Incredible. As a child, I did not like novels that were not divided into chapters. I have no idea why. The only exception was Mary Poppins. I somehow think this one would have been an exception too. What a visual treat! The imagination just blew me over. A coverlet and a bed made of insects' wings. Weaving ropes out of spider threads. Threading cobwebs together to sew the insects' wings. Curtains parting noiselessly - like clouds. Droplets of water hanging from grass - and whole shimmering worlds within. Livi Michael. I'll look out for the name. … [Read more...]
Désirée
Have you read Désirée by Anne-Marie Selinko? I read it when I was in school; I think it was the first really thick book I read.Yes, it came even before Gone with the Wind.I loved it so much that I read it again. And, I think, again.And then, I found an old, old copy of it at my grandparents' place, and how could I not read it again? It's the story of Napoleon's first love - the daughter of a silk merchant, Désirée Clary. When I read the book, all those things were just names to me. Marseilles, Stockholm, the Tuileries ... And then I went to Marseilles.There I was, thinking only about Alexandre Dumas and how close we were to the Chateau d'If. We went, of course, by metro. And guess what we found? It isn't easy to tell, but the second station on the line is Désirée Clary! … [Read more...]
Oranges in No Man’s Land
I find that so may writers seem to have a compulsion to write long, complex, layered work. So many new books are thick paperbacks, full of things happening on every page. Oranges in No Man's Land is not like that. Not at all. Elizabeth Laird manages to write a beautiful, heart-warming story in the course of just about a hundred pages of large print. The setting and characters are just so powerful that the story becomes not a book, but a moment in time. It's an eternal, timeless moment, captured by language. I know nothing about the history of Lebanon. I know nothing about the 'Green Line' or what that meant, but I agree with the critic who says that Laird's Oranges in No Man's Land is 'A tribute to the human spirit'. Ten-year-old Ayesha lives in Beirut, ravaged by civil war. Between the two parts of the city is no man's land, and only military men dare go there. But Ayesha's … [Read more...]
Book-Reading at Crossword, Mulund!
Blue Shoes and Happiness
A colleague of mine saw me reading the book and commented on how it looked like a children's book. Many people don't know yet that I spend more time reading children's books than anything else - and am not ashamed of it. This one was delightful, as Alexander McCall Smith usually is. It's the kind of book you can read slowly, knowing that it will not run away. You know that you won't forget crucial details that contribute to the plot. You know that the focus of the story is not the plot, but life itself. You know that ideas and thoughts will un-self-consciously find their way into description and dialogue. The name itself brings that sweet smile and says, "Hey, that's a book I want to read!" I took my own time to read it, chuckling at traditionally-built women, women who dream about shoes and men who dream about cars and garages. I remembered, once again, the fact that cliches are … [Read more...]
A Doll’s House
I cannot believe that Ibsen changed the end of the end of A Doll's House for its production in Germany! What happened to [t]hat slammed door [that] reverberated across the roof of the world? Ibsen agreed to make Nora go back to her children? Shocking! Almost as bad as Shaw making Eliza go to Mr. Higgins at the end of My Fair Lady, thereby changing the end of Pygmalion. But then, Shaw did not believe that he was giving the movie-watching public a happy ending. What kind of happy conclusion had a young girl going back to a cynical, selfish, middle-aged man? I remember how much of an impact A Doll's House made on me the first time I read it. For me, it was far more potent than An Enemy of the People, the text we had to study. It made me think about women, family, mother, role-playing.... I later read a beautiful tongue-in-cheek piece about how linking the woman … [Read more...]
Miss Julie
Outstanding. To create passion like this and alternate between expressed passion and subdued passion is incredible. Miss Julie - headstrong and confused - wavering between strength and weakness - is a work of art. You hate her and admire her. Above all, you pity her. Or maybe not above all. There's no 'above all'. It's impossible to have a single emotion after a play as powerful as this one. A range of emotions rises and falls, leaving you almost breathless. Then, there's Jean - another work of art. Power-hungry, ambitious, practical. When I think about it, a character like that ought to be unbelievable. Yet, he's not. He's wholly believable, wholly despicable - and wholly worthy of hateful admiration. Christine - I wish I knew her. I wish she could just look at me with her grey eyes and hold my hand. Because then, the world could, perhaps, be good. … [Read more...]
Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard
Why does 'easy to read' somehow strike me as a slightly negative comment in the context of this book? Yet, I would not say I disliked the book. The gentle humour made me chuckle time and time again. The paradox of unbelievable believable characters was wonderful. Each character was more than just a character. The characters came alive despite being so exaggerated and unreal. Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard did not end one page too early or one page too late. I think what made the book seem deserving of moderate praise rather than great praise was simply the fact that I find it forgettable. The fact that even though I just finished the book, I choose to write 'Each character was more than just a character' not 'Each character is more than just a character'. It's not one of those haunting stories that stays with you and makes you feel as if the character is a dear friend you want to … [Read more...]
Sylvie and the Songman
What a crazy book. And that's a compliment. There were parts of the book that I read only because I wanted to finish the book. I pushed myself to read, page after page, completing each chapter before putting the book down. So I simply can't give it those overused compliments - 'page-turner' and 'unputdownable'. When imagination is truly beautiful, there's such a strong semblance to life that there's no need to understand each detail. The world is like that. There are so many questions that we ignore. We don't feel the need to answer or even understand the questions. Why do fiction writers so often feel the need to explain everything? Sylvie and the Songman made me think. I did not need to understand everything. I needed to accept and marvel. The ideas were magnificent. The concept of music was thrilling, frightening, enlivening. And like all good books, it made me ask why we create. … [Read more...]
A Note of Music
Everything is made out of notes, vibrations. Many people think the universe started with a great big bang. What's that if it isn't a note, albeit a rather loud one? Somewhere there's probably a note that brings the whole universe together... Goodness knows what will happen if anyone finds it... We'll probably be blown up; either that or we'd find ourselves in another universe. - from Sylvie and the Songman by Tim Binding That, succinctly put, is the power of music. … [Read more...]