Sunday, July 17, 2005

 

Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince - J K Rowlings

Just finished reading 'Harry Potter and Half Blood Prince and it was a mammoth reading started on Sunday morning and finished a little over 600 pages, in one day flat. I have a headache and an arm ache to prove it. And I, of course, attribute all this to the hype attached. I dont think I have ever been this keen to read a book.

It's a decent continuation of the story line (after the last five books), ends on a much more decisive note and well all I can say is that the Author lied in her promotional activities about the story line! Wont be a spoiler.. but wait a while.. am sure in some time 'The Person Who Dies' or the character name will be in some review or the other. Of course, the character who shares the title with Harry also becomes evident halfway through the book. For a moment there one does think, is the Prince a he or a she.. or just an attempt to mislead Harry?

Harry joins Hogwarts School in his second to last year in a very tense atmosphere with all proverbial hell broken lose. Lots of adventures, lots of adolscent crushes without the angst of the last book (Harry and Cho..) and more clearly defined black and white characters. Lord Voldemort is present in the story through memory and incidents and Death Eaters only.

All in all better than the last book (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix). One line from the various online reviews that I really liked and agree to is that this books makes no allowance for readers who have not read upto this point and this was not the case till the last book.

MarginAlien wrote a nice review in the TOI but I can't find a link online. Will come back and update the post once I can. Here is blog that is keeping track of reviews (or sort of).

Update: Here is MarginAlien's review of the book.

Thursday, July 14, 2005

 

My Name is Red - Orhan Pamuk

Orhan Pamuk's My Name is Red is a rich text enveloped with so many layers and an absolute delight to read.

A simple story and narrated very well. A book is commissioned by the Sultan in 16th century Istanbul. Rising fundamentalists are threatening action due to rumours that the new book features potraitures. Two miniaturists are murdered, burtally. The other miniaturists explore various angles to unmask the murderer. By the end of the tale there are so many details divulged that I could not care less who was the murderer.

The story is told through various characters, thereby giving different perspectives. Some of these story tellers are even inanimate objects and euphemised qualities, the point of some of them lost on me.

The love story of Black and Shekure almost runs parallely. Its very potent, relying a lot on imagery - their images of each other, Shekure of her missing husband, Black's substitution on faces for Shekure and various other intermediaries like her children and Esther, the clothier and even her missing husband's brother, who also loves her.

Things I loved most about the story- its narrative style. Each character taking on a first person narration and giving the story's context. It was brilliant. Of course the first chapter is intriguing and definitely a big factor that got me interested in reading the book.

Also depite being a translation, the nuances of the book are finely woven in. All that information on miniatures. Its like a whole world has opened up to me. I even loved the loved the love story.

One main grouse with it was that towards the end of the book... the story starts to meander down tiny lanes in Istanbul in houses of various minaturists to reveal who is behind "I will be called Murderer". That part can get a little tedious, causing the book to go astray.

He is definitely an author one would want to read all other books of. Here are some more reviews of the book.

Friday, July 08, 2005

 

Dahl and children

I am still to cross over and become an adult who thinks that the likes of Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl are bad for children. After all if I grew up on Blyton, it can't be that bad since I turned out pretty much ok.

Came across this (via Indian Writing) article on what makes children's writing such a rare occurence. Some sundays ago there was a column which spoke about how difficult it is to even find a children's book so what we have we must hoard! Also I am yet to consider Harry Potter and his ilk children's fiction. Its just far too violent and unlike Dahl, the children have disturbingly adult perceptions of evil.

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