The Bronte Plot by Katherine Reay

A Travelogue with a Tale

    Here is a scenario that all bibliophiles would agree with. We fall so deeply in love with our book(s), that we don't just read and re- read it, we live it. Our conversations are peppered with passages from the book. We may even emote like a character did in the book,.. well..  like how we imagined the character did, in our heads.

   " I mean that reading forms your opinion, your worldviews, especially childhood reading and anything that does that has an impact"  - Katherine Reay, The Bronte Plot


    This is what unfolds in Katherine Reay's novel, The Bronte Plot. Her protagonist lives and breathes books of the Victorian era, Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, Charles Dickens, Beatrix Potter, John Ruskin etc..

   Lucy Alling has a gift. She, like her father, can weave fabulous stories that will enthrall an audience. This gift helps flourish her profession as a seller of rare editions of books. It was all  perfect until her secret is discovered and everything turns sour for Lucy. She is on the verge of ruining her relationship with Sid, her mentor / father figure and with her boyfriend James. In walks Helen, James' grandmother, with a proposal for a quest that is quite alluring and may provide a solution to untangle the mess in Lucy's life.

   The novel is mostly about the physical and the emotional journey that Helen and Lucy set upon, which takes them to London and Haworth. This is what I really liked about the book. There are plenty of references about places worth visiting in England, if one is a fan of classic English Literature. This is why I call the novel " a travelogue with a tale'. I have highlighted all the tourist spots mentioned in the novel, lest I miss any when planning my trip to London.


  " Lucy led on, through Russell Square, and upon reaching Gordon Square, she stopped. "Here it is. The heart of the Bloomsbury Group. You wouldn't believe who lived along here" 


   A simple tale but the references to various literary passages and quotes from books of the Victorian era were a delight to read and so was the tour of London. Read it if you are a literary buff and travel enthusiast.

Cookie Jar by Stephen King

A well baked Stephen King recipe

   A magical cookie jar that is always full of freshly baked cookies and magically fills up no matter how many cookies one takes out to eat. Crispy, crumbly and an array of choices to pick from. This could be what every child dreams are made of.

    For Rhett and Jack Alderson this was a dream come true. Their mother has one such jar, a blue ceramic cookie jar, from which she treats her boys with sumptuous cookies to eat and memories of happy hours to keep. After his mom passes away, Rhett inherits the cookies jar. The brothers then discover the magical secret of the cookie jar but they continue to eat from it. One day Rhett upends the cookie jar, to literally unravel the mystery at the bottom of the Jar. What he finds is beyond bizarre.

    Stephen King's Cookie Jar is perfect for a quick read. Being just twenty odd pages long, the narrative is the retelling of a tale by an older Rhett Alderson to his great grand son. The tale is set against the backdrop of major wars that rocked the twentieth century, especially WWII.

   The Author treads a fine line between fact and fantasy. The Cookie Jar is perhaps an allegory that Stephen King uses lest the memory of the brutality meted out at the Nazi concentration camps fades with time.  Having read the short story, what remains undecidable is "what is more horrific?". The acts of barbarity in the western kingdom of Lalanka or the depths of human depravity in our world. Either way, the point to remember is that how we choose to write our history is up to us.

   The story appeared in the Spring 2016 issue of the VQR Magazine ( a delight to all readers, me included..YAY  ) and I now hear that it has also been included in the October 2016 paperback edition of Stephen King's book, Bazaar of Bad Dreams.


                                       

Someone Like You by Roald Dahl

A Golden Ticket to the Land of Terror.....

     I recently read The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin, and there among the many mentions of other literary works, was one about a short story that I had read in high school and I remember my entire class feeling fascinated at the end of reading it. The story was "Lamb to the Slaughter" by Roald Dahl.

    Roald Dahl was a stranger to me back when I was in high school. This was just before the internet took over and when Enid Blyton and Carolyn Keene's Nancy Drew were our staple reading material. Imagine the surprise when I realised that " one of the greatest storytellers for children" also wrote for adults!! So thanks to Ms. Zevin, I picked this book up to read.

    Someone like You is a collection of 18 short stories. Some of these stories like Taste, Dip in the Pool, My Lady Love, My Dove have originally appeared in The New Yorker. A few of these classics have been adapted into movies or television series ( the infamous Alfred Hitchcock Presents series) so even if you know how the story ends do read them to appreciate  Roald Dahl's writing and his magic magic.

  Let's take sneak peek into a couple of stories from the collection.

   Lamb to the Slaughter and Man from the South are fairly well known so skipping those...

  In Dip in the Pool, William Botibol a passenger on board a British cruise ship bids  200 GBP on a betting pool where passengers try to guess the number of miles the ship would travel on a given day. Botibol bets on a "low field" hoping the bad weather would slow the ship down. He wakes up to find a bright, sunny weather and the ship having made up its course. Botibol immediately sets about staging "an accident" but destiny has a mind of it's own.

  Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned in Nunc Dimitiss,when Lionel Lampson designs an elaborate revenge on his younger girlfriend Janet de Palagia.

   A wine connoisseur's skills are put to the test at a dinner party in Taste. Richard Pratt  stands to win two houses from Mike Shofield, the host if he can guess what wine is being served at the table. The stakes are doubled when Pratt seeks Mike's daughter, Louise's hand in marriage.

   Besides Lamb to the Slaughter and Man from the South I enjoyed reading Nunc Dimittis and Mr. Feasey. Tales of terror, tales of macabre, watch out for the twist in the end of each tale.

Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

"Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live." 

                                                             - Morrie Schwartz

    There is an element of danger in reading books written about people who are dying. Hence, when this book was recommended and I had bought the book ( on an impulse mind you, the book cover is quite plain, unappealing actually), it just sat on my bookshelf in its pristine condition. The right moment to read the book finally presented itself when I had to take a quick weekend trip. A spiritual trip, so I was in the  right temperament too.

   The best thing about this book for me is that, though it is about a dying man, Tuesdays with Morrie was not depressing to read. I did not find any ground shattering revelations about dying nor did I tear up while reading.  The "life lessons" were about living than about accepting death or regrets in life . This I like. And introspectively, Morrie Schwartz wouldn't have wanted either, he did say that death was inevitable but life goes on. The narrative style is fairly simple, Mitch Albom does not depend on dramatic effects to stir one up, he allows Morrie's aphorisms to do that.

    Now I am not ready to look for any bird on my shoulder and ask it " Is today the day I die?". And in retrospect, having read the book, most of the aphorisms, I believe are quite common or known to most of us. We have heard ( or read) it said by " any wise man". But what puts this book on a pedestal is how Morrie strings together these revelations as something easy to imbibe.


" Devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to create something that gives you purpose and meaning."

   Isn't this simple? Simple but forgotten in our rat race, in our daily grind. We have gone astray. and this is when we need a teacher, a guiding light, people like Morrie Schwartz who can light up the path. Morrie Schwartz was truly " A Teacher to the Last" Spend some time and read the book, if you haven't already, it will be worth every moment.

The Flea Palace by Elif Shafak ( translated from Turkish by Muge Gocek)

A Turkish Delight 

   Istanbul has been on my travel itinerary for a very long time. I dream of visiting the Blue mosque, shopping at the Grand Bazaar, sunset cruise on the Bosphorus... Oh the joy! So until then I shall explore the Turkey in the fictional world. 

   The Flea Palace is about BonBon Palace, a decrepit building in Istanbul, whose residents are troubled by the piling garbage near their wall and the bugs infesting the homes. Through the voice of the narrator, Elif Shafak explores the various facets of the building's occupants. Ten flats and ten different stories, it was like peeking through a window and watching scenes unfold in each apartment.

  Here is a sneak peek into some of these flats.

Flat No.1: Musa, his wife Meryem and son Muhammet. Meryem is concerned about her son getting bullied at school and hopes that he would find the courage to defend himself.

Flat No.3: The hairdressers Cemal and Celal,  As for them ,there is never a dull moment in their shop.

Flat No.5: Hadj Hadj who spends his time telling stories to his grandchildren and having his daughter-in-law worried about how these stories would influence these children.

Flat No.7: The narrator, "Me", a recently divorced university professor.

Flat No.9: Hygiene Tyijen and her daughter Su .  Hygiene Tyijen  is a cleanliness freak who is obsessed with getting rid of every bug,  miniscule or large.

Flat No.10: Madame Auntie, a matriarch with a mysterious past. 

   

   At a certain point while reading the book, these varied tales didn't seem to have any consonance. But eventually, like scraps of fabric that are stitched together to form a beautiful quilt, these tales fell into place perfectly.

  I had started reading this book anticipating Whirling Dervishes and Belly Dancers but there is a lot more to Turkey that will enchant us and this book is a microcosm of that.

  On a final note, I salute all translators whose work transcend the boundaries of language and have made such gems written in native languages available to those foreign. Thank you Muge Gocek for the English translation of this book.

The Museum of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman

A box full of sepia tinted photographs

  

    If you are a romantic like me, then coming upon a box of old photographs in a rusty trunk or a tattered suitcase, would be like finding a ticket to ride the "time travel machine". You are instantly transported into a sepia tinted world as you use your vivid imagination and weave tales trying to piece together the lives of those who stare back at you, from those photos. This is how I felt while reading this book.

    Set in New York's Coney Island in the early part of the twentieth century, The Museum of Extraordinary Things is a fairy tale of sorts. There is estranged love, strange magical creatures ( well magical in their own way), a monster of a villain and a grand finale with lots of fireworks. 

   Coralie Sardie is one of the attractions at her father's show, the Museum which exhibits the quirks of nature, the "freak show".  Eddie Cohan in a Russian immigrant, a magician of his own kind... a photographer who like a magician freezes the scene unfolding through the eye of the camera, for all eternity to gasp in awe. Chance brings Coralie and Eddie together but love does not always conquer all...

    I have heard that Alice Hoffman's The Dovekeeper is the best of her work, I hope to read it some day and figure that out myself ( and I shall post my review here in my blog ). Coming back to the book, I like how the author has strung real life events into the story line, giving the novel a sense of credulity. And the narrative is very surreal, reading this book was like a leaf wafting in a gentle breeze.

  If you are a fan of historical fiction, then  you may have already read this book or put it on your reading list. To all others, I recommend this book.

Passages from the Book :

“Eddie had come to understand that what a man saw and what actually existed in the natural world often were contradictory. The human eye was not capable of true sight, for it was constrained by its own humanness, clouded by regret, and opinion, and faith. Whatever was witnessed in the real world was unknowable in real time. It was the eye of the camera that captured the world as it truly was.”

“When darkness fell, he told me to close my eyes and dream, for in my dreams I would find another world, and in my waking life I would soon enough find such a world as well...” 

 “I knew that men told you the truth for one of two reasons: when they wished to be rid of what they couldn’t bear to carry, or when they wished to include you in what they knew so their stories wouldn’t be lost.” 

Death Comes to Pemberley by P. D. James

I wonder what would happen if a dead body was found in the woodland behind Pemberley ?

Book Description :

In their six years of marriage, Elizabeth and Darcy have forged a peaceful, happy life for their family at Pemberley, Darcy’s impressive estate. Her father is a regular visitor; her sister Jane and her husband, Bingley, live nearby; the marriage prospects for Darcy’s sister, Georgiana, are favorable. And preparations for their annual autumn ball are proceeding apace. But on the eve of the ball, chaos descends. Lydia Wickham, Elizabeth’s disgraced sister who, with her husband, has been barred from the estate, arrives in a hysterical state—shrieking that Wickham has been murdered.  Plunged into frightening mystery and a lurid murder trial, the lives of Pemberley’s owners and servants alike may not   be the same.



My views on the book:

  I am not quite sure if I want to call this book a murder mystery. Yes there is a mysterious murder in the plot but everything else that makes a book a thriller or a mystery novel is wanting.

  The author P.D. James ( Phyllis Dorothy James), literally drops a dead body in the Pemberley estate and the events that follow, make up the rest of the story. An attempt is made to keep the tone of the narrative as similar as possible to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, but Austen's subtle wit is lacking, naturally as that would be hard to emulate.

  The book is a spin-off of Pride and Prejudice. The plot is a sequel to Jane Austen's masterpiece, so in this book Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet are married.  I was looking for a Agatha Christie style detective in Elizabeth Darcy but the character seemed very subdued . The plot just goes with the flow. A body is discovered, a suspect is apprehended, an inquest follows shortly after and a trial is held before all  of it is wrapped up with a neat confession, so incredibly predictable.

  I had really hoped to read an entertaining piece of good fiction but this book has been disappointing. The idea is great, a murder in Pemberly, but in my opinion there is nothing exciting in the book.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

And sometimes, against all odds, 

against all logic, we still hope.

  This is the only other book based on the Holocaust that I have read, my first being The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. This book too is a child's perspective of the Holocaust, the exception here being that the child is outside the fence. 

  The Boy in the Striped Pajamas tackles one of the most gruesome tales in human history, through the eyes of Bruno, a nine year old German boy, who is trying to make sense of the  depravity in Auschwitz under the command of his father. He befriends Shmuel, a nine year Jewish inmate of Auschwitz. How this friendship between a German boy and a Jewish boy succours is what you have to read and find out.

  The Holocaust and the history of the German Nazis is most likely known to all of us. John Boyne in his book, does not thereby dwell on these horrendous acts , he has simply left it to the readers' imagination. This is probably the reason why the movie is more appealing than the book.  I have read some reviews criticizing Boyne for portraying Bruno as being naive, ignorant of the harsh reality. Different strokes for different folks... In my opinion Bruno chooses to be in denial especially because his Papa is the malefactor. 

    The book works best to introduce the Holocaust to young minds through a powerful fable written sensitively. I will recommend this book to mature readers too, because the Holocaust is history but we still harbour prejudices and choose to act on it. Sometimes a children's tale is all we need to help us stay human.

Quotes from the book that I like :

“...Despite the mayhem that followed, Bruno found that he was still holding Shmuel's hand in his own and nothing in the world would have persuaded him to let go.” 

“What exactly was the difference? he wondered to himself. And who decided which people wore the striped pajamas and which people wore the uniforms?” 

“. . .only the victims and survivors can truly comprehend the awfulness of that time and place; the rest of us live on the other side of the fence, staring through from our own comfortable place, trying in our own clumsy ways to make sense of it all.” 

The Pearl That Broke It's Shell by Nadia Hashimi

                Every war is not fought on the battlefield.

 

  This is a book about two young women and their travails to live a life with dignity. Two stories, set in Afghanistan in different time periods and yet so similar, it almost feels like time has stood still in Afghanistan while rest of the world has moved on.

  Rahima, the middle child in a family of five daughters is dressed up as a boy by her mother, for the want of a male child to support the family. Dressed as a "bacha posh", Rahima feels liberated, to (be able to) play on the streets, go to school or work to make some extra money. In a society that believes that a woman's role is in the house as wife, a mother and a dutiful housekeeper, Rahima's fate isn't any different. She and her sisters are married off to men twice their age as third or fourth wives. What follows is akin to swimming against the tide.

  Shekiba too has a similar tale. She loses her mother and siblings to an epidemic that stikes her village and soon after her father too dies heart broken. Shekiba is forced to seek refuge with her grandmother and other relatives. Her struggles to reclaim her home only lands her in deeper trouble. She is then "given away" to work at the palace in Kabul as a guard.

  There is a lot of pain and despair in this book, both these women are bogged down by draconian laws that rule the land. While reading this, I ought to have felt appalled but strangely am not, despite the westernization of our lifestyles, women of many nations and undoubtedly in mine too suffer a similar fate. These stories may not be " currently trending"on social media but it is changing. Among this angst there is  always hope. Maybe Shekiba will give up but Rahima certainly has a chance.

  A well written book that takes the reader deep into the heartland of a war torn nation. A poignant tale about the women fighting a battle against the odds.