2008 Read- Part II

Central Park In New York

Attention, Deficit Disorder: Brad Listi’s Attention Deficit Disorder is a touching story about a hero who searches for an answer to his ex girlfriend’ suicide. His journey, sort of spiritual, takes him to various places from Cuba to Appalachian trial and finally to The burning Man in Nevada. The book touched a chord with me. A very good read. It reminded me of a loss that I underwent in my early days.

The Other Side Of Silence: Bill Pronzini is another novel about a hero‘s search for peace after a divorce in resolute Nevada Landscape. But his life turns into a battle for survival when he steps to help a beleaguered women’s fight for the custody of his son. A good read with a surprise ending.

Rebecca: Daphne De Maurier‘s timeless classic is my second time reading. It never failed to diminish my interest even for a moment.

Based on The Movie: Billy Taylor’s debut novel is about film making in Hollywood. A camera dolly grip is troubled by his impending divorce finds himself to assist his ex-wife’s lover in a film shooting. He has a long time ambition to direct a movie. How he sabotages him and robs the director’s chair under his nose is told in a hilarious way.The funniast book I read this year


A Tiger For Malgudi: During my college days when I started reading English fiction I didn’t have access to many books. But R.K.Narayan books are exception. The Sami and his Friends and Guide are my favorites. A Tiger for MalgudiI is his last novel before his death. The story is about a tiger and its spiritual journey. A tiger escapes from jungle but gets trapped by a Circus man. After many of its ordeal a sadu from a forest tames it and takes it back to forest. The story is told in first person by the tiger. R.K.Narayan is always famous for his humor. A little bit of Indian philosophy is there in the novel.

Andromeda Strain: We have lost Michael Crichton recently. He has written many novels which later made into successful films in Hollywood. When a re-entered satellite landed a small town in Arizona almost entire inhabitants of the town died along with the recovery team. Anticipating such alien intrusion from space during the re-entry of spacecraft, U.S. space authorities had already initiated a project called wild fire. Wild fire project is thus activated. The scientists of the project race against time in identifying the alien intruder and found a solution.

No Country for The Old Man: Cormack McCarthy’s dark and violent novel is about drug dealing went sour in a Nevada and littered with countless dead bodies. Anton Chigurh the antagonist of the novel is heartless villain. He kills the man unfortunate enough to come in his way. Often decides to spin the coin for the fate of the man that comes across. Life is just a spin of coin for him. He could be easily compared with other literary villains Hannibal Lectre and Flannery O’Conner’s Misfit.

Unaccustomed Earth: Jhumba Lahiri is a find of the author for this year to me. Her collection of short stories in Unaccustomed Earth is a treat to read. The title story, the pick of the lot, is about the loneliness that descended on the sixty year old widower and the distance his daughter felt at his visit. Her inclusion of 2006 tsunami in a climax of a story is brilliant. The underlying pathos is always evident in many of her stories. Like Somerset Maugham she has a knack in probing human relationship-be it in husband and wife, lovers or father and son. I have already finished reading her novel Namesake. She is the writer I am going to watch in future. Newyork Times has chosen The Unaccustomed Earth as one among the top ten for 2008.

Unaccustomed Earth is my best read of the year.

2008 Read- Part I

View of New York From Hudson

After very long gap I decided to continue this blog.I start with the books I have read during this year. I read fairly good number of books. That is because I happened to spend six months in U.S. courtesy my daughter. I had access to Mid- Manhatten public library inNew York. In chennai I depend on Eloor Library and British Counsil. Hence I had very limited choice. But Mid-Manhatton is an ocean of books. I immensly enjoyed it.
I discuss about the books I have read.
Rape: Joyce Carol Oates has woven a dark story around a women and her 12 year old daughter after the trauma of gang rape. She was gang raped and her daughter is the only witness. This is the first time I am reading Joyce Carol Oates.
Memoirs of Madman; To read a classic here and then is my cherished aim. Gaustav Flaubert’s book happened that away. It is the story of 16-year-old boy entering into adulthood. So attracted by his meditative writing I bought his Madame Bovary to read at my own leisure.
The Gathering: The Man-Booker Prize winner for 2007 The Gathering is a dark psychological story. It is a difficult read. A family gathers around for a funeral. As the story progresses the dark secrets of the family is revealed
slowly. I promised to do a second reading to fully understand the style of her writing.
Die with me: Elena Forbes’ Die with Me is about a serial killer. The identity of the killer is a big surprise. It is her first novel. But she wrote like a seasoned who done it writer.
The Overlook: Michael Connelly is a popular author whose books are displayed front in any bookshop. A murder has taken place on the outskirts of Hollywood in an execution style.. The murder victim is a doctor from whose hospital some radioactive material was stolen. LAPD detective Horch Bosch is called in. But F.B.I. also has stepped in. The murder mystery is solved from the poster of Dhunar Asna interested me.
Prisoner of Birth: It is a tale of revenge told in the style of Alexander Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo. Perhaps the author’s prison sentence came to him handy in describing the vivid details of the prisoner’s experience. An average novel.
Eat Prey &Love: Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Prey & Love is a travel book. It’s more than a travel book. After a devastating divorce and a horrid love affair turned sour, the author under takes a journey to Italy, India and Indonesia. The gourmet wonders Italy gave to her and spiritual solace she sought in an Indian Ashram and mystical healing she obtained from a medicinal man in Bali are told by the author in an absorbing style. I enjoyed it most.

Passionate Minds: David Bodanis’ Passionate Minds depict the great love affair between Voltaire and Emile de Chatlet. Voltaire one of the greatest authors of French Enlightenment is more famous for his play Candid. Bodanis portrayed the period before French Revolution. Education of women was not allowed. The study of science is strictly out of reach for women. Yet Emile equipped herself and wrote a treatise on Newton’s physics. The book tells more about love affair than about physics. The women were allowed to stay married yet can have secret lovers. Bodanis gave glimpses of French society prevailed then among aristocrats.
God of Small Things: Arundhiti Roy’s 1997 Man Booker prize winner is a tragic tale of identical twins. One woman’s lust destroyed the childhood and lives of the twins. Roy’s beautiful narration of mixing the past and the present and the exotic location of God’s own country and clever mingling of kathak performance at the end of the story made it a superb book to read.
Classics for Pleasure: Michael Dirda’s Classics For Pleasure is an enjoyable book where I came to know of the many classics that I have missed to read. Thomas Love Peacock, Sappho, George Meredith are some of them. The authors description of the agonizing betrayal and the breakup of marriage revealed in George Meredith’s ‘Modern Love” made us want to read the sonnets immediately. It’s a “guide to good reading.”
Remarkable Reads: In this book thirty four different authors speak about the remarkable books they have read. They tell us why they can be dangerous, sad lonely and mad, fragile and fearless, seductive and devastating, unpleasant and daunting. I have decided to give a second reading to both the books .
Armageddon in Retrospect Ever since I have read Slaughter house Kurt Vonngut has become my favorite author. A collection of writings on War and peace.
Kolymsky Heights: Inside the Russia’s biological weapons research centre a scientist sends a coded message to a scientist in U.S. The C.I.A. sends a Canadian Indian research scientist into extreme Siberian weather to unravel the mystery. His escape from Russia is told in a realistically believable tale. Lionel Davidson has given a superb adventure story in the style of James Bond.

Reading Habits

The habit of reading in younger generation has completely disappeared. Doris Lessing has rightly pointed out in her Nobel acceptance speech:
“We are in a fragmenting culture, where our certainties of even a few decades ago are questioned and where it is common for young men and women, who have had years of education, to know nothing of the world, to have read nothing, knowing only some specialty or other, for instance, computers”.
Most of Younger Generation has not heard of Oscar Wilde, Guy De Maupassant., and Earnest Hemingway. Even Agatha Christie, Irving Wallace or Arthur Hailey was not known to them. Thanks to aggressive coverage Media Harry Potter is known to them.
Where we went wrong? Now a days story telling and story reading were not part of our school curriculum. In my school days there was a separate class called Moral Instruction. In that class stories from Bible, Mahabharata and Ramayana were told to us. Sometimes if we are lucky we may have a teacher who used to tell stories he has read apart from great epics. In one such class I was introduced to Jean Valjean and Necklace.
Jean Valjean is a subplot in Victor Hugo’s Les’misrebles. Jean Valjean is a convict who on his release from prison unable to find a place to stay. A priest gave him shelter for one night. But on the morning Jean Valjean decamped with a silver vase. But he was caught by the police and brought before priest for confirmation of the fact. But the priest told to the police that has given the silver vase as a gift. The story when told to us children emphasis the fact of forgiveness. Necklace is another master piece from Guy De Maupassant about a tragic-comedy that a family wasted entire life time to replace an imitation necklace.
In her acceptance speech Nobel Laureate lamented the fact of lack of books for Zimbabwean schools. Even teachers if willed to work in Zimbabwe they were not provided with books for teaching children. Zimbabwean is eager to read and learn. They are also eager to read any books that are available. Their libraries which consist of four walls and thatched roof are also devoid of books. The English is a legacy of white regime that ruled Zimbabwe before it got independence.
When I was younger when T.V. was not invaded our homes my friends used to discuss with me about the book they had read. James Hadley chase, Harold Robins and Arthur Hailey were some of the books that found favor with them.
But T.V. and Inter Net occupy the major portion of this generation. Even in my home my son who is working in a M.N.C. went straight to his computer when returned after day’s work. Plugging his ears with microphone begins to listen to the music from his data base or chat with some net friends. Even their music is personal.
Our teachers themselves are not aware of classics now days. How many of our teachers have read Anna Karenina or Crime and Punishment for that matter?
Even now I used to wonder how written words in a book excite me. Am I just one of the fortunate who took pleasure in reading? How ever much I browse internet it won’t be a substitute for books.

Revenge of the Middle-Aged Women

After a very long time I came across a family drama to read. Elizabath Buchan’s Revenge of the Middle Aged Woman is an absorbing tale of a middle aged woman whose husband ditched her for a younger dame. The reason he cites is that he needs freedom and space. Another sad point is it is her secretary who robbed him along with her job. The heroine has to cope up with two tragedies- that of loss of job and husband. How she over comes her personal grief fills the rest of story. In the end it is she who found her space and freedom.

“I need freedom, space. We build cages for ourselves in all sorts of ways. Work, family habit. I’ve realized that I feel imprisoned by the walls I’ve built around myself.” Says Nathan, husband of Rose Lloyd.

Elizabath has beautifully woven the story mixing flash back scenes about how she met her husband and how she misunderstood her first lover. The problems her children face in their love lives also find expression in this story through her eyes. In the end she didn’t take any revenge on their antagonists. They got their own reward. Life had tricked them to be succeeded.

Really a good read after very long time.

Next

When I read Michael Crichton’s Next, it disturbed me a lot. The plot is not so exciting. It has loosely packed characters and narrative is jumpy at times. But the issue the author has taken is thought provoking. It made us afraid of the hospitals and doctors. If the narration in the novel becomes true nobody is safe when you step into hospitals. You may be robbed of your genes with out your knowledge. The author gives insight in to Patent Laws that are in vogue to-day. He beautifully put forth his arguments as how that patent Laws should be framed.

One cannot claim ownership of genes. When an individual donates tissue to a doctor for a research study, it is not the same as donating a book to a library. It never will be. We are told that a patient’s interest in his tissues and his right to privacy ends at death. That too is outmoded thinking that must change. Because the descendents of a dead person share his or her genes, their privacy is invaded if research is done, or if the genetic make up of the dead person is published.

Issue of ownership will always be clouded when individuals are able to manufacture with in their bodies what the court has ruled some one else owns. This is true of cell lines; it is true of genes, and of certain proteins. These things cannot be owned by any person. It is standing rule that facts of nature can not be owned. Yet for more than to two decades, legal rulings have failed to affirm this concept. Patent court rulings have failed to affirm this concept.

First genes are facts of nature. Like gravity, Sun light and leaves on trees, genes exist in the nature world. Facts of genes can not be owned. You can own a test for a gene or a drug that affects a gene but not the gene itself. You can own a treatment for a disease but not the disease itself. Gene patents break the fundamental rule. If something exists for millions of years before the arrival of Homo sapiens on earth, it is a fact of nature. To argue that a gene is in only a human invention is absurd. To grant a gene a patent is like granting a patent on iron or carbon.

Reading Agatha Christie again

I borrowed three books from my Library- Partners in Crime by Agatha Christie, The Argumentative Indian by Amartya Sen and Next by Michael Crichton.

Reading Agatha Christie brought back memories of my college days. In those days I read only the detective stories. My favorites are Early Stanly Gardener and James Hardly Chase. I have not read many of A.C. though. But I have read Chase and Early Stanly Gardener a lot. Only in later years I read heavies like Thomas Hardy, Irving Wallace etc

P.C s was not invented then. If only it were I would have recorded each and every book I have read.

The Agatha Chrisite book I read now is Partners in Crime. It is a Tommy& Tuppence adventure series. It is a collection of independent episodes that include a tale of missing person, recovery of missing Jewels, solving a murder, bursting counterfeit money Racket and cornering a gang of smuggling of cocaine.

Tommy& Tuppence emulate their great historical detectives Sherlock Holmes, John Thorndike, Father Brown and Hercule Poi rot in solving their crimes.

It is an easy read and I enjoyed a lot.

Anton Chekhov

When I completed reading V FOR VENDETTA I was in dilemma as to what to read next. I also took a part time job. The job is not taxing. But the journey to the work spot is time consuming. My reading hours is shortened to some extent.

Dostoevsky’ The Brothers of Karamazov has not really taken off as expected. The Dairy of Anne Frank has also not progressed. I turned my attention to Anton Chekhov. I read The House with The Mezzanine. I couldn’t fathom the meaning of mezzanine. I checked it with Answers.com. The House with the mezzanine is a simple love story. The hero lost his love because of his views on certain things which the elder sister of his lady love did not see eye to eye.

Though I read the Black Monk earlier I gave a second reading. The second reading of The Black Monk is pleasurable. The hidden words that have not caught my attention earlier mesmerized me. The degeneration of hero Andrey Vasilich Koverin saddened me. Though he met his justifiable end for what he did to Tania and her father, his death evoked sympathy in him. As long as he was having hallucinations he was good. In his own words

“I went mad, I had the mania of greatness, but for all that I was Gay, healthy and even happy; I was interesting and original. Now I have become more sober minded and matter of fact, but in consequence I am now like every body else. I am mediocre, life is tiresome to me.”

Anton Chekhov’s description of the scenery is sometimes noteworthy. It merged with the mood of the story. Read the following:

“It was a calm warm evening, and there was a scent of the sea. The moon and lights were reflected in the beautiful bay, which was of a color for which it was difficult to find a name. It was a delicate and soft blending of blue and green; in places the water assumed the color of green copperas, and in other places it seemed as if the moonlight had solidified, and instead of water had filled the bay, and in general what harmony of color there was all-round, what a peaceful, calm and lofty enjoyment.”

Another description,

“Running down the steep foot path that passed by the bare roots he came to the water, disturbing some snip and frightening a pair of ducks. Some of the tops of the gloomy pines were still illuminated by the rays of the setting sun, but on the surface of the river evening had already settled down. Kovrin crossed the footbridge to the other bank. Before him lay a wide field of young rye not yet in flower. Neither a human habitation nor a living soul was to be seen near or far, and it seemed as if this foot path, if only you went far enough along it, would lead to that unknown, mysterious place into which the sun had just descended, and where the glorious blaze of the evening brightness was still widespread.”
I am wondering whether the translation is good or the original has the same power and beauty.

Another beautiful observation,

“The beautiful present and the memories of that were aroused in him of the past were blended together.”