Feeling Bookish This September

Yes, this blog post has been loooong in coming. Even I cringe when I see the date of my last blog entry. Where did the time go? Now let me see, there was Dussehra in between (and I did not do anything at all except catching up on some excellent Tamil movies on TV), then there was this nice, neat trip to Kolli Hills that a few friends and us managed to pack in to the long weekend and lots of reading…ahem…apart from this I know there hasn’t been much to not keep up with my blog entries. But the irony is that while I have been meaning to post on the books that I’ve been reading in the past month, it is also the reason why I haven’t been able to finish the blog. Books are very distracting.

After being served a pretty dismal fare at the box office last month, with the exception of Lunch Box and perhaps Shudh Desi Romance, I found myself falling back on to the wonderful, trustworthy world of books. I was lucky to get some good books from my local library in September and F’s birthday gift of Flipkart vouchers saw me sitting in front of the computer for many hours listing and re-listing the books I’d buy. At last I picked up GoneGirl, The Fault in our Stars (which I am yet to read) and Cuckold with part of the voucher. Then P graciously lent her copy of The Oath of the Vayuputras and The Hunger Games 2. I have started off on The Hunger Games book and it hasn't disappointed till now. As gripping as the first. The other one is sitting prettily on my ‘to-read’ table, along with The Fault with our Stars and Cuckold. From the library I got The Good Muslim, Leela’s Book, and a couple of nice M&Bs. I was one happy girl.  If this is not hitting the jackpot, I don’t know what else is.

The flip side was S’s complaint that I was making more eye contact with the books, than with him. Well…and here I was thinking that I was doing him a favor by keeping out of his face for a while. If your spouse does feel left out when you indulge in a favorite pastime, then let’s face it, it’s a bonanza. And yes, I am counting my blessings here. Still, measuring the rate at which I have been finishing these books, as I am a very slow reader, I must’ve been guilty of not making much eye contact.

This month’s reading list includes other books from the library : Kabul Beauty School, a book which I have been wanting to read for some time now, another of Jack Reacher’s thriller 61 hours (haven't read this one yet) and The Dinner by Herman Loch, which I had almost bought online using F’s gift vouchers. I must say that would have been a good choice.

I also managed to finish a part of P’s birthday gift of last year - Eldest from the Inheritance series. And this year’s gift Susan Elizabeth Phillip’s Glitter Baby was moderately interesting.

Here’s a quick low-down on the books I read, in the order of my preference:

The Dinner: The book, by Herman Koch, was touted on the internet as a must-read this year. And I wanted to own a copy, but it just about gave way to Gone Girl, which got better reviews. This book is translated from Dutch to English and it was quite different from the many American literature I have read.

When I was in college, I used to be wary of reading books that is written in the first person. I found these books to be utterly dismal and brooding and with most probably a sad or tragic ending. But books like The Time Traveller’s Wife (one of my all time favorites), Suzanne Collin’s The Hunger Games and others put paid to that idea. This book is in the first-person narrative, as was Gone Girl.

Here, I liked the way the protagonist, Paul scoffs high-end restaurants and his brother Serge's predilection for them and gives us a somewhat humourous and sometimes obnoxious account of the lengths the staff go to account for the price of the items. The entire book is the span of a meal, with the narrator referring to previous episodes in order to add value to the one incident that has bearing on the Dinner and of course their lives. Since I had read Gone Girl, I was not very surprised by the turn of events in this book (what is with this new genre?), but I must say, the treatment was a tad better albeit a bit abrupt.

One of my favorite paragraphs in the book his description of the patrons’ reaction to a public personality in the restaurant. “…the guests however pretended not to notice; in a restaurant where you had to pay 10 euros for the aperitif of the house, the rules of etiquette probably didn't allow for an open display of recognition.They all seemed to lean a few fractions of an inch closer to their plates, all apparently doing their best at the same time to forge ahead with their conversations, to avoid falling silent, because the volume of the general hubbub increased audibly as well.” I hoped for more such insightful, hey-yeah-moment inspiring lines especially when the secrets start tumbling out like maggots. Anyway this definitely a light but riveting read, but did the taste linger much after the Dinner? For me...yep it did. 

Gone Girl:

I had read so much about this book that I was hoping like hell that this was not a bad purchase. Americans do seem to contribute a lot of reviews on books written by their authors. Gone Girl by Gilian Flynn is also in the first-person narrative, but with two protagonists, so one chapter is dedicated to the husband’s narrative and the other to the wife’s. The book starts off beautifully and is engrossing from the word go. At some places I did feel there was so much of psychoanalysis and every micro action elaborately described or hair-split-ted. But around that time, the author upstages the narrative with a shocking episode, and I forget my inhibitions. It was hard to put down the book after that and again it was only at the end that I felt a trifle cheated. The ending is so unusual and not even satisfying. I don’t want to spill the beans about the book, but for me, the ending could have worked out better. Last word? At least the reviews were not over-rated.

Eldest:

This is the second book from the Inheritance series written by Christopher Paolini. It takes off without any fan fare from the previous book. There is no time for Eragon to rest on his laurels of winning the attack on Vardens by the evil king, Galbatorix's forces. He is sent to Du Weldenvarden, where the Elves live, to train as a Dragon Rider under Oromis, one of the first Dragon Riders.The book is about how he fares and how the first battle takes place between the Vardens and Galbatorix’s army. A notable point in this book is the introduction of Glaedr, who is Oromis's dragon. Saphira gets a companion definitely, but also a hard task master.What I liked in this book is that there is no overt victory for the ‘good’ side, even though Eragon and Saphira fight spiritedly with the Vardens and the Dwarves. But the presumed victory is over-shadowed by a surprise at the end of the book.

This book also traces the journey of Roran who is Eragon’s cousin. After Eragon leaves his village in doldrums, it is left to Roran to instill faith in the people of Carvahall, get them to leave the place as they are threatened by Ra’zac, and search for asylum with the Vardens. This book showcases his rise from being a simple lad whose only worry in the first book had been to earn money and then ask for his lady love Katrina’s hand in marriage to becoming a force to reckon, hammer wielding young man who is out to exact revenge from the Ra’zac.

This book is an infinitely good and easy read. The language perhaps has been aimed at youngsters but since I love the genre and since George Martin’s next installment is yet to hit the stands, I am happy to follow Eragon’s and Roran’s adventures to the 3^rd and the last installment.

The Good Muslim:

Written by Tahmima Anam, The Good Muslim is a sequel to The Golden Age. I didn't know this when I read the book, but I realized later that I was able to read it without any problem.

But I did wonder if perhaps this was the reason I had not appreciated the depth of feeling the protagonist Maya, has for her brother who she thinks has become a staunch Muslim a decade after Bangladesh’s liberation war. She pines for her old brother, the one who loves music, books, debates, and life in general, and tries her best to bring him back to the way he was before the war. She refuses to believe that he might be happy in the path he has chosen and accepts the eventuality only when all her attempts to pull him out fail.

Though the language and the narration was good, I felt as if the author had laid different story threads parallel and sometimes entwined together but had somehow not tied them in to a coherent knot in the end. I am not the best to write about literature of this nature and I must say my views are purely that of a person who likes to read. So forgive me if there is a gap in my perception and yours. The most poignant part of the book was Maya’s relationship with her nephew and the heart wrenching ending of that relationship.

The book is definitely a good read, the characters are quite interesting. I love reading books written by authors of neighbouring countries, just so that I get an insight to the lives they lead and culture they follow. This book doesn't disappoint on that matter too, and having a strong, progressive woman like Maya as the protagonist satisfies

Kabul Beauty School:

This book pulls you in from the word go. The author, Deborah Rodriguez has a conversational style of writing and it’s only when she starts describing life in Kabul after the Taliban had left, that you realize what a big task she has undertaken. This is a true story and Debbie, as her beauty school girls call her, has done the difficult job of narrating things the way they were. This book hooked me as do books that bring out people's fight against all odds. The stories which the girls tell her are heart breaking, sometimes motivating and sometimes anger-inducing. Whenever I read books written by authors from war-strife countries, I marvel at how practical and realistic they are about their problems. Their resilience amazes me and I always put down a book of this nature with a lot of humility and gratitude for my regular life.

And if one thinks that the book ends on a positive note, then they better be prepared to be a bit disappointed, as Deborah ends it suddenly, which I realized was because she had to leave the country suddenly.  The threat to her life and the reputation of the girls are at stake and she is forced to leave to the safety of Michigan, so her experiences in Kabul too come to an end.

Her website has pictures and more news about the book and the future of the Kabul Beauty School. Do take time to read it.
http://www.debbierodriguez.com/Beauty_School_slideshow.html

The other book, Leela's Book, is not worth a review. So I shall not drag this post more and end with a request to leave your views on any or all of the books featured in this blog post.

Are we not like two volumes of one book?

–Marceline Desbordes-Valmore

Until I feel bookish again. Ciao!