OBOC - Zimabwe and Nepal + a couple more

Work related travel and waiting in the Jury lounge have fringe benefits that aid readers like me to quickly get through their reading pile. So here I go, two more countries done – Zimbabwe and Nepal. Picked “We need new names” by NoViolet Bulawayo for Zimbabwe and “Arresting God in Kathmandu” by Samrat Upadhyay for Nepal.

In “We need new names” NoViolet describes the slow decline of her country under Mugabe leading to emigration of many to neighboring countries and to the West. It traces the life of Darling, a  girl born in post-colonial Zimbabwe, who roams around the shanty town ironically called Paradise with her gang of friends, stealing guavas from rich neighborhoods and shoes from corpses. She is offered an escape to the west as her aunt lives in “Destroyedmichigan”, but she soon realizes despite life being much better than in Paradise, America was not really the Paradise she had imagined.As most immigrants Darling becomes acutely aware of her outsider status despite her efforts to fit in, and has mixed feelings about leaving Zimbabwe. NoViolet describes the feeling of belonging neither here nor there beautifully, and there were a few passages in the book that resonates with any immigrant even if you have not fled your mother country because of war or poverty. Overall a good book, although I had some minor issues with the writing style - seemed to be a bit contrived and focus is more on the style. Still an awesome debut!

"Arresting God in Kathmandu" on the other hand failed to arrest my attention. As the first novel written in English from Nepal, it received rave reviews, and I can see why - the stories are all about juxtaposing the modern with the traditional. I thought after my recent positive experiences with short stories, I will be more inclined to read short stories, but this one did not appeal to me much, and none of the stories stayed with me.

Besides OBOC have been reading a couple of other great books. "The Goldfinch" by Donna Pratt  was a fantastic read, and very hard to put down. At 700+ pages it is not a book for the faint-hearted, but well worth the effort. I was on a 5 hour flight after a really long day, and thought I will start the book and then get some shut eye. Instead i reached home wide eyed and wired up and stayed up for a couple more hours reading the book. My only gripe, the book could've used some editing - the last section in Amsterdam was too dragged out and went on and on like a stream of consciousness narrative (which are always hard for me to read).

Just wrapped up "The Plague of Doves" by Louise Erdrich who is fast becoming one of my favorite contemporary women writers. I finally understand what one means when they describe the writing is lyrical. Absolutely loved the book.

A big let down was "A visit from the goon squad" by Jennifer Egan. I really wanted to like this book. I like puzzles, warped timelines, twists and even enjoyed the chapter written in powerpoint. But I feel the book focused so much on form and style over plot and substance. I don't know why it received the Pulitzer, maybe for the innovative style? To me it is fundamental that fiction should have a plot. Gimmicks are secondary. That's why i loved "The Luminaries" - despite all the gimmicks, hidden tricks, the plot was strong and was a perfect combination of Literary + Genre fiction. "Goon squad" on the other hand was probably written for other writers and not for readers.

I have 4 more to read on my book pile and will write about those when I get done. Have been very busy with children's literature as this is the "Golu" season and i wanted to pick out books for all our young visitors. Keeping my fingers crossed and hoping they would love my selections just as my own young one did.