Slum Child - Bina Shah

Fiction

Read It

I can't quite remember if I read this book previously or not. Usually I do remember. It was vaguely familiar but not so much that I could say for certain. Even if I did, I'm glad I read this a second time because I gathered so much more than I would have the first time.

Bina Shah has brought together a plethora of interesting things in this book. So many so that I found myself  fascinated. The main character, Laila, is a young Christian girl (1) who lives with her mother, sister, step father (2), and 3 younger step brothers. The family lives in Karachi Pakistan in a slum. Her step father is a Muslim (3). The story follows Laila as she wanders through a seemingly happy childhood with her family. Things take a darker turn when her sister develops tuberculousis and the family doesn't have enough money to have her treated and she passes away. Laila develops an unlikely friend with a drug addict (4) who later goes to rehab and gets his life together. After her sister's death, her mother sinks into a childlike, confused state (5) and stays there. As her mother was the sole bread winner, Laila is dismayed when she hears her father concede to sell her for money. She runs away (6) and finds an unlikely alliance in her drug addict friend and his bus driving cousin (7). She goes to her mother's old employer and begs for work. She is taken in and works as an ayah/househelp for a while. She discovers that she has lost her faith (8) and that she just cannot leave her helpless mother behind. She becomes close to the spoiled, rich children who she cared for (9) and they end up helping her when she is attacked by her father's friend when she goes home to get her mother. They kill him (10) and put her mother in a home. (11)

As you can see, there's a LOT going on there. The story of Punjabi Christians in a Muslim dominated country is a startling one. The author does justice to make sure the reader understands the suspicion and hatred that pops up between communities. She also addresses losses of faith, the heartless demeaning condition of slums, and how resentments are sometimes raised between financial classes even though there is no animosity. It's not a difficult book to read in terms of comprehension, but you will chew over the concepts for a while. Shah's main character is accessible - she's a little girl. The fights and responsibilities she is forced to take on age her, but as heartbreaking as they are, they are the fight of millions of young impoverished women.  Take the time to read this. It's an interesting look at a minority community.

~Becky~

Bhendi Bazaar - Vish Dhamija

Fiction

Meh

I picked up this book because I saw the movie adaptation of Bhendi Bazaar. I think that with very few exceptions, novels are better than movies.  I'm not quite sure if that is the case here. 

Let me clarify a bit. The story is good. Dhamija was able to keep the pace and mask the resolution right until the end - which was brilliant. However, his use of English is awkward to the point of being humorous. Perhaps it's just a language/translation problem - but from other data points in how he writes, I suspect not.  I'm not trying to discourage people from reading his work, but a good editor would have helped him out a lot. 

Bhendi Bazaar is a murder mystery. A serial killer who mutilates men to be specific. The story follows the DCP on the case - a woman to Dhamija's credit - as she fights to match wits and catch the killer. This is unusual on a few fronts. I'm not going to do a spoiler here, because the end is brilliant, but you won't see it coming, I guarantee that. And I love when an author is able to drop just enough hints to keep you restless for a resolution, but not enough that he or she assumes the reader is dumb and does too much forshadowing, leading to an easy guess.

As Dhamija himself writes in the forward, his main character is a good one. She has personality, flaws, and people can relate to her.  I wouldn't mind reading more of Dhamija's work with this character. One point I didn't much care for - and this is a common trap that writers fall for in order for their work to be accessible - is over explaining. There were way too many asides about India, police, and Mumbai. I get it - those points were important, but it would have been better if Dhamija worked them into the story in other ways. I also was left unimpressed by the romance. Sure, profilers/psychologists are useful in a case like this, but I didn't really get into the connection and transition. I think he could have either developed this or left it out all together,

Read it if you are in the mood for a Mumbai serial killer mystery and can get around the awkward writing - the story is good.

~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~

Two Years Eight Months and Twenty Eight Nights - Salman Rushdie

Fiction

Read it

My love of Salman Rushdie novels is not really a secret. This was an extension of that appreciation. Unfortunately, it's a classic Rushdie - meaning there's a lot going on that is under the surface and I feel like I missed most of it. 

The story is easy to follow - it's a mythological type book with genies, and good and evil. It's also a very interesting love story in it's own way.  Ordinary people are called upon to settle a fight against evil forces - in the form of very real Djins. Rushdie enjoys himself setting up characteristics for both the good and evil djins, and makes them very accessible - they are almost human in their flaws. Rushdie cannot be rushed through the plot. His ponderous style takes a while to get used to, but one has to appreciate how methodical he is. 

I'm not going to say much more than this because you must read his novels to truly appreciate them, and anything else I say is just going to be noise at this point.

Read it!

~Becky~

Escape to India - Philippa J Kaye

Fiction

Read it

I believe this is the first novel I can say that I know the authoress first hand. Philippa is a kick-ass lady.  Her situation is in some ways very similar to mind, and it was a joy to meet her and read her book. 

Escape to India is about a woman who finds out her boyfriend is married - not divorced like he said - and literally just bounces to spend some time in India to gain space and perspective. She is going to run a wild life lodge and encounters some crazy and heartwarming characters along the way. There's romance, a surprise appearance of the boyfriend, and lots of fun info about jungles. It's a fun novel. I almost thought it was biographical until I almost reached the end and figured out my assumption was wrong.

What I loved about this novel was that Philippa gets India. The characters, the situations, they're all true to someone who would have gone to do what the heroine does. Probably because Philippa has spent a great amount of time here. It's not a tourist novel, and that's amazingly refreshing. Yet it comes across as quite accessible. I also loved that her main character was flawed - as we all are to be honest - but you root for her none the less. Screw the boyfriend, even I wanted to drop kick him.

To be sure, the jungle/safari/tourism sector of India isn't all of it. India is fucking huge and the variety is mind blowing. But I felt like I understood better about it - which for me is what I'm usually after in a book. 

Leave alone my personal admiration for Philippa, I can't wait to read what she writes next. I would love to hear more accounts (fictional or not!) about her exploits here. 

Read it!

~Becky~

Estuary - Perumal Murugan

Fiction

Read it

I know that as I read and write reviews, I use the word favorite quite often. I simply can't help it - there are so many reasons for having favorites and having them for different reasons. To be quite trite, Perumal Murugan is also a favorite author of mine. I had read One Part Woman and Poonachi previously and greatly enjoyed myself. It's been a joy to watch his writing evolve. The BookWorm clerk - a brilliant salesman and always handing me more books I simply must read - suggested this. As I know I enjoy Murugan, I readily agreed. That and the book cover is beautiful. I'm a sucker for beautiful covers. Please don't inform the BookWorm clerk.

Estuary is a story about a family of Asuras (loosely in mythology creatures that are humanoid with extra powers). A government clerk father, a home making mother, and a college aged, spoiled son. Murugan takes us through a stunningly accessible journey of a family trying to send their son to college and make peace with the new technologies and changing world. The father is the main character, and the one who struggles the most. Their son was born after years of trying and superstitious intervention. As with all parents, he is dismayed to find out that his son is not longer the happy child who wanted all the attention and has now developed strong opinions of his own. The son's ever increasing financial demands and increasing distance cause the father great pain and he struggles to re-connect. As he is introduced to the technologies that his son is most comfortable with, the father is overcome with panic that his most precious son may go down the wrong path and completely wreck his life. After a small mental breakdown, a kind friend brilliantly works with him to see the positive sides that technology can bring and helps him learn to use the things so that it isn't an amorphous scary entity.

The brilliance of Murugan is how accessible he is. Anyone with children can identify easily with the anxiety that these parents feel and how real the fear of technology, losing the child to the wrong path, and losing touch are for every parent. I'm not quite sure why Murugan chose to use Asuras as a theme and he hasn't really clued us in to why this is important. Perhaps it's simply my lack of understanding of Asuras that is the problem. Either which way, I very much understood and empathized with the main character.  It was a breath of fresh air and very refreshing to read after the previous two challenging novels.  His portrayal of college visits and putting young adults in horse harnesses and blinders so that they only study, and how the parents fell in line without thought was particularly brilliant and hilarious.

I cannot wait to see what Murugan has up next. 

Absolutely read it.

~Becky~

The Princess and the Political Agent - Binodini

 Fiction

Verdict: A difficult one, but Read it

As I mentioned, when one wanders through Indian novels and writers, each brings a specific flavor that can help the reader understand the culture that the novel stems from. Binodini's novel is no exception. While my daughter had a Manipuri boyfriend for a while and I have had some...acquaintances from Manipur and Assam as well, I have had very little exposure to Manipuri Culture and no exposure to literary works from there. To be quite frank, when i picked this up, I mistakenly thought that this was a Bengali novel. I was thrilled to find out otherwise. As with my previous post on Attia Hosain, the introduction to Binodini at the beginning was intimidating as hell. Related to the royal family of Manipur and quite the literary influence, Binodini has published just one novel, but many other poems and short works.

The novel follows one one of the Manipuri Princesses during the British Raj, when the Manipuri king was removed and sent into exile,  and through her life. The author has created a treasure trove of culture, court intrigue, and romance. As title suggests, the Princess ends up being a common law wife of an English Political agent. While he is portrayed as a compassionate and caring person, one cannot help but wonder why the princess would accept someone who is widely recognized as being a face of the enemy and not one of them. Binodini never really answers this question. While it is a fiction novel, she has based it on actual people and events. The princess actually was with the political agent.  

This was a difficult novel for me to follow. The author does her own thing and tells her story exactly as she wishes to - no apologies, very few explanations.  While the cultural value this novel has is quite something, it's not easily digestible. I found myself having to do additional research into words and such while I was reading. I don't fault the author for this, but those who do not invest in helping themselves understand will probably miss a great deal. I also found the characters very difficult to understand and identify with. As someone who loves Indian literature, this was frustrating for me. I also would have loved to have had further insight into interpersonal relationships between the characters. Many of the relationships were confusing at best, down right confounding at worst. True to form, Binodini has just presented the story, she does not explain. 

Manipuri literature is a new one for me, and I fully plan to see what else I can find to read from there. Hopefully I can develop my knowledge enough to fully appreciate the story Binodini has told. 

Read it, but unless you are Manipuri, plan on investing some time to investigate. If you don't, you'll miss the richness of this novel.

~Becky~