The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai

“All day, the colors had been those of dusk, mist moving like a water creature across the great flanks of mountains possessed of ocean shadows and depths. Briefly visible above the vapor, Kanchenjunga was a far peak whittled out of ice, gathering the rest of the light, a plume of snow blowing high by the winds at its summit.” Thus begins Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss. If you are not caught by these lines then the book is not for you.

Desai is the daughter of well known writer Bharati Desai and she has won a Man Booker Prize for this book. I believe this book is a cut above many of the books I have read recently. It is not a fast read at all and at times the story seems to go nowhere. But that is beside the point as the strength is in the language and Desai just excels in it. All that mist reminded me of another well written book called House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III but the comparison ends there. Without judgment Kiran Desai is able to portray everyday struggles in all zones of life. If you have tried to put an emotion into paper then you know how difficult it is, but Desai’s pen weaves effortlessly and beautifully through all kind of situations.

The story revolves around the remnants of the British Raj in India particulary in West Bengal and the struggles of Gorkhas of Kalimpong. Read here to get a background on Kalimpong’s history before delving into the book. The love story of Sai & Gyan gently traverses the book and gives it the semblance of a story too.

Haweswater by Sarah Hall

I was supposed to go out for a group lunch the other day. Something changed at the last moment and I found myself with a sanctioned long lunch hour at work. There was a Barnes & Nobles near work that I had always wanted to checkout and this presented the perfect opportunity. Armed with a location map and yahoo driving directions I found the place relatively easily. Much to my delight this location had a Starbucks café which agreed perfectly with my lunch plans. I wanted a book so I could sit and read and eat. Ah! Isn’t that heaven? But I also didn’t want to spend much on book to satisfy a whim. This is when I noticed the $4.98 books on display from which I selected a book ‘Haweswater ‘ by Sarah Hall. To be honest what intrigued me about this book other than its price was the name of the author’s previous book included on the cover page. ‘The Electric Michelangelo’ Very intriguing, is it not? I thought an author who could come up with such a name surely has imagination. I ordered my latte – I wished my husband could join me since ordering a latte is our guilty pleasure – and a blueberry scone, found a quiet place by the window and settled down to read. The book was good, not disappointing as I had secretly feared and the whole lunch time and more passed in bliss before I could bring myself to spring up for getting back to work. Having said that, I have to say it is not an easy read. The story is told laboriously so as not to lose any details and might be boring to some. The author’s strength for an impatient reader like me was that I was willing to read through each of the words so as to be pulled more and more into the story she is trying to tell. I wanted to read the story without skimming it and was also quite happy to put it down for other errands knowing I will come back to it to finish it.

Sarah Hall is a British author and this is her second book. I intend to find her first book from the Library as I believe it will be good too and it was a Man Booker prize finalist. This book tells the story of the tenant farmers of Britain in the 1930s in the village of Marsdale and how the building of the Haweswater Dam affected their lives. Having grown up in a farm could explain why I took to this book.

Kazuo Ishiguro - When We Were Orphans

I had the luck of a book lover the other day in the local Library.
Had a short time to select a book because I had started earlier
from work and my husband called to say he is picking up the kids.
Browsing fast I couldn't really latch onto a book that tells me that it is
worth my time on it. I so wanted to try a new author that I didn't want
to resort to my tried and trusted authors this time.

Finally I picked a book which only sort of spoke to me and was on my way to checkout a little disappointed when I noticed it. A hardback with that look! In a flash the books were switched and during a respite from home activities read the first few chapters. The book read like an Arthur Conan Doyle/Daphne Du Maurier style that I enjoy much. I was congratulating myself on this find as I had spotted many more books by the same author in the shelf which now I can borrow with no second thoughts. It was then I noted the less noticed caption under the book title. 'From the Author of the Remains Of The Day'. But of course!! I had watched the Merchant-Ivory movie and liked it and knew right away that now I am totally at peace with my "new" author. Kazuo Ishiguro was born in Japan but grew up in Britain where his family emigrated. He won the Booker Prize for 'Remains of the Day'.

Here is the dish on the book:
Christopher is a Shanghai born British boy whose parents mysteriously disappeared in the orient. He also left behind his boyhood Japanese friend Akira whose memories never faded for him. After returning to London he became a famous detective and all the while he had the inkling to one day go back to find his parents. It happened during the opium wars and his father used to work for a British Company that also dealt in opium. Enough said. When he managed to go back the Japanese were invading China and the book goes on to describe how he partially succeeded in the search for his parents and the revelations that came on its heels.

Two Books. Again!

Yes, I seem to be reading in pairs these days:-)

Midnight At The Dragon Cafe

Judy Fong Bates is an author I chanced upon in the Library. I had not heard of her before.

The story is about the life of a Chinese family from the Mainland that immigrated to small town Canada in Ontario. It is interesting in that it gives a glimpse into how the family and probably many others like theirs adapted to life in a foreign land fleeing from the communist regime of the time.

What The Body Remembers

Sahuna Singh Baldwin was born abroad but brought up in India and settled abroad. The story is written from a women's perspective. Provides enough insights into a strong woman's mind who had no freedom to express it. It is also entwined with India's Independence and the partition which can evoke familiar emotions of forgotten sorrows.

I am not sure I will be looking for works from these authors diligently but I won't run away if one chances upon me.

Malayalam Books – non fiction

My in-laws came this week and Dad brought me some books as a gift. He probably didn’t know he got the ideal gift! All were Malayalam non-fiction. Something I hadn’t been exposed to in a long while. Was pleasantly surprised to find that every single one of the books were good and gave me something to think about. Dad mentioned that they were selected by a priest friend of his who is also an avid reader. I am laying two of these books out here so if any of you wanted to get a Malayalam fix of quality you can go for these.

Chidambarasmarana
I had heard a lot about Balachandran Chullikkadu. Mostly that he is a poet and remember pictures of him with medusa like hair and stuff. Had read some of his poems when I was probably too young for them as I didn’t understand much. So I had ignored him as a most modern poet. Reading his book now I can’t imagine why I would give him such a label. Even in prose his poetic nature comes through. Although his memoirs – at least quite a few of them – are not what I would want to dwell on much, the beauty of the language cannot be ignored. Because Malayalam is infused with commonly used English words whose native equivalents are not easy to digest, it is difficult for writers to use pure Malayalam without having these ‘outstanding’ English words in them. Chullikkadu has no such problems. Language flows effortlessly for him even when describing the crudest parts. I didn’t catch it at first as I started the book with a prejudged mind. But over time I was so engrossed in the beautiful usage of words that I was floored. He even has some poetic lines of his in there. The one that affected me the most was the description of his thoughts that came out during the death of his estranged father. One simply cannot ignore the force of his language that slowly gets you…I used to love OV Vijayan who is my favorite prolific Malayalam writer that I believe has an extraordinary talent with Malayalam word flow. This one comes pretty close.

Neermathalam Poothakalam
Written by the world renowned poetess and writer Madhavikkutti/Kamala Das. Her English poems are known around the world. She has written a book in English with Andrew Arkin that has her prose as well as poems and is available from amazon.com. Dad was saying that she is known to be a little off in the head these days and my answer to that was “but that does not matter because if you read her books you will feel like respectfully prostrating before her”J This book is a classic example. It is her childhood memories and comes out haphazardly. But you hardly notice. It mostly touches the people in her childhood connected to the many Nair ancestral families that are networked with her own famous Nalappatt family. She also reminisces about her uncle the famous poet Nalappatt Narayana Menon. It does not go too much into detail about her equally famous Mother and poetess Balamaniamma most likely because they did not spend much time together. A blessed writer of both Malayalam and English whose calibre stands up well with any other good writer in the world.

The Glass Palace

My first book by author Amitav Gosh. I had read a Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth and found it rather tedious and so was afraid to take another book that appeared similar. Being from India I had satisfied myself that I pretty much knew the history of its Independence. It was a surprise to find that the events described in 2 or 3 paragraphs in history books can span the sprawling canvass of events laid out in this book. It gives us an idea of what went on with Indian officers in the British Army during those eventful times. I didn’t think the story will lead this way as it started around its intriguing namesake The Glass Palace which was the official residence of the Kings of Burma then. There too it was interesting to read of a Golden Burma especially as we are faced with quite a different kind of Burma these days. If you are a historical fiction buff like me, then you will find this immensely satisfying. It follows the story of orphaned Rajkumar through the streets and forests of Burma, the Rubber estates of Malaysia and eventually into India. The events are historical yet well told in a fictional format. Do read when you are ready to enjoy some history. I watched the Hindi movie ‘Lakshya’ after reading this book. There is not much connection between the two except both sort of refer to the Indian Military Academy. Amitav Gosh’s book shows IMA’s roots and the Movie gives its current scope.

Of Books, Authors and Me:

I got carried away with the food part of my blog. Besides, no new books had entered my horizon. Now I have another one in a row! The book I want to speak of today is ‘My Sister’s Keeper’ by Jodi Picccoult.

Jodi Piccoult is a Harvard educated former school teacher turned prolific writer who develops her characters pretty deep with few exceptions and this is what attracted me to her books. When you read her books you get to know the characters pretty well. Some of her support characters have a little ‘masala’ inclination but her superb writing intermingled with her mastery of words more than make up for it towards an enjoyable read. It has enough of a mystery to it to make you want to finish it all in one stretch. No other book of hers has affected me as much as her book that I mentioned above. It tells the story of a sister who was conceived just so her sick older sister suffering from leukemia can have her cord blood. A book where the question about the reason for existence becomes rather interesting. The book examines this from the perspective of many of its characters. The mother character is very close to one’s heart though portrayed rather coldly. I read the book ‘Plain Truth’ first and then went on to get all her books from the public Library.