Book Corner II

I have continued with my increased reading level since the last version of this column, so I thought I would catch up with what I have read since.

The Age of Kali - William Dalrymple

Nisha found this book first, and after hearing much about it I decided to keep on the Indian theme after the Gandhi autobiography. This book was also nice because it is a collection of short articles, so many stories almost read like a long Economist article.

Basically this book is a collection of stories from the premier English language author on India today, written as he was researching stories for books in the mid 90s. It is a little out of date because it portrays India as teetering on the edge of oblivion, when we now now that they following 12 years were one of the most prosperous in its history. However, the stories are very well written, and give a lot of insight into the darker sides of rural, traditional India. Also, there is a very interesting section on Pakistan that is very topical since it was written before 9/11.

My only real complaint with the book is that the author is certainly very sentimental, especially with the old coots who tell him tails of India many years ago. He is a historical fiction writer, so it is understandable, but he does not bring any prospective to the old tales of the glory of Lucknow, Hyderabad, etc. before independence. Things may have been better in those cities back in the day, but reading this book you would think the streets were paved in gold and the tap water was wine.

This is really my only complaint however, and this book really is a great way to get a lot of interesting history about the entire subcontinent. Just keep a little prospective on the ramblings of old men.

The Ramayana - R. K. Narayan

The Ramayana is one of the big epics of Hinduism and is referenced in paintings, songs and pretty much everything that has to do with Indian culture. Since I knew so little about it I looked around a bookshop and found this shortened English version of the epic written by a prominent Indian author. At only around 150 pages I figured it would we worth while to get a little background on Hinduism and read this book.

It reads a lot like the Roman and Greek mythology that you read in school. It is a tale of gods having fantastic battles in a mythical version of India. The story itself is a pretty basic tale of god meets girl, marries girl, rival god steals girl, good god takes girl back. It is somewhat entertaining, and does let you understand a lot more about Indian art and culture.

However, I did feel a little empty after reading it. Perhaps it is because it is so shortened, but even though I now know they basics of the Rama story, I do not really understand why it is of such great significance. Perhaps reading the whole epic makes the significance more clear, for me it was just a bunch of gods running around doing a bunch of stuff. Anyway, I found it to be useful, and brief, reading, but all in all, not essential.

Shalimar the Clown - Salman Rushdie

I know Salman Rushdie is mostly known in the US for his issues with the Ayatollah in the 80s, but as Nisha discovered, he should be known for his writing.

This book is the sordid tale of an American ambassador and a group of Kashmiri entertainers, spanning the trouble in Kashmir since Indian independence. It does a great job of being a real page turner, as well as feeling like literature. It also feels quite current since it deals with some of the issues of Islamic extremism that we deal with today.

The story is great in of itself, but the real star is Rushdies writing. His style is so fresh and modern, without being shallow. The first part of the book is one of the best constructed character introductions I have ever read. The whole story is set up as digressions to the climax of the book, which is at the beginning, intertwined with a fair amount of sarcasm and pop culture references. The rest of the book that follows is written in a more straight forward manner, but is still a tour de force.

Highly recommended.

Tai-Pan - James Clavell

After a time away from the big books, and in preparation for going to Hong Kong, I decided to tackle another James Clavell beast.

Tai-Pan is based in Hong Kong, 240 years after Shogun, but was actually written 9 years earlier. I will not hide the fact that I like James Clavell. I once again found this book to be an entertaining, swashbuckling, historical fiction romp. As reading Shogun makes you want to go to Japan, this book certainly increases your interest in Hong Kong.

Shogun and Tai-Pan are very similar. However, I would suspect that if you asked Clavell, he would tell you that the lessons he learned writing Tai-Pan were used to make improvements in Shogun. Probably the greatest thing about Shogun is how he seamlessly weaves together the many different characters and plot lines. Also, in Shogun the main protagonist is not the most important character to history, but rather an important bit player, which allows him to both look in the mind of Toranaga (the Shogun) but also leave him shrouded in mystery.

Tai-Pan is more of a standard novel, where the hero is the most important guy, and the whole book is pretty much focused around him. There are a lot of characters, but the vast majority of the writing is from the prospective of the Tai-Pan (meaning "big boss" in Chinese). It is still entertaining, but lacks the artfulness that brings Shogun to the next level.

If you want to read one Clavell book, I would still say to read Shogun first. It is the first one chronologically anyway.