Howzzat!

Emily Bronte's 1847 classic Wuthering Heights, released under the male pseudonym "Ellis Bell," is remembered for its complex protagonists, its gothic elements, and the young age at which the author passed (she was thirty). But what caught Alice Munro's attention were the vivid descriptions of the farm, the house, the fields, and the little brooks brimming with melting snow (more than the lengthy accounts of the dark, brooding Heathcliff or the sad, eerie Cathy, who caught mine). Canadian short story writer and Nobel Prize winner Alice Munro passed away on May 13th this year, aged 92. Over her lifetime, she published a total of fourteen short story collections, with most of them a staggering 40 pages long. (While interviewing Munro, Tamil writer A. Muthulingam quipped that her stories rarely appeared in Tamil magazines due to their reluctance to publish lengthy works.) Her works revolved around the lives of ordinary men, women, and children in rural or small-town Canad...

In the odd pages of Pavić’s magnum opus, the various trials undergone by the ‘great walking parchment’ is described in much detail. An envoy is sent to the Byzantine Emperor Theophilus with his entire body tattooed with Khazars’ history and topography. He lets his hand get chopped off in Constantinople when a man pays in solid gold for the second Khazar year chronicled on his left palm. He is forced to return to the Khazar capital from time to time so that the inscriptions can undergo multiple corrections and new additions. His daily bread comes from hours of standing still so that the Greek and other scribes could copy the Khazar history from his back and thighs into their books. He ultimately passes away, unable to bear the incessant itching brought about by the prized inscriptions and “…and it was with relief that he died, glad to be finally cleansed of history.” I found The Dictionary of Khazars to be an ode to the life of this great walking parchment who is belie...

First published in 1990, Rubber is the debut novel of acclaimed writer Jeyamohan. The rise of Ponnumani, the obscure orphan to Ponnu Peruvattar, the rubber estate magnate and proud patriarch of the Peruvattar family is spanned in the nearly 200 page long book. The colossal growth of Ponnu Peruvattar is juxtaposed with the story depicting the fall of his empire.    The end of the Peruvattar stronghold stems from the wrong business decisions that Chellaiah Peruvattar, the only son of the patriarch makes. The family is further undone due to friction between its members. Therese is the detached spouse of Chellaiah who doesn’t make any attempt to hide her contempt for “lower beings”. She lives in a world of her own and is indifferent towards her sons’ waywardness and her husband’s crudeness. Of the couple’s five children, only Francis and Livy still reside with them. Francis, Peruvattar’s favourite grandson, is a school dropout and a spendthrift. He is outspoken and is ...

  The White Tiger By Aravind Adiga         2008 was a year reminiscent to most Indian book lovers.  Chennai born Aravind Adiga and Delhi bred Amitav Ghosh were the Indian names among those shortlisted for the 2008 Man Booker Prize for Fiction. It was the then 34 year old Adiga who walked away with the £50,000 award for his ambitious debut novel ‘ the White Tiger’ , a book whose complex take on the whimsical  notions of Indian modernity were marvelled yet criticized by literary figures and readers alike.      Adiga’s protagonist Balram Halwai , a self-confessed scoundrel cum “successful” entrepreneur, writes a letter to the visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in which he narrates his rags-to-riches story, a tale devoid of all traits bearing resemblance to honesty, loyalty or kindness and where greed unashamedly greets you in its entirety.      Balram, son of a rickshaw puller, is drawn out of...

Dreams in Prussian Blue       When I came across the book with the blue cover and orange rimmed pages, little did it seem like it came from Penguin.  One look at the cover, I was convinced it must be Chetan Bhagat-ish . Even the author’s bio struck a chord… IIT..IISc..engineer… Dreams in Prussian Blue by Paritosh Uttam is one of the first books from the Penguin metro reads series. Colours can be quite tricky. I soon found that out after reading the first few chapters. No, I won’t be calling anything Chetan Bhagat-ish anymore. The day I completed the last chapter of the book was…quite gloomy. It’s my fault. A more mature mind would have found the end classy…      Naina , a first year student of Fine Arts College, Mumbai falls for her senior Michael Agnelo (or Michaelangelo?).  She doesn’t think twice to drop out of college and live in with him. It’s rather late when she realizes he’s a heartless snob who likes to have it the easy way...

The book surely sounds like a true story; of the author’s of course. But here is Bhagat’s clever disclaimer, “The story is inspired by my own family and experiences. However this book should be seen as a work of fiction”. The story is all about two II M-A graduates Krish and Ananya who belong to 2 different states of Punjab and Tamil Nadu respectively.   The former is also an II T graduate, lives in Delhi and hates his army dad to the core. The latter is a Tamil Brahmin who outstandingly loves chicken and beer (does being an II M graduate have anything to do with that?) After madly in love for two years, they decide to get married. They have got to convince their two very different families as they don’t want to elope. But things aren’t so easy. Their efforts to make their folks like each other, goes in vain. But the determined couple doesn’t let go of the situation just like that. Boy makes the girl’s family like him and girl tries to impress the boy’s family. Though...