Kiran Desai’s “The Loneliness of Sonia & Sunny”

Kiran Desai’s novel documents the journeys of two young people, Sonia and Sunny , as they struggle to find and accept the cross sectionality that constitutes their identities. Their journeys take them to different continents -from India to the USA, then to Italy and later Mexico. Desai confesses that the novel took her over a decade to write which explains the voluminous nature of this writing; it has some 75 chapters and it takes about 25 hours to listen as an audio book. However, it is credit to Desai’s tightly controlled narrative and evocative language skills that the reader is held captive by her storytelling. The novel is a very compelling read despite the numerous characters, the multiple storylines that run parallel, and the variety of settings. The one thing that may detract from this writing is that it is Indocentric, in that it would definitely appeal more to the Indian audience than any other; both the characters , Sonia & Sunny, are of Indian origin and have immediate family in India. This makes me wonder if an American or British reader would be as taken and held by this lengthy novel.

In her earlier novel, “The Inheritance of Loss”, Desai explored ‘loss’ in multitudinal circumstances, and in this novel she does the same with ‘loneliness’. The novel documents the loneliness of an artist grappling with his loss of creativity, as it does the loneliness experienced by a wife and a husband due to the breakdown of communication between them while living in a ‘joint family setting’. We get to see a lonely foreign student from India braving the brutal winter alone in a college dorm in Vermont while her counterparts, the local students are doing internships in warmer places. All of Desai’s characters appear to be blanketed in loneliness of some sort. Even Sunny, a budding journalist in NYC has but one ‘real friend’, is unable to connect with his own mother, and consequently is very lonely. One would imagine that a novel ch as this, one that documents the loneliness of so many individuals, would be pretty dreary and depressing, but surprisingly it is anything but that. Desai’s nuanced writing and her ability to interweave characters and storylines in tantalizing ways makes for a narrative that is gripping and very evocative.

I loved reading this novel and would recommend it in a heartbeat.

“The Girl with the Louding Voice”

by Abi Dare

It’s usually the title that grabs my attention when selecting a new read, and this one certainly did. Why is it a ‘louding’ voice? That got me to pick up this book to find that it was a debut novel of a Nigerian writer. What pushed me further, & also helped break my dry spell of reading fiction, was that a friend, a high school teacher of English, recommended this novel.

The storyline is pretty straightforward as in any coming of age story. However, the narration is what sets it apart. In fact the incessant use of the ‘ing’ form for every Verb was almost a deterrent while reading the first couple of chapters. Gradually the narrator’s voice grows on you as you realize the significance of that usage. Adunni, the protagonist & also the narrator is a young girl who dreams of a ‘louding voice’ in Nigeria of early 2000. She is daring & outspoken in a world that does not value women. It doesn’t stop there for Adunni, as she has her heart set on getting educated to find her ‘louding voice’. This is an impossible goal in Adunni’s world that “thinks that a girl-child is a wasted waste, a thing with no voice, no dreams, no brain.”- a world where the majority of girls don’t go to school, and most girls are married by the time they are fourteen.

Adunni’s brave but hazardous journey from her village in Nigeria to the city captivates the reader. The protagonist’s journey makes for an informative read as it spotlights the treatment of women in Nigeria at the time and provides interesting facts about this West African nation. This is a ‘good read’.

“Small Things Like These”

By Claire Keegan

It’s annoying that I spend hours finding a suitable read, & sometimes what seems like a promising story turns out to be quite disappointing. However, this time I got lucky with Keegan’s short novel set in Ireland during the 1980s. It got recommended in the NYT as a good read from the past decade, & it caught my attention due to two reasons- it is a short read & it had a historical setting. What made it even more attractive was the fact that an audio version of it was available at my local library.

It was only 5 am in the morning when I issued this audio book & I was done with it in less than two hours. It was engrossing and quite the eye opener on one of the dark chapters of Irish History – the Magdalene Laundries that were in existence from 1922 to 1996. “The women and girls who suffered in the Magdalene Laundries included those who were perceived to be ‘promiscuous’, unmarried mothers, the daughters of unmarried mothers, those who were considered a burden on their families or the State, those who had been sexually abused, or had grown up in the care of the Church and State. Confined for decades on end – and isolated from their families and society at large – many of these women became institutionalised over time and therefore became utterly dependent on the relevant convents and unfit to re-enter society unaided.”

Keegan’s short historical fiction brings alive a part of history that unfortunately many of us may not even be aware of. What could be better than learning about history through a narrative so rich and captivating. I strongly recommend this piece.

The protagonist’s mother had been one of the victims of this abominable practice, the consequences of which had had a traumatic impact on her son, Bill Furlong. Bill, who is a timber merchant with 5 daughters of his own is unable to find happiness no matter how hard he tries. He drowns himself in his day to day activities in order to erase the haunting memories of his fatherless & homeless childhood. He feels imprisoned in the mysteries of his past even though he acknowledges that he in fact was one of the lucky ones to have found safe haven in Ms. Wilson’s home. What is it that will free Bill from his suffocating past ? Will he ever find happiness & a purpose to his life, & what price will he pay for that.

A Riveting Read! “The Last Queen” by Chitra Divakaruni

A riveting read indeed! I finished reading this historic fiction in a day and a half when normally I take at least a couple of days even for novels that I like. Divakaruni has selected to write about a piece of history that that captures the reader completely. The storyline is an absolute page turner.

Divakaruni recognized the potential of this historic character from Sikh history, so she spun a tale that tugged at the heart and inspired at the same time. As always, the writer has chosen a brave woman as her protagonist, and tracks her life story from the time Jindan was a little girl born to a dog trainer in Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s royal court. How this poor and uneducated girl steals the heart of the illustrious Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab, old enough to be her father, is a captivating story in itself. What makes Jindan even more special is the fact that the Maharaja, who has several ‘wives’ and many more concubines and ‘nautch girls’ in his ‘zennana’, promises Jindan that he will never take another wife after her, and he lives up to this promise. What made Jindan so dear and precious to Ranjit Singh – ‘The Lion of Punjab’? This little known Rani of Indian History has never gotten the recognition she deserves and Divakaruni’s novel does just that. Rani Jindan, the ‘last queen’ is beautiful and perhaps that is how she gets the Maharaja’s attention initially, but it is her courage, loyalty and her intelligence that win over the Maharaja and the reader as well.

Rani Jindan only eighteen years old learns how to be a ‘Rani’ after she is married to the Maharaja, yet when the time comes she easily dons the mantle of the Maharaja to make decisions that would keep the British at bay and ensure a free Punjab for a crucial period of time. At a time when women were entrenched in the practices of the ‘purdah’ and ‘Sati’, Rani Jindan challenged both those traditions to emerge as an equal to any man. Her political wile when dealing with the Khalsa, the Dogra, and other contenders to Ranjit Singh’s throne is shockingly charming, and it continues to be so even when this Rani is ousted from her kingdom, her son kidnapped, and she has to seek refuge in the remote kingdom of Nepal. Her indomitable spirits is unfazed, even soars in the direst of situations.

Rani Jindan is a multifaceted woman- a fiesty girl, a loyal wife, a passionate lover, a caring mother, a true friend, a wily politician, a smart strategist, an undaunted female, and a free spirit. Of all these roles, it’s Rani Jindan the mother who sometimes appears vulnerable to social norms and the reader understands why. As the mother of Maharaja Dalip Singh, a devout Christian raised in England when the Rani meets him after two plus decades, Jindan succumbs to maternal instincts and for the most part toes the line when dealing with Dalip Singh’s British environment. In the last part of the story the reader misses the bold Rani and wonders if she is ever going to emerge and regain what the British sneakily took away from her and her people.

I doubt that Rani Jindan would find anything more than a casual mention in any Indian History textbook even though there are chapters relegated to her husband, Maharaja Ranjit Singh and even to her son Dalip Singh. Sadly enough the ‘last queen’ will never get the recognition that other Sikh leaders and revolutionaries of the time do. However, after reading this novel I feel that even though Indians lament the loss of their invaluable Kohinoor Diamond that was taken from Ranjit Singh’s treasury and which now sits in the Royal History Museum of London, the real ‘Kohinoor’ of the Sikhs was their fearless and forward thinking ‘Last Queen’ Rani Jindan.

Reading ‘Circe’ & ‘The Glass Castle’

I wonder if there is a pattern in the novels I pick to read. I also wonder if it has to do with the lifestyle change that I am currently experiencing. Regardless, both reads have been wonderfully engaging and satisfying. I must admit that it was with much trepidation I approached both of these pieces, but both turned out to be pleasurable & fulfilling reads.

This was the first time I went for an audio version of a novel, and it surprises me how much that impacted my appreciation of the two novels. Especially in the case of Madeline Miller’s ‘Circe’, read by Perdita Weeks. Her voice & her reading brought alive the strife and the grief of Circe as she struggles to straddle two worlds. I wonder if I’d have enjoyed the book as much if I had read it instead of listening to Week’ rendition. Jeannette Walls’ ‘The Glass Castle’ though read by the author herself, the rendition was not as impactful, and I wonder why.

As mentioned earlier, both these reads were deliberate picks; I’d spent days deciding what I wanted to read at this transitional phase in my life. I would not have picked Circe, if it were not for a fellow reader who coerced me into giving it another try. I had gotten the book for Christmas a year ago, and I even started reading it, but abandoned it after reading a few pages afraid that it would diffuse or/and reduce my love for The Odyssey. I am so glad, I went back to it, and loved it all the more thanks to the audio version.

As for Walls’ memoir ‘The Glass Castle’, I was uncertain as to whether I wanted to read the memoir of a ‘gossip journalist’. Having completed the audio version, I now regret my snobbish judgmental stance on this engrossing novel. The challenges that existed within and faced by this dysfunctional, yet, strangely tight knit and loving family were intriguing as was their courage that bordered on bravado on most occasions. In fact, some of the decisions made by characters in this memoir shocked and irked me, but never stopped me from being attracted to and mesmerized by Walls & her family members. Her narrative is very engaging and makes for a compelling listen.

Lessons in Chemistry

by Bonnie Garmus

The novel features on numerous book clubs and was an NYT bestseller, so its readability was a given. However, it did not find a place on my reading list because somehow the word ‘chemistry’ in the title put me off. I presumed it was a reference to the chemistry of love and or of romance, and how novel could that be. But, I was wrong. The novel has little to do with romance and more to do with gustatory skills. The word ‘chemistry’ in the title is a reference to a branch of science, and how it manifests in our cooking.I would have missed out on a delectable read if I had let this one go.

How does an author spin a story around such a unique topic such as ‘chemistry in the art of cooking’? Bonnie Garmus, the author does just that; in fact, it’s a captivating tale woven around the intriguing character of Elizabeth Zott , a UCLA drop out who is a passionate & dedicated scientist; a ferociously independent woman inhabiting a world where men ‘wanted to control her, teach her, dominate her, silence her, correct her, or tell her what to do.’ Not one to give in, Elizabeth does not subscribe to this ‘reduction of women to something less than men’. She is of the opinion that men & women, both, are simply ‘by products of our upbringing, victims of our lack luster educational systems, and choosers of our behaviors’, and any elevation of status to either gender ‘is not biological; it’s cultural. And it starts with two words: pink & blue’. Clearly, Elizabeth has an uphill battle ahead of her. It gets only worse after she finds herself pregnant, has a child out of wedlock, and admits to being an unprepared mother. All of this happens while she is trying to further her research on ‘abiogenesis’ at the all-male Hastings Research Institute.

What ‘lessons’ does Elizabeth, the enigmatic protagonist deliver, and to who, and how? You will want to know as soon as you read the first few pages of this charming narrative.

The Doll

by Daphne Du Maurier

The Lost Short Stories

Daphne du Maurier,of the “Rebecca” fame, was always a favorite writer of mine, and like most other fans, I loved her novel ‘Rebecca’ which was later made into a movie that is regarded as a classic. I liked her other novels such as “My Cousin Rachel” ,” Hungry Hill”, “Jamaica Inn” as well. Her writing had a sauciness that I enjoyed and the unpredictability of her characters and the content was what drew me to her novels; they were always very intriguing. Ms Maurier appeared quite the rebel of her times as did some of the characters she created; how could someone living in the 1930s and 40s write with such abandon on matters relating to love, marriage, parenting, womanhood?

While browsing through the Used Books section at the HBS (not the Harvard Business School) a couple of days ago, I chanced upon Daphne du Maurier’s “The Doll, The Lost Short Stories” and I was surprised. I had no idea there was another collection of short stories by du Maurier other than the collection titled “The Birds” that I had so thoroughly enjoyed. Needless to say, I bought the book, and finished reading the thirteen stories in less than three hours; I enjoyed each one of them. In hindsight, I wish I hadn’t read them all in one sitting because each story has a distinct flavor that needed to be individually savored; clearly, I had made a mistake! In my desperate hurry to read all the stories, I had done a disservice to the story and to du Maurier’s writing. I plan to fix that by rereading no more than one story a day.

The stories present a collage of human relationships and captures the very essence of what it means to be human. The emotions captured in the stories are varied and so very vivid, be it of love gone awry in “The Weekend” or of love out of sync in the O’Henry like “A Difference in Temperament”. The story “And Now to God the Father” is about a charming, self centered Vicar; it is a tongue in cheek expose of the clergy and of the empty nature of words. The opening story “East Wind” presents a sort of dystopia, a society that has forgotten to ‘live’ and the sudden arrival of a shipload of foreign sailors suddenly ‘enlivens’ the hereto passive inhabitants of the little island and with some brutal consequences. The story titled “The Doll” is about the destructive nature of obsessive love and it has a surprise ending, quite the penchant of a du Maurier tale. I could so easily write about each of the thirteen stories because each one is unique and just as absorbing and fascinating. All thirteen are page turners and demand a read!

Laila Lalami Explores the Master Slave Dynamic in "The Moor’s Account"

“The Moors Account” by Moroccan American Laila Lalami is a captivating read. Written in the historical fiction genre, the novel is based on the voyage chronicles of  Panfilo de Narvaez in the 1520s.

The narrator in this novel is Estebanico, a Moor and also the first black slave of the white world, who accompanied his Spanish masters on an exploratory mission during the era of colonial expansionism into Florida, the land of Native Americans.

 Estebanico, originally Mustafa-Al-Zamori- a native of Azzemur and not a slave, falls into bad times when his father dies, and soon after, the Portuguese soldiers start taking over his homeland of Azzemur. In the face of dire poverty, Estebanico, only a teenager then, sells himself for a few gold coins to Portuguese traders in order to save his mother, his sister, and his twin brothers from starvation. That is how and when Estebanico who only a short while ago was “selling slaves” is now “sold as a slave” and not for the last time; he would soon be resold to a group of Spanish explorers and embark on a doomed expedition during which he would be “one of only four crew members to survive”.  Not only does he, Estebanico, survive, he also becomes the voice of his expedition, and in more ways than one. The question that arises is, will it be his, a slave’s, version of what happened on this ill fated expedition that will get reported back to his Spanish conquistadors?  Will the Moor’s account hold credence with his colonial masters even if it does with the reader.  A master writer, Lalami in “The Moor’s Account” cleverly explores and lays bare the circumstances that lead to the establishment of the slave and master dynamic as it unravels in the encounters between the Spanish conquistadors and Native Americans seen through the lens of Estebanico, a black slave.

At the very outset, Estebanico tells the reader that his current name “was the name the Castillians had given.. when they bought him from Portuguese traders.”  His name was “a string of sounds whose foreignness still grated on his ears, and….. Estebanico was a man conceived by the Castillians, quite different from the man I really was.” Who was he really, is for the reader to find out in this captivating story of Lalami’s.  It’s a story with a ‘foreign’ and ‘different’ narrator who finds himself in an unknown and unforgiving terrain with men whose loyalties are not only sketchy but are often divided and or changing. During the course of the expedition, due to changed and challenging circumstances, the narrator, in spite of his dark skin, foreignness, and his slave status, finds himself elevated to various roles no slave had ever gotten before; those of a deal negotiator, a story teller, a medicine man, even a messiah, and most importantly a savior for his three Spanish companions, his ‘masters’. This role reversal creeps up so naturally that even the three Spaniard ‘masters’ of Estebanico simply go along with it. It is through this role reversal that Lalami showcases the establishment of the master slave dynamic during the colonial era.

Having read this far, wouldn’t you want to know the ending of the novel; it’s definitely one that the reader will carry within for a while. “The Moor’s Account” is  a must read for anyone who likes a good story.  This novel of Laila Lalami’s was a Pulitzer Prize Finalist this year, and deservedly so. Ms Lalami is indeed a great story teller; she spins a yarn so engrossing around a bitter naked truth, and the reader takes it et al.

V.S. Khandekar’s "Yayati- A Classic Tale of Lust" Expounds A Puranic King from Hindu Mythology.

I had seen this novel on my mother’s bookshelf, decades ago, in another language, so when I came across a translation of Khandekar’s “Yayati-A Classic Tale of Lust” on Amazon, I had to read it.

Yayati is a ‘Puranic’ King from Hindu Mythology who lived for a thousand years in eternal youth after exchanging his old age with his son’s youth. Married to the beautiful Devyani, daughter of the powerful sage Shukracharya, after a chance meeting, Yayati had to now follow both the Kshtriya and the Brahmin creed. This was no menial responsibility as Yayati soon realized, especially since he had a tragic flaw; he could not resist beauty and fell prey to it throughout the duration of his long life, more so in the time of his borrowed youth.  Even marriage to the divinely beautiful Devyani did not stop Yayati from having relationships with other women.  One such relationship was with Sharmishtha, a Kshatriya princess who, due to a curse, was serving as a maid to Devyani. It was Puru, the son born out of this union between Yayati and Sharmishtha, who when he was in his late teens, agreed to trade his youth with his father’s old age and thereby gave Yayati several lifetimes of eternal youth. This selfless sacrifice of a son for his father has captivated the Indian psyche for centuries, and even today in India, a son has some unquestioned obligation to follow his father’s command.

The classic episode of Yayati & Puru has been the focus of attention for centuries, and V.S Khandekar, in 1959 chose to weave this tale into a Marathi novel written from the point-of-view of three of its main characters: Yayati, Devyani, and Sharmishtha.  Khandekar used this three pronged approach to intricately explore the impact of Yayati’s lust for and obsession with pleasure that made him unabashedly declare, even at the end of his thousand years of youth, “My lust for pleasure is unsatisfied…” Khandekar’s novel provides multidimensional insight into Yayati’s choices, and how they affected his life and the lives of those he loved and those who loved him.

Khandekar’s character Yayati, though controversial, is also very likable and definitely intriguing; he reminds me of two other mythical figures who’ve had plays and poems written about them such as Oedipus and Tithonus. All three tried to challenge their prescribed lot and suffered as a consequence, but for whatever reason, all three have captured the human imagination for thousands of years. Yayati, though a lesser known mythical character who features in The Mahabharata, made himself popular with Indian playwrights and novelist because of his Epicurean nature, his lust for the carnal in life.  Down the ages, the character of Yayati has made people wonder, and artists, like Khandekar, have tried to interpret him in their own unique ways. In 1961, Girish Karnad, a renowned Indian playwright and actor, wrote an award winning play based on the character of Yayati which has since then been translated into several languages and has been staged in different corners of the world. In fact, a new phrase- the ‘Yayati Complex’, similar to ‘the Oedipus Complex’, was coined as a result of Karnad’s play based on Yayati.

Given that this is an English translation of the Marathi original, the writing does palpably distance the reader; I could never lose myself in the tale, and my disbelief was almost never suspended, yet, I never wanted to let go of the story! Yayati’s tale has that quality, and anyone familiar with Indian Mythology will want to read this English translation of Khandekar’s ‘Yayati’ that won the novelist a Jnanpeeth Award.

Clearly, myths and folklore fascinate the human mind, and artists can borrow tremendously from that inexhaustible source that came  down to us through the oral tradition of the past. There may be so many more Yayatis and Oedipuses waiting to be found, recognized, and expounded in the mythologies of the world.

Andy Weir’s "The Martian" – A Survival Story in Sci-Fi Mode

What a read!  I was completely captivated by the story line!  I couldn’t sleep until I knew whether Mark Watney made it home.

Andy Weir’s 2011 novel The Martian is a Sci-Fi novel with a difference.  It’s not one of those dystopic sagas, nor does it present a future phobic vision of life with automated life forms.  Here is a story of a lone man’s survival in the cold and apathetic terrain of the planet Mars.  I must admit that I approached this novel with serious trepidation; a first time author with no creative writing credentials. However, reading the first chapter more than alleviated any doubts I may have had about Weir’s competence as a story teller.

Not only is the story interesting, but also the manner by which this story cast itself into a printed novel. It’s astonishing how Weir produced this book.  He did not intend to write a novel of any sorts.  He was employed as a techie at NASA when he started writing blogposts about an astronaut Mark Watney, who mistakenly gets left behind on Mars. The online posts sequentially unraveled Watney’s journey on an inhospitable terrain. The instinct for survival keeps Watney going, each day being more difficult than the previous one.  Watney clings on to the last shreds of hope; an impossible task indeed, knowing all the odds stacked against it: the fact that his fellow astronauts presumed him to be dead, he had limited provisions of water and Oxygen, he had no means of communication to call for help, the rations would run out way before any remotely possible rescue mission could be carried out.  This fearsome yet absorbing tale of a man fighting for survival on the red planet unfolded and gained momentum on Weir’s blogposts, and it intrigued Weir’s readers to such an extent that they prodded him to self publish Watney’s story!  The runaway success of “The Martian” surprised Weir himself : “ I had no idea it was going to do so well. The story had been available for free on my website for months and I assumed anyone who wanted to read it had already read it. A few readers had requested I post a Kindle version because it’s easier to download that way. So I went ahead and did it, setting the price to the minimum Amazon would allow. As it sold more and more copies I just watched in awe.”  Weir’s lucky phase was still not over because a movie deal and a print publishing deal followed suit all within a week and Andy Weir, a NASA engineer, became a literary celebrity.

Besides the storyline, Weir’s format for his story enhanced and facilitated its readability. Most of this novel is written as a series of diary postings by the protagonist, with the hope that someday they will be read by another human being. Weir’s narrative style not only provided the reader with a timeline for Watney’s stay on Mars, but it also lent pace and immediacy to the storyline. “The Martian” is a gripping tale of survival and definitely a story you must read.  Also, once you read the novel, perhaps you could answer this  question that has been bothering me ever since I read Weir’s novel: 
Was Watney’s will to survive the driving force behind all his actions, or was it the hope of rescue that kept him going from one day to the next?

Andy Weir’s success as a maiden writer and storyteller lends credence to the belief that one can become an acclaimed writer without going through an MFA program. There’s hope for us : )