by Arundhati Roy
1997
Winner of the Booker prize, this novel tells the story of a family torn apart by cruelty, divorce, class and caste difference, time, family jealousies and rivalries, and everything else that helps a dysfunctional family break apart. At the center of the tragic tale are Estha and Rahel, twins, and their mother who dared divorce, and then dared love an Untouchable. It’s told in a compelling fashion, with foreshadowing hints here and there, flashbacks and remembrances and the present melding together, with doom looming over the whole and never going away.
This novel really is an impressive debut. However, I was hugely put off by the horrible cutesy writing: the strung together words that fail to add meaning to anything (“steelshrill police whistles,” “skyblue”), inane, useless capitalizations (“the Air was Alert and Bright and Hot,” “Hotweather”) that supposedly represent Important Concepts to the children of the story but really just evoke A.A. Milne, and worst of all the totally absurd invented use of adverbs (“her eyes were redly dead,” “it waved a cemently paw”) that serves no purpose except to disgust me. Without this irritating cutesy prose, the novel’s dramatic web would truly be mesmerizing.
three stars
Showing posts with label india. Show all posts
Showing posts with label india. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 5, 1999
Tuesday, April 27, 1999
From Heaven Lake
by Vikram Seth
As a graduate student in Nanjing University, Seth used his vacation to hitchhike home to Delhi via Tibet. The result is a wonderful book, full of witty observations, good, clear prose and profound meditations on India and China. It’s a fresh and interesting perspective to this American reader: there is very little comment on the lack of cleanliness or crowded conditions, as travelers in the West often harp about. Also, Seth is happy to give the Chinese political system the benefit of the doubt: where an American traveler assumes the flaws and reports the good, Seth assumes that China works and treats the flaws as unavoidable as with any system. He is as angered by the bureaucracy as Western travelers are, but at least he made it to Tibet. His descriptions of that region are revealing and hopeful: the people seem happy when he talk to them, but great evils are in the very recent past, and they have not forgotten. A rich, fascinating book.
four stars
As a graduate student in Nanjing University, Seth used his vacation to hitchhike home to Delhi via Tibet. The result is a wonderful book, full of witty observations, good, clear prose and profound meditations on India and China. It’s a fresh and interesting perspective to this American reader: there is very little comment on the lack of cleanliness or crowded conditions, as travelers in the West often harp about. Also, Seth is happy to give the Chinese political system the benefit of the doubt: where an American traveler assumes the flaws and reports the good, Seth assumes that China works and treats the flaws as unavoidable as with any system. He is as angered by the bureaucracy as Western travelers are, but at least he made it to Tibet. His descriptions of that region are revealing and hopeful: the people seem happy when he talk to them, but great evils are in the very recent past, and they have not forgotten. A rich, fascinating book.
four stars
Monday, January 25, 1999
An Indian Summer
by James Cameron
Cameron, a journalist, returns to India after a lifetime as a foreign correspondent, now married to an Indian. He recalls his past there as well as India’s past and present, and along the way muses about life and death and everything else. Then he gets into a serious car collision and finds that he needs an artificial heart.
A rich book, filled with truly deep thoughts and stunningly honest self-assessments about fear and dying as well as the human condition: “I am not afraid of the dark, I am afraid of the night, and I am afraid of the night only because it does not complete the finished day but announces the new one, which would almost certainly be as inadequate as the one before.” He has some very perspicacious remarks about Indian politics and culture, and offers some reasonable explanations of why India works the way it does. As insightful as these comments are, they’re not the main point. It’s not so much a book about coming to an understanding of India but how it is possible to both love and hate that maddening country without fully understanding.
four stars
Cameron, a journalist, returns to India after a lifetime as a foreign correspondent, now married to an Indian. He recalls his past there as well as India’s past and present, and along the way muses about life and death and everything else. Then he gets into a serious car collision and finds that he needs an artificial heart.
A rich book, filled with truly deep thoughts and stunningly honest self-assessments about fear and dying as well as the human condition: “I am not afraid of the dark, I am afraid of the night, and I am afraid of the night only because it does not complete the finished day but announces the new one, which would almost certainly be as inadequate as the one before.” He has some very perspicacious remarks about Indian politics and culture, and offers some reasonable explanations of why India works the way it does. As insightful as these comments are, they’re not the main point. It’s not so much a book about coming to an understanding of India but how it is possible to both love and hate that maddening country without fully understanding.
four stars
Friday, January 8, 1999
The Finanacial Expert
by R.K. Narayan
1952
Set in the mythical village of Malgudi, this subtle book tells the story of Margayya, a self-appointed financial wizard who helps peasants with their money matters. One day, after being shamed by a peon at the big Co-Operative Bank, he decides to become very wealthy. He goes to a priest, performs the rituals, and gets into a variety of money making schemes, offering high interest rates for the villagers’ savings. But when Dr. Pal, the learned journalist, gets too friendly with Margayya’s spoiled son, things fall apart.
The story is told from Margayya’s point of view, so sometimes the reader loses track of what a self-occupied, greedy miser he must be, although he sincerely wishes a better life for his rather dim son. The dialogue is quite sharp, and apt; having been to India, I think I understand the characters more than if I hadn’t. The whole book, in fact, takes a rather detached, Indian approach, with little in the lines of plot and a rather desultory climax and denouement; and when Margayya loses all his wealth at the end, he merely stoically declares that he will begin again, without moralizing to his son or blaming himself. The book is an appealing slice of Indian life, told in a light, comical way which I enjoyed.
four stars
1952
Set in the mythical village of Malgudi, this subtle book tells the story of Margayya, a self-appointed financial wizard who helps peasants with their money matters. One day, after being shamed by a peon at the big Co-Operative Bank, he decides to become very wealthy. He goes to a priest, performs the rituals, and gets into a variety of money making schemes, offering high interest rates for the villagers’ savings. But when Dr. Pal, the learned journalist, gets too friendly with Margayya’s spoiled son, things fall apart.
The story is told from Margayya’s point of view, so sometimes the reader loses track of what a self-occupied, greedy miser he must be, although he sincerely wishes a better life for his rather dim son. The dialogue is quite sharp, and apt; having been to India, I think I understand the characters more than if I hadn’t. The whole book, in fact, takes a rather detached, Indian approach, with little in the lines of plot and a rather desultory climax and denouement; and when Margayya loses all his wealth at the end, he merely stoically declares that he will begin again, without moralizing to his son or blaming himself. The book is an appealing slice of Indian life, told in a light, comical way which I enjoyed.
four stars
Thursday, May 9, 1996
The Stranglers: The Cult of Thuggee & its Overthrow in British India
by George Bruce
An informative work on William Sleeman's efforts to destroy Thugee from the time when no one cared about it to his long overdue promotion to Major-General. There were long excerpts from Sleeman's writings and transcriptions of actual conversations with captured Thugs; these were very revealing. Besides describing the Thugee dialect, philosophy, superstitions and customs, the book portrays Sleeman as a selfless, tireless man who always put duty first: ahead of his health, his wealth, even his desire to be with his children.
It was an exciting story, not because of Bruce's rather dry style of telling it but because of its inherent thrills. At times, the narrative could have used more detail (explaining how a specific gang was captured, for instance, instead of just mentioning that it was "luckily" done). All in all, though, a fine book.
four stars
An informative work on William Sleeman's efforts to destroy Thugee from the time when no one cared about it to his long overdue promotion to Major-General. There were long excerpts from Sleeman's writings and transcriptions of actual conversations with captured Thugs; these were very revealing. Besides describing the Thugee dialect, philosophy, superstitions and customs, the book portrays Sleeman as a selfless, tireless man who always put duty first: ahead of his health, his wealth, even his desire to be with his children.
It was an exciting story, not because of Bruce's rather dry style of telling it but because of its inherent thrills. At times, the narrative could have used more detail (explaining how a specific gang was captured, for instance, instead of just mentioning that it was "luckily" done). All in all, though, a fine book.
four stars
Friday, April 12, 1996
India: An Introduction
by Kushwant Singh
Just what the title says, this book is an informative, lively account of India, from a few paragraphs on the Indus Valley civilization to the final chapter on Indira Gandhi. I learned a lot from reading it, and perhaps not only what Singh intended. Through his writing, I gleaned some information on how Indians feel about politics and so on: for example, he calls the leaking of information that a public official had not paid income tax in ten years a "personal attack." A very different mind-set from the typical American's. Singh is objective and fair in describing even hot topics like British rule and Pakistan, and so is probably trustworthy as a historian. An interesting, rarely dull summary of history.
four stars
Just what the title says, this book is an informative, lively account of India, from a few paragraphs on the Indus Valley civilization to the final chapter on Indira Gandhi. I learned a lot from reading it, and perhaps not only what Singh intended. Through his writing, I gleaned some information on how Indians feel about politics and so on: for example, he calls the leaking of information that a public official had not paid income tax in ten years a "personal attack." A very different mind-set from the typical American's. Singh is objective and fair in describing even hot topics like British rule and Pakistan, and so is probably trustworthy as a historian. An interesting, rarely dull summary of history.
four stars
Thursday, March 21, 1996
The Hunted
by Madra Rakshasa
This Hindi novel describes the steadily burgeoning tensions between untouchables and landowners in a tiny Indian village. The focus of the book is not so much the actual conflict, which is brief and not at all significant, but the history and development of the characters. It's not a simple novel at all, despite taking a stand, of course, against the greed and oppression of the landowners - some of the peasants are unsympathetic, and some of the landowners are decent people. It's a real psychological novel with political significance as well. I liked it a lot.
four stars
This Hindi novel describes the steadily burgeoning tensions between untouchables and landowners in a tiny Indian village. The focus of the book is not so much the actual conflict, which is brief and not at all significant, but the history and development of the characters. It's not a simple novel at all, despite taking a stand, of course, against the greed and oppression of the landowners - some of the peasants are unsympathetic, and some of the landowners are decent people. It's a real psychological novel with political significance as well. I liked it a lot.
four stars
Wednesday, March 13, 1996
Into India
by John Keay
The anti-Naipaul, sort of. This Britisher is a real India-lover and has a lot of fascinating things to say about the land, its history and above all its people. It was interesting to go back to Naipaul's book and compare their interpretations of similar experiences or events. I identified with a lot of the things Keay described. The end, when he left India, was especially demonstrative of his love for the place – he speaks disparagingly of the insincerity, "gracelessness" and "sameness" of the West. A different take, certainly!
four stars
The anti-Naipaul, sort of. This Britisher is a real India-lover and has a lot of fascinating things to say about the land, its history and above all its people. It was interesting to go back to Naipaul's book and compare their interpretations of similar experiences or events. I identified with a lot of the things Keay described. The end, when he left India, was especially demonstrative of his love for the place – he speaks disparagingly of the insincerity, "gracelessness" and "sameness" of the West. A different take, certainly!
four stars
Thursday, February 29, 1996
The Temple Tiger and More Man-Eaters of Kumaon
by Jim Corbett
An account of Corbett's experiences hunting tigers and in one instance a leopard. The man personifies the typical pulp hero – utterly without fear, nonchalantly heroic and replete with amusing foibles, like absolutely craving a smoke and a nice hot cuppa tea even while waiting on a tree branch with rifle in hand in the dead of night for the man-eating tiger to come that way. If these stories hadn't been true, they wouldn't be worth reading, but as it is, I was impressed, to say the least.
four stars
An account of Corbett's experiences hunting tigers and in one instance a leopard. The man personifies the typical pulp hero – utterly without fear, nonchalantly heroic and replete with amusing foibles, like absolutely craving a smoke and a nice hot cuppa tea even while waiting on a tree branch with rifle in hand in the dead of night for the man-eating tiger to come that way. If these stories hadn't been true, they wouldn't be worth reading, but as it is, I was impressed, to say the least.
four stars
Monday, February 19, 1996
India: A Wounded Civilization
by V.S. Naipaul
Naipul explains India, sort of. A horribly critical book, quite racist (in the sense of making broad, derogatory generalizations about an entire people, using small amounts of evidence or even just hearsay), bordering on the vitriol of a KKK pamphlet. And yet, a lot of what Naipaul points out seems correct. He's an extremely sharp observer and doesn't have to make a big production out of how absurd some Indian policies are; he makes their absurdity come across by just describing them. So he does make his point, and yet he does it so smugly, so self-assured, without reservation, that the criticism comes too hard. The section where, for example, Naipaul is comparing individual Indians' thought to children's thought, on the basis of what some Uncle Tom of an Indian psychiatrist has reported to him, is repugnant. But when Naipaul tells about an Indian attempt to "modernize" the bullock-cart or peasants' tools, he makes it clear why he called that chapter "A Defect of Vision." He must have had a bad time in India.
three stars
Naipul explains India, sort of. A horribly critical book, quite racist (in the sense of making broad, derogatory generalizations about an entire people, using small amounts of evidence or even just hearsay), bordering on the vitriol of a KKK pamphlet. And yet, a lot of what Naipaul points out seems correct. He's an extremely sharp observer and doesn't have to make a big production out of how absurd some Indian policies are; he makes their absurdity come across by just describing them. So he does make his point, and yet he does it so smugly, so self-assured, without reservation, that the criticism comes too hard. The section where, for example, Naipaul is comparing individual Indians' thought to children's thought, on the basis of what some Uncle Tom of an Indian psychiatrist has reported to him, is repugnant. But when Naipaul tells about an Indian attempt to "modernize" the bullock-cart or peasants' tools, he makes it clear why he called that chapter "A Defect of Vision." He must have had a bad time in India.
three stars
Tuesday, February 13, 1996
Slowly Down the Ganges
by Eric Newby
Supposedly a tale of how he and his wife traveled down the Ganges in a variety of boats. More like how he and his wife traveled along the basic course of the Ganges in a variety of buses and trains. A very patchily written book, at times it would be fascinating – whether describing ancient history, the author's own reminisces, or the events of the voyage (which were also at times hilarious) – and at times it would just be page after page of pure description of ruined forts or the banks of the Ganges (cliffs, forest, silt, sandbars, ho hum). The last chapter was particularly boring, being in toto a run-down, a bare litany, of all the landmarks on the Ramganga down to the Bay of Bengal. Too bad; it had a lot of potential.
three stars
Supposedly a tale of how he and his wife traveled down the Ganges in a variety of boats. More like how he and his wife traveled along the basic course of the Ganges in a variety of buses and trains. A very patchily written book, at times it would be fascinating – whether describing ancient history, the author's own reminisces, or the events of the voyage (which were also at times hilarious) – and at times it would just be page after page of pure description of ruined forts or the banks of the Ganges (cliffs, forest, silt, sandbars, ho hum). The last chapter was particularly boring, being in toto a run-down, a bare litany, of all the landmarks on the Ramganga down to the Bay of Bengal. Too bad; it had a lot of potential.
three stars
Monday, February 5, 1996
Myths and Legends of India: An Introduction to the Study of Hinduism
by J.M. Macfie
This book told many tales from the Puranas, the Ramayana and mostly the Mahabarata. I remembered quite a few from my readings of the two latter, but many were new to me. The trouble is that, although the author takes a lot of pride in his supposed impartiality and fairness in depicting Hinduism's strengths as well as weaknesses, he takes quite a racist or at least a haughty, pedantic view in his descriptions, calling - for example - the presence of Shiva lingams "revolting and obscene"; calling Indian thought "arrested"; claiming that India's caste system constitutes "the most rigorous and cruel" color bar in history (a dubious claim, perhaps); and just generally adopting a mocking tone when describing inconsistencies in the stories and so on. But they are told well and I enjoyed the book anyway for the information it contains.
three stars
This book told many tales from the Puranas, the Ramayana and mostly the Mahabarata. I remembered quite a few from my readings of the two latter, but many were new to me. The trouble is that, although the author takes a lot of pride in his supposed impartiality and fairness in depicting Hinduism's strengths as well as weaknesses, he takes quite a racist or at least a haughty, pedantic view in his descriptions, calling - for example - the presence of Shiva lingams "revolting and obscene"; calling Indian thought "arrested"; claiming that India's caste system constitutes "the most rigorous and cruel" color bar in history (a dubious claim, perhaps); and just generally adopting a mocking tone when describing inconsistencies in the stories and so on. But they are told well and I enjoyed the book anyway for the information it contains.
three stars
Friday, January 26, 1996
Hindu Gods And Goddesses
by A.G. Mitchell
Not aptly named, this was a very short work on Hindu iconography: 50 photographs of bronze statues of gods and heroes crafted in the south of India in the 19th century, accompanied by short captions to each. Nevertheless, it was well-written and informative.
three stars
Not aptly named, this was a very short work on Hindu iconography: 50 photographs of bronze statues of gods and heroes crafted in the south of India in the 19th century, accompanied by short captions to each. Nevertheless, it was well-written and informative.
three stars
Thursday, December 21, 1995
The Mahabharata
condensed and retold in prose form by William Buck
Apparently Buck worked from a translation of the original, being not much of a linguist himself, but it's supposed to be a good version, and he is a fairly good story-teller. Once the actual story of the Pandavas kicked in, I found myself engrossed, although the tragedy of the war didn't come out except explicitly in the telling, perhaps because the Pandavas and their actions were glorified too much.
three stars
Apparently Buck worked from a translation of the original, being not much of a linguist himself, but it's supposed to be a good version, and he is a fairly good story-teller. Once the actual story of the Pandavas kicked in, I found myself engrossed, although the tragedy of the war didn't come out except explicitly in the telling, perhaps because the Pandavas and their actions were glorified too much.
three stars
The Ramayana
condensed and retold in prose form by R.K. Narayan
1973
The story of Rama who battles the demon Ravana to rescue his abducted wife. This version is based on the popular 11th century Tamil version by Kamban and not the 4th century Sanskrit original by Valmiki. Although it of course lacks much, being hugely cut from the myth- and parable-rich epic style, I enjoyed it a lot. It is told in a readable, page-turning novelist's style.
four stars
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