As I read Indian Summer by Pratima Mitchell, I kept oscillating between approval and disgust. There were parts that were so real that they reached out to me and made me think, "That's exactly, perfectly captured!" And there were parts that were so real that they made me curl my lip and think, "Why do people write about things that are so mundane?" I rolled my eyes at parts of the book because I found them utterly inane. I found myself enjoying parts of the story and its telling so much that I wondered to whom I could recommend it because it was so good. It's a strange experience reading a novel like Indian Summer. When you finish it, all you feel is, "Hmm. Okay. But it's not perfect." … [Read more...]
Animal Farm
Animal Farm is the kind of book that I could read over and over again. It was written in just a few months and it's less than a hundred pages long. I was revolted and fascinated by it the first time I read it and I'm revolted and fascinated even now as I teach it. What a fabulous book it has to be to evoke a response time and time again! How rich it is, and yet, how simple! When the pigs begin the gentle takeover, I squirm within, but believe how it could happen. I am enthralled (more than a little guiltily) by the very idea of their power. It's frightening how easy it is to manipulate the truth by abusing the language of power. It makes me shiver and shake my head. Succinct and complete - this one is most certainly a classic. … [Read more...]
Chalkline
I recently read Neil Gaiman's views on escapism: I hear the term bandied about as if it's a bad thing. As if "escapist" fiction is a cheap opiate used by the muddled and the foolish and the deluded, and the only fiction that is worthy, for adults or for children, is mimetic fiction, mirroring the worst of the world the reader finds herself in. If you were trapped in an impossible situation, in an unpleasant place, with people who meant you ill, and someone offered you a temporary escape, why wouldn't you take it? And escapist fiction is just that: fiction that opens a door, shows the sunlight outside, gives you a place to go where you are in control ... And that's the way I feel when I leave a book like Jane Mitchell's Chalkline unfinished. I have nothing against the way it's written. It's powerful, hugely moving and terribly disturbing. And that's just why I could … [Read more...]
The Children’s Hour
I picked up the DVD about nine years ago because I saw Audrey Hepburn's picture on the cover. I like Hepburn. I knew I would like the film. I did not know how much it would haunt me, though. The Children's Hour is one of those very few movies whose story I have retold time and time again. Watching it again a couple of days ago, I was as disturbed as I was the first time I watched it. I was moved to tears more than once. Emotion, passion, frustration, desire, love, fear - everything comes together in The Children's Hour. I knew what was going to happen and sobbed in anticipation. I saw what happened and something within me seemed to wither. It's not a film that should have a blurb because anything you say is either insufficient or too much. I would leave it at this - I had no idea that a black and white film made in the 60s could be so bold, powerful and disturbing. … [Read more...]
Running Wild
I don't usually like thick hardbound books. They are daunting and, usually, boring. As soon as I make that statement, though, I realise how many exceptions there are. Running Wild is one of them. It has pages and pages of description, but not once was I bored. Morpurgo, at the end of the book, talks of his motivation for this novel. He talks about The Jungle Book, about his fascination for elephants, about the Iraq war, the Indonesian tsunami and the impending extinction of orangutans. Running Wild brings together all these. After a long time, I felt rage, a lump in my throat, relief, joy and excitement in the course of a single story. I was excited about, filled with grief for, repelled by and at peace with the story of a young boy in a jungle in Indonesia. Oona the elephant won my heart over and over again making me wonder if it's possible to look at an … [Read more...]
Swarada Datar
Where does the beauty of dance lie? When it comes to Bharatanatyam, particularly the Pandanallur style, surely it's in the lines, the perfect geometry and the crisp, precise body movements. Whatever else may have been lacking, the geometry in Swarada's dance was certainly perfect. Her performance was excellent. It's rare for me to use a word like that for art, but there's nothing else I can find to describe it. I had problems with it. In some places, I found it rather too sharp. In quite a few places, I found that she spent more time looking at the backdrop than the audience. Somewhere, I felt that the flowing laasya I expect in dance was missing. Despite that, though, it was an aesthetic treat. When anything classical is a little too heavy or a little too long, I find myself overwhelmed and more than a little tired. Yesterday, I did not feel that fatigue at all. And that, I feel, is … [Read more...]
Sophie’s Lucky
The perfect children's book is not one that you read and say, "Oh, I would have loved it so much if I had read it when I was seven!" The perfect children's book is one that you read and say, "What a truly delightful book!" And that's what I feel when I read Sophie's Lucky, or, in fact, practically everything I've read by Dick King-Smith (except one, to tell the truth). I love what he makes me feel. I love that warm sense of belonging, of animal love, of regular daily happiness. I remember being thrilled with The Sheep-Pig and thoroughly enjoying Ace. I loved How Green Was My Mouse and so many others - so many that I've lost count. Sophie in this series is such a lovely girl! I love the kinds of words Dick King-Smith continually uses for her; I love how she thinks coming down from Scotland has to be downhill all the way because, very clearly, it's … [Read more...]
The Prince and Other Modern Fables
Prose poetry at its most beautiful. I never thought I could enjoy stories like this so much. Every story is so rich, so intricate, so charming! It's supposed to be for children and adults alike, but I wonder how much I would have taken in had I read it as a child. Reading it now, I smiled, I shook my head and felt that warm glow of my inside smiling. Take, for example, an excerpt from A Day '... The room was dark. I didn't feel like working. I picked up the sitar and struck up Raag Malhar, a tune befitting the rains. From the next room she came and stood at the door just once and then she went back. After a while, she appeared at the threshold again. Then slowly she stepped inside ... The rain drizzled to a stop; my music came to an end. She got up and went away to do her hair. It was nothing more than this: just a certain afternoon swathed in rain, music, leisure and shadows. Stories … [Read more...]
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
Perhaps it was the right to time to reread this book and realise that Roald Dahl, genius beyond compare, never intended to be a writer. In the last-but-one story, he talks about how he happened to get a lucky break and things did not stop after that. He also writes about a little notebook in which he jots down ideas as they occur to him. The most wonderful stories of all time, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar come from a maximum of three sentences. Roald Dahl, Roald Dahl. Will I ever be able to write an endless short story, with a story within the story, and a beautiful non-preachy moral - without losing the interest of the reader? Will I ever be able to build atmosphere as effortlessly as you do time and time again? Will I ever be able to write crazy stories that take not only imagination but also boundless courage? Perhaps it helps … [Read more...]
Treason
The year is 1539. King Henry VIII is King of England. All three of his wives, Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour are dead. He has three children: Mary, Elizabeth and the long-awaited heir to his throne, Edward. Henry has broken away from the Church of Rome because the Pope would not allow him to divorce his first wife. Anyone who refuses to accept that he is the Supreme Head of the Church of England is accused of an offence that is punishable by death. Treason. That's how the book begins. And it did not let me down. Treason, winner of the Carnegie Medal, took me a while to read. There were parts that made me think about why I was reading it. Yet, it was worth it. To create a protagonist who is weak and most certainly contemptible takes courage. How can anyone enjoy the story of a soppy page who considers it beneath his dignity to work alongside a boy to whom he … [Read more...]
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