A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini

Date of Reading: 22/02/2013

Author: Khaled Hosseini

Publisher: Riverhead Books

Place: New York

Year: 2007

         Exam times produce miracles; songs we don't usually care sounds truly meaningful, scenarios that we usually pass with a dry glance opens with a new beauty and oh, what to say even I wait for news time everyday (only time allotted to TV). Something similar got in me while reading this book; while scrolling through each page I felt  someone like my hostel warden is going to catch me (obviously I was supposed to do something else). Even the mess bell sounded a burden. Sure, the novel has its charm, along with one more feeling -- depression.

             I had a friend in hostel who used to say "Being a girl itself is a curse, and I will never pass that to anyone else. So all my children are going to be boys. A man's 'silly' act can ruin a girl, and a day that vanishes that fear will never come". As usual in the spirit of  youth, I used to argue for hours on this, but a tiny voice inside used to whisper, 'isn't there some truth?'. Yes, at least in war times when the animal takes the better of man, when reason gives way to blind obstinacy and each afraid of the other, it is a fact; One will regret this birth as a girl. That is what dear reader, this story is all about.
           And today it is woman's day, around me there are the beginnings of festivities and awareness programs. Let's hope that a time will come without anymore woman's days, leaving all days to them.

           Novel revolves around two women -- Mariam and Laila. Mariam lives in a kolba on the outskirts of Herat with her embittered mother and her rich father Jalil is in the city with his three wives and nine children. He pays a usual visit on Thursdays. As a harami (illegitimate child), little Mariam is not acceptable to the outside world. But on her fifteenth birthday she breeches this unwritten rules to go and see Jalil, and is fated to spend the night outside his home in cold. She finds her mother hanging from the tree on returning home, thinking that her only daughter has deserted her. Jalil marries her off to Rasheed, a shoemaker from Kabul, who is thirty years her senior. But when she fails to produce a heir, there begins the days of beatings and silent suffering.
         Laila and her friend Tariq also live in the vicinity; she has lost her two brothers to the war between Mujahideens and Soviet Union. When the Soviet Union disintegrates at last, everyone anticipates peace, but now the Mujahideens are cutting each others throat. Tariq leaves the city with her parents and their emotional farewell ends in the consumption of love.
          Laila'a family too decides to leave in the end but as they are packing, a rocket comes down destroying her house and killing her parents. A severely injured Laila is taken by Rasheed and Mariam.
          On recovering she finds that she is with Tariq's child and the news of Tariq's death shatters her, though it didn't prevent her from eagerly accepting Rasheed's hand for her unborn child. She gives birth to a daughter, Aziza, and soon Rasheed gets suspicious. Laila strikes a friendship with Mariam and together they try to run away but gets caught.
            By the time Laila has given birth to Rasheed's son, Zalmai, Taliban has assumed power and tyranny reigns on Afghanistan. A drought that follow makes life unbearable and Aziza is sent to an orphanage. Tariq's unexpected appearance from Pakistan and lovers' reunion gives new twist.
            Hearing the news Rasheed starts to beat up Laila, but this time Mariam intervenes and kills him with a shovel. Taliban shoots her dead; and Laila and kids live with Tariq in Pakistan till the fall of Taliban. She visits Mariam's birth place and finds the money that Jalil leaves for her on his death. The pair returns to Afghanistan and Laila assumes the position of teacher in the orphanage which sheltered Aziza once.

Something to think:

          "Had she been a deceitful wife? she asked herself. A complacent wife? A dishonorable woman? Discreditable? Vulgar? What harmful thing had she willfully done to this man to warrant his malice, his continual assaults, the relish with which he tormented her?

           Had she not looked after him when he was ill? Fed him, and his friends, cleaned up after him dutifully? Had she not given this man her youth? Had she ever justly deserved his meanness?     

Khaled Hosseini

        The belt made a thump when Rasheed dropped it to the ground and came for her. Some jobs, that thump said, were meant to be done with bare hands." -- 182


"Listening to Naghma, Mariam remembered the dim glimmer of cold stars and the stringy pink clouds streaking over the Safid-koh mountains that long-ago morning when Nana had said to her, Like a compass needle that points north, a man's accusing finger always finds a woman. Always. You remember that, Mariam." -- 191

Ivanhoe - Sir Walter Scott

Date of Reading: 05/06/2008

Author: Sir Walter Scott

Publisher: Peacock Books

Place: New Delhi

Year: 2005

Rs. 85

            Reading Scott is an acquired taste and I don't think anyone will disagree if I say this is his best one. I bought this in exchange of my medicine money (books are always better than antibiotics), and happy to say Scott didn't disappoint me a bit.

          What is the difference between history books and historical novels? One gives facts on dead people and the other puts some life to it by adding some tales (most of the time imaginary) which makes them personal. Since its publication in 1819, 'Ivanhoe' has enjoyed a unique popularity as it had brought together Britain's two most popular heroes -- King Richard I (also known as the lion-hearted) and Robin Hood. And it is his first novel to be set in England with its Norman - Saxon conflicts and the plight of Jews under Christian rule. Story is thus:

          Cedric, the Saxon noble, is displeased with his son Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe for showing interest in his ward Rowena whom he intends to marry off to Athelstane, a youth of royal Saxon blood. Ivanhoe goes away and joins in crusade where he comes in contact with King Richard. Meanwhile, King's brother John, who is in charge of the kingdom in Richard's absence, tries to occupy the throne with the support of the disloyal Norman barons.
            His plans are however thwarted by the timely return of Richard who in disguise, helps Ivanhoe at the tournament to defeat John's knights including Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert. The latter is infatuated with Rebecca, the beautiful Jewish girl, whom he has seen at the tournament. She, along with her father Isaac, Rowena, Cedric, Athelstane and the wounded Ivanhoe are captured by Norman barons and kept imprisoned in Torquilstone Castle.

           While the King with the help of Robin Hood storms the castle and rescues the prisoners, Rebecca is smuggled away by Bois-Guilbert to the Preceptory of Templestowe. Though his designs on Rebecca fail owing to the arrival of the Grand Master of the Order, Rebecca is accused of witchcraft. In order to save her from burning alive, Ivanhoe appears as her champion in accordance with the custom and fights a last duel with Bois-Guilbert. Bois gets killed by his own sword.
             Story ends with the marriage of Ivanhoe and Rowena. Rebecca too was in love with the hero and she remains unmarried and devotes her life to help the needy. 
--- Novel is adapted to several movies, the most popular being the 1952 film starring, Robert Taylor and Elizabeth Taylor as Ivanhoe and Rebecca; Joan Fontaine plays the part of Rowena. It is nominated for three Academy awards. The 1982 version, half an hour longer than the 1952 film, is starred by Anthony Andrews.
             

Nicola and the Viscount - Meg Cabot

Date of Reading: 27/12/2012

Author: Meg Cabot

Read as: E-Book

Rating: 1/5

          I have no idea why I wasted my time on this. A completely predictable plot (from beginning to the end), flat characters, boring love story which tries to introduce some comic elements which is not connected with that historical period -- aah, that sums up the book. May be I will have to search for 'Princess Diaries' to be impressed by Cabot.

           Year is 1810. Nicola Sparks has completed her studies in the female academy and is ready to plunge into the social life of London. Though an orphan, her small inheritance is ample to sustain her now and her dream husband (whom she nicknames as 'God') is also at hand. Lord Sebastian Bartholomew is his name and Nicola is passionately in love with him. So when his parents invites her home for that season, she jumps in; and everything goes according to the plan and they are engaged.

           The only glitch is Nathaniel Sheridan, her friend Eleanor's brother who warns her of this priced fiance's character. When the first excitement is over, Nicola too begins to piece together a few things and a secret visit to the Viscount's father's chamber confirms the intention of this awkward marriage proposal. They need her family home to build a rail road through it.

Meg Cabot

           Nicola backs off from the engagement and runs to the safety of Sheridans' home. But Viscount kidnaps her to a desolate place and tries to marry her by force. She convinces her cousin who has unwillingly joined in the plan to inform her guardians. She puts off a brave fight and Nathanies and the guards come on time for rescue.

          Culprits are arrested and in the end Nicola recognises the true love of Nathaniel Sheridan with whom she engages eventually.

Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

Date of Reading: 31/05/2008

Author: Charlotte Bronte

From: www.pinkmonkey.com

Year: 1848

         They say pigs will fly when literary critics and common populace agree on one book. Well, the pigs at my home are still waiting for that chance, but 'Jane Eyre', like its enchanted heroine, has succeeded in opening up new literary interpretations to satisfy the so called academicians while providing enjoyment to anyone who can read.

         What is so special about this? For one, its bildungsroman (can be considered as kunstlerroman too as the growing up protagonist is an artist), which makes the heroine intimate to us as one in the family. Jane is brave and she has got some principles that she won't surrender even to the one she loves. In other terms, 'she has got character'. It has mystery, romance, friendship; too good a treat to miss.

         Story is close to my heart as this is the first e-book that I have read. A new reading experience that I will cherish always. Books will survive this digital age too; ways and forms might differ, but as long as man has the wish to communicate literature will never vanish.
          As an orphan girl Jane Eyre is brought up by her aunt. Her father, a poor clergy man has fallen in love with the wealthy Miss Reed and their consequent marriage disinherited her. When they die after two years of  marriage, little Jane is left in the hands of her maternal uncle Mr. Reed who in turn leaves her with his wife in an untimely death.

        Mrs. Reed cannot find any empathy to this plain child and her children too made life hard for Jane. At the age of ten she is sent to a charity school called Lowood where she lived for eight years, six as a student and two as a teacher. Freedom came at last when the job of a governess is offered in Thornfield Hall. Its master is Mr. Rochester.
           The pure, plain girl wins the master's heart and they get engaged. But on the day of the marriage, it is revealed that this Edward Fairfax Rochester is already wed to a lunatic wife, Bertha Mason. She is kept hidden in upstairs, so as not to harm anyone. Jane flees from there in the cover of darkness and takes refuge in the house of St. John Rivers, the clergy man. She identifies herself as Jane Elliot and soon makes friends with St. John's sisters Diana and Mary.

          Jane works for sometime as a village school teacher and then an unexpected inheritance changes the situation. Her uncle John Eyre has made her a heiress and she finds out that the Rivers are her cousins. She divides the wealth in equal among them. St. John expresses his wish to marry Jane as he needs a wife for his missionary work in India.
          But Jane's mind is still in Thornfield and to there she returns. Bertha has burnt the place and killed herself; Mr. Rochester has lost his eyesight and is turned into a cripple in the incident. Jane marries him.

         St. John remains unmarried but continues as a missionary in India; by the end of the novel he nears his death. Mr. Rochester has got the sight of his one eye back and a son is born to the couple.
--- movies based on the story are really good, especially the 2011 film directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga.

Netherland - Joseph O'Neill

Date of Reading: 17/12/2012

Author: Joseph O'Neill

Publisher: Fourth Estate

Place: London

Year: 2008

          There are some times when our voice is not heard. Oh, this is not about family. Suppose I write a review of James Joyce's 'Ulysses' (never been able to read that), and declare it not worth the trouble, will that change anything? No, I will be considered a stupid lad with not much standard.

         This book is such a sad case; it has got good reviews, but I don't like it. Why? Eventually, as in 'Waiting for Godot', nothing happens, 'nobody comes, nobody goes, it's awful'. Story (if you think there is one) concerns the situation of New York after the attack on World Trade Center. Novel fails to provide that feeling of loss to one that live far away from the issues connected with it. Like the narrator, Hans, author too seems confused or too  reluctant to make a daring statement which might cause some political controversy.

          Except for the protagonist, and perhaps Chuck too, all the characters are underdeveloped. No chronological order is followed which makes it really hard to keep with the times. All in all it looks like a verbal play with words we have to look continuously into the dictionary, to make some sense out of it.

          Hans van den Broek, a Dutch born London settler, moves to New York when his wife Rachel who works in a law firm, gets transferred to there. He is a family man with few friends outside, and when Jake, his son is born his life revolves around him. Then the 9/11 attacks happen and their life is turned upside down, fear and security sirens permeates the area. Rachel, fearing their son's safety, moves back to her ancestral home in England and Hans is left alone with the eccentric inmates of Chelsea Hotel while his wife requests time to think about their marriage.

           Now Hans' refuge in weekends is cricket, the game he played as a child in Holland while his mother keeps watch; the sense of order and justice is still retained by the game which reassures him that there is something that is unchanged.
         It is in one of these matches he meets Chuck Ramkissoon, the Trinidadian business entrepreneur. He is proud to be a citizen of America and cherishes a plan to civilize this new home country by teaching them cricket. His intention is to turn Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn to a cricket stadium (which he terms patriotically as 'Bald Eagle Field') and Hans too join in the work. 
         Once in every two weeks, he travels to London to be with Jake. Rachel soon finds a new boyfriend -- Martin; in order to win back his wife, Hans finally decides to leave this adopted country. Meanwhile he has found out that Chuck's gambling business has its dark side and was therefore not at all reluctant to leave that friendship.

Joseph O'Neill

          Everything goes according to plan, and with Rachel stability too comes back. Then in 2006, he gets informed that Chuck's remains are fished out from Gowanus Canal. This brings back old memories and this forms the novel.

An Irish Country Doctor - Patrick Taylor

Date of Reading: 29/04/2008

Author: Patrick Taylor

Publisher: Reader's Digest (Select Editions)

Place: Australia

Year: 2007

          Ever since I fell in love with 'Gone with the Wind' and 'Scarlett' (its sequel), Ireland held an irrevocable romantic charm. The land of the O'Haras is my Wordsworthian England; may be I should have used 'was', the recent events concerning the abortion laws and the death of  the Indian born Savita Halappanavar has put me back to the skeptical position of Seamus Heaney.

         Story is based on Taylor's own experiences as a doctor in Ireland. Well, I won't put it in the same place of 'The Story of San Michele' (Axel Munthe), but no doubt, it retains some of the fragrance of that rewarding memoir. There are some rough edges for sure, the story is predictable for one, and the ending is also not that satisfying. But there permeates the serene atmosphere of all Irish novels, you will love this for sure.

         On completing his medical degree, Dr. Barry Laverty joins as an assistant to Dr. Fingal Flahertie O'Reilly in the Irish countryside of Ballybucklebo which is not even visible in his tourist map. Novel is about his life here and his interactions with the local people with Dr. O'Reilly as the supervisor forms the major chunk. The unconventional doctor proves a little difficult at first, but soon they form a deep friendship. Adding flavour to this is his relationship with Patricia, an engineering student; this life in the green country puts him into different perspectives and he decides to stay there. Ireland has entangled one more with her charm.

         Dr. Laverty's story is continued in the four sequels and Taylor wrote a prequel to the novel too in 2011.
Series in order:

Patrick Taylor

An Irish Country Doctor (2007)
An Irish Country Village (2008)
An Irish Country Christmas (October 2008)
An Irish Country Girl (2009)
An Irish Country Courtship (2010)
A Dublin Student Doctor (2011)  (prequel)

The Boy Next Door - Meg Cabot

Date of Reading: 02/09/2012

Source: Internet (e-pub version)

Year: 2002
Rating: 3.5/5

           One of my friends who is studying to become a nurse, once sent me a letter. Oh, not a mail, but a handwritten original letter. Needless to say, I am surprised. Glad to know that the post office still exists, thanks to the convent mode hostels which still scrutinises our letters and allows us to make a call to home only on Sundays.

            With this almost extinction of letters, gone are the days of epistolary novels. Or so I thought, until I have come by this one. Samuel Richardson has written the first novel in English, 'Pamela', in  a series of letters and it seems the tradition is not forgotten. Well, except for 'Colour Purple' of Alice Walker and 'Dracula' (though it is in the form of a diary), I don't have much favourites in this mode.

          This one is the modern form; story is all in e-mails and rest is left to the imagination of the reader. Its all about a romance which blooms in a crime scene; too bad, its all predictable. At least Cabot has made an attempt with an ordinary story. What should we expect next? A novel made out of SMS! (As for that matter Sophie Kinsella's 'I've Got Your Number' is a partial attempt in this field)

          Melissa Fuller, a gossip columnist of the New York Journal has just broken up with her longtime boyfriend, Aaron Spender. When the novel opens, Mel is late for work and her friend Nadine Wilcock, the managing editor George Sanchez and the style editor Dolly Vargas all send anxious, threatening e-mails to her, all for different reasons. 
        Her next door neighbour Mrs. Helen Friedlander is found facedown on the carpet of her apartment and Mel is with her in the hospital. The victim hasn't yet recovered her consciousness and so Mel is forced to walk the lady's Great Dane, Paco everyday and as a result is late always. She informs Mrs. Friedlander's super model nephew, Max, about the incident and the need to take care of the pets.
         Max is in vacation with her girl friend, Vivica and so obviously not in a nursing mood. He asks his millionaire friend John Trent to take his place in the apartment in return for a former favour. John is a crime reporter in the New York Chronicle, the main rival of Journal. He moves to Mrs. Friedlander's apartment and soon a relationship is underway between him and Mel.
          In the end Vivica spoils this identity secret to have her revenge on Max. Mel lashes out at John and they split up. Max occupies his aunt's apartment but Mel begins to doubt his intentions. By making a frienship with Vivica she finds out that Max has visited his aunt on the day of the attack.

Meg Cabot

          John's relatives are in a move together to join the lovers; his grandmother Genevieve forwords her grandson's e-mails which explains his attachment to Mel. The couple makes up the differences and brings Max to the justice. Story ends with Mel accepting the proposal of John.

One Night @ the Call Centre - Chetan Bhagat

Date of Reading: 08/04/2008

Author: Chetan Bhagat

Publisher: Reader's Digest Selected Editions

Place: Australia

Year: 2007

          I have never seen a single Chetan Bhagat fan who loves this particular book. As I am not an admirer ( and also this is an edited version of Reader's Digest), that might be the reason I find this his best work. Other day I attended a pre-Ph.D synopsis presentation on anti-globalisation in Indian literature and this was one of the selected works. It seems I am not alone.

          What is special about this one? All his other works are quite evidently autobiographical in which IIT and its entrance examinations play a major part and so this is a fresh breeze. More over,   there is the added element of supernatural; call me old fashioned, but I like a little bit of deu ex machina. Sometimes an outer help is relieving in this fast paced world. Like in 'Canterbury Tales' Chetan has succeeded in bringing together a section of Indian society in a simple setting. There is the weeping lover, sighing money maker, victimized daughter and daughter-in-law and the estranged father. On running after the much desired fame, money and reputation, they have forgotten something -- conscience and inner peace. This is their story of  finding what is needed most; simple with no adornments but truthful. 

    The author is travelling alone in the Kanpur-Delhi night train. Soon he is joined by a beautiful girl who has read his first book. She offers to tell a story on the condition that he must write on it. Chetan, though at first reluctant, agrees to hear her.
           Story revolves around a single night in a Call Centre. Six people work there on night shift at that chosen time -- Syam, Vroom (for Victor), Military Uncle, Priyanka, Radhika and Esha. Author takes the part of Syam and writes this story.
          Each has their own unique problems to suffer. Syam has just broken up with Priyanka after a long relationship and is not yet recovered. Seeing her everyday at work is not at all helping. Besides, their boss Bakshi is behaving rudely after taking credit for what Syam and Vroom has done together.
          Priyanka is compelled by her nagging mother to drop her relationship with Syam and now she is engaged to Ganesh, a man chose by her mother. Marriage is fixed for next month and that makes her worried as she does not know this would-be-husband guy that well.
          Radhika has passed over these jumping the broom troubles, but the married life is nothing as expected. For her husband's traditional family she has changed to sari, still that won't help with the mother-in-law problem. The old woman pours her husband's ear with her faults; in this particular night she finds out that her much beloved husband keeps a girl friend.
           Esha is in modelling too, and she has slept with a man in order to go forward in this career. Instead, the man sends some money as compensation and now she is haunted by guilt. She cannot meet Vroom who has an earnest interest in her.
          Vroom's parents have quarrelled today also, and that affects his mood. He has taken this job only for his money interest and is consequently can't find any satisfaction. Military Uncle, the quiet man, has a different woe to tell. He did not approve her daughter-in-law's modern ways and this conservatism has separated him from the family. Now he misses his grandchild.

          On the heap of this the news comes that they may lose their jobs too. To relax they go out together in the car which meets with an accident due to Vroom's uncontrolled, angry driving. The Qualis is struck in metal rodes and underneath is a deep pit. 
           Mobile does not have any signals, but Syam's  mobile suddenly beeps and the caller is identified as God. He makes them promise to live by listening to their inner voice and indirectly help them to escape. That makes a change.

Chetan Bhagat

          Their plan succeeds in saving the company and Vroom and Syam decide to start a web designing company together. Syam is joined with Priyanka, Radhika divorces her husband, Esha gives up modelling and devotes wholly to the Call Centre and the Military Uncle is rejoined with his son's family.
            Chetan guesses that the one who is sitting beside him is Esha. Soon the girl disappears, it was GOD.
--- the Bollywood movie 'Hello', directed by Atul Agnihotri, is based on this story, but produced an average response in Indian box office. 

North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell

Date of Reading: 16/10/2012

Author: Elizabeth Gaskell

Edited with an introduction by Angus Easson

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Place: Oxford

Year: 1982

Rating: 4/5

          Wow! At last Gaskell has succeeded where Dickens failed in 'Hard Times'. A romance novel set in the background of early industrial England is surely a daring achievement. Everything that matters to a superb story is at hand: the void between workers and masters, their lack of mutual trust which leads to strikes and proves fatal to both the parties and above all the presence of a saintly maiden who makes some change with the purity of her heart adds to the emotional appeal (it sounds Utopian, I know, but we need to think only of the reading pleasure).

          All in all the story is much similar to 'Pride and Prejudice'; situation is reversed though -- lady here is with pride and her man is prejudiced. Gaskell makes a striking contrast between the calm, beautiful countryside and the fast-moving, polluted city life. But she is not blind to the evils of the country or the much luxurious life of the workers in Milton. What they lack is a little bit understanding and consideration and that is where   Margaret Hale bridges the gap with her earnest spirit.

          After spending years of life with her aunt Mrs. Shaw and young cousin Edith, Margaret Hale comes back to live with her parents in the village of   Helstone. Her father is a clergyman there and they are quite at home with nature. But soon the position changes when her father turns into a dissenter and resigns his job. They move to the industrial town of Milton where Mr. Hale takes the vocation of a tutor. Margaret is averse to industrial settings but that does not prevent her from making a deep rooted friendship with Higgins family while her father finds a suitable companion in the rich mill owner, Mr. Thornton.        

           Once when Margaret tries to save Mr. Thornton from the mad strikers, he mistakes her gesture as a form of affection and proposes. Margaret, horrified at the idea, immediately rejects him. But Thornton can never stop loving her.            

               Frederick, her brother was in the Navy but as he led a mutiny against the ungenerous captain, he is an outcaste now. When Mrs. Hale lays dying he comes to visit in secret according to her wish but his abrupt leaving is noticed by Mr. Thornton and some others. He sees Margaret in the company of Frederick but mistakes them as lovers. Yet his intervention saves her from the awkward questioning of police on the death of Leonards who was struck by Frederick when the drunken man tries to capture him.

Elizabeth Gaskell

          Mr. Hale soon follows his wife and Margaret is financially protected by her godfather, Mr. Bell who owns almost all of Milton. After his death, as a heiress she resides with Aunt Shaw and cousin Edith.

          Meanwhile Mr. Thornton's position has sunk low as a result of the previous strike. His friendship with Higgins has improved his relationship with the workers, but a downfall cannot be helped. He comes to Margaret to give up his lease and she surprises him by accepting his hand.

--- Story is adapted by BBC as a serial in 2004, with Daniela Denby-Ashe as Margaret and Richard Armitage as Thornton.

My Name is Red - Orhan Pamuk

Date of Reading: 18/03/2008

Author: Orhan Pamuk

Publisher: Vintage

Place: USA

Year: 2002

           Excepting 'Snow' , this is my favourite novel of Pamuk. The style is unique as expected of Pamuk, giving us the views of each character (even that of the murderer which contains the clues of guessing him) and  without knowing we are transported to the splendour and religious intrigue of sixteenth century Istanbul.

          Throughout the book the narration is in first person with chapter headings like 'I am a Corpse', 'I am Called Black', 'I am a Dog' etc. The beginning chapters could be a bit confusing, but once you get the hang of it, nothing will stop you from reading this splendid work. An author is in a sense a preserver, and Pamuk does pickle up Istanbul's treasured past and memories.

         Story begins with the speech of a corpse who introduces himself as Elegant Effendi, a miniaturist whose body decays at the bottom of a well. He requests to find his  murderer and bury his body.

         Black Effendi, the protagonist, returns to Istanbul after twelve years on the request of his uncle Enishte Effendi, to complete the book of pictures he is working on. Black has fallen in love with his uncle's beautiful daughter Shekure and in a way this has caused his exile at the age of 24. Shekure later marries a soldier but nothing is heard of him these four years. Her brother-in-law has an eye on Shekure and so she is living in her father's house along with her two sons -- Shevket and Orhan.

         On this return Black is determined to marry Shekure, but his uncle has other concerns. Sultan had commissioned him to prepare a great book of pictures celebrating the glories of his realm, in Frank (European) style. As figurative art can be deemed an affront to Islam, this is a delicate task; Islam allows to portray a picture as Allah sees it to be.
          Murder of Elegant has increased the complications. Enishte is confident that one of the master miniaturists -- Butterfly, Stork, Olive -- is the real culprit. Task is now handed over to Black. Later Enishte also gets murdered. As it may force Shekure to return to her husband's family, they conceal the death until she procures a divorce and marry Black. After that the death is announced as a normal one. Black confesses everything to Sultan's treasurer and Sultan allows him three days to find the murderer.

         Master Osman, the head miniaturist identifies the picture of a horse found from the body of Elegant as Olive's. Olive tries to escape to Hindustan but on the way Hasan mistakes him as a friend of Black's and kills him. After 24 years of contented married life, Black passes away and his widow hands over the details to Orhan for his book.
         

Far from the Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

Date of Reading: 25/09/2012

Author: Thomas Hardy

Publisher: Peacock Books

Place: New Delhi

Year: 2010

          At last I found something enjoyable in Hardy. Oh! That he is a great author is indisputable, yet no one wants to be reminded of the wretchedness of human life or fate's play in all the books. He can be humorous, if he wants it seems.

          I won't put Bathsheba in the same pedestal with Tess; Hardy's prejudice against women is evident in her character creation also. Though brave, her mood shifts too much and so the lack of firmness of  character, much important to a woman, leads her to all these troubles. At times we suspect that the fate of Isabel Archer ('Portrait of a Lady') awaits her too, but it is lucky that Hardy was determined to make a happy ending. He tries to make some amends in the end saying that "she was of the stuff that great men's mothers are made. She was indispensable to high generation, hated at tea parties, feared in shops, and loved at crises". But here also she is just a great man's mother, not a great woman.

          No wonder the villain is named Troy. Like the Paris of Troy, he only knows how to woo women and create trouble. The war he and his Helen makes here almost destroys the life of poor Boldwood. Its pity that his fate is not much improved at the end too. Hardy is not without pessimism after all.
         All in all, I will recommend this to anyone who is interested in a different reading of Hardy. The music and beauty of rustic life, their idiosyncrasies and inconsistencies makes this the most humorous of Hardy's novels.

          The story revolves around young and amorous but capricious Bathsheba Everdene and her three suitors. At the beginning of the story she is but a poor maid and Gabriel Oak, then a farmer, proposes to her. Alas! she holds herself a little more worthy and rejects our hero. Later Oak is financially ruined when his sheepdog drives his folk over a cliff and on seeking the job of a shepherd, he finds it under the now wealthy Bathsheba.
          When she unwisely sends an anonymous valentine to her neighbour farmer Boldwood, he takes it seriously as to fall in love with her, though until then he was immune to the charms of the fair sex. Ashamed of her conduct, Bathsheba almost agrees to marry him, but then the dashing Sergeant Troy enters the scene. He was in love with Bathsheba's maid Fanny Robin but they fail to marry when she enters the wrong church for the ceremony. With a sudden impulse our heroine marries Troy.

          After several months Troy meets the pregnant, tired Fanny on wayside. She dies later on giving birth to a dead child. Bathsheba comes to know of her husband's former relation and she properly buries Fanny. Troy erects an elegant tomb for his beloved and wanders away. A rumour spreads that he is drowned.
         Boldwood uses the opportunity to renew his suits, but when he organises a Christmas party in honour of her, the supposed-to-be-dead husband reappears. He forces Bathsheba to return and she screams; Boldwood on losing his mind at this, shoots Troy dead. He is convicted to gallows but later Queen's mercy changes it to confinement. Bathsheba buries her husband with Fanny on the same place.

Thomas Hardy

         All through her troubles the hand that supported her was Oak's. When he resigns his job and tries to go away to work in his own farm, she realises that her friendship to him has turned to love. Novel ends with their quiet marriage.

Something to think about:

"He had passed the time during which the influence of youth indiscriminately mingles them in the character of impulse, and he had not yet arrived at the stage wherein they become united again, in the character of prejudice, by the influence of a wife and family. In short, he was twenty-eight, and a bachelor".

"It may have been observed that there is no regular path for getting out of love as there is for getting in. Some people look upon marriage as a short cut that way, but it has been known to fail".

"We learn that it is not the rays which bodies absorb, but those which they reject, that give them the colours they are known by; and in the same way people are specialized by their dislikes and antagonisms,whilst their goodwill is looked upon as no attribute at all."

"Women are never tired of bewailing man's fickleness in love, but they only seem to snub his constancy".