Category: Books

  • The Algebra of Infinite Justice

    Arundhati Roy

    For a few years now, I have heard everyone – from sections of media to people in my social stream call Arundhati Roy everything from a Naxalite lover to a development hater to a deranged person, the last instance during the happenings in Kashmir. In fact, these days whenever there’s an issue of national interest with a scope for polarised opinions, I find many people asking about her take, just so they can heap more ridicule. And though I have never really been a fan of her award winning work of fiction, I have admitted to myself, and to a few of my friends, that I have found it difficult to objectively fault her arguments. After reading this book, I have realised why it is easy to hate her – she holds up a mirror in front of us, the kind of mirror that tells us how our apathy and desire to follow the path of least resistance is responsible for the larger problems we see around us.

    And she does that not just in some moral high ground, philosophising sort of way. She does so with historical perspectives and economical contexts and most importantly, hard data. And therefore, it is not easy to ignore her when she talks about the Narmada Bachao Andolan, the costs of what we call progress and the greater common good, the background games played behind the ‘developmental’ activities we see around us, America’s war against terror, the beginnings of fascism in India and how all of these are linked. The writer in her is in full flow, using sarcasm and wit to telling effect, to (ironically) show the seriousness of the issue. There is something very vulnerable about her when she talks about her dislike for the ‘writer-activist’ label.

    So the next time, I hear something said against her, I am going to ask the person if he/she has read this book. They may not agree with her, but at least this will give them perspective and basis their interest, they can look for counter arguments. What I seek from them is exactly what I seek from myself – an acknowledgment of one’s own role in the issues of today and developing the strength to not look away.

  • Bombay Tiger

    Kamala Markandaya

    A posthumously published work authored by Kamala Markandaya, with an introduction written by Charles Larson that sensitively portrays the life and work of the author. Actually, that turns out to be a story in itself – about an author whose first work was acclaimed, but who was later found hunting for publishers, trying in vain to understand a literary world that seemed to have changed.

    The novel is set in the 80s in Bombay, with a self made industrialist as its protagonist. Much as the author uses him to hold together the story, and drives it forward through his relationships with different characters, she also switches the narrative consistently to show a side of the story from the perspective of these characters.

    Sometimes this causes a deviation, but the author manages to rein it in more often than not. Though she might have wanted her protagonist to epitomise the changing nature of the Bombay (or even Indian) business world, the story rarely explores that frontier and is happy discovering nuances in human relationships. That’s probably what harms the novel, because it vaguely promises a vast canvas but leaves many parts blank. It’s as though the author changed her mind after the first couple of chapters. But it has to be said that the quality of prose and the narrative switches ensure that the reader doesn’t tune out. Honestly, I was more touched by the introduction (the life of the author) and wished that the author had had more successes. Rest in peace, Kamala Markandaya.

    As a birthday present, I got featured in the Top 100 Book Related blogs to follow as well! 🙂 Scroll down to #55 (that happens to be a favourite number as well)

    Top 100 Book related blogs to follow

     

    An infographic by the team at CouponAudit

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  • Mammoth Book of Short Science Fiction Novels

    The book consists of 13 science fiction novellas all written between 1950 and 1980. At the outset, I am a bit disappointed that I didn’t like the book as much as I thought I would. The start was fantastic, with Isaac Asimov’s “Profession”, where he manages to narrate a story that’s universal and timeless. I wasn’t particularly impressed with John Campbell’s piece, though it was made into comics and movies. Lester Del Ray’s “For I am Jealous People” has an intriguing plot in which God abandons the human race and sides with aliens.

    “The Mortal and the Monster” by Gordon Dickson also proved too slow for my liking, and though well paced David Drake’s “Time Safari” seems jaded now that we are inundated with Jurassic monsters regularly on the screen. Phyllis Eisenstein’s “In the Western Tradition” is an interesting plot but from just a human angle.

    “The Alley Man” by Philip Jose Farmer was too convoluted and slow for me, but I found the concept of John Jakes’ The sellers of the dream” very intriguing. Donald Kingsbury’s “The Moon Goddess and the Son” was another extended work and I gave up on Barry Longyear’s “Enemy Mine” after a few pages. Larry Niven’s “Flash Crowd” had teleportation which I have always found interesting and it helped that it was a fast moving plot. Frederik Pohl’s “In the Problem Pit” was also just barely there but the book ended reasonably well with Robert Silverberg’s “The Desert of Stolen Dreams”.

    There were indeed many stories which I would rate as good science fiction, but there were too many universal human condition stories which were science fiction only because of a setting which then faded into insignificance. There were also a couple of fantasy works which seemed to be masquerading as science fiction. I would say that the “Science Fiction Treasury” edited by Isaac Asimov is a much better read. But it’s still amazing to see many of the concepts spread between what is now reality, or aspirational or still science fiction.

  • Only Time Will Tell (Clifton Chronicles 1)

    Jeffrey Archer

    The first of the Clifton Chronicles and launched in Bangalore earlier this year. 🙂 As per wiki, Lord Archer plans to span the series from 1920 to 2020. This first installment covers the years from 1919 ( a year before Harry’s birth) to 1940. The protagonist is Harry Clifton, ostensibly, the son of a war hero, but later years would reveal his true father.

    Harry is gifted with a fine voice, and despite financial troubles, manages to learn his way to Oxford. The other principal characters are Maisie Clifton, his mother, Giles Barrington, his best friend, Giles’ father Hugo and his sister Emma Barrington, and Old Jack Tar, a war veteran fighting his own demons, but who discovers Harry’s potential and moulds his life.

    The author manages to pace the book very well, and has thankfully stayed away from the drastic twists that he was once good with. Instead he has chosen subtle turns which the reader is able to easily guess beforehand, but finds presented very well.

    Archer’s storytelling skills are obviously intact, though one portion reminded me of the climax of ‘As the Crow Flies’, and the art appreciation seems to be taken from his own knowledge of the field. The way he switches the narrative by introducing it from the perspectives of the principal characters works out splendidly.

    I am becoming a fan of the subtle Archer style of humour too, and therefore I don’t miss the earlier twisty plot style much.

  • Vengeance Of Ravana

    Ashok K Banker

    The seventh book of the Ramayana series that was never expected. Ashok Banker has his own reasons for writing it, as he mentions in the Foreword. He also uses the section to outline his plans to document the past, present and extrapolated future of India as well as alternate history. I was quite happy when i read this because it seemed a noble endeavor. And then the book started.

    I have been a fan of the other books (except for Book 3, which i thought was an unnecessary stretch) in the series and have, in reviews, admired how the author brings characters and the age to life and uses prose in a way that makes you (even) identify with them.

    But this book completely failed for me. The plot, if any, doesn’t go anywhere. I could’ve flipped 10 pages and still not missed a thing – except for prose. It’s as though the mandate was to describe every occurrence / character/ vista in as many words as possible. Fitting in contemporary phrases like collateral damage and terms like vortal seem terribly forced. It’s a vengeance story, but sometimes you wonder who it is directed at!!

    If you’ve been reading the Ramayana series, I guess you’ll have to sit through this one too, just to see where it goes, but go in fully prepared for a prose avalanche. The author does seem to be on his own trip – good for him, not so good for readers. Sad.