Delhi Noir - Omair Ahmad et Al

Fiction

Short Stories

As I mentioned, I have been very into short stories as of late. I have to be honest, the introduction to this collection sold me before I even started on the stories. The stories did not disappoint either. 

These stories feature the grittiness of life in Delhi. After visiting a few times, Delhi is not a place I'd ever want to visit again, for many of the reasons that come to the forefront of these stories. They are not happy ones, nor ones that give you any hope for humanity. Yet people move along with their lives because that's just how Delhi is. 

The authors and stories chosen gel very well together and do an excellent job of portraying the city in a realistic way that is often missing from the sanitized, glamorous life that the rich and famous live. 

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~ 

The Greatest Odia Stories Ever Told - Leilawati Mohapatra et al

Fiction - Short Stories
Read it

Short Fiction stories that tell the history and culture of a place have caught my attention as of late, especially in India. I have yet to branch out into exploring other places, but I'm sure I will. This is a collection of translated Odia stories.

I found the stories and the overall ethos of the stories to be rather curious. They are simple, neutral, and matter of fact. They did not conform, as I suspected they might, to the overall pathos that Indian writers can't help but operate in. For those who don't know, Orissa is overall a rather poor place, with a lot of tribal people and farmers. These are not metropolitan stories, they are stories of simple, poor but getting by people. Yet there's no fixation on that. It's just about their lives and how they get through and how relationships work.

A few more curious things stood out to me. There was a story with a prostitute - The Whore : A Love Story - that featured a prostitue. It was refreshingly free of moral judgments and societal separations - it was simply a man and a woman who had a non conventional relationship. Salvation was one of the most touching, beautiful, non conventional love stories I have heard. A man and his sister in law who lived together and supported each other after his wife died, without ever looking at or talking to each other to observe social propriety. Yet they knew each other so well by the end of her life they didn't have to speak to know what the other was thinking or suffering. The book goes on this way with interesting and varied stories.

Do read it, it's a breath of fresh air.

~Becky~

The Lowland - Jhumpa Lahiri

Fiction
Verdict: Read it

You'll be hard pressed to find me un-supportive of Jhumpa Lahiri. This book is not an exception.

The novel traces two brothers through their paths, divergent from Tolly Gunge Calcutta. Each has his own path - and they are very different - that traverse idiologies, countries, and even relationships. What Lahiri really explores here are personal choices and priorities. For anyone that has had a sibling that they love but is opposite of themselves, this will ring true.

Lahiri recognizes that nurture will be the same for siblings (although it's not necessarily the same experience) , but people will take different paths and decide that different things are important.

I also found it curious that Lahiri recognized the wasteland that is widow-hood and remarriage. The protagonist marries his brother's widow, and it becomes increasingly clear that while they have shared experiences, they do not belong together.

In a surprising rally, this book becomes a feminist anthem. The female uses her husband's brother to transition her life into something meaningful, but not permanent.

In a side curiosity, the author explores Naxalism and how the personal experience influences the family.

This is a book so packed with experiences you almost cringe at what comes next, but you know it will keep going and that each experience will be valuable.

Verdict: Definitely read it. It's a powerhouse.

~Becky~

The Krishna Key - Ashwin Sanghi

Fiction
Verdict: Depends on your tolerance of mythology

I have read Ashwin Sanghi previously. This is a book I have been meaning to read for quite some time now, so when the librarian mentioned it, I decided to just go for it.

Ashwin brings his audience through a suspense novel concerning some artifacts, the Indian mythological system, murder, and misplaced righteousness. Spoiler - I didn't finish it. I'll get to that in a minute.

I enjoy Ashwin Sanghi's writing, aside from a few novel-specific points He's competent, coherent (or at least has a good editor!), and overall spins a good story.

Why it didn't work for me:
1. I appreciate mythology, I truly do. I'm not sure if Sanghi was trying to appeal to a wider audience than India, but he over explains the mythological concepts and connection in the guise of a teacher/student dynamic. This bothers me because a, I'd bet that almost every Indian knows these stories, b, trying to sell them as actual events here is not going to be argued with too much, and c, your student is 40 years old - she won't be asking level 1 questions.
2. I will never be convinced that the Mahabharata's stories are any more true than the bible or Koran. Less likely in fact.
3. The characters were caricatures. The geeky but hot student, the chain smoking, rough voiced female cop that scares the shit out of her colleagues and everyone in general.....come on.


If you have some time and you like mythology and the echo chamber that exists here about proving questionable events, then feel free. Not my cup of tea.

~Becky~

The Bankster - Ravi Subramanian

Fiction
Verdict: Time Pass

As Just Books is still not trading books between branches (that I know of), this was another book I chose to read so that I wouldn't inconvenience the librarian into finding more interesting things. I have never read Ravi Subramanian, so I thought I'd give him a go and see.

The book is a suspense novel. The author makes a stab at different plots that wind around each other to eventually make sense in the end. It's a mix of bankers, nuclear energy, blood diamonds, and murder. 

While it's a decent time pass story, the author has a while to go in terms of writing styles. I became overly conscious of him telling me why things were the way they were, rather than just showing them. I.e. "Bhaskar walked down his driveway and picked up the mail. He had always done that because his father taught him that the mailman was a symbol of punctuality." It did however, give me enough discomfort to go back and edit my own novels for such irritations. So there's that. 

Read it if you have the time and patience, it's a good concept, only execution needs a little polishing.

~Becky~

The Enigma of Arrival - V.S. Naipaul

Fiction
Verdict: God speed young man

There are very few books that I read that I do not finish. I will stubbornly persist until my eyes bleed on occasion because there may be some redeeming value to a book at some point. That's not what we're going to discuss today. I just couldn't.

This isn't my first run in with V.S. Naipaul, and due to all the hullabaloo about how brilliant he is, I thought that I might give him another go as an author. I just couldn't find my stride or anything interesting about the first third of this book. 

Naipaul wanders around and around in the English countryside without a purpose. Unfortunately, I don't find the English Countryside all that fascinating. It gets slightly more interesting when he starts on his journey, but not much. 

Maybe there is a grand point to this novel, and perhaps it does pick up half way through. I will leave that to the heartier souls who are brave enough to get that far without fear that the novel will be one big long description of what's going on around the narrator. I'll have to sit this one out.

Let's see if I have the fortitude to pursue Naipaul in the future.


~Becky~