Nakata learn to speak with cats? Will Kafka’s father’s curse come true? Are Ms. Seiki and Sakura blood related? Are they his real mother and sister? Why would a mother leave a four year old with a sadistic father? Why does his the photo on the library wall remind him about his own childhood? What is the link between Nakata and Kafka?

It is not a book where all the plot threads are finally closed, and yet there is some closure at the end of the novel. The book is fast paced, but leaves us with lot of unanswered questions. Murakami’ s ideas are so strong that he makes us believe that anything the reader imagines is possible.

From Murakami’s interview, “The secret to understanding the novel lies in reading it multiple times: "Kafka on the Shore contains several riddles, but there aren't any solutions provided. Instead, several of these riddles combine, and through their interaction the possibility of a solution takes shape. And the form this solution takes will be different for each reader. To put it another way, the riddles function as part of the solution. It's hard to explain, but that's the kind of novel I set out to write”

Music is an important component of the novel, the title comes from a pop song Kafka is given in the library by Oshima. It was sung by Ms. Seiki in her teenage, a sensational hit during that time. She never sung again. The music of Beethovan, and a background story about Beethovan’s life plays out in Nakata’s story.

So many riddles and a riveting read.

An Equal Stillness

2011-10-14T11:18:00.001-04:00

Author: Francesca Kay

The novel from Francesca about the life of a painter set in the mid of 20th century is a striking debut. It traces the life of Jennet Mallow in varied roles of an artist, a woman, a wife and a mother.

Jennet, a quite, enigmatic girl who is sent to London to start her painting career, falls in love with a talented painter David Heaton after a casual one night between them. Compelled into marrying her, David’s life is the exact opposite of Jennet, though they remain married to each other, over a sense of convenience and duty if not love.

Francesca has weaved a complex portrayal out of each of the characters in her novel with David, the most handsome, confident of his genius, disregard for his wife’s talent in contrast with Jennet’s soul searching, dutiful yet resolute passion for painting. Jennet’s mother Lorna’s ache for her hometown and her patron’s Leonard’s mystical adulation over her are a sample of the author’s potential!

The story is brought about as a biography written by a person close to Jennet, and there’s a surprising twist at the end when the narrator is revealed. Each of Jennet’s paintings comes vibrantly alive in the words of Francesca, that you feel this book is a catalogue of an artist in language instead of pictures.

A winner of the Orange award for new writers, which is truly deserved, “An equal stillness” is an enjoyable read portraying the subtleties of human nature.

I Shall not hear the nightingale

2011-05-21T10:08:00.001-04:00

Author: Kushwant Singh

'Spring will come to our barren land once more…

Once more the nightingales will sing.’

Thus sings Sher Singh when his mother asks him what does independence means to him.

“I shall not hear the nightingale” is about the story of a high class family in Punjab, set during the independence struggle. Father Buta Singh is a loyal officer to the British, enjoying his status in the society, and the perks of his officialdom in being a judge. His wife Sabhrai is a typical home maker, pious and religious. They have a son Sher Singh, meaning the Lion, and a daughter Beena.

Sher Singh is trying hard to fit into a life of his own, to please his wife, and to dream beyond his father’s security, but he is cowardly to achieve anything big. For namesake, he is accepted as a leader of a group of local disbanded terrorists, but he is averse to killing and violence as much as he brags about it. He is aware of his growing paunch, his unattractive psyche, and the short time within which he pledges to make a mark of his own in the society.

Contrary to him is Madan Chand, equally friendly and adverse, is the son of the local magistrate, who sees Sher beyond his persona, adding his father’s frustrations of serving Buta Singh. He is a charming man of lesser moral scruples, and doesn’t hesitate to make passes to both Sher Singh’s wife and his sister Beena.

As the independence struggle is moving ahead in a feverous pitch all over the country, Sher notices that Punjab is still sleepy, and somewhat protected from the harsh natures of reality. His urge to do something towards the struggle leads to a police informer go missing, and Sher is suspected of the murder. Sher is offered pardon if he discloses the name of his cohorts, or he is threatened to be hanged by the British.

The whole family is jolted because of the revelation, and their normal life is disrupted. Does he make it alive? To what extent will he be able to come to a decision in the confines of a prison, when his father is leaning towards his loyalty to British?

Khuswant Singh handles the emotional dilemmas of his characters, and how they react differently to the same circumstances. This book, written in his early years of being an author, has a classic style, and yet it has a different premise. The taut narration keeps us guessing till the end of the novel, and Sabhrai’s character is a revelation at the end.

PREY

2011-05-15T13:06:00.003-04:00

Author: Michael Crichton

Is it possible for human beings to create another species? What if we were Gods, capable of creating artificial life forms which can think, act, evolve and reproduce? Set in a premise, where men have cracked the code of commercially producing such creatures using Nano technology and distributed computing, Michael Crichton explores the aspects of such an act which can go wrong, in the sci-fi thriller PREY.

Scientists undertake an experiment to create surveillance for United States’ defense, using Nano technology. Set in an obscure desert, they succeed in creating Nano particles which can form a cluster and act as a camera, thereby undetectable to the enemy forces. All goes well, till some of the particles escape from the controlled environment and become rogue. These particles programmed to be logical predators, become real predators by adapting, adjusting and evolving at an exponential rate. They kill all life forms within a matter of minutes, and human beings are left defenseless, as no machine or bullet can penetrate them.

The hero Jack, an out-of-work programmer from the Silicon Valley, has to race the clock to figure out what went wrong with the code written for creating these Nano particles. Crichton adds further depth to the story by introducing an emotional angle in the form of power struggle, between him and his wife, who is the president of the research firm creating the Nano particles.

The story begins in a mysterious way, and the author makes the plot intriguing further. But then the climax falls short of the expectations built throughout the story. It’s an easy guess to find the villains, for there are a lot of careless clues strewn around. But I would rate this book above average, for its original story, and a wonderful pace till the end. Science fiction lovers will enjoy this book.

A Walk to remember

2010-11-30T14:50:00.001-05:00

Author : Nicholas Sparks

Nicholas Sparks has the knack to make you weep, and I laughed and wept as much as he wanted me to. How can a story told so many times create a feeling of originality ? A good author can rewrite any story and still maintain the originality. And no doubt, Nicholas Sparks is one among them.

The story set in 1950 is about innocence ,friendship and love between Landon Cartor and Jamie Sullivan.Landon Cartor is a richie rich, easy going, seventeen year old guy in the suburban North Carolina. And then there is Jamie Sullivan, Landon's classmate, the daughter of the old Priest who hates the Cartor family. Landon hates him no less than the Priest. According to Landon, the Priest is so old and frail that one could see the other side of his body if not for his clothes. That they live in the same neighborhood doesn't help much.

Jamie is devoted to God, animals, and orphans in no particular order. For her, everything happens because the Lord wishes so, and she carries her mother's Bible tightly clutched with her all the time. The Bible is the only memory of her mother who died giving birth to her. She's not one of Landon's cool friends, in fact she has no friends at all. She's what they a call a loner, but a cheerful loner according to Landon.

For some good reasons, Jamie and Landon becomes friends in their final year of school, and Landon walks her home most of the days. Jamie takes him to orphanage, and makes him do things that he never did all his life. On Christmas, she gifts him her mother's Bible, the one she always carried with her.She gave it because she knew that soon she would have no use for it, for her days are numbered. Their friendship turns out to be short lived, for she has no plans to outlive her thin skinned father.

Landon does everything in his power to save her. But with the technology available in the '50's there was no way to save her from her medical condition, all roads are closed except a miracle. And then Landon does something unheard, unbelievable, and unthinkable. Landon's action makes him a hero, and that is where the book is different from many other stories written in the same lines. Does the miracle happen ? Will Jamie Survive? Or can Landon overcome his feelngs for Jamie ?

It is not the question of miracle that the book answers, but it about hope and belief. Hope that everything that has happened is for good , and belief that whatever future holds is for good.

Bachelor of Arts

2010-09-05T11:22:00.001-04:00

Author: RK Narayan

Chandran is a worried man; his role as a prime mover against history is a difficult one, more so since he is a student of History. He manages it, just to attract further responsibilities in his final year of Bachelor of Arts degree.

With the exams looming, Chandran somehow manages to waste his time promenading the banks of river Sarayu, roaming around with his friend Ramu, charting a time table for his study plan, then making changes to it according to his new responsibilities at college, and then making further changes to catch an early morning flower thief.

The thief turns out to be a Sadhu, an early riser who thought disturbing anyone so early in the morning is far sinner than picking up flowers without their knowledge. He has no worries, and he is left off after Chandran's mother makes it clear that flowers are for God's worship and it doesn't matter how it reached God.

The hard worker Chandran is, he manages to complete his exams without further problems. At twenty two, his life takes a turn on one of his usual walk on the banks of river Sarayu. Cupid strikes him, and he immediately conveys his marriage proposal to his father. The girl, a fifteen year old is unaware, though her age is over the marriageable age in a pre-independent India.

His father makes arrangement through a broker, and it turns out that their horoscopes doesn't match. Horoscopes, dowry, caste, status are some of the few obstacles in any Indian marriage. Chandran is adamant, for he could not think of anything but the girl, and does everything in his power to convince the girl. The societal limitations in a village preventing him from meeting her privately any cost. Chandran's loves fizzles out, the girl never meets him even once, and soon is happily married to her relative.

Soon after the girl's marriage , Chandran leaves to Madras for a change. He does not meet their uncle, but settles in a lodge in Egmore, and roams around Broadway with an acquaintance . After a confrontation with a whore, he leaves Madras to anywhere the train will carry him. He decides to become a Sadhu, for he is too scared to attempt suicide and far scared to live further with his lost love.

He roams around villages without a shirt, eating and sleeping on charity, and the wonderful land that India is, he becomes a Sadhu of the highest order, fed and pampered by a village which hadn't been visited by a holy man in the recent past. After enjoying for a brief period, Chandran began to feel awkward, and often guilty of cheating the villagers. What is he going to do ? Attempt suicide ? Runaway from the village? Or return to Malgudi where his lost love would haunt him forever.

It is not in anyway a moving story, but as with all R.K.Narayan books, it is more about people and their petty problems. What happens if we were to chose to become a Sadhu for every problem we face, after all 'being a Sadhu is not so easy as it sounds' says RKN. Wonderful read.

The curious incident of the dog in the night-time

2010-08-07T12:39:00.006-04:00

Author: Mark Haddon

Such a long title for a book, and that for a book from the view point of a fifteen year old autistic kid. But the title epitomizes the entire book, the book is more about details and emotions than story.

This book is about Christopher John Francis Boone , a fifteen year old boy who when asked about his age replies that he's 15 years and 283 days old. He knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057, and even the chapters are arranged in the order of prime numbers since this is his notes on an investigation.

He attempts to investigate the murder of his neighbour's dog , but then he has a problem. And the problem is a hard one to tackle, he cannot talk to strangers nor is he allowed to travel alone. Strangers frighten him, and his medical condition stimulates and overwhelms him when there are too much details in front of him.

How does he go out to a world that he never knew? He questions everything, and his curiosity definitely leads us on to his world ,all new world, the world of a curious boy. And boy, he makes us think. Think hard.

Might as well learn more about prime numbers, and enjoy a wonderful character that will hang on to you days after you finish it. Highly recommended for anyone seeking a book that can keep you hooked until you finish it. Not just another book, but a book that will teach you something more than a page turner.

Anything for you Ma'am

2010-07-28T01:09:00.006-04:00

Author: Tushar Raheja

When my friend gifted this book to me two months ago, I thought I got hold of a book that was everywhere around me. Most of the book shops had this on their Indian writing section, and all the pavement book sellers had a pirated copy, a girl in red salwar on a sky blue background asking every passer by to pick it up. Just a bit of curiosity about a book on the IIT phenomena, IITian turned author genre.

I didn't exactly love this book, but this could have been a script for a bollywood romantic comedy genre than a novel. There are too many coincidences, and though I agree that coincidences does happen in real life , the way in which those coincidences crop up every now and then makes it a bit unreal. Especially the part where three IITians meeting up in train and they get adjacent seats in the same compartment. This could happen in real life, and such things has happened for everyone, but for me the way it was treated felt a bit made up. Fiction is not about making up a story from incidents, is n't it is more about making the reader relate and accept the fiction as a possible reality.

For me, being from south of India, it is hard to differentiate a Sardarji from another, unless they are absurdly different both horizontally and vertically. A Sardarji too might be confused when faced with a similar looking South Indians. Whatever be it, it is hard to digest that a policemen can take a random Sardarji for a dacoit, and a bald dacoit in that. Just to create tension ?

The tone of the book, the patronizing tone with a lot of inspiration from P.G Wodehouse and early writers may not go down well with everyone. Some of the dialogues are extremely dull, and pathetically artificial. I might be too harsh on the book, but this book is definitely not for someone who has already read a lot books , for they may feel a bit let down.

The bottom line is that though the book makes a valiant effort in portraying the predicaments of a young romantic, it falls desperately short of realism by a long way. A dull train journey.

A place called Here

2009-04-10T15:43:00.007-04:00

Author: Cecilia Ahern

I enjoyed my journey through Cecilia Ahern's A place called Here. It is hard to imagine how someone can conceive such a simple thought and yet carry it on for a length of a novel. It is a story that would make you yearn to visit a beautiful place like Ireland. A typical Ahern story where you'll like the protagonist, and wish you could see that person in flesh and bones.

Let me ask you three questions before you plan to disregard this review.You might as well be tempted to search for a copy after reading this.

Have you ever misplaced an important thing?
Have you searched frantically for a seemingly unimportant object?
Have you ever wondered where all those misplaced things in the world go?

If you have at least one positive response for one of the three questions, this book is for you.Cecilia will take you to that place, a place called "Here" where all the misplaced things go. Cecilia Ahern is quite famous for her best seller "P.S.I Love you", but I'd say she was better than that in this book. I don't want to type out the entire story here. Only a few instances where the author was exceptionally brilliant.

Sandy Shortt is more than six feet tall and she has coal black hair. How is that for a lead character ? Unlike the romantic stories, there is no hero to rescue her from her troubled situations, and she often manages to get into trouble. She is obsessed with something that ordinary mortals rarely give a second thought to, searching , searching for every misplaced sock.The book is about searching, not in a philosophical way like a Paulo Coelho book, but a humorous way where the fate of your misplaced object is one step ahead of your bright thought.

If you've started searching for this book, I believe I would 've done one good deed for the day. I hope you won't misplace it when you manage to find one. :)

Flight 714 - THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN

2007-12-16T01:25:00.002-05:00

Author: Herge

Flight 714, filled with a private plane hijack and lots of action, is one of the best comic in the The adventures of Tintin collection.

Tintin and his friends, at their transit at Jakarta are asked to accompany an eccentric millionaire Laszlo Carreidas in Flight 714 bound to Sydney. Flight 714 is hijacked by Rastapopoulos with an objective of getting hold of millionaire Carreidas' account number in the Swiss bank. He did not expect Tintin and his friends to accompany Carreidas but nonetheless is delighted at the opportunity of taking revenge.

Tintin and his friends are tied down in an island in the Pacific ocean, as expected they escape and somehow manage to overcome the evil Rastapopoulos plot to become instant millionaire.

A very funny book, I enjoyed reading this. This was my first Tintin comic.