India (setting)
Showing posts with label India (setting). Show all posts

I need some curry. Right now. {My Mother's Kitchen by Meera Ekkanath Klein}


Food memories are a powerful thing. 

 About My Mother's Kitchen: A novel with recipes by Meera Ekkanath Klein: An enchanting place filled with promise, change and good food. If the weathered walls of this magical room could talk they would tell the story of Meena and her childhood life. Each chapter is a slice in her young life and depicts her spunk and youthful spirit. A visit to the local Fruit and Flower Show becomes an adventure as told by Meena. Her distress at finding out about her aunt's dark secret or her joy of making a new friend are all told in her naive, yet pure voice. Her mother is a central character in her life and it is no wonder that the kitchen is a special place of healing and rejuvenation, not only for Meena but for other characters like Kashi and Ayah. 

My two cents

I'm sure you have food memories: a specific dish whose mere aroma triggers memories of your childhood; a special food that reminds you of someone or an event in your life. This book is a homage to the food memory and the key source of them for the author, Meera Ekkanath Klein's mother.

In beautifully descriptive prose, you'll hear, smell, and almost taste the foods that are associated with different times of young Meena's rather ordinary life in India - if life in India could ever be considered "ordinary" by someone who hails from a less-exotic locale!

Food plays into many incidents and events in Meena's life. As I was introduced to our young, spunky heroine, I quickly came to the conclusion that her life is peopled with many loving family members and community members. This novel in life vignettes takes us into many private family moments, including sitting in the warm kitchen, finding out that she is about to become a sister and making preparations, learning the backstory of her much-esteemed mother, special Indian festivals and customs and traditions, among many others. It is a peek into a culture that is lesser known to me and for that very reason, I found this fascinating and a lovely vicarious learning experience.

Now, the food part was a huge draw for me. Throughout the book, there are recipes of so many Indian delights - which have been tested by our author and are her mother's recipes! There is some reference to them in the novel-vignettes and oftentimes their preparation (along with their mouthwatering descriptions of the tastes and smells!) are provided in such detail that you can almost taste them!

I kept reminding myself that this book is a novel and hence non-fiction. But the food descriptions, the recipes, and knowing that the author drew so much from her own childhood and memories of her mother and her mother's kitchen in India, make this oh-so-real to me. I had a constant desire to eat Indian food throughout its reading and even writing this review makes me want to eat some curry. Right now.

Verdict 

Beautifully descriptive, heartwarming, and family-oriented, while bringing the sights, sounds and smells of India, this novel highlights the forging of food memories ... with Indian recipes to try in our own kitchens to boot! Highly recommended.

Links:


I received a copy of this book from the author for honest review consideration.

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy #Diversiverse


Convoluted, atmospheric, tragic.

 About The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy: The year is 1969. In the state of Kerala, on the southernmost tip of India, fraternal twins Esthappen and Rahel fashion a childhood for themselves in the shade of the wreck that is their family. Their lonely, lovely mother, Ammu (who loves by night the man her children love by day), fled an abusive marriage to live with their blind grandmother, Mammachi (who plays Handel on her violin), their beloved uncle Chacko (Rhodes scholar, pickle baron, radical Marxist, bottom-pincher), and their enemy, Baby Kochamma (ex-nun and incumbent grandaunt).

When Chacko's English ex-wife brings their daughter for a Christmas visit, the twins learn that Things Can Change in a Day. That lives can twist into new, ugly shapes, even cease forever, beside their river ...


My two cents

So here we are! It's Diversiverse once again and I admit to using this event to give me an extra push to review books that deserve to be read and reread by many others. This is one such book; it is set in 1960s India and drives home the point of the pervasiveness of the caste system to contemporary times.

What I liked:

Universal themes. The crux of this book: its themes of struggle, love, and how the truth eventually comes to light. Set in modern-day India, throw in a touch of the immigrant persona and a tragedy of immense proportions that stems from the seemingly innocuous.

This is such an unusual book for so many reasons that I didn't quite know what to do with it. It gave me a major headache the first read through, especially for about half of the book. I was constantly bewildered by the plot which shifted from present to past, was alternately mesmerized-then-annoyed by the verbosity, weirded out by the twin "thing" going on, and felt it was generally was just all over the place. Maybe it was because I was also reading this in bits and pieces that each time I'd pick up the book I had a hard time recalling what was happening. But by the second half, I was finally starting to appreciate the themes explored and I knew I had to wipe the slate clean and reread with the intent of finally reviewing it.

It's a love story. It's about fraternal twins sharing a very special bond. It's about family. It's about the struggle to go beyond what life deals us. It's about grief and heartbreak. This is a story where the plot only comes together after reading the entire thing. For me it took reading the entire thing twice to realize its simplicity in its tragedy.

(I speak in rather cryptic terms for a reason. I can't bear for anyone to expect what will happen when they start reading this.)

A taste of India, both traditional and modern. It's always fascinating to learn about other cultures and this gives readers a taste of exotic India with a heavy dose of reality. Depicted is the poverty, the desire for many to better their lives by getting an education elsewhere, and the sobering fact that the caste system remains entrenched in society.

Memorable characters. Oh Baby Kochamma! Oh Baby, you are an amazing in-your-face character and this book needs you! And you, dear reader, need to make her acquaintance!

Poetic lines. There are certain times when the Roy's words take on a magically poetic quality. I felt like her words had a rhythm that lulls, woos, and even breaks your heart. Consider:
Perhaps it's true that things can change in a day. That a few dozen hours can affect the outcome of whole lifetimes. And that when they do, those few dozen hours, like the salvaged remains of a burned house---the charred clock, the singed photograph, the scorched furniture---must be resurrected from the ruins and examined. Preserved. Accounted for. Little events, ordinary things, smashed and reconstitutred. Imbued with new meaning. Suddenly they become the bleached bones of a story.

I disliked:

What just happened? I already mentioned that the plot was confusing and felt convoluted when I first started. But it all became crystal clear as this non-linear narrative came to its tragic conclusion. If you're struggling with the first part, have patience, keep at it and clarity shall come.

Verdict: A devastating family secret is finally revealed in this tragic tale of struggle, love and grief set in India. A non-linear and poetic quality of a narrative, this award-winning novel has the power to intimidate you ... or entrance you. I hope it's the latter.

Book Depository

This was my read for 2015 Diversiverse!

An Incurable Insanity by Simi K. Rao (+ Giveaway!)



Incurably melodramatic.

About An Incurable Insanity by Simi K. Rao: Her heart fluttered when she heard the sound of the key turn in the lock. She quickly adjusted her maroon silk sari with the yellow border, the one that had caught his eye, and waited eagerly for his footsteps.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven… Yes, exactly seven steps before he stopped, hesitated for a few moments, then removed his shoes one by one and arranged them neatly side by side on the shoe rack.

She smiled. He had been mindful of taking his shoes off every day now. “I am not used to it, but I will if you want me to. It’s probably a good thing to do anyway.”

As he settled down, he would pick up the TV remote and, without looking at her, would say in his smooth baritone, “So how did you spend your day, anything interesting?”

Shaan Ahuja found himself bowing to tradition and agreeing to an arranged marriage to the beautiful Ruhi Sharma. He went through the motions but had no intention of carrying through on his vows. His last foray into matters of the heart with an American girl had left him scarred and unwilling to try again. Thoroughly disillusioned and disgruntled he wasted no time in making his intentions clear to Ruhi on their wedding night. But, he was completely unprepared for what his new wife had in mind.

My two cents

Ahh, love. What a crazy thing and what things it makes us do. Across cultures, love is a constant. But what if two strangers are thrown together in marriage? Is love possible in an arranged marriage? Is it possible to learn to love someone within its bounds while honouring tradition?

An Incurable Insanity touches on these questions, showing the journey of a young couple brought together by the Indian tradition of arranged marriage. The beautiful and much-loved Ruhi agrees to marry her father's friend's son, US-educated Shaan, secretly excited at marrying such a handsome and accomplished man. Her hopes are dashed when Shaan reveals that he is in love with another.

Once in the US, they live a farce of a married life. But as they get to know each other they find themselves drawn to each other and only after a protracted love-hate courtship do they decide if they are truly meant to be together.

I liked: 

I was intrigued by the premise of this book as I really wanted to find out how an arranged marriage could play out. I looked forward to how this would explore cultural differences of the concept of love. Is having the independence, the choice to love someone a heavily Western concept? Is there merit in the longstanding tradition of arranged marriage in certain cultures? What happens when an arranged marriage enters into yet another culture, as is this case for this Indian couple that immigrates to America?

The beginning also held promise and I was initially amused by the emotional push and pull, the frustration of being thrown into circumstances unwanted by both. I found Ruhi sweet and rather endearing, and Shaan's obliviousness just plain odd.

A third into the book, I wanted to stop. But for the obvious reason that I always give books the benefit of the doubt, and I dislike reviewing books I did not finish, I kept going.

Uh-ohs:

I mentioned that I enjoyed the beginning but about a third into the book that I felt things weren't really progressing. Why?

The two main characters say one thing but want the exact opposite. We get to see their thoughts in italics, and how conflicted and frustrated they both are. Ruhi secretly loves Shaan already but pretends to hate him. Shaan is getting attracted to Ruhi but pretends to not care. It's a yes in italics but a no in action. Then those italics run one after the other and I am secretly seething at having to keeping tabs of who said what.

The love-hate, push-pull, yes-no, hot-cold theme was wearing thin; it was no longer amusing, it was getting tiring, annoying, exasperating. The romance felt juvenile, like two teenagers bickering. How I wished these two would just be able to read each others' thoughts (like me, the reader) instead of stubbornly refusing to talk to each other openly ... just because ... well, I have no idea why.

I felt the dialogues were corny and overly melodramatic. Corny: calling each other these silly nicknames (if you're a 50 Shades of Grey fan, it will probably make you smile). Melodramatic: descriptions and emotions to the extreme, hot or cold, black or white.

The main characters never really clicked with me and felt contrived. For example, Ruhi started out naive and sweet. Then she started swearing and it seemed that she morphed into different character altogether ... where did that come from? The other woman, Des, was a caricature of "the other woman": flat, predictable and no backstory or insight into why her viciousness with Ruhi.

This story and its characters drove me slightly crazy, and not in a good way.

Verdict: If you love over-the-top and melodramatic romances, you may enjoy this one. If you're interested in a different cultural milieu for your romance, the melding of Indian and American cultures in this romance may hold your interest.

I personally found that while the premise of a storyline based on an arranged marriage held promise, the romance was frustrating and tedious to read about.

About Simi K. Rao

Simi K. Rao was born in India and has been living in the United States for several years. This book is her first foray into writing. The inspiration for the story came from what she has seen transpire among and within the immigrant community. Some of the experiences included are her own; some have been garnered from friends and casual conversations with acquaintances. She also writes poetry, is an avid photographer, loves to travel, and is a practicing physician. She currently lives in Denver with her family.

To learn more about the author and her work and read excerpts from An Incurable Insanity, please check her blog www.simikrao.com.

Check out the rest of the tour!
I received a copy of this book from the publisher via TLC Book Tours in exchange for an honest review.

Giveaway!
Thanks to the publisher I have 1 copy of An Incurable Insanity up for grabs!
(Choice of either hardcover or Kindle copy - US only,
or Kindle copy - International) 

Book Depository
Print Length: 376 pages
Publisher: Tate Publishing (October 8, 2013)

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga


Poverty, ambition, amorality: what a murderous combination. 

Synopsis of The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga: The white tiger of this novel is Balram Halwai, a poor Indian villager whose great ambition leads him to the zenith of Indian business culture, the world of the Bangalore entrepreneur. On the occasion of the president of China’s impending trip to Bangalore, Balram writes a letter to him describing his transformation and his experience as driver and servant to a wealthy Indian family, which he thinks exemplifies the contradictions and complications of Indian society.  

My two cents 

What's a poor man got to do to move up in this world? Hard work, the ability to work the system, and murder, apparently. Even the mere hope for a better life can be a tremendous driving force to commit the most repulsive of acts.

Balram Halwai introduces himself as "The White Tiger, a Thinking Man and an Entrepreneur." This book -- a letter written to the president of China -- is his autobiography written from the light of a chandelier in his 150-square-foot office. He has no qualms about announcing that he is a murderer. With a beginning like that, yes, I was hooked!

Flashback to Balram's childhood when he still carried the generic name Munna (which simply means "boy") and renamed by his schoolteacher out of convenience of having a "real name." Hailing from an poor yet tightknit family, his rickshaw-pulling father has grand plans for Balram to escape their living hell.

But how does one defy the life and destiny of sweetmaking and tea dictated to him by his Halwai caste? How does one outsmart those big powerful landowners with their oppressive rules and demands?

It is Balram's ambition, his matter-of-fact amorality, and his plain hard work that propels, maneuvers him into the entrepreneur caste, the caste of his choice. He becomes the chauffeur of American-educated son of the huge landowner of his community. With the grotesque side of impoverished India as the backdrop, Balram recounts his heartbreaking relationship with a master who is as lost as he is in the changing India, the incidents that lead to murder, and how he comes to be a successful small business owner.

***

I was conflicted by Balram's character: I alternated between pity and compassion; how can I feel for him yet be repulsed by at the same time?

I felt for him and his family. I felt for him wanting a better life ... yet run up against so many obstacles: poverty, the injustices foisted on them by the powerful and moneyed, and the corrupt systems.

Balram seemed to always be in desperate circumstances, painted into a corner with seemingly no options. But did he really have no choice?

*A spoiler follows because I can't not say something about this!*


 One particularly powerful metaphor that I loved was that of man and life as is the rooster to its coop, in this case "The Great Indian Rooster Coop":
"Hundreds of pale hens and brightly coloured roosters, stuffed tightly into wire mesh cages, packed as tightly as worms in a belly, pecking each other and shitting each other, jostling just for breathing space; the whole cage giving off a horrible stench - the stench of terrified, feathered flesh. On the wooden desk above the coop sits a grinning young butcher, showing off the flesh and organs of a recently chopped chicken, still oleaginous with a coating of dark red blood. The roosters in the coop smell the blood from above. They see the organs of their brothers lying around them. They know they're next. Yet they do not rebel. They do not try to get out of the coop."

What a sly, sly writer Adiga is: graphic and disturbing, this could very well be a commentary for many poor countries where the rotten and corrupt systems condone and breed rotten and corrupt citizens wanting to play the system ... lest the system eats them alive.

As conflicted as I am about Balram, I am moreso conflicted with our society has done to shaped its people, or how do we shape our society?

Verdict

Forget the Incredible India commercials; The White Tiger exposes the dark side of an impoverished India where the small are eaten up by the big, moneyed and powerful ... if they let them. A provokingly realistic read which I highly recommend!




Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert


Serious summary of Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert: At the age of thirty-one, Gilbert moved with her husband to the suburbs of New York and began trying to get pregnant, only to realize that she wanted neither a child nor a husband. Three years later, after a protracted divorce, she embarked on a yearlong trip of recovery, with three main stops: Rome, for pleasure (mostly gustatory, with a special emphasis on gelato); an ashram outside of Mumbai, for spiritual searching; and Bali, for “balancing.” These destinations are all on the beaten track, but Gilbert’s exuberance and her self-deprecating humor enliven the proceedings: recalling the first time she attempted to speak directly to God, she says, “It was all I could do to stop myself from saying, ‘I’ve always been a big fan of your work.’” 

My two cents

I decided to read this because: I’ve heard the hype and I’m not one to be turned off by it; in fact I could be missing out!

First line: I wish Giovanni would kiss me.

The book in one sentence: All expense paid travel – to unabashed pig-outs in Italy, prayer in India, and balance in Bali, Indonesia – does wonders for a young divorcee’s search for spirituality.

Who would you recommend it to: This verges on chick lit so I wouldn’t recommend this for a man. At all.

I liked:

Gilbert’s writing style – she’s very easy to read, she’s funny. But maybe this is this book’s only saving grace. Oh, and I loved the cover of pasta, beads and flower petals forming the words “eat pray love!”

I didn’t like:

The feeling that Gilbert wasn’t telling all, that she was taking her readers on a ride by giving a sanitized version … or maybe because her insights were shallow and not as earthshaking as they really were? Overall I had a feeling that the whole spiritual journey was contrived and put together for the sole purpose of selling the book. Do you go on a journey self-discovery by planning to go to three countries, with the eat-pray-love concept so wonderfully, magically fitting together? Methinks not.

Ok, she’s also quite funny. Hyper in fact. But it can get tiresome quick. Trying to be witty chapter after chapter will definitely get old sooner or later. I had a sense that she was trying too hard to encapsulate her learnings which sounded sorely of bumper sticker slogans.

I wanted to shake my head at some of the crazy things in this book. She realizes that she doesn’t need to travel to learn what she does (but since her publishers’ footing the bill, heck why not?), she very nearly gets scammed by the medicine woman she “loves” (and yet she somehow comes to terms with it). I also hate the fact that she, like many Westerners tend to romanticize all things Eastern or anything remotely foreign – the whole section in India seemed to trivialize religion and spirituality (read the random quote below – someone please explain to me what she meant).

Random quote:
So now I have found out. And I don’t want to say that what I’ve experienced that Thursday afternoon in India was indescribable, even though it was. Simply put, I got pulled through the wormhole of the absolute, and in that rush I understood the workings of the universe completely. I left my body, I left the room, I left the planet, I stepped through time and I entered the void. I was inside the void, but I also was the void and I was looking at the void, all at the same time. The void was a place of limitless peace and wisdom. The void was conscious and it was intelligent. The void was God, which means that I was inside God. But not in the gross, physical way – not like I was Liz Gilbert stuck inside a chunk of God’s thigh muscle. I was just part of God. In addition to being God.
I wish I had never caught that interview on evening where Oprah was interviewing Elizabeth Gilbert. Apparently Oprah was so enamored by the book that she devoted two entire shows to it! I was actually enjoying reading the Italian leg when I had to watch that fated show. Do you know those times when Oprah ingeniously is able to get the whole room clapping as to how great she is for overcoming the odds? (I just can’t help rolling my eyes at how self-absorbed she can sometimes). Well, Gilbert is of the same mold – she was spouting her witticisms, nodding her head to Oprah’s “I love this part” then reading whole sections. What Gilbert said on the show was exactly the same as what’s written in the book, more or less verbatim. I guess I was looking for the “inside story” but she never said anything not already in the book.

Don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed her descriptions of traveling and how honest she is that she is not living the life she wants. But really, I had to shake my head and sigh at how a spiritual journey can leave such a sour taste in the mouth. Needless to say, I was not inspired.


Verdict: Hey, to each her own. I have a love-hate relationship with this book. It has its moments. Worth giving a try. But I think this is the last Gilbert book I’ll read! 

Other reviews:

The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai


Serious summary of The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai: This stunning second novel from Desai (Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard) is set in mid-1980s India, on the cusp of the Nepalese movement for an independent state. Jemubhai Popatlal, a retired Cambridge-educated judge, lives in Kalimpong, at the foot of the Himalayas, with his orphaned granddaughter, Sai, and his cook. The makeshift family's neighbors include a coterie of Anglophiles who might be savvy readers of V.S. Naipaul but who are, perhaps, less aware of how fragile their own social standing is—at least until a surge of unrest disturbs the region. Jemubhai, with his hunting rifles and English biscuits, becomes an obvious target. Besides threatening their very lives, the revolution also stymies the fledgling romance between 16-year-old Sai and her Nepalese tutor, Gyan. The cook's son, Biju, meanwhile, lives miserably as an illegal alien in New York. All of these characters struggle with their cultural identity and the forces of modernization while trying to maintain their emotional connection to one another. In this alternately comical and contemplative novel, Desai deftly shuttles between first and third worlds, illuminating the pain of exile, the ambiguities of post-colonialism and the blinding desire for a "better life," when one person's wealth means another's poverty. {Via}


My two cents

OK bits: I love Desai's writing. She has a comfortable way of describing the most mundane while capturing her character's moods. For example, when Biju finally gets his American visa:
"Raw sewage was being used to water a patch of grass that was lush and stinking, grinning brilliantly in the dusk."
It's been a while since I've read a novel which hits home, as the Indian experience is so very much like the Philippine one (a long history of colonial rule, every family is bound to have one immigrant, persistence of colonial mentality). While there is always a drive to seek a better life, immigrant life is not easy. Desai captures so many issues in her book - the phenomenon of globalization, economic inequality, of power (and lack thereof), multiculturalism, colonialism, prejudice and racism, and the whole struggle for self-identity and the issue of nationalism when being part of both Western and Eastern cultures.

However, while these bigger themes are running thoughout the storyline, she still manages to retain her readers' emotional empathy to each character. For example, I liked the love story of Sai and Gyan as well as the struggles of Biju. People have coped in different ways to the changing world and how Desai explores this is fascinating. Desai gives immigrants a voice.

As a sidebar, the description of the sacrifices made and the visa issue system is highly accurate based on what I have heard from other immigrants.

Boring bits: I didn't find anything boring in this one. The multiple stories kept me going as I had to find out what happened to each character.

Just don't read this if you're feeling down, as reading misfortune after misfortune can get a bit depressing. It may come across as bitter, bleak, cynical - I say it's honest.

Verdict: Powerful. A very worthwhile read.
***

First line: All day, the colors had been those of dusk, mist moving like a water creature across the great flanks of mountains possessed of ocean shadows.

The book in one sentence: The stories of heartache of Indian immigrants (to New York and England) and of the families and communities they have left behind.

Who would you recommend it to: Readers who are not reading for escape, but are ready to face the very sad reality of injustice in this world.

Factoids: Desai, at 35, is the youngest female winner of the Man Booker Prize which she won in 2006. It took her eight years to write The Inheritance of Loss. She is the daughter of novelist Anita Desai who was nominated for the Booker Prize three times but never won.

Desai has retained her citizenship of India and is a Permanent Resident of the United States.

Random quotes:

Love must surely reside in the gap between desire and fulfillment, in the lack, not the contentment. Love is the ache, the anticipation the retreat, everything around it but the emotion itself.

... he forgot how to laugh, could barely manage to lift his lips in a smile, and if he ever did, he held his hand over his mouth, because he couldn't bear anyone to see his gums, his teeth.They seemed too private. In fact, he could barely let any of himself peep out of his clothes for fear of giving offence. He began to wash obsessively, concerned he would be accused of smelling. To the end of his life, he would prefer shadow to light, faded days to sunny, for he was suspicious that sunlight might reveal him, in his hideousness, all too clearly.

Interesting links:

Keeping Corner by Kashmira Sheth

Liberation from tradition 

Synopsis of Keeping Corner by Kashmira Sheth: Pretty as a peacock, twelve-year-old Leela had been spoiled all her life. She doesn't care for school and barely marks the growing unrest between the British colonists and her own countrymen. Why should she? Her future has been planned since her engagement at two and marriage at nine.

Leela's whole life changes, though, when her husband dies. She's now expected to behave like a proper widow: shaving her head and trading her jewel-toned saris for rough, earth-colored ones. Leela is considered unlucky now, and will have to stay confined to her house for a year—keep corner—in preparation for a life of mourning for a boy she barely knew. When her schoolteacher hears of her fate, she offers Leela lessons at home. For the first time, despite her confinement, Leela opens her eyes to the changing world around her. India is suffering from a severe drought, and farmers are unable to pay taxes to the British. She learns about a new leader of the people, a man named Gandhi, who starts a political movement and practices satyagraha—non-violent protest against the colonists as well as the caste system. The quiet strength of satyagraha may liberate her country. Could she use the same path to liberate herself?

My take

Tradition is good. But it can change the course of lives. Set in the time of Gandhi, the parallel story of Leela who is widowed at age 12, underscores that tradition needs to be challenged for life to continue -- not in misery but with hope for a better future.

"Keeping corner" shows the Indian tradition that when a husband dies, the wife must be confined in the house for year. For a lifetime, she must live as an outcast as a "raand" or widow. Life cannot go on for a widow.

Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie


Back blurb of Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie: Born at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, at the precise moment of India's independence, the infant Saleem Sinai is celebrated in the press and welcomed by Prime Minister Nehru himself. But this coincidence of birth has consequences Saleem is not prepared for: telepathic powers that connect him with 1,000 other 'midnight's children' - all born in the initial hour of India's independence - and an uncanny sense of smell that allows him to sniff out dangers others cannot perceive. Inextricably linked to his nation, Saleem's biography is a whirlwind of disasters and triumphs that mirrors the course of modern India at its most impossible and glorious.

My take

29 May 2007: Making headway! Already into Book 2 and Saleem Sinai is alive ... and his nose is growing. I've gotten through all the geneaological and historical information of Book 1, which was a little tiresome but very necessary to the story (as far as I can see). Wish me luck!

13 May 2007: I must admit that I thought I would breeze through this book, but I keep forgetting the characters' names (all these Indian names are confusing!), and I feel that the author deviates from a main storyline. But I am swimming through these and making headway, and have gotten to a point that I cannot not continue reading. The main character has been born!

Half fiction and non-fiction (or some would believe otherwise), a prophecy of the life of our lead character, Saleem Sinai, sums up how his life is inevitably entwined with the turbulent history of India.

"There will be two heads but you will see only one - there will be knees andnose - a nose and knees. ... Newspaper praises him, two mothers raise him! Bicyclists love him - but crowds will shove him! Sisters will weep, cobra will creep ...

Spittoons will brain him - doctors will drain him - jungle will claim him - wizards reclaim him! Soldiers will try him - tyrants will fry him ...

He will have sons without having sons. He will be old before he is old! And he will die ... before he is dead!"

***

Saleem narrates the events of his own life to his lover Padma, a first person account of his own life. While the title would lead us to believe that it is about the super powers of this elite group of midnight's children, the book bespeaks of a generation struggling to shape the world into a better place and at the same time, they becoming a product of the very environment they aim to change.

I'd been complaining about how it took me a while to get into it. In fact it took me two months to finish it (I carried it everywhere to force me to read in short bursts). For someone who can finish reading a novel in 3 days, this is excuciatingly long.In hindsight, I better appreciate the book knowing it is divided into three parts.

The first part is entirely dedicated to tracing the geneology of Saleem Sinai's family set in India's colonial past. The second part delves into the birth, childhood and early adulthood. The third paints Saleem as old (at 30+ years), after having lived a full yet difficult life.

The first part is very detailed and at times I lost interest, but it lays the groundwork for the entire book, hence a boring-ish necessity. At one point I was wondering when Saleem would be born ... I was a third into the book!

But throughout, you can't help but enjoy the vibrancy and trivialities of Indian life (magicians and seers and Indian customs) and the soap-opera-ish lives of the people (lovers allowed only to see each other through a sheet with a hole in the middle, or a husband being hidden in the cellar, infidelities, and their sex lives).

I also kept wondering about the midnight's children. There are fascinating depictions of their powers and how they might make a difference in a difficult world. But Saleem and his kind, particularly his "twin" midnight brother and nemesis play a prominent role in India's history and the plot, from start to finish.

I started the book skeptical that I would enjoy it. But after the initial difficulty, I enjoyed the writing style - engaging, witty and at times irreverent. Be forewarned that there are many Indian names and unfamiliar (to me) Indian terms, that I had a dictionary close by. This is also the first time I've encountered someone who just revels in compound-compound words like fasterfaster, compound-compound-compound sentences - in fact, one sentence that went on and on for a page and a half. But it works.

The arch of the story is flawless. Don't try to skip sections to get to the ending, it is the process of reading this (rather lengthy) biography that is the source of the enjoyment journey. It is a book with both the mundane and the profound, I came away not regretting reading it.

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© guiltless readingMaira Gall