Book Corner

After a long hiatus I am back into reading (this is Ian by the way). Long train rides and a couple of English channels on TV tend to do that to you. Anyway, without further adieu, I just figured I would write a little on what I have read.

Obviously I am reading a lot about Asia right now, as it kind of seems appropriate.

Shadow of the Moon - M.M. Kaye

This was Nisha's favorite book she read growing up so she insisted that I read it at some point. I am glad I did because it is both a very good story, and gives you some good background about the British Raj, especially the Indian Mutiny of 1857. It is a love story book, so there is a fair amount of sappiness, but it is good none the less.

It is the love story of a officer in the British East India company and an Anglo-Spanish woman who was born in India then grows up in England before returning to her homeland. It is set around the 1857 rebellion, where the Indian regiments of the company rose up and killed their British leaders, before being suppressed eventually by loyal British troops. The rebellion ended the East India company and resulted in the direct crown control of India that lasted until 1947.

I was actually not a huge fan of the author's writing style, but the love story was well crafted. This book also gives you a lot of good history of the rebellion, as well as the atmosphere of India at the time. The shortcomings and attitudes that were the downfall of the British Raj are also probed in depth. R ecommended, unless you think the romance angle is not for you.

Shogun - James Clavell

I read this book many years ago and remembered it very fondly as one of the best books I ever read. Having now been to Japan, I re-read this behemoth. It was as satisfying now as it was back then.

Japan is obviously totally different, but one of the most interesting things about Shogun still applies when you go there in the 21st century. That is the question of who is really more civilized. In the book, the Englishman who lands in Japan first considers the locals to be primitive barbarians, but the thing is that the Japanese feel the same way about him. After a while, and many Onsen dips later, he looks at the dirt and grime of Europe at that time with total disdain. He remains an outsider, but the order and cleanliness or Japan make him question who is really all that civilized.

When you go there now, many of the same things still apply. You realize that their culture is so complex and their language so daunting that you will always be the outsider. However, all the positive things of Japan and the culture of order and cleanliness also make you question why we do some of the things we do at home. After a while you do start to get a little disgusted about wearing shoes inside and feel a little gross without your evening Onsen dip.

However, you also realize that the unpredictability of westerners, our non-conformity and our willingness to break out of tradition are rare qualities in Japan. They are for the main character of the book, and they still are today.

The Life of Mahatma Gandhi - Louis Fischer

Nisha read this first and then recommended it to me. It is a biography of Gandhi written in 1951, a few years after his assassination. The author is a journalist that knew and spent some time with Gandhi, giving him some interesting anecdotes to add to the biography.

Before I read this book my only impression of Gandhi was the same as most younger people. He was just some guy who walked around in a Dothi and somehow got the British to leave India. This book was really great to get a lot more knowledge about Indian independence and Gandhi's role. It is written by a fan of Gandhi, so it may not be completely balanced, but that love of Gandhi's vision brings a good passion to the book and the writing.

One of the main things that you take from the book is that the most amazing aspect of Gandhi is how he captured the soul of a nation without being a politician. He was involved in politics, but helping individuals and trying to fix the flaws that he saw in Indian society was his real passion. This passion was even more important to him then independence. He also did not openly pursue this role as moral authority for a people, he simply did what he thought was right and the authority came to him.

The other main thing for me is that although Gandhi succeeded in gaining independence, he ended his life distraught that he failed in letting the Partition of India occur. The idea that Hindus and Muslims could live together in peace was one of his most important missions. The partition and the 500,000 to 1,000,000 people who died were the marks of his failure.

It is also interesting to hear about a lot of the crackpot ideas that he had about medicine, food and health. I say crackpot because even he admitted that his ideas were as such. You realize that although he was a great man, it would not necessarily be a good thing for everyone to follow exactly in his footsteps. Even a great man can be wrong about many things, as Gandhi would be happy to admit.