Book: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Author: Susanna Clarke
Genre: Fantasy
Susanna Clarke’s 2004 debut fantasy novel is not an easy read but it’s definitely an engrossing one. It’s generously flavoured with satire and beautiful, if sometimes over-the-top, descriptions. Its many characters are well crafted and fascinating but difficult to relate to.
Set in an alternate version of 19th century London, the book has several plotlines that arc across its three volumes and while they occasionally meet to politely shake hands, they never quite coalesce into a cohesive whole. We do get a villain, a quest, not just one but two damsels in distress, a hero and plenty of magic but there is also a war, a magical Renaissance, a wizardly rivalry and a mad King. Underpinning all of these disparate elements is the constant presence of the enigmatic Raven King, the greatest of all magicians.
Throw in copious footnotes that take the reader into the world’s mesmerising magical history and this book starts to look less like a novel and more like an entertainingly written history textbook, if there can ever be such a thing. The first volume is a little slow but the other two are hugely entertaining and worth the patience.
Book: Good Omens
Author: Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Humour
Armageddon is coming. The antichrist has been born. Heaven and Hell are preparing for war. The world is about to end but not everyone is happy about it. The angel Aziraphale and the demon Crowley, like Earth just the way it is, thank you very much. Over centuries of roaming the mortal plane, they’ve developed a wary friendship and an attachment to the cosy comforts of Earth. Together, they plot to foil the Apocalypse only to find out that, through a comedy of errors, the wrong child has become the Antichrist.
The book is filled with wacky characters like Anathema Device the Professional Descendant, Private Newton Pulsifer of the Witchfinder Army and the politically correct Four Horsepersons of the Apocalypse who all have their own roles to play in the ending of the world.
There’s no single page of this book that can’t be called funny. It’s a well-written, hilarious composition that brings us the best work of two brilliant writers. Read this for a fun, light-hearted, blasphemous and sometimes ridiculous ride.
Book: A Fine Balance
Author: Rohinton Mistry
Genre: Indian
“And after you have read this story of great misfortunes, you will no doubt dine well, blaming the author for your own insensitivity, accusing him of wild exaggerations and flights of fancy.”
So goes the epigraph on the opening page of A Fine Balance. If you come back to it after you have finished reading the book, you will squirm with guilt and then carry on dining well. Rohinton Mistry’s Giller Prize winning novel is a chilling account of the India we don’t like to talk about.
Set during the Emergency, it follows the lives of Dina Dalal, a Parsi woman fending for herself in the city, Ishvar and Omprakash Darji, two tailors from a village and Maneck Kohlah, a young college student. These four characters from differing backgrounds are thrown together by circumstance in the city of Mumbai. But misfortune seems to be right around the corner for the underprivileged in post-Independence India and these four brave souls go from hardship to hardship with no relief in sight. Justice, for them, seems to be a supernatural concept. If you’re looking for a happy ending, you won’t find it here.
What you will find is a look into India’s dark history and, on the flip side, a touching account of the strength of the human spirit and the immortality of hope.
Book: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Author: Stieg Larsson
Genre: Mystery/Crime
A retired industrialist receives a pressed flower. Not exactly front page news but this apparently harmless incident acts as the catalyst for the complicated chain of events that form The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
The novel starts out slow, expending far too much time on Blomkvist’s background and his reasons for investigating the thirty six year old mystery of the disappearance of Harriet Vanger. The only elements that pique the reader’s interest are the members of the eccentric and twisted Vanger family and their history. The story picks up when Blomkvist, against all odds, finds a lead on Harriet. He, along with Lisbeth Salander a brilliant private detective and the titular Girl lead the reader to a satisfying and completely unexpected ending.
As good as the plot is, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is more than just a crime novel. The original Swedish title of the book translates to ‘Men who hate Women’, which is about as subtle as a flashing neon light. For Stieg Larsson, the novel was also a statement on misogyny and violence against women, a topic that is extremely relevant in India today.
Book: Love Story
Author: Erich Segal
Genre: Romance
Before The Fault in our Stars, there was Love Story. Erich Segal’s 1970 short novel is exactly what it says on the can. It’s a story about love. It’s a sweet, funny, passionate, touching, heartrending story about a love that fearlessly conquers social barriers and financial hardship. It’s the story of Jennifer Cavilleri and Oliver Barret IV.
From their initial meeting in the college library to the very end of the novel, Oliver and Jen tease each other incessantly. Their witty banter doesn’t let up even in the most emotional portions and can make you smile through your tears. Their love is gentle and sweet and apparent in every word of the book. Not for them are dramatic declarations of love pages or unnecessary brooding and angst. They are in love and happier for it.
The book is about the couple but even individually, Jen and Oliver are well-crafted characters who are easy to relate to. Jen is quirky, bold, lovable and blunt, never without a comeback for Oliver. Oliver is more complex, perhaps because the reader knows his thoughts. He’s the college star who is under constant pressure to achieve simply because his family before him did.
With love, laughter and life wrapped up in surprisingly few pages, Love Story is the story of the kind of love we all wish we could have.
Book: Maus
Author: Art Spiegelman
Genre: Graphic Novels
Maus is the Holocaust story of Vladek and Anja Spiegelman, the author’s parents. The most distinctive feature of Maus is that all the characters are portrayed as animals, with different species representing different races. The species were specifically chosen to portray cultural stereotypes. The Jews are represented as mice and the Germans as their fabled persecutors are cats.
The animal portrayal distances the reader from the severity of the subject. With animals as the characters, Maus can explore all the horrors of the Holocaust without scaring away the readers. And the reader will learn that there is no shortage of horrors in Auschwitz.
While the primary timeline follows Vladek and Anja from the 1930s to the end of World War 2 in 1945, a secondary timeline running through the book acts as a framework and shows Art interviewing his father. It depicts the strained relations between father and son and reveals that even after the Holocaust ended, its victims were not free.
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