Writer: Upamanyu Chatterjee
Genre: Fiction
Agastya Sen, a half Bengali, half Goan IAS is posted to a small hinterland called 'Madna' for his one year training. Coming from Delhi and Calcutta, the place turns out to be quite a shocker for our English thinking Agastya. The fact that Agastya is lost and wants to understand his purpose in life does not help and his life seems to be all about marijuana, Marcus Aurelius.
Thats the entire plot of the book. And if you think there is no story you are right! But this book has some great satire and sarcasm. The punches are many and you just need to be a connoisseur of words to appreciate them.
Recommended for some nicely written punches!
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
A Thousand Splendid Suns
Writer: Khaled Hosseini
Genre: Fiction
The writer's second book after the extremely popular - 'The Kite Runner'. If the later was about the relationship between a father and a son, this one is about mother-daughter kind of relationship.
The story chronicles Afghanistan from the time women were working as university lecturers, doctors till date when you don’t see the female species without the burqa. It covers the soviet war, mujahideen war, Taliban war - almost everything and you are left wondering (like in Chetan Bhagat's 3 mistakes)...is that a little too much? It almost becomes a Manmohan Desai movie plot.
The two protagonists in the book are Mariam and Laila.
Maraim, Jalil's illegitimate daughter is completely besotted by him and doesn’t believe her mother that he is just trying to 'play' a good dad. Circumstances suddenly change as her mother dies, and she is married off to a much older man, Rasheed. Life goes on in the same disappointed way for her as she cannot give Rasheed a boy.
Laila is very much younger to Mariam and is her neighbour. Laila has a whining mom who doesn’t get out of the bed because her sons have gone to fight the holy war, a father who is university professor and teaches Laila that education is the most important thing in her life and a childhood friend Tariq who is the epicenter of her existence.
As the war in Afghanistan deteriorates, Tariq leaves for Pakistan and Laila becomes Rasheed's second wife and bears him a daughter and a son. Her equation with Mariam moves from extreme hatred to gradual acceptance and finally to that of extreme daughterly love. Towards the end Laila renites with Tariq, and Mariam is publicly executed for a crime she doesn’t repent.
I am sure this small synopsis must have reiterated the fact that it looks like a Manmohan Desai's film plot....but if you really read the book, you get an insight into the Afghanistan that’s falling into pieces. How life must have changed for the common man and how he must be wanting to get back his good old country - that’s the bottom line of the book. And that’s exactly where it scores! I may have not liked the plot but I could somehow relate to the writer and his protagonists going thru’ the phases of what would have once been a wonderful country.
The USP of the book - every 4 pages there is a twist and you have to turn the pages to fulfill your curiosity but still it’s not a classic. It’s a good book but a notch lower than the writer's first book. Read it, it’s not difficult to interpret, quite an everyday writing style and a decent one
Genre: Fiction
The writer's second book after the extremely popular - 'The Kite Runner'. If the later was about the relationship between a father and a son, this one is about mother-daughter kind of relationship.
The story chronicles Afghanistan from the time women were working as university lecturers, doctors till date when you don’t see the female species without the burqa. It covers the soviet war, mujahideen war, Taliban war - almost everything and you are left wondering (like in Chetan Bhagat's 3 mistakes)...is that a little too much? It almost becomes a Manmohan Desai movie plot.
The two protagonists in the book are Mariam and Laila.
Maraim, Jalil's illegitimate daughter is completely besotted by him and doesn’t believe her mother that he is just trying to 'play' a good dad. Circumstances suddenly change as her mother dies, and she is married off to a much older man, Rasheed. Life goes on in the same disappointed way for her as she cannot give Rasheed a boy.
Laila is very much younger to Mariam and is her neighbour. Laila has a whining mom who doesn’t get out of the bed because her sons have gone to fight the holy war, a father who is university professor and teaches Laila that education is the most important thing in her life and a childhood friend Tariq who is the epicenter of her existence.
As the war in Afghanistan deteriorates, Tariq leaves for Pakistan and Laila becomes Rasheed's second wife and bears him a daughter and a son. Her equation with Mariam moves from extreme hatred to gradual acceptance and finally to that of extreme daughterly love. Towards the end Laila renites with Tariq, and Mariam is publicly executed for a crime she doesn’t repent.
I am sure this small synopsis must have reiterated the fact that it looks like a Manmohan Desai's film plot....but if you really read the book, you get an insight into the Afghanistan that’s falling into pieces. How life must have changed for the common man and how he must be wanting to get back his good old country - that’s the bottom line of the book. And that’s exactly where it scores! I may have not liked the plot but I could somehow relate to the writer and his protagonists going thru’ the phases of what would have once been a wonderful country.
The USP of the book - every 4 pages there is a twist and you have to turn the pages to fulfill your curiosity but still it’s not a classic. It’s a good book but a notch lower than the writer's first book. Read it, it’s not difficult to interpret, quite an everyday writing style and a decent one
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