Age of Innocence- Edith Wharton



Luminous. There doesn't seem a better way to describe tis book. A lambency seeps over the events, the narrative,  the characters, their quiet joys and sorrows and theie love.

Briefly-the year is 1870 . The place - upper crust new york. Newland Archer is engaged to  May Welland. Then he meets her exotic cousin, the countess Ellen Olenski. Needless to say, Archer falls in love with the cousin and is torn by the social codes and his love.

Wharton writes with a sharp pen; she chooses carefully the moments when she removes the veneer off her characters to reveal their motives and true nature. And we learn that the characters are not as innocent, not as noble or not as brave as they same.

The whole mood of the novel is gentle- the joys, the sorrows, the love , the sacrifices and their triumphs. Even after you close the last page, the novel still holds you in a gentle yet lingering grip that is not so easily shaken off.

Read it. This is a Pulitzer well deserved.

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand- Helen Simonson



I put this book down after a few chapters but returned to it because I couldn't get rid of a niggling feeling that i was missing something and I am glad I did.
 
This book is a comedy of manners , without Austen's biting wit and a gentle mockery of the British aristocracy, without Wodehouse's panache. But the reader gets the feeling that  Summerland doesn't aim it to be any of these. So what we have is a gentle love story, with  gentle ironies and gentle insight. All so gentle that you have to be on the watch for them or they will slip past you.

A little about the story- Major Pettigrew is a British gentleman in the tradition of British Gentlemen that we have read about- he is all  about honour, courtesy , doing the right thing , hunting and the perfectly brewed  cup of tea get together. Summerland explores life in modern day English village through their romance. The setting may  be provincial but the themes the universal ones of bigotry, racism, class conflict, family pressures and duties and  love.

The characters are fresh and so are the situations but perhaps the sheer ness'gentleness' of the novel slows and wears the reader down.  Persist- it's the same gentle humour, conflict and irony make it a charming read.

Maya

How to Buy a Love of Reading- Tanya Egan Gibson



 The title is a misnomer, the opposite would stand testimony to the book. I found the book mentioned at Just Books. it is not their fault really for it was here that I first met Elegance of...and The Guernsay, two of the best reads of last year. It's just that I was lulled into blind faith. And I paid for it. Literally (bought the book, didn;t I? and otherwise)

Anyway, the Book- has a brilliant idea- of a novel being written which runs alongside the story of the cahracte rs in the book. has strong writing. Good sense of atmosphere.

Then what is wrong? Sigh. Everything. or something. The story , if you remove the novel writing element ,is just about a bunch  of poo r little and not-so little rich people with self destructive life styles and questionable morality. With a story like this, something's got to give. Something did. Me. I gave up.

I can't think of a single reason why you should read it. Except that it was sort of funny, like an occasional line every few pages. I can't think of a single reason to justify my  buying it. Unless I dub it a  'learning experince'.

Is it just me or is it really getting harder to find good books out  there?
Maya

The Writing on My Forehead- Nafisa Haji



Alright, I admit- I like Pakistani writers. So sue me. Anyway-  Haji is of Indo- Pak descent , so there!

This book is diaspora writing but not about displacement angst or alienation. It is about rebellion, growing up and  family.

Saira is rebellious. But this is not a cultural rebellion but more of a generational battle, one which she discovers many others have fought in other times in other places. Saira travels through  many years and to many cities in different countries only to come full circle. You can never escape your inheritance or your destiny or your past or your family. Saira learns this as does her sister, her mother and others with  her.

The book is lyrically written without becoming cloying fulsome. It touches all the right  emotional chords. The characters come alive and we all can thing on at least one Ammena or Big Nanima or the mother or anybody else in the book.

Read it-  It may not be brilliant or intellectually challenging but it's emotionally very satisfying. A very  good read. And it's after all about people like us.

Maya

Alison Wonderland- Helen Smith

                                        (SORRY- NO IMAGE OF BOOK COVER)

This was an off beat quircky title and book that I met on whichbooks.com. The blurb said many things- cult status, deadpan humour, Thelma and Louis meets Agatha Christie adventure- all irresistable stuff. Then I made the mistake of believing it and I acctually bought the book

What can I see- I lost the plot almost as soon as the book began, the protaganiost a little while after that, the writing was too stylised and I  never got into it. I am sure it was funny, only I never reached the funny bits.

I lasted nearly hundred pages which is half the book if you think  about it and then I gave up. I don't know what happened to Alison> it didin't matter because I had no iidea what had happened to her till then anyway.

If some one has read it and has different view, I would love to know what I missed.
Maya

The Debt to Pleasure- John Lanchester



The challenge with this book is to write about it without repeating the things on the back cover. Or for that matter, the front cover. So here goes.


Tarquin Winot has freshly shaved his head and is on a journey, in disguise-telling why would be a spoiler, from Portsmouth to Provence. He describes his journey and his life through his menus. His is brilliant, highly –learned, darkly funny, deluded (or does he want us to think so?), ironic, super- snobbish and chilling.,

One review claimed he was one of the best characters to come out of England since Dickens put pen to paper and I am inclined to agree.

Brilliant, elegant pro se, steeped in irony. At the same time you can taste and smell the flavours of the food.

Caveat- Too much of the detail in the menu made my eyes glaze over. Perhaps t was just me- most of his dishes were about cooking succulent meat and I am a vegetarian. A word of caution- blink if this happens. Or you will miss something vital about the Sinister Tarquin, his life, his family and his emotions.

Read- This is lemon cheese cake. It’s tart, sweet and then after the lest forkful, you discover it was laced with arsenic.

©Maya

Jaya- An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata- Devdutt Pattanaik

This is yet another retelling of the Mahabharata. Or is? The answer is yes and no. Yes, the core story is the retelling of the epic written by Vyasa. But interest in the book comes from the fact that Pattanaik provides the variations to the incidents in the epic written in other languages, wherever they occur. What is more, he has dug an amazing amount of interesting spin offs and side stories that make the reading very rich. For example do you know Draupadi has five husbands? Do you know she was the super Sati-Savithri Nalayini in one of her previous births? Also that this Nalayini was a very lustful woman who , when granted a boon by her husband, requested that he take different forms and make love to her? Ah, darn. That was a spoiler!


Do you know what Shakuni’s dice were made of? No, don’t Google it- read the book. The story is much more interesting.

What is missing is Pattanaik’s delightful tongue- in-cheek, irreverence. Maybe the epic’s canvas was too large for him to keep to that narrative e style .Or perhaps the tale to sombre?




However, he does make it up by giving a social commentary or perspective on the incidents and places them within the context of the then society and draws out attention to their values, codes and mores.

Read- A must for mythology lovers and maybe even socio-historians.

©Maya