I love novels that read like short stories. I don't like it when the plot is so complex that my excitement reaches its peak too early. When I read a book like that, I'm just waiting to find out what happens in the end, not enjoying the journey. The book I read before this, The Boy Who Fell Down Exit 43, was like that. In the last two chapters, you're just waiting for resolution, no longer anticipating what could happen.The Court Painter's Apprentice was nothing like that. In many ways, I found its telling old-fashioned, and I liked that. I liked how different incidents come together to create a story. There was a build-up with no unnecessary crests and troughs. One story after another, with very few sub-plots. Didn't Aristotle say that that was the making of good literature?A young painter's talent is discovered when he is still very young. Apprenticed to Hugo, the leading painter of … [Read more...]
Skellig
Skellig by David Almond is a human story, and like so many human stories, contains a little miracle. A scientific miracle, perhaps. Or maybe a spiritual miracle. Sometimes the two go together, along with angelic intervention, scientific study and William Blake.Skellig is not a story that wants to be believed. Yet it is not fantasy. It is not a story about magic. Yet, it contains the inexplicable. It is not a spiritual story of divine intervention. Yet, it is the story of a little miracle that brings Joy.Sparse, sometimes disgusting, often moving, Skellig is, above all, the story of a quiet boy who is not so quiet in his head. And his friends who understand. And those who don't. … [Read more...]
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
"How about watching The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe?" a friend's mother suggested when I was about eleven.I giggled. "What a funny name! What is that?""You mean you haven't read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe?" Eyes wide open in amazement.And that is how I came to watch the old BBC movie before I read the book. I was so taken with it that as soon as the movie got over and I went to 'play' in the evening, I told my sister and my bestest friend the whole story, bit by bit.Even now, when I reread the book, the impression of the movie was so powerful that I read Jadis's voice exactly like the movie I watched when I was eleven."How dare you come alone?" "Turkish Delight for my little prince?" "You... Fool...!"What a powerful movie! What a grand book! I've finished rereading The Magician's Nephew and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The Silver Chair, here I … [Read more...]
The Red Dress
As a child, I did not like anything about anything awkward. I did not like dirt (even though I asked my father where the Famous Five went to the loo and how they had baths when they went camping). I did not find 'dirty' humour funny, even humour aimed at children. I liked politeness and neatness in all. No burping, no rude signs or gestures, nothing.The Red Dress is one of those books I certainly would not have liked as a child. Even now, I find that I cannot quite understand why ugly things find their way into literature. From where does this need to be 'true' to reality come? Smelly chicken rotting in the heat, worms of snot - why do I need to know?Yet, I liked the story-line. Engagingly written, The Red Dress made me continue reading despite my quarrels with it. The realistic elements did not change the fact that there are sudden, unexpected character changes and movements from an … [Read more...]
Hello? Is Anybody There?
If you go to the moon, you would go up. But when you reach the moon, you land. You go down. And if you are on the moon and you look up, you will see the earth. That means that somewhere between here and the moon, up becomes down and down becomes up.I started reading Sophie's World when I was about twelve. I was impressed and intrigued - but I could not finish reading it. There was just too much intensity that I was not prepared to deal with. Perhaps if I had read Hello? Is Anybody There? first, I would have tried harder with Sophie's World.At first glance, Hello? Is Anybody There? is a bit like The Little Prince. At second glance, it still is, and in a good way.It is a book that reminds us that the question is far more important than the answer. It is a beautiful journey into our minds and our realities. I am sure that every time I read it, I will take something else out of the … [Read more...]
Shadow Web
Everybody in the internet age does it at least once in a while. Type in 'Varsha Seshan', just to see what pops up. Don't tell me you haven't searched for yourself on Google.Jessica Allendon did just that. And the consequences were totally out of control.Shadow Web is not about time-travel. Time-travel is easy. You go back in time, but you know something about the history of the place. But what if you find yourself in a parallel world within the same time-space fabric? What can you do then?I delighted in Shadow Web. It opened out to me possibilities of imagination and storytelling, ideas of parallel histories and dangers.Sometimes, I wonder (perhaps all of us wonder) what it is to be myself. What or who am I? This is nothing compared to the question of what I am without my socio-cultural background. The same 'me' with the same parents in the same city - where everything is … [Read more...]
Avameru
I began to read the book and licked my lips, wondering what I could say about it. A book by a dear friend can be a dangerous thing because you must have an opinion about it.With Avameru, the opinion was easy. I enjoyed it.Yes, in the beginning, I had thoughts in my head about how it was somehow not my kind of book. I don't read 'Young Adult' - perhaps that was why it wasn't appealing. Et cetera et cetera.And then I finished the first fifty pages. When I looked next, I had finished the book.Pacy, exciting and engaging, Avameru brought to me a blend of adventure and energy that I love. Most importantly, it places story above all else. Story comes first. When the story catches your fancy and makes you want to know what happens next, you know you're hooked. And this happened to me with Avameru despite the fact that I had already read the original (hand-written) manuscript.I enjoyed … [Read more...]
Women of Pride
Women of Pride unravelled a lot of questions before proceeding to respond to them, at least in part .There was so much about the devadasis that I did not know. Often in books I read, the history of these temple dancers was cheerfully summed up in a couple of sentences. The devadasis were nityasumangali - perpetually married. They were honoured and revered, but as time went on, they began to lose their patronage. They became associated with loose women, with no morals. Consequently, the entire system of being wedded to a God was abolished. Voilà, you have a history that begins in legends and ends in the 20th century.Who were these women? If they were married to gods, how did the lineage continue? If they were 'pure' and suddenly became corrupted by changing values, what constitutes purity and what constitutes corruption? What does it mean to outlaw a caste? Is it the same as … [Read more...]
Toro! Toro!
Is it true that the most moving books must be placed during wartime? How strange that the moments of greatest human kindness come during the cruelest of times!Toro! Toro! is not like the other Morpurgos that I have read, insomuch that it is not about the second world war at all. Yet, it is about cruel, incomprehensible war.I have never liked the idea of bullfights, not even when I was too young to know that the bull is killed and bleeds to death. I found the idea of a bullfight unnecessarily violent. I couldn't (and still can't) understand what the thrill is.How much stronger the feeling of revulsion would be for a child who has watched the birth of a bull and become its friend!Paco, a bull, pushes the young boy Antonito to do something that he would never dream of doing. And because of that one act, Antonito's life - in fact, his whole world - turns upside down.In true … [Read more...]
The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips
The best stories are the simplest ones of all. And who better than Michael Morpurgo to write simple stories so simply that they charm you?Boowie receives a letter from his grandmother, not very long after the death of his grandfather. It is undoubtedly the most remarkable letter of his life. As part of the letter, his grandmother sends him sections from her childhood diary. Slowly, little bit by little bit, she reveals the amazing story of her cat Tips. Part of the story is how Tips graduates to her grand name 'Adolphus Tips'. And most remarkable of all is what happens in the end.The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips is not just the story of a cat. It's the story of love, spirit and relationships that stretch way beyond the scope of literature.Michael Morpurgo - his stories are timeless. … [Read more...]