The Ground Beneath Her Feet - Salman Rushdie

Fiction

Verdict: Read it

Yes, yes, I have a thing for Salman Rushdie. Or rather Salman Rushdie's books. He seems like rather a prick but I forgive him on account of genius. 

This was a novel that I got from the library, didn't get around to reading, and had to regretfully return. Fortunately on my last trip to the bookstore, I found a copy. Now when Salman Rushdie gets to writing, the man gets to writing. This isn't a short novel, and I'll admit, it drags a bit as Rushdie weaves his magic and gets around slowly to his point.

The novel is about a love triangle between the narrator and two famous singers, who he happens to have grown up. Rushdie takes his time going into the backgrounds of the characters and families. Vina Aspara, the central focus of the novel, and she's got a complicated background. The story slowly wanders through their growing up, becoming famous, and ending in tragic and mysterious circumstances.

Underneath it all, it's a love story, even though it's a super unconventional one. Vina also is a hell of a heroine, though she's also a super unconventional one. The story does wander off into weird territory at the end.  As with all Rushdie works, there are things going on underneath what he's saying. In this instance, I can't figure out what he is saying in this one, but that's not surprising.

What I can say is that Rushdie's interpretation of a love story and a heroine make it worth reading.  Plus, it's Salman Rushdie. It's worth reading.

Read it!

~Becky~

Delhi: A Soliloquy - M. Mukundan

Fiction

Verdict: Read it

Delhi is a novel that I pickup up for a few reasons. The cover art is very nice, which always gets me. I also do not like Delhi as a city. It's one of the few places I've ever felt unsafe, even when accompanied by my partner. It's a reputation the city has earned with good reason. Yet people live breathe and move through their lives there because that's where they live for a multitude of reasons.

M. Mukundan brings us through the live on a Malayali man named Sahadevan. He has come fresh off the train to try to "Make his way" in the big city and earn for his family. He is supported by other Malayalis who live in Delhi and have chosen to make it their home. The author doesn't focus too much on Sahadevan in the beginning; he brings the audience into a wider focus of everything going on around him. As with many lives, Sahadevan has people fade in and out of his everyday life due to a variety of reasons. We see this happen through the novel, as well as his own personality changes as he ages. In general he is a responsible soul (though one is clear he would rather not be) and this care extends to anyone he comes across. He simply feels obliged to help. As a result, his own life goes on the back burner until he is too old to change some of his choices, such as his own marriage. 

Mukundan does a wonderful job of capturing the small things about being from Kerala in a northern city without beating it to death nor suggesting the audience wouldn't understand any of it thus overexplaining. He simply points out that a South Indian moving to a northern city and making a living as an outsider can be difficult. Which it definitely is, but people do and life moves on. 

Mukundan has also set his story in a time that was tumultuous for India, not to mention Delhi. . Some of the characters that he has brilliantly woven into the story as side characters help illustrate some of the horrific things that have happened. The story opens with accounts of 2 wars and how it affects the mentality of the citizens His friend's son gets forced sterilized in a Sanjay Gandhi sterilization camp initiative. One Sikh landlord and his wife and elder daughter are murdered when the reprisals came for Indira Gandhi's murder happened. The mindset just never seems to improve - Delhi is a city with a grinding, brutal past. Yet people move on and survive.

It's a dark novel to read, but history is history. As I knew before I started, this novel has just reinforced what I thought of Delhi before. I don't particularly ever want to even visit there again. I can't imagine living there.

Read it!

~Becky~

Boys from Good Families - Usha K.R.

Fiction

Verdict: Meh

I have not read anything previous by Usha K.R. It's been so long since I've been to the bookstore that I honestly can't remember if this was a recommendation or simply had a nice cover. Who knows.

Boys from Good Families follows a privileged young man through his life, first in a house with servants somewhere in a village in Karnataka, then on to the US, then eventually back to that same house after his parents die and the house needs to be dealt with. 

There are so many themes in this book that I have read before that I almost felt that I HAD read this book before. But I know I haven't. The son who goes away to the US to find himself or make money, the love story about falling for one of the servants and how that's completely unacceptable, having property that you don't particularly want in a country you don't want to live in but it's still yours and your responsibility to take care of. Siblings who also want and feel they have a right to share in said property. Marriage that ends in disaster because the person they married to turns out to have no ambition, care, nor morals. I could go on. The themes in this book definitely aren't ground breaking ones. It's simply but well written. 

I didn't not enjoy reading this novel, but I certainly struggled to find anything unique about it that I did enjoy. The characters and experiences need more depth and less stereotyping. 

Not a bad novel, but nothing groundbreaking.

~Becky~

The Slim Punjabi - Harmeet

Non-Fiction

Read it for a deeper look into Punjab

I was expecting this to be a story. It wasn't. The author has woven together recipes with history, dance, folk lore, and festivals to give the reader a peak into Punjabi culture. I greatly enjoy Punjabi movies and culture, so this was delightful. I even found things I didn't expect to not have known - like some dance forms and even history. 

I guess my favorite part was the love stories that the author included. There are a few and they are of the Romeo and Juliet variety of romantic tragedy. I feel that stories of this type reflect a great deal on culture and history, so reading these was very interesting for me. The recipes, to be quite honest didn't interest me that much as finding any recipe is just a matter of consulting the google gods, but they gave a mental refresher after the weightier material. 

Read it if you're interested in Punjabi culture overall or just looking to broaden your horizons. 

~Becky~

Avasthe - U.R. Ananthamurthy

Fiction

Verdict: Difficult but worth reading

This is not the first book by Ananthamurthy that I've read. Being a very pro-Kannada writer person, the book shop assistant always suggests Kannada writers as well. 

Ananthamurthy opens the novel with an older man suffering from paralysis due to a stroke contemplating his life and how he reached his current state. He takes stock of his life through conversations, memories, and contemplation. A boy from very unprivaleged background makes something of himself. Not all of the phases of his life are clear. But he does make it very clear whom the influences on his life and they are an interesting cast of characters indeed. 

The main character marries for duty and suprisingly, Ananthamurthy makes a very clear point on how this is detrimental to his health after the stroke as he actually can't stand his wife. In fact it's the first time I've read an Indian author who isn't apologetic and stubbornly caught on the value of duty over happiness. Ananthamurthy also brings back a previous love interest late in the story and creates a connection even though the main character is older and has obvious health problems. 

He also takes on police brutality as a result of the main character's hot temper and association with a known anarchist. It's an interesting take. 

Ananthamurthy has done a masterful job of making his main character accessible. He's not perfect and has a wicked temper, but people can relate to him easily.   You can relate to his anger as a youth, and his longing for healthier times and his stock taking once he gets older. 

As with every variety of Indian writer, Kannada writers have their own flavor that sometimes takes a while to appreciate. But well worth it. 

Read it.

~Becky~

Truck De India - Rajat Ubhaykar

Nonfiction

Verdict: Read it!

India continually breaks into small sub-populations for many varied reasons. Nothing gives me more joy than to dig into a small subculture that i'd never considered before. Rajat Ubhaykar brings truck drivers to the forefront with the tales from his time hitch hiking in trucks across India.

India is a huge country, and without a doubt, trucks and the trucking industry plays a major role in transporting goods. Yet the people who chose to drive trucks are often looked down upon (as are many blue collar jobs) and vilified. Rajat's project is heartwarming, informative, and incredibly brave. It's definitely something I would otherwise never have access to.

Perhaps the author simply doesn't mention either unscrupulous drivers or simply ignores negative behaviors, but most of the people he interacts with seem stunningly average and Rajat does a fantatsic job of making the audience connect with the characters. He even formed relationships with people that lasted long past his project. 

Rajat also does a fantastic job of weaving in history and context about the trucking industry to give the readers further insight. He covers different difficulties that truck drivers face (robbery, police looting, government taxes, middlemen problems, and addiction). It certainly isn't an easy job and more respect and protection should go to the men willing to do such difficult jobs. But labor is cheap and unrespected in India. 

The book is an easy one to read and it will definitely open your eyes to this subculture.  

Read It!

~Becky~

Lunatic in my Head - Anjum Hassan

 Fiction

Verdict: Read it if you want to put the effort

If you have read my blog, you know that when I buy books, I rarely look at the back for a description. I pick up books more on what's on the cover. Accordingly, I had no idea what this one was about. It's like the book lottery, maybe you'll end up reading something you are familiar with, maybe not.

In this case, it was something unfamiliar. I've been planning to visit the north east for a very long time now. Unfortunately life, and then COVID have gotten in the way so far. Urg blurg. Anyhow, I'll get there eventually. What I was wandering around to is that the Northeast of India isn't something I'm overly familiar with.

Hassan's story follows 3 characters. Their lives are loosely connected, though they can't see it themselves, and eventually intertwine. All of the characters give the reader the feeling that they are waiting for change to come along - a very common theme in many small town books. One is a middle aged teacher unsure of a non-traditional relationship, another a small child who wishes to escape her nontraditional but mundane family, the last a restless young man trying to escape small towns and small minds. After much timepass wandering  around, they slowly do. 

Hassan perfectly captures the longing to break out of the average, tedious, small town routine. She also does a masterful job of  capturing the class, tribe, and caste undercurrents that drive a society that hosts the junction of different cultures. Her focus on Khasis was especially interesting for me. I never would have thought that there was an anti-immigrant feel to a town like Shillong, one that stretches generations and covers anyone non Khasi. 

To be quite frank, it's not the fastest moving, nor most action packed book. But what you can get from this novel if you're patient is worth the pace. I found interesting as well (and this continues to astound me across many experiences) is that small towns remain the same. Had the cultural markers been English, this could have been the town I grew up in. I constantly enjoy weighing people being different due to culture, yet always being the same because they're people and most of the human experience is the same. 

Read It.

~Becky~