Snow

“How much can we ever know about love and pain in another’s heart? How much can we hope to understand those who have suffered deeper anguish, greater deprivation and more crushing disappointments than we ourselves have known?” These are some of the questions that haunt the narrator in Orhan Pamuk’s book, Snow.

The story begins as Ka, who has been living in exile in Frankfurt, travels to a Turkish border town called Kars to cover the municipal elections for a newspaper and to write a story about the reason why so many Muslim girls have been committing suicide after a ban forbidding them to wear head-scarves. But his real motive is to court and marry beautiful Ipek, his classmate from school who, he has heard recently separated from her husband.

Once he reaches there, a blizzard shuts off the roads leading up to the town. Cut off from escape by snow, Ka wanders wanders through the city reminiscing about the old days. The snow never quite stops falling and becomes the core of the novel. ‘Snow’ is the title of the collection of poems that start ‘coming’ to Ka after his arrival in Kars. The snow, at times takes the form of a blizzard and at others, represents a gentle white blanket covering the architectural remnants of this decaying city.

While trying to find out more about the suicides of the ‘headscarf girls’ he has fascinating encounters with the women’s families, the editor of the newspaper, the police, stage actors, fundamentalists, extremists, kurdish nationalists and the westernized turkish exiles. During a performance in the National Theatre in Kars, there is a military coup staged by an actor Sunay, in which many pupils from the Islamic religious high school are killed. It sets off a ghastly chain of events: the arrest of religious leaders, the murder of fundamentalists and those against “progress”. All through this, Ka looks for happiness with Ipek, with almost like an obsession.

This book is full of fascinating and detailed characters from Ka himself to Blue, a much celebrated Islamic terrorist, Sunay and his wife who tour small towns staging revolutionary plays, Kadife – Ipek’s headscarf wearing stubborn sister and Serdar Bey, a local newspaper editor, who writes about events even before they have occurred. Maureen Freely’s translation is lucid and fluent throughout the book, capturing the beauty of the snow and the city in a way that is almost breathtaking.

More than anything, Snow is a political novel. It tackles the issues of conflict between Islamic fundamentalism and secular Turkey, poverty, unemployment and suicide. There is no right or wrong side here. The author has tried to take in the views of all – fundamentalists, exiles, ex-communists and the nationalists. It is a fascinating novel that provides a view into varied perspectives and conflicts in the lives of the people in that part of the world. This is a book that reads like a dream.

Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Flies is a story of a group of British boys who have crash landed on an island and must learn how to survive till the time someone comes and rescues them. William Golding does a sensational job of portraying the human nature and psyche of the little boys, their fragile sense of order and how reason and instinct battle with each other within them as they try to survive.

What initially starts out with a simple story line, turns into much more. An island, idyllic setting, innocent schoolboys and no adults to oversee them. A boy with fair hair, Ralph, assumes leadership of the group and starts putting in some semblance into the group, to channelize their efforts in making sure that they survive. At his side is compassionate, intelligent Piggy, who acts as Ralph’s conscience. Ralph’s election is contested by Jack, a headstrong guy who believes in living in the moment and doesn’t think of how they will get rescued.

Everything goes on in a downward spiral. The boys’ initial efforts of establishing a successful, happy group and Ralph’s idea of keeping a fire burning at all times (so someone sees it and rescues them) start going wayward. Jack thinks that hunting is more important than keeping a fire alive and forms another group. Jack’s group is a “tribe” of hunters and savages with painted faces. The enmity between the two groups grows as the savages try to kill the boys from the “civilized” group.

The characters are brilliant and comparisons are drawn between the group of boys and the civilization or the society. A group of boys, playful and scared of the unknowns on the island at the same time, lose their innocence, kill off reason and play at being savages. I liked the way this book takes the banal story of a person trapped on a tropical island and slaps it with terrifying realism. A book you should definitely read.

The Golden Gate

The Golden Gate by Vikram Seth tells the story of some folks in California living their lives and relationships, and of their quest in finding answers to questions.

There’s John, an engineer, successful and lonely. His one time girlfriend, Janet, places a “personals” ad in the newspaper to seek a girlfriend for him and thus he meets Liz, a lawyer. Love at first sight ! They move in together, but bliss doesn’t last for long partly because of their opposing views on social and political issues, and in part because of Liz’s cat Charmalegene.  John’s friend, Phil, after a divorce from his wife, hooks up with Liz’s brother – Ed, but it doesn’t work out because of Ed’s Catholic guilt – “I have to trust my faith’s decisions, / Not batten on my own volitions”. In some twisted turn of events,  Phil and Liz get married and John tries to swallow his pride by frequenting night clubs and the story goes on and ends with a sad and sentimental finish.

But there’s more to this book. It’s a novel written entirely in verses – even the preface and the acknowledgment – cover to cover ! The idea of reading a book that packs several hundred sonnets in 307 pages to tell a story may seem daunting at first but it’s the way the author has used the words to tell the characters and their dilemmas that keeps hold of the attention. There’s wordplay, rhyme and rhythm, wit and charm, allusions peppered throughout. And, then there is an iguana too named Arnold Schwarzenegger. The rhythm, rhyme and the story held my attention and it was both engrossing and endearing.

This is one of my favorite book for so many reasons. And, just so you know –

Number of times I’ve missed my bus to office while reading this book – 2

Number of times I’ve missed my bus to office ever – 4

I’ve read it and re-read it and it keeps getting better.

Right Ho, Jeeves!

This is my first P. G. Wodehouse. Well, technically, not my first, since I had picked it up at the age of 15. At that time though, I put it down with a shudder and refused to believe that humour is its USP. I am glad to say, I think differently now.

The book is written in first person as narrated by Bertram Wooster. Jeeves is his trustworthy, albeit slightly snobbish butler who has much better taste in clothes and much better sense while solving problems. Unable to digest this fact, Bertram vows to help his newt-loving friend Fink-Nottle get the girl of his dreams (and of Bertram’s nightmares) Madeline Basset, and also to re-engage his cousin Angela and her fiance Tuppy, who have broken off their engagement over an argument about a shark. Add to that, Aunt Dahlia’s problem of procuring money for her newspaper from her husband while also confiding in him that she lost the last installment while playing roulette and we have a lovely pot pourri of problems where Bertram gleefully sets about to solve everyone’s problems and become the ultimate savior.

Needless to say, matters get more and more complicated as unforeseen complications arise with every solution that Bertram provides. Fink-Nottle proposes to Angela, nightmare girl proposes to Bertram, chef Anatole (the greatest chef in the whole world) resigns and Aunt Dahlia has still found no way to tell Uncle Tom about the money she lost. Tragedy upon tragedy ensues and we have everybody ready to murder Bertram for all the mischief he has caused. Aunt Dahlia’s particularly scathing remarks about her bumbling nephew left me laughing out loud.

Ultimate question, as usual is, will Jeeves save the day? P G Wodehouse’s round about humour make it fun and interesting to read this book. While Bertram Wooster has infinite trust in his problem-solving capabilities, Aunt Dahlia has resigned herself to the fact that her nephew is incorrigible and might just burn down the whole house one day. Exceptionally funny stuff, and I can’t wait to get my hands on another Jeeves comedy!

Little Men

Little Men by Louisa May Alcott is a heart-warming story of 14 little boys and the amazing experiences they share on their journey to adulthood. There is no central character in this book and the first chapter helpfully informs us that the sole purpose of the book is to describe lively events that take place when people of such young age are involved.

The story starts off with shy, timid Nat (recently orphaned), arriving at a boarding school with a letter of recommendation from Mr. Lawrence. Mr. and Mrs. Bhaer, who run the boarding school, enthusiastically accept Nat into the school. Warm, well fed and medicated for his terrible cough, Nat finds a sharp contrast to his earlier lifestyle and feels that he has come to heaven. Mr. and Mrs. Bhaer observe that his soul has retained its innocence despite such harsh circumstances and make every effort possible to make him feel loved, wanted and useful.

Naughty Tommy befriends Nat on the first day of school and Nat takes an instant liking to him. Looking up respectfully to the bookish Demi and finding a confidante in Demi’s twin sister Daisy, Nat starts settling in and looking forward to studies as well as making new friends. Trouble brews when he invites his friend Dan to the boarding school and asks Mr. and Mrs. Bhaer to allow him to stay. Dan is elder than Nat and in contrast to Nat’s sweet and harmless nature, Dan seems rough and hell bent on mischief. Mr. Bhaer, though worried about the influence of this rough, insolent lad on his well mannered boys, gets swayed by Nat’s earnesty and agrees to take Dan in.

Thus begin bull fights with cows, smoking, gambling and many such vices that shake up Mr. Bhaer and make him regret his decision of accepting Dan into the school. Every time Mr. Bhaer feels like giving up on Dan and sending him away, his patience and love is tested a little more. Along similar lines is Nan, a highly intelligent spirited girl who doesn’t believing in abiding by the rules. Will Mr. and Mrs. Bhaer be able to change Dan and Nan with their love and make them understand the meaning of society and its rules? Most importantly, will all the little men turn into useful men with good manners and a good place in society?

What I really love about this book is that moral lessons have been taught so well in it. They don’t seem preachy but at the same time they convince you to tell the truth more often, be polite, considerate, take care of others and most importantly about the power of love and patience. Every boy has some special talent which sets him apart from the rest and that’s the reason why the characters stay with you long after you’ve finished reading the book.

Till date this remains one of my favorite books and I’ve read it at least a dozen times. Every time I’ve fallen in love with bad boy Dan, hated stingy Jack, found Tommy adorable, got jealous of pretty Bess and felt like Nan who wanted to be gentle like Daisy. This is NOT a children’s book. It is just disguised as one to trick adults into reading it as a light novel while sub consciously reminding them of all the goodness that lies within them.

The Catcher in the Rye

In the year 1980, after Mark Chapman shot John Lennon dead, he sat on the sidewalk, took out a book from the pocket of his overcoat and started reading it until the police arrived. The book was “Catcher in the Rye” written by J.D. Salinger. This book has always been the subject of controversies since it was first published in the US. So, being the way I am, I absolutely had to buy this book.

The book is about a 16 yr old boy – Holden Caulfield, who has just been expelled from his school for non-achievement. Understandably, he is no particular hurry to meet his parents. So he takes all the money he has and departs for New York, where he decides to spend a small vacation before going home to face his parents’ inevitable wrath, and thus ensues a series of events where he – spends an evening dancing with three tourist girls, has a clumsy encounter with a prostitute, and runs away from the house of a former teacher when he makes a flitty move for him. But this book is not about these events. It’s more about the character, what he says, thinks and how he extrapolates. Uninterested in the fake nature of the world, Holden is a teller of what is real.

The book is all about the perception of a boy of all events around him. He is lonely, confused, observant, perceptive, angry and frustrated at the way people act the way they do. He hates phonies. He would rather live all alone in a cabin on a mountain than being around the phonies. Holden is smart, intelligent but he wants something that the environment around him cannot supply. He wants to be able to protect children from falling off the cliff – prevent them from losing their innocence and become a part of this fake world. The best thing about the book – it is written in the form of Holden’s first person narrative – that kind of lends a distinct appeal to the way his reminiscences and perceptions have been presented and, the language has a good mixture of the underlying humor, slang, profanity, repetitions and moral reflections.

This is one of those books, if you start reading it, it kind of gets a grip on you, blocks out your peripheral vision – you know you can predict the end but you want to be able read every word of every page.

The White Tiger

The first 50 odd pages did not take my breath away and neither did the rest of 300. The book that won the Man Booker 2009. Ha!

The protagonist, Balram Halwai from the heart of ‘Darkness’, son of a rickshaw puller, becomes a chauffeur, kills his employer – justifies the killing as an act of ‘social entrepreneur’, steals  a bag with a large sum of money and starts a taxi business in Bangalore. This is the story. Oh yes, and the entire narrative, for some inexplicable reason, is in the form of letters written to the Chinese Premier!

I couldn’t help thinking about Naipaul’s ‘Shrub’ in Bend in the River whenever some reference was made to Balram’s ‘Darkness’. It just seemed that the whole idea was derived; there are just too many similarities. Had it been an attempt to do something with magic realism, invent some facts – it doesn’t matter if you mix up some dates, I probably would have liked it. Its the painstaking attempt at verisimilitude that irked me. It just didn’t come up as an authentic account of what India is – or may be the author didn’t even make any attempt to sound authentic. In fact, I couldn’t see any difference at all between this book and the desi movies that we’ve grown up watching except that there was no song and dance sequence – no romantic angle. The characters seemed superficial, the story straight out of the script of perhaps a 10 yr old – glutted with cliched dialogues, unreal circumstances, situations.

And, the worst part is that you won’t get a paperback edition for this book – definitely not worth the money, time and effort.

The Great Gatsby

Touted as one of Fitzgerald’s best novels, The Great Gatsby evoked no less than a choked throat and tear filled eyes from me as I turned the last page. A plethora of emotions pervaded me as I felt wonder at Tom’s affair and a little sorry for Daisy who seemed to be such a frail and beautiful creature. The descriptions in this book are so elaborate that I could actually picture what Fitzgerald was trying to show. I went right back into that era and though I have no idea how it must have been, I have a pretty picture painted of those times.

I generally skip over descriptions but the ones in this book had me avidly reading and re reading just to ensure that I had the correct picture in my mind with every shade painted unmistakably as the author had wanted it. The mystery around Gatsby is built up well and the most amazing part of the book is when Gatsby gets introduced to the reader. It was at such an unexpected place and time for me that I re read that passage just to understand what the mysterious Gatsby finally looked like.

Nick’s description of Daisy slightly amused me as I wondered if somewhere in his heart he loved her or was it just overwhelming brotherly affection. The women have been described as increasingly frail and beautiful which kind of lent an unrealistic and at the same time a romantic air to it. The wild parties back then didn’t seem so different from the wild parties right now.
In the beginning, I was drawn into the descriptions and the metaphors employed by the author to possibly showcase his ease with words and love for comparisons. But towards the end, the story picked up such pace that I forgot about the language and merely rushed through the last few pages towards the inevitable end. The end made me marvel at the genius of Fitzgerald and also made me unmistakably sad as I still tried to figure out what message Fitzgerald was trying to give through this book. The end put my feelings into words as it described Daisy and Tom as spoilt creatures, who came out of their wealth and luxury to mess things up and then retreated back into it on their whim and left it for someone else to clean up.

What I cant get over is the fate of Gatsby. Having lost Daisy years ago, he worked so hard to get her back only to be betrayed by her in the end and lose his life. It makes you wonder, was she ever worth it? It’s amazing that his love for her inspired Gatsby to attain such great heights of wealth and fame but it is saddening to see that he valued himself so little as compared to her. Of course it is also humbling to see someone so devoted to another being but you just wish earnestly that his love or his devotion had some fruitful culmination. Maybe you find some solace in the fact that one strong friend having many endearing qualities stood by his grave in the end, who knew and liked Gatsby for who he was.

Obligatory introductory post

Welcome to the introductory post of our blog. So first off why did we think of starting this blog?

Purely to satisfy our ego would be the most honest answer!

Apart from honesty, if we go into technicalities, I would say that we are both absolutely crazy about literature. Give us a book and we’ll probably forget to thank you or pay for it;). I have recently re found my love for reading whereas Anuj can perpetually be seen with a book since I can remember. Other than fulfilling our own selfish needs, there is also a desire to share with others. This blogs main intention is to keep a track of all the books that we’ve read and also to probably develop our writing skills a bit as we share our views and reviews on the books we’ve read. Since Anuj is pursuing MA in literature, you will find quite a few of his assignments put up to showcase his extremely generous nature. Most importantly we hope that as we share our views, our readers will also contribute their thoughts on the topic of discussion and our dimag ki batti will light up like this – ting.

Now a little bit about our very unusual blog name.. We wanted to go for “stupidblogname” but that had already been taken. Bad luck. So we came up with this one. Eso is for esoteric which means known to a chosen few. Lit obviously would stand for literature. So esolitmaniacs would be people crazy about literature known to a chosen few. Although at first we’ll be starting off with well known books(because we don’t know the esoteric ones yet), we’ll hopefully stand up to our name someday.

What this blog will give you is probably a very bad headache. The plan is to put up reviews of books we’ve read and probably our opinions on some particular parts that really influenced us. We also enjoy word hunting and would be putting up new discoveries with their roots and imaginative usage of those words. Discussion and participation would be the aim. Do you agree? Disagree? Do you think we should stop being condescending?!:D

What we won’t be entertaining here is SMS language “c u @ 8” or wrong English or bad grammar. Any cheap shots or shafts of sarcasm on finding any of the above in our blog are most welcome as we would want to avoid these like the swine flu.