Anne Enright - The Gathering

I'm trying to read all the Booker winners, in the next couple of years. This painstakingly dull book, filled with unengaging characters and a pointless plot adds a serious blemish to my plan at the very outset. I struggled through the first thirty pages, and struggled some more 'til I hit page 89, in a week... And then... then I just gave up, and figured this book is not for me. I mean, what a gigantic waste of my reading time! 

I wonder if the Booker judges even read this book, and if they did, did they have exceptionally low standards? I must read the rest of the shortlist for 2007, for I really can't fathom how this book won any kind of prize. 

I mean, what kind of a person imagines the sex-life of her grandmother, and starts off a chapter saying she thought her grandmother was a prostitute? That's the narrator for you. She also judges her mum, and talks of the 'endless humping' in her family, which led to the number of siblings she had being in double-digits. 

I feel terrible, but, 0/10. If negative ratings work, I'd probably give this a -10. Argh! Ok, rant over. 

PS: I was almost tempted to create a new 'genre' called pointless reading for this!

Zoe Heller - Notes On A Scandal

Who doesn't love a good juicy scandal? The type that makes its way to the tabloids, and has everyone talking about it, and judging the protagonists of the impropriety. Everyone has an opinion, and more oft' than not, it's judging the miscreants. Society. Business as usual. 

So, what's the scandal? One newspaper headlines read:

Sex Teacher Passes Her Orals With Flying Colours

while another read:

Teacher Takes Keen Interest In Student Body. 

I'm sure you've heard about it: a teacher having an illicit affair with one of her high school students. Or, in this case, a happily married forty-one year old having an affair with a fifteen year old. 

But, the narrator isn't Sheba Hart, the forty-one year old teacher. Nor is it Steven Connolly, the student. Instead, it's Barbara Covett - a sixty-something year old woman, who has never married. Barbara is Sheba's friend, her defender, if you like. The Sun refers to her as the saucy school teacher's spin-doctor, despite the fact that she has had forty years of experience as a teacher, and has never been associated with anything scandalous prior to this. 

So, what prompts someone like Barbara to act as Sheba's defender? When Sheba walks into the school for the first time, Barbara feels like she's found her 'kindred spirit'. Jealousy overcomes her when she discovers that Sheba has befriended Susan, another teacher who Barbara dislikes. In fact, as the book progresses, the reader comes to find Barbara as an increasingly judgmental condescending character, who has a superiority complex, coupled with some major inhibitions about being single. She's overbearing, clingy, and tends to drive people away. Yet, her extremely high opinion of herself, and the way she manages to justify all her acts almost makes the reader feel sorry for her delusions of grandeur. 

Barbara uses gold stars to mark the timeline of her friendship with Sheba, in her notes; notes that she's writing in order to help Sheba's looming court case. She's almost subservient to Sheba, as she cooks for her, and looks after her, and takes great delight in Sheba's increasing dependence on her. Don't worry - these are not spoilers. In fact, this book is written retrospectively, so the thriller aspect of it is minimal. At the very outset, we know where the protagonists stand, and what has happened. 

Barbara (and subsequently, the reader) struggles to understand Sheba's infatuation with this semi-literate adolescent, who is marginally artistic. She has a devoted husband, a rebellious attractive teenage daughter, and a son with Downs' syndrome. Barbara at one point says that she'd bet they were happily married, and even according to Sheba, they are. In my opinion, what instigates Sheba is a combination of the innocence the boy has, as well as the adventure that a fling like this brings: sex sessions in Hampsted Heath (I kid you not!), meeting at his place when his parents are away, smuggling him into her basement studio, and finding some time in her art studio at school, where they drew the curtains.... Sheba isn't an idiot. She knows what the consequences of her actions are, if found out. But, that doesn't stop her. Incredible that people are ready to risk their entire life (as they know it) because someone finds them attractive, at a time when they're vulnerable to feeling otherwise due to a mid-life crisis of sorts.  

Why, then, was Sheba moved to such an extravagant estimate of his virtues? Why did shr insist on seeing him as her little Helen Keller in a sea of Yahoos. The papers will tell you that Sheba's judgment was clouded by desire: she was attracted to Connolly, and in order to explain that attraction, she convinced herself that he was some kind of genius. 

This is a fascinating gripping story of betrayal, sex, and infatuation. It's not a thriller, but yet you can't let go, and you're compelled to turn each page, and consume it all. It's well-written, funny at times, perverse, thought-provoking (specially in the beginning where they discuss why a woman being the deviant is funny, whereas if it was a man and a fifteen year old girl, it would be disturbing. Guess there is an element of truth in that), and truly shocking. Barbara's tone throughout the book is matter-of-fact and to the point, with minimal padding and meandering. So, while it's not as emotive as you'd expect it to be, it still makes a great read. 

Overall, four stars. 

Patricia Duncker - Hallucinating Foucault

I ordered this book on Amazon, after seeing its name appear on the 1001 Books To Read Before You Die list. Initially, I thought the book was slow-paced, and the lead characters came across as fairly unattractive. There's the unnamed narrator, and The Germanist - a woman who the narrator is attracted to, and within the first couple of pages, she asks him out. Both of them are doing their research projects in Cambridge. While The Germanist is intense and passionate, the narrator comes across as a lot more relaxed and easy-going. He's desperate to please The Germanist, and the story actually begins when he commits to something only to please her.

His research subject is the brilliant albeit eccentric (read schizophrenic) writer, Paul Michel. However, his project focuses on the fiction of the writer, and not the controversial homosexual writer himself. Consequently, he's distant enough from the writer, to not know or care much about the writer and his personal life. The Germanist, on the other hand, is the other extreme. She also knows where Paul Michel has been for the last decade or so - a psychiatric hospital in Paris - and she expects the narrator to go there, and save Michel.

Up to this point, I really didn't enjoy the book. The narrator lacked backbone. On the other hand,  The Germanist was incessantly perceptive, passionate and intense. As the narrator's flatmate said:

You can't like women like that. Liking is too negligible an emotion. Anyway, she she scares me shitless.

However, when the narrator reaches Paris, and hits the library, the story picks up pace, and transforms into a page-turner of sorts. He stumbles on some letters written by Michel to Foucault, and familiarizes himself with the author whose works he had gotten to know so intimately. At this point, the central theme of the book unfolds: exploring the mutual love shared between reader and writer, that is never explicitly mentioned to each other.

The final letter that the narrator reads speaks to him, as he realizes that these letters have never been posted, nor read, by the intended recipient, Michel Foucault:

Sex is a brief gesture, I fling away my body with my money and fear. It is the sharp sensation which fills the empty space before I can go in search of you again. I repent nothing but the frustration of being unable to reach you. You are the glove that I find on the floor, the daily challenge that I take up. You are the reader for whom I write. You have never asked me who I have loved the most. You know already and that is why you never asked. I have always loved you.

Foucault seems to be Michel's muse. Their writings explore similar themes and opinions, both reflecting the other's deeply. Neither of them interacted with each other, but they communicated via their published works. Foucault's death in 1984 probably pushed Michel over the edge, and resulted in his admission to a facility in Paris.

Once the narrator discovers that Paul Michel had left the institution in Paris, and is now in one in Clermont-Ferrand, he heads there to find the author, for reasons he did not understand. The initial meeting between the narrator and Michel ends abruptly, but the subsequent meetings (initiated by Paul Michel) leads to a warm friendship and love. The narrator is fascinated and endeared to the wild boy of his generation, and Michel, in turn, grows quite fond of the naive twenty-two year old, referring to him as 'petit', for most of the time they spend together.

As the book progresses, there are some moments that are funny, some that are sad, and some that will stay in your mind forever, just as they did in the narrator's. As a young child once told Paul Michel:

If you love someone, you know where they are and what has happened to them. And you put yourself at risk to save them if you can.

And that's exactly what the narrator set out to do, on being convinced by the formidable Germanist.

This is not an academic book. It's not a book on the life and times of Paul Michel. It's a book about a fascinating character, who's funny, quick-witted spontaneous and humorous. Someone capable of great love, great sentimentality and great generosity. Someone whose world revolves around one person - a reader of his work - and someone who dedicates his life to making his reader proud. The character of Paul Michel is so colorful, that, for what it's worth, he could as easily be a fictional character.

All in all, I'd say this was a 6.5 on 10, most of the points being docked for the first part of the book making me want to put it down, and never ever pick it up again. On the other hand, I'm glad I finished the book, and now, I'm tempted to find some of the works by Paul Michel and Michel Foucault - the two lovers, who never explicitly expressed their love for each other, but still held on to a love that could not be tarnished. Not even with time. 

Mohsin Hamid - Moth Smoke

This is The Great Gatsby set in the 21st century, in Pakistan. The similarities between the two books are striking, and the endings are almost identical. In fact, I'll go out on a limb and say that this book was inspired by Fitzgerald's classic.

An insight into the life of the rich social circle in Pakistan, this book explores some of the typical subjects one would expect by a sub-continent writer.

To be honest, this is probably the second or third book I've read by a Pakistani author (the only others I've read are The Reluctant Fundamentalist by the same author, and The Islamist - can't remember who wrote that!), and as this was the first one that explores the society in the country, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I was slightly taken aback - by the abundance of alcohol, drugs, parties and opulence that the book displayed (primary reason behind the Great Gatsby comparison).

It's the story of Daru, a middle-class man working in a bank, who sees his life fall apart as he is fired from his job, falls in love with his best friend's wife, starts mixing hash and heroin, and decides to join forces with a corrupt rickshaw driver.

It's a story about friendship and betrayal, about hypocrisy and violence, about crime and punishment, about corruption and nepotism. While I personally did not sympathize much with Daru, I ended up finding his best friend fairly despicable.

What makes this book different, and an interesting read is how the author brings forth every character's point of view, by dividing the book into many chapters. Each chapter is narrated by one of the characters of the book, thereby giving us insight into them, their actions, and what motivates them to do some of the things they do.

While the book has an unfair ending, one can't help but wonder whether Daru deserved better or not.

Overall a 6 on 10, and a good book to read on tube.

F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby

Glitz. Glamour. A love that has survived the War. Extra-marital affairs. Grand parties. Opulence. Alcohol. A yellow Rolls Royce. Chauffeurs. Friendship... and New York in the 1920s (the 'Jazz' age). This pretty much sums up 'The Great Gatsby' - a classic piece of literature from the 20th century.

The story revolves around the rich and glamorous party-goers in New York in the 20th century - in a time when alcohol has been prohibited, when the economy is buzzing (post World War I), and when people are enjoying life to the fullest

The book starts off on a note that grabs the reader's attention, and instinctively makes them want to flip over the page, to figure out what the narrator is 'reserving judgment on':

In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since. 'Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,' he told me, 'just remember that all the people in the world haven't had the advantages that you've had.'

And then the story kicks off, with the introduction to Jay Gatsby - the narrator's (a 22 year old Nick Carraway) wealthy neighbor. Gatsby is an important part of the circle of the rich and famous socialites in New York. Holding alcohol-heavy parties regularly, which carry on 'til the wee hours of the morning, where people turn up, invited or otherwise, Gatsby seems to be at the heart of the socializing. However, ironically enough, he never seems to be drunk or an active part of these parties - instead, he seems to be a mere spectator. No one seems to know who he is, and when Nick asks, people look at him puzzled.

However, there are rumors about Gatsby - his lineage, where he comes from, and where he has earned his money. People indulge in hyperbolic assumptions and wonderings, which Nick himself is fascinated by. However, as the story progresses, Gatsby tells our narrator about why he purchased his place - it's bang opposite Daisy's house across the river. Daisy, Nick's cousin, used to be Gatsby's lover prior to the war, but when Gatsby left for the War, she married Tom. Tom, also opulent, comes across as obnoxious and arrogant; much unlike Gatsby. He boasts of his mistress, and in fact, insists that Nick meet her.

Gatsby clearly has just one mission: to sweep Daisy off her feet, and make her leave Tom. Tom, in all his arrogance, cannot deal with this, and the book ends tragically, where we come to see that all the wealth in the world doesn't buy friends, and people are quick to judge based on nothing; where people act without thinking of the consequences, and how jealousy and anger combined result in an act of ultimate unfairness. It's this ending that makes the book as heart-achingly sad and depressing.

This beautifully written book vividly brings to life the society of New York in the 1920s. From the fact that women are meant to be beautiful and not much else (I'm glad it's a girl. And I hope she'll be a fool -- that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool. -  Daisy on her daughter) to, people indulging in idle gossip about their host. It highlights the jealousy of a jilted lover, and the passion of an old one. It stresses on pride and money, of opulence and fair-weather friends.

The prose itself is almost like poetry, with some philosophical meanderings, and thought-provoking quotes. A powerful book, this book has made an impression me, like very few other books have.

Overall, an 8 on 10, and a must-read. I'm off to find another book by Fitzgerald now, and it's much to my dismay that due to his death at a relatively early age, there aren't that many.

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.

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!

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.