The Tutor: Andrea Chapin

Lovely Kate meets Will and make poetry. In between there lies Queen Elizabeth's England, persecution of Catholics, a death or two, passion and betrayal and love and longing. Andrea Chapin's first novel is a marvellous historical fiction and a very entertaining read. She weaves a clever story around William Shakespeare and Katherine de L'Isle and how he persuades her to help him with his poetry. The image of a brash upstart over smart William stays long after the story ends and we are united with Kate as we shake our heads and say "How could you?".

Waiting for your next one Andrea Chapin!

Review: Arctic Summer

Arctic Summer. An incredibly intimate, sensitive journey into the life and passions of Edward Morgan Forester. The book among other things takes the reader through a largish part of EMF's life -- in particular his two loves - one unrequited and the other where he finds fulfilment and woven in between these two is the slow development of his magnum opus "A passage to India".

This is my first Galgut. I have read EMF's Howard's End, A room with a view and the hugely entertaining "The Hill of Devi" - an account of his year at Dewas Senior as Secretary to the Maharaja. But I have not read "A Passage to India".

I have also read some of his letters or journal extracts and was already familiar with EMF - the man.  That is perhaps why, Damon Galgut's portrayal of EMF felt authentic. Or perhaps it was just the magic of Mr. Galgut.

I could feel EMF's internal hesitations, the awkwardness of not fitting in, his twisting his fingers or stumbling at the edge of the carpet and then feeling embarrassed about it, his pain, his loneliness. It was as if I was there with him in England when he was "Poppy" to his overbearing mother, in the bus in Egypt seeing the bus conductor Mohammed, in the hot and dusty Dewas with Bapu Sahib, In his rooms, in the horse drawn carriage where he imagines the young sais leaning inches from him;  and everywhere else...

Mr. Galgut, thankyou for this journey.

PS - I also highly recommend "The Hill of Devi".

Arctic Summer
ALEPH Book Company
Pages: 355
Price: Rs. 595

Review: The Labyrinth of Osiris

Just finished reading Paul Sussman's The Labyrinth of Osiris.

Superbly entertaining. Like a Bollywood Blockbuster. It has all the elements in it: Exotic Locations - Luxor, Tel Aviv, Negev Desert etc; Big Bad Villains (american giant corporation), action aplenty, thrills, comedy (well more humour), women mostly in supporting roles and grieving on the sideliness, not one but two heroes ala Karan-Arjun or more like Jai-Veeru which ofcourse leads me to tragedy ... but saying anymore will be giving away the plot.

And infinitely entertaining, engrossing - all 500 plus pages of it.

Mr. Sussman, I find has written more books and so I will be reading them. But in reverse order since I have read his latest, first. It is also his last. He passed away shortly afterwards. RIP Paul Sussman.

Review: Oscar Wilde and the Nest of Vipers

So then Oscar Wilde and his pal Arthur Conan Doyle go about solving a series of crimes in end of the century (19th) London. And so his milieu is littered with names and events which is familiar to even me (in the 21st century) sitting so far away in kolkata. And after pages of pages of wit, fun and great conversation, one does get to know who it was who did it, we are also pleasantly surprised at how Watson like ACD happens to be and how ACD got his idea for so many of his holmesian plots from their current adventures! And oh there is Bram Stoker not yet written his most famous work and that is how Jane Avril got her name did she? And all this in the midst of a murder (or two) most foul. hmm. Thankyou Gyles Brandreth for the Oscar Wilder Murder Mysteries.

And I say this even if I began by reading Oscar Wilde and the Viper's Nest - the 4th and the latest book in this series. The "Game" my friends, is definitely afoot!

Review: The Midnight Palace by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

I'll Never forget the night it snowed over Kolkata".

With such an opening sentence, how could I possibly not pick up Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Midnight Palace, run home and read it?

The story is set in Calcutta and spans a period 1916-32. The plot is interesting enough - adventure, love, betryal, magic etc but the setting is what thrilled me - Brabourne Road, Hooghly, Chowringhee Road etc and as these still exist in its current avatar ofcourse. As I was reading the lines between make believe and real life sort of blurred as I visualized these very places as they were back the, wider, emptier. "An old textile ware house, the walls of which were covered in official notices announcing its imminent demolition..." had me wondering how somethings never change in Calcutta - even today there are so many such places, just like back in 1916?

If I have my facts right, a Spaniard, living in the US has written this book. I ofcourse have no idea if he has visited India /Kolkata. Maybe he did. Maybe he took some one's help. Maybe he has a calcutta connection...I muse a bit awestruck. And then I run into the most ridiculous name of a pivotal character in the book - not an instance of getting regions mixed up (like till very recently an Indian would mean a man in a turban, no matter which part of the country he was from) . It is a horrible horrible mockery of a bengali name.

Am so very glad that it (this name) was somewhere pages down in the book and not in the opening sentence. I would have not progressed beyond the first line, never picked up the book and found out about the night "it snowed over Calcutta"!

Review: A Winter on the Nile

Florence Nightangle and Gustave Flaubert travel to Egypt in 1849 and down the Nile and back within days of each other but don't meet. They seem to successfully dodge each other by a few hours, days or month. Both in their twenties and not yet famous. Both "find" their calling or have their doubts cleared and return from the trip to their destinies for which they become famous. Florence Nightangle becomes the lady with the Lamp and Gustave pens Madame Bovary. The narrative tour down the Nile and back is fascinating to say the least. Luxor, Aswan, Karnak, Abu Simbel, Philea, Heliolpolis...

Lucky that Anthony Sattin found the coincidence of their spending "A Winter on the Nile".

The World Beyond: Review

Another raj story; english girl meets her prince charming. And he is tall, dark, handsome and a prince to boot. A nawab. The inevitable happens. But does love triumph in the end? Well, you have to read Sangeeta Bhargava's The World Beyond to find out.

For me, what works and really well is Lucknow on the eve of and build up to the momentous uprising of 1857 soon to follow. She is the real heroine of the story. About those who love her and those who covet her, her rise and her fall. Some of the parts were so well written that I could see the story playout as if in a movie. Hmm. An idea that?

The beautiful cover - shades of blue, pink, red and gold is perfectly captures the essence of the world in which this story is paced. But one jarring note - the heroine is shown wearing a sari - how we wear it now. I think this was not in vogue during then. However a minor error...I need not be so nitpicking.

The All Bengali Crime Detectives

Thankyou Suparna Chatterjee. No, not for writing a crime story - my almost favorite genre but for the setting. An entire middle class bengali para is part of the plot which is well, life and of the various events, pre-occupation of the cast, there happens to be a crime in there as well, which does get solved eventually. But the build up to the solution is great fun, not alone to find out if the butler did do it, but also for the hoped for conclusions to many other sub plots...all equally important.

For all bengalis and those who are familiar with bengaliana - this book is worth a read. (And for others too..)

I hope Ms. Chatterjee is busy working on the sequel. I did find out if the butler did it, but don't yet know the outcome of potla's prem, piya's patra (groom) and Sabuj Kalyan's puja plans. Hopefully all these will be solved in the next book.

Proper Names

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time might have made it to the Booker longlist 2004 and Boom! hasn't. So what?

Any author who has a proper name for a planet - Plonk in this case (and a chief alien villain called Bantid Vantresillion; and a side-kick Mrs. Pearce - the 85 year old alien in guise of history teacher), is definitely infinitely superior a story teller than scores of those who name planets as XYZ90748ab***yzzpt.

And Mark Haddon, you have company. Shirshendu Mukhopadyaya and his novel Patalghar. Vik from Planet Nyapcha. No wonder both stories are coherent and entirely believable. Aliens, space and time travel. Yes.

So what if I (at my age) still continue to read books for the very young (compared to me they are very young).

PS - If you haven't seen Patalghar yet, do so immediately. And if you have, watching it again will be, you agree, an absolute pleasure.