Haruki Murakami - Norwegian Wood

So far, this year, I’ve read two books that can only be described as ‘coming of age’ books. This year, I’ve read two books based in Tokyo, where the protagonist comes from some small village in Japan, and have come to Tokyo with a purpose. This year, I’ve read two books that have the title of a Beatles song (well, one of them has a title from a Lennon song). And both books have been written by different authors! (The other book was David Mitchell’s Number9Dream. Mitchell’s oftened been likened to Murakami, so...)

As the plane touches down in Germany, an instrumental version of the Beatles’ Norwegian Wood comes on, which results in the protagonist, forty year old Watanabe, reflecting on his college days in Tokyo in 1968, and his two great loves. The book’s title, inspired by the Beatles song, pretty much sums up the story:

I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me...

The two great loves: Naoko, the girl who used to go out with his best friend from high school, Kizuki, who killed himself when he was seventeen; and Midori: the impulsive, slightly twisted girl, who delights in talking about sex and wearing short skirts.

After Kizuki’s untimely and sad death, Naoko and Watanabe lose touch, until they bump into each other on a crowded train. They attempt to revive their friendship, and while they don’t talk much about the only common factor, they start going for long walks and its mostly Naoko that does the talking, and the protagonist that listens. On her twentieth birthday, the two of them end up sleeping together, after which Naoko troubled by emotions and vulnerability admits herself in a sanitarium far away from civilization.

While she’s in the sanitarium, the vivacious Midori befriends Watanabe, and they end up spending a fair bit of time together, talking about life and things. Midori’s a less emotional, more practical girl, who speaks openly about things most other girls would consider taboo (this is highlighted by the fact that Watanabe is surprised about how open she is, specially when she asks him to take her to a pornographic movie). As their friendship grows, so much so that they spend almost every Sunday together, and Watanabe even spends some time taking care of her father in a hospital while she takes some time off for herself. However, while she’s open and shares the details of her life with him, he’s still not told her the truth about where Naoko is, and why they barely spend time together, leading her to believe that she’s a married woman.

In the mean time, Watanabe visits Naoko in the sanitarium, meets Reiko (Naoko’s roommate) and is pleased to find that Naoko is doing better, and he promises to wait for her, ‘til she’s ready to return. He even asks her to move in with him, when he rents a flat in Tokyo. While he visits her, the three of them (Reiko, Naoko and Watanabe) sing songs, with Reiko playing the guitar. The songs they sing include Norwegian Wood (obviously), Michelle, Nowhere Man, Julia, Lemon Tree, 500 miles, and other classics.

That’s who Watanabe is, to both girls: the savior; someone who’s always there, with a shoulder to cry on and a sympathetic ear; someone who is intelligent, and caring. He tries to amuse them with funny stories about his dorm mates, when they look like they need cheering, takes them to porn movies when they want to see one(!), goes to the ‘facility’ a couple of times to visit Naoko, and writes to her every weekend. He even relates the story of Reiko, and how she ended up where she was, after she feels at ease with him and talks to him. In fact, she says that he’s one of those people who’s good, and can save someone from their monsters. However, at this point, I am compelled to say that while some critics have said his character is close to Holden Caulfield’s, I beg to differ. For starters, Caulfield was the one who needed saving in that book, he wasn’t the savior. While Murakami’s tried hard to stress on the fact that Watanabe ‘talks funny’, it’s not “Caulfield”-esque.

This is a sad book, reverberating of death, suicide, losing people and trying to move on. It almost seems like a reprise of Norwegian Wood, which is haunting, and melancholy (and when I awoke, I was alone, this bird had flown). Another property of this book is that it’s full of sex. Unusually so - casual sex, with Watanabe and one of his dorm mates going out to pick up girls for one-night stands regularly, despite Watanabe having Naoko, and his friend a girlfriend. Sex and love are distanced, and at occasions, the author seems to resort to the ‘sex seems like the most appropriate thing at this point’ cliche. At some times, it genuinely surprised me (wouldn’t want to ruin it for you), as did the detail and the emphasis on it. There is also a lesbian scene, detailed, between a married thirty year old woman and her thirteen year old student. It begs the question: Was sex in the 1968-70 Tokyo, in the midst of civil unrest as the students called for a revolution really that casual and indifferent?

This is the first book I’ve read by Murakami, and while I have mixed feelings about it, there is something about the book that makes me want to read more by the author. I can’t quite put a finger on it - whether it’s the simplicity, the beautiful writing, some great music references (from Bach to Beatles to Rolling Stones), or some great literature references (F Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas Mann etc). The characters are interesting, and while I found Naoko slightly annoying (although, to be fair, her character’s witnessed the suicide of her older sister and her high school sweetheart, both of whom had apparently perfect lives), Watanabe a little too goody-two-shoes and Midori half-crazy, at some point or the other, I could relate to and sympathize with all the characters.

Overall, a 7 on 10, and more Murakami on my reading list.

Orhan Pamuk - The White Castle

Pamuk’s The White Castle won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2006, and after reading this book, it is not difficult to figure out why. The Turkish author offers immense insight into the life, philosophies and the psychology of the Hoja (master or teacher) and his slave - a young Italian intellect who was captured by the pirates, and auctioned on the Istanbul slave market. in the 17th century.

The book is narrated by the ‘slave’, who is described as a scientist, a doctor and a scholar. Initially, when he reaches Turkey, he is thrown into prison, and earns minimal money by diagnosing and treating the other inmates. The news of his medical ‘superiority’ spreads far, and eventually, the pasha asks him to diagnose and treat his medical ailments - which the Italian succeeds in. Following this victory, the Italian is asked to help someone who we know only as the Hoja, a courtier to the sultan, who is supposed to create a wondrous never-seen-before firework display. Working together, the two of them manage this great feat, and throughout, the Italian scholar contemplates asking for his freedom as his reward. However, when the time comes, he is told that he can acquire his freedom if he converts to the Islamic faith. When he refuses, the pasha sells his contract to the Hoja, and the narrator ends up becoming his slave. The Hoja wants to use him to gain all the knowledge the narrator has on the science of the Western world. In fact, the clause for freedom is grounded in the narrator imparting all his knowledge to his master.

This is where the story actually builds, and takes shape: in the complex master-slave relationship, where the two men continuously try to play games with each other, to outdo the other, and feel superior. The Hoja is a scientist, a man who yearns to learn, and consistently asks his slave about the Western culture and science. Sometimes, the narrator tells the truth, sometimes he exaggerates it, and sometimes, he merely lies. However, when their games become more psychological, we see how despite everything, the slave still loves his master, and wants the best for him. He tries to encourage the Hoja to play to his strengths, helps him in each endeavor to wow the sultan - from discussing weapons of mass destruction, to try and determine when the plague will leave the city, to writing children’s fantasy stories. The book climaxes when the Turks go into battle with the Poles and want to employ the weapon created by the Hoja in an attempt to destroy the ‘White Castle’ (hence the name).

This book, albeit only 145 pages long, is slow and sometimes painful. It almost seems as if nothing is happening - but, that, I think is the very essence of the book: to capture that feeling of endless waiting (be it the Hoja awaiting a call to the sultan’s palace, or the slave longing to go home). We also see the (in)famous east meets west clash, where both parties feel they are superior to the other, and try to provoke each other into feeling inferior. It explores the challenge of each individual asking the question: “Why am I what I am?” (the Hoja, a proud man always ends up dismissing his fellow countrymen as ‘fools’, who have no keenness towards science), and then... it shows how the two men’s personalities rub off on each other, and they imbibe a part of the other. A beautiful passage is devoted to the sultan entertaining both men, and accurately determining which thought (or action) originated from which person, while the master and slave are engaged in a conversation with him.

This is the first book I’ve read, by a Turkish author, and while I’m none too wiser about life in Istanbul in the seventeenth century, this fictional tale, with its philosophical meanderings has won me over. I’m looking forward to the next book I read by Promuk.

Overall, a 7.5 on 10.

PS: I’m still contemplating on why the book is called ‘The White Castle’ and what it represents. I have a few opinions, but I wouldn’t want to share that, lest I ruin the (semi-predictable) ending.

Kurt Vonnegut - Breakfast of Champions

You know how it is - People recommend a book to you, you read the gist at the back, it looks interesting, you buy it, you live to regret it. That pretty much sums up Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions, for me. I read the first 50 pages, and attributed the dullness to the book kicking off slowly. Read the next fifty, and figured, it’s bound to get better. The next fifty was even more painstaking, and by the time I hit the 200th page, I figured this book was as pointless as it gets.

It’s experimental writing - I’ll give the author that. But, that’s about all I’ll give him. The story (if you can call it that?) revolves around two men: Trout, a poor sci-fi writer, and Hoover, a well-off car dealer who’s on the brink of insanity. The story meanders through their lives, and it comes to a close when the two men meet, Hoover reads one of Trout’s books and actually goes over the edge, because he thinks the Creator wrote the book, addressed it to him, and told him how he’s the only human and everyone around him is a machine. Don’t curse me for giving the ending away - the author tells us this almost at the very outset. It’s the meanderings that apparently make the story, not the ending.

The author tries, almost too hard to be funny. He stoops down to the level of illustrating apples, underwear, flags, and actually centers a lot of the book around the vital stats of various women, and men. Completely irrelevant, pointless, and frustrating... it’s supposed to be a social satire. It’s really not. (My two bits).

Don’t even bother... you’ll wish you hadn’t.

Rohinton Mistry - Such A Long Journey

This book is not in the same league as A Fine Balance, or even, for that matter, Family Matters. However, the more I think about this book, the more I appreciate it. Mistry has this amazing knack of bringing to life a realistic Indian society, and how they handle various crises and catastrophes that life brings in its wake.

This book centers around the life of Gustad, a god-fearing bank clerk, who puts trust, loyalty, good work ethic and friendship above all. Despite living in a congested and small apartment in Bombay, where the windows are perpetually blacked out (it’s based in the 1970s India, when war was imminent. However, the windows had been blacked out since the 1960s Indo-China war, and Gustad, much to his wife’s chagrin, had left them in that state, certain that it was only a matter of time before the ‘blackout’ was reinforced), the wall opposite is used as a public bathroom by many people, and the resultant stench attracts flies and mosquitoes, Gustad tries to make the best of everything he has without complaints or regrets. So imagine his happiness when his eldest son, who he always had the highest of aspirations for, gets admitted into IIT, an academic institution renowned world-wide for its superiority.

However, his life soon starts falling apart, with his son suddenly shunning the whole IIT ideology, and wishing to remain an Arts student in his present college, his nine year old daughter having some mysterious illness which the doctor is unable to diagnose, and an old friend who he hasn’t heard from in many years, asking him for a favor that seems to have its roots in some corrupt activities. And if that’s not bad enough, his present-day closest friend seems to be very ill, and hiding his illness behind a facade of sorts.

Gustad attempts to do the right thing: help his friend (against his better judgment), and pray continuously, hoping things will turn for the better. He meets an old friend in the local market, who accompanies him to a church where miracles are known to happen. On the other hand, his wife, influenced by one of their neighbors, is convinced the horrors that is affecting her family is being caused by an inauspicious ‘evil eye’, and she follows directives provided by the neighbor to cast off this evil eye.

This book is descriptive, seemingly accurate in its narrations, and is beautifully written - the funeral scene/’Tower of Silence’ scene specifically comes to mind. The characters are well-drawn, and well-built, and as the story unfolds, you can’t help but admire Gustad who continuously adheres to what he believes in, and genuinely attempts to make the world around him a better place.

This is not a feel-good book. It’s a book about India in the 1970s, where the government is corrupt, and money meant for the greater good is channeled to the secret bank accounts of the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi. It’s a book about a middle-class family who try to stay together, while the world around them is falling apart. It’s about friendship at its very deepest. It’s about seemingly silly superstitions, albeit the ‘remedies’ actually seem to work. And it’s a book about humanity, morality and integrity in a world tainted with greed, corruption, selfishness and if I may say so - the ‘evil eye’.

Overall, a 7.5 on 10. And yes, I’d definitely recommend Rohinton Mistry. The more I read books by him, the more I like them... which is saying a lot, considering the first book I read by him is probably proclaimed his best!

Alice Sebold - The Lovely Bones

This is Sebold’s debut novel, and while there’s lots of loopholes in the story, the premise in itself is interesting.

A 14 year old girl is raped and killed by a neighbor on her way home from school, one evening. In the story, the girl, Susie Salmon (the book does start: My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie), observes her family and her friends in the aftermath of her disappearance, from heaven, as they struggle to come to terms with it, and deal with it in a variety of ways. I say, ‘her disappearance’ as her body is not found, all the cops find is an elbow, which they identify as hers.

While the family falls apart; with the mother leaning on the cops for support, and eventually running away to California; the father correctly suspecting one of the neighbors and being hell-bent on proving his guilt; the sister swinging between missing her older sister and dealing with people staring at her and only noticing her dead sister; and her younger brother not knowing why his sister isn’t coming home. A very unlikely person takes on the role of trying to bring the family together...

The story touches on many interesting ideas, like how the dead watch their near and dear ones and want to be close to them, as much as possible; as well as, how their near and dear ones can actually sense them at times. It addresses ‘the cold chill’ that people feel when someone dies, and the soul touches them on its way to heaven, and how they’re perpetually haunted by them (imagine being a doctor in the ICU!). There are also traces of wistfulness in Susie’s narration, as she sees her friends and sister growing up, going to college, having their first love and everything else which she’ll never be able to do. Some of the detail and emotions present in the book (specially in the first chapter, when the rape and subsequent murder actually happens and the family reports her missing and later on, when her father remembers her) is well carved out (excuse the crass pun), and beautifully written. It does remind us that the author herself was a victim of sexual assault during her college days.

However, like I said, the premise is interesting, but... the book doesn’t work like a mystery story with people being intent on finding the guilty party (it only seems important to the father and sister). Then you have the whole chapter where Susie occupies her friend’s body, to kiss her crush, which, in my opinion, is pushing it. It’s not supposed to be the X-Files after all. And of course the whole idea of an ever-expanding heaven just seems like overkill.

It’s a book with potential, probably well-written for a first novel. Overall, a 6 on 10?

Kate Summerscale - Suspicions of Mr. Whicher

A book with so much potential, and a book I struggled to finish... I just finished it because I hate leaving books half-read.

The author (Kate Summerscale) writes about the non-fictional Road Hill House Murder, also known as the case of Constance Kent. A young boy is murdered by one of thirteen people in a house, and a detective from Scotland Yard (Mr. Whicher) is assigned to the case, six weeks after the actual murder took place. The local police are an incompetent lot, who try to undermine the value of Mr. Whicher, which the latter attributes to jealousy.

A proper whodunnit, this book could honestly have been one of the most gripping mystery books around. However, the author has focused on Victorian social values, details into the emerging field of detectives and the Scotland Yard, and she freely discusses other cases and murders of the time. This obviously causes a break in the story, and draws the reader’s attention away from the main plot: who killed Saville Kent? The point is, that’s what this book is about! Why try to meander around the subject, and have lots of filler-kind of writing? It’s almost like a student dissertation, where she’s struggling to make the word count.

I concur, a lot of research has gone into it. However, this book’s touted as ‘The Murder At Road Hill House’ and not, ‘Mystery Solving in the 19th Century’. It’s factual, with no imagination whatsoever. Just a little hyperbolism always helps a mystery book - but this is banal, dull, and well, I regret ever buying it, let alone reading it. Ironically, it’s probably one of the most expensive paperbacks out there - I actually voluntarily paid thirteen quid for it, and spent over five hours reading it. Thank god time’s not money, for if it were, I’d be broke by now. Five hours of my life I’m not getting back (and that’s after skim-reading the last 200 pages)!!

Overall, a 3 on 10, and the 3's only for all the research effort put in.

Vikas Swarup - Q&A

I bought this book very hesitantly. I’m wary of bestsellers, and the way everyone was bigging this up, I was sure this would be a repeat of The Da Vinci Code or The Kite Runner - two books everyone I know loved, but I could barely get through them. For once, I was pleasantly surprised.

The book follows the story of Ram Mohammed Thomas, an eighteen year old waiter, whose extraordinary life has led him to win a billon rupees as part of a quiz show: Who Will Win A Billion? An eighteen year old who has lived in Mumbai, Delhi, and Agra; who has learnt how to survive and look out for himself; who has worked for a famous Bollywood actress; who always looks to protect people - truly an extraordinary boy. The producers of the show don’t have enough dough to actually pay the winner, so they accuse him of cheating, in order to escape paying him money they don’t have. Quoting the book: He’s never been to school. He’s never even read a newspaper. There’s no way he could have won the top prize.

The book itself, is divided into twelve chapters, which detail twelve incidents of the protagonist’s life which lead him to correctly answer the twelve questions on the quiz show. The irony is, the author doesn’t know what the capital of America is. He doesn’t know what the capital of France is. Yet, he knows what the capital of Papua New Guinea is (to be honest, even I didn’t know what it was before reading the book). It does seem surreal. He does get a lucky break in the second question, where he doesn’t know the answer but the host of the show helps him out. Ram (or if you like, Mohammed. Or, if you like Thomas. The protagonist adopts whichever name is most apt for the situation all the time, anyway) relies on a keen memory (and luck) to take him all the way. As they say, quizzes aren’t as much tests of intelligence, as they are tests of memory. And as the book ends, Luck comes from within.

The social implications of this book are equally important, in my opinion. Of course, there are subtle hints surrounding identities of various cricketers and Bollywood stars (two of the primary obsessions of the billion people that occupy India) who are referenced in the book; some of whom are directly named. But, it takes it a few steps further. There’s this one quote, that resonated in my head long after I had finished the book: We Indians have this sublime ability to see the pain and misery around us, and yet remain unaffected by it. I think that pretty much sums it up (to be fair, it’s true for most of the world). While reading the book, we witness incidents of incest, pedophilia, prostitution, petty thievery, exploitation of the poor and unfortunate by their class counterparts, espionage, betting and god knows what else. Stories of rich people dismembering/blinding children and turning them into beggars, of dacoits robbing trains, and of people turning a blind eye to social no-nos happening in their own neighborhood are descriptive, believable and well told.

It also highlights the attitude of the poor, where their ambitions are not to be a doctor or a lawyer, or someone rich. Instead, they want to be like the elders around them: wardens, cooks, cleaners etc. They have attributed the glitz and glamor of the Bollywood world to a place that doesn’t really exist, and they’re convinced it’ll never be them who have so much (money, cars, big houses). The key for most people afflicted with the disease of poverty, is survival, or making the most of what they’ve got, instead of harboring unrealistic dreams. Even when Ram’s robbed on the train and loses all his money, he runs away and starts from scratch, without dwelling too much on all he’s lost.

The book is simple, unpretentious and genuinely feel-good. It’s easy on the eyes, fast-paced and interesting. The protagonist is a likable realistic character, and you can’t help but sympathize and empathize with him.

Overall, I’d say a 7 on 10.

Mary Higgins Clark - Where Are You Now

I saw this book in a WH Smith in Euston, and bought it immediately, being a huge fan of Mary Higgins Clark. Why, and how is this relevant, you ask? Well, because I normally don’t buy books from WH Smith, let alone the ones in Euston, where the queues are so long that by the time it’s my turn probably three of my trains have come and gone. However, the prospect of reading a new suspense thriller was enough to convince me that the wait in the queue would be for the greater good.

The book focuses around twenty-six year old Carolyn, a lawyer on the brink of beginning her career, who decides to look into the sudden and mysterious disappearance of her older brother ten years earlier, to attain closure. Mack, a senior in college at the time was about to graduate. Yet, he disappeared one fine day, and ever since, only called up his family once a year, on Mother’s Day, to let them know that he was alive and well. It’s the one day of the year their mother looks forward to.

Even the death of their father on 9/11 doesn’t bring him home. This seems strange and unnatural.

Carolyn convinced that her older brother is in some kind of trouble, begins her investigation. She talks to a detective, hoping for help, but is quickly dismissed. However, when young women start disappearing, the detective finds reason to believe that Carolyn’s brother is a key suspect. Clues begin to emerge, Carolyn is convinced of her brother’s innocence, and she sets out on a full-fledged investigation, talking to the house babysitters of her brother’s college apartment, his roommates, and girlfriend, and digging into the events of a decade earlier. Of course, while all this is going on, her mother is blaming her for destroying her brother’s reputation.

As the plot thickens, and both, Carolyn and the detectives set out to find the truth, the results are surprising. The book’s a page-turner (as you’d expect it to be), and I challenge any reader to determine the guilty party and their underlying motivation for the crime.

Thoroughly enjoyable. Vintage Mary Higgins Clark. 7 on 10.

Aldous Huxley - Brave New World

A book set in the future, but has a title inspired by Shakepeare’s The Tempest, Brave New World details a dystopian society. However, if you’re expecting to see shades of Orwell’s 1984, you’re in for a surprise. On the other hand, there are some small comparisons that can be made with Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, another dystopian world, where literature is banned. Of course, this is where the similarity ends.

So, no CCTVs, no Big Brother, no society where the police state is taking over. What, then, makes Brave New World a dystopia? Well, ironically enough, it’s that everyone’s happy - happy with their job, their life, and the way things are. There’s a catch (there’s always a catch): everyone in this world is born and bred, in a lab, and effectively, they’re ‘programmed’ to think and act the way they do. Even their happiness is programmed, by hypnopaedia or sleep-teaching; where tapes are played repeatedly to sleeping children, thereby ensuring that the content of these tapes become part and parcel of their personality. The various castes - Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, Epsilons - are all happy and content being what they are, while simultaneously being happy that they do not belong to a different caste. (Alphas are the intellects, Epsilons the physical laborers)

The main motivation behind creating a world like this is to ensure peace and stability, constant happiness and painlessness. Literature or books from the ancient society are not allowed, for they might actually allow someone to think and perceive beauty of some sort. And beauty, attachment and affection is strongly discouraged. Conversely, recreational sex and drugs (soma) are encouraged. Everyone belongs to everyone else - that’s the fundamental premise. Of course it gets slightly disturbing when we read of children indulging in erotic play, and people being astounded that in the olden days, this was not general practice...

However, this is as much of a story about Bernard Marx, one of the few dissatisfied souls in this pseudo-utopian world, as it is about the world itself. Marx, probably suffering from a complex of sorts due to his physical traits resembling that of the inferior class, Epsilons, is vocal about some of his inhibitions with the society as it stands. The obvious solution, according to him, is to visit one of the ‘Savage Reservations’ - a place where the Old World still survives, and is left untouched and untainted by the advancements of the New World. He visits the Reservation with Lenina, a girl he’s enamored with (a girl who is happy and satisfied with the way things are, and lives up to what she’s imbibed during her childhood sleep-teaching). While she is thoroughly grossed out by this world, Marx feels enlightened, specially on talking to one of the inhabitants of this world, only to learn his mother once belonged to the New World, a world she misses greatly (read, she misses life without soma greatly). Marx and Lenina accompany the two (mother and son) back to their civilization, and the events that unfold as a result keeps the reader hooked on.

This is a world I found difficult to imagine, or for that matter, even live in. Truth be told, I’d rather have been a member of the archaic 1930s Reservation than a part of a world that uniform and surreal. Bizarrely enough, it seems as though, according to Huxley, to be in a world of utter ecstasy, we need to detach ourselves from everything that makes us happy in this world: family, parents, birth, and love. Or, of course, we can take the hedonist approach and fuel up on the real X.

There are hints, some subtle, some not so much, of who various characters of the book are inspired by. The obvious ones are Freud (the Ford, i.e. their equivalent of Lord), Karl Marx, Darwin, Napoleon and Henry Ford (i.e. the founder of Ford Motors), while there are a multitude of references to Shakespeare, Malthus and Wells. It would be really interesting to dig deeper and determine the inspirations for all the characters. Of course, that would make the whole book piece together as well.

If you’re into alternate realities, or the endless possibilities that there are, or, for that matter, how people let their imaginations run away with them, this is a definite must-read. Also, if you enjoyed the likes of 1984, Fahrenheit 451, and Men Like Gods, it’s almost guaranteed that you’ll be fascinated by Huxley’s contribution to the dystopian ideology.

Overall, 8.5 on 10.

David Mitchell - Number9Dream

Although really difficult to read at times, as the book continuously drifts between fantasy and reality, this book was thoroughly enjoyable. While it’s the first book I’ve read by Mitchell, it definitely won’t be the last.

The book kicks off in a cafe in Tokyo where nineteen year old Eiji Miyake introduces himself, and the quest he’s on: to find his father, a man he’s never met, a man whose name he doesn’t know, and a man who has always been a mystery to him. The start itself entices you to read on:

It is a simple matter. I know your name, and you knew mine once upon a time: Eiji Miyake. Yes, that Eiji Miyake. We are both busy people, Ms. Kato, so why not cut the small talk? I am in Tokyo to find my father. You know his name and his address. And you are going to give me both. Right now. Or something like that. A galaxy of cream unribbons in my coffee cup, and the background chatter pulls into focus. My first morning in Tokyo, and I am already getting ahead of myself.

As the story unfolds, we are informed of the people Eiji meets in the city, the people he befriends - some who betray him, and some who continue to be helpful towards him. Throughout the narrative, he reflects on his past: his dead twin sister, and his alcoholic mother who had a brief, almost non-existent role, in his childhood.

The title inspired from Lennon’s 1974 song: #9 Dream (So long ago, was it in a dream, was it just a dream? I know, yes I know. Seemed so very real, it seemed so real to me), the book traces his adventures in Tokyo, as he gets involved with what seems to be the Tokyo equivalent of the mafia (Yakusa), meets a girl who, for the first time, almost makes him forget his dead sister for long intervals, and gets in touch with a man who claims to be his grandfather, who provides Eiji with a diary from his days as a kaiten pilot during World War II. He absconds to the house of his boss’s sister, and reads anthropomorphic short stories written by her; finds an alternate reality in roleplaying video games and contemplates whether his father is a politician, a member of the Yakusa or a doctor. If that’s not enough drama, his estranged mother tries to get back in touch with him, and the new wife of his father threatens him.

The book is fast-paced, interesting, and draws you in. There are characters you love, characters you hate, disturbing scenes you can vividly imagine in your head (e.g. when he goes bowling with a man who promises him information about his father), and all this mingled in with the overactive imagination of the author. Sometimes, you aren’t sure if what you’re reading is real, or just a dream, and sometimes, you just end up hoping it’s dream...

Overall, for me, a 7/10.

Philip K. Dick - Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep

You have to love the name of the book. That was reason enough to pick it up! Androids, and electric sheep. What could possibly make more sense? Seriously, the name of the book intrigued me enough to pick it up, just to see how bizarre sci-fi could get. It’s not as bizarre as it sounds, if it helps...

The book is based in a sparsely populated earth, whose inhabitants have fled the planet post a war that has rendered most of the world (as we know it) a thing of the past. Animals are endangered, there isn’t much greenery, and most of the people who have stayed on have been forced to, due to the radiation leading them to become ‘chickenheads’. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep follows the quest of a bounty-hunter, a person who has to retire andys (androids) who are on the planet illegally, to kill six (of eight) andys who are superior to earlier models, and can almost pass off as humans. Eight of these new andys (Nexus-6 cylons) made their way to earth; two were retired by a senior bounty-hunter who was later injured while trying to retire the remaining six. Rick Deckard is given the task of retiring the remaining six, who are more advanced, tougher to retire and use their wit and trickery to escape being the victim of bounty-hunters.

In this post-apocalyptic world, where animals are endangered, all Rick really wants is a real animal. He is the owner of an electric sheep (bought when his ‘real’ sheep died of tetanus), but that is more of a status symbol, as opposed to the real thing. He yearns for the day he will be able to afford a real animal, and constantly thumbs through the Sidney Catalog, a catalog where the prices of various animals are listed, as well as their classification (E for Extinct). In fact, when he gets paid for retiring some of the Nexus-6 andys, he goes and pays a deposit for an animal - something to take care of.

While this has all the elements of a good sci-fic book, it also explores various philosophical questions like, what does it mean to be human? and, how do humans distinguish androids from themselves. The key is empathy (the Voigt-Kampff test, i.e. the test used by humans to determine if someone’s an andy or not is based on empathy - how they react to certain emotions, situations and questions. e.g. You are reading a magazine, and you come across the picture of a nude woman.). As the book progresses, Deckard faces challenging questions like, should he really be killing a woman andy who is an opera singer, and brings much joy to the world with her talents? And, what right does he have to rob someone of their life, even if they are not human?

This book, as the cover proudly proclaims, ended up becoming the basis for the movie, Bladerunner. I haven’t actually seen the movie, but the book was interesting and gripping. Based in the future, in a world where humans can program their moods, and people can actually buy electric animals that closely resemble real ones, where human beings are encouraged to leave the planet in order to ensure the survival of the human race, this book is an interesting and gripping read. It makes you wonder about people, about humanity and the characters of some of the people (supposedly human) that Deckard comes into close contact with, during this mission.

Overall, a 7 on 10.

Anne Holm - I Am David

A young boy, with the help of a prison guard, escapes from a concentration camp and tries to find his way to Denmark. David is convinced that there is some kind of catch, and there will be people waiting to catch him, punish him and throw him back in the camp, at every point during the initial stages of the escape. Only then does he start believing he can actually escape, and leave the horrors of the concentration camp far behind.

The book almost reads like an adventure story, as it depicts the innocence, kindness and bravery of the twelve year old, who has never experienced the outside world, who does not know what most fruits are, and who actually voluntarily asks for soap as one of the things he’d like to have when he escapes. We read of how paranoia makes him run away, how he risks his own life to save that of a young girl, of how he sticks to his ethics and morals through everything, and how he still manages to find pride in what he does and does not succumb to being treated with contempt (in this case, by an American couple who reckon he’s a mischief-maker).

The end of the book is beautiful and happy, unlike some other children’s books based in the same era, and lots of questions that probably come to the mind of the reader are answered (why did the prison guard help his escape, being the key one).

A feel good book. 6.5 on 10.