Books of January

It has been ages since I sat down and wrote anything other than grocery lists. Today I mustered enough superhuman force within to overcome an inertia that has been crushing me. I don’t know where Zuckerberg is with his books, but I am glad to say I’ve been chugging along quite well thank you. Let me start at the beginning of January with the Irish.

The Irish can almost never let me down. Colm Toibin’s “Blackwater Lightship” was one of the best books I’ve read in recent times. Three generations of women come together to set aside their differences to care for the much adored male member of the family who is dying from HIV. What amazed me was how well Colm Toibin can write in the voice of women, that too three generations of them! The humanity in the book, makes you overlook the bleak theme and eggs you to keep reading one page after the other. Made me want to read more of Toibin’s works. 

 On the other hand his countryman John Banville nearly bored me to death with “The Sea”. Oh yeah the language was beautiful and poetic and all that, but the pace was just too slow. As I mostly read before bed time I found it so hard to stay awake with this book in hand. Reminded me of a beach in Kerala called Kovalam where the waves are really slow, that it can put you in a lull – very beautiful in a beach, too soporific in a novel.

1Q84 by Murakami, a 1000+ page Odyssey of sorts hands down ranks as one of the weirdest books I’ve read. I know that criticizing Murakami is akin to committing sacrilege to some folks, but c’mmon this book should’ve been half its size! The third part especially when we all know fully well that the hero and the heroine will meet was drawn out like a daytime soap or one of those Indian Megaserials, that my mom watches that never seem to end. I think Murakami got the message, as Colorless Tsukuru had to be one of the shortest books from him and he toned down on the weirdness. In an ode to Proust, one of the characters remarks that “In search of lost time” is the perfect book to read if you are confined to solitary prison, or under house arrest or marooned on a desert island. You can now add 1Q84 to that list as a backup to Proust.

Then came “Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter” by the Noble prize winning Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa. Based on the author’s love affair and marriage as an eighteen year old to his 32 year old divorced Aunt (by marriage) Julia, the book chronicles young Mario’s life as an aspiring writer and radio news editor along with the life of a serial scriptwriter Pedro Camacho. Pedro Camacho is hired to churn out radio serials which he does very successfully and at breathtaking speed at first. The serials are presented to us in an alternate chapters of the book, and as the book progresses we see the serials getting weirder as Pedro suffers a breakdown and spirals downwards to end up in a lunatic asylum. The book is packed with comic capers that can make a sitcom envious. Llosa also takes a dig at classifying art into high and low art – Proust Vs Camacho, artistic movies Vs radio soaps. Overall a great read for OBOC – Peru!

I haven't piled up the books for February yet and haven't picked out my OBOC choice, but I do have "In the heart of the sea" and "Wolf Hall" that I want to do this month. Both are coming to the visual medium soon, and I want to read them before I watch them.

In other book news was thrilled to hear Harper Lee's sequel to "To Kill a Mockingbird" will be published in July. Needless to say I have pre-ordered my copy of "Go Set a Watchman" and will eagerly await the book.