Welcome to Baggas.com - Paul's blog on life, medicine, faith, family, technology and much more...
For all my networking and media pages in one place, check out my
NetVibes Page.
6th
October
2009
The difficulty I have with Salman Rushdie is that he’s just too good. His magical shorelines, suspenseful narratives, and fascinating characters make me want to just keep turning page after page – but the richness of his prose, and the depth of language and meaning in every paragraph make me wish I could slow down and more fully appreciate this amazing writing. The Satanic Verses, Rushdie’s most famous novel, is no exception to this. He draws the reader deep into the minds of his two main protagonists, where the border between fantasy, reality, and psychosis becomes blurred. For most of the book it’s difficult to distinguish between hero and villain. As always there’s a colourful cast of supporting characters, a constant flow of cultural and literary allusions (most of which went right over my head), and a blend of natural and supernatural, intertwining tales of India and 1980’s London, and ancient Arabia.
I’d still say Midnight’s Children is my favourite Rushdie novel, but this is close. And I can appreciate why this generated much controversy in the Islamic world, with it’s very human and less than flattering portrait of Mohammed and his first followers. But although devout Muslims might feel rightfully insulted and angry with this book, surely that doesn’t justify officially sanctioned death threats against the author? There’s plenty of books written saying things about Jesus that Christians would find blasphemous, but we don’t go around threatening to kill the writers. The Pope never sent death squads after Dan Brown for writing the Da Vinci Code. Anyway I’m glad Rushdie survived to write more brilliant books. If you’ve enjoyed some of his other work then make sure you check this one out, but I probably wouldn’t advise starting with it.
Tags : books, india, Islam, Salman Rushdie
Categories : books |
19th
April
2009
I’ve been thinking and reading a lot about India lately, and reading Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance has been the culmination of that process. In fact this book is so vivid and real and gut wrenching that after reading I feel like I need a rest from my Indian phase (though not from the food, of course).
The book follows the stories of four central characters who find themselves living together in a large Indian city in the 1970s, an incredibly corrupt and dark time for India. We are taken deep into their psyche, their past and present, and their dreams for the future, and we are drawn into their pain when those dreams are shattered over and over again. An amazing achievement of this book is that not only do we have these four well fleshed out characters but there is a cast of numerous interesting supporting characters who we also get to know very well. Mistry is a master of characterisation, and even those who at first glance would be entirely despicable earn some measure of sympathy and even liking. The picture Mistry paints (or the quilt he sews..) is not at all black and white – it is a range of colours and emotions, good and evil all washed together, although ultimately it is the darker shades the are most dominant.
A Fine Balance is a brilliantly crafted book that will take you captive on a roller coaster ride of emotions. At the end I was left with a feeling of admiration/satisfaction with the novel, but mixed with a melancholic mood. Big tip : don’t read the end of this book if you’re already feeling a bit down and lonely to begin with… Or maybe I shouldn’t say that… it only makes it more poignant. Don’t let me disuade you at all though, this is and incredibly rewarding and powerful book to read.
Tags : books, fiction, india
Categories : books |
