Dona Nicanora's Hat Shop : Kirstan Hawkins

Image Credit: India Plaza

I only read 30 books last year. A miserable figure, considering there are bloggers who read that many books in a month! Haha. Looking back though, I think I lost the love of reading a little. There was always too many things to do, too many thoughts to mull and too little time to reflect. I like to read when I am comfortable - when I am quiet and still in this little head of mine. Somehow, that stillness eluded me last year, and this year has continued in much the same pattern. Why should the passing of years change anything, anyway? How wistfully we plot Time into segments of our creation, and then think that another day is different because it marks a different time on our calendar?

But since this is a book review blog, I am must talk about books. And fear not, dear reader, this book I am talking about is a very nice one indeed. Kirstan Hawkins' Dona Nicanora's Hat Shop is absolutely delightful. I am so glad that this was the first book I finished in 2012. Set in Bolivia, Hawkins has given the reader a little gem that resonates with all that we cherish and celebrate in life - love, friendship, dreams and memories. Dona Nicanora is a 40-something mother of three - who made one major mistake in life - and then some. From the book jacket:

Surrounded by forest and reached only by a treacherous road, the sleepy South American town of Valle de la Virgen is almost unknown to the outside world. But after a silent stranger rolls in on the back of a pick-up truck, nothing is the same again.

The town of Vang Vieng (Image Credit : Birdy)

That silent stranger is called a Gringito - and his arrival brings in motion a strange chain of events. At once funny and whimsical, I could immediately identify with the author's not-so-veiled barbs at mass tourism. There was this town called Vang Vieng that I visited in Laos a couple of years ago - once a sleepy little town, a few backpackers found the karst landscape too mesmerizing and decided that this would be the place where they can have pancakes, beer and float down the river all at the same time. The town has never been the same again - the dollars make the people richer and the town poorer.

Valle de la Virgen's mayor's comical efforts to bring the tourists in reminded me of just the same. The tourists like to come all the way, spending 1000s of dollars so that they can sit in a Cyber Cafe and drink coffee and order pancakes, the mayor wryly tells his assistant Ramon at one time. Indeed!

And what of Nicanora's dream of opening a hat shop? And her enduring relationship with the fat balding little Don Bosco, the barber everyone loves? There is much to love about them - the characters in this book are just like you and me, or rather more like me (I think I can easily describe myself as fat, balding little SoulMuser ;-)), and their hopes and ambitions real and down to earth. At the end of this rather rambling review, let me just say this comes highly recommended. Going to Valle de la Virgen is just as good as a cappucino in a cafe. And you know what? Way better.

Verdict: Highly readable, a delight!

Rating : 4/5