The Gunslinger
A mystical tale of weird beings.
First of the seven books in the Dark Tower series, The Gunslinger is supposedly not the best, as per Stephen King himself. This is one of his early-in-the-career books that he is not very proud of. Nevertheless, it is the beginning of something and hence, one reads.
The Gunslinger is the story of a man on a quest. What he searches is not very clear, the importance of the Dark Tower for this man, who claims to be a human in the world of ghosts, spirits, daemons, oracles, and mystical characters I know not, is hazy. Nevertheless, the book is an intriguing collection of curious incidents and adventures in the life of the Gunslinger and several others who cross his path.
But before you make up your mind, let me tell you that the author openly claims to have used two sources as inspiration for the series: LotR and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly! 
Yeah, and he combines the two well. The story is painted on a cinema scope canvas of The Good… and orphic characters run all over it to create a lot of confusion in the reader’s head. The book raises questions that, hopefully, the following books in the series answer.
King’s writing style is gripping and one reads till the end. Once you get there, you will probably pick up the next book as well. So Happy Dark Tower Hunting. I hope to complete the series some day.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Bitter. Funny. Sweet. Annoying. Funny.
This is Mark Haddon’s first published novel and for that I applaud. For it is not easy to write from the point of view of a 15-year-old, autistic boy. The boy, a mathematics genius, takes upon himself to write a book. Since he does not like reading about things unreal, he decides to write about his own life, in his own way. In the process, he also intends to solve the murder mystery of the neighbor’s dog. Fun begins.
Haddon writes in simple language, and explains simple incidents of ordinary days of a not-so-ordinary child. The brilliance of the book lies in the bohemian writing style, use of mathematics to carry the book forward, and linking incidents by most reciting most unrelated thoughts. The book flows as the trail of thoughts in the boy’s mind, which I totally enjoyed. Gets two thumbs up from me!
1/6/2006
Persepolis I & II
The best graphical autobiography, ever!
Persepolis is a story of Marjane Satrapi told in two parts: The Story of a Childhood and The Story of a Return. Although both these books are complete in themselves, I suggest reading them together, as one. Persepolis tells a timeless story of life under Islamic Revolution in Iran, from eyes of an extremely aware girl. The story and its extremely effective and brilliantly done graphic representation takes us through various incidents in the life of Satrapi starting at age nine. Satrapi combines pictures and words to describe her life among radical parents, orthodox society, and conformist friends. The book has many humorous moments well blended with the grim subject. The political commentary is superbly woven with the daily events of a young girl’s life.
The first book ends with Satrapi leaving her country to go to Austria in search of a safe and independent future. The second book begins here. It tells an uncomplicated story of complexities of a life of a Third World person in Europe. Caught in the political turmoil, Satrapi learns harsh realities of life by living them. After a certain incident, Satrapi picks the life of restriction in Iran over lonely struggle in Austria. Back home, Satrapi fights to get back to the supposed normal life. The book again discusses dark events of the girl’s life, but in a simple and communicative manner.
This very well told compelling story, which is enhanced by simple but expressive black and white graphics, can get you started on both graphic novels and autobiographies. I urge you to give it a shot.
1/4/2006
Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination
She lives life on her own terms and barely manages to get through.
This is a story of a young woman with a fighter’s spirit, and of course, an overactive imagination. Olivia is a glamorous but tough spirited journalist. Thanks to her imaginative pursuits, she has been moved from hard-core journalism to fluff writing. During one skin-deep coverage of a face cream inauguration party, she meets a handsome French man that she thinks is actually Osama Bin Laden in disguise. From here, she starts her wild goose chase and plunges into a series of (mis) adventures. She meets cute guys en route and makes the best of all available opportunities.
Helen Fielding has a gripping plot, which has been executed well in some parts. There are some passages where one tends to lose interest. At the same time, the book loses touch with reality after first fifty pages. Fielding fills the book with her usual witty-n-wise one liners but this is not even close to Bridget Jones. If you are willing to let your brain take rest and read it for out and out entertainment, well, go ahead. Else, skip it. You are not missing out anything.
11/28/2005
Hearts in Atlantis
“Consider it. Good books are for consideration after too,” Ted Brautigan says.
Stephen King writes one fascinating tale by linking five unlinked stories. The first story, “Low Men in Yellow Coats” is set in the 60s and lays the ground, as little as it can, for the next four stories. This story, borrows characters from King’s “Dark Tower” series. The rest of the stories borrow at least one character from the first one. The last story provides a closure to all other stories. This strategy alone makes the book worth considering.
“Low Men in Yellow Coats” is a story of an 11-year old boy, his confused mother, his two friends, and his elderly pally neighbor who sees men from the other world. This story is very well told and represents both children and aliens in an intriguing fashion.
The other stories - “Hearts in Atlantis,” “Blind Willie,” “Why We’re in Vietnam,” and “Heavenly Shades of Night are Falling” deal with the Vietnam war, its affects and aftermaths. Each story picks one not so important character from “Low Men in Yellow Coats” and tells the tale of people around that character in latter years. The book ends in 1999.
King does not aim to give you goosebumps this time around. The idea is very novel to me, thought I did not like the second story much. It ran far too long and got into details that did not interest me. I wanted to know more about Yellow-Jacketed Men. The book does not tell me about them. Apparently, I have to read Dark Tower Series now!! As an anthology, this works.
11/14/2005
One Night @ the Call Centre
Let me put this straight, this is not close to Five Point Someone, but that does not make it a bad second effort. No, not bad at all.
This time around, Chetan Bhagat tells a story closer to a larger section of the youth population. If you have ever worked in corporate environment, not necessarily a call centre, you can relate to bits and pieces of the book.
This is a story of five friends who work in just another call center in Gurgaon. They do the usual stuff that you and I do, they visit the same places as us, they have similar aspirations and similar problems – well more or less similar problems.
This story of one night takes off pretty well, and grows on you fast. However, as morning approaches, the story begins to stagger. It wobbles and falls flat in the end. No, I did not like the treatment of the last bit. I am not talking about the important call they receive but about how these friends react to the call and save the world. It is very Bollywood-ish.
But in Bhagat’s defense, he manages to give us another easy read. Good to kill time during your train travel to visit your mother.
American Gods
Neil Gaiman’s imagination rocks! And, this in itself is a fabulous reason to pick up American Gods.
Gaiman tells the story of Gods, who have traveled from different distant lands to America, with their believers who moved to this land in search of their dreams. This is also a story of Shadow, just another ordinary guy deeply in love with his wife. Only, his life is anything but ordinary. Shadow is let out of the prison a few days before the planned date to make it on time for his wife’s funeral. Shocks galore when he is faced with the reality of the outside world; while trying to escape one such reality, he bumps into God. Life is a thrilling whirlwind from there. Shadow hops from one place to the other, meeting intriguing characters, dodging goons, robbers, and Gods, and making the readers flip the pages in frenzy.
Presence of umpteen complex characters does not harm the razor-sharp plot of the book. The segregation of old and new Gods is a treat to read. The wit is interwoven in the storyline making every sentence a joy to read.
However, in the middle of the book, you reach a point where nothing much happens and you want to rush to the end. There is a separate storyline about Gods moving to America, which runs in parallel. At places, it bored me. I like flow and proper transition. But its absence is also a style in its own right.
All in all, a fascinating, unputdownable read. Take my word, you have never read anything like American Gods before. Go for it.
10/3/2005
A House for Mr. Biswas by VS Naipaul
A house for Mr. Biswas is one of the greatest books I’ve ever read, and I’ve read thousands of books. AHFMB follows the life of Mr. Biswas from the moment he was born to the time when he dies. His life is very ordinary. Mr Biswas is an ambitionless man who just goes through his life trying to find some pleasure in small things. To call him ambitionless will not be entirely true, he has a half baked ambition in his heart, that is to have a house of his own. We are introduced, to the house he finally builds, in the prologue itself. The way Mr. Naipaul has described the house in the prologue is marvellous.
It is a slow book but every line of this book is excellent. This book is even listed in the course material for IAS examinations which is quite a surprise.
Read this book slowly and take pleasure in the wonderful writing of Mr Naipaul who won the Nobel Prize in literature in the year 2001.
Amazon link
-Kunal Goel
Piece of Cake
A chick book with a difference!
Swati Kaushal succeeds in her attempt to make you laugh out loud, nod with empathy, and keep you guessing. Most chick books deal with confusion in girls’ minds. Not this one.
The book tells the story of twenty-nine-year old, hyperactive, executive with an attitude. Minal Sharma has a successful career and loves her job; well, on most days. The book takes us through twists and turns in her career and how she makes it past them all. In the background, there are also some men. Sexy Ali who takes her breath away and Sunil, the unbelievably good catch in the matrimonial market. You think you know whom she is going to pick? Think again. And, read the book.
The author has done a good job with the story and the anecdotes. She has also researched her subject really well. The strongest point of the book, in my view, is its lovable flawed characters. Kaushal has done a great job of creating life like characters from different walks of life. However, she kinds of spoils the real-life effect in the end when everyone takes out their goody-two-shoes and in a typical bollywood style we have a happy family. Only not. =)
I told ya, she keeps you guessing. Go read the book. Even if you are not a chick.
9/23/2005
City of the Beasts
I like most books. You have to write a book real bad to make me dislike it. Isabel Allende did that.
City of the Beasts is a story of a fifteen-year-old boy who is sent to his adventurous, gruff, and harsh grandmother for a while. The book begins with the boy’s reaction to the decision of moving to his grandmother’s house and the illness of his mother, which is interesting at that point. However, halfway through the book you realize that the earlier part was disconnected and not required at all. Anyhow, the adventurous grandmother takes the unwilling boy on a writing assignment to Amazon. That’s where the fun begins, supposedly.
The book is full of tired thrills, mystical shamanic totems, fantastic beings, and eccentric characters. The story is simple and is backed by fairly intriguing happenings. Nevertheless, at places it is plain juvenile. The author fails to make her characters real. The lack of practicality in normal characters and presence of tons of mystical fantastic characters acts as a negative for the book. There is also the standard mystery of ‘guess who is the bad guy’, but one does not even feel like guessing thanks to the disconnected events.
The author has also tried to combine the mystical fantasy world with the shrewd real world and failed horribly at it. We hop from the numinous world of people of mist to the cunning beings killing each other for money and transition did not work for me.
All the same, it is a book. You can always go ahead and read it. Right? Let me know if you like the book.
