The Moor's Last Sigh - Salman Rushdie

Fiction

Novel

Salman Rushdie has long been one of my favorite authors. He challenges my brain in ways that are subtle, but rigorous. I love it. 

This novel is a generational family epic of ridiculous proportions. Just about everything about this family is exceptional - some in good ways, some in terrible ones. 

True to Indian form, there's no happy ending, and it's not always clear who is right and wrong. You can't help but root for Rushdie's characters though. They're deep and very interesting, even though they are all realistically flawed. 

As I mentioned, Rushdie is never easy to read. He simply operates at a level that most of us never see. As such, his stories are very simple to read, but never are the simple story he has on the surface. There is always an under story that is happening in parallel. If you don't know how to look for it, you would never see it.  I know that I definitely need to looks through a few cliff notes to make sure I understand what happened.

Rushdie is one of those authors that you must read during your life time, if not for the enjoyment then for the experience.

Read it!

~Becky~ 

Tell me a Story - Rupa Bajwa

Fiction
Verdict: Read it

It's no surprise. I have a firmly established fetish for stories about average people that explain big things about culture. This book fits that mold perfectly and I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Rupa winds a story around a lower middle class family living in Amritsar and how their fortunes and family come and go. There's no fireworks, or dramatic story twists, heros, or villians. It's just a girl that works in a parlor living with her aging father, brother, and his wife and son. They have money problems and things aren't always good.

The reason why this format appeals to me so much is that the characters feel real to me. It's like peaking in a window and observing lives without being a peeping Tom. Since this type of thing fascinates me endlessly, I very much enjoyed this book.

If it fascinates you, or you're looking for additional cultural knowledge on lower middle income Indian families, then by all means read it. If you're already familiar with this, it will probably come off a wee bit dull. My vote is read it.