Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Zadie Smith On Beauty
After what feels like a really long time I came across a book where it flows effortlessly from page to page and chapter to chapter. I had only heard about it in Booker lists and read reviews on hugely famous lit blogs. Needless to say I approached it with skepticism.
But it started off unexpected well. A book that starts with little tracks and incidents that take a while to get under the skin off but the story starts flowing much before that.
The best part about the book was the whole concept of beauty that it throws around. Without getting into too much personal information, the book helped me come face to face with the fact that despite whatever your personal image you may have of yourself, not everyone thinks like you. That may be the best thing for you. Beauty truly lies in the eye of the beholder and I have come around to understanding what this can mean in real life parallely while reading this book.
I have never believed platitudes and still do not believe it when anyone does say that looks do not matter. They may not matter in the long run but that is one of the main criteria for attraction. But what I am beginning to discover that it that it is this criteria that is subjective. Its this degree that I am discovering and learning to adjust to. A revelation of sorts for me. Like I said this was parallely happening while reading the book and therefore will probably one of those books which will be remembered forever in my reading life. Like Enid Blyton's The Faraway Tree when I truly realised that I like reading about food (all those superb scones, buns, pies, tarts, biscuits and toffees). This one is a similar land mark book.
Of course, unlike the course in real life, the book meanders half way down the story and though is fluid, it does not stay true to itself. A story about a marriage and the required precarious balance, watching other relationships teether and at the same time, having to pass one correct values to your children, despite the fact that those values may not have helped you to rescue your own.
The story progresses in a predictable fashion so no point talking about it here. Kiki, Howard, Zora, Jerome, Victoria, the Kipps, the Belseys, Claire, Choo.. and other myriad characters make it an interesting read. But one point I have to mention. I started the book and about twenty pages into the book (when it gets mentioned that one of the main characters is black), at that point I realised that how by default without even registering it, I assumed the protagonists will be white. I mean, to my mind, it was not something to even think about. Some conditioning...I guess.
Worth reading, its not a tedious read and in hardback with a large font, makes life easier. Here is an interesting review.
Thursday, April 06, 2006
It has been long enough!
Two books read recently and both loved one more than the other - just like a mother and her two children.
When We Were Orphans - Kazuo Ishiguro
My second Ishiguro and reaffirmed my initial ...ummmm... what do I call it? My initial reasons for liking him. I always worry about extremely popular authors. First time if you do like their first book you read (god help if you dislike the popular!) there is always that niggling worry about not liking anything else that will follow by the author.. especially successive work. So was rightly concerned because I had liked lots of things about 'The Remains Of The Day'.
This book is a simple enough story or so it seems. In the first few chapters itself, you have uncovered many layers - Christopher Banks, his life, his life in China and interspersed with history. For a large part of the book, it seemed like a regular story, which may have a moral at the end of it. The neat little twist was a pleasant surprise and had I read the book in a sitting (or 2 days - which I did not and spread it over a couple of weeks instead) I would have seen it coming.
Another thing that struck me that how events from childhood are inevitably coloured and are much more grandiose than the actual event. Like in My Family and Other Animals, only when he revisits China does he realise some of the squalor and mustiness that even his memories did not record.
His language is typical, like reading a novel with glasses made of Wren and Martin but I am also told, that also has a history, link for which I cannot find. Next on the list for the same author is 'The Unconsoled'. So should I read it of skip it?
Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas - Tom Robbins
This is the child (or book in this case) that I prefer between the two for this post. I dont know what about this author that I like so much but his books seem somehow timeless. The last book I read seemed appropriate in the light of the situation then and even so much now!
Gwendolyn Mati a stock broker (read scam between the two words) is worried about her future (and incidentally even the country's) now that the US Stock Market has fallen and fallen and gone beyond depths imaginable. Her future, her doubtfully earned money and her stock related happiness - all is at stake. The whole book is set between the evening before Good Friday and Easter Sunday and all she can possibly do in between.
Thrown in for additional seasoning is a tarot card reader who unfortunately can tell if you have a genuine orgasm or not, a born again(!!) monkey who resorts to turning tricks again - even humans are not as pious, mostly.. and of course her permanent boyfriend and intermitten lovers.
Written superbly with wit, disapproval and some amazing little nuggets of wisdom - of stock market rises, happiness, money, orgasms - I guess it talks about satisfying all your basic needs. And since my roommate has taken this book along for this is the only book she deigns funny and serious and readable on a flight, none of these lines I can share rightaway.
The Easter weekend is around the corner and a correction due in our markets expected not one day too soon.. I cant but help draw parallels.
When We Were Orphans - Kazuo Ishiguro
My second Ishiguro and reaffirmed my initial ...ummmm... what do I call it? My initial reasons for liking him. I always worry about extremely popular authors. First time if you do like their first book you read (god help if you dislike the popular!) there is always that niggling worry about not liking anything else that will follow by the author.. especially successive work. So was rightly concerned because I had liked lots of things about 'The Remains Of The Day'.
This book is a simple enough story or so it seems. In the first few chapters itself, you have uncovered many layers - Christopher Banks, his life, his life in China and interspersed with history. For a large part of the book, it seemed like a regular story, which may have a moral at the end of it. The neat little twist was a pleasant surprise and had I read the book in a sitting (or 2 days - which I did not and spread it over a couple of weeks instead) I would have seen it coming.
Another thing that struck me that how events from childhood are inevitably coloured and are much more grandiose than the actual event. Like in My Family and Other Animals, only when he revisits China does he realise some of the squalor and mustiness that even his memories did not record.
His language is typical, like reading a novel with glasses made of Wren and Martin but I am also told, that also has a history, link for which I cannot find. Next on the list for the same author is 'The Unconsoled'. So should I read it of skip it?
Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas - Tom Robbins
This is the child (or book in this case) that I prefer between the two for this post. I dont know what about this author that I like so much but his books seem somehow timeless. The last book I read seemed appropriate in the light of the situation then and even so much now!
Gwendolyn Mati a stock broker (read scam between the two words) is worried about her future (and incidentally even the country's) now that the US Stock Market has fallen and fallen and gone beyond depths imaginable. Her future, her doubtfully earned money and her stock related happiness - all is at stake. The whole book is set between the evening before Good Friday and Easter Sunday and all she can possibly do in between.
Thrown in for additional seasoning is a tarot card reader who unfortunately can tell if you have a genuine orgasm or not, a born again(!!) monkey who resorts to turning tricks again - even humans are not as pious, mostly.. and of course her permanent boyfriend and intermitten lovers.
Written superbly with wit, disapproval and some amazing little nuggets of wisdom - of stock market rises, happiness, money, orgasms - I guess it talks about satisfying all your basic needs. And since my roommate has taken this book along for this is the only book she deigns funny and serious and readable on a flight, none of these lines I can share rightaway.
The Easter weekend is around the corner and a correction due in our markets expected not one day too soon.. I cant but help draw parallels.
