Category: Book Reviews Page 2 of 3

‘The Guide’ by RK Narayan is an amazing before-after story that captures the arc, deconstructs it and re-creates it in parallel. Guide is about passion driving a man to the shallows of life, by destroying familial bonds and a thriving business. But, all of this, written in a comedy-of-error way which keeps the humor intact even in tragic situations.

The story starts with Raju, the protagonist, coming out of jail. One part of the storyline tells how he manages his life’s construct post his jail term. While, his backstory deconstruct allows the reader a peek into how he ended up in Jail in the first place. Both the storyline follow the rise-from-the-bottom until tragedy strikes. A major part of the story is leading up to this tragedy.

In the current state, Raju’s rise to becoming a reluctant sage and the struggles of putting up a ‘show’ for the naive villagers who consider him as a ‘Swami’ with immense wisdom, is captured.

In both the storylines, Raju insists that he’s a hack and mocks the fools believing him. By being a Guide, showing him around the town of Malgudi or by becoming the Swami and guiding people in everyday lives, creating a verisimilitude in both. But, this is from the perspective of Raju, the guide and the sage, and does not take into account the impact he might’ve on people and their lives.

A major part of the book is about Rosie with who Raju falls in love with. It’s complicated because Rosie is already married.

RK Narayan is a master storyteller and Guide gives you just that. It’s a breezy short pageturner that’ll keep you interested. If you’ve read any of his work, and liked it, you would like this one as well. As always, the book is a simple read, but there’s so much to ponder at the end of it. That’s what RK Narayan’s stories are, and that’s why you love them every time you read one of his.

The book leaves you with a lot of questions which you don’t get answers to. The closure element is missing and this incompleteness makes the story more real-life.

It’s easy to get lost in the confusion of similar names of characters of the Buendia family over generation when they all start living lives reminiscing another generation. It’s good that they added a family tree to revisit whenever the reader gets confused.

One Hundred Years of Solitude is fascinating. Not only because of the magical realism at play but how realistically believable the events are structured by placing chunks of real-world evolution of our society over decades. From simpler times with no governments to influx of gypsies showing magical inventions to the start of capitalism, the book is a humangous journey with the founding family of the place called Mocondo. The Buendia family, has their own set ways which has a tendency of repeating incidences with every generation. A huge credit to this goes to the names: Arcadio and Aureliano, Remedios and Amaranta. And other possible combination that come out of it.

There’s just no suspense in the stories. Before you read about a character, you already know when and how they’re going to die. The build up, of each character, is always good but without culminating into anything towards the end. Gone, just like that. And there’s a series of it. Just when you thought you’re starting to get attached to a character, they’re gone. All that’s left with each is the solitude they bring along before they meet their eventual end.

The absurdity is magical. The reiteration of the cyclical fate that every generation will phase is prophetic and the reader vaguely understands that and yet the book keeps you interested in the mundane. You question the mundane and believe the magic. That’s the beauty of One Hundred Years of Solitude.

It’s not a page turner that’ll keep you addicted but would tingle your senses when you take little breaks in-between. And perhaps that’s needed and where this book becomes critical. It helps you draw parallels with world developments and society’s progress. No wonder this doesn’t feel aged at all.

From among a lot of things I liked, what fascinated me the most was how the author would take you through a setting. Like, describing the room like a strapped-on camera with just one view port sequentially describing everything on its path.

One hundred years of solitude is a book you can pick up from in-between, read a few pages and still enjoy.

The Namesake.

How much impact does our name have on our lives?

My name ends up being my ‘last name’ to those unfamiliar with how Muslim names work in a lot of occasions. Not only that, the varied pronounciations and phonetically ‘right’ way of saying it, does make names sound different than it actually is. Not such a big problem for many who, like me, like their name.

Now, imagine someone hating their name!! Holding a grudge against their parents for doing that to them and especially when that someone is a first-generation American. That’s the central theme of this Pulitzar-prize winning book by Jhumpa Lahiri.

The one thing which I hated about the book was the Cover! Any book which has the cover of its film adaptation is something I hate. It deprives you of forming characters in your own head.

Other than that, the book is a breeze to read. Jumpha Lahiri is a good story-teller and she captures the life and times of the Indian diaspora, struggles of first-generation Indians and their immigrant parents, how they perceive India during their once-a-year India, but more importantly how the name which our protagonist has: Gogol, affects his outlook. There’s a back-story as to why Gogol was named Gogol which he does not know of, and is adamant of shedding off his Bengali origins (unlike his parents) and being an American only. The problems of this cultural identity occupies a major portion of this book by displaying the shift of Gogol’s parents: Ashoke and Ashima, from Calcutta to Cambridge.

Apart from this backdrop of culture, the book focusses on the Dynamics of family, relationships and issues where cultural identities play a pivotal role.

I loved reading the book, the introduction to a mixed cultural landscape and intrinsic struggles of families to remain together. And now, I look forward to watching the film as well.

Godan.

This happens to be the first Hindi Novel (of such length) that I’ve read. I’ve read a few excerpts before and even watched the on-film version of this long back, but reading this book has been an experience that I’m glad to have done.

Premchand is a genius. Probably, as everyone already says, the greatest Hindi novelist. This definitely piques my interest in reading more of Hindi literature.

Godan, or more phonetically ‘Gau-Daan’ or ‘The gift of the cow’ as the translated version is referred as, is ideally on how a poor farmer’s innate desire to own a cow, so that when he dies, can be given away to a Brahmin as is customary. Of course, the death acts as a metaphor for the countless deaths that the farmer (and his family) go through.

The book largely paints the terrible state of farmers in the pre-independence era, the zamindari system, caste system, society’s treatment of the poor and low-caste, the lifestyle of the rich and their own problems and how all of this constantly crosses each other’s path.

The language in the book floats from the hindi-urdu to hindi, and is reminiscing of the way it’s spoken in the Oudh region (around Lucknow) and helps in the transition of the stories along with the characters’ laments.

Even though the book is set in the pre-independence era, it doesn’t meddles too much into the freedom struggle. In a way, this symbolises how cut-off the villagers were or how engrossed they were in their own problems.

I’m still amazed at the numerous stories stitched together to portray the life and times of that time. Godan has been a wonderful read and not only because it was in Hindi, which is another reason to love it, anyway.

There’s a translated version of Godan available and if you cannot read Hindi, you should give that a try.

I loved it. Hope you’ll love it as well.

If I’d known that all of Murakami’s work are translated versions, I probably would’ve shied away from reading one. I’m glad I didn’t.

This book has been a revelation! I’ve been blown away by the unique storytelling that Murakami has essayed through Kafka on the Shore. I’ve become such a fan, already.

Kafka on the shore captures the life of ‘Kafka’ who runs away from home at the age of 15 and ends up near the shore and a parallel story of an old Nakata who can talk to Cats. How are these two stories related and how the two protagonists cross path towards meeting each other, along with paranormal activities, UFOs, mystics and shady characters in their journey is what the book is about. There’s so much to this book that I cannot put it down without it being too lengthy of a review to read.

What I loved about ‘Kafka on the Shore’ is the increase in curiosity level as you progress in your reading. The book ends with loose ended answers and yet you feel like capturing the essence of the world which Murakami wanted to portray. I’ve never been intrigued by Japanese culture before, but reading this I feel like spending time in the library like Kafka to get all I can.

This is one of those books, which goes into my re-read list. Loved it. Look forward to more of Murakami!

We all go through that stage of pointlessness in our lives. A goalless appraoch without a clear path and unsure of everything. ‘The catcher in the Rye’ by J.D Salinger is an extended rant of a teenager going through a similar phase where he doesn’t hold back anything.

Imagine describing every emotion, every feeling about other people or situations being blurted out without thinking twice. The entire story is an exact depiction of that very feeling. The unsaid being said out loud or at least thought of in contradictory fashion. The Main Character’s (Holden) views shift from one extreme to another. Typical bipolarity, if you can term it. He’d hate someone for a while and then miss not being with them. He’ll call almost everyone a phony for sticking to the traditional or conventional system.

What I like about the book is the sheer audacity to not hold back anything. It can be wrong in thought but not wrong on the front of being honest to oneself, which is an achievement.

The story is a first person account of Holden Caulfield who is struggling to adjust with the set processes of his various schools from which he gets kicked out of. From the day of this being known, how every encounter with people: roommate, hostellers, teachers, random co-travellers and even family and how he terms them all as ‘phonies’ and ‘lousies’ and questions their motives all the time.

I found myself laughing at a lot of simple inferences spread through the narration. Spread over 5 days, this is a brilliant way to bring to life the complexity of a teenage mind .

It’s a very easy read over a lazy afternoon and highly recommended. It’s approach towards philosophy is directed towards asking questions and constantly re-evaluating life’s choices.

Go grab a copy of this masterpiece.

This book is the stuff of which nightmares are made of. An Orwellian Nightmare to be precise.

The dystopian nature of this puts you in a headspace you don’t want to keep yourself in.

I’m not sure how I would’ve reacted to this, had I read it few years back. Now, it’s a reality check. Like, we’re either in the midst of one or being taken towards one.
The book throws up a question, ‘What if your government monitored everything you did?’

And of course, control everything. From your thoughts, to media to altering history  (rather manufacturing a parallel one) and make you believe in the existence of an enemy that doesn’t exist. By not only shifting agendas at will but making you believe that it was never changed.
Taking the economy to a bad state and yet making you believe that ‘we’re doing better than before’.
Bizarre execution of ideas that are normal for the citizen of the fictitious super-nation of Oceania here. This includes, conducting ‘hate-week’ where you shout profanities at the enemy of the state. Children trained to be spies to ‘rat-out’ their own parents for any ‘anti-state’ activity and making them all believe that it is all for the overall good of their nation.
It’s a book that must be read to know what absolute power can turn nations into.
George Orwell, you’ve again succeeded in  giving me a few nightmares for which I won’t even have to sleep.