December 2019 Reads (Part 2)

Few more books read during the month of December 2019 are reviewed below - 

1. The Far Field by Madhuri Vijay 

"I am thirty years old and that is nothing", thus begins this book The Far Field by Madhuri Vijay, a trivial line that sets rolling a complex Bildungsroman of the protagonist, Shalini - spanning from her growing up years in Bangalore to her quest as a young adult in strife torn Kashmir following her mother's death. The search for Bashir Ahmed, her mother's friend, a Kashmiri salesman who with his enchanting stories and quick wit made an impact on the mother-daughter duo is accentuated with description of general political climate in Kashmir, the hardships of people there and Shalini's past with steady attention paid to her relation with her mother, father, with Bashir Ahmed, his son Riyaz and his family.

The prose is lush and supple. What transpired in a nondescript village in the mountains 6 yrs back is recounted by Shalini divided into 6 sections, each section ending with a revelation critical to the overall plot. None can capture the nuances of interpersonal relationships as Madhuri does, the attention to detail is impeccable. I loved how Zoya in Kishtwar bonded slowly and skeptically with Shalini just as much as the quickly struck comarederie between Shalini and Amina. 

Each character is shaped well in words. Shalini's mother with her razor sharp tongue, her unpredictable demeanor bowls you over most of the time; Shalini is no less either with her actions and decisions. The damage of being raised in a dysfunctional family is something that cannot be undone even in adulthood is the biggest take from this book.

Also, unique, relevant and important in equal measure is Madhuri's exploration of how a position of privilege due to one's socio economic status insulates one from real, on ground problems. While it is easier to be pragmatic when away from epicenter of a problem, one is torn inside out and on brink of insanity when deeply ingrained in the worst situations. The prose with all its tenderness leaves  a steady trickle of information while hiding some always and this quality in Madhuri's work stunned me.

The last 70 odd pages made me hit my head hard, Shalini did annoy me here thoroughly. But going back to the start, I understood that the author had prepared us for the destruction all along. Both Riyaz and Shalini suffer because of one of their parent's actions, they both are indecisive, vulnerable and full of inner turmoil. Riyaz invoked more sympathy cause I felt Shalini's was a quest where she constantly demanded answers even when her questions remained obscure. 

The book drew a strong mixed reaction in recent times like no other. If you cannot savor a story with a flawed, indecisive or cowardly protagonist do not go in for this book . But if you believe that flawed people with all their bundled up emotional insecurities and mistakes have a tale to tell and a confession to make, grab this book. am sure the brilliance of this stunning debut work will seep through.

2. Art Matters by Neil Gaiman 

Art Matters by Neil Gaiman has been a wonderful and immensely meaningful read. The choicest flamboyant words strung together cannot sum up its importance. It is a short book divided into 4 essays, my strong favorites being the first two - Credo and Why Our Future Depends on Libraries, Reading and Day Dreaming.

Credo emphasises the need to think freely, the freedom to debate, explain and argue. The second essay explains the importance of reading and how essential it is to get our children rung by rung into literacy through reading. This essay is full of lovely lines - how libraries are safe havens, the obligation we have to preserve and nurture them, how he describes fiction as a lie that tells the truth and emphasises the need for sound imagination and vehement reading. 

The other two essays pack a great dose of motivation, not just to create art but towards life, handling many successes and failures and this he does convincingly by quoting his own life experiences. 

I know I will dip into this book time and again, savor its lines every now and then. I hope to get a physical copy soon to compliment Gaiman's lovely lines with brilliant illustrations by Chris Riddell.

Sharing few favorite lines from the book which I truly believe in - FICTION BUILDS EMPATHY. FICTION IS SOMETHING YOU BUILD UP FROM TWENTY-SIX LETTERS AND A HANDFUL OF PUNCTUATION MARKS, AND YOU, AND YOU ALONE, USING YOUR IMAGINATION, CREATE A WORLD, AND PEOPLE IT AND LOOK OUT THROUGH OTHER EYES.

3. What Lies between Us by Nayomi Munaweera 

Nayomi Munaweera's - What Lies Between Us that scathingly handles a primordial, yet complex emotion - motherhood is dark, depressing and devastating.

Our unnamed narrator is born into a dysfunctional family in Kandy, Sri Lanka to a depression riddled mother. Her father, an eminent professor dips into his books with same fervor as arrack. Yet living with them isn't​ remorseful as Sita, the cook, runs errands well and tends to her with motherly love and Sita's nephew - Samson, the gardener serves as a playful guardian until sexual abuse robs her of complacency and naive understanding of life. Few events before she turns 14 alter her and her mother's lives irrevocably. Her maternal aunt, uncle and cousin airlift their smashed souls to safety in America.

As an immigrant from a land with different values and practices, piecing up the American dream seems a Herculean task but our unrelenting narrator slowly fits snug into the big American bosom through quality education, a respectable job as a nurse and as an American's (Daniel) girlfriend.

Her life finds a firm footing as someone's wife and as a mother when wounds from her past open up. Coupled with postpartum psychosis, this wreaks havoc. Daniel chooses to keep himself and their daughter at a safe distance implying it as a temporary relief measure allowing the narrator some time to deal with her unspoken nightmares. 

However, a phone conversation with her mother opens a can of worms and steers calamitous events. A twist that pops up in the conversation doesn't sound plausible. An instance of memory, so powerful yet so flawed botches up the end.

The strength of the book lies in its highly evocative, rich prose which annoys us at times for being too ornate. Description of child sexual abuse sends a deep shudder, birth pangs and labor pain are made palpable. Overall, an impactful read that wrenches your heart and squeezes your lungs despite an obvious "off the tangent" point at the end.

December 2019 Reads (Part1)

Below are reviews of few books read during the month of Dec 2019

1. Tell Her Everything by Mirza Waheed : Book Review 

Can someone move from one salary slip to another, one work assignment to another, sailing along swelling bank balance, hitting a pause button on living for oneself and with dear ones, with the hope to resume it one day post retirement? Will the resumption ever be an easy/smooth one?

Tell Me Everything by Mirza Waheed details the journey of Dr. Kaiser Shah - from his humble origin in Saharanpur, India, his graduating in medicine and moving to London, then to an unnamed place, most likely in the Middle East where his potential and diligence are recognized and rewarded. At 61, in his posh flat in London, overlooking river Thames, he prepares meticulously to tell his story in complete detail and honesty to his daughter, Sara when she visits him.

He is keen on telling her about how he landed at Sir Farhad's hospital, how he moved from the Emergency dept to Corrections and became an eminent 'punishment surgeon' using most humane practices along with cutting edge technology.

From living in utter penury in India, to getting an income that exceeds expenditure, trying to 'fit in' London, serving merely as a conduit at Sir Farhad's hospital where more people were in need of amputation than paracetamol - the details are bristling through synapses in his head, characterized by steady repetition of facts, memories and a slight overdose of sentimentality that comes along with senility.

He wants to tell Sara how much he loves Atiya, his wife and how her sudden death still remains an open wound, how difficult it was to send Sara at a tender age of 7 away from him to a boarding school in the USA in best interests of her future. He wants to tell her what happened to his friend from India, Biju T Tharakan during their years together at Sir Farhad. He wants to tell it all !

Can a doctor who is meant to resuscitate life be at the helm of rendering it useless? Can one's ambition slowly eat away filial relations and leave him solitary? Can elaborate explanation of intentions behind actions help procure a ratification for all that is bygone? This book raises many important questions and lets the reader obtain the answers.

2. Origin of Others - Toni Morrison : Book Review 

Origin of Others by Toni Morrison is a book derived from a series of lectures she gave at Harvard in the spring of 2016. Through 6 essays, she explores why an act of 'Other'ing is so important for man, what is race and why does it matter so much? 

The book begins with a foreword from Ta Nehisi Coates who differentiates race from racism, the former term only a feature of the natural world and the latter, the predictable result of it. Profiling and segregation based on race comes from the need for power, superiority and necessity to control states Morrison, clearly elucidating it with crisp and befitting examples.

What she shares are brutal truths that are hard to stomach - Samuel Cartwright writes about a natural indolence that blacks have, coins a name for a condition they suffer from - dysaesthesia aethiopica and thus justifies the white authority over them who he asserts will make them civilized and moral.

An owner of slaves and sugar plantations in Jamaica, Thomas Thistlewood's diary entries in Latin provide a chilling account of his rapes on slaves which he records meticulously amongst other details like weather, prices, business losses, such blatant callousness.

Employing skin color to describe a character or drive a narrative, use of term nigger in literature are explained as inevitable fallout of romancing slavery. 

Excerpt from newspaper of a slave mother who killed her child (from 1856), of Issac Woodard's unfortunate fate, examples of lynching in 20th century make us shudder, all a grim reminder of how race has always been a constant arbiter of difference. The lynching examples reminded me of John Steinbeck's The Vigilante.

I haven't read any of Toni Morrison's works of fiction. Those who have can/will definitely appreciate this book more for she discusses her thought process while writing them. However, after reading this book, I have come to understand what Morrison singularly stands for and why she is much revered.

"Why should we want to know a stranger when it is easier to estrange another? Why should we want to close the distance when we can close the gate?" These questions speak a lot about the Origin of Others.