Book Review: The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

The most notable thing about this book is the remorseless and blazing prose of Aravind Adiga. In this prize winning debut novel the author has brought forth the bare truth of the Indian Democracy and the iniquities of the system, this done in a morbidly jocose style.

This is the story of Balram Halwai, narrated in the first person, his tale of defying his fate as a sweet maker and becoming a successful “businessman”. His tale of "entrepreneurship" is although tainted with the murder of his master by him, but that’s how the poor has any chance of rising and freeing himself of the “Rooster Coop” as the author puts it.

Besides the thoughtful plot the book is a pleasure to read in terms of style, humor and the undisputed wit of Aravind Adiga. The book is characterized with a brilliant narrative, the anger of the oppressed in this country and the unequivocalness of the drastic decisions the poor has to make to digress from the erstwhile fate of his. Compelling, darkly humorous this one is definitely a good read!

- Anubhav Srivastava

Seems to me that only a Movie like ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ and a book like 'The White Tiger', which paints the fanciful image of the corrupt, poverty ridden India, that the West carry in their minds and look down upon, can win awards. Not that I am trying to say that these images are false. Many of those horrendous things are probably happening right now while I’m writing this review, but that is not the main reason for my disliking this book. I’m wondering why would a book like this should win any award at all? I mean, look at the story. Just take out all the satire and dark humor (which is the only reason I am giving it a 2 star), the story is superficial, pointless even, and so is the character of Balram Halwai, aka Munna, the protagonist.

Since the very beginning as the story starts in the form of letters to Chinese Premier, that did not seem real. Then there is the character Balram Halwai, the son-of-the-rickshaw-puller-turned-entrepreneur, comes off as wisps, nothing solid to hold on to, despite all the efforts of the author of putting painfully minuscule details of every thought that passed through his head and every emotion that filled his heart. I should either be feeling rage for the deranged sociopath or pity for the innocent villager and all his misfortunes. I felt nothing. The character seemed fake to me, and throughout the book it felt like a rich man is telling a poor man’s story. The first half is still gripping but in the second half, the story, the characters, the motifs all seem to fall apart. The good thing about the narration is the accurate social annotation on present-day India and the attention to details and keen observation. The story, major characters, the themes all seemed to be dirty patches on a nice backdrop.

Okay. I finished it at a lightning speed. Honestly, it feels to me more like a story directly from the 'Mumbai's weekly' digest edition.
It wasn’t all that bad. But a Man Booker Prize??? Come on!!! 

Shruti Srivastava

Animal Farm by George Orwell

“Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to
pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”

First thing first, it is a brilliant, brilliant narrative. Powerful. And its power lies not only in a story that is simple and tragic yet captivating but also in its relevance, at all times and all places of the world throughout the history of mankind. Although it is a strong political allegory reflecting the events that lead to Russian Revolution and Stalin era in Soviet Union, it is as relevant to any era, any country where people are corrupted by power, social principles are manipulated to suit the needs of a few and the truth is twisted and represented to the common man.

At first, I didn’t read it as a satire (though I liked the used of dark humor), or as a blatant bashing of communism. I read it as a simple fable of animals, having my own interpretation. The book made me sad. The animal analogy, though made it easier to identify which animal represents which social class and spin out the key themes like power, social classes, misuse of information media, manipulation, and savagery, the matter-of-fact language made the message all the more poignant than it would have been if said directly. We have seen these in our lives. Haven’t we? In schools, in colleges, in offices, everywhere. Can’t we identify at least one Boxer, one Napoleon, one Muriel , one Squealer, one Snowflakes and so on, from our everyday lives?

Then I went back and read about the Russian Revolution again, and it was then I was able to fully appreciate the brilliancy of this allegory. The characters, the incidents, the situations are quick, sharp and accurate. I could understand easily how Communism is represented by Animalism, how Jones is Tsar Nicholas II, Old Major as Karl Marx or Lenin, the Snowball as Trotsky, a young smart leader, and fervent ideologist, who wanted life better for everyone but was chased away by Stalin, represented by Napoleon, a cruel, selfish and power ambitious pig. Boxer the horse, the accurate representation of poor, honest labor class and so on. The seven commandments represent the social dogmas that are changeable as per the needs of the elite class. It is obvious that when the revolution based on certain ideologies are led by power hungry people all the principles are changed into maxims like “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others".

I’m giving the book 4 stars for its simplicity, 4 stars for the satire. I don’t know why I'm keeping one star, may be because of the imagery of violence or may be because at times it felt to be trapped in too many stereotypes, which was perhaps due to the extreme views of the author against the subject or his lack of first-hand experience thereof.

- Shruti Srivastava

Book Review: The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Moshin Hamid

Abstaining myself from commenting on this beautifully crafted story is indeed difficult, hence I will not. In his second novel, Mohsin Hamid has magnificently concocted the tale of a Pakistani, namely Changez, in the mightiest of the civilizations, the U.S of A.

Changez is a brilliant scholar who obtains his dream job and is seemingly happy with the American way of life. On the front this story is of how a hard working and committed Pakistani, in the wake of the 9/11 attack, becomes tumultuous and gets at the brink of exploding within. It is also a tale of love, of a love that he holds for Erica, of the painful dismissal of it as she suffers from the incurable disease of “nostalgia”. He loses his Erica and to this day still remembers her.

Hamid’s brilliant style of narration gives the reader the feeling that he is actually engaged in a conversation and is listening with intent as he pauses to reflect on the beautiful insights Hamid has to offer. The book at more than a few times bring for the reader sentences of simple yet utter artistic grandeur. In an easy and gratifying read Hamid takes you to a Lahore cafe and magically starts talking to you. That is the sheer brilliance of his writing.

- Anubhav Srivastava

Book Review: Brida by Paulo Coelho

At the outset I would like to say that I’m writing about the work of a writer who beautifully weaves every word in silvery thread which gives his writings a moonlight shine. ‘The alchemist’ & “Like the flowing river” have been great learning for me, and I’d been hopeful of quenching my thirst from his fountain of knowledge. However, as much I do not want to say it or as much I want to believe his notions, the truth is, both “Eleven Minutes” & “Brida” has disappointed me. I must again make it clear that his writings are natural blend of spiritual teaching, love, life and emotions. But the voices in my head say, this is not what you are searching for, this knowledge is not for you and this is not your way. Nevertheless, keeping in mind “yours is not a better way, yours is just another way” I will not say that I’m censuring the writing or concepts. I would like to tell why it disappoints me.

I’ll spare ‘Eleven Minutes’ for another time and will continue my journey with Brida. A young girl who knows she’s missing something in her life. She’s just like any other girl with doubts so many and fear of making mistakes so deep that no matter which path she chooses, she ends up traveling none of them. However, she decides to just ‘plunge in’ the cold water and learns about magic, her path, her ‘gift’, the ultimate power women have and her ‘Soul mate’. From the very first chapter I began to relate to her in the simplest way. I’m that very common girl. Her doubts are my doubts, her fears are mine. For me, like her, the opportunity cost of following one path is very high. My lack of commitment due to disbelief is same as her. Enough similarities for me to want to go on. Perhaps this time I’ll find answers to the questions lying in my heart, longing to get answered. Brida does and she’s just so like me.

So here I go reading… the girl finds a teacher (who incidentally is her soul mate) and doesn’t like his way of teaching. She finds another teacher and learns from her that she’s been a witch in her previous life. A pause, in which I ponder about the meaning of witch. I would like to refer them as ‘enlightened souls’. Thus Brida learns that in her previous lives she was an enlightened soul and has much knowledge and wisdom for everything, which she has forgotten and is going to re-learn through her teacher. She’s been taught several rituals of the tradition of moon. The voices in my head started talking to me. I knew the things are meaningless for me now but I decided to read nonetheless, hoping to find some answers. However, all I got to know through her teacher that the most powerful thing a woman has is the power of ‘sex’ and the only way to connect to god is to have a powerful orgasm.

There were great lessons of life in the book which were now becoming greatly confusing. I give sex its due importance, but I could not believe that it is the greatest power that I’ve. And I certainly do not believe that communion with god depends upon the intensity of my orgasm. If it is so, I still have a very long way to go. But patience is one of my greatest virtues and hence I go on. Brida connected to god twice with two of her soul mates. Now, the whole idea of soul mate is confusing and somewhat annoying to me. Here it goes;

We all are manifestation of god and eternal. We go through many lives and deaths. God decides to do certain things of which only he knows the reasons and we will never know why we are here. “And when people think of reincarnation, they always come up against a very difficult question: if, in the beginning, there were so few people on the face of Earth, and now there are so many, where did all those new souls come from?”“In certain reincarnations, we divide into two. Our souls divide as do crystals and stars, cells and plants.
Our soul divides in two, and those new souls are in turn transformed into two and so, within a few generations, we are scattered over a large part of Earth.”

I do not want to vehemently oppose the idea because even I don’t know what the truth is. But I feel like being Lord Voldemort in one of my previous incarnation. The very idea of splitting a soul was so off-putting to me that I immediately thought that I’ll never want do it in any of my incarnation even if I am capable of it. This concept has not answered any of my questions, on the contrary new questions sprang to life in my mind. Even if I do divide my soul, what is the whole point of dividing and finding again? Am I not gyrating in a vicious circle drawn by my own hands? Is this really what god wants of me? It’s out of my scope to explain what kind of confusion it will create if I’ve to meet two, three or all of my soul mates. The more I ponder about it the more confusing it becomes. If the soul keeps on dividing what should be the ultimate purpose? Should it not be to reunite it as a whole? If it is true then what are the means to do that? And if it is not true then what is the limit of splitting? If my life circles around birth, separation, search and death what is the concept of salvation? Undoubtedly the book gives no explanation. Moreover the idea was not placed in a way intriguing enough to stir my belief that God has created us in two. Just like twins. Someone who has traveled with me in realms of time and universe, someone who has different tasks to do in this lifetime and others, but who will travel again with me on my road to salvation. I believe God has plans for us and he will reveal them.

“And that process of finding ourselves is called Love. Because when a soul divides, it always divides into a male part and a female part.”

If this dividing and finding is love then what do we call what a mother does to her child? Love bounded in this definition looks so feeble. And for some strange reason I couldn’t see soul as being male or female. Just the way I couldn’t see God in a male or female form. I will not write about the rituals described in the book because they are real pagan rituals and the voices in my head say they are out of my scope too. But, though I doubt it, perhaps my environment doesn’t allow me to believe that freeing a soul is same as freeing my body from clothes.

The book has the same moonlight shine to it. But for me this was the moon of a fairytale.

 

- Shruti Srivastava

Book Review: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, Craig Raine

Lolita is a memoir of the doomed and hopeless passion of a certain pedophile, namely Humbert Humbert. This may come across as unacceptable and vile on his part, but also to be noted is the fact that no one faces the turmoil of this love more than Humbert himself. After suffering the loss of an adolescent love, Humbert is left with a forbidden passion for nymphets.

Adrift in America, he meets his landlady’s daughter Dolores. She becomes the love of his life and the fate of his soul. “It was love at first sight, at last sight, at ever and ever sight”, as he puts it. The juvenile girl becomes his only concern and drowned in his squalid temptation, Humbert will go to any extent to possess his Lo, his Lolita.

Vladimir Nabokov’s exquisite command of words and brilliant satire leaves the reader in awe. With the background of mock American conventionality, Nabokov weaves the tale of joyous togetherness and the requiem of parting.

Read this book for its splendid meticulousness, for brilliant sentences, for morbid humor, for a scandalizing yet classic literature. 

 

- Anubhav Srivastava

Book Review: The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, Stanley Corngold (Translator)

I'm giving this book a 5 star, and I am hoping that I will never ever have to read it again. In fact I do not want to ever remember this gruesome tale of degrading humanity. I do not have the courage to analyze this story. I do not care if the metamorphosis depicts something of more significance, or if there is a great hidden message for the world. I took the story on its words and I was completely devastated after finishing it. So much so that it took me hours to compose myself.

I remember how as a child, when I first understood death, I tormented myself by imagining my death, or the death of people close to me, how the loneliness and horror of bereavement gripped my innocent heart and how I have cried for these frightening images. Last night, I was that child again. Its only last night, it dawned to me, that how easy it is for us, the humans, the self-proclaimed children of God, to torment those we once loved, when they become a burden. How easy it is for us to forget in the moment of revulsion for everything that is ugly to our eyes, that hideous and beautiful belongs equally to God.

It was not the metamorphosis of Gregor Samsa from human to a monstrous, revolting vermin that killed him. It was the metamorphosis of his family, from supposed love to disgust, that took his life. The family, who failed to recognize the lingering humanity beneath his appalling outward appearance. Despite his hopes and best intentions to be the bread-earner of the family again, and his desperate attempt to hold onto a few remainders of his humanity, the outright disgust of his father, the fear of his mother and the transformation of his sister Grete, compels him to accept death for the best interest of his family, which he did, with deep emotions and love. Grete, who initially showed great care for her brother, her neglect for him and the way she shouted that she wanted to get rid of him, was more grotesque than the revulsion of others. And what was his fault? Only that he showed his disgusting face, in a desperate attempt to convey his love for her, and to tell her how much he loved the way she played the violin?

The next morning, the family is relieved to find him dead.

- Shruti Srivastava

Book Review: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

When I bought this book a friend of mine commented that I seem to stumble upon the dark stuff. After finishing it, that comment makes so much sense. The picture of Dorian Gray is by far the most enthralling and, in a way, haunting piece of literature I have read till now. Oscar Wilde’s only published novel is a story with the question “what does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” as the theme. Dorian Gray, in a mad moment of vanity, barters his soul for eternal youth. It is his story of Hedonism.

Dorian Gray is a young man of exquisite charm and flower like beauty who becomes the impetus of the artist Basil Hallward’s work. Basil is instantly infatuated by the young man and prepares his finest work of art, a painting of Dorian Gray himself. Come Lord Henry, a man with the oft cynic insights, who influences Dorian to such an extent as to transform him from an innocent young man to a person whose aim becomes the pleasure of senses.

“To cure the soul by the means of senses and senses by the means of soul”, as Lord Henry puts it.

Lord Henry is a sarcastic and witty character. His, at times, horrifying theories influence Dorian to a great extent. Before Dorian dangles now the chance of a life of only sensory pleasures, and in this he commits sins that are etched upon the painting, while he retains his beauty. As his life goes on the scars of his sins go further from just disfiguring and torturing the canvas.

Wilde’s brilliantly artistic narrative of the setting of each scene is a pleasure to read. Lord Henry’s cunning and even funny repartee makes one think. This book is governed much by the importance of art in any form and the pursual of it in life.

“There is no such thing as a moral or immoral book” is a part of the preface added by Wilde after the book was widely criticized of being “immoral” after its first publication. Through this book the reader might wonder of the validity of that argument.

Utterly gripping, this is a masterpiece which brings forth the rather grey side of human psychology. The vividly haunting portrayal of the English streets at night and the daunting turmoil of Dorian Gray linger with the reader.

- Anubhav Srivastava