Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf - Edward Albee

Edward Albee's 1962 play, Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf , is one gem of a piece. Very powerful and emotional, extremely disturbing at the same time. A play in 3 acts over one night among two couple, one middle aged and the other young. Nick and Honey comes to the house of George and Martha as guests one night, after an evening party hosted by Martha's father and the owner of the institution where George and Nick works. As the night grew over them, and the alcohol consumption, the game of humiliation and insult and the internal struggle among the families are brought forward in all its dirty form. As it takes turn from one participant to the other to be the victim of the hour, bringing people to the verge of breakdown and physical abuse. A night long battle, betrayal , confrontations and mental torture makes every one exposed , and reconcile as the day break upon them.

Both Martha and George has to let out their accumulated bitterness of life. They both carry a huge burden of their past. Martha, a fathers daughter, grown up without her mother. Every attempt of her life to come out of the influence of her father failed. A failed first marriage, the compromise marriage with George who is six years younger to please her father and her subsequent failure in realising George to challenge her father. She wanted George to be smarter, take the reign of her fathers empire, to stand up to her father. To her disappointment, George failed to grow to that stature. Their inability to conceive and have children, which is her last resort in settling with her father only adds to the pain. George on the other hand has his on baggage to get rid off. His parents are died ( I killed them , he says) when he was young. Taking the moral responsibility of the death, he even writes a novel with this as a theme, only to be ridiculed and trashed by his father-in-law. His emotional and physical impotency plays a major role in his relationship with his wife and the world. In the end he invents a "son" for them and kills him in an accident as he has written in his novel, to decisively conclude the issue of potency and child with his wife and to succumbs to the fate. Even under this circumstance, we can see the glimpses of the fondness and affection between them surfacing often.

I cry alllll the time; but deep inside, so no one can see me. I cry all the time. And George cries all the time, too. We both cry all the time, and then, what we do, we cry, and we take our tears and we put 'em in the ice box, in the goddamn ice trays until they are frozen and then...we put them ... in our drinks.

The insult and abuse does not spare anyone. In the second act, it turns towards Nick and Honey, exposing them with the bitter truth of their life. The story of Nick and Honey is not very different. They too are fighting the battle of of their own. Honey doesn't want a child but to remain a child herself. They know each other from childhood, and eventually marry each other. As the act progresses, they too comes out vulnerable and unhappy over the turn of things. They are not only witnessing the war between the other couple, but the're witnessing their own future unfolding.

This is one play with multiple interpretation possible. It could be a family drama or anger, frustration and despair, where the hidden feelings are brought to the open by the situation. There was also one interpretation here comparing it to the cold war era, the stand off between US and USSR. One of the idea could be to bring out the conflicts, turmoil, hope and despair of the people, hidden beneath their appearance, thus giving them the relief. At the end, as everyone is bruised and battered, the life opens to a new dawn.

One fantastic book, and regret not giving enough of my reading time on plays over the years.
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Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolf ?
Edward Albee
Pocket Books
242 Pages
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Here are two superb essays on this book by Bill Johnson and Shirley Galloway

If on a Winter's Night a Traveller - Italo Calvino

You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel, If on a winter's night a traveler. Relax. Concentrate. Dispel every other thought. Let the world around you fade. Best to close the door ; the TV is always on in the other room. Tell the others right away" No I dont want to watch TV... I'm reading. I dont want to be disturbed"

Ok, all set. Let us begin... Hey, there is a mix up. The second chapter of the book is not in continuation, but a repeat of the chapter one. Its seems to be misprinted. Reader, you have to go back to the bookshop and get a replacement. Well, you are not alone, there is another reader, a young lady with the same request. The book seller admits, that there was a issue from the printers. What you have read was from a Polish writer. You get your replacement book, is an entirely different story and you want to discuss this with your co-reader. On this pursuit, you tumble upon various books in the form of printed matter, manuscripts or translation. Each discovery leads to another, moving from the first chapter of one novel to another , from writers of one country/continent to other. You are not alone, the girl, with whom you form an alliance, to a level of falling in love with her. People associated with the novel and publishing industry are all part of this journey. The book seller, who gives you one misprinted book after other, the publisher who adds to the confusion with yet another set of manuscripts, the university professors of various language department fighting for the ownership of the book and writer, the translator who not only controls the outcome of the novel, but also indulge in fake literature in the name of translation ( which he operates in a different country), the writer himself reclusive, worrying about the reader ( and his interest) and the other writers ( to a point of jealousy) . There are also authorities trying to put clamp on literature by banning the books, confiscating and arresting the reader who carries the book, by circulating fake books instead of the original translation.

In ten chapters, you ( or the reader ) goes through the experience of his life time with the complexities of the books, reading, writing, translating and publishing quagmire. A post-modern novel by one of the masters of 20th century literature, is a demanding read. Switching between the protagonists experience of reading and seeking, the resulting first chapters of various novels in varying style, Italo Calvino creates a world of frustration, intellect and admiration to the readers. Each of the ten pieces were brilliant in its own way, modelled around some of the well known literature available at that time. Brilliant satire on the publishing industry and the various genre of literature writing.

It isn't an easy read. It does demand the readers attention and time. It takes a while, before you start getting a grip of things. After that, it had been an interesting and unputdownable read. A clever novel demands a second read in the near future; I don't think I could understand everything what Italo Calvino has to convey.

We are discussing this master piece at length in our book group. You can read them here.
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If on a Winter's Night a Traveler
Italo Calvino ( translated from Italian is William Weaver )
Wintage Books
260 pages
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Read More : Matt.Todd

Snakepit - Moses Isegawa

" We all have things to regret; it is the human condition, General. Maybe you more than I. I have one rule in life: I don't look back. That is how I have survived to reach this age. Somebody blasts me, I blast back. If I don't, I have myself to blame. If one day you become president, send a whole battalion of your sharpshooters to arrest me. If you send boys, I will kill them all, and you wouldn't want to begin your reign with burials, would you? "

It is the common story of all the countries under military dictatorship. We have heard similar stories in many forms. The actions are the same, only the name and country differ. Military coup, followed by mass murder, exodus, violence, loot, abduction, missing civilians, torture, rebellion, which invariably ends ( or restarts) with yet another coup.

Uganda was in the forefront of the news in the 70's and for the notorious ruler called Idi Amin. Arguably one of the most murderous of the rulers in the second half of the 20th century ( 3,00,000 to 5,00,000 people were afraid to have been killed during his regime).

Moses Isegawa, an Ugandan born writer, takes us through the Uganda during the 8 year old regime. This is not a recollection of historical event, but a novel set at these times. Bat Katanga, newly graduated from Cambridge returns to his homeland in search of job and fortune, to serve the new regime. He believed, that the newly emerging Uganda is more lucrative for his career to the safe havens of west. It took less than a week for him to land in a dream role under the ministry of power controlled by General Bazooka. A government mansion on the lake side, envious sports car, a powerful job , he had all that one looks for early in life. Soon, his name was the talk in the higher circle , for his efficient way of handling the business, his intelligence and dedication. Other ministries was in need of him, permanently or on a short term assignment. The pride of General Bazooka, soon become his worry. Victoria, a close confidante of General Bazooka was soon entrusted with a task of shadowing him and tracking him. Victoria and Bat soon fallen for each others charm, and 'barren' lady become the mother of Bat's child.

But the situation is not all that safe for General Bazooka. Once the second in command, the right hand man of Marshal Amin, is now not in favour of the Marshal. A British mercenary called Robert Ashes, had better access to the Marshal, and was given the all important role of anti- smuggling unit , taken away from General Bazooka. Robert Ashes influence of Amin is increased day by day, so is the power struggle and rivalry between him and General Bazooka. Each fought a proxy war of abducting and torturing, each others men.

Bat's relationship with Victoria soured after the entrance of Babit to the scene. Soon, Victoria was thrown out of the house, replacing her with Babit. In the power struggle between the General Bazooka and Marshal Amin, Bat is taken as prisoner for his alleged involvement in corruption in an equipment deal involving Saudi Royal family. While the detention and torture continued, Bat gets his release after 6 months, after the intervention by his friend, a member of British Parliament, giving a moral victory to Robert Ashes.

"How does it feel to be back?" the Professor asked.
"Feels like f***. I dont have a job to wake up to, no home, no guards. I am a bit afraid of soldiers now. I am a bit afraid of you. I am a bit afraid of myself. It is great, isn't it?"

The situation turns worse in Uganda, after Bat's brother aligned himself with the revolutionaries, and start bombing key locations and blowing up the cars of prominent people, including that of the wife of General Bazooka. Victoria has her revenge by sending people to kill Babit. Though caught and tried under civilian court, she was left free with the intervention of General Bazooka. As the unrest increased in the country, General Bazooka sets the trap for Robert Ashes, partially succeeding. Though he could not finish his rival as planned, Robert Ashes escaped the attempt and flee to South Africa, settling in his farm. General Bazooka too ends his life after he lost his wife and children ( disappeared without trace), while the fearsome Marshal Amin leave the country and new regime takes control.

This is not a story of Amin, not a story of Bat Katanga or about General Bazooka. It is the Uganda in the 70s under Idi Amin, and all these characters are replica of the real events that might have happened there. That is the positive and the short coming of the novel. While the author is able to portray the life of fear and uncertainty, keeping the reader on the edge, the fragmented narration moving from one character to another ( as the centre of action) does loose the continuity or flow in the story. For a while the story was around Bat and his experience, soon taking it on the power struggle between General Bazooka and Robert Ashes , into the fortune teller Dr.Ali and Marshal Amin.

Action packed, horror filled tale told in crisp pace and fluid use of language. Marshal Idi Amin is an omnipresent figure in the story ( rarely appearing himself) but the rest are characters derived/adapted from real life people. Very powerful, dark and intense novel of Uganda portrayed brilliantly.

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Snakepit
Moses Isegawa
Alfred A Knopf, Publisher , NewYork
259 Pages
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Read More : Complete Review, New York Review of Books

The Spare Room - Helen Garner

'When a person dies',she said, ' little bit of them flies away from their body'
'Yes' , I said.'I've heard people say that.What a beautiful
idea'.
'It's called a soul'

Nicola comes to Melbourne from Sydney, to undergo a special treatment at Theodore Institute for Cancer. The treatment , mainly consists of Vitamin C injections on alternate days and Ozone therapy on the other. Helen, the narrator, an old time friend of Nicola, has to accommodate her for the period of treatment. The novel starts with Helen preparing her spare room for the visitor, with a quote from from the Australian novelist Elizabeth Jolley, : "It is a privilege to prepare the place where someone else will sleep."

Theodore Institute , practices alternate medicine and the initial interaction makes Helen doubtful of their intentions. The sick, however is in good spirit and believes ( to make others believe that she believe) in them and boast to recover in two weeks time. As the days progressed, it becomes difficult for Helen. She becomes restless, gets angry and helpless straining the sacred part time nursing job. All this does not stop her from nursing the sick, taking care of her, washing her clothes and cooking for her. Her personal life also goes out of gear, shutting door to her grand children living next door hardly able to sleep, unable to complete her other usual jobs.

You're angry and scared," Helen shouts at Nicola. "But you won't admit it. You want to keep up this masquerade.... I'm sick with it. I can't breathe."

Nicola on her part does not make it easy either. She is on a different war, mocking at the face of death, with her optimism. She can't loose hope and succumb to the pain, however unbearable the treatments are. Each day she returns back after the Vitamin C injections, barely able to stand, but insists on continuing until the end of three weeks. A single woman, with no family apart from a sister and her daughter as known relative, has to put up a brave front, for survival.

The relationship is becoming fragile for Helen as she is unable to continue, and fails to convince her friend on regular medicine or on a palliative care help. Unable to stand the suffering of her friend during the injection, she lodge an official complaint against the Theodore Institute, looses cool and shouts at the Doctor in the process. At one time, "I wanted to smash the car into a post, but for only her to die - I would leave the keys in the ignition, grab my backpack and run for my life."

At the end of three weeks, Nicole returns to Sydney, but this time to convinced to do the treatment at the regular institute, where they diagnosed the cancer affected her vertebrae , needing an emergency operation.

'I thought I was on the mountain top' she said in a voice that splintered. 'But I'm only in the foothills' .............'Death's at the end of this, isn't it'.

She continue to live for few more months, nursed by her relatives and friends , including Helen, before succumbs to the eventual death.

This is a book of love, friendship,compassion, despair, tiredness, frustration and suffering. It isn't easy to live with a terminally ill person. It calls for very strong character. Especially, if the person is not your blood relative and is not an easy person to handle.

Helen Garner writes the book from her own experience of nursing one of her friend ( Jenya Osborne ) when she was dying. While the general mood of the book is of pathos, the inner turmoil of anger, sympathy , helplessness etc are depicted honestly and convincingly. Nice, little book.
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The Spare Room
Helen Garner
Canongate Books
195 Pages
Rs 424
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Further Read : The Australian, NY Times , The Age

Mahatma Gandhi : His Life & Ideas - Charles F Andrews

Mahatma Gandhi , is the greatest social and spiritual influencer of the 20th century. Having lead a country of poor people against the ruling British within the principles of non-violence, while continuously working on social and religious reforms of the people of the country, he remain one of the most original thinker and leader of the human history. His ideals have won global acclaim, with followers from various generations across the globe , like Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela , Vaclav Havel among others.

There are many studies and research done on the life of Mahatma Gandhi. There are innumerable books published by people who had been associated with him during his life time, and by those who have embraced Gandhism as a way of life. While there are many of them are very popular and significance in the study of the phenomenon called Gandhi, many of them are threading the same path of admiration and awe. This is where this book by C.F.Andrews is different. C.F.Andrews, the only person who could address Gandhi with his maiden name as Mohan, was one of the closest friend of him and have many association with Gandhi from his days at South Africa.

The book was written in the late 20s , hence will give you the perspective of the Gandhian Principles in his early days of struggle. Andrews look at each aspect of Gandhi's philosophy, taking excerpts from Gandhi's own writing and interpreting with his experience with Gandhi. This books gives us the character genius struggling against himself and continuously seeking truth during the years of his early life as the leader of the masses.

Initial part of the book is discussing Gandhi's religious believes and his response to Islam and Christian religion. As he pointed out, Gandhi's believes are deeply rooted to the Hindu way of living, his openness to the ideas from other religion is very clear.

"..... I came to the conclusion that all religions were right, and every one of them imperfect, because they were interrupted with our poor intellectuals, sometimes with our poor hearts, and more often misinterpreted. "

He is less critical of the Islam, while preaching greater harmony among Hindus and Muslims, he is very critical to the Christian missionary operations in India. He says,

"As a true friend, as I claim to be of the missionaries of India and of the Europeans, I speak to you what I feel from the bottom of my heart. I miss receptiveness, humility, willingness or your part to identify yourselves with the masses of India." and elsewhere " It will not be denied - I speak from experience - that many of the 'conversions' are only so-called. In some cases the appeal has gone not to the heart but to the stomach; and in every case a conversion leaves a sore behind it, which I venture to think is avoidable".

His early days and life in South Africa, where the initial seeds of his Non-Violence Non- Cooperative fight against the oppressors begun, and his association with many of his friends from other religion is explained, giving us an early idea of the formation of his principles. The influence of Tolstoy on his life, with few correspondence with the legendary writer and the subsequent creation of the Tolstoy Farm in Africa was also dealt with in detail.

Subsequent discussion were on those fundamental principles on which his life depends on. Satyagraha ( soul- force) , Ahimsa , Swadeshi ("Swadeshi is that spirit within us which restrict us to the use and service of our immediate surroundings to the exclusion of the more remote."), Khaddar movement , the issue of untouchability were each looked upon through the writings of Gandhi. There had been moments of truth which he had to face, where the decision had to be taken against the written principles, such as deciding to kill a struggling calf in his ashram, the plan to physically chase away the monkey menace, threatening the habitat at the Sabarmati Ashram, his initial cooperation with the British rulers ( whom he admire for their open society and other principles) etc were interesting to read.

Rabindranath Tagore is another close friend of C F Andrews and it is interesting to note the relation between the great poet had with Gandhi. Two great leaders had mutual respect and admiration for each others work and ethics, while disagreeing on certain topics with their own way of interpretation.

There were also coverage and interpretation on some of the historical events that has determined the way of the freedom struggle as major milestones. The Chowri-Chora incident, Jalianvala bagh , Bombay riots, the arrest and trial of Gandhi , his 21 day fast in Delhi , through the eyes of a keen observer.

One of the writing was very moving and touchy when he writes during the 21 days fast.

"Instinctively, my gaze turned back to the frail, wasted, tortured spirit on the terrace, bearing the sins and sorrows of his people. With a rush of emotion there came to memory of the passage from book of lamentations - 'Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by ? Behold and see, if there is any sorrow like unto my sorrow.' And in that hour of vision I knew more deeply, in my own personal life, the meaning of the Cross."

Gandhi is also aware of the necessity of social reform along with freedom for self governance and economic growth. Woman empowerment, Untouchability and the eradication of poverty were the topmost priorities for him. He also realises the necessity to associate with the poor people , but realises the challenges as ,

"We, the educated classes, have received our education through a foreign tongue. We have therefore not reacted upon the masses, We want to represent the masses, but we fail. They recognise us not more than they recognise the English Officers."
This book is not the complete history of the freedom struggle, or a biography of Gandhi. It was originally published in 1930, before some of the major activities which was lead by Gandhi and the eventual freedom. But his concluding paragraph has the eternal truth when he writes "..but what has not yet been found in the West is a moral genius of such commanding spiritual personality as to be able to unite and combine these various organised efforts into one overwhelming movement of Non-Violence which should be strong enough to sweep away on a tide of world approval the opposite forces."

C.F.Andrews , himself , does not subscribe to every ideals of Gandhi. The infamous 'celibacy' principle of Gandhi, makes him to have long drawn letter exchanges between the two. Fantastic book, giving us fascinating insights to a noble soul in his quest for eternal truth, using personal letters, correspondences, articles and editorials, his books and personal interactions.
-------------------------------------------------Mahatma Gandhi - His Life & Ideas
Charles F Andrews ( Foreword by Arun Gandhi )
Jaico Books
301 Pages
Rs 250
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The same sea - Amos Oz

Amos Oz, Israeli novelist, brings out a beautiful book of love, abandonment, old age, seduction in a very peculiar and interesting way. Albert Danon, nearing sixty, recently widowed ( his wife Nadia died of cancer) lives in Bat Yam , a sea side town of Israel. His son, Rico has left home on a tour of Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal , India, Bangladesh and later in Srilanka in search of peace leaving behind his girl friend Dita Inbar. Dita, an aspiring writer of screen play , was cheated on money by the wannabe director ( Dubi Dimitrov) of the film with her screenplay , and was left homeless. She manages to convince Albert to allow her to stay with him, until she find an alternate accommodation. While she manages to get a temporary job of a receptionist in a hotel, Albert manages to get her money back ( at least the assurance) and finds a place for her. Rico, now in travel ask Dita to find other friends, while he himself is having an affair with a Portuguese woman called Maria. Dito with her seductive postures and suggestive dresses, makes Albert uncomfortable. Bettine Carmel, a widow who lives alone and spends her weekends with her grand children, also an accountant, is an old friend of Alberts , visits him often and is genuinely concerned about him.

Every one here lives a life in isolation. The more they are trying to bring themselves to the others, the farther they are. The old memory of his early life come backs to Albert as he spend sleepless nights waiting for Dita's return. On Bettine's advise, he goes and meet a sorcerer who claims to help people to talk to the dead. But Nadia does not come back and talk to him, instead she appears in Rico's dreams and soon be his companion, sharing his grief.

There are different ways of writing fiction. I've read Manuel Puig's novels written as conversation between two people. There is one novel written in one paragraph. There are some where the entire novel is re-collection of incidents by various people. This one was a novel written in verse, unlike the epics , this one is with varying style and lengths in each page. Some pages ends peculiarly, incomplete , leaving the rest to the readers. The author himself appears in the story as a narrator, with whom, other confide in private.

The book is very poetic , as the style demand. That also makes a huge demand on the translation. Unlike prose, translation of verse is difficult. Amos Oz has done a great job in trying out the new style of writing, retaining the fictional qualities. At the end, one is left with sympathetic feeling towards each of the characters.

"I wrote this book with everything I have. Language, music, structure--everything that I have. . . . This is the closest book I've written. Close to me, close to what I always wanted. . . . I went as far as I could." Says Amos Oz in one of his interview. He also clarifies elsewhere that "I wrote The Same Sea not as a political allegory about Israelis and Palestinians. I wrote it about something much more gutsy and immediate. I wrote it as a piece of chamber music".

Very lyrical, melancholic novel, beautifully executed.
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The Same Sea
Amos Oz ( Translated from Hebrew by Nicolas De Lange)
Vintage
201 Pages
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Read more: Complete Review , Yale Review of Books, Guardian , Spectator

Rishimoolam - D Jayakanthan

Rishi moolam , consists of two novella from the Jnanpith Award winning Tamil authour D.Jayakanthan. I understand from the prologue and the note from the author that it had created enough stir in the society when it was published in the 1960s. Subjects which were considered taboo and was not discussed in public , the theme associated with 'sexual repression' ( I am not too sure) and Oedipal love might not have been something which is well appreciated. He seems to have won the wrath of the traditionalists , and his erstwhile comrades in Communists for his writing.

Rishimoolam ( the origin of saints - as it can be translated to English) , the first of the stories follows Rajaraman, in his transformation to a saint. His new found exterior is an attempt to escape the torments he carry within him. The room where his parents sleep was always a place of curiosity for the young Rajaraman. Not permitted to enter the place, where his mother spend her entire day and night, with servant moving in and out with eatable, father sneak under the darkness of night made the place to be something special. One occasion, while his mother is in the bath, Rajaraman manages to enter the room, but was trapped before able to get out by the entry by his mother after bath. Hiding under the coat, what he has witnessed was to cause a lasting image in his life. The naked figure of his mother starts haunting him in his sleep since then. This followed him, when he left his home to Chidambaram to pursue his College studies. Now staying with the childless couple, a classmate and close friend of his father, these dreams start reappearing, with his mother being replaced by the new aunt. After his final exam and before his scheduled return to his home, he leave their house absconding forever, in search of peace. Wandering, under the influence of drugs, he was mistaken for a saint by many. He was brought back to the home village, by his sister who spotted him at Calcutta. The return did not help him to get over the guilt, as he leave again, when the aunt come home to pay a visit to him again.

Rocking Chairs, is about a middle class orthodox family of a widowed mother and her 4 grown up children , each of them employed with reputed profession. The actions takes place at the dining room with rocking chairs, each of them occupied with one character. Alankaravalli Ammal, the mother rules the house with iron fist, and controls each movement of her children as we do for the school going children. Janaki, the youngest tries to get out of the shackle, attempting to get married to a photographer classmate, she has support only from the eldest of the sons ( already married , but was back in the nest of his mother, predictable). But the efforts are not good enough to cause a break in the system, to which she eventually succumbs. The rocking chairs, continue to rock.

Jayakanthan is a brilliant writer, and I guess some of the effects would have lost in translation. The conversations between the characters were interesting. There were references of psychological undercurrents and influences of Freud in his works , both in the introduction and in some related studies of his works as we see here.
"..but in stories such as Rishimoolam ( Origin of Saints) and Rocking chairs , Jayakanthan freely and daringly probes sexual repression and incest without the help of Western theoretical apparatus. Of cource, references to Freud is inevitable and enriching , but the stories are not dependent on these references."

Translation , according to me is not helpful for the general English reading enthusiasts. Even the Indian readers from other parts of the country will find this very difficult to comprehend. The use of Tamil phrases and words are abundant. This has been one of the complaints I have about the English Translation of fiction written in Indian languages. They lack the global appeal. Even if one has to recommend these books, to the attention of larger audience, poor translation comes in way as a huge shortcoming.

One need to read these short novels with the social and historical background of the stories and the time. The relevance of these at the time of the publication would have been different from that of now. In that context, this book is not something which has eternal relevance. The quality of fiction and the story by itself is nothing to classify as a tour de force.

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Rishimoolam
Jayakanthan ( Translated from Tamil by K S Subramanian )
Indian Writing Publication
139 Pages
Rs 150
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Gould's Book of Fish - Richard Flanagan

As I tried to pat out the book's flaring edge I noticed some of the words illuminated by the flames. I the firelight I read some sentences that made no sense whatsoever, ...................... Then the flame leapt up the page to my hand & the page, already loose, fell into the fire.... I then read what was now its beginning, a half torn page, the first legible words of which were:
"....for I am William Buelow Gould. sloe-souled, green-eyed, gap-toothed, shaggy haired & grizzle gutted, & I mean to paint pictures of fish & capture in them one more soul like mine.."

A fake painter and art dealer,Sid Hammet, living in present day Tasmania finds an old book written by a Tasmanian convict named William Buelow Gould. His interest in this was diminished as every one he approaches tells him this is fake and there is no such book. It is dubbed as another of those 'Australian literary fraud'. Fascinated by the book, he now starts rebuilding the story ( he claims it is from his memory as the book is lost) from the page 41 of the manuscript.

The story of Gould is based on the history of the Macquarie Harbour Penal Station on the West Coast of Tasmania. Convicted and sent to the isolated penal colony for reason not apparent - he commits few petty crimes in England ( My real crime was seeing the world for what it is & painting it as fish. For that reason alone, I was happy to sign a confession of guilt.) and in and out of the prison ( after multiple failed attempts to escape) , Gould resorts to drawing the images of fishes in the Tasmanian sea , on the advise from the Doctor for the Royal Society for survival.

During the drawing of fishes ( 12 of them in total), Gould narrates the story of the island and the prison camp to as it appears to him. The commander , who took charge of the island on a clever manipulation by erasing the details of his own past , under a new name , rule the land at his whims and fancies. On receipt of letters from his imaginary sister from Europe, he set upon changing the face of the small Tasmanian Island to match to those described by the letters. He trades the resources with the Japanes and Chinese for income , sets up a railway station and a circular railway line. Build an auditorium , seen never before.

The life of the convicts are as bad as anyone could imagine. Torture, murder, illness and various forms of abuse are a way of life. Those who attempt unsuccessful escapade are treated cruelly and murdered brutally. People are put in solitary cells where the water levels increase to the level of their neck during tides. Gould describes the initial scenes of his arrival at the prison..

Even before alighting, even before we saw anything up close, our noses were assailed by the effluvium of death. Death was in that heightened smell of raddled bodies & chancre-encrusted souls. Death arose in a miasma from gangrenous limbs & bloody rags of consumptive lungs. Death hid in the rancorous odour of beatings, in the new buildings already falling apart with the insidious damp that invaded everything, was seeping out of sphincters rotting from repeated rapes. Death was rising in the overripe smell of mud fermenting, enmities petrifying, waiting in wet brick walls leaning, in the steam of flesh sloughing with the cat falling, so many fetid exhalations of unheard screams, murders, mixed with the brine of a certain wordless horror; collectively those scents of fearful sweat that sour clothes & impregnate whole places & which are said to be impervious to the passage of time, a perfume of spilling blood which no amount of washing or admission was ever to rid me. And perhaps because everywhere was death, life has perversely never seemed so sweet as what it did when I first came to Sarah Isaland.

Gould escape this routine with the help of the island doctor Lempriere , a fanatic for natural sciences, agreeing to draw him the scientific illustrations of various fish of the island. He also extends his relative freedom by taking up paintings for the great Mah-Jong hall for the commandant , and silly landscapes for the Constable Pobjoy.

The fate takes a decisive turn for Gould after the mysterious death of Dr.Lempriere , for which Gould is accused and put in solitary cell. His adventures leads him to the central library, where the Danish Record Keeper Juergen Juergenson maintain all the historical data of the place and the convicts. This adventure was also short lived after being caught by the Dane, and the incidents that followed caused the death of the Dane, and his yet another escape.

This time he is determined to find Matt Brady , an escaped convict, who run a parallel kingdom in the island, often threatening the officials with his attacks. The records that carried by him might find some real use to all those convicts there if he manages to send them to England and only Brady can do that for him. The long walk across the plain reunite him with the aboriginal lady with whom he suspect to have had a baby. But the journey was tiresome and suffering from clold, hunger and nakedness fighting hallucinations, he end up caught by the search team for the final time.
Gould's world is not what we have seen in the history books and in the official records. Hence it is necessary for the authorities to deny them as fraus. It is gruesome and cruel beyond our imagination. Flanagan let Gould to invent the story as it pleases to him and let the narrative take the course of its own. Going back and forth, a glimpse here and another there. There is rich creativity and imagery here.

I was a vile piece of cell-shit.I smelt the breath of my fellows. I tasted the sour stench of their rotten lives. I was the stinking cockroach I was the filthy lice that didn't stop itching. I was Australia. I was dying before I was born. I was a rat eating its young. I was Mary Magdalene. I was Jesus. I was sinner. I was saint. I was flesh& flesh's appetite & flesh's union& death &love were all equally rank & equally beautiful in my eyes.

He also structure his tale very interestingly, without detailing much into his personal deeds. He also make a great spectacle of events of torture and death.

Despite all the hardship, Gould is not loosing his hope on the world. "Why,"he says , "when all the evidence of my life tells me that the world smells worse than the old Dane's bobbing corpse, why is it that I still can't help believing that the world is good & that without love I am nothing?"
This is not an easy book to read.The language is on a harder side, I had to refer the dictionary often. The events are jumbled and often are with no chronologic order. It is hard to distinguish between the real and the hallucinations as many of the characters are fake and are introduced by the re-teller, some connections are also lost. The last 100 odd pages are superb and make up for the lack of concentration in the middle pages.

Flanagan uses a language and style befitting to the narration. The changes from the early pages ( present day) to the story of Gould of the early 19th century is remarkable. A very good novel by this Australian writer.

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Gould's Book of Fish - A Novel in 12 Fish
Richard Flanagan
Grove Press
404 Pages
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Further Read: Complete Review , Guardian

The Living Room - Graham Greene

Multi-storied building, where most of the rooms are closed, currently occupied by three old people. Two sisters ( Theresa and Helen)and their wheel-chaired brother James ( a Priest by profession), assisted by Mary a paid per hour servant.

Rose, a twenty year old, is brought back to her aunts and uncle after the death of her mother by a friend of her father(died long ago). What receives her here are the closed rooms and the catholic aunts with closed mind. After the death of any member of the house the room is closed permanently for reason not known to any; ( Quote: " I always think of ghosts, the dead who cant sleep"). The entire action takes place in the one available Living Room.

Rose, and Michael , post the funeral of her mother had chosen to stay at the village for the night before coming over to her aunts, having a little affair. Michael , nurturing an unhappy marriage, finds love in the young Rose against the Catholic believes of the aunts. Rose wanted to leave the house with Michael, and by various cunning tactics in the pretext of religion, Helen manages to stop them. She makes Theresa ill, forcing Rose to stay on until she is recovered, later brings the wife of Michael to the house causing a scene, playing with the vulnerabilities of people. Defeated, Rose commit suicide , consuming sleeping pills left over by Mrs. Michael. The Living Room is also has to be closed now, after the death of Rose. Limiting the free movement of the remaining people to the constrict of two rooms.

The play is short and covered under 4 acts. The first 2 acts of Rose's arrival with Richards one evening and the next morning and the second a similar afternoon and the next morning after three weeks.

While there are no obvious bad characters here, most of the characters are very sharp and distinct. To me Helen stands out. She acts according to her belief routed in Catholic practices and does not approve love and affair outside the marriage. The Fact that Rose is a 20 yr old and Michael is a 45 yr old married man, does not stand good in the court of religious justice. She does not approve their relationship and plots everything possible to thwart the same. She send the maid Mary to Spy on them at their secret rendezvous place at every afternoon, she manages to inform the wife of Michael and stages a show of suicide and cries, gets Theresa to believe that she is sick and falling and need nursing by Rose to prevent her from leaving. While her acts looks very villainous, her intentions were pure and in accordance with her religious belief. The fact that Michael is not a Catholic can only add more vigour to her acts.

Michael is another difficult character. An unsatisfied husband, no love with his wife after the death of their child. Works as a Lecturer of Phycology in the University , where "he can understand the mind, and not love the mind". Rose was a seduction for him on the night of the funeral. As the 'executor' of the will, and the friend of her father, he also had the proximity and authority to her, however the family tried to stop him. But he also realises, that he is not able to abandon his wife. He consoles himself that 'she will not do anything stupid, she will be at home' after her dramatised attempt to commit suicide. While his love for Rose is strong, he is unable to take any bold decisions in its favour. The closest he is coming is to take time till "the day after tomorrow".

Father James, is the less Catholic of the three old. He is more in the realistic world and is considerate to both Michael and Rose's feeling. But he does not loose his believes. He is also not happy about the closed rooms where the ancestors are died. He does not subscribe to the reasoning of Helen. He is able to think more clearly in both religious and philosophical way. He is the only one who can engage in conversation with every other character.

Theresa is a lost soul. All she can do is sympathise. He existence depends on the support of Helen. Helen decided her actions. She takes the responsibilities for the undue behaviour towards Rose. "..I seemed to frighten her. It's a nice house. We aren't bad people. I don't know why there should be so much fear around."

Rose, is young and live. She is at an age where she is not intelligent, and she is not the raw. She need help and she need love. She fails to get any from all. To Michael she is only a passing seduction. For the Aunts, she is the protection of the family values and name. Father James, can only advise her to prey. She gets followed and spied on. She gets accused of breaking up families. She is an orphan in all senses.

Fantastic play in mere 80 odd pages. As Director Perter Glenville explains in the introduction, "This play is not for or against Catholics , it's about them - or rather about certain individuals Catholics who find themselves in a terrible dilemma; a dilemma pushed to its farthest limit ". As Father James remarks , "You see it's nearness to God that withers a man up. We are all such long comfortable distance away."

While this play was a huge success in London, where it ran for 38 weeks, it was failure at the broadway according to this report. The first play by Graham Greene , is an outstanding piece of work.

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The Living Room
Graham Greene
Penguin Books
87 Pages
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More Read : Guardian

In Other Rooms, Other Wonders - Daniyal Mueenuddin

Daniyal Mueenuddin's collection of short stories , are woven around the feudal hierarchal Pakistani society. This book of eight stories are all around the same theme. Loosely around the Land Owner, Political bigwig , rich and famous K.K.Harouni and his family, each of these are distinct stories. The name K.K Harouni is only a representation of the feudal land lord , it could be any name.

Most of the stories are not directly about the rich and their ways. It is about those who make a living out of serving the rich. The only thing that is common is their dependancy of the big family. The financial and social shelter they enjoy. For most, association to the rich is a status by itself within his/her own community or of those lesser privileged.

The valet, the cook, the driver, the sweepress and the estate / property manager are common in most of the stories. Barring a couple of the stories, every thing else is around this theme. Young maidens falls in love ( out of necessity for survival) to the next-powerful of the house ( mostly the manager/ the right hand man of the lord) , or in some cases to the land lord himself. Their needs are not large. It is their need of daily living. Even in this practised love, there are moments of truths and longing. Sadly, we see each of them failing and they are shown the doors ending up in prostitution and in beggary.

In Nawabdin Electrician, local electrician, Nawab working for K.K Harouni, is sort of local hero. Apart from his job of mending and running the pumpsets , he also helps the locals by manipulating the electric meter , thus running the meter at lower speed saving them few rupees. He still struggles to keep the family of his wife and 13 children with his meagre income. Saleema, falls in love with an older servant, only to be dumped for his family , to be left with his baby. Provide,Provide is also in the similar lines. The young maiden was abandoned after the death of the old land lord whom she was serving as a mistress. 'The lady in Paris' and 'Lily' (to a certain extent) are two stories different from the others.

The language is beautiful and unpretentious. The characters are raw and living as they are. There is no forceful twist and the narration is clear and fresh. These stories are already published in Newyorker, Granta or other periodicals. One of the draw back is that many a stories are of the same pattern and the characters in each stories are behaving in the same predictable ways.

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In Other Rooms, Other Wonders
Daniyal Mueenuddin
Random House India
247 Pages
Rs 395
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Further Read: The bookslut, Washington Post

On Beauty : A History of a Western Idea - Umberto Eco

Concept of beauty and aesthetics was the subject of discussion from the early ages of civilisation. Reproduction of beauty ( of human, animals and objects) were part of the initial form of art. Innumerable examples of arts and artefacts are available in various civilisations. Umberto Eco, renowned novelist, philosopher, and professor of Semiotics looks at the concept of beauty and its representation in the form of arts ( most common apart from literature) through Western ( European) study and analysis.
"Beauty is all that pleases" says Eco in his introduction. "Art and poetry (and consequently beauty) may gladden the eye or the mind, but they are not directly connected to the truth".

"A beautiful object is an object that by virtue of its form delights the senses, especially sight and hearing. ...important role is also played by the qualities of the soul and the personality, which are perceived by the minds eyes more than the eye of the body."

One of the initial classification of beauty was at least into three aesthetic categories: Ideal Beauty : which represent nature by means of a montage of the parts; Spiritual Beauty : Which expresses the should through the eye and Useful or Functional Beauty.

"But this early point of view can not be fully understood if we look at beauty through modern eyes, as was often the case in the various epochs that assumed as authentic and original a 'Classical' representation of beauty that was in reality engendered by projecting a modern point of view onto the past."

From the initial era , where the representation of beauty was raw and not guided and subjected to any conceptual theories and methods, there were people who were trying to bring a structure to the image.
One of them were to try and connect them to mathematical formula and structure. "Pythagoras was the first to maintain that the origin on all things lay in numbers."
"According to common sense we judge a well - proportioned things beautiful. Since ancient times, beauty has been identified with proportion. Proportion must always be accompanied by the pleasantness of colour and of light. " Symmetry was the next to guide the evolution, especially on the buildings and structures.
"Beauty is not only symmetry and proportion, but harmony too. Harmony is not the absence of but the equilibrium between opposites".
"Beauty does not correspond to what we see...the sight of the senses must be overcome by intellectual sight, which requires a knowledge of dialectical art, in other words philosophy. And so, not every one is able to grasp true beauty..... A Japanese sculpture is made to be touched, while a Tibetan sand mandala requires interaction. For the Greeks, however, beauty was expressed by those senses that permit a distance to be maintained between the object and the observer; sight and hearing rather than touch , taste and smell."

The early ages of representation of aesthetics through paintings and sculpture were largely guided by the religious and spiritual bodies, followed by the patrons of the art, usually the Feudal Landlords and the rich. Towards, renaissance and the period after that, the practitioners themselves have become rich and independent, thus with the ability to experiment and improve their art.

"In the twilight of Renaissance civilisation, a significant idea began to gain ground; Beauty did not so much spring from balanced proportion, but from a sort of torsion, a restless reaching out for something lying beyond the mathematical rules that govern the physical world."

One of the aspect of beauty was the understanding and use of light. "Light is the substantial form of bodies. In this sense light is the principle of all Beauty".

Eco also discusses the "Beautiful representation of Ugliness". Ugliness as the antithesis of Beauty , was there since the initial stages. The monsters and the other deformed and shapeless creatures were abundant in the early years as well.

Medieval times were guided by the thought that "Beauty and deformity are not the qualities in objects, but belong entirely to the sentiment, internal or external; there are certain qualities in objects, which are fitted by nature to produce those particular feelings. ..... The idea that Beauty is something that appears as such to the perceiver, that it is bound up with senses, the recognition of pleasure, was dominant in diverse philosophical circles."

Romantisism , dandyism ( From the physical beauty to the class & Style.. more importance to the dress and attire.. "Life was not to be dedicated to art. Art was to be applied to life. Life as art.") were also influenced the art in the early 19th century. Towards the second half of 19th century, with the effects of industrialisation, a large anonymous populace belongs to the working class were available in large metropolis and the art had to cater to their tastes. There were new interpretation of art under the influence of socialistic umbrella. Leo Tolstoy wrote "What is art?" and there were other study of aesthetics from a this angle. The 'Art for the people" and the "Art for Art's Sake" discussions were hot at this period, and reflections of which was also heard in literature and other forms of art.

20th century had seen major changes and concepts in the understanding and reproduction of beauty. From Symbolism ( how to recreate more intense possibilities of experience, how to make them more deeper and more impalpable) , impressionism of Van Gogh , Monet etc ( "One does not paint a landscape , a harbour or a figure: one paints the impression of an hour of the day of a landscape) , expressionism, surrealism , cubism and other ways of representation.

With the introduction of photography and movies, the references of beauty was in for a drastic change. Images of glorious movie stars and the still photography have changed the regular understanding of aesthetics available to the common man from the connoisseurs. Eco calls this " The beauty of provocatoin or the Beauty of consumption" . People follow the ideals of Beauty as suggested by the world of commercial consumption ( the mass media).

Over 400 illustrations, its commentary with insights , quotes from selected texts and writings of that period makes this book a rare collection. While my understanding of this subject is next to nothing, reading through this did give me substantial idea on the evolution of the theory of aesthetics and its representation at various period. While this might not be the most comprehensive ( in way of a proper study of aesthetics and beauty), and was more of a coffee table book in style, it is indeed a worthy collection for those interested in art and aesthetics. The pages contain some of the gorgeous and famous paintings you have heard. The discussion is guided by the chronological evolution, but the chapters are segregated under common topics irrespective of their time and period.

I have read elsewhere that only nine of the 17 chapters were written by Eco; the rest are by the Italian novelist Girolamo de Michele. However, I haven't seen any mention of his name in the credits. As the title suggests, this was the study under the 'western/ European' history of aesthetics. Each stage I was trying to make parallels to the eastern ( Indian to be precise) way of aesthetics. While there are striking similarities, I am not sure if we have done a study at this depth.

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On Beauty - A History of a Western Idea
Edited By : Umberto Eco ( Translated by Alastair McEwen )
Secker & Warburg
438 Pages
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More Read : Guardian , Independent

The Story Teller's Tale - Omair Ahmad

The setting is perfect. 18th century, attack of Delhi by Ahmad Shah Abdali and his men. His house has been ransacked and he had to flee as the case of others with the minimum essentials that he could gather. Avadh, is the destination. His life as a poet and story teller hasn't given him monitory freedom in his life, only a few well wishers. Thakir is a days ride from the city on the way to Avadh. On a stolen horse, as insipid as him, he reaches the gates of this small town. Distraught and tired, all he needed was rest and some food.
When the Begum of the casbah ( mansion / citadel ) invite him to tell a tale ( on hearing about is credentials), little did he realise that he is getting into a maze from which there is no escape. When he narrates the tale of two brothers ( one a boy and the other a wolf) , of loyalty , fear, love and distrust, he was confronted by a return story by the Begum of Aresh and Barab , reinstating the power of love and trust beyond death. Now this was the first time, the story teller was challenged with a counter tale. He has to respond with a story establishing the facts he believe in countering that of the Begum. Thus , he return to the Casbah to tell his version of the Begum's story , emphasizing on the duality of life and the hidden dark animalistic desire of human kind. Begum has the final act of narration, and taking cue from where the story teller left, getting back to unfulfilled love and the suppressed desire leaving him perplexed for ever.
It is the book on story telling. Exploring possibilities within the frame work of the given story, finding new interpretations and new meanings. It is also about conveying hidden messages of the human kind. It is also confronting the enemy by your means. The story is also the place to set their personal attributes. The story teller had never been in love , all his life. He had never succumbed to the temptation, until now. It is only now, that he was faced with a challenge which had disarmed him. It is now, he has seen his own vulnerability.
While the focus and centre point of the short novel is on the story telling, what I liked is the subtle and simple way of getting the human nature into the same. The peripheral characters and the places has no significance in the whole. And the initial setting of the plot ( the Ahmad Shah Abdali , the destruction of Delhi etc) also play no role in the novel.
A well constructed novel, with god simple writing makes it a good read. It may not be a literary sensation or one book that will be in discussion after ten years. Nonetheless, it is a good short novel, well executed.
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The Storyteller's Tale
Omair Ahmad
Penguin Books India
122 Pages
Rs 225
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More read : The Hindu , Interview with the author in Bangalore Mirror and mybangalore.com

The Good Soldier - Ford Madox Ford

"This is the saddest story I have ever heard" , starts one of the classic novels of 20th Century. This line is considered to be one of the best first lines from novels by many ( see the list ).

Ford Madox Ford's The Good Soldier, is considered to be one of the modern English Classic. Though I have read this in my college days, I had another opportunity to read this book again, recently.

At the outset, it is another story of love and infidelity around two otherwise perfect noble families. An English couple, of Edward and Leonara Ashburnham and their friends, American family of John and Florence Dowell indulge in a 9 year old story of friendship, adultery, power, deceit and love. The story is retold by John Dowell, as he recollects the events in their life ,since their acquaintance with the Ashburnhams. The plot is fairly simple. It is about Edward, the good soldier, and his various flirtations with the ladies of different class and type, including the wife of the narrator , which he knew only after the death of the adulterers. While the families maintain their social respectability in their conducts and daily routine, the effects of the mistresses in the life of Edward bring forward the various power politics into the life.

As we see, both the marriages are not something to cherish. Edward, deprived of his pleasures (for no obvious reasons), seek out to other lovers as his mistresses. Over the period he had been with various mistresses often loosing valuable money, until his wife takes over his financial affairs, giving him yearly allocation for himself. John on the other hand, is made to the belief that his wife has a deteriorating heart condition, which worsened after their journey across Atlantic, and any advances will loose her forever. Unlike Edward, he is not ( at least in his narrative) getting into the dangerous zone of seeking pleasure from outside. "If I had had the courage and the virility and possibly also the physique of Edward Ashburnham I should, I fancy, have done much what he did" , he says. Though, after the death of his wife, he was keen to marry Nancy, the new love of Edward, on the advice of Leonara. The narration takes us through the lives of the two families through fragmented recollections, and various lovers of Edward, until the eventual death of Florence and Edward.

While none of the characters win your sympathy and admiration, one of the most interesting character in this story is Leonara. The writer, I guess has formed the character very vague and secretive, who controls the entire events as they unfold. There is an invisible presence of her through out and none could ever win over her with their charm.

At the end, it is death for both the adulterers of the story. Florence, dies of her hear decease when she in an anger of the moment ( when she found Edward with the young Girl Nancy at the garden), does not take the medicine that prevent her heart failure. Edward ends up committing suicide. While John was unaware of the flowering love between his wife and Edward, Leonara was aware of every affairs of her husband. Most of the story was revealed to John by Leonara, post the death of their respective partners.

The narration is not smooth, as the recollections are not in chronological order. As he himself explains..
"I have, I am aware, told this story in a very rambling way so that it may be difficult for anyone to find their path through what may be a sort of maze. I can not help it.... And when one discusses an affair - a long, sad affair - one goes back, one goes forward."

It is a story of jealousy, adultery, love, despair, power, revenge and manipulation fitted with a glorious writing, with acute observation of characters, the subtle non-verbal changes of attitudes of individuals. One of the beauty of this book is that one can approach this (in your after read moments), with perspective from each character. This book is one which demands further read and each read will bring out some new angle to the subject , thus revealing itself much clearer to the reader.

I've read elsewhere , that the original title given by the author was "The Saddest Story", which was later changed by the publisher at the onset of the World War I, which remained there after. It is also said to be loosely based on two incidents of adultery and on Ford's messy personal life.

Outstanding book, no wonder, it is considered as one of the classic literature of 20th century.
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The Good Soldier

Ford Madox Ford

Dover Publications

151 Pages
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Further Read : Biography of Ford Madox Ford at Books&Writers, Guardian Review

Death at Intervals - Jose Saramago

"The Following Day, No one died".

Death abandons a unnamed country, from the first day of the new year. No one died ever since. The queen Mother, who was returned from the hospital and awaiting her final moments, miraculously survived. After few minutes wait, the King and the other royal family members resumed their routine task.

The word spread, as no death has been reported in the country since the break of new year. The people are excited with the new status of immortality. There had been celebrations, hosting national flags and other acts of joy. News papers covered headlines, editorials, articles and interviews about the new phenomenon.

But, everyone are not happy as it seems to be. The funeral undertaking business, is now in trouble, as their 'raw material' is now not available. The sale of Coffin is dropped to Zero. The church is also perplexed with the new development. When there is no death, there is no promise of paradise after the life on earth, there is no fear and there is no redemption. For the survival of the church, it is essential that the death is restored. Philosophers are in a new dilemma, in analysing and de-constructing the absence of death. Government is also in a fix as they are forced to make a statement and not sure how to react. Insurance companies are also found the situation challenging as their offices were flooded with requests to discontinue the policies, as there is no more death. They have immediately had their high level meeting and come out with a quick plan, which makes every one declared dead in their books, irrespective of the physical and spiritual life, at the age of 80. They can , however, opt for another policy from that day and can continue till the age of 160 ( the multiple of 80 there of). Hospitals are also in trouble, as they are filled with sick people, whose life refuses to leave them, but are unable to perform any humanly functions. They are overflowing and unable to manage the chaos and crowd. Economics have warned the government of the potential calamities to the nations economic condition if this status prevailed. In short, the excitement was short-lived.

One day, an ailing old man unable to stand the torture of being alive, had a bright idea. He requested his daughter and son-in-law to take him across the border, where the death is still active. One night, without being caught by any spying eyes of the neighbourhood, the family manages to cross the border, and needless to say, the old man dies as soon as the border is crossed. Though they returned unnoticed, the news has spread. They were accused of murdering their father, but another group argued that the old man himself wanted to die, and it should then be considered as suicide. While the moral and ethical questions continued, more and more families started smuggling the old across the border. Soon Government was on alert and forces were deployed at the borders to prevent the exodus of people. No later, an underground group, calling themselves maphia ( with 'ph', they insist) organising the clandestine operation of taking people into the neighbouring countries and organising the last rituals for a fee, started sending threatening letters to the soldiers and their commanders on duty. Considering various pros and cons, the Government issues a secret order to the soldiers on border duty to turn a blind eye towards these incidents, allowing the death to continue, trying to get back the equilibrium on population.

On the seventh month of this fiasco, the director of the state television and news agency was greeted by a violet coloured letter in his office ( which was double-locked for sure), when he arrived in office. The letter, written in small letters and with no punctuation and commas and was signed by death (in small letters), announcing that she ( note: she) was experimenting over the months , but will be back in action from tonight. She in her letter claimed, "death took death away to show humans what eternity was like; the experiment failed". Panic stricken Director rushed to the Prime Minister's Office , seeking an appointment. He was advised to stay low on this until the prime time evening news, where a Government Communique advising people to remain calm and assuring necessary steps from the Government on the wake of the new development, would be read. Following which the Director himself, is asked to read out the letter from 'death' to the viewers. As the statistics claim, when the clock struck 12 at midnight, more than 62000 people have died. While the people thought the normalcy has returned at last, there was a new twist to the story. People started getting violet envelope addressed to their name, informing them of their imminent death, giving them their last week to live, causing further chaos to the already troubled country. Following day, the news papers carried headlines and columns and boxed reports in detail, where one of the over smart sub-editor made the necessary corrections to the letter adding appropriate comma etc. in accordance with his learning and profession, even correcting the signature 'death' replacing 'd' with a capital 'D'.
"the absence of full stops, the complete lack of very necessary parentheses, the obsessive elimination of paragraphs, the random use of commas and, most unforgivable sin of all, the intentional and almost diabolical abolition of the capital letter."

However, he had to retrace his actions and make a public apology after being threatened by 'death' with a potential violet letter on his name.
While 'death' was having fun at the expense of poor countrymen, one of the letter returned as undelivered, with no apparent reason. She tried to send this again, citing some technical error, but was returned undelivered. Curious, she found out that the to-be recipient of this letter was a 49 year old Cellist, living alone with his dog. After following him for a couple of days at his home, the park and the theatre during his rehearsal, she could not figure out the reason for this being rejected and returned. She pulled out the dusty record of this person from the cupboard, and realised that according to that, he was to die at the age of 49 and the previous day he had celebrated (as a matter of saying) his 50th birthday which he is not entitled to live.

Now it is the question of prestige as death is not known for failure. It was unprecedented. She has to hand over the letter to him some how, thus ensuring the law of death is prevailed. Disguised as a beautiful lady, she visits him at his performance and congratulate him post the event, even offering him a ride back to his apartment. She continue her effort to seduce him by calling him over phone, meeting him at the park , reminding him that there is something she wanted to give him, after his performance on Saturday. Though she did not attend the concert on Saturday, she was waiting for him at his apartment with the letter in question.... and the rest is for you to read the book and find out.
.....
There aren't many novels where death is taken a human form. One which I see comparison was the works of Terry Pratchet. Some of the last scenes ( the communication between death and the cellist) reminded me of 'Devil and Miss Prym' of Paulo Coelho.

Many interesting aspect of humanising death. First of all, death for him is a female of 165-168cm height. It is also one with many human characteristics. With jealousy, with greed, with pleasure in its action, and also one which falls in love. It is also go through the similar emotions of human and struggles with the dilemma of duty and feelings of love.

Jose Saramago is at his best in taking up an experimental subject ( the double, blindness etc) and turning it into a philosophical and intellectual masterpiece. The book is very funny and often silly, but an interesting work of fiction.

A social and political satire, with his customary style of writing. Long sentences, strings of conversation between individuals separated only by a comma, and the long paragraphs make it hard for the readers. But a very funny, joyous, intellectual first half and a curious and sweet love story in the latter half. A very interesting read and a fascinating book by the Nobel Laureate.

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Death at Intervals

Jose Saramago ( translated by Margeret Jull Costa )

Vintage Books

196 Pages

Rs 381.5
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Further Read : The Humanist, Guardian , Times

The Solitude of Prime Numbers - Paolo Giordano

"Prime numbers are divisible only by 1 and by themselves. They stand in their place in the infinite series of natural numbers, squashed in between two others, like all other numbers, but a step further on than the rest. They are suspicious and solitary, which is why Mattia thought they were wonderful. Sometimes he thought that they had ended up in that sequence by mistake, that they’d been trapped like pearls strung on a necklace. At other times he suspected that they too would rather have been like all the others, just ordinary numbers, but for some reason they weren’t capable of it. The second thought struck him mostly at night, in the chaotic interweaving of images that comes before sleep, when the mind is too weak to tell itself liesIn his first-year Mattia had studied the fact that among the prime numbers there are some that are even more special. Mathematicians call them twin primes: they are pairs of prime numbers that are close to one another, almost neighbours, but between them there is always an even number that prevents them from really touching. Numbers like 11 and 13, like 17 and 19, 41 and 43. If you have the patience to go on counting, you discover that these pairs gradually become rarer. You encounter increasingly isolated primes, lost in that silent, measured space made only of numbers and you become aware of the distressing sense that the pairs encountered up until that point were an accidental fact, that their true fate is to remain alone. Then, just when you’re about to surrender, when you no longer have any desire to go on counting, you come across another two twins, clutching one another tightly. Among mathematicians it is a common conviction that however far you go, there will always be more pairs, even if no one can say where, until they are discovered. Mattia thought that he and Alice were like that, two twin primes, alone and lost, close but not close enough really to touch one another. He had never told her that. When he imagined confessing these things to her, the thin layer of sweat on his hands evaporated completely and for a good ten minutes he was no longer capable of touching anything.."


This book published in Italy last year, has already caused a storm selling over 1 Million copies and winning the prestigious Premio Strega ( top literary award in Italy). The book was officially released on June 4, 2009, its first English translation by Transworld Publishers.

Life of Mattia and Alice, are like those prime numbers. Mattia is one who rejected the world , while Alice was rejected by the world. Two lives, devastated and with disfigured mind trying to find solace in each other, at the same time, unable to join together.

Alice's life is guided by the early age skiing accident, which leaves her crippled for life. The wish of her imposing father, resulting in the early rejection by the daughter was one which never to be re-connected. Mattia on the other hand suffers from the loss of his twin-sister, retarded, whom he leave in a park for attending a friends birthday, never to see her again. He grew up as an exceptional student and a person, never been able to get connected to the general society.

The novel takes us through the life of Alice and Mattia, both spending their young, adulthood and grown up ages, linked but isolated. Alice marry Fabio, the doctor, who treated her ailing mother, in an attempt to join the mainstream. Mattia on the other hand remained an individual with no companion, among mathematical formulae and works accepting an invitation from a UK University to be their faculty member, while pursuing his studies.

This novel is about people on the 'borderline'. Despite the effort by themselves and by others, they find it hard to mingle and join the mainstream community. They are often viewed as different and treated with 'protection' or with contempt. Soon, they take solace in rejecting the world and build a world of their own, focussing and excelling in their profession.

The book is written in chronological sequence , citing main events from their lives which shapes the character and the future, leaving the gap to be filled by the reader. It is an easy and quick read, engaging till the end. What was interesting as a reader is that, you too are not connected with them personally, but a witness to the events as they unfold in front of you. Pretty decent read, though depressing.

Needless to say, the first book written by this 26 year old writer is already a making waves.

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The solitude of Prime Numbers

Paolo Giordano

Translated by Shaun Whiteside

Transworld Books

347 Pages

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More Read: Financial Times

First, Break All the Rules - Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman

"The greatest managers in the world seem to have little in common. They differ in sex, age, and race. They employ vastly different styles and focus on different goals. Yet despite their differences, great managers share one common trait: They do not hesitate to break virtually every rule held sacred by conventional wisdom."

It had been a while since I read a business/management book. So, when my manager gave this book with an inscription saying "read this for a change" , I have decided to oblige and have a go at it.

I am weary of management and self help kind of books. This book too have started with similar settings. However great the company is, it is the managers who retain talents and who bleed talents from an organisation, managers are the key to the survival and success of the company , etc etc. However, as you started reading and passed few initial pages, this gets better. Instead of the usual, impractical, it-had-been-done-and-was-successful kind of writing, this was much clearer in approach and was pertaining to my daily life. Not that it had anything extra ordinary or a revelation to me, the subject was treated with appropriate details and few examples.

Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman , two consultants with Gallup Organization, get together to analyse the result of the 25 years 80000 managers survey on the elements of a great manager. Though we have been through many studies and analyses of what a great manager is, in this book the discussion is on what the great managers across the globe, over the years managed to do, making them different from the ordinary. According to the authors, they have debunked the myths and the old style of management by breaking the existing rules.

To summarise, there are four major elements to a great manager. ( Well, this book is on people management and not the general business management)
1. Select for talent
2. Define the right outcomes
3. Focus on strengths
4. Plan their progression or Find the Right Fit

There are detailed discussion on each of these key area of performance. There are discussion on Talent ( natural recurring patterns of thought within a person) , Skill and knowledge and their differences. There are practical suggestions on setting the parameters to get the right outcome. Each person has a unique set of talents making them unique. Great managers identify these unique talents and assign them works based on these talents. What is important is not to attemtp to fix the weaknesses of the individual, but to focus on his talent and strength.

The examples aren't strong or convincing. These are at random and appears fabricated to suit the situation. That makes it little awkward in the flow of reading. There aren't any case studies , very few references to the organisations ( few quotes on GE - favourite company for management book authors) , thus reducing the impact of the topic in discussion. Otherwise, it had been a relevant read with out the overdose of cliches and jargons we are used to seeing in such books.

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First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently
Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman
Simon & Schuster271 Pages
Rs 395
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More Reads : Gallup Management Journal, themanager.org , CEO Refresher