Why this title, well I am reading short stories by Prem Chand and plan to re start Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler.
The stories by Prem Chand are sweet and short and are intriguing me because of the language, hindi is my mother tongue but the usage seems very alien (mind you prem Chand is supposed to be the simplest and most colloquial of all hindi writers). Also the setting is very charming early 1900s India. Will write more about it once I am finished with it. The next book on my list Darkness at Noon, gifted by my brother, his favorite and close to our hearts because of my dad's socialist leanings. Have never got around to reading it completely. Though Koestler was not russian he does write about the struggle of a man with the interpretation and execution of socialism in Russia. This time I shall complete it. Meanwhile it is avery very busy week at work and i still have to post the review of the book i read last week. So what are you reading??
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Lady Chatterley's Lover
I can understand what the fuss must have been about. Lady Chatterley’s Lover must have created quite a stir when it was published in 1928. The furor was enough to prevent publishing of the book in England till 1960. The book is replete with fairly descriptive sexual encounters, usage of what must have been uncharitable language back then (folks in the 1930’s did not have the benefit of gansta rap to acclimatize them to words like bitch et al). But I don’t think the indignation was about the presence of sex in the story, neither was it about the fact that most perceived the central theme of the book to be sex, ignoring the many more themes and undercurrents that weaved this good story. To my mind the ado was about the unapologetic presence of sex in the lives of the protagonists, the unabashed acknowledgement and enjoyment of (female) sexuality, that sex was not a thought to be buried deep down in the crevices of one’s imagination but a sentiment worthy of appreciation, that sex was not the excuse of a delinquent, not means to a devious end but in a way the end itself.
Today I am glad that I live in 2010 (as I am most of the times, are you kidding me healthcare sucked in the 1930s) and not 1930. That hopefully liberates me enough to enjoy the book in its entirety and not just obsess about one of the many, many themes that this story dwells upon.
At its heart Lady Chatterley’s Lover is a story about love and how love transcends the boundaries of class, judgment, morality, righteousness and convenience. The backdrop of this love story is a concoction of industrialization, aristocracy, war, class conflict etc etc. But you know a classic from the rest when not only are the central theme and the sub contexts dealt with a studied authority but also every conversation and observation in the book is a valuable (and not easily available or manifested) insight. Each page in the book is to savor and never does any detail seem like an interruption to the story. By this standard, Lady Chatterley’s Lover is sure a classic and is a book that makes the journey of reaching the culmination as enjoyable as the culmination itself.
Lady Chatterley (or Connie) is married to Clifford, a minor aristocrat who has inherited coal mines from his family. Clifford is paralyzed in World War I and is rendered impotent post which he settles down in Wragby. In due course of time he becomes a successful writer. Connie remains married (though not faithful) to him during all this time, contributing significantly to his literary success. Clifford cannot imagine his life without Connie. However what is striking, is the lack of love in the marriage. Connie does not love Clifford, in fact does not even like Clifford in most parts. There is also no memory of love and the past that they share, that keeps Connie going on in this love less, lackluster marriage, and ironically there is no sense of duty that bounds Connie to Clifford . There is just habit and the fact that Connie has no idea what to leave Clifford for. On the other hand Clifford is neither in love with Connie nor is grateful to her for uncomplainingly being his companion, nurse, brainstorming partner and trophy wife. He holds on to Connie with a brute selfishness, tying her down by being totally dependant on her, clinging on to her as the only connection to normalcy, as the only antidote to his impotency. It is this selfishness that Connie tries to run away in her dalliances with other men however ends up with men (and consequently runs away from them) consumed by their own demands.
Connie makes the beginning of severing the stifling mess of entangled ties, by hiring Mrs. Bolton to take care of Clifford and his everyday needs. The ease and urgency with which Mrs. Bolton replaces Connie in her role as nurse and companion to Clifford is a testimony to the fact that for Clifford, Connie was no more than just a nurse and companion, a little more dignified and qualified albeit.
A chance encounter in the woods leads Connie to Mellors the game keeper on Clifford’s estate. And thus begins the saga of their clandestine and passionate love affair teeming with many descriptions of their uninhibited and unaffected sex. Connie is intrigued by the unique combination of provincial wisdom and sophistication that this man presents. The rigid class distinction of those times forces her to seek familiarity in Mellors through his background of an army lieutenant or the books he reads. Finally what draws Connie towards Mellors is the equality of their relationship, summed up when she says “I liked your body” and his response is “Well, then, we’re quits because I liked yours”. The serenity, peace and the candid earthiness that the venue of their rendezvous offers is in infact a metaphor to how Connie feels when she is with Mellors. For Mellors Connie is the perfect combination of intellect and allure, independence and compassion.
Like most love stories this one too has a villain, class conflict being the one here. Clifford has no trouble in having an heir for his estate through one of the frivolous love affairs of Connie, presumably with a noble man. But cannot deal with the idea of Connie wanting to have a child and stay with a man of the working classes. This to him it is an ultimate defeat to the serving class, a thoughtless mass of animals fated to be ruled by industrialists like him.
For me one of the most fascinating passages in the book is where Mellors carries Clifford in his wheelchair and Connie views the two choices she has in contrast with each other. Clifford fazed by his dependence on one of Mellors’ kind, brings out his brutish best while Mellors is patiently struggling to help Clifford out of humanity and not servitude. This act for me is the essence of the story, where love, hatred, tension and bondage all come into play.
Mellors also, to my mind is finally committed to Connie only after his long separated wife comes into the picture, the tawdry and loud Bertha Coutts. Both Bertha and Clifford oppose the union of Mellors and Connie not so much for the pain that it brings them, but because they cannot fathom the happiness that this alliance brings the two protagonists. The book ends with Mellors and Connie embarking a journey towards each other and away from their past. As I wistfully finish the book I know it is about how life is complete only when you have someone you love to come back home to.
As for my Aha moment, it came pretty early in the book when Connie wondered “What was the good of discontented people who fitted in nowhere?”.
Lady Chatterley’s Lover is a must read and I think its enough to say that it felt like I had read a “real” book after a long long time.
Author: D.H. Lawrence
Today I am glad that I live in 2010 (as I am most of the times, are you kidding me healthcare sucked in the 1930s) and not 1930. That hopefully liberates me enough to enjoy the book in its entirety and not just obsess about one of the many, many themes that this story dwells upon.
At its heart Lady Chatterley’s Lover is a story about love and how love transcends the boundaries of class, judgment, morality, righteousness and convenience. The backdrop of this love story is a concoction of industrialization, aristocracy, war, class conflict etc etc. But you know a classic from the rest when not only are the central theme and the sub contexts dealt with a studied authority but also every conversation and observation in the book is a valuable (and not easily available or manifested) insight. Each page in the book is to savor and never does any detail seem like an interruption to the story. By this standard, Lady Chatterley’s Lover is sure a classic and is a book that makes the journey of reaching the culmination as enjoyable as the culmination itself.
Lady Chatterley (or Connie) is married to Clifford, a minor aristocrat who has inherited coal mines from his family. Clifford is paralyzed in World War I and is rendered impotent post which he settles down in Wragby. In due course of time he becomes a successful writer. Connie remains married (though not faithful) to him during all this time, contributing significantly to his literary success. Clifford cannot imagine his life without Connie. However what is striking, is the lack of love in the marriage. Connie does not love Clifford, in fact does not even like Clifford in most parts. There is also no memory of love and the past that they share, that keeps Connie going on in this love less, lackluster marriage, and ironically there is no sense of duty that bounds Connie to Clifford . There is just habit and the fact that Connie has no idea what to leave Clifford for. On the other hand Clifford is neither in love with Connie nor is grateful to her for uncomplainingly being his companion, nurse, brainstorming partner and trophy wife. He holds on to Connie with a brute selfishness, tying her down by being totally dependant on her, clinging on to her as the only connection to normalcy, as the only antidote to his impotency. It is this selfishness that Connie tries to run away in her dalliances with other men however ends up with men (and consequently runs away from them) consumed by their own demands.
Connie makes the beginning of severing the stifling mess of entangled ties, by hiring Mrs. Bolton to take care of Clifford and his everyday needs. The ease and urgency with which Mrs. Bolton replaces Connie in her role as nurse and companion to Clifford is a testimony to the fact that for Clifford, Connie was no more than just a nurse and companion, a little more dignified and qualified albeit.
A chance encounter in the woods leads Connie to Mellors the game keeper on Clifford’s estate. And thus begins the saga of their clandestine and passionate love affair teeming with many descriptions of their uninhibited and unaffected sex. Connie is intrigued by the unique combination of provincial wisdom and sophistication that this man presents. The rigid class distinction of those times forces her to seek familiarity in Mellors through his background of an army lieutenant or the books he reads. Finally what draws Connie towards Mellors is the equality of their relationship, summed up when she says “I liked your body” and his response is “Well, then, we’re quits because I liked yours”. The serenity, peace and the candid earthiness that the venue of their rendezvous offers is in infact a metaphor to how Connie feels when she is with Mellors. For Mellors Connie is the perfect combination of intellect and allure, independence and compassion.
Like most love stories this one too has a villain, class conflict being the one here. Clifford has no trouble in having an heir for his estate through one of the frivolous love affairs of Connie, presumably with a noble man. But cannot deal with the idea of Connie wanting to have a child and stay with a man of the working classes. This to him it is an ultimate defeat to the serving class, a thoughtless mass of animals fated to be ruled by industrialists like him.
For me one of the most fascinating passages in the book is where Mellors carries Clifford in his wheelchair and Connie views the two choices she has in contrast with each other. Clifford fazed by his dependence on one of Mellors’ kind, brings out his brutish best while Mellors is patiently struggling to help Clifford out of humanity and not servitude. This act for me is the essence of the story, where love, hatred, tension and bondage all come into play.
Mellors also, to my mind is finally committed to Connie only after his long separated wife comes into the picture, the tawdry and loud Bertha Coutts. Both Bertha and Clifford oppose the union of Mellors and Connie not so much for the pain that it brings them, but because they cannot fathom the happiness that this alliance brings the two protagonists. The book ends with Mellors and Connie embarking a journey towards each other and away from their past. As I wistfully finish the book I know it is about how life is complete only when you have someone you love to come back home to.
As for my Aha moment, it came pretty early in the book when Connie wondered “What was the good of discontented people who fitted in nowhere?”.
Lady Chatterley’s Lover is a must read and I think its enough to say that it felt like I had read a “real” book after a long long time.
Author: D.H. Lawrence
Friday, January 15, 2010
The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole
As I struggle to keep to my self declared and in all probability only self followed and self tracked challenge of 52 books in 52 weeks (yikes I am already lagging behind!), I decided to cruise through an immensely enjoyable book “The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole” (hence referred to as TGPAM) even as I was reading (and let me add enjoying) “Lady Chatterley’s Lover. I knew TGPAM would arm with enough material and inspiration to write a quick, short and hopefully funny review of the accurate, poignant and humorous account of Adrian Mole’s teenage existential angst.
I had read the first book of the Adrian Mole series and had instantly fallen in love with the protagonist Adrian Mole the serious, earnest and inadvertently hilarious British Teenager, who like teenagers all over the world is struggling to understand and “fit in” to this world that dysfunctional adults seem to be handing over to him.
I was looking for a breezy but not mindless, funny but not silly book and “The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole” did not disappoint me.
The book is a compilation of Adrian’s Mole diary as he painstakingly writes about the trivial and not so trivial incidents that seem to plague him in his 15th year. Action does not seem to be missing in his life and one cannot help but laugh out loud (no literally I did laugh out loud) as Adrian writes about the significant and scandalous changes in his household and parent’s marital relationship. What endears him is the fact that Adrian Mole writes from the vantage point of being a self occupied teenage, with dysfunctional parents being in charge he is mostly struggling to keep himself above board without pondering too much about the morality, righteousness or sometimes sheer injustice of his circumstances.
Adrian Mole displays true teenage schizophrenia as he plays the following roles extremely effectively:
(Frustrated) Intellectual: Adrian is disdainful of his fellow high schoolers who seem to not know or care too much about the Falkland War or Jack Kerouac. He writes poems (of course they don’t rhyme) and unfazed by rejection keeps sending them over to the BBC in hopes of a creating a program dedicated to his poems. He loves using words like “nihilistic” and pines for the day he becomes a famous author.
(Fatherly)Son: Adrian is undoubtedly the most responsible of all the Moles, he isn’t upto too many untowardly shenanigans and very valiantly takes care of his pregnant mother and baby sister while his father is forced to abandon the family. Even in the best of times his parents don’t seem to help his flailing self confidence, at the slightest provocation go to great lengths describing what they imagine their perfect son to be (believe me he is nothing like Adrian), don’t seem to notice his impending nervous breakdown and much to his chagrin don’t get hysterical when he runs away!
(Enthusiastic) Care Giver: Unlike selfish teenagers Adrian really cares about the nonagenarians Bert and Queenie and does his best to lend a helping hand, strike thoughtful conversations and take their smelly vicious dog Sabre out for walks, however in typical Mole style also finds it “funny to think that old, smelly, unattractive people can be sentimental”.
(Doting) Brother: Adrian Mole is completely adorable as the 15 year old brother who dreads his sister’s arrival but totally and nonchalantly falls in love with Rosie (who he claims has a “split personality; calm one minute screaming like a maniac the other”) so much so that the love of his life Pandora tells him that his “sister’s feeding pattern isn’t of great interest to her”.
(Unrequited) Lover: Pandora is the love of Mole’s life, the perfect combination of beauty and brains (strangely for a clever she can’t spell his name right even after a year of being together). Adrian’s raging teenage hormones come in the way of their relationship and his psychiatrist classifies Pandora as “insoluble problems”
(Surprised) Consistently Mediocre: He struggles and studies conscientiously and is sure that there is a mistake when yet again he is only somewhere in the middle of his class.
Poverty Stricken Teenager: Due to the marital and moral upheavals the Mole household finds itself in, there is a perpetual money crisis compounded by the inefficiencies of the Welfare Department. Adrian’s mom, Pauline in her inimitable style stages an abandoning and gets the government to work for her. Adrian watches and writes with bated breath about how he needs money desperately, notably to pay two month’s library fines.
Renegade Gangster: Adrian is charmed by the ignorant bliss that Barry Kent and his gang members seem to be living in, takes a fancy to being a part of the “gang” presumably been driven to it by his “existential nihilism” however soon bores out of it but isn’t sure he can get away from the gang alive.
(Eager to return) Runaway: In a last desperate bid to grab his parents attention (who are busy watching Rosie develop manual dexterity) Adrian plans to run away. Meticulously makes a list of all things he might need on his escapade, escapes and then leads the police to discover him.
What makes Adrian Mole and his Growing Pains a delightful read is the fact that Adrian is not emotionally constipated, deals with his not so ordinary circumstances with a wry English wit, writes about details that only interest and affect him, is wisely naive and while trying too hard to be an intellectual is thrilled by the number of Valentine cards he gets. The reader is forced to “guffaw” (out loud may I add) at his brilliant one liners and come backs. My AHA (or rather HA HA HA ) moment in this book was not just one but all of his liners (and the book has many).
The book is not just a casual read, not a mindless “chick lit” dealing in fantastical fantasies. This book is real and is rife with political and social innuendos. Adrian Mole and his escapades are highly highly recommended for this is Calvin and Hobbes, The Family Guy and Wonder Years all rolled into one sweet 200 hundred page 300 odd entries book.
I had read the first book of the Adrian Mole series and had instantly fallen in love with the protagonist Adrian Mole the serious, earnest and inadvertently hilarious British Teenager, who like teenagers all over the world is struggling to understand and “fit in” to this world that dysfunctional adults seem to be handing over to him.
I was looking for a breezy but not mindless, funny but not silly book and “The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole” did not disappoint me.
The book is a compilation of Adrian’s Mole diary as he painstakingly writes about the trivial and not so trivial incidents that seem to plague him in his 15th year. Action does not seem to be missing in his life and one cannot help but laugh out loud (no literally I did laugh out loud) as Adrian writes about the significant and scandalous changes in his household and parent’s marital relationship. What endears him is the fact that Adrian Mole writes from the vantage point of being a self occupied teenage, with dysfunctional parents being in charge he is mostly struggling to keep himself above board without pondering too much about the morality, righteousness or sometimes sheer injustice of his circumstances.
Adrian Mole displays true teenage schizophrenia as he plays the following roles extremely effectively:
(Frustrated) Intellectual: Adrian is disdainful of his fellow high schoolers who seem to not know or care too much about the Falkland War or Jack Kerouac. He writes poems (of course they don’t rhyme) and unfazed by rejection keeps sending them over to the BBC in hopes of a creating a program dedicated to his poems. He loves using words like “nihilistic” and pines for the day he becomes a famous author.
(Fatherly)Son: Adrian is undoubtedly the most responsible of all the Moles, he isn’t upto too many untowardly shenanigans and very valiantly takes care of his pregnant mother and baby sister while his father is forced to abandon the family. Even in the best of times his parents don’t seem to help his flailing self confidence, at the slightest provocation go to great lengths describing what they imagine their perfect son to be (believe me he is nothing like Adrian), don’t seem to notice his impending nervous breakdown and much to his chagrin don’t get hysterical when he runs away!
(Enthusiastic) Care Giver: Unlike selfish teenagers Adrian really cares about the nonagenarians Bert and Queenie and does his best to lend a helping hand, strike thoughtful conversations and take their smelly vicious dog Sabre out for walks, however in typical Mole style also finds it “funny to think that old, smelly, unattractive people can be sentimental”.
(Doting) Brother: Adrian Mole is completely adorable as the 15 year old brother who dreads his sister’s arrival but totally and nonchalantly falls in love with Rosie (who he claims has a “split personality; calm one minute screaming like a maniac the other”) so much so that the love of his life Pandora tells him that his “sister’s feeding pattern isn’t of great interest to her”.
(Unrequited) Lover: Pandora is the love of Mole’s life, the perfect combination of beauty and brains (strangely for a clever she can’t spell his name right even after a year of being together). Adrian’s raging teenage hormones come in the way of their relationship and his psychiatrist classifies Pandora as “insoluble problems”
(Surprised) Consistently Mediocre: He struggles and studies conscientiously and is sure that there is a mistake when yet again he is only somewhere in the middle of his class.
Poverty Stricken Teenager: Due to the marital and moral upheavals the Mole household finds itself in, there is a perpetual money crisis compounded by the inefficiencies of the Welfare Department. Adrian’s mom, Pauline in her inimitable style stages an abandoning and gets the government to work for her. Adrian watches and writes with bated breath about how he needs money desperately, notably to pay two month’s library fines.
Renegade Gangster: Adrian is charmed by the ignorant bliss that Barry Kent and his gang members seem to be living in, takes a fancy to being a part of the “gang” presumably been driven to it by his “existential nihilism” however soon bores out of it but isn’t sure he can get away from the gang alive.
(Eager to return) Runaway: In a last desperate bid to grab his parents attention (who are busy watching Rosie develop manual dexterity) Adrian plans to run away. Meticulously makes a list of all things he might need on his escapade, escapes and then leads the police to discover him.
What makes Adrian Mole and his Growing Pains a delightful read is the fact that Adrian is not emotionally constipated, deals with his not so ordinary circumstances with a wry English wit, writes about details that only interest and affect him, is wisely naive and while trying too hard to be an intellectual is thrilled by the number of Valentine cards he gets. The reader is forced to “guffaw” (out loud may I add) at his brilliant one liners and come backs. My AHA (or rather HA HA HA ) moment in this book was not just one but all of his liners (and the book has many).
The book is not just a casual read, not a mindless “chick lit” dealing in fantastical fantasies. This book is real and is rife with political and social innuendos. Adrian Mole and his escapades are highly highly recommended for this is Calvin and Hobbes, The Family Guy and Wonder Years all rolled into one sweet 200 hundred page 300 odd entries book.
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