Of Human Bondage

I fell in love with this book by the end of the first chapter. When I finished it, I wished I could go back and start all over again. There have been very few books that have made me feel this way.
Of Human Bondage is a bildungsroman which blew me away with the power of how simply Maugham had described life's intricacies and pains. Philip Carey is a physically deformed kid who goes through life, living from one terrible experience to the other, only to realize in the end that life has no meaning whatsoever. It is full of pain and bitterness with few occasional moments of joy.
For me, this novel was so incredible because it spoke to me on so many levels. The first that comes immediately to mind is that I too had to give up something which I wanted to do intensely but came to realize that I was painfully mediocre at it. Philip goes to Paris to study art but realizes that a life of poverty which would be the inevitable result of such a career choice would hardly be justified if all he was ever going to be was second rate. Just what I was thinking.
Second, Maugham says that at least once in life, everyone should love someone so completely as to be blind to all their faults. Philip loved Mildred just in that way. I too have been there. It's a sad, painful place to be.
Much before I read this book, I also read Maugham's Liza of Lambeth. What I have particularly come to love about Maugham is the simplicity of his writing. He describes everything so simply. He is not some mighty writer, talking in prose-in-the-garb-of-Greek. He possesses extraordinary skill of making the simplest and the most commonplace things sound like he has just discovered them, and as a reader, all we can say is "I know!".    

Delta of Venus

I came across Nin when one of my friends recommended it to me. I had no clue what it was about, but picked it up because I kind of trust my friend's taste. And on reading it, I was left surprised, to say the least.
The book is a work of erotic fiction and is a collection of short stories. Each story deals with a different sexual theme, some of them taboo even today. Though new characters are brought in frequently, some of the important ones figure repeatedly in more than one story.
I will try to give a very honest review of this book even if it makes little sense. The first 2-3 chapters seemed very good. It is erotic fiction, so obviously there were a lot of graphic sexual details. But it did not seem crass at any point. Nin deals with some very taboo themes such as incest, abuse and homosexuality, but her writing gives these stories a literary flourish; her writing is what sets these stories apart from plain and simple pornography. Her language is very beautiful and the charm also lies in the fact that the stories are told from the women's perspective. These women are free and empowered in a quiet, subtle way and not in the I-am-a-woman-notice-me, in-your-face way.
But in spite of it being so good and all, I could not go beyond the fourth story. The novelty wore off pretty soon. There are same kind of details in every chapter. And while the story line for some chapters is genuinely good, for some it is just boring.  
Read it to find out what the hype is all about. Read it to read one of the best work of erotic fiction. But be sure to keep your expectations not too high.

A crazy little book called Love Story

This post is not a book review per se. Reviewing Love Story would be kind of pointless, right? All of us have read it, or at least seen/heard desi Bollywood reproductions of it. This post is about how people these days love to hate Love Story.
True, there is nothing great about the story. Boy meets girl, they fall in love, marry against their parents' wishes, girl dies leaving the boy heart-broken and possibly emotionally crippled for life (have you read Oliver's Story?). But what makes this book great is the way in which it is written. A very short book by the standards of your standard love stories, the beauty of the book lies in the witty-ass way that it is written. The characters are life-like - they talk like normal college students and not like some cardboard cutouts of Romeo and Juliet. The story too has the possibility and probability of being true. I love the little things that Segal has described - how Jenny would hold on to Oliver's shirt sleeve and not his hand while walking with him. I have found myself doing just the same on many occassions, so I can safely say that the book has left a deep emotional impact on me.
So, lets take for granted that most of you out there reading this will agree that if not the greatest love story ever, Love Story is certainly not crappy. What surprises me is that most of the discussions on Love Story are punctuated by statements like "Crappiest book ever!" and "So unrealistic". I think people forget that the novel was published almost four decades back and was pretty much a trailblazer for all love stories that followed. You should not judge it by the standards of today when the book market is flooded with the likes of Nicholas Sparks and Cecilia Ahern and Nora Roberts. And if you base your opinions on statistics, the novel was the top-selling book for all of 1970 and has been translated into more than 20 languages. Also, the novel was later adapted into a movie which went on to be nominated for seven Oscars.
Like so many other things, I think it has become a fad to dislike Love Story. After all, you certainly don't want people to know that you like sappy love stories and that you bawled like a baby when Oliver hugged his father and cried.

Marley & Me and me

I don't know if this is the case with anyone else also, but between a book and its movie adaptation, I tend to enjoy more the one I have watched/read first. This has really happened with me too many times over to count.
I had watched Marley & Me sometime back and had absolutely loved the movie. I came across the book in the library, but did not pick it up for months. Going by precedent, I had already assumed that I wouldn't enjoy the book, now that I know the story and all. But one day, for a lack of anything else to read, I picked up this book, took it back home and got into bed with it. And it was only when I finished it that I got out of my bed.
I simply loved the book. Now let me say this right off. For all those people who read to have their grey cells tickled, this just might not be the book for you. This is the kind of book you take up to read when you just want to pass a lazy day without having to tax your brain too much. But does that make the book sound senseless? It is far from that.
Probably because I have never owned a pet dog, I was super engrossed in the antics of Marley. It was heart-warming to see how an animal could have human instincts and become a part of a family. At every emotional moment in the book, I would go "awww" and think, I also want a pet dog. There were so many incidents that made me all tearful and stuff, especially when Marley consoles Jen in his own special way, after her miscarriage.
The book was good, but it was far from perfect. At some points, it did feel like a random putting together of isolated instances. And I felt that the end was a little late in coming. A couple of chapters deleted from the latter half of the book would have made it immensely better.
All in all, I loved the book, and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a light yet fun read.

The Longest hike ever!

If we go by the name, then this blog should be about all the things beautiful and wonderful, especially when it comes to the written word. But I just have to make this one post about a book which was a total waste of time for me. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.
I had heard so much about this book from totally different people over the years. The more they recommended it to me, the less I wanted to read it. And I wish I had listened to my instinct. But one seemingly good day, I went out and bought the book. The damn cover was so boring that the book lay on my shelf for a good three months before I picked it up!
It was so bad. BAD, BAD, BAD. And bad once more. It was so juvenile that I am sure my kid brother who, by the way will laugh at any joke, would have loved it. Gargle Blasters? The Improbability Drive? Deep Thought? I can't for the life of me understand how any grown up can find that even remotely interesting.
And to top off all this nonsense is a story that is not really a story. It is just a long, really really long rambling about some things ( I can't even recall what the basic idea of the story was!).
The funny part is, the person who recommended me this book, told me to read it because it was "just so damn funny." Kinda disgracing the phrase "damn funny", I think. There were some witty one-liners, I'll admit. But either they were too gentle a comedy for me to have a hearty laugh, or they were simply too witty for me to understand. The book, to me, seemed to be an endeavor in writing witty one-liners.
So after serious reflection and "deep thought", I have reached the conclusion that this book is fit only for geeks star-trooper-like dressed nerds, another craze I do not understand.

Wuthering Heights

If you claim to be a book lover and you haven't read Wuthering Heights, then shame on you! Go read the Twilight books and be tortured to death.
It is an anathema to have not read this book. For anyone who makes the wild and baseless supposition that Wuthering Heights is going to be another one of the innumerable classics about sappy love stories - boy falling in love with girl, girl rejecting boy, girl falling for a wild oaf, girl being dumped by wild oaf, girl in love with boy, boy and girl live happily ever after (Jane Austen *hint hint*), you could not be more wrong.
In the darkness and maliciousness of the characters and the violence of love, this novel is truly unparalleled by anything written from then till now. Heathcliff is the ultimate anti-hero. He is hateful. He is everything we despise in people - he  is vengeful, selfish, cruel beyond measure. But aren't those just the things that make him the quintessential "bad-ass" guy we girls love so much? In this novel too, the good guy (Edgar Linton) ends up last!
All love stories are not pretty. Some are like the story of Catherine and Heathcliff. They should be together but still they aren't meant to be. They love each other with an intensity and passion that destroys their lives and the lives of those around them. Their love transcends this world. Catherine dies, but Heathcliff lives in the memory of her love, hating her and loving her at the same time. People say theirs is not love. It is some kind of a demonic, ego-maniacal emotion close to hatred and self-destruction. But it certainly isn't love. I say why not? Love makes us do crazy things. Love changes us in ways we do not understand. Love is beautiful but it is also destructive.
Try as I might, I could not like Catherine's character. In my mind, she brings all the ill-fate upon herself and drags poor Heathcliff under the bus with her. Bitch.
But in the end, like most of the novels I fall in love with, I fell in love with the beauty of expression in this novel.

Heathcliff- 

"You teach me now how cruel you've been-cruel and false. Why did you despise me? Why did you betray your own heart, Cathy? I have not one word of comfort. You deserve this. You have killed yourself. Yes, you may kiss me and cry; and wring out my kisses and tears: they'll blight you- they'll damn you. You loved me- then what right had you to leave me? What right- answer me- for the poor fancy you felt for Linton? Because misery, and degradation, and death, and nothing that God or satan could inflict would have parted us, you, of your own will, did it. I have not broken your heart- you have broken it; and in breaking it, you have broken mine. So much the worse for me, that I am strong. Do I want to live? What kind of living will it be when you- oh, God! would you like to live with your soul in the grave?'

'Let me alone. Let me alone', sobbed Catherine. 'If I've done wrong, I'm dying for it. It is enough! You left me too: but I won't upbraid you! I forgive you. Forgive me!'

'It is hard to forgive, and to look at those eyes, and feel those wasted hands', he answered. 'Kiss me again; and don't let me see your eyes! I forgive what you have done to me. I love my murderer- but yours! How can I?' 

High Fidelity

aaah....what a truly awesome book this one was. An absolute delight.

Frankly, I had never heard of this writer before. I passed by this book many a times while browsing through the book store. But one serendipitous day, I picked this up for the lack of anything else that seemed readable. And boy, am I glad i did!

Some books grow on you- you have to force yourself to read the first couple of chapters to let the book draw you in. But not this one. With 'High Fidelity' I was hooked from the first line. Literally so!

Hornby has written with such candor. The main character of the book, Rob, is an emotional fuckwit. He is just like most of us- so damn confused. Though he would never admit such a thing. He believes one thing, and does quite the other. He'd like to pretend that his last break up with a girl named Laura has not messed him up, but it so has! He is the stereotypical man- one who cannot commit and who will NEVER use the word "love". He pushes people away, and then wonder why there are no people around him. He is obsessed with making lists- top five records, top five break ups and what not.

Hornby has written in such a frank tone. Rob is not some distant, larger than life character. He is insanely human. Half of his life, seems like he lives in his head. And since I am so like that, I totally related to him. When he hangs up on Ian and then goes on to re-create the whole conversation in his mind so that he comes off as the smarter one....well, lets just say we all have been there, haven't we?

And I truly loved his wit.

"Sometimes I got so tired of trying to touch her breasts that I would try to touch her between her legs, a gesture that had a sort of self-parodying wit about it: it was like trying to borrow a fiver, getting turned down, and asking to borrow fifty quid instead."

"Sex is about the only grown-up thing i know how to do; it's weird, then, that it's the only thing that can make me feel like a ten-year-old."

And one of my favorite ideas in the book was- does listening to pop music make us unhappy or do we listen to pop music because we are unhappy. it's pretty much like the question of eggs and chicken, isn't it?

Let not the comic tone of the book fool you. This book makes you think- about relationships, rejection, love and a host of other things.

And well, if nothing else, it does make you want to check out the songs mentioned endlessly throughout the book. Music education anyone?