Three Books In Three Weeks
In a span of three weeks I read three books (December 21, 2008 - January 11, 2009]. This is a personal record. I'm giving my (own) brief personal review of these wonderful books as follows:
THE BAD GIRL (Mario Vargas Llosa, 2008)
Ricardo’s perversely erotic and all-consuming attraction - or fanatical love - to the bad girl, who despised and used him in return, was written with reference to Flaubert’s Sentimental Education. The bad girl’s dangerous mischiefs and scheming exploits, I suppose, were a rewriting of Madame Bovary. I had not read both books though I am familiar with the latter. I watched the Claude Chabrol’s film adaptation a year ago. Even without the requisite familiarity with the former, I still had a rewarding experience of being alternately fastened to my seat or locked on the bed while being witness to Ricardo’s decades-long intoxication. The novel, with its effective weaving of words, though translated, had transported me into the novel’s different realms, from the time he met the enigmatic Chilean girl of his childhood in troubled Peru, to the Latin Quarters in Paris en route to Cuba, to London during the rise of the hippies, to the Tokyo underworld, back to Paris and, finally, to Madrid. The bad girl’s (necessary) chameleonic transformation from one identity to another was as volatile as the changes in political scenario in Peru within four decades. Despite being inferior to other Llosa’s masterpieces, e.g., Feast of the Goat and Death in the Andes, the book does not disappoint. [December 24, 2008]
THE WHITE TIGER (Aravind Adiga, 2008)
I haven’t read the other books in the 2008 Booker Prize short list but this book, I guess, after having had read it, certainly belongs to the list. I mean, this parable of India’s changing society, which lays some things to ponder on, may have deserved the Booker Prize it eventually won.
The structure and style applied by Aravind Adiga to the novel are things that, to me, are novel and effective. This is a good piece of literature. [January 2, 2009]
The cover image of the book is displayed on the left (widget) column.
MISTER PIP (Lloyd Jones, 2007)
Mister Pip is a haunting fable that explores the long-term effect of a book on one’s life, people’s escape from the reality of a brewing horror in an island alternately ravaged by savage soldiers and rebels, and the power of story-telling to save lives.
The only book in the island used by the self-appointed teacher of black students was Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations. The teacher was the only white man left in the island after all the other whites fled the island when perceived fear of civil war rages engulfed the island. The book (Great Expectations) could be immoral and irrelevant to the children’s imperiled existence; on the other hand, it could be a refuge from the incomprehensible conflict engulfing their world, a means to escape to another place.
The effect of this novel on me is something that will linger for months, perhaps years. This will be in the list of best books I’ve ever read.
This book was in the 2007 Booker Prize shortlist. In my opinion, this is much better than The Gathering, which got the prize. The Gathering is not bad. Actually, I liked it. But, Mister Pip is much better. [January 11, 2009]
THE BAD GIRL (Mario Vargas Llosa, 2008) Ricardo’s perversely erotic and all-consuming attraction - or fanatical love - to the bad girl, who despised and used him in return, was written with reference to Flaubert’s Sentimental Education. The bad girl’s dangerous mischiefs and scheming exploits, I suppose, were a rewriting of Madame Bovary. I had not read both books though I am familiar with the latter. I watched the Claude Chabrol’s film adaptation a year ago. Even without the requisite familiarity with the former, I still had a rewarding experience of being alternately fastened to my seat or locked on the bed while being witness to Ricardo’s decades-long intoxication. The novel, with its effective weaving of words, though translated, had transported me into the novel’s different realms, from the time he met the enigmatic Chilean girl of his childhood in troubled Peru, to the Latin Quarters in Paris en route to Cuba, to London during the rise of the hippies, to the Tokyo underworld, back to Paris and, finally, to Madrid. The bad girl’s (necessary) chameleonic transformation from one identity to another was as volatile as the changes in political scenario in Peru within four decades. Despite being inferior to other Llosa’s masterpieces, e.g., Feast of the Goat and Death in the Andes, the book does not disappoint. [December 24, 2008]
THE WHITE TIGER (Aravind Adiga, 2008) I haven’t read the other books in the 2008 Booker Prize short list but this book, I guess, after having had read it, certainly belongs to the list. I mean, this parable of India’s changing society, which lays some things to ponder on, may have deserved the Booker Prize it eventually won.
Balram Halwai, an uneducated but rising entrepreneur, arrogantly confesses how he reached his present status in India’s pursuit for glory in the near future. He spills everything and freely speaks his mind: his complaints about his caste, his disrespect for elders, his tongue-lashing of Mahatma Gandhi, his justification of premeditated murder, etc. He is mostly scornful of the goings-on in the other India he calls Darkness, where the basic necessities are routinely snatched by the wealthy, who live in the Light.
The structure and style applied by Aravind Adiga to the novel are things that, to me, are novel and effective. This is a good piece of literature. [January 2, 2009]
The cover image of the book is displayed on the left (widget) column.
MISTER PIP (Lloyd Jones, 2007) Mister Pip is a haunting fable that explores the long-term effect of a book on one’s life, people’s escape from the reality of a brewing horror in an island alternately ravaged by savage soldiers and rebels, and the power of story-telling to save lives.
The only book in the island used by the self-appointed teacher of black students was Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations. The teacher was the only white man left in the island after all the other whites fled the island when perceived fear of civil war rages engulfed the island. The book (Great Expectations) could be immoral and irrelevant to the children’s imperiled existence; on the other hand, it could be a refuge from the incomprehensible conflict engulfing their world, a means to escape to another place.
The effect of this novel on me is something that will linger for months, perhaps years. This will be in the list of best books I’ve ever read.
This book was in the 2007 Booker Prize shortlist. In my opinion, this is much better than The Gathering, which got the prize. The Gathering is not bad. Actually, I liked it. But, Mister Pip is much better. [January 11, 2009]
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