Jan-March 2015: The Indian Subcontinent
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2banjo123
INDIAN SUBCONTINENT:
Our First Quarter Read in 2015 involves the Indian Sub-continent. THe following is some information I've pulled from the internet (mostly wikopedia) Feel free to chime in with opinions or corrections.
The land referred to as the Indian subcontinent is a tectonic plate that began to separate itself from other surrounding slabs of rock (or plates) millions of years ago.
The movement of that plate changed the landscape, and formed the Himalayas, the world's most elevated mountain range; home to Mount Everest, the world's tallest mountain.
The subcontinent land itself is a peninsula that extends south into the Indian Ocean. Geographers refer to it as a subcontinent because of its size, but in reality, it's not large enough to be considered an individual continent.
It includes all of India, as well as Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and (parts of) Pakistan, and there seems to be no definitive agreement on the exact landmass content regarding Pakistan.
Whether called the Indian subcontinent or South Asia, the definition of the geographical extent of this region varies. Geopolitically, it had formed the whole territory of Greater India, and now it generally comprises the countries of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Prior to 1947, the three nations were historically combined and constituted British India. It almost always also includes Nepal, Bhutan, and the island country of Sri Lanka and may also include Afghanistan and the island country of Maldives.
Using a more expansive definition – counting India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives as the constituent countries – the Indian subcontinent covers about 4.4 million km² (1.7 million mi²), which is 10% of the Asian continent or 3.3% of the world's land surface area. Overall, it accounts for about 45% of Asia's population (or over 25% of the world's population) and is home to a vast array of peoples
3banjo123
There has only been one Nobel Prize-Winner in Literature from this area.
Rabindranath Tagorewas a Bengali polymath who reshaped Bengali literature and music, as well as Indian art with Contextual Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913. In translation his poetry was viewed as spiritual and mercurial; however, his "elegant prose and magical poetry" remain largely unknown outside Bengal. Tagore introduced new prose and verse forms and the use of colloquial language into Bengali literature, thereby freeing it from traditional models based on classical Sanskrit. He was highly influential in introducing the best of Indian culture to the West and vice versa, and he is generally regarded as the outstanding creative artist of the modern Indian subcontinent, being highly commemorated in India and Bangladesh, as well as in Sri Lanka, Nepal and Pakistan.
Rabindranath Tagorewas a Bengali polymath who reshaped Bengali literature and music, as well as Indian art with Contextual Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913. In translation his poetry was viewed as spiritual and mercurial; however, his "elegant prose and magical poetry" remain largely unknown outside Bengal. Tagore introduced new prose and verse forms and the use of colloquial language into Bengali literature, thereby freeing it from traditional models based on classical Sanskrit. He was highly influential in introducing the best of Indian culture to the West and vice versa, and he is generally regarded as the outstanding creative artist of the modern Indian subcontinent, being highly commemorated in India and Bangladesh, as well as in Sri Lanka, Nepal and Pakistan.
4banjo123
Some Background on Indian Literature:
Indian literature is generally believed to be the oldest in the world. With vast cultural diversities, there are around two dozen officially recognized languages in India. Over thousands of years, huge literature has been produced in various languages in India. It is to be noted that a large part of Indian literature revolves around devotion, drama, poetry and songs. Sanskrit language dominated the early Indian literary scene whereas languages like Prakrit and Pali too had fair share as they were the languages of the common people.
It is interesting to note that the Hindu literary traditions have dominated a large part of Indian culture. These traditions are well reflected in great works like Vedas and epics such as Ramayana and Mahabharata. Treatises like Vaastu Shastra (architecture), Arthashastra (political science) and Kamsutra are true reflection of the Indian literary excellence.
Early Hindi literature, in dialects like Avadhi and Brai, began around religious and philosophical poetry in medieval period. Sant Kabir and Tulsidas were the greatest exponents of the Hindi literature during this period. With the passage of time, the Khadi boli (dialect) became more prominent and saw a great upsurge, which continues to this day.
During the medieval period, Muslim literary traditions dominated a large part of Indian literature and saw flourishing of Muslim literature. Muslim rule during the medieval times saw rapid growth and development of Persian and Urdu literature in India. A huge variety of literature spanning across history, culture and politics was written in this period.
With the coming of the British in India, works started to be written in English language. As more and more Indians became well versed with the English language, the number of works in English literature began to grow. During the contemporary times, numerous Indian authors have made their mark on the world English literature scene.
Indian literature is generally believed to be the oldest in the world. With vast cultural diversities, there are around two dozen officially recognized languages in India. Over thousands of years, huge literature has been produced in various languages in India. It is to be noted that a large part of Indian literature revolves around devotion, drama, poetry and songs. Sanskrit language dominated the early Indian literary scene whereas languages like Prakrit and Pali too had fair share as they were the languages of the common people.
It is interesting to note that the Hindu literary traditions have dominated a large part of Indian culture. These traditions are well reflected in great works like Vedas and epics such as Ramayana and Mahabharata. Treatises like Vaastu Shastra (architecture), Arthashastra (political science) and Kamsutra are true reflection of the Indian literary excellence.
Early Hindi literature, in dialects like Avadhi and Brai, began around religious and philosophical poetry in medieval period. Sant Kabir and Tulsidas were the greatest exponents of the Hindi literature during this period. With the passage of time, the Khadi boli (dialect) became more prominent and saw a great upsurge, which continues to this day.
During the medieval period, Muslim literary traditions dominated a large part of Indian literature and saw flourishing of Muslim literature. Muslim rule during the medieval times saw rapid growth and development of Persian and Urdu literature in India. A huge variety of literature spanning across history, culture and politics was written in this period.
With the coming of the British in India, works started to be written in English language. As more and more Indians became well versed with the English language, the number of works in English literature began to grow. During the contemporary times, numerous Indian authors have made their mark on the world English literature scene.
5banjo123
INDIA is a very diverse country.
The demographics of India are inclusive of the second most populous country in the world, with over 1.21 billion people (2011 census), more than a sixth of the world's population.
India has more than two thousand ethnic groups,8 and every major religion is represented, as are four major families of languages (Indo-European, Dravidian, Austroasiatic and Sino-Tibetan languages) as well as two language isolates (the Nihali language9 spoken in parts of Maharashtra and the Burushaski language spoken in parts of Jammu and Kashmir).
Further complexity is lent by the great variation that occurs across this population on social parameters such as income and education. Only the continent of Africa exceeds the linguistic, genetic and cultural diversity of the nation of India.
6banjo123
The state religion in Pakistan is Islam, which is practiced by about 95-98% of the 195,343,00012 people of the nation The remaining 2-5% practice Christianity, Hinduism and other religions Muslims are divided into two major sects: the majority of them practice Sunni Islam, while the Shias are a minority who make up an estimated 5-20%, depending on the source.
7banjo123
In Bangladesh, Muslims constitute over 90 percent of the population.4 Most Muslims in Bangladesh are Sunnis, but there is a small Shia community and an even smaller Ahmadiyya Muslim Community
Bangladesh is largely ethnically homogeneous, and its name derives from the Bengali ethno-linguistic group which comprises 98% of the population. The Chittagong Hill Tracts, Sylhet, Mymensingh and North Bengal divisions are home to diverse indigenous peoples. There are many dialects of Bengali spoken throughout the region. The dialect spoken by those in Chittagong and Sylhet are particularly distinctive. In 2013 the population was estimated at 160 million. About 89% of Bangladeshis are Muslims, followed by Hindus (8%), Buddhists (1%) and Christians (0.5%).
Bangladesh has the highest population density in the world, excluding a handful of city-states and small countries with populations under 10m, such as Malta and Hong Kong.
Bangladesh is largely ethnically homogeneous, and its name derives from the Bengali ethno-linguistic group which comprises 98% of the population. The Chittagong Hill Tracts, Sylhet, Mymensingh and North Bengal divisions are home to diverse indigenous peoples. There are many dialects of Bengali spoken throughout the region. The dialect spoken by those in Chittagong and Sylhet are particularly distinctive. In 2013 the population was estimated at 160 million. About 89% of Bangladeshis are Muslims, followed by Hindus (8%), Buddhists (1%) and Christians (0.5%).
Bangladesh has the highest population density in the world, excluding a handful of city-states and small countries with populations under 10m, such as Malta and Hong Kong.
8banjo123
The population of Nepal is estimated to be 26,494,504 people based on the 2011 census, with a population growth rate of 1.596% and a median age of 21.6 years.
As of the 2011 census, 80.62% of the Nepalese population was Hindu, 10.74% Buddhist, 4.2% Muslim, 3.6% Kirant/Yumaist, 0.45% Christian, and 0.4% followed other religions or no religion.37
Religion is important in Nepal; the Kathmandu Valley alone has more than 2,700 religious shrines. The dissolved constitution of Nepal described the country as a "Hindu kingdom", although it did not establish Hinduism as the state religion. Nepal's constitution continues long-standing legal provisions prohibiting discrimination against other religions (but also proselytization). The king was deified as the earthly manifestation of the Hindu god Vishnu. Then on May 19, 2006, the government facing a constitutional crisis, the House of Representatives which had been just reformed, having been previously dissolved, declared Nepal a "secular state".
As of the 2011 census, 80.62% of the Nepalese population was Hindu, 10.74% Buddhist, 4.2% Muslim, 3.6% Kirant/Yumaist, 0.45% Christian, and 0.4% followed other religions or no religion.37
Religion is important in Nepal; the Kathmandu Valley alone has more than 2,700 religious shrines. The dissolved constitution of Nepal described the country as a "Hindu kingdom", although it did not establish Hinduism as the state religion. Nepal's constitution continues long-standing legal provisions prohibiting discrimination against other religions (but also proselytization). The king was deified as the earthly manifestation of the Hindu god Vishnu. Then on May 19, 2006, the government facing a constitutional crisis, the House of Representatives which had been just reformed, having been previously dissolved, declared Nepal a "secular state".
9banjo123
BHUTAN
Approximately two-thirds to three-quarters of the population practice Drukpa Kagyupa or Ningmapa Buddhism, both of which are disciplines of Mahayana Buddhism. Approximately one-quarter of the population is ethnic Nepalese and practice Hinduism. They live mainly in the south and follow the Shaivite, Vaishnavite, Shakta, Ghanapathi, Puranic, and Vedic schools. Christians both Roman Catholic and Protestant and nonreligious groups comprised less than 1 percent of the population. Bön, the country's animist and shamanistic belief system, revolves around the worship of nature and predates Buddhism. Very few citizens adhere exclusively to this religious group.
Approximately two-thirds to three-quarters of the population practice Drukpa Kagyupa or Ningmapa Buddhism, both of which are disciplines of Mahayana Buddhism. Approximately one-quarter of the population is ethnic Nepalese and practice Hinduism. They live mainly in the south and follow the Shaivite, Vaishnavite, Shakta, Ghanapathi, Puranic, and Vedic schools. Christians both Roman Catholic and Protestant and nonreligious groups comprised less than 1 percent of the population. Bön, the country's animist and shamanistic belief system, revolves around the worship of nature and predates Buddhism. Very few citizens adhere exclusively to this religious group.
10banjo123
SRI LANKA
Sri Lanka is an island country in the northern Indian Ocean off the southeast coast of the Indian subcontinent in South Asia. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka has maritime borders with India to the northwest and the Maldives to the southwest.
Sri Lanka has a documented history that spans over 3,000 years, but there are theories to suggest that Sri Lanka had pre-historic human settlements dating back to at least 125,000 years. Its geographic location and deep harbours made it of great strategic importance from the time of the ancient Silk Road9 through to World War II. Sri Lanka is a diverse country, home to many religions, ethnicities and languages. It is the land of the Sinhalese, Sri Lankan Tamils, Moors, Indian Tamils, Burghers, Malays, Kaffirs and the aboriginal Vedda. Sri Lanka has a rich Buddhist heritage, and the first known Buddhist writings of Sri Lanka, the Pāli Canon, dates back to the Fourth Buddhist Council in 29 BCE.1314 The country's recent history has been marred by a thirty-year civil war which decisively ended when Sri Lankan military defeated Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in 2009.
Sri Lanka is an island country in the northern Indian Ocean off the southeast coast of the Indian subcontinent in South Asia. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka has maritime borders with India to the northwest and the Maldives to the southwest.
Sri Lanka has a documented history that spans over 3,000 years, but there are theories to suggest that Sri Lanka had pre-historic human settlements dating back to at least 125,000 years. Its geographic location and deep harbours made it of great strategic importance from the time of the ancient Silk Road9 through to World War II. Sri Lanka is a diverse country, home to many religions, ethnicities and languages. It is the land of the Sinhalese, Sri Lankan Tamils, Moors, Indian Tamils, Burghers, Malays, Kaffirs and the aboriginal Vedda. Sri Lanka has a rich Buddhist heritage, and the first known Buddhist writings of Sri Lanka, the Pāli Canon, dates back to the Fourth Buddhist Council in 29 BCE.1314 The country's recent history has been marred by a thirty-year civil war which decisively ended when Sri Lankan military defeated Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in 2009.
11banjo123
THE MALDIVES
Maldives is an island nation in the Indian Ocean–Arabian Sea area, consisting of a double chain of twenty-six atolls, oriented north-south, that lie between Minicoy Island (the southernmost part of Lakshadweep, India) and the Chagos Archipelago. The chains stand in the Laccadive Sea, and the capital, Malé is about 600 kilometres (370 mi) south-west of India and 750 kilometres (470 mi) south-west of Sri Lanka.
Maldives is an island nation in the Indian Ocean–Arabian Sea area, consisting of a double chain of twenty-six atolls, oriented north-south, that lie between Minicoy Island (the southernmost part of Lakshadweep, India) and the Chagos Archipelago. The chains stand in the Laccadive Sea, and the capital, Malé is about 600 kilometres (370 mi) south-west of India and 750 kilometres (470 mi) south-west of Sri Lanka.
12banjo123
AUTHORS FROM INDIA:
Aravind Adiga
Mulk Raj Anand
Kiran Desai
Vikram Chandra
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Amitav Ghosh
Shilpi Somaya Gowda
Jhumpa Lahiri (actually was born in the UK)
Rohinton Mistry
R. K. Narayan
Uday Prakash
Arundhati Roy
Vikram Seth
Salman Rushdie
Indu Sundaresan
Manil Suri
Thrity Umrigar
Padma Viswanathan
Aravind Adiga
Mulk Raj Anand
Kiran Desai
Vikram Chandra
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Amitav Ghosh
Shilpi Somaya Gowda
Jhumpa Lahiri (actually was born in the UK)
Rohinton Mistry
R. K. Narayan
Uday Prakash
Arundhati Roy
Vikram Seth
Salman Rushdie
Indu Sundaresan
Manil Suri
Thrity Umrigar
Padma Viswanathan
17banjo123
The above lists were taken from a search on Library Thing, and a look at my own shelves and wish-lists. I believe these are all modern works, mostly written in English. I was not able to discover any Bhutanese writers or writers from the Maldives.
18banjo123
Hopefully this gives us a start on the read! As for me, I looked over my list of recent reads. THese included:
Brick Lane by Monica Ali - Bangladesh
Midnight’s Children; The Satanic Verses; Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie -- India
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga - India
The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar – India
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry – India
Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
If anyone wants suggestions of what to read, I would especially recommend Midnights Children andA Fine Balance.
As for my planned reads, I would like to start with the following, as all have been languishing on my TBR list.
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
Taj: A Story of Mughal India vy Timeri Murari
The Royal Ghosts by Samrat Upadhyay
The Twentieth Wife by Indu Sundaresan
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
Brick Lane by Monica Ali - Bangladesh
Midnight’s Children; The Satanic Verses; Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie -- India
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga - India
The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar – India
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry – India
Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
If anyone wants suggestions of what to read, I would especially recommend Midnights Children andA Fine Balance.
As for my planned reads, I would like to start with the following, as all have been languishing on my TBR list.
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
Taj: A Story of Mughal India vy Timeri Murari
The Royal Ghosts by Samrat Upadhyay
The Twentieth Wife by Indu Sundaresan
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
19Samantha_kathy
Ohh, I've got The Twentieth Wife on my TBR stack. I think I'll go with that one for this theme read.
20EBT1002
This will be a good reason to finally read On Sal Mal Lane by Ru Freeman. It's been in my TBR library since Booktopia! in Bellingham.
21Miela
I have two books that I've been stalled on: The Midnight Rose and The Last Kashmiri Rose, both of which will fit nicely into the challenge.
22kidzdoc
Thanks for hosting this theme and providing that useful information, Rhonda! I'm very fond of literature from this region, and I have a number of books from my TBR collection and ones that I've recently purchased that I'd like to read in 2015, including the following:
TBR books:
Aravind Adiga, Between the Assassinations
Tariq Ali, Night of the Golden Butterfly
Tahmima Anam, A Golden Age
Vikram Chandra, Red Earth and Pouring Rain
Vikram Chandra, Sacred Games
Roopa Farooki, Bitter Sweets
Amitav Ghosh, The Calcutta Chromosome
Amitav Ghosh, The Hungry Tide
Intizar Husain, Basti
Rohinton Mistry, Such a Long Journey
Uday Prakash, The Girl with the Golden Parasol
Salman Rushdie, The Moor's Last Sigh
Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses
Kamila Shamsie, In the City By the Sea
Newly acquired books:
Rohinton Mistry, Swimming Lessons: and Other Stories from Firozsha Baag
Kamila Shamsie, A God in Every Stone
TBR books:
Aravind Adiga, Between the Assassinations
Tariq Ali, Night of the Golden Butterfly
Tahmima Anam, A Golden Age
Vikram Chandra, Red Earth and Pouring Rain
Vikram Chandra, Sacred Games
Roopa Farooki, Bitter Sweets
Amitav Ghosh, The Calcutta Chromosome
Amitav Ghosh, The Hungry Tide
Intizar Husain, Basti
Rohinton Mistry, Such a Long Journey
Uday Prakash, The Girl with the Golden Parasol
Salman Rushdie, The Moor's Last Sigh
Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses
Kamila Shamsie, In the City By the Sea
Newly acquired books:
Rohinton Mistry, Swimming Lessons: and Other Stories from Firozsha Baag
Kamila Shamsie, A God in Every Stone
23rebeccanyc
This is terrific, Rhonda. Thanks so much for getting us started in such an informative way.
Here are some books I've liked from this region.
A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth (one of all-time favorites)
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie (read decades ago)
Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra
Clear Light of Day by Anita Desai (also read decades ago)
Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil
Climbing the Mango Trees: A Memoir of a Childhood in India by Madhur Jaffrey
Some books that didn't grab me.
The Last Jet-Engine Laugh by Ruchir Joshi
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
The Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh
Bait: Four Stories by Mahasweta Devi
Books on my TBR I might read for this theme read.
Several by Salman Rushdie and Anita Desai
Red Earth and Pouring Rain and Love and Longing in Bombay by Vikram Chandra
All about H. Hatterr by G. V. Desani
Travelers and How I Became a Holy Mother by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
My Kind of Girl by Buddhadeva Bose
The Sly Company of People Who Care by Rahul Bhattacharya
Since all of these authors are from India, I would actually like to find some books by writers from other countries.
Here are some books I've liked from this region.
A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth (one of all-time favorites)
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie (read decades ago)
Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra
Clear Light of Day by Anita Desai (also read decades ago)
Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil
Climbing the Mango Trees: A Memoir of a Childhood in India by Madhur Jaffrey
Some books that didn't grab me.
The Last Jet-Engine Laugh by Ruchir Joshi
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
The Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh
Bait: Four Stories by Mahasweta Devi
Books on my TBR I might read for this theme read.
Several by Salman Rushdie and Anita Desai
Red Earth and Pouring Rain and Love and Longing in Bombay by Vikram Chandra
All about H. Hatterr by G. V. Desani
Travelers and How I Became a Holy Mother by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
My Kind of Girl by Buddhadeva Bose
The Sly Company of People Who Care by Rahul Bhattacharya
Since all of these authors are from India, I would actually like to find some books by writers from other countries.
24banjo123
It's great to hear about all these planned India reads! Hooray!
I think I will have to try A Suitable Boy after that recommendation, Rebecca.
Personally, I liked The White Tiger quite a lot, but it seems to be a controversial read. I also liked The God of Small Things, but read it so long ago, that I can't remember much about it.
I should mention that I found it helpful to read some non-fiction on the region, and hope to get to some non-fiction for this read as well.
I think I will have to try A Suitable Boy after that recommendation, Rebecca.
Personally, I liked The White Tiger quite a lot, but it seems to be a controversial read. I also liked The God of Small Things, but read it so long ago, that I can't remember much about it.
I should mention that I found it helpful to read some non-fiction on the region, and hope to get to some non-fiction for this read as well.
25cushlareads
Rhonda, I am shockingly bad at participating in Reading Globally theme reads but I always love lurking on the threads - thanks for posting all this!
Darryl, I am looking forward to seeing what you think of Kami.la Shamsie's new book. I haven't seen it out here yet.
Darryl, I am looking forward to seeing what you think of Kami.la Shamsie's new book. I haven't seen it out here yet.
26edwinbcn
Thanks for the very helpful information. I had absolutely no picture of what to read in my mind for this region.
27A_musing
I just noticed this thread and read. It has been a lonnnngggg time since I've been by this group. But I am the proud recipient this Christmas of three volumes from the new Murty Library of Classical Literature, which is dedicated to publishing classical literature from the subcontinent. I got a copy of the The Therigatha, which is an early (3rd century BC) collection of poems by and about Buddhist women, the History of Akbar, about one of the early Moughal Kings, and a volume of poetry by Soldas, a classic Hindi poet. If people are interested in some of the old stuff I can add a bit here as I explore these.
28ELiz_M
>24 banjo123: One non-fiction book that I want to read, but haven't tracked down a copy is May You Be the Mother of a Hundred Sons: A Journey Among the Women of India by Elisabeth Bumiller
A few other obscure titles:
Annapurna: A Woman's Place - women mountain climbers in Nepal
Sultana's Dream: And Selections from The Secluded Ones - published in 1905 in Bengali newspapers, a utopia and a collection of sketches
Cracking India - a novel by a Pakistani author about partition
A few other obscure titles:
Annapurna: A Woman's Place - women mountain climbers in Nepal
Sultana's Dream: And Selections from The Secluded Ones - published in 1905 in Bengali newspapers, a utopia and a collection of sketches
Cracking India - a novel by a Pakistani author about partition
29rebeccanyc
>24 banjo123: A Suitable Boy is one of my favorite books of all time, Rhonda. I started reading more slowly as I neared the end of the book because I didn't want to leave the characters. I've been eagerly awaiting Seth's planned "sequel" titled "A Suitable Girl" and I think it's now scheduled for 2016.
30banjo123
It looks like some awesome reading ahead of us!
>27 A_musing: I will very much enjoy hearing about your classical reading.
>28 ELiz_M: Cracking India sounds really interesting--I am going to look for it.
I am going to be away from the internet for a few days....I imagine that by the time I get back you all will have doubled my reading plans for this read!
>27 A_musing: I will very much enjoy hearing about your classical reading.
>28 ELiz_M: Cracking India sounds really interesting--I am going to look for it.
I am going to be away from the internet for a few days....I imagine that by the time I get back you all will have doubled my reading plans for this read!
31vpfluke
I enjoyed reading The Winds of Sinhala by Colin De Silva a couple of decades ago. A historical novel, of the Michener sort, but the basic Hinud Tamil and Buddhist Sinhalese antagonisms are there. Also, Michael Ondaatje partially grew up in Sri Lanka, and a couple of his books are laid there.
32Kristelh
I may read Untouchable byMulk Raj Anand for this.
33SassyLassy
Another suggestion I would add for India is Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance, a novel that beautifully illustrates the urban/rural split and the precariousness of any type of advancement. It won Canada's Giller Prize.
Mistry is from Mumbai and now lives in Canada. He won the Neustadt Prize in 2012, putting him in the company of authors such as Josef Skvorecky, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Mia Couto, just a few of the 23 recipients to date.
Great background info banjo! I'm looking forward to this quarter.
Mistry is from Mumbai and now lives in Canada. He won the Neustadt Prize in 2012, putting him in the company of authors such as Josef Skvorecky, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Mia Couto, just a few of the 23 recipients to date.
Great background info banjo! I'm looking forward to this quarter.
34whymaggiemay
I have about 10 things I could choose for this read, but decided to start with The Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri.
I would add my recommendation for A Suitable Boy, which I loved. However, I was lucky enough to join an on-line group who were reading it in chunks, and then discussing it as we went along. It made the reading just that much more fun. There were initially 10 of us in the group. I think only 4 actually finished the 1200 pages.
I would add my recommendation for A Suitable Boy, which I loved. However, I was lucky enough to join an on-line group who were reading it in chunks, and then discussing it as we went along. It made the reading just that much more fun. There were initially 10 of us in the group. I think only 4 actually finished the 1200 pages.
35Settings
While researching for quarter 4, I found this website on South Asian Women Writers. It's basically a list, but all the authors are hotlinked to pages filled with information. I didn't know most of the authors existed.
http://www.sawnet.org/books/authors.php
http://www.sawnet.org/books/authors.php
36banjo123
Some great suggestions here! Thanks, Anoplophora, for posting that link.
I would agree with the recommendation of A Fine Balance. It's a really good book, and does also give some good background on the Indian economy. I am going to start with The Reluctant Fundamentalist, which I have out of the library.
I would agree with the recommendation of A Fine Balance. It's a really good book, and does also give some good background on the Indian economy. I am going to start with The Reluctant Fundamentalist, which I have out of the library.
37worldofecho
I have quite a few books from subcontinental writers in my TBR pile, so this theme looks great. Loved A Suitable Boy and pretty much everything by Vikram Seth. Some other favourites:
Chinaman - Shehan Karunatilaka - brilliant comic novel about cricket in Sri Lanka.
Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard - Kiran Desai
Love and Longing in Bombay - Vikram Chandra
Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje is set in Sri Lanka and is the only fiction I think I've read about the civil war, I found it gut-wrenching. And Running in the Family is his memoir about his family, and returning to Sri Lanka.
Non-fiction - A Corner of a Foreign Field by Ramachandra Guha - a cultural history of colonial and post-colonial India told through the lens of cricket. As a cricket fan I adored this book, but I don't think you need to be one to enjoy it.
Three of my TBR books I'd like to finally get to:
Real Time - Amit Chaudhuri
In Custody - Anita Desai
The Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie
Chinaman - Shehan Karunatilaka - brilliant comic novel about cricket in Sri Lanka.
Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard - Kiran Desai
Love and Longing in Bombay - Vikram Chandra
Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje is set in Sri Lanka and is the only fiction I think I've read about the civil war, I found it gut-wrenching. And Running in the Family is his memoir about his family, and returning to Sri Lanka.
Non-fiction - A Corner of a Foreign Field by Ramachandra Guha - a cultural history of colonial and post-colonial India told through the lens of cricket. As a cricket fan I adored this book, but I don't think you need to be one to enjoy it.
Three of my TBR books I'd like to finally get to:
Real Time - Amit Chaudhuri
In Custody - Anita Desai
The Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie
38AceWebAcademy
Dieser Benutzer wurde wegen Spammens entfernt.
39evilmoose
I've had Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance lined up to read some time soon for a few years now, so this makes for a perfect encouragement to finally get around to it. I thought I'd read more authors from this region, but on hunting through LT, I can only find Salman Rushdie and Arundhati Roy.
40GerrysBookshelf
Island of a Thousand Mirrors, published in the US in Sept. 2014, is the debut novel of Nayomi Munaweera, a Sri lankan native who now resides in the US. In 2013 it was long listed for the Man Asia Prize, won the Commonwealth Regional prize for Asia and was short listed for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature in 2014. Quite Impressive for a first novel!
The background of the story is Sri Lanka's civil war (1983-2009) between the Tamil minority (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) and the majority Sinhalese (Sri Lankan military). The war resulted in 80,000 deaths.
Like all wars, there are no easy answers. A quote from one of the characters attempts to explain to American friends what is happening in Sri Lanka:
"There are no martyrs here. It is a war between equally corrupt forces. I see their eyes glaze over. I realize they do not desire a complicated answer. They want clear distinctions between the cowboys and the Indians, the corrupt administration and the valiant freedom fighters, the democratic government and the raging terrorists. They want moral certainty, a thing I cannot give them."
The main characters are 2 Sinhalese sisters (Yasodhara and Lanka), a Tamil boy (Shiva), whose family rented the upstairs of their house, and Saraswathi, a Tamil girl from the north of the island. We learn the stories of their families and how their lives become intertwined over the years. The brutality of the war is devastatingly depicted and I found that as the pace picked up in the last third of the book, I couldn't put it down.
The background of the story is Sri Lanka's civil war (1983-2009) between the Tamil minority (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) and the majority Sinhalese (Sri Lankan military). The war resulted in 80,000 deaths.
Like all wars, there are no easy answers. A quote from one of the characters attempts to explain to American friends what is happening in Sri Lanka:
"There are no martyrs here. It is a war between equally corrupt forces. I see their eyes glaze over. I realize they do not desire a complicated answer. They want clear distinctions between the cowboys and the Indians, the corrupt administration and the valiant freedom fighters, the democratic government and the raging terrorists. They want moral certainty, a thing I cannot give them."
The main characters are 2 Sinhalese sisters (Yasodhara and Lanka), a Tamil boy (Shiva), whose family rented the upstairs of their house, and Saraswathi, a Tamil girl from the north of the island. We learn the stories of their families and how their lives become intertwined over the years. The brutality of the war is devastatingly depicted and I found that as the pace picked up in the last third of the book, I couldn't put it down.
41whymaggiemay
Thank you, Gerry, for the review. That book sounds like it's right up my alley. Another book to add to the pile. *Sigh*
42evilmoose
Thank you from me as well Gerry - that is the book that my Sri Lankan office mate was reading and recommended to me, but I'd forgotten the name of. She enjoyed it, and felt it captured the war well.
43banjo123
Nice review, Gerry! I've added this to my wishlist. I don't know anything about the Sri Lanka civil war.
44rebeccanyc
Another book by a Sri Lankan author, Noontide Toll, was reviewed today's New York Times Book Review.
46A_musing
My review of The History of Akbar (aka, the Akbarnama): https://www.librarything.com/work/15253839/reviews/114961021
47thorold
I managed to get a bit of a start on this theme over the New Year holiday, with three more books by authors from Sri Lanka:
Running in the family (1982) by Michael Ondaatje (1943- )
This is a mixture of travel book and family history, Ondaatje using a collage of short pieces in different styles and genres (conventional third-person description, transcribed oral history, poems, stream of consciousness, etc.) to build up a picture of the island and of his family, especially the rackety and eccentric lifestyles of his grandparents' and parents' generations in the thirties and forties. It was written on the eve of the outbreak of communal violence, and the rather idyllic, nostalgic picture he paints has uncomfortable resonances when you read it knowing something of what has happened in Sri Lanka in the last couple of decades. But it is beautifully written, and often very funny.
The hungry ghosts (2013) by Shyam Selvadurai (1965 - )
This is the long-awaited successor to the wonderful Funny boy (1993). Where Selvadurai's first novel was basically a coming-of-age story, this is a much more complex and mature treatment of the "gay love story against a background of communal violence" idea. He uses traditional Buddhist stories interpolated into the narrative to explore the ways that bad actions and the need to find forgiveness and redemption work out in the lives of his characters, particularly the gay narrator and his property-shark grandmother. There's a danger in this sort of thing that you end up in the profound shallows of Herman Hesse country, and Selvadurai steers dangerously close once or twice, but I think he manages to stay afloat. It's probably the lively realism of the main story that saves him, set partly in Canada and partly in the same "Cinammon Gardens" middle-class neighbourhoods in Colombo that the Ondaatjes come from. Although the riots and communal violence happen mostly offstage, we aren't allowed to forget that there are real atrocities going on and large numbers of people suffering.
The match (2006) by Romesh Gunesekera (1954- )
Gunesekera is best known for Reef, which was on the Booker shortlist and is also well worth reading. The Match describes the life of Sunil, a Sri Lankan-born man who grows up in the Philippines in the 60s, and later lives in the UK. It seems to be about the difficulty of connecting with anything solid in your life when geographical and family ties are cut: alienation in the postcolonial diaspora, if you want to reduce it to buzzwords. Sunil reads about the terrible things going on in Sri Lanka, but something in him stops him from engaging with them emotionally, any more than he can make himself return the love his friends have for him.
With what must be a deliberate irony, Gunesekera uses the classic plot device of British imperialist fiction, the big cricket match, to provide the key moment in the story when Sunil has his epiphany in the middle of a crowd surging with South Asian community identity and discovers that he is capable of loving.
An engagingly odd idea, but I thought it took him rather too long to get to the point.
(ETA pictures)
Running in the family (1982) by Michael Ondaatje (1943- )
This is a mixture of travel book and family history, Ondaatje using a collage of short pieces in different styles and genres (conventional third-person description, transcribed oral history, poems, stream of consciousness, etc.) to build up a picture of the island and of his family, especially the rackety and eccentric lifestyles of his grandparents' and parents' generations in the thirties and forties. It was written on the eve of the outbreak of communal violence, and the rather idyllic, nostalgic picture he paints has uncomfortable resonances when you read it knowing something of what has happened in Sri Lanka in the last couple of decades. But it is beautifully written, and often very funny.
The hungry ghosts (2013) by Shyam Selvadurai (1965 - )
This is the long-awaited successor to the wonderful Funny boy (1993). Where Selvadurai's first novel was basically a coming-of-age story, this is a much more complex and mature treatment of the "gay love story against a background of communal violence" idea. He uses traditional Buddhist stories interpolated into the narrative to explore the ways that bad actions and the need to find forgiveness and redemption work out in the lives of his characters, particularly the gay narrator and his property-shark grandmother. There's a danger in this sort of thing that you end up in the profound shallows of Herman Hesse country, and Selvadurai steers dangerously close once or twice, but I think he manages to stay afloat. It's probably the lively realism of the main story that saves him, set partly in Canada and partly in the same "Cinammon Gardens" middle-class neighbourhoods in Colombo that the Ondaatjes come from. Although the riots and communal violence happen mostly offstage, we aren't allowed to forget that there are real atrocities going on and large numbers of people suffering.
The match (2006) by Romesh Gunesekera (1954- )
Gunesekera is best known for Reef, which was on the Booker shortlist and is also well worth reading. The Match describes the life of Sunil, a Sri Lankan-born man who grows up in the Philippines in the 60s, and later lives in the UK. It seems to be about the difficulty of connecting with anything solid in your life when geographical and family ties are cut: alienation in the postcolonial diaspora, if you want to reduce it to buzzwords. Sunil reads about the terrible things going on in Sri Lanka, but something in him stops him from engaging with them emotionally, any more than he can make himself return the love his friends have for him.
With what must be a deliberate irony, Gunesekera uses the classic plot device of British imperialist fiction, the big cricket match, to provide the key moment in the story when Sunil has his epiphany in the middle of a crowd surging with South Asian community identity and discovers that he is capable of loving.
An engagingly odd idea, but I thought it took him rather too long to get to the point.
(ETA pictures)
48thorold
...and over the holiday period I also read
The reluctant fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid (Pakistan), which I found witty but rather shallow,
and Clear light of day (1980) by Anita Desai (India), which is a beautifully-written, intelligent novel about an odd set of siblings, the sort of book in which nothing much happens and you don't especially want it to. Desai seems to be rather low-profile compared to some other South Asian writers, but she's obviously someone we ought to be reading more of!
The reluctant fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid (Pakistan), which I found witty but rather shallow,
and Clear light of day (1980) by Anita Desai (India), which is a beautifully-written, intelligent novel about an odd set of siblings, the sort of book in which nothing much happens and you don't especially want it to. Desai seems to be rather low-profile compared to some other South Asian writers, but she's obviously someone we ought to be reading more of!
49banjo123
Wow! Lot's of good reviews here!
>44 rebeccanyc: Rebecca, thanks for posting this link
>45 jll1976: Thanks, Michelle De Krester sounds like an interesting writer. Lots of Sri Lankan options!
>46 A_musing: Nice review!
>47 thorold: and 48 Wow! Great reading. I also read The Reluctant Fundamentalist and my thoughts were similar to yours. Here are my thoughts:
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
The narrator in this book is Changez, a young Princeton educated Pakistani. I think that the book is about his struggle between the desire for American-style success and his loyalty to his home. This is an interesting topic, but I felt like that the characters were flat and the plot felt unlikely. Of course, maybe I am wrong about that, and as a US citizen, just have a hard time understanding the Pakistani perspective.
It’s told as a monologue, Changez speaking to an undefined American (CIA?) in Lahore. Hamid is a good writer, it’s easy to read, and it’s a short book that goes pretty fast.
>44 rebeccanyc: Rebecca, thanks for posting this link
>45 jll1976: Thanks, Michelle De Krester sounds like an interesting writer. Lots of Sri Lankan options!
>46 A_musing: Nice review!
>47 thorold: and 48 Wow! Great reading. I also read The Reluctant Fundamentalist and my thoughts were similar to yours. Here are my thoughts:
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
The narrator in this book is Changez, a young Princeton educated Pakistani. I think that the book is about his struggle between the desire for American-style success and his loyalty to his home. This is an interesting topic, but I felt like that the characters were flat and the plot felt unlikely. Of course, maybe I am wrong about that, and as a US citizen, just have a hard time understanding the Pakistani perspective.
It’s told as a monologue, Changez speaking to an undefined American (CIA?) in Lahore. Hamid is a good writer, it’s easy to read, and it’s a short book that goes pretty fast.
50Kristelh
Finished Untouchable by Mulk Raj Anand. A short book about one day in the life of Bakka, a young man, 18 y/o, who is of the lowest caste a sweeper or one who cleans the latrines and removes dung. The story is set in 1930 and I found it upsetting. The caste system is very tight and there is not any hope or means to change ones caste. The final part of day, gave a brief hint of hope. Industrialization may bring change to the social structure of India because then sweepers won't be needed. I checked on line to see if there are still untouchables in India and there are. There was an article discussing this situation as recent as 2014.
51banjo123
>50 Kristelh: A couple of years ago I read a book about Gandhi - Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India which talked a lot about the caste system, and was very interesting.
52Kristelh
>51 banjo123: The final pages of the book features a speech Gandhi gives opposing the untouchable class system but I didn't think his solutions were feasible and I didn't think he understood how trapped these people were. He was opposed to it though.
53banjo123
>52 Kristelh: - Yes, there were lots of problems with Gandhi's take on the caste system. And apparently a lot of the Dalit community really hates Gandhi as a result.
54jll1976
I just discovered that the ABC RN Books Program are running a Subcontinent Book Club throughout 2015.
If you are interested go to: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/booksandartsdaily/the-2015-subconti...
If you are interested go to: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/booksandartsdaily/the-2015-subconti...
55banjo123
Thanks for the link, Jacqui -- it's an interesting selection of books. I see that they included The Buddha of Suburbia, which I really liked, but I didn't think of us Subcontinental since Hanif Kureishi was born in London!
I got A Suitable Boy out of the library, but am having second thoughts about reading it as it is almost as thick as it is wide!
I got A Suitable Boy out of the library, but am having second thoughts about reading it as it is almost as thick as it is wide!
56thorold
>55 banjo123:, Buddha of suburbia
They also have A house for Mr Biswas in their list (set in Trinidad, Trinidad-born author...). I wondered about the same problem when I was reading The match (set in the Philippines and the UK, with only a couple of chapters in Sri Lanka). I suppose the point is that the characters in all those books act in ways that are affected by the cultural heritage their families have brought with them from South Asia.
They also have A house for Mr Biswas in their list (set in Trinidad, Trinidad-born author...). I wondered about the same problem when I was reading The match (set in the Philippines and the UK, with only a couple of chapters in Sri Lanka). I suppose the point is that the characters in all those books act in ways that are affected by the cultural heritage their families have brought with them from South Asia.
57A_musing
I am now working on the second book of the new Murty Classical Library of India series, the Therigatha. Poems written by or about Buddhist women in the 2nd century BC, ranging from simple one verse aphorisms to complex multi-page poetry.
58ELiz_M
>55 banjo123: RE: A Suitable Boy Don't be daunted, it is a surprisingly fast and very enjoyable read.
59rebeccanyc
>58 ELiz_M: Ditto. I loved it and started reading more slowly at the end because I didn't want to leave the characters.
60banjo123
>58 ELiz_M: >59 rebeccanyc: I will try it! I am actually worried that my hands won't be big enough to hold it.
61Fullmoonblue
I'll be reading I Am Malala during the coming month. Haven't read The Reluctant Fundamentalist yet, although I've had a copy for ages...
62banjo123
>61 Fullmoonblue: I hope you do read The Reluctant Fundamentalist and then we can compare notes.
63rebeccanyc
My Kind of Girl by Buddhadeva Bose
This charming novella, written by a Bengali poet, can be read on several different levels. Most straightforwardly, it is the story of four men who find themselves stranded in a remote railway station late on a cold night: a contractor, a government official, a doctor, and a writer. Seeing a loving couple, each of their thoughts turn to a long-ago love of their own, and the writer proposes that they spend the night telling each other the stories of these loves. And so they do. On another level, each of the men has a different perspective on life, and a different style, and these characterizations are reflected in their stories. And on still another level, their stories provide insight into the life of middle class, educated Indians near the end of British colonial rule. Interestingly, that rule is never mentioned, except in an aside when one of the story tellers chastises a friend who is interested in an Anglo-Indian girl rather than one of their own. This book has been on my TBR since I received it several years ago when I had an Archipelago Books subscription and I'm glad this quarter's Reading Globally theme read on the Indian subcontinent made me take it off the shelves.
This charming novella, written by a Bengali poet, can be read on several different levels. Most straightforwardly, it is the story of four men who find themselves stranded in a remote railway station late on a cold night: a contractor, a government official, a doctor, and a writer. Seeing a loving couple, each of their thoughts turn to a long-ago love of their own, and the writer proposes that they spend the night telling each other the stories of these loves. And so they do. On another level, each of the men has a different perspective on life, and a different style, and these characterizations are reflected in their stories. And on still another level, their stories provide insight into the life of middle class, educated Indians near the end of British colonial rule. Interestingly, that rule is never mentioned, except in an aside when one of the story tellers chastises a friend who is interested in an Anglo-Indian girl rather than one of their own. This book has been on my TBR since I received it several years ago when I had an Archipelago Books subscription and I'm glad this quarter's Reading Globally theme read on the Indian subcontinent made me take it off the shelves.
64EBT1002
The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh
The Hungry Tide is set in the tiger- and crocodile-infested Sundarbans, the large tidal halophytic mangrove forest in the Indian state of West Bengal and southern Bangladesh. Piya, an American woman with Indian heritage, arrives in the area to study river dolphins, relatives to the Puget Sound’s Orca (killer whale) and befriends Fokir, a local fisherman, and Kanai, a translator who lives in the city but has his own history with this region. Piya solicits the assistance of both men to help her track the dolphins; the result is a vaguely tense romantic triangle which provides some interpersonal tension for the real story: that of the region and people who live here. Although southern India and Bangladesh have periodically attracted the attention of world powers and have suffered oppression and great poverty, these islands remain largely unknown. “…yet, in the tide country, where life was lived on the margins of greater events, it was useful to be reminded that no place was so remote as to escape the flood of history.” This history is woven into the stories of the characters and their families.
This novel is both wonderful and awkward, suggesting a novelist still just short of his greatest potential. Ghosh tells a beautiful story but occasionally lapses into pedantic explanations of the region’s history and culture. He doubts the sophistication of his reader. Perhaps he has good reason to do so and I very much appreciated learning about this part of the world, but the result is a distracting choppiness in the narrative. Still, Ghosh tells a great story and another way to consider the unevenness is as a parallel to the tides which are so much a part of the story. The intensity of the story ebbs and flows; when it flows, the book is impossible to put down.
The Hungry Tide is set in the tiger- and crocodile-infested Sundarbans, the large tidal halophytic mangrove forest in the Indian state of West Bengal and southern Bangladesh. Piya, an American woman with Indian heritage, arrives in the area to study river dolphins, relatives to the Puget Sound’s Orca (killer whale) and befriends Fokir, a local fisherman, and Kanai, a translator who lives in the city but has his own history with this region. Piya solicits the assistance of both men to help her track the dolphins; the result is a vaguely tense romantic triangle which provides some interpersonal tension for the real story: that of the region and people who live here. Although southern India and Bangladesh have periodically attracted the attention of world powers and have suffered oppression and great poverty, these islands remain largely unknown. “…yet, in the tide country, where life was lived on the margins of greater events, it was useful to be reminded that no place was so remote as to escape the flood of history.” This history is woven into the stories of the characters and their families.
This novel is both wonderful and awkward, suggesting a novelist still just short of his greatest potential. Ghosh tells a beautiful story but occasionally lapses into pedantic explanations of the region’s history and culture. He doubts the sophistication of his reader. Perhaps he has good reason to do so and I very much appreciated learning about this part of the world, but the result is a distracting choppiness in the narrative. Still, Ghosh tells a great story and another way to consider the unevenness is as a parallel to the tides which are so much a part of the story. The intensity of the story ebbs and flows; when it flows, the book is impossible to put down.
65wandering_star
Is anyone else reading (or has read) The Smoke Is Rising? I am about halfway through and really struggling, trying to decide if it's worth ploughing on.
66evilmoose
I really enjoyed Island of a Thousand Mirrors by Nayomi Munaweera. A snippet of my review:
"Tamil and Sinhala families, arranged marriages, lovers, heartbreak, terribly delicious cooking (it's one of those books that makes you hungry), swimming in warm ocean waters, clear beaches, markets, rubber sandals, life as immigrants in the USA, and the brutality of the Sri Lankan Civil War, pitting Tamil against Sinhala. Dominated by strong female characters, it's a powerful and interesting read. Definitely recommended."
"Tamil and Sinhala families, arranged marriages, lovers, heartbreak, terribly delicious cooking (it's one of those books that makes you hungry), swimming in warm ocean waters, clear beaches, markets, rubber sandals, life as immigrants in the USA, and the brutality of the Sri Lankan Civil War, pitting Tamil against Sinhala. Dominated by strong female characters, it's a powerful and interesting read. Definitely recommended."
67banjo123
Some nice reviews here! Ellen, I have been considering whether or not to pick up another novel by Ghosh, so your review helps.
I just started A Suitable Boy which so far is like an Indian Pride and Prejudice. I love P & P, so that's a compliment. I am afraid, however, that it is going to be a really long time before I have a review to post.
Also, I won The Upstairs Wife from Early Reviewers, so, if it gets here in time, I can read that for this theme as well.
I just started A Suitable Boy which so far is like an Indian Pride and Prejudice. I love P & P, so that's a compliment. I am afraid, however, that it is going to be a really long time before I have a review to post.
Also, I won The Upstairs Wife from Early Reviewers, so, if it gets here in time, I can read that for this theme as well.
68arubabookwoman
For this segment, I read Pather Panchali. All I can say is I recommend everyone should read this book. I loved it!
3. Pather Panchali by Bibhutibhushan Banerji (1929) 316 pp
This Bengali classic, basis for the famous movie of the same name, is the portrayal of the day-to-day life in an impoverished village at the turn of the 20th century as seen through the eyes of a young boy, Opu, and his adored older sister Durga.
In the forward to the edition I read, the translator states:
"Tagore... Presents village life nostalgically as an ideal condition which the modern age is fast losing. In Pather Panchali the village is not idealized; it is not explained or commented on; it is presented as it is, objectively at times, but more often subjectively, by the people who live in it, and more particularly by the two children. There is little formal description. It is not necessary to describe the things one lives with every day; one knows them, as the reader comes to know the village of Nishchindipur, through familiarity."
The novel is episodic; sometimes just an hour has elapsed between chapters, sometimes years. I was fascinated to learn, reading between the lines, what it meant to be of the Brahmin caste in India at that time. Opu's family is Brahmin, but very poor. Their father is a scholar, and earns small amounts infrequently providing his services at religious or other ceremonial events. Most of the time, the family is hungry, and their ramshackle dwelling is falling apart around them. Nevertheless, their Brahmin status gives them certain privileges and status. Again, the poverty and circumstances of Opu's life are just givens--this is not a social document, just the life of one small boy.
Here's a taste of the tone of the book. Opu has been reading in one of his father's ancient volumes a description of the properties of mercury:
"If you put some Mercury in a vulture's egg and leave it in the sun for a few days, and then hold it in the mouth, you can fly high in the sky.
"Opu could not believe his eyes. He read the passage again and again.....
"Astonishing! It was so easy to fly and yet nobody knew about it. Perhaps nobody had a copy of this book except his father. Or it might be that all this time nobody's eye except his own had lighted on this particular place in the book.
"He thrust his nose in the book again and smelt it. That same old smell. It never occurred to him to question the truth of what was written in such a book."
3. Pather Panchali by Bibhutibhushan Banerji (1929) 316 pp
This Bengali classic, basis for the famous movie of the same name, is the portrayal of the day-to-day life in an impoverished village at the turn of the 20th century as seen through the eyes of a young boy, Opu, and his adored older sister Durga.
In the forward to the edition I read, the translator states:
"Tagore... Presents village life nostalgically as an ideal condition which the modern age is fast losing. In Pather Panchali the village is not idealized; it is not explained or commented on; it is presented as it is, objectively at times, but more often subjectively, by the people who live in it, and more particularly by the two children. There is little formal description. It is not necessary to describe the things one lives with every day; one knows them, as the reader comes to know the village of Nishchindipur, through familiarity."
The novel is episodic; sometimes just an hour has elapsed between chapters, sometimes years. I was fascinated to learn, reading between the lines, what it meant to be of the Brahmin caste in India at that time. Opu's family is Brahmin, but very poor. Their father is a scholar, and earns small amounts infrequently providing his services at religious or other ceremonial events. Most of the time, the family is hungry, and their ramshackle dwelling is falling apart around them. Nevertheless, their Brahmin status gives them certain privileges and status. Again, the poverty and circumstances of Opu's life are just givens--this is not a social document, just the life of one small boy.
Here's a taste of the tone of the book. Opu has been reading in one of his father's ancient volumes a description of the properties of mercury:
"If you put some Mercury in a vulture's egg and leave it in the sun for a few days, and then hold it in the mouth, you can fly high in the sky.
"Opu could not believe his eyes. He read the passage again and again.....
"Astonishing! It was so easy to fly and yet nobody knew about it. Perhaps nobody had a copy of this book except his father. Or it might be that all this time nobody's eye except his own had lighted on this particular place in the book.
"He thrust his nose in the book again and smelt it. That same old smell. It never occurred to him to question the truth of what was written in such a book."
69rebeccanyc
>64 EBT1002: I was bothered by the pedantic nature of The Hungry Tide too, and I felt also that Ghosh was trying too hard to make his environmental/political points. But I loved the sense of place.
>68 arubabookwoman: Panther Panchali sounds great!
>68 arubabookwoman: Panther Panchali sounds great!
70whymaggiemay
I finished The Death of Vishnu, though I didn't enjoy most of the characters. It's very well written and at times very amusing, but many, if not most, of the characters are self-absorbed, mean, petty, and uncharitable. I did appreciate Vishnu, himself, but could have benefitted by some background in the Hindu gods, which might have enhanced my enjoyment of the book.
I have lots of other books which will fit this quarter's theme, and hope to read some of them in the near future.
I have lots of other books which will fit this quarter's theme, and hope to read some of them in the near future.
71GerrysBookshelf
Tales in Colour and Other Stories by Kunzang Choden
This book is a series of short stories about the changing roles of women in Bhutan, the challenges they face, and their fears and strengths. Kunzang Choden is a natural storyteller and I very much enjoyed learning a bit about the cultural change occurring in Bhutan through reading these stories.
The first one is about an elder of a village. She practices the old Bon religion and acts as a spiritual medium. Her services are still sought after even though modern Buddhism has largely replaced Bon thoughout Bhutan.
Another story finds 18 year old Yeshima yearning for schooling. She watches her friend and neighbor go off to work each day and dreams what it would be like to travel to the city, work in an office and use computers. Even though the world is changing rapidly, culture and tradition dictate that she stay home to attend her ailing mother while her brothers receive the benefit of a good education. Her whole life is spent subservient to her parents and brothers until one day she hears about adult literacy classes and makes the decision to attend .
The title of the book is taken from the last story about an expert wool dyer, Tsheringmo, who teaches her grand niece the craft, art and folklore that she has accumulated over her lifetime as a master dyer. She was as well known for her stories as for the wonderfully colored wool she produced. There is a wonderful one explaining how sheep had wool of every color. A Tibetan minister had stolen a Chinese king's herd and the Empress in her anger issued a curse and all the sheep drowned except the black and white ones. And so today dyes have to be used to get the other colors. As Tsheringmo ages and becomes more feeble, the villagers reflect on what they are losing:
"But nobody could ever deny that just as Tsheringmo had colored the fabrics the people used to clothe themselves with, she had also brightened their lives with the tales she told them. Not simple tales but tales in colour."
This book is a series of short stories about the changing roles of women in Bhutan, the challenges they face, and their fears and strengths. Kunzang Choden is a natural storyteller and I very much enjoyed learning a bit about the cultural change occurring in Bhutan through reading these stories.
The first one is about an elder of a village. She practices the old Bon religion and acts as a spiritual medium. Her services are still sought after even though modern Buddhism has largely replaced Bon thoughout Bhutan.
Another story finds 18 year old Yeshima yearning for schooling. She watches her friend and neighbor go off to work each day and dreams what it would be like to travel to the city, work in an office and use computers. Even though the world is changing rapidly, culture and tradition dictate that she stay home to attend her ailing mother while her brothers receive the benefit of a good education. Her whole life is spent subservient to her parents and brothers until one day she hears about adult literacy classes and makes the decision to attend .
The title of the book is taken from the last story about an expert wool dyer, Tsheringmo, who teaches her grand niece the craft, art and folklore that she has accumulated over her lifetime as a master dyer. She was as well known for her stories as for the wonderfully colored wool she produced. There is a wonderful one explaining how sheep had wool of every color. A Tibetan minister had stolen a Chinese king's herd and the Empress in her anger issued a curse and all the sheep drowned except the black and white ones. And so today dyes have to be used to get the other colors. As Tsheringmo ages and becomes more feeble, the villagers reflect on what they are losing:
"But nobody could ever deny that just as Tsheringmo had colored the fabrics the people used to clothe themselves with, she had also brightened their lives with the tales she told them. Not simple tales but tales in colour."
72Tara1Reads
I am new to this group but I have really enjoyed reading works by authors from the Indian subcontinent in the past. It's been awhile since I have read anything from this part of the world so I am looking forward to getting back into it.
I can make the following recommendations for Bangladesh:
Revenge: A Fable by Taslima Nasrin (this would be a good read for March for any Americans looking to read something for Women's History Month). It's more of a novella so it would make a quick read.
For anyone looking to read non-fiction, I read Creating A World Without Poverty by the Bangladeshi social activist Muhammad Yunus a few years ago. Yunus has been involved in many controversies surrounding the Grameen Bank he started in Bangladesh as well as controversies with some of his other endeavors. Creating a World Without Poverty describes the founding of Grameen Bank, but it's not necessary to read the whole book as he repeats the entire book in his lengthy afterword. I thought he did a good job explaining the population density and poverty issues of Bangladesh. This is the book that opened my eyes to just how population dense Bangladesh is as banjo123 mentioned in >7 banjo123:.
For India I highly recommend The God of Small Things. It's one of my all-time favorite books.
That's all I can think of at the moment.
I can make the following recommendations for Bangladesh:
Revenge: A Fable by Taslima Nasrin (this would be a good read for March for any Americans looking to read something for Women's History Month). It's more of a novella so it would make a quick read.
For anyone looking to read non-fiction, I read Creating A World Without Poverty by the Bangladeshi social activist Muhammad Yunus a few years ago. Yunus has been involved in many controversies surrounding the Grameen Bank he started in Bangladesh as well as controversies with some of his other endeavors. Creating a World Without Poverty describes the founding of Grameen Bank, but it's not necessary to read the whole book as he repeats the entire book in his lengthy afterword. I thought he did a good job explaining the population density and poverty issues of Bangladesh. This is the book that opened my eyes to just how population dense Bangladesh is as banjo123 mentioned in >7 banjo123:.
For India I highly recommend The God of Small Things. It's one of my all-time favorite books.
That's all I can think of at the moment.
73vpfluke
I really liked the Hungry Tide and reviewed it several years ago.
74edwinbcn
007. The artist of disappearance
Finished reading: 2February 2015
Could it be that the essence of a culture is best preserved at the perifery? There are various examples, probably known to all readers of specific features or language, culture or custom that still exist in remote areas, sometimes isolated communities in one's own country, sometimes overseas parts which were former colonies, where certain inflections or cultural traditions have remained alive. In The artist of disappearance Anita Desai brings together three short stories which each describe how Indian ways of thinking, or lifestyles have been preserved in remote areas.
In the first story, "The Museum of Final Journey's the narrator is a well-educated man who takes up a post in a remote district, far from the city where he studied. Although his roots are in this area, it is obvious that he has estranged from living conditions there. He wonders at an exquisite art object he sees in a home and assumes it must be stolen or plundered. He hears from, and eventually visits a museum which houses an enormous, and very valuable collection of anthropological, historical and artistic objects, which he marvels at as he is led through the rooms of the museum, to the last courtyard, where a living treasure, an elephant is kept. The curator explains that he sells off pieces from the collection to feed the elephant. The story seems to contrast the cultured, materialistic world view of the Western view that would focus on preserving the collection of objects, versus the local cultural view that the objects can be sacrificed to keep the elephant alive, and that the elephant is much more important than the art objects.
The second story, "Translator translated" is about two old school friends. One of the two women, Tara, has studied literature at university and after a career in journalism has become an editor at a publishing house. Her school friend. Prema, is enthusiastic about a book written in a local languages, and Tara is persuaded to have one of those books translated and published. Prema also has a degree in English literature, but studied the local language in an evening course, after she had lost it, and then wrote her thesis on an author who wrote in the local language, "Oriya". The translation and publication of the book is successful and leads to a revival in academic interest in both the local languages and the author. The author is persuaded to write more, but in the end her new works are disappointing, lacking the originality are purity of the first work. The story contrasts high culture and low culture, high culture as represented by Jane Austen and Simone de Beauvoir, the works studied at school and university, versus local langauge or dialect writers. In the end, the weight of high culture crushes and corrupts the underappreciated lower, local culture.
In the last story, "The Artist of Disappearance" an old man cannot be persuaded to leave the ruin of his old, burntout house to take up residence in a new apartment. Instead, he hold on to living in old clothes and the old house. Through his lifestyle, he has come very close to nature. Then, a film crew arrives in the village. They are bustling, young people, who want to make a film about unspoilt nature, or the way the modern world threatens nature. As they cannot find what they are looking for, their attention is turned to Ravi, the old man in his ruined house and grown-over garden. Looking for him, they cannot find him at home, they turn up everything in his house, and peek at every corner. The story suggests the intrusiveness of modern, fleeting ideas into the stilled, quiet world of memory and nature of the old man.
The three stories show a different outlook on life, more deeply Indian, that still exist and contrast sharply with the dominant, imported Western cultural values, that are intrusive, corrupting and superficial. The old culture runs deep, far from the centre, where it still exists in small pockets, enclosures and in retreat.
These are three lovely stories, each very original and sincere, and very recognizable. The story telling is quite simple and straight-forward. Highly recommended.
Finished reading: 2February 2015
Could it be that the essence of a culture is best preserved at the perifery? There are various examples, probably known to all readers of specific features or language, culture or custom that still exist in remote areas, sometimes isolated communities in one's own country, sometimes overseas parts which were former colonies, where certain inflections or cultural traditions have remained alive. In The artist of disappearance Anita Desai brings together three short stories which each describe how Indian ways of thinking, or lifestyles have been preserved in remote areas.
In the first story, "The Museum of Final Journey's the narrator is a well-educated man who takes up a post in a remote district, far from the city where he studied. Although his roots are in this area, it is obvious that he has estranged from living conditions there. He wonders at an exquisite art object he sees in a home and assumes it must be stolen or plundered. He hears from, and eventually visits a museum which houses an enormous, and very valuable collection of anthropological, historical and artistic objects, which he marvels at as he is led through the rooms of the museum, to the last courtyard, where a living treasure, an elephant is kept. The curator explains that he sells off pieces from the collection to feed the elephant. The story seems to contrast the cultured, materialistic world view of the Western view that would focus on preserving the collection of objects, versus the local cultural view that the objects can be sacrificed to keep the elephant alive, and that the elephant is much more important than the art objects.
The second story, "Translator translated" is about two old school friends. One of the two women, Tara, has studied literature at university and after a career in journalism has become an editor at a publishing house. Her school friend. Prema, is enthusiastic about a book written in a local languages, and Tara is persuaded to have one of those books translated and published. Prema also has a degree in English literature, but studied the local language in an evening course, after she had lost it, and then wrote her thesis on an author who wrote in the local language, "Oriya". The translation and publication of the book is successful and leads to a revival in academic interest in both the local languages and the author. The author is persuaded to write more, but in the end her new works are disappointing, lacking the originality are purity of the first work. The story contrasts high culture and low culture, high culture as represented by Jane Austen and Simone de Beauvoir, the works studied at school and university, versus local langauge or dialect writers. In the end, the weight of high culture crushes and corrupts the underappreciated lower, local culture.
In the last story, "The Artist of Disappearance" an old man cannot be persuaded to leave the ruin of his old, burntout house to take up residence in a new apartment. Instead, he hold on to living in old clothes and the old house. Through his lifestyle, he has come very close to nature. Then, a film crew arrives in the village. They are bustling, young people, who want to make a film about unspoilt nature, or the way the modern world threatens nature. As they cannot find what they are looking for, their attention is turned to Ravi, the old man in his ruined house and grown-over garden. Looking for him, they cannot find him at home, they turn up everything in his house, and peek at every corner. The story suggests the intrusiveness of modern, fleeting ideas into the stilled, quiet world of memory and nature of the old man.
The three stories show a different outlook on life, more deeply Indian, that still exist and contrast sharply with the dominant, imported Western cultural values, that are intrusive, corrupting and superficial. The old culture runs deep, far from the centre, where it still exists in small pockets, enclosures and in retreat.
These are three lovely stories, each very original and sincere, and very recognizable. The story telling is quite simple and straight-forward. Highly recommended.
75A_musing
A few people were reading The Reluctant Fundamentalist. There is a webcast with the author today at 6:30 NYC time, sponsored by the Asia Society. You can submit questions by email or on twitter or facebook. http://asiasociety.org/new-york/events/mohsin-hamid%E2%80%94discontent-and-its-c...
76Tara1Reads
INDIA
Deaf Heaven by Pinki Virani
**NO SPOILERS**
This is an important book for what Virani has to say about politics, religion, and the spread of terrorism in India. The author includes paper clipped snippets of facts and explanations of events in India's past as well as cultural norms that are still present today. These little cards of information definitely expounded upon parts of the storyline or events that were mentioned. I am ashamed to admit I did not know about the events that Virani included in the book--violent and deadly fights between the Muslims and Hindus, monsoon rains that flooded Mumbai in a 24 hour period, and the destruction of several Muslim mosques by select Hindu groups. Learning these aspects of Indian history (very recent history at that, the book was published in 2009) was the most important and engaging part of the book for me.
Besides the paper clipped inserts, the other unusual aspect about this book was the writing. Virani chose to use a mixture of English and multiple Indian languages. Virani also had two characters communicate primarily by text messages which were written using texting abbreviations and the same mixture of multiple languages. Neither of these aspects bothered me that much once I got used to them but I can see them being off-putting to some readers, and I admit I could not decipher the text messages 100% of the time.
The storylines were lacking. The book opens with Saraswati dead in the library she works at and telling the story of the strong, single mother that raised Saraswati and her sister. I really liked Saraswati's voice in the prologue and hoped for that continue throughout the book. But the majority of the book switched back and forth between many characters whose relationship to Saraswati was never made clear. All the characters were somehow connected to the Bollywood film industry. The cast of characters included the film stars themselves, their families and friends, the journalists, and the beauticians and caterers employed by these socialites. Sometimes it seemed as if I was just reading a who's who in the Indian Bollywood scene.
This was a very timely read since the infamous monsoon of Mumbai happened 10 years ago this year and Virani includes the environmental experts' prediction that there will be a "Katrina-like situation in Mumbai by 2015." Let's hope this forecast doesn't come true.
I would not recommend this book to anyone who cannot tolerate reading about the horrific acts committed by terrorists especially the unspeakable things done to women and children. It only came up less than a handful of times in the book, but I still found those parts hard to get through.
Deaf Heaven by Pinki Virani
**NO SPOILERS**
This is an important book for what Virani has to say about politics, religion, and the spread of terrorism in India. The author includes paper clipped snippets of facts and explanations of events in India's past as well as cultural norms that are still present today. These little cards of information definitely expounded upon parts of the storyline or events that were mentioned. I am ashamed to admit I did not know about the events that Virani included in the book--violent and deadly fights between the Muslims and Hindus, monsoon rains that flooded Mumbai in a 24 hour period, and the destruction of several Muslim mosques by select Hindu groups. Learning these aspects of Indian history (very recent history at that, the book was published in 2009) was the most important and engaging part of the book for me.
Besides the paper clipped inserts, the other unusual aspect about this book was the writing. Virani chose to use a mixture of English and multiple Indian languages. Virani also had two characters communicate primarily by text messages which were written using texting abbreviations and the same mixture of multiple languages. Neither of these aspects bothered me that much once I got used to them but I can see them being off-putting to some readers, and I admit I could not decipher the text messages 100% of the time.
The storylines were lacking. The book opens with Saraswati dead in the library she works at and telling the story of the strong, single mother that raised Saraswati and her sister. I really liked Saraswati's voice in the prologue and hoped for that continue throughout the book. But the majority of the book switched back and forth between many characters whose relationship to Saraswati was never made clear. All the characters were somehow connected to the Bollywood film industry. The cast of characters included the film stars themselves, their families and friends, the journalists, and the beauticians and caterers employed by these socialites. Sometimes it seemed as if I was just reading a who's who in the Indian Bollywood scene.
This was a very timely read since the infamous monsoon of Mumbai happened 10 years ago this year and Virani includes the environmental experts' prediction that there will be a "Katrina-like situation in Mumbai by 2015." Let's hope this forecast doesn't come true.
I would not recommend this book to anyone who cannot tolerate reading about the horrific acts committed by terrorists especially the unspeakable things done to women and children. It only came up less than a handful of times in the book, but I still found those parts hard to get through.
77banjo123
It's nice to see so many good reviews! I am immersed in A Suitable Boy--hopefully I will finish by the end of March. I am also reading The Upstairs WIfe; I will post a review when I am done. I am learning lots about the region.
I did read the Death of Vishnu some years ago, and remember that I thought it was good.
>71 GerrysBookshelf: Congratulations on finding a Bhutanese book! And it sounds interesting.
I did read the Death of Vishnu some years ago, and remember that I thought it was good.
>71 GerrysBookshelf: Congratulations on finding a Bhutanese book! And it sounds interesting.
78streamsong
I also won The Upstairs Wife but, since I am several LTER's behind in my reading, I probably won't get to it in time for this quarter.
I am reading Gandhi My Autobiography - (which I know has several different titles) and loving it. It feels like a missing link for me in understanding this region.
I am reading Gandhi My Autobiography - (which I know has several different titles) and loving it. It feels like a missing link for me in understanding this region.
79evilmoose
I finished Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance and... well, here is my review:
Wow. Beautiful, brutal and heart breaking, this is an amazing book. Interwoven lives, the stories of families, of families created from friends, the horrible way we sometimes treat those we perceive as different, and whether that treatment can be an integral part of our belonging to a group. The battles everyone fights. Delicious food. Suffering, poverty, hardship, injustice and mistreatment. And the fine balance between hope and despair in India in the 1970s.
Also, I listened to this as an audiobook read by John Lee. I'd only ever heard him read China Mieville before, so I wasn't sure if it would work for me - I'm used to him being 'weird'. But he was fantastic, and I think he's up among my favourite narrators now.
Wow. Beautiful, brutal and heart breaking, this is an amazing book. Interwoven lives, the stories of families, of families created from friends, the horrible way we sometimes treat those we perceive as different, and whether that treatment can be an integral part of our belonging to a group. The battles everyone fights. Delicious food. Suffering, poverty, hardship, injustice and mistreatment. And the fine balance between hope and despair in India in the 1970s.
Also, I listened to this as an audiobook read by John Lee. I'd only ever heard him read China Mieville before, so I wasn't sure if it would work for me - I'm used to him being 'weird'. But he was fantastic, and I think he's up among my favourite narrators now.
80Tara1Reads
>79 evilmoose: Thanks for the review evilmoose. I think that's a book bullet for me!
81banjo123
>79 evilmoose: Great comments! I also thought that A Fine Balance was a wonderful book.
82banjo123
The Upstairs Wife by Rafia Zakaria is a book about he position of women in Pakistan. Zakaria’s family immigrated to Pakistan from India in 1962, due to the position of Muslims in India after the partition. In this books she alternates between describing the political events in Pakistan during the past 50 or so years and describing her Aunt Amina’s experience. When Amina was unable to have children, her husband took a second wife, something that was legal in Islam, but uncommon in their community. This was difficult in so many ways for Amina. Zakaria’s history of Pakistan really highlights Benazir Bhutto, so again, women’s position is the focus.
This book is well-written, and I appreciated gettting more information about the history of Pakistan, something I am not as knowledgeable about as I could wish. However, the stories are more loosely woven together than I would wish. I think it would have been a stronger book if Zakaria had focussed more on her own life experiences, and the role her family history had in shaping the woman she is today.
This book is well-written, and I appreciated gettting more information about the history of Pakistan, something I am not as knowledgeable about as I could wish. However, the stories are more loosely woven together than I would wish. I think it would have been a stronger book if Zakaria had focussed more on her own life experiences, and the role her family history had in shaping the woman she is today.
83rebeccanyc
I finished the wonderful Clear Light of Day by Anita Desai.
This beautifully written, perceptive, and compassionate novel has been on my shelves for nearly 35 years, and I am very happy that the Reading Globally theme read on the Indian subcontinent led me to take it off the shelf and read it. It is the story of a middle class family in Old Delhi and their interrelationships, focusing on three points in time. It starts when the younger daughter, Tara, who is married to Bakul, a diplomat, returns to her family home, then switches to the children's adolescence at the time of Indian independence and the partition with Pakistan, then goes back to their earlier childhood, and finally returns to the time of Tara's visit, presumably in the 70s.
In addition to Tara, the family consists of older son Raja, who is attracted to the Urdu literary world of their neighbor and landlord, a Muslim; older daughter Bim, who is interested in history, becomes a school teacher, and ends up taking care of the house and the younger son, Baba, who is what would have been called mentally retarded at the time this book was written. Various other characters enliven the book, including their parents, who are largely absent, spending most of their time at the club; an elderly aunt, Mira, who comes to live with the family; the neighbor/landlord family, the Hyder Alis, including their daughter Benazir who Raja ends up marrying after they flee to Hyderabad during the partition troubles; and their other neighbors, the big Misra family.
The beauty of this novel lies mostly in Desai's ability, similar to Chekhov's, to portray each character and his or her interests, strengths, flaws, gripes and grudges about others, and more so the reader can understand and sympathize with them and feel for their problems with the others even while feeling for the others as well. Among the issue they face are feelings of responsibility or irresponsibility, including caring for others, staying put versus moving, what one does with an education, escape and the inability to escape, and old feelings that harden with time. The issues of colonialism, independence, and post-colonialism are in the background, felt but only rarely directly expressed.
Some examples of Desai's writing.
"Oh, Bim," Tara said helplessly. Whenever she saw a tangle, an emotional tangle of this kind, rise up before her, she wanted only to turn and flee into that neat, sanitary, disinfected land in which she lived with Bakul, with its set of rules and regulations, its neatness and orderliness. And seemliness too --seemliness." p.28
"No one," said Bim, slowly and precisely, "comprehends better than children do. No one feels the atmosphere more keenly -- or catches all the nuances, all the insinuations in the air -- or notes those details that escape elders because their senses have atrophied, or calcified. . . .
"Or we lay on our backs at night, and stared up at the stars," Bim went on, more easily now. "Thinking. Wondering. Oh, we thought and we felt all right. Yes, Bakul, in our family at least we had the time. We felt everything in the air -- Mira-masi's insignificance and her need to apologize for it, mother's illness and father's preoccupation -- only we did nothing about it. Nothing." p. 149
The end of the novel reaches the sort of inconclusive resolution that it is so typical of real life.
This beautifully written, perceptive, and compassionate novel has been on my shelves for nearly 35 years, and I am very happy that the Reading Globally theme read on the Indian subcontinent led me to take it off the shelf and read it. It is the story of a middle class family in Old Delhi and their interrelationships, focusing on three points in time. It starts when the younger daughter, Tara, who is married to Bakul, a diplomat, returns to her family home, then switches to the children's adolescence at the time of Indian independence and the partition with Pakistan, then goes back to their earlier childhood, and finally returns to the time of Tara's visit, presumably in the 70s.
In addition to Tara, the family consists of older son Raja, who is attracted to the Urdu literary world of their neighbor and landlord, a Muslim; older daughter Bim, who is interested in history, becomes a school teacher, and ends up taking care of the house and the younger son, Baba, who is what would have been called mentally retarded at the time this book was written. Various other characters enliven the book, including their parents, who are largely absent, spending most of their time at the club; an elderly aunt, Mira, who comes to live with the family; the neighbor/landlord family, the Hyder Alis, including their daughter Benazir who Raja ends up marrying after they flee to Hyderabad during the partition troubles; and their other neighbors, the big Misra family.
The beauty of this novel lies mostly in Desai's ability, similar to Chekhov's, to portray each character and his or her interests, strengths, flaws, gripes and grudges about others, and more so the reader can understand and sympathize with them and feel for their problems with the others even while feeling for the others as well. Among the issue they face are feelings of responsibility or irresponsibility, including caring for others, staying put versus moving, what one does with an education, escape and the inability to escape, and old feelings that harden with time. The issues of colonialism, independence, and post-colonialism are in the background, felt but only rarely directly expressed.
Some examples of Desai's writing.
"Oh, Bim," Tara said helplessly. Whenever she saw a tangle, an emotional tangle of this kind, rise up before her, she wanted only to turn and flee into that neat, sanitary, disinfected land in which she lived with Bakul, with its set of rules and regulations, its neatness and orderliness. And seemliness too --seemliness." p.28
"No one," said Bim, slowly and precisely, "comprehends better than children do. No one feels the atmosphere more keenly -- or catches all the nuances, all the insinuations in the air -- or notes those details that escape elders because their senses have atrophied, or calcified. . . .
"Or we lay on our backs at night, and stared up at the stars," Bim went on, more easily now. "Thinking. Wondering. Oh, we thought and we felt all right. Yes, Bakul, in our family at least we had the time. We felt everything in the air -- Mira-masi's insignificance and her need to apologize for it, mother's illness and father's preoccupation -- only we did nothing about it. Nothing." p. 149
The end of the novel reaches the sort of inconclusive resolution that it is so typical of real life.
84Tara1Reads
I forgot to mention Kishwar Desai, another Indian author. I loved Witness the Night. Her books are hard to find in the U.S. though. Her latest book is currently only being published in English in the U.K. and Australia.
85banjo123
A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
Here’s the funny thing about A Suitable Boy: It’s 1474 pages long, so you wouldn’t think it needed a sequel, would you? Yet Seth is writing a sequel, and in fact, is in trouble with his publishers for not writing it fast enough. And, having just finished A Suitable Boy; I cannot wait to read A Suitable Girl.
This is a family drama, and also a social and political history of India post-independence. The history is made easy to swallow, because it’s coated in family gossip and romance. You can tell that Seth loves his characters, and I loved them, too. They are tender, foolish, noble and comic in turns.
Here’s the funny thing about A Suitable Boy: It’s 1474 pages long, so you wouldn’t think it needed a sequel, would you? Yet Seth is writing a sequel, and in fact, is in trouble with his publishers for not writing it fast enough. And, having just finished A Suitable Boy; I cannot wait to read A Suitable Girl.
This is a family drama, and also a social and political history of India post-independence. The history is made easy to swallow, because it’s coated in family gossip and romance. You can tell that Seth loves his characters, and I loved them, too. They are tender, foolish, noble and comic in turns.
86dcozy
I recently read and enjoyed Jeet Thayil's Narcopolis and Rani Sircar's Dancing Round the Maypole. Both were excellent.
Here's what I wrote about Narcopolis:
Jeet Thayil's Narcopolis is Mumbai through the seductive smoke of an opium pipe. He gives us the city, mostly in the seventies, when there were, apparently, still dens where addicts (along with slumming hippies) could retreat to chase the dragon. In these smoky dens stories were lived, told, and dreamed, stories that feature Muslims and Hindus, transsexuals and thugs, along with well-brought up young Indian men. It is far from being a paradise, but it is a zone where a kind of freedom is available, freedom we see slip away as opium is displaced by heroin, and usually heroin badly adulterated with poisons. Thayil tells the stories of the individuals who pass through the smoke and on to the powder, and also of the city in which they live with poetic aplomb. His prose traps one in the dream he writes.
Here's what I wrote about Dancing Round the Maypole:
Dancing Round the Maypole: Growing Out of British India is a memoir, published in 2003, by Rani Sircar, an Indian woman who was born during the Raj (a term, I learned from this book, that Indians don't use), and came into adulthood at about the time India gained its independence. She is mostly concerned to let us know how life was in the old days, to share with us what she calls her "sepia photographs" from her life mostly up until about the 1970s. If one started reading from the book's last chapter, where the author mostly complains about modern India, one might suspect that this is an exercise in rose-tinted everything-was-better-when-I-was-young nostalgia.
Indeed Sircar is, as the earlier chapters reveal, nostalgic for some aspects of her youth, and some aspects of India in her youth, but her nostalgia is not simple, and she is under no illusions about Indian life under the (sometimes artfully camouflaged, sometimes not) colonial boot. Her experience of India, like any Indian's, is unique to her, and certainly colored by an Anglo-Indian education--she was taught Anglo-pagan rituals such as dancing around maypoles--and that she grew up in a comfortably middle-class Christian family. One might, for example, get the impression from her book that hunger and illiteracy were not problems in the India she has grown old in--they certainly weren't much in evidence in her set--but Sircar is a sharp and self-aware author: she calls herself on this in the book's final pages. All in all this is a fascinating and sophisticated look at a lost world.
Here's what I wrote about Narcopolis:
Jeet Thayil's Narcopolis is Mumbai through the seductive smoke of an opium pipe. He gives us the city, mostly in the seventies, when there were, apparently, still dens where addicts (along with slumming hippies) could retreat to chase the dragon. In these smoky dens stories were lived, told, and dreamed, stories that feature Muslims and Hindus, transsexuals and thugs, along with well-brought up young Indian men. It is far from being a paradise, but it is a zone where a kind of freedom is available, freedom we see slip away as opium is displaced by heroin, and usually heroin badly adulterated with poisons. Thayil tells the stories of the individuals who pass through the smoke and on to the powder, and also of the city in which they live with poetic aplomb. His prose traps one in the dream he writes.
Here's what I wrote about Dancing Round the Maypole:
Dancing Round the Maypole: Growing Out of British India is a memoir, published in 2003, by Rani Sircar, an Indian woman who was born during the Raj (a term, I learned from this book, that Indians don't use), and came into adulthood at about the time India gained its independence. She is mostly concerned to let us know how life was in the old days, to share with us what she calls her "sepia photographs" from her life mostly up until about the 1970s. If one started reading from the book's last chapter, where the author mostly complains about modern India, one might suspect that this is an exercise in rose-tinted everything-was-better-when-I-was-young nostalgia.
Indeed Sircar is, as the earlier chapters reveal, nostalgic for some aspects of her youth, and some aspects of India in her youth, but her nostalgia is not simple, and she is under no illusions about Indian life under the (sometimes artfully camouflaged, sometimes not) colonial boot. Her experience of India, like any Indian's, is unique to her, and certainly colored by an Anglo-Indian education--she was taught Anglo-pagan rituals such as dancing around maypoles--and that she grew up in a comfortably middle-class Christian family. One might, for example, get the impression from her book that hunger and illiteracy were not problems in the India she has grown old in--they certainly weren't much in evidence in her set--but Sircar is a sharp and self-aware author: she calls herself on this in the book's final pages. All in all this is a fascinating and sophisticated look at a lost world.
87rebeccanyc
I enjoyed Narcopolis too, the beginning more than the more modern ending.
88banjo123
I just read an interesting article in the NYT "How English Ruined Indian Literature." The link is here.
I am enjoying all of the reviews! Right now I am reading, and liking, Royal Ghosts by Samrat Upadhyay, a Nepali writer.
I am enjoying all of the reviews! Right now I am reading, and liking, Royal Ghosts by Samrat Upadhyay, a Nepali writer.
89banjo123
The Royal Ghosts is a collection of short stories by Nepali writer Samrat Upadhyay. All of the stories feature individuals who are juggling personal struggles in the context of political upheaval. For example, in “A Refugee,” the protagonist, Pitamber, struggles with his duty to help a young refugee woman whose husband had been killed in front of her by Maobadi rebels. The story explores the human desire to help, and the toll that can take on both the helper and the helped. In “Father, Daughter,” Shova comes to terms with his daughter’s failure to be happy with a marriage within their own caste. He has to choose between his love for his daughter and his desire for social approval. In the title story, the main character is an edgy, taxi-driver, who deals with his own violent reactions to an abusive childhood and a complex relationship with his brother. This takes place at the same time that the news breaks of the Royal Family Massacre, in which it was believed that the heir to the throne, Prince Dipendra, killed nine members of his family and himself.
Upadhyay is a very good writer, and manages a tremendous amount of character development within the short story format. I really liked this book.
Upadhyay is a very good writer, and manages a tremendous amount of character development within the short story format. I really liked this book.
90Tara1Reads
>89 banjo123: I am so glad to hear you liked it. My local library has The Royal Ghosts and The Guru of Love. I haven't been able to decide which one to get. But I thought from the book descriptions The Royal Ghosts has more information about Nepal and its history, and it sounds like it does from your review.
91Tara1Reads
Shine, Coconut Moon
Neesha Meminger's website: http://www.neeshameminger.com/Home_TILB.html
Meminger's first novel tells the story of an Indian-American teenager, Samar, as she struggles to find her identity in an emotionally charged America just days after 9/11. Her identity crisis is set in motion when her Sikh uncle, whom Samar doesn't know, shows up unannounced on her doorstep.
Besides the obvious battles Samar and her family have to fight with being Indian and Sikh in America post-9/11, Samar also has to deal with a boyfriend who begins to reveal his true identity as well. Samar's boyfriend turns out to be obsessive and controlling and elevates Samar's stress as she is discovering a whole family history she never knew before.
Since this is a YA novel, there are some scenes that feel like Meminger put them in the book to teach the young adult reader a "life lesson." So they come out feeling contrived and cheesy. Some of the scenes, with Samar's boyfriend especially, seem as if Meminger just put them in the book to teach young women to be strong and stand up for themselves. There were some cliché feminist lines that felt as if Meminger was trying to force her own ideals into the book. But that's really my own criticism. Despite it being a YA novel there are many timeless themes of personal identity, national identity, culture, and race relations that could resonate with readers of older age levels as they did with me.
4.5 stars
Neesha Meminger's website: http://www.neeshameminger.com/Home_TILB.html
Meminger's first novel tells the story of an Indian-American teenager, Samar, as she struggles to find her identity in an emotionally charged America just days after 9/11. Her identity crisis is set in motion when her Sikh uncle, whom Samar doesn't know, shows up unannounced on her doorstep.
Besides the obvious battles Samar and her family have to fight with being Indian and Sikh in America post-9/11, Samar also has to deal with a boyfriend who begins to reveal his true identity as well. Samar's boyfriend turns out to be obsessive and controlling and elevates Samar's stress as she is discovering a whole family history she never knew before.
Since this is a YA novel, there are some scenes that feel like Meminger put them in the book to teach the young adult reader a "life lesson." So they come out feeling contrived and cheesy. Some of the scenes, with Samar's boyfriend especially, seem as if Meminger just put them in the book to teach young women to be strong and stand up for themselves. There were some cliché feminist lines that felt as if Meminger was trying to force her own ideals into the book. But that's really my own criticism. Despite it being a YA novel there are many timeless themes of personal identity, national identity, culture, and race relations that could resonate with readers of older age levels as they did with me.
4.5 stars
92streamsong
>89 banjo123: >90 Tara1Reads: It looks like I'll be reading The Guru of Love in April. This year I decided to read one book a month from my physical TBR pile chosen with a random number generator. The Guru of Love popped out for April. I had thought about reading it for this challenge, but didn't get to it, so I was pretty happy with the RNG choice.
93banjo123
>90 Tara1Reads: and >92 streamsong: THis was my first book by Upadhyay, so I can't compare it to his other work. I do like short stories, so the format worked for me. I would definitely read more of his work in the future, so The Guru of Love is on my list.
>92 streamsong: That's an awesome way to work on the TBR pile! It would be great to post the review here when you are done, even if the quarter is over.
>92 streamsong: That's an awesome way to work on the TBR pile! It would be great to post the review here when you are done, even if the quarter is over.
94kidzdoc
Such a Long Journey by Rohinton Mistry
This novel about family relationships, friendship, and the benefits and dangers of loyalty is set in 1971 Bombay, during the brutal Bangladeshi Liberation War and President Indira Gandhi's increasingly corrupt and repressive rule. The central character is Gustad Noble, a proud and respected middle aged bank clerk, who lives with his wife and three children in an apartment complex in a crumbling middle class neighborhood. Despite an outward appearance of stability, the Noble's domestic calm has been disrupted by the decision of Sohrab, the eldest child, to forego a scholarship to the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, which would likely ensure his and the family's financial stability, and a serious illness that has afflicted Roshan, the youngest child and only daughter of the family. Gustad also remains hurt by the decision of his best friend and beloved neighbor, Major Jimmy Bilimoria, to leave the Khodadad Building where they lived suddenly and without warning one year earlier. Jimmy's absence has left a large void in Gustad's life, particularly at a time when he faces trouble within and outside of home.
One day Gustad receives a mysterious letter from Jimmy. The Major has joined the Indian Secret Service, and he asks Gustad to grant him a very important favor. After he deliberates on it and consults his family, Gustad agrees to help Jimmy. However, once he realizes what Jimmy has asked him to do he soon realizes that his friend has put him, his family and his career in danger. He is caught between a rock and a hard place, as Jimmy's colleagues make it clear that he may suffer repercussions from them if he doesn't fulfill Jimmy's request, which adds more stress and uncertainty to his already troubled life.
Although I found Such a Long Journey to be a well written novel, filled with interesting characters, I didn't enjoy it nearly as well as I did his two other novels, A Fine Balance and Family Matters. Several key characters, particularly Sohrab and Dilnavaz, Gustad's wife, were thinly portrayed, Sohrab's decision to forgo his scholarship to IIT remained a mysterious one, given the lack of opportunities for young men with BA degrees in India, and the story ended in an abrupt and unsatisfying manner. I'm still glad that I read it, and I would recommend it, but mainly to those who have already read his previous books.
This novel about family relationships, friendship, and the benefits and dangers of loyalty is set in 1971 Bombay, during the brutal Bangladeshi Liberation War and President Indira Gandhi's increasingly corrupt and repressive rule. The central character is Gustad Noble, a proud and respected middle aged bank clerk, who lives with his wife and three children in an apartment complex in a crumbling middle class neighborhood. Despite an outward appearance of stability, the Noble's domestic calm has been disrupted by the decision of Sohrab, the eldest child, to forego a scholarship to the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, which would likely ensure his and the family's financial stability, and a serious illness that has afflicted Roshan, the youngest child and only daughter of the family. Gustad also remains hurt by the decision of his best friend and beloved neighbor, Major Jimmy Bilimoria, to leave the Khodadad Building where they lived suddenly and without warning one year earlier. Jimmy's absence has left a large void in Gustad's life, particularly at a time when he faces trouble within and outside of home.
One day Gustad receives a mysterious letter from Jimmy. The Major has joined the Indian Secret Service, and he asks Gustad to grant him a very important favor. After he deliberates on it and consults his family, Gustad agrees to help Jimmy. However, once he realizes what Jimmy has asked him to do he soon realizes that his friend has put him, his family and his career in danger. He is caught between a rock and a hard place, as Jimmy's colleagues make it clear that he may suffer repercussions from them if he doesn't fulfill Jimmy's request, which adds more stress and uncertainty to his already troubled life.
Although I found Such a Long Journey to be a well written novel, filled with interesting characters, I didn't enjoy it nearly as well as I did his two other novels, A Fine Balance and Family Matters. Several key characters, particularly Sohrab and Dilnavaz, Gustad's wife, were thinly portrayed, Sohrab's decision to forgo his scholarship to IIT remained a mysterious one, given the lack of opportunities for young men with BA degrees in India, and the story ended in an abrupt and unsatisfying manner. I'm still glad that I read it, and I would recommend it, but mainly to those who have already read his previous books.
95jigarpatel
Strongly recommended: Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo
Pulitzer-prize winner, here is my (short) review:-
Relentless. The narrative reads as fiction, at a breathtaking pace, every observation drilling in the dead ends, often literally, met in a Mumbai slum. The slum is surrounded by plush hotels and an airport signifying the globalisation of this bustling city, yet none of this filters down to the "down to earn-and-eat" poor. Divisions between the slum-dwellers, real and imagined, for all purposes dwarf the overarching division between rich and poor. Behind the Beautiful Forevers is about how they survive day-to-day. How their lives become insignificant, to themselves as well as others, not because of any religious or brutish factors but because of their dire circumstances and worldly corruption which keeps them there.
Think Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance, twice the pace, yet unbelievably true. The Author's Note at the end is itself a must-read.
Pulitzer-prize winner, here is my (short) review:-
Relentless. The narrative reads as fiction, at a breathtaking pace, every observation drilling in the dead ends, often literally, met in a Mumbai slum. The slum is surrounded by plush hotels and an airport signifying the globalisation of this bustling city, yet none of this filters down to the "down to earn-and-eat" poor. Divisions between the slum-dwellers, real and imagined, for all purposes dwarf the overarching division between rich and poor. Behind the Beautiful Forevers is about how they survive day-to-day. How their lives become insignificant, to themselves as well as others, not because of any religious or brutish factors but because of their dire circumstances and worldly corruption which keeps them there.
Think Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance, twice the pace, yet unbelievably true. The Author's Note at the end is itself a must-read.
96spiralsheep
"For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?"
I read Unmarriageable, by Soniah Kamal, which is a novel retelling Pride and Prejudice but set in contemporary Pakistan. Most attempted Pride and Prejudice retellings are pale imitations because they substitute Jane Austen's comedy of manners about life in society, that happens to have a central romance plot (or three), for a "romance" novel which is about one romantic relationship. Unmarriageable however is faithful to Austen's range as a comedy of manners about life in society, that happens to have a central romance plot (or three). It thoroughly retells the complex of characters, plots, and subplots, from the original but wholly translated to contemporary Pakistan. I especially enjoyed how true the characters are to Austen's portrayals, with the minor exception of Annie dey Bagh (Anne de Bourgh) who I'm glad to say was allowed a few lines of her own in this new work.
Unmarriageable also adds English and Pakistani and Indian literary intertextuality beyond the framework of Pride and Prejudice. My favourite is a fleeting moment when the protagonist Alys accidentally meets Darsee while he's escorting tourists named Thomas Fowle, Harris Bigg-Wither, and Soniah (no last name) who is Harris Bigg-Wither's girlfriend. Although a reader wouldn't need to be interested in this meta layer to enjoy the main family saga.
By the end of the first short chapter Kamal had reused the famous opening line from Pride and Prejudice, rewritten it in the context of Pakistani society, and subverted that rewriting, made an actually amusing Miss Havisham reference, made a truly funny Romeo and Juliet reference, introduced her protagonist and milieu, and made me laugh several times (although more of the book's humour is amusing social satire than laugh aloud comedy).
4.5*
Quotes (too many choices!)
Lol: "She gazed at the bulletin boards plastering the walls and boasting photos where Naheed beamed with Dilipabad's VIPs. They were thumbtacked in place to allow easy removal if a VIP fell from financial grace or got involved in a particularly egregious scandal."
Cemetery: "A row of ashoka trees, vibrant and healthy, created a man-planted border, their roots feeding from blood and bones on both sides, and Alys slipped through the trunks and into, it seemed, another cemetery. Dirt paths wound through overgrown vegetation and eroded marble headstones with British names in faded lettering. She walked on, scared now that she was so deep inside the graveyard. Moonlight spread down her back like ice. All was quiet except for crickets and her footsteps, crunching twigs. She saw a form leaning against a wall, an unnatural fiery glow emanating from where a mouth should be.
Alys screamed. The form screamed.
A girl stepped out of the shadows, a lit cigarette dangling from bony fingers, a scrawny braid curling down one shoulder to her waist. She was wearing red sandals and a purple-and-green shalwar kurta topped with a red cardigan with white plastic buttons."
The only major fault was the fake history in the notes at the back: "Lord Macaulay's Address to the British Parliament on 2nd February 1835" is a well-known fake that's been around since at least 2002 (sometimes supposedly about India and sometimes supposedly about Africa). Parliament was closed and Macaulay was in India where what he actually said was this: https://perma.cc/F3G9-TXB8 (which you don't need to read). To quote Abraham Lincoln, "Don’t believe everything you read on the internet."
I read Unmarriageable, by Soniah Kamal, which is a novel retelling Pride and Prejudice but set in contemporary Pakistan. Most attempted Pride and Prejudice retellings are pale imitations because they substitute Jane Austen's comedy of manners about life in society, that happens to have a central romance plot (or three), for a "romance" novel which is about one romantic relationship. Unmarriageable however is faithful to Austen's range as a comedy of manners about life in society, that happens to have a central romance plot (or three). It thoroughly retells the complex of characters, plots, and subplots, from the original but wholly translated to contemporary Pakistan. I especially enjoyed how true the characters are to Austen's portrayals, with the minor exception of Annie dey Bagh (Anne de Bourgh) who I'm glad to say was allowed a few lines of her own in this new work.
Unmarriageable also adds English and Pakistani and Indian literary intertextuality beyond the framework of Pride and Prejudice. My favourite is a fleeting moment when the protagonist Alys accidentally meets Darsee while he's escorting tourists named Thomas Fowle, Harris Bigg-Wither, and Soniah (no last name) who is Harris Bigg-Wither's girlfriend. Although a reader wouldn't need to be interested in this meta layer to enjoy the main family saga.
By the end of the first short chapter Kamal had reused the famous opening line from Pride and Prejudice, rewritten it in the context of Pakistani society, and subverted that rewriting, made an actually amusing Miss Havisham reference, made a truly funny Romeo and Juliet reference, introduced her protagonist and milieu, and made me laugh several times (although more of the book's humour is amusing social satire than laugh aloud comedy).
4.5*
Quotes (too many choices!)
Lol: "She gazed at the bulletin boards plastering the walls and boasting photos where Naheed beamed with Dilipabad's VIPs. They were thumbtacked in place to allow easy removal if a VIP fell from financial grace or got involved in a particularly egregious scandal."
Cemetery: "A row of ashoka trees, vibrant and healthy, created a man-planted border, their roots feeding from blood and bones on both sides, and Alys slipped through the trunks and into, it seemed, another cemetery. Dirt paths wound through overgrown vegetation and eroded marble headstones with British names in faded lettering. She walked on, scared now that she was so deep inside the graveyard. Moonlight spread down her back like ice. All was quiet except for crickets and her footsteps, crunching twigs. She saw a form leaning against a wall, an unnatural fiery glow emanating from where a mouth should be.
Alys screamed. The form screamed.
A girl stepped out of the shadows, a lit cigarette dangling from bony fingers, a scrawny braid curling down one shoulder to her waist. She was wearing red sandals and a purple-and-green shalwar kurta topped with a red cardigan with white plastic buttons."
The only major fault was the fake history in the notes at the back: "Lord Macaulay's Address to the British Parliament on 2nd February 1835" is a well-known fake that's been around since at least 2002 (sometimes supposedly about India and sometimes supposedly about Africa). Parliament was closed and Macaulay was in India where what he actually said was this: https://perma.cc/F3G9-TXB8 (which you don't need to read). To quote Abraham Lincoln, "Don’t believe everything you read on the internet."
97Gypsy_Boy
O.V. Vijayan, The Legends of Khasak
The truth of the matter is that I cannot honestly review this book. It is so heavily woven into and dependent on an unspoken understanding and appreciation for a universe I do not know or understand. I would need plenty of background reading or time spent in this universe to truly understand and appreciate this book. I honestly don’t think that anyone who is not from Kerala is likely to fully and completely grasp this book.
Do not misunderstand me: this is a unique, remarkable book. It combines a simple, straightforward story with myths, legends, gods and goddesses, worldview, and the ineffable. Even with my literal and figurative distance from all that it is about, there can be no doubt that it is an extraordinary effort.
It is translated by the author and, except for some occasional rough spots, the translation is good. There are, however, some choices that simply do not work. Moreover, this is a work that badly needs--at the very least--either a glossary or an introduction explaining the customs and beliefs of Kerala. It is, like many places, truly hard for an outsider to comprehend and that inevitable lack of complete comprehension makes it a harder work to appreciate.
The opening of the book doesn’t make sense until several more chapters in. The story line follows Ravi, a bright, college-educated rationalist as he takes up a job as a grade school teacher in a new government school in a small village. A fascinating group of characters appear on the stage and you learn who each one is, what his or her story is. And so as the book proceeds, the village becomes "peopled”—you come to learn who fills what place in the village, how life works, who the personalities are, and very importantly, why; you learn how they confront each other as well as themselves.
There is, too, what a number of reviews have called “magical realism.” My understanding of that term is that it refers to something else entirely. Yes, this book deals with the gods and belief and, very importantly, karma, but Vijayan’s achievement is to render the “unreal” painfully and poignantly real: the actions and interactions between people, the natural world, the universe of the gods all somehow fit together and the reader enters into that world along with Ravi, learning step by step.
The truth of the matter is that I cannot honestly review this book. It is so heavily woven into and dependent on an unspoken understanding and appreciation for a universe I do not know or understand. I would need plenty of background reading or time spent in this universe to truly understand and appreciate this book. I honestly don’t think that anyone who is not from Kerala is likely to fully and completely grasp this book.
Do not misunderstand me: this is a unique, remarkable book. It combines a simple, straightforward story with myths, legends, gods and goddesses, worldview, and the ineffable. Even with my literal and figurative distance from all that it is about, there can be no doubt that it is an extraordinary effort.
It is translated by the author and, except for some occasional rough spots, the translation is good. There are, however, some choices that simply do not work. Moreover, this is a work that badly needs--at the very least--either a glossary or an introduction explaining the customs and beliefs of Kerala. It is, like many places, truly hard for an outsider to comprehend and that inevitable lack of complete comprehension makes it a harder work to appreciate.
The opening of the book doesn’t make sense until several more chapters in. The story line follows Ravi, a bright, college-educated rationalist as he takes up a job as a grade school teacher in a new government school in a small village. A fascinating group of characters appear on the stage and you learn who each one is, what his or her story is. And so as the book proceeds, the village becomes "peopled”—you come to learn who fills what place in the village, how life works, who the personalities are, and very importantly, why; you learn how they confront each other as well as themselves.
There is, too, what a number of reviews have called “magical realism.” My understanding of that term is that it refers to something else entirely. Yes, this book deals with the gods and belief and, very importantly, karma, but Vijayan’s achievement is to render the “unreal” painfully and poignantly real: the actions and interactions between people, the natural world, the universe of the gods all somehow fit together and the reader enters into that world along with Ravi, learning step by step.
