A pale view of hills - Kazuo Ishiguro

Fiction
Verdict: Read it?

This book confused the hell out of me. A japanese woman living in England with a daughter are reminiscing about her other daughter, who had committed suicide. We then jump back to an earlier time when they lived in Japan. The main character was expecting and has a series of encounters with a decidedly weird neighbor and her unsupervised child.

I kept waiting for something to happen to the irresponsible parent and child, but other than trying to marry someone and move away....nothing much happens with them. I also did not get the opening chapter nor what that had to do with the rest of the book.

Read it and maybe it will make sense to you.

Dollar Bahu - Sudha Murty

Fiction
Verdict: Read it

One of Sudha Murty's earlier works, but still well worth the read. He writing is still a bit raw, but it works with the characters she's created. She spins the perfect divided house dynamic. A greedy grasping mother who wants her son to earn in dollars, she picks out the perfect wife for him and sends them to the US. Her other son marries a simple girl with no connections or money. Life doesn't work out as the mother hoped. While she has every material thing she could want, her well off son and daughter in law are distant from her. Never given any respect from her, her other son and daughter in law also find it difficult to be kind to her. 

The entire book is a brilliant skewer of families who think that having someone earning in dollars is the ultimate show off.

Read it.

Becky

Here There and Everywhere - Sudha Murty

Fiction
Verdict: Read it

As I mentioned, Sudha Murty has captured my attention in a big way. This book is a compilation of her best loved stories.

Simple characters, simple language, and a loving outlook on humanity, Murty weaves her magic. I read this on a train ride to Chennai. It was the perfect companion.


Definitely read it.

Becky

The Upside Down king - Sudha Murty

Fiction
Verdict: Read it if you like Indian Mythology

Sudha Murty is a recently new find for me as well and again, a thrilling one. Different from the coloquial stories about Kannadigas, Murty delves into mythology, adding her own twists and flares here and there.

I'm not so hot on mythological writing, but I absolutely loved this. As with her other work, Sudha Murty makes mythology accessible. Simple words, explanations where the reader may need them.

Worth reading.

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

An Equal Music - Vikram Seth

Fiction
Verdict: Read It

I'll be honest. After reading the behemoth that was "A Suitable Boy", I was wary of reading any more from Vikram Seth. It was an excellent read, but holy hotcakes was it long.

I was not disappointed with An Equal Music either. If Seth knows how to do one thing well, it's weave a long and complex story, and he's done it here. Focusing on the affair between professional musicians in Europe, it has a different flavor than normal Indian novels. It still has the ever present melancholy and fatalism that marks so many Indian authors.

It's not a happy ending, and watching the affair dwindle off to nothing is almost as excruciating as watching the main character's love interest lose her hearing, which is devastating for a musician.

I found myself wondering just what the point of the main character's life was, until it resembled my own, which was of course infinitely depressing.

It's not short, or easy, but read it anyhow. Vikram Seth's stories really are well spun.

Becky

Tales from Ferosha Bhaag - Rohinton Mistry

Fiction
Verdict: Read it

All the previously discussed good things about Rohinton Mistry writing, but with a community focus rather than a single family. This is a compilation of short stories within a community that obviously features some of the same characters.

The beautiful thing about this book was how seamlessly Mistry leads you from one family to the next, one home to the next.

Definitely worth the read.

Becky