Cry, The Beloved Country : Alan Paton

                                           Image Credit: HCLibrary

As I write this, the year is coming to a close. It's been a long year, a tough year, an enduring year, and at the same time, left little moments to cherish it by in life's long memory. I have read as many books as I did last year. I loved most of them, hated a few, and was indifferent to some. With 2009 setting into the past, and a new decade looming, I hope that by 2020 I would have read at least 50 books a year, making it around 500 books by then. Small ambitions. I know there are bloggers who read 500 books a year. Frankly, I don't know how they manage it. I wish I can do things to my life, sit at home, and read. But, if I were to do so, I can never afford the books I buy, and that loss is too much to bear. Better to lose time instead. During this year, the readership of this blog has tripled - I thank all of you, dear readers, for taking the time to read our trifles, and wish that you have a beautiful book-filled year.

Yes, before I forget, the last review of this year - Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton. What can I say about this all-time classic? Set in South Africa, Alan Paton carries us on a mesmerizing journey as seen through the eyes of Stephen Kumalo, a priest who arrives in Johannesburg to help his sister, Gertrude, and search for his son Absalom. My heart ached for Kumalo - he is so gentle that I feared I would hurt him if I turned the page! Through his breathless journey to find Absalom, Paton takes us through the heart of South Africa - its problems with race, the seething city of Johannesburg and the frailties of the human spirit, which suffers only to endure in pain the death of happiness.

Vast in its theme, I will not do justice to the book's motifs. Apartheid, corruption, the beautiful South African countryside, the thorny relationship between the white man and blacks, poverty, emancipation, the bondage of fear, and above all, South Africa itself. How do you define a country? How do you understand it? Alan Paton shows us how.

My favorite quote:

"I have one great fear in my heart, that one day when they are turned to loving, they will find that we are turned to hating."

I read through this book in a night. I can reread it again, it's that wonderful a novel. Read it, please. It's worth the next decade.

Verdict : Classic and touching. I had tears in the end. :(


Rating: 5/5

The Space Between Us : Thrity Umrigar

Image Credit: KDL
I created this blog post, wrote the title, and then sat back, wondering what to write. The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar left me searching for memories of the time I spent reading it. I did not read this so long ago - just two or three days ago, perhaps. Yet, the characters have already faded from my memory, and I had to dig deep to recollect the feeling this book wrought in me. And I think I have now discovered it. A feeling of indifference.

In a lot of ways, the Space Between Us is similar to the Help. Both deal with relationships between the 'mistress' and the domestic help. But while the Help offered such sheer reading pleasure, the Space Between Us dragged along like an old cow left to wander on the highway. We have Sera Dubash, the Parsi homemaker, living with her daughter and son-in-law in Mumbai. And then we have Bhima, Sera's favorite maid, who lives with her granddaughter, Maya. The novel begins with Bhima cursing the fact that Maya, who she is training to become 'college-educated,' finds herself pregnant. Maya doesn't reveal the Dad, and Bhima is left to face the shame of having an unwed mother in her house. Maya never becomes a mother - with Sera's help, she has an abortion. This is the thick plot that runs through the book - there is supposed to be a mystery here - who is the Dad, and I found out by the 10th or so page who the Dad was.

Interspersed in between, and running through the story are various histories - Bhima's romantic tryst with husband Gopal. The fate that befalls her daughter. And there is Sera's own past - an abusive husband and a vulture-like mother-in-law. And Umrigar has to drop in references to AIDS, the shabby state of government hospitals, their apathy, the slums of Mumbai, poverty, middle-class India, and virtually everything else you can think of that can make a Western reviewer gasp with awe and claim, 'wow, this is the REAL India!' The result is that the character of Sera is never fully developed - and while Umrigar does more justice to Bhima, the relationship between them is only given in tidbits here and there instead of forming the spine of the book. I felt in the end that the Space Between Us became a kichdi of everything possible. There was too much of everything, and I could scarcely care what happened to Bhima or Sera or Maya or anyone in the end. But don't blame me for not trying - I really wanted to like this book, I really wanted to.

Verdict : It may be an unpopular verdict but this blog believes in expressing opinion, and that opinion here is that it is just an over-hyped, catering to the West book.


Rating : 2/5

Persian Girls: Nahid Rachlin

Image Credit: Persian Mirror

It had been a while since I traveled to the Middle East and that is how I decided to read “Persian Girls” by Nahid Rachlin. In this gripping memoir, Rachlin takes us through her life from her childhood in Iran to her courageous break-away to the US. Nahid is only six months old when her mother gives her away to Maryam her sister. Maryam brings her up with all the love and care in the world but when she is around nine years old her father forcibly takes her away to live with her family. There, her sister Pari becomes her close friend and confidante. Nahid rebels against the suffocating societal norms of Iran and fights her way to America for her higher studies. There she meets her future husband and starts a family. But her life is shattered when she hears of Pari’s death, which she doubts is a suicide and not an accident.

Persian Girls has various angles and layers to it and what I can give here is just a threadbare synopsis. Rachlin explores her complicated relationship with her mother and her distant relationship with her father. She seeks refuge in the one person who understands her – Pari. But Pari soon gets married, unwillingly, to Taheri and after she leaves Rachlin is aware that she must escape to America or she would be next. Even after she goes to the US, Pari remains her solace.

When she reaches the US she realizes that the land of her dreams is not exactly as she had expected it to be. She faces prejudice and isolation from all the other girls in her college. Loneliness envelops her until she meets Howie whom she marries later.

We learn of the Shah of Iran’s pseudo-modern approach and of its people especially men who were against “Westoxification.” The oppressive climate of the country did not allow women to further their education or pursue their interests with freedom. Instead they were expected to get married by the age of 9 or 10 to men much older than them. Through her own experiences Rachlin portrays the vast contrast between Iran and the US, its societies, attitudes and cultures.

Persian Girls is a poignant story of Rachlin’s love for her sister, the thread that holds the book together. It is also Rachlin’s own painful story of escape, in all meanings of the word. It is also the stories of women in a country like Iran that remains unheard and unvoiced. It is a first hand account of the political conditions that prevailed in Iran during the 70s and 80s and how drastically they changed and kept changing later on making it not just Rachlin’s memoir but that of Iran as well. Above all it is a story of courage, of not just Rachlin but all the women who live cloistered in a male dominated society.

Verdict: Very interesting, lucid and moving

Rating: 3.5/5

Moby Dick: Herman Melville

                                                         Image Credit: Britannica

“Call me Ishmael” is considered one of the greatest openings among all of the books ever written in the English language. Thus begins an all time classic “Moby Dick”. One has to “experience” the classic, only then is one capable of discerning what a classic is and what isn’t.

I had read this book in my pre-teens, a very impressionable age most would agree. I was so impressed with this book that all I ever wanted to do was become a boy immediately and go “a-whaling” just like our narrator Ishmael. I picked this book to read again on a whim and I am glad I did.

The book begins simply with an ordinary man choosing to go work on a whaling ship so it serves his dual purpose of experiencing the clean air of the seas and making enough money to get by. However, his journey must begin in a port town called Nantucket. A kind of spookiness envelopes our narrator in Nantucket even before he boards a ship. And this spookiness exists throughout the book like a haunting invisible character which has the power to manipulate the events about to occur. Of course it is Herman Melville’s clever use of this sense of the “mysterious unknown” that endearingly appeals to all the readers of this young-adult classic.

Back to the story - our narrator then wins a position on the whaling ship Pequod. It is at this point that Melville’s amazing descriptions bring alive such unique characters as Queequeg – with his tomahawk hair style and his body full of purple tattoos including his face! Captain Ahab with his ivory leg and the ever present sour temper due to Moby Dick; Starbuck - responsible and dependable, Stubb - carefree and reckless... and so on. It is around these characters that Melville weaves an unforgettable tale of adventure, romance and mystery, a tale about the hunt for whales and of course the titular Moby Dick.

The book is replete with references to whales, whale tales and not so strangely death/ghosts/spookiness. (I guess and sea and death are two sides of the same coin for many.) Take Mr. Peter Coffin, Innkeeper of the “Spouter Inn” where our narrator resides at Nantucket before he sets sail on Pequod - whales spout and coffin, obviously death. Then there is that incident where the madman tries to dissuade both our narrator and Queequeg from NOT joining the crew of Pequod. The sighting of the “five ghost like people” boarding their ship on a misty morning and so on. There is no dearth of “Bad Sign” incidents which adds to this spookiness - Queequeg having a coffin made for himself when very ill on the Pequod being a striking one among them.

Similar to Homer’s The Illiad, another classic, this tale too has several smaller stories not directly related to Moby Dick. These tales, just likes The Illiad’s sub-tales, add to the environment of the main story or to drive home a point, or to illustrate to us readers the basis of certain beliefs the seamen have.

Any review of Moby Dick isn’t complete without a mention of the rich detailed descriptions of the whole whaling process – capturing the whale, collecting blubber (or whale oil), the special storing techniques for storing whale oil, whale meat etc. Did you know that Ambergris (a particular whale product) is used in our perfumes, everyday face creams etc? Did you also know that our famous coffee brand Starbucks was also named after the first mate Starbuck – Wikipedia states:

The company is named in part after Starbuck, Captain Ahab's first mate in the novel Moby-Dick, as well as a turn-of-the-century mining camp (Starbo or Storbo) on Mount Rainier.

It is in this sense that Moby Dick can be considered “educative” as well. The entire sea-faring experience, the lives these men lead for years on ships. This vibrant life way of life is taught to us humble folks via these books – a life we can never experience firsthand.

Are these odd mix of people successful in capturing “Moby Dick”? I shall let you read and find that out yourself. One thing I can assure you of, though, is even after you have closed the book “Thar she blows” continues to haunt you for days – that is, if you still have a child within you somewhere.

Verdict: Classic, need I say more?

Rating: ?!?!

Magic and Mystery in Tibet: Alexandra David-Neel

Image of book cover from art.eonworks. Alexandra David-Neel in her travel attire below, image from Cornell Library

I had come across Alexandra David-Neel by chance. I had been searching for something related to travel on the internet and one page led to the other where I came upon her name. David-Neel was an intrepid woman traveler and the first and perhaps the only female foreigner to have audience with the Dalai Lama. Her journeys are concentrated in and around Tibet and Nepal and she has written a few books about it. The most famous of them all is “Magic and Mystery in Tibet,” hailed as a wonderful masterpiece. The moment I read all of these descriptions I couldn’t resist buying it.

Magic and Mystery in Tibet chronicles David-Neel’s journeys through the frosty plains and mountains of Tibet, her encounters with monks, lamas and holy men. Through them she learns and is privy to occult practices and rituals. She learns about their beliefs and she gets the privilege of being part of their practices.

Initially it’s a bit confusing because David-Neel begins the book in the middle. She has already described what brought her to Lhasa and how she got here in her previous book My Journey to Lhasa. Rationalism meets mysticism in David-Neel’s writing as she attempts to bring a scientific approach to many rituals of the monks. She also reveals a whole new world, that of the lives, the stories of and even the politics among these monks, which are usually shrouded in mystery to a commoner.

Her prose richly brings alive the fantastic and surreal landscape of Tibet, which by itself is a big part of the mysticism that surrounds these Buddhists. She describes people disappearing in a veil of mist in front of her eyes, of monks drying wet clothes on their backs in the biting cold of a Tibetan winter and of the power of telepathy. A touch of humor is present as she sardonically notes that the monks’ manner of keeping themselves warm during the winter is not so amazing considering that it involved much physical activity and vigorous movements.

One of the anecdotes she recounts is difficult for me to forget for some reason. She explains a ritual where a student monk has to prove his mettle by being tied to a tree the whole night. The catch is that he has to ward off the demons that are supposed to haunt that particular spot and if he remains alive then he has passed the test. One such student was found torn to pieces in the morning, which proved his weakness. But David-Neel provides a more rational explanation for it saying that the area is infested with panthers and hence the boy met his gory fate at their hands… or jaws rather.

Yet another story that remained with me long after I finished reading the book talks about how some ascetics are able to meditate to an extent to which their bodies become light. So light that they can sit upon a barley stalk without crushing it. Once she came across a man, dirty and ragged, lying on the ground. He was bound all over in chains. When she turned to her guide for an explanation, he said that it was because the man had become so light through intense meditation that he needed the weight of the chain to keep him grounded! David-Neel could only express pure incredulity at this.

Such is the vein in which the entire book is written – a mixture of rationalism, amazement and true wonderment at the lack of a sensible explanation behind some incidents.

Magic and Mystery in Tibet reminded me of An Autobiography of a Yogi but the latter was much less philosophical and easier to read. It had more direct speech making it more interesting while David-Neel delves into the various aspects of Buddhism in long prose making it a tad too deep at times. I admit I skipped some of those passages. OK many of those passages. Due to this at times it almost slipped my mind that I am reading a travelogue and not a thesis on Buddhism.

Nevertheless, the fantastic world of Tibet doesn’t cease to charm me. David-Neel’s observations of the magical world of the Buddhists did enthrall me in many parts especially with the descriptions of supernatural phenomena. Absolutely fascinating. And of course David-Neel is one of those fine women travelers that the world sees perhaps once in a century.

PS. David-Neel continued her travels till the very young age of 91. Here is a video of David-Neel from Dailymotion that is in French but provides some interesting images.

Verdict: Fascinating.

Rating: 3.8/5

Interesting words learnt: Sybaritic

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich: Aleksander Solzhenitsyn

                                       Image Credit: Random House

“A day without a dark cloud. Almost a happy day. There were three thousand six hundred and fifty-three days like that in his stretch. From the first clang of the rail to the last clang of the rail. Three thousand six hundred and fifty-three days. The three extra days were for leap years.”

That's how One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich ends. And despite a warm morning, those words made me shiver. This classic, one of the 1000 books to read before you die, has such starkness, such cold distress in the words that for a moment I forgot my petty concerns, and was glad that I had had a filling breakfast, lots of milk, a wonderful bed to lie on, and all the sleep I want on a Sunday, without worrying about wardens bearing down on you, and without thinking which action of yours might land you in the 'cooler,' a miserable concrete cell with NO heating, imagine, NO heating in the Siberian winter. Say your prayers that you are probably alive and well, most probably in a democratic country, without spending a lifetime in a day as Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, a wrongly-accused convict in the Soviet penal camp does. It is hard enough to find material in a lifetime to fill a book but what Alexander Solzhenitsyn has done is to take a day - just a day - in the barracks of the Stalin-era Soviet camps, and fill us with enough dread to last a lifetime.

Written in unsentimental prose, Solzhenitsyn takes us through the early morning call at 5AM on a freezing winter morning when Shukhov wakes up feeling slightly ill. He can't make it to the sick bed, not considered sick enough, is caught by a warden for being late but escapes with a relatively light punishment, has his thin breakfast, feels happy that he can store a little bread away, sewed in to the sawdust in his mattress, and runs all day to work for the power plant, trying to lay bricks before the mortar freezes in the sub-zero conditions. In the evening, Shukhov runs around helping Caesar, a fellow convict who escapes harsh labor by virtue of him being an intellectual, and manages to win himself Caesar's dinner in the process, two bowls of gruel on evening, and more bread! Heaven! That is the condition of life that Stalin imposed. Shukhov is supposedly serving only 10 years in the camp but the book indicates that those who are here never get out. Home is where the prison is.

Solzhenitsyn writes from personal experience - he spent almost a decade in a Soviet camp himself for derogatorily referring to Stalin as the 'whiskered one.' Not that it stopped him for in One Day, he refers to Stalin again as "Old Man Whiskers." There is intense courage in this book. The men here, despite the almost inhuman conditions they have to endure, live for the day. None epitomizes this more than Shukhov who goes to sleep "very happy." "Nothing had spoiled the day, and it had been almost happy." His happiness? He hadn't been put in the cooler, he had finagled an extra bowl of mush at lunch, he had felt good making that brick wall, he had bought some tobacco, and he had gotten over that sickness. Life was good. And that is where the book hurts. If only human beings ever learn from history. If only.

Verdict: Searing. This is cast in the mold of Anne Frank and Elie Wiesel. 


Rating: 5/5

Godan: Premchand

Image Credit: Rediff books

I think of each book as a travel that I undertake to a different part of the world. So this time I decided not to travel too far and read Premchand’s “Godan,” which literally means “giving a cow as a gift.” And indeed the novel revolves around the story of Hori and Dhania, two peasant farmers, for whom their cows mean everything. Godan chronicles their lives, their trials and tribulations, as they cope up with the mean Zamindars, the greedy moneylenders and plotting well-wishers. The characters are all portrayed with a certain poignancy with all the flaws that make them human.

While Hori and Dhania along with Datadin and the Zamindars represent the workings of a village, Malti, Mehta and the Khannas provide a window to life in the city. Premchand’s epic has been hailed as one of the jewels of Indian fiction and I absolutely second that. The vast sweep of issues and characters that Premchand presents to the reader is intricate and well-wrought. Hori is one of the many simple minded peasants who are perpetually in debt due to the scheming moneylenders and the rich Zamindars who take advantage of his naivete. Dhania, his wife, although more spirited, is equally pure at heart. Through them and their son Gobar, Premchand beautifully portrays life in the villages, which was perhaps tougher than in the cities. Through the presence of other characters he shows their attitudes and thoughts on religion, politics and other matters. But most importantly he shows the crucial role of bribery and corruption, which has been at the root of India’s rotting heart and remains so even today.

Malti and Mehta stand out as symbols of the city and its thinking. Malti is a modern woman who believes in equal rights for both sexes. She and Mehta have frequent arguments over this topic and they prove to be Premchand’s stage to show that city life is no less daunting than in the village. The attitudes in the city contain biases, judgments and criticisms as much as that in the village. Just on a different angle and scale.

Gobar and Sona, Hori’s children, stand in for the transition that is taking place in the villages towards modernism. They represent young India too with their outlook and smartness.

But in the end the paths of all characters cross in some way or the other making for a nice interleaving of stories. Premchand has juggled so many subjects in the book with ease that it makes for some riveting reading. But I could not get the soul of the book because mine was a translated version and a very bad one at that. Rife with spelling mistakes, the translation sounded jagged and unrefined. The worst were the renditions of proverbs in Hindi, which were done word to word making it very stilted. There was also a glaring mistake right in the beginning of the book when Hori sets out of his house to visit the neighboring village when ‘the sun of June’ is just streaking the sky. When he arrives he finds that the village is in the middle of preparations for Dussera. If you have not already noticed the discrepancy, how can Dussera be celebrated anywhere near June when it falls somewhere near October every year? I don’t know if this was a translation mistake or if Premchand had got his dates wrong.

Premchand, who was born as Dhanpat Rai, is known as Munshi Premchand in India and his stories have been immortalized through television serials too. All in all, Godan is a brilliant evocation of peasant India, set in the 1930s, and its characters speak volumes that cannot be encompassed in this small space.


Verdict: Truly a classic

Rating: 4.5/5

The Help : Kathryn Stockett

                                   Image Credit : Dailymail
Kathryn Stockett's debut novel, The Help, is one of the best-sellers of the year. It had been on my wish list for so long now - but an exorbitant price tag kept me from buying it before Birdy gifted it to me. And what a gift it turned out to be!

The Help deserves to be on the best-seller list. It is riveting, entertaining, moving and just guaranteed to make you stay up till the wee hours trying to find out what happens to Skeeter, Aibileen, and Minny. Stockett has not crafted a boring, politically-charged novel dealing with racist issues in Mississippi in the 1960s but what she has cleverly done is to infuse human emotion to the dodgy issue of race, and create characters whose lives resonate in your mind long after you lay down the book. Aibileen and Minny are the black maids - best friends - but each different from each other. Aibileen is wise, touched by pain after losing her only son, and is raising her 17th child as a help, Minny is the fire-brand, volatile, funny yet so lovable. And there is Skeeter Phelan, a white woman, and a new graduate who starts to question the need for a black-only bathroom for the helps who work in white households, and eventually with the help of Aibileen and Minny has the courage to begin a project that is bound to change the lives of those in Jackson, Mississippi forever.

There are lots of colors to this novel : Stockett is a white woman who attempts a black woman's voice through Aibileen and Minny. She is also the white woman's voice in Skeeter. She manages both skilfully, and I found the language endearing and readable in both voices. There is also the villain-of-the-piece in Miss Hilly, who fires Minny saying she is a thief, and who is the character we all love to hate. Hilly perhaps is the only stereotypical character in the book - but it is a minor flaw for the other characters are just wonderfully sketched.

Stockett's book is the book of the year. Read this even if you don't read another book the rest of the year. Suspense, intrigue, drama, laughter, sadness, and hope. What more do you want from a book? And there is hope for all aspiring writers waiting to be published - Stockett says she got 45 rejection letters - that is 5 years of rejections - before a publisher picked it up. Wow. Wonder how those 45 agents would be feeling now that this book has proven to be such a phenomenal bestseller?

And the author's favorite line from the book is also mine :

"Wasn't that the point of the book? For women to realize, We are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I'd thought."

And this for personal reasons relating to my own state of mind is also a favorite:

"I always thought insanity would be a dark, bitter feeling, but it is drenching and delicious if you really roll around in it."

Verdict: Unputdownable. The book of the year. 


Rating : 6/5

The Age of Innocence : Edith Wharton

                                 Image Credit : Mookesandgripes
An acknowledged classic, the Pulitzer-prize winning Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton was a book I had been wanting to read for a while. Published in 1920 to universal acclaim, Edith Wharton captures in authentic detail the manners and mores of the New York society of those times.

At the heart of the book is the love triangle between Newland Archer, a young lawyer making his way up in fashionable society, and May Welland, his pretty wife, and May's cousin, Countess Ellen Olenska. It is easy to dwell too much on the love triangle - indeed Wharton does a superb job in depicting Archer's dilemma, his anguish and pain even as he tries to keep up the superficiality of his societally-approved relationship with May. It is indeed the age of innocence when artificiality is prized, and keeping appearances matters more than living honestly and justly. But the Age of Innocence is also a satirical work - Wharton is scathing in the depiction of a society that believes that it is far better to ask Ellen to return to a husband she has fled from, fled in fear of his abuse, than live the supposedly scandalous life she is leading in the States. New York society never embraces Ellen wholeheartedly despite Archer's best efforts and the social intrigue that Wharton has sketched would be too much to detail in a short blog post of this kind.

Instead, I dwell on the characters themselves - there seems to be a bit of Edith herself in Ellen. Like Ellen, Edith separated from her husband, and obtained a divorce in 1912. You can imagine well the reaction that Edith would have had to face. And it is in Ellen that I detect the most passion- there was a quiet fire in her that impressed me. May is portrayed as abject by Arthur but she surprises us all in the end with her determination to hold on to a man who clearly did not love her. And Arthur? I pitied him as he fought against his impulses and his love for Ellen, which comes all too late for him to change things. But I despised him his lack of courage. But then again, it was not courage that Arthur perhaps lacked - he was just the pawn in a society that had built itself on lies and hypocrisy, from which there was no escaping from.

Age of Innocence is a classic - undisputedly so. My only constraint while reading was trying to remember the sheer number of characters. I eventually gave up trying to understand which Mingott was who, and several of the minor characters I glossed over. It doesn't mar from the reading much, though. For Wharton has sculpted a masterpiece.

Verdict : Classic. 


Rating : 5/5

2 States : The Story of My Marriage : Chetan Bhagat

                               Image Credit: Rupa Publications
Chetan Bhagat, I have a confession to make. I had looked down on your books as being 'trash lit,' the kind that engineering students read and pronounce is 'too good.' I had seen your books succeed wildly - as an author you did what no other author had done before - you made India wake up and read. And yet I demurred. I didn't want to be caught reading one of your 'college-type' books. And so I desisted. Till I gave in. And bought 2 States. And I confess again, I was surprised. I found myself enjoying your book. It was readable, funny, and struck a chord. You are no writer of Indian classics, to be read in chic New York cafes by awe-struck, phony lit types but you are an eminently readable writer, and I stand corrected. I would love to read more of you. (Conditions apply*).

It is funny how we readers make assumptions. And how those assumptions can turn and snap your beliefs. 2 States is the love story of Krish and Ananya - and their desperate attempt to win over their Punjabi and Tamilian families, respectively. As I said earlier, I enjoyed the easy flow of the book. Chetan Bhagat does not intend to tax your mind. The first half of 2 States made for some wonderful reading - Bhagat's wit is endearing, and I found myself chuckling over a few passages. Of course, as most know by now, 2 States is also largely based on Chetan Bhagat's own life. It is a life that I cannot relate much to - as a writer, Bhagat is obsessed with the IIM, IIT gang, and I am far removed from such hallowed portals of learning. And Bhagat writes purely for them - the life on campus, the hormones, even a live-in relationship, the poor rich lads who land jobs that never ever match up to their erudite learning. Wow. What a tough life.

And then the comedy of Krish and Ananya's marriage or rather, their attempt to get married. This later half of the book reminded me of that classic Bollywood hit, DDLJ or Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge. Boy meets girl's parents. Tries his best to woo them. Even takes 5AM tuition classes for girl's little brother. Works on girl's Dad's PowerPoint presentation. Helps girl's Mom to sing in concert. Sounds familiar? This half was overly long, dragged out and rather filmi. Bhagat is at his best when he writes light, witty lines. His attempts at melodrama just made me laugh. He is not a poetic writer, and when Krish falls into depression, I did not find myself hurting for Krish, as I normally do for any poor-suffering character in a book, but rather I was chuckling at the so obvious attempt at pathos that it became bathos. Of course, all is happily resolved as it is in DDLJ, and I can see Aamir Khan waiting to make another movie out of this.

So, 2 States is fun. At Rs95, it doesn't cut a hole in your wallet. And it makes for a mindless session of mind wafting. Ain't no classic this, but then, Chetan Bhagat never intended it to be, I suspect.

Verdict : Readable. *Please ignore the pitiful attempt to sound Camus-like in the end. 


Rating : 3/5

Nectar in a Sieve : Kamala Markandaya

                                               Image Credit: Penguin Books India

Nectar in a Sieve was lying on my TBR shelf for so long now. I picked it up reluctantly. And I confess, I was pleasantly surprised. Nectar in a Sieve did not turn out to be the boring saga of Indian poverty that I expected it to be. Kamala Markandaya has crafted a beautiful book here - wise and understanding, she does not give poverty a halo but rather a quiet dignity and grace that makes Nectar in a Sieve so readable.

First published in 1954, Nectar in a Sieve draws upon a young India, still fresh from Independence, and struggling to carve its way in the world. And that is precisely what we see through the life of Rukhmani - from the beginning of her marriage to Nathan (lol, I kept reading this in my mind as N-ethan, as in the Western name), the children she gives birth to, and the constant struggle with Nature and being poor tenants on another's land. Critics have compared the suffering here to Thomas Hardy's own despair-laden characters, and I agree to a certain extent. Rukhmani leads a harsh life but it is not a despairing life. Hardy's preoccupation with suffering was consistent with his view of the world as being a melancholy war against Father Time and the consequences of failing to conquer it. But Kamala Markandaya infuses in Rukhmani a quiet spirit - she has the strength to bear life's burdens, and still summon in herself the will to live. Her daughter, Ira, is unlike Rukhmani in a lot of ways - while Rukhmani has Nathan's abiding love - Ira is abandoned by her husband for failing to bear a child. Ira smoulders like coal before a fire - to me, she remained an enigmatic figure, fierce loyal and brave to the point she turns to prostitution in order to earn money during a low period in the family. Together, these women are the strength of the family - even as Rukhmani's first two sons desert her, and Nathan becomes frail with age, it is they who prove to be stronger.

There is more to Nectar in a Sieve than just the concept of suffering and poverty - Rukhmani and Nathan carve a wonderful marriage but even that is not without its holes. Nathan fathers children with Kunti, a neighbor, but that emotional blow is taken by Rukhmani with what some may say is resignation but what to me is quiet courage :

"It is as you say a long time ago," I said wearily. "That she is evil and powerful I know myself. Let it rest."

And then there is the weird Kenny - the Western voice of the novel, a doctor in Rukhmani's village, who tells her "'you must cry out if you want help. It is no use whatsoever to suffer in silence. Who will succour the drowning man if he does not clamour for his life?'" There is much to discuss in this multi-faceted classic and a long essay paper might do the trick more than a blog post. But do read it. Classic it truly is.

Verdict : Need I say again? Classic.


Rating : 5/5

A Small Part of History: Peggy Elliott

Image Credit: Levante Journal

Yesterday I finished reading Peggy Elliott’s “A Small Part of History,” and realized that I had not written my observations on a piece of paper as I usually do. But since it’s a very light read it’s quite ok. Elliott’s novel tells the stories of women who traveled the Oregon Trail, which takes place in 1835. They cross in oxen-pulled wagons and it chronicles the tragedies, the happy moments and the various characters who all make up the long and arduous journey. I was fascinated by the book more so because Elliott bases it on many real incidents gleaned from the diaries of actual women who undertook this torturous journey in search of richer pastures and a better life.

A Small Part of History concentrates on two particular women, Rebecca, John’s third wife and Sarah his 15 year old daughter. Rebecca charms everyone around with her gentle ways except for Sarah who is quite the tomboy and lacks feminine grace. Along the journey Rebecca becomes the unofficial leader among the women in the train of wagons going to Oregon. She cooks, washes, cleans, offers prayers and tries to forge a friendly relationship with Sarah her stepdaughter.

In describing these various activities we get a glimpse of the lives of these extremely strong women who managed to keep house even out in the open. We get to know the attitudes that prevailed at the time and the way people lived. Elliott provides recipes, herbal remedies and diary accounts to build up the thoughts of the women, which makes the book different and more interesting since it focuses on their stories that go largely untold.

Everyone knows about the men who rode to the West in search of gold and other riches. Their stories have been made into books and even movies. But how did the women survive the hardships and the tragedies of a life on the road? Elliott’s book provides a lot of answers.

Verdict: Extremely enlightening in terms of facts and an entertaining read in terms of a story

Rating: 3.2/5

Three Years: Anton Chekhov

Image Credit: Book Depository

I finished reading most of this book in my office while the technical administrator was reformatting my pc. Some blessed error had come and turned its insides topsy turvy due to, which he had to spend around an hour or so tuning it. And since he had told me the day before that he would do this the next day I had happily got Anton Chekhov’s “Three Years” to read. Chekhov is generally known as the master of short stories and I wasn’t aware of many of his novellas. Three Years is the story of hasty love, a marriage and the two lives involved.

The story is refreshing in its approach to marriage and love. Laptev falls in love at first sight and in excitement he professes his love to Yulia who agrees to marry him. But even before marriage the relationship begins to show chinks of vulnerabilities. Laptev starts thinking again about his decision and it’s clear that the love is not mutual. So why did Yulia marry him? No spoilers here, but Chekhov brilliantly brings out the folly of things done on the spur of a moment only for it to be regretted later. He also shows the futility of wagering on something that might happen in the future and taking a decision based on that expectation.

Yulia wonders about the banality of a marriage, “Was married life not possible without love? After all, it was said that love soon passed and habit alone remained, and that the very objective of family life was found not in love, not in happiness, but in duties, for example, in the raising of children, in the cares of housekeeping and so on.”

And so does Laptev, “From time to time he looked at her over the top of his book and thought: whether you marry for passionate love or entirely without love – isn’t it all the same?”

And I thought, “Isn’t that what a lot of marriages are eventually about? Love becomes like the creamy foam on top of a cup of coffee, which is soon gone. Very few mix the foam into the coffee and savor it slowly.” Tacky image perhaps but that’s what came to my mind.

Three Years reminded me of TS Eliot’s play The Cocktail Party in its theme and the way it has been presented. In Eliot’s play Reilly, the third person, resolves the conflicts in the marriage but Chekhov gives that power to the two characters themselves. Do they come to terms with their marriage? Well, read the book, it’s brilliant.

Those inclined to read e-books can do so from this online version. Its just 91 pages.

Verdict: Short read but big thoughts

Rating: 4/5

Words learnt: Kamelaukion

Mister Pip : Lloyd Jones

                                 Image Credit : Craftypeople
Enthralling. Evocative. Gripping. Shocking. Alluring. These and more are the adjectives I would use to describe Lloyd Jones' coming-of-age novel, Mister Pip. There are not too many books to which I would apply such adjectives to, but from the beginning, this Commonwealth Prize-winning book kept me riveted.

Set against the backdrop of a bloody civil war in the beautifully-named Bougainville Island, Mister Pip is narrated by Matilda, a young girl of 14, whose life is changed forever by the war, the appearance of Mr Watts or Pop-Eye, the only white man on a black island, who becomes her teacher, and their reading of the Dickens classic, Great Expectations. Pip is the protagonist in Dickens' novel, and he is a powerful presence in Jones' novel too. Mr Watts reads aloud Great Expectations to his eager class. His reading of the novel causes a tense conflict between Matilda's devil-fearing mother and Mr Watts's own assertion of the devil's non-existence.

What follows through the novel is bit complex for me to explain. Because Jones has masterfully interwoven one story into another such that you scarcely know if you are in Dickens' world or yours. Yet, in both you are made painfully aware, as a reader, the crassness of human beings, and how that same crassness can elevate the spirit in us. Between the 'rambos,' the rebels, and the 'redskins,' and the florid beauty of the island, we are treated to some exquisitely drawn characters who touch you, talk to you, and leave a piece of them in your mind. And there was one passage in the book that shocked me like no other book has. Shocked me out a lull of reading gentle words on a Saturday afternoon. Left me blood-shocked.

To answer that famously irritating question : what is the book about? Is it a book about survival? Yes. Is it a book about love? Yes. Is it a book about war? Yes. Is it a book about redemption and forgiveness? Yes. Is it a book about the magic of reading? Yes. Is it a book about standards, principles and morals? Yes. Is it a book about sacrifice? Yes. I was inspired enough to begin reading Great Expectations.

Mister Pip is no doomed story about vanquished hope. It offers solace. Mr Watts encouraged his young wards to listen to their voice, to convince them that it is that voice that makes us unique, after we have lost everything, we still have a voice. We have imagination. We can read and thus it is that literature can elevate us. I cannot agree more. Read Mister Pip. You will find a voice worth reading.

Verdict: Riveting literature. 


Rating: 5/5

Watch the book trailer for Mister Pip here:

The Other Boleyn Girl: Philippa Gregory

Image Credit: bookjourney

Going to the gym after a break of three to four days has its benefits. I felt like I could run forever and didn’t feel as tired. And I feel rested. But my mind was anything but rested. Well, that is what you would feel too if you read “The Other Boleyn Girl” by Philippa Gregory. Phew! What a mad book! And I mean it as a compliment because to think up such a story demands the services of a Machiavellian line of thought.

I have always been fascinated by historical fiction and the character of Anne Boleyn in particular has caught my fancy because of all the spooky stories about her. For those who are unaware of this, Anne Boleyn is one of the most famous ghosts in the world and there have been frequent reports of her sightings at the Tower of London. That was one of the reasons I wanted to visit the Tower when I was in London but I could not make it. London just crowds you with history and there was too much to see for a history and literature buff like me.

The Other Boleyn Girl is in fact the story of Anne Boleyn’s sister Mary, who is relatively unknown. Mary is quite the naïve and innocent girl who is used as a pawn by her entire family to gain power. She has two children by King Henry VIII but by then the philanderer that Henry is, he falls in love with her sister Anne. She rises to become the Queen but she pays the highest price for it in the end for all her manipulative ways.

The novel has essentially one theme running throughout – power. Gregory vividly imagines the power plays involved for anyone who wants to get into the king’s favor. And the whole of the Howard family wants just that. Mary becomes the scapegoat initially and then the honor goes to Anne. Or rather she practically snatches it from Mary. Gregory’s sketches of Anne’s manipulations and her family’s cold calculations stand out in bas relief, giving racy momentum to the novel.

I don’t know to what extent is fiction separated from fact. Although Gregory insists that most of the incidents are based on fact she has faced much criticism for departing from it too. Mary is shown to be a meek girl who easily gets trapped in her family’s ambitions and has to do their bidding. But I got riled at times with Mary’s holier-than-thou attitude. She expresses deep concern for her sister even after she is treated by Anne in the cruelest and most humiliating ways possible. She even names her baby after Anne despite the fact that Anne had banished her from the court. Mary, however, shows her strength too in a lot of other ways while the apparently confident Anne crumbles inside. And although it is Anne who becomes the queen it is still Mary and her own family who is still the focus.

We also learn that everyone exists to please the king in any way possible. As Anne says,

“Whether it is tennis or jousting or archery or flirtation the game is to keep the king happy,” she said. “That’s what we are here for, that’s all that matters.”

And the king seem to constantly need to be kept occupied, he doesn’t seem to attend to a lot of matters, apart from seeking out the next woman to flirt with or walking with his current paramour or going hunting. But in the middle of this tableau Gregory points out a subtle but extremely relevant point. The King is a puppet of his lust and through that he becomes a puppet in the hands of the Howard/Boleyn family.

I liked the book for its pace and vivid portrayal of the Tudor court and its intrigues. But what I found a bit difficult to digest is how an entire family including the father and mother can plot so coldly using their daughters just to attain the King’s favor. And after a point the intensity and pettiness of their manipulative attitudes kind of wore me out. There is no room for emotions or heartfelt expressions. Every move and every word is part of the plan. And in this elaborate plan the other Boleyn girl turns out to be Anne Boleyn.

Verdict: Truly a thrilling bodice ripper as a lot of reviews have called it.

Rating: 3/5

Interesting words learnt: Posset, Fulminate, Traduce

Joy in the Morning : Betty Smith

                                    Image Credit: HangProud
What an utterly delightful novelist Betty Smith is!! Her A Tree Grows in Brooklyn remains one of my all-time favorites, and although Joy in the Morning does not lend itself to the same greatness, it remains still an exquisite read.

Set in a midwestern state, Joy in the Morning traces a year in the life of newly-married young couple, Carl Brown and Annie McGairy. Annie arrives from Brooklyn, ready to lead a new life with Carl, who is a law student at an university. Almost semi-autobiographical, Joy in the Morning, is supposed to be a recollection of Betty Smith's own move to Ann Arbor, and her marriage and early days of her pregnancy there. Narrated in a simple manner, Betty Smith traces Annie and Carl's journey as they struggle through the difficulties of a married life on a student's income. Both Annie and Carl's parents do not approve of their marriage - while Carl's mom refuses to consider Annie as existing in her son's life,  Annie's mom maintains a strained correspondence with Annie.

And it is Annie who shines through the novel. Smith has given her a fresh voice, exuberant, in love with the world. To that extent, Annie reminded me of the character of Amelie in that French movie of the same name.  Despite lacking in education, and thereby unsure of her living in an university, Annie opens her heart to everyone she meets - while Carl is more studied, often appearing callous. There is not much of a plot in the novel - we are taken through a whirlwind year in their marriage - and Smith is careful to show reality - it is not just a romantic-oh-we-are-in-love novel but gripping in their squabbles, their arguments, and misunderstandings that make and mar their marriage. They struggle through poverty - struggle to make ends meet - often going hungry - but in the end realize that there exists a miracle to each morning.

Joy in the Morning offers that miracle of hope. And what did I love best about Annie? She loves to read. Devour books. And that alone endeared me to her. Betty Smith, unfortunately, was heavily criticized for this book. Most reviews chastised her for what they termed as 'excessive sentimentality' and that her novel was 'too sweet for grownups.' Did I enjoy the novel? Yes, I did. The despair and poignancy that literary critics crave may not be evident in this novel - but as a study of two young lives struggling through the odds, and triumphing despite these odds, Joy in the Morning offers sweet solace.

The book was also turned into a movie in 1965 starring Richard Chamberlain. Watch an old-world trailer here :-)

Verdict: 'Sweet' and very very readable. 


Rating: 5/5

Fruit of the Lemon: Andrea Levy

Image Credit: Fantasticfiction

Why is it that a visit to the dentist scares most people? Even though I just had to get my teeth cleaned I was nervous. I have had a mortal fear of going to a dentist since I was a child and it still gives me nightmares. Apparently my fear has a name – dentophobia.

But I sat through my session and came running back home to finish the last few pages of Andrea Levy’s absolutely delightful novel “Fruit of The Lemon.” I finished it in record time because I just could not put it down. Levy tells the story of Faith Jackson, a black girl living in a London that is trying to come to terms with its racial prejudices. Faith tries to have a life of her own, living separate from her overly protective parents and setting herself up with a good job. But when she goes on a journey to Jamaica, her homeland, it turns out to be a journey of self-discovery.

Faith’s story was beautiful and complex in a number of ways. Levy effectively shows the important role that the color of skin plays in a society, among not just foreigners but among blacks themselves. Faith desperately tries to blend in with the “whites” and tries to create an identity of her own rather than fall back on her Jamaican immigrant heritage. She also wants to break away from her cosseting and traditional parents whose wish is to see her married to a ‘nice boy.’

Everything changes when her parents push Faith to go for a holiday to Jamaica because, “everyone should know where they come from.” Faith meets her aunts, cousins and other family and gets to know their stories. As days pass by, a lot of her beliefs about her people and the place begin to crumble. When she first reaches her aunt’s house she is surprised. “I don’t know what I was expecting but somewhere in my mind was an image of a mud hut with a pointy stick roof and dirt floors.” She learns a few family secrets, their customs and of adventurous grandmothers. When its time for her to return to England, she realizes that her people had, “wrapped me in a family history and swaddled me tight in its stories. And I was taking back that family to England.”

Levy’s beautiful writing is like a delicious softness that you sink into. It’s not easy to maintain the tempo in such a book since it doesn’t have mystery or horror to egg its readers on. But Levy does it wonderfully well, filling the book with humor and quaint Jamaican mannerisms and maintaining an even and interesting tone throughout that urged me to turn the page fast.

Fruit of the Lemon also points out the importance of oral tradition. Faith learns of her family roots through stories richly told in Jamaican English by her aunts and cousin Vincent. Through these stories Faith discovers a time when the color of your skin mattered more than anything else. As her old beliefs erode and new ones form Faith realizes that the independence that she craved can be had in Jamaica, where she, “could be anything.” Nobody would care because she was one of them.

I agree with reader lizzysiddal that the book ends on an abrupt and too perfect note. And I also think that the two weeks that Faith stays in Jamaica is perhaps too short a time to crack up long-held beliefs. But these are small flaws, which Levy’s writing and lyrical prose overcome.

Verdict: Beautiful writing and some wonderful storytelling

Rating: 4/5

Interesting words learnt: Conker, Patois, Quadroon, Octoroon

I Was Hitler's Prisoner: Stefan Lorant

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I think I have an antique book with me. The one I just finished reading. I had bought it second hand from a book shop near my office but at the time I had not noticed the edition. Now, when I was reading Stefan Lorant’s, “I was Hitler’s Prisoner” I saw that it is a Penguin Special Edition, which are the ones that are published immediately on the arrival of the manuscript without much ado. And my edition came out in 1939. What a find. I think I must go and explore that shop more.

I Was... is about Stefan Lorant who was working as an editor in one of the German newspapers when he was suddenly arrested and put into “protective custody,” for no rhyme or reason. He was in prison for six months and the entire book is a day by day account of his experiences written on whatever scraps of paper he could manage including tissues.

Well, for starters it’s a unique view that we get from a German living during the time Hitler was just rising into power. This particular point reminded me of Mark of an Angel by Nancy Huston, which was also told from a German viewpoint. Lorant lands up in a cell with a couple of others who were also arrested for flimsy reasons or no reason at all. We get to know the landscape at such a time in history but after a point it gets monotonous. He tells of “taking exercise,” sharing chocolate and getting news from other cells. After a point his wife is also arrested and I found her diary accounts a bit more colorful than his.

Another interesting point is that we get to know of the misfortunes of Germans themselves. The Second World War is always associated with the suffering of Jews and this book tells us that there was more to the war than that. We learn of how Barons and Counts get beaten up in the prisons for no fault of theirs, only because the new party thought their ideals were different. But Lorant had a comparatively good time in the prison. He was not tortured nor did he go hungry albeit his food was nothing to rave about. He suffered from not meeting his son for six months, but he met his wife in prison. That is small price compared to what the others went through.

I read up later on Lorant and discovered that he was a famous photographer and a journalist and it was his political commentaries that enraged Hitler. Lorant is the ‘godfather of photojournalism,’ according to his biography and he passed away relatively recently in 1997 where he had been staying in Minnesota.


Verdict: Monotonous but offers a different perspective of Germany during Second World War

Rating: 3/5 (I give 3 because as a book I found it a bit dragging but it by no means is a rating of Lorant's courage and risk he undertook to write this. I admire that to the fullest.)

Old School : Tobias Wolff

                                        Image Credit: Ivy-Style-League
I seem to be reading a lot of 'coming of age' books recently. Old School by Tobias Wolff was one of them. The protagonist of Wolff's novel is an unnamed high-school senior - a boy, who is one an unnamed elite prep school. Wikipedia calls the school a 'literary fantasy camp' and for good reason.

Chief among the pursuits at this school are boys wanting to be writers. To aid them in this pursuit, the school has a literary contest, and the prize that everyone hankers after is a meeting with an elite writer. Through the course of the book we see Robert Frost and Ayn Rand visit the school with their odd, jumbled mix of sense, wisdom and utter nonsense even. Take this instance when Ayn Rand is shown to be a despicable cruel monster feminist who shatters the narrator's Howard Roark phase :

"Boys! Please! You are born to be giants, not sacrifices to some ... brainless slattern worrying about the next payment on the refrigerator"

Things build up with the announcement of a visit by Hemingway. The author of the Old Man and the Sea is by now the narrator's favorite - and that prompts him to finally attempt a story that is true to his self - a story that tears away the facade of frailty that his previous stories had. The result of that? I won't spoil the book for you by revealing that - but it was precisely at this point that the story left me. I don't like books that thrust some unformed character on you late in the story. And the last few chapters of this book weave in the story of the Dean. Why? I was perplexed. I didn't care about the Dean, I am pretty sure the narrator didn't care much about him either, and there didn't seem to be that much of a mystery to the Dean that the writer should have felt compelled to explain.

The Boston Globe calls this particular insertion so late in the story a 'skeleton' that lacks the clout that marks most of Wolff's short fiction. "The result is that the stories that compose the first half of "Old School" are considerably more potent than the tales that fill out the novel," says Chris Bohjalian, the reviewer. I cannot agree more. Why, oh why, do writers act too intelligent sometimes? :-). Intelligence sometimes mars a book. More than lack of sense does.

Verdict: Read it for a glimpse into a perceived classic of American literature and forget about the ending.

Rating : 3/5

The Middleman: Mani Sankar Mukherji

Image Credit: Penguin Books India

Wow its already the first day of the last month of the second last year of this decade. I wonder how many books I have read this year. I have no idea. From next year, beginning with January, I am going to keep a count and I have kept a loose goal of around 50 to 60 books. I think for someone like me who lives and breathes books it is not a very stressful proposition. Hmm…

To get to my review, I finished “The Middleman” by Mani Sankar Mukherji, one of India’s most famous Bengali writers. Surprisingly, I had not heard of him until I chanced upon the The Middleman, which tells the story of Somnath Banerjee and his struggles to find a job. Now, that is a very reductionistic version of the story.

Somnath’s struggles take place in 1970s Calcutta when a job and a marriage defined men and women respectively. Not that much has changed today but then it was a matter of life and death. Both of Somnath’s elder brothers are the pictures of perfectionism – well-educated, highly placed and married. In short, they are “settled.” But a year of searching has not yielded any result for poor Somnath and his friend Sukumar and millions of other youngsters in red-tape ridden Calcutta. “What’s my fault? The only thing I haven’t been able to do is to get a job,” laments Somnath when frustration hits its peak. Driven by societal biases and pressure, Somnath tries his hand at business and that is when he truly gets entangled in the web of corruption.

Sankar unfolds a tunnel of deception and pretenses that throws light on the sleazy side of the city. For Somnath to be successful in any manner he needs to bribe, cut corners and smooth talk his way around authority. Being innocent to the ways of the world he gets sucked in deeper as his desperation to succeed and land a job mounts. He realizes with bitter consequences that the greed for money has no limits.

The portrait of Sukumar is also powerful. He is the perfect example of how society can drive a person to madness because he does not fit in. Sankar sketches portraits of men and women within the frames of an opinionated society overflowing with proclivities. Somnath undergoes a moment of emasculation when his father attempts to marry him off to a girl who has a, “slight defect in her left hand,” but is considered a good match for a boy like him who is unemployed. Of course he can take over the girl’s father’s business so he gets to kill two birds with one stone. But this incident is extremely humiliating for Somnath because marriage is the first priority for girls in this society and a man without a job is considered as burdensome as a girl who is unmarried. “Fortunately I have no sons, so I need not worry about jobs anymore,” says Dwaipayan’s friend, Sudhanya, when the former expresses concern over his son Somnath.

I discovered that Sankar had a more internationally acclaimed novel named “Chowringhee.” I had heard of the movie but didn’t know there was a book. The Middleman, known in Bengali as Jana Aranya has also been made into a film by the renowned filmmaker Satyajit Ray. This book really had some tense moments, some poignant ones, a few scenes that movingly highlighted Somnath’s naiveté and some brilliant passages especially in the last 70 or so pages that etched the dark, rotten, uncompromising yet extremely pliable and lascivious side of the city. And Sankar's epilogue in the end, which reveals that many of the incidents were based on experiences that he was a witness to or undergone himself, makes the book more fascinating.

Verdict: Wonderful read that gives insight into the workings of a society and its people

Rating: 3.8/5