A House for Mr. Misra - Jaishree Misra

NonFiction

Verdict: Read It (5/5)

Overview:

I Picked up this very small book from Bookworm. The cover artwork is very nice. This is the first book I've read by Jaishree Misra.

This novel revolves around an Indian couple that has moved from Britain back to India. The main character, whose name is not disclosed beyond Mr. M's wife, is a Malayali from Kerala. her husband is vaguely from "North India". They purchase some land and proceed to deal with the idiocy that is India anytime anything official or bureaucratic happens. 

What I Enjoyed:

I think anyone who has purchased a home of any type in India can relate to some (or all!) of the struggles that the Misras' went through. I certainly could. Trying to do things both by the book and with a workaround will never go as planned, and will possibly become very difficult. A well-written and edited book. 

What I Disliked:

I wanted this novel to be longer and have more details. While I could appreciate the beauty of a short story about an isolated subject, I really wanted to know more about the Misras and the process of their house. 

Summary:

Another rainy afternoon delight, it's short but entertaining and worth it. If you understand India, bureaucracy, and property, this is a book for you. Read it!

~Becky~

The Better Man - Anita Nair

Fiction

Verdict: Read it

I read this book some time back and somehow forgot to include it in my reviews. I like Anita Nair's writing. I've read a few before. This novel was along the same stylistic lines and I liked this one as well.

The main character, Mukundan, has returned to his village. He is determined to change both his surroundings and himself and begins restoring his old home. He ends up with a crazy sidekick who helps him and provides most of his social interaction. I'm not sure what it is about Indian lore, but the disorganiztion and chaos so often results in people in almost absurd situations that you wonder how they got there and why they just accept it. Just an observation - ahem. Anyhow. His side kick Bhasi sets about trying to improve Mukundan's unhappiness through a string of neutral to absurd ideas. Mukundan is patient with these attempts, but none of them really stick and he wanders here and there like a ghost himself, never really fulfiling his quest to change his house or himself.

THere's not much of a plot line through this book and most of what we see is Mukundan's maudlin thoughts to himself. He doesn't have much of a purpose, nor does he seem to have any passions or relationships in life. You feel sorry for him. Read it if you want a slow burn of hopelessness in a village setting.

~Becky~

Moustache - S. Hareesh

Fiction

Read it

S. Hareesh is a new author for me. I actually picked this up due to the cover - it's very nicely done. I've mentioned many times that authors from different places have different flavors. This is the first one I've read with a Keralite author and it was delightful. 

The novel is set in the backwaters of Kerala in small villages. By chance, an idle youth is pulled into a play in which he is made to wear a mustache and be a policeman. He plays his role so well, and scares quite a few audiences. When the play is done, he decides to keep it. The novel follows all of the antics and legends that build around this one normal person who grows an epic mustache. One cannot quite decide what is real and what is legend after a while. As lore often goes, people hear things about themselves that are absurd. But they rarely correct these ideas - as does our main character. He spends much of his time running from both law enforcement as well as unruly mobs who blame him for all manner of things. 

I truly felt sorry for the main character as he obviously has become enamored with his identity and likes it, though it keeps him from leading a normal life. He has a love interest, but is kept away from her tragically for a long time. 

S. Hareesh involves the reader to quite some detail on cast politics and social norms between them. While it's uncomfortable to read and shameful that such things happen, he doesn't pull punches and describes things just so. The author employs two very distinct and different tones. There are conversations between a father and son about the legends of the Mustach Man, and then there are the the exploits themselves. The author has done a masterful job of making them sound very different. 

I found myself getting slightly frustrated by the pace occasionally, but the author simply refuses to be rushed, and there's something to be said for that. Read this if you want some historical context on Kerala, caste, and of course legends. 

~Becky~

The Better Man - Anita Nair

Fiction
Verdict: Read it

Anita Nair is a recent find for me, and one I am thrilled to have come across.

Nair's book is about a man who moves to a village and gets into an odd friendship with a painter. Stuck in his traditional house with difficult family, the protagonist questions his life and what direction it will take.

After the local politician decides to rob the painter of his land, readers get a glimpse into how difficult village life can be. Politics, jealousy, exclusion, land grabbing - it makes one never want to live in a village. There is none of the usual romanticism about villages.

The book is very raw in a good sense, there's no frills or pretensions.

Read it.

Becky