Haruki Murakami’s “Norwegian Wood”

I enjoyed Haruki Murakami’s sad novel “Norwegian Wood”. A confession first: I had avoided Murakami for a long time after hearing from many that his fractured narratives make a difficult read. I’m not fond of non-linear plot and all those mind games and magical realism stuff (Murakami’s signature style) don’t appeal me. But this novel is different. Toru’s loneliness and his meeting with strange characters like Storm Trooper, Nagasawa, Midori, Naoko, Reiko and others kept me hooked to the story. Sadness experienced by Toru and his non-attachment with people along with the death hanging over the narrative can subject the sensitive reader to gloom and can prove off-putting. However, Murakami’s spiritual commentary on anomie brought about by the modern time and space and the inadequacy of physical love (there is plenty of hardcore sex in the novel) to relieve one of boredom is excellent. Quirky characters make this novel interesting.  

Carlos Ruiz Zafón's "The Shadow of the Wind"

Spanish writer Carlos Ruiz Zafón's thrilling novel "The Shadow of the Wind" is one of the best reads. Translated into English by Lucia Graves, this novel of epic proportion pays homage to writing and creative process.

Daniel is a young bookkeeper who stumbles across a novel named "The Shadow of the Wind" by an obscure writer Julian Carax. After being fascinated by the novel, Daniel looks for other works by the writer but finds that someone has been destroying every copy of every novel the writer has written. Even Daniel's life  is put on edge various times during his search for the elusive writer. A fearsome police officer Xavier Fumero threatens Daniel's life as there is a history of hatred between Fumero and Carax. But the revelation of the book-destroyer towards the end comes as a shock to the reader .

The novel is not trapped into the conventions of the genre as its lyrical style and play with various emotions testify. Multiple stories are nested within one another and they unravel in a fascinating manner. Never does the reader come across a dull moment in the novel. Highly recommended!

Prashant Jha’s “Battles of the New Republic

Prashant Jha’s book “Battles of the New Republic” left me depressed; no, no the book is excellent but Nepali politics sucks. Throughout the book, Jha shows that all our political developments are at the mercy of our southern neighbor. This begs the question: Are we even independent?

As a political reporter, Jha had unparalleled access to key actors in Nepali politics and he was even in contact with Indian spooks who had greater hand in Nepali politics than imagined. All of them categorically confirm that Nepali politicians were/are mere puppets at the hands of Indian masters. However, by focusing on Indian hand so much, Jha may have missed the angle of Western intervention. 

Jha is all for change in current political dispensation. While Nepal certainly progressed from being a Hindu Kingdom to a secular republic but things have not changed much in the ground. The writer had pinned much hope in Maoists and Madheshi forces to usher in vital changes in the country but they too were splintered in several factions and were rather co-opted by the old system they were trying to change in the first place. He is a little disappointed with this.

Jha’s extensive analysis of the Madheshi movement helps gain the knowledge of pains and anger the community feels. But the narrow casteist politics of Madheshis as exposed by Jha makes the reader conclude that left to themselves, Madheshis will leave the region in lurch.

I was mesmerized by the lucid prose style of the writer in the book. Even if this book seems to be intended for the audience outside Nepal, even Nepali readers will get a clear perspective of our politics by reading it.

Akhil Sharma's "Family Life"

This appeared in Republica on December 5, 2014:

http://myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=87964

The famous first line of Leo Tolstoy’s masterpiece “Anna Karenina” reads, “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way”. This holds true for Akhil Sharma’s second novel “Family Life”. The novel tells the story of a migrant family of Indian origin in the US having its unique trouble that feeds unhappiness in the family and unravels it. The sad tale of the family, however, is not aimed at exploiting readers’ emotions like a cheap tearjerker; rather it uplifts their spirit with the undying belief in life.

The Mishra family, consisting of parents and two sons, Birju and Ajay, move to greener pastures in America in the 1970s. The stifling atmosphere of the Emergency period in India motivates them to emigrate. America is full of hope and promise and the family starts chasing the American Dream. 

Birju, the older son, is an academically brilliant person with a great future potential. But an accident in the swimming pool (where his head struck the cement bottom and he left stunned for three minutes) leaves him brain-damaged. His motor ability suffers a fatal blow and he is forced to take to the bed forever.

This accident hits the family hard. Ajay is left to pick up the pieces of a life torn apart. He does not know what to do and how to grow up in a strange country. The father becomes a drunk. The mother loses sight of everything else and only wants to take care of Birju.


Ajay, from whose point of view the novel is written, refuses to be devastated by this tragedy. Instead, he loses himself to the world of books. It is a convenient escape from the suffering. “I was always lost in a book, whether I was actually reading or imagining myself as a character. If bad things happened, like Birju developing pneumonia and having to wear an oxygen mask, I would think that soon I would be able to go back to my reading and then time would vanish and when I reentered the world, the difficult thing would be gone or changed.”

He “discovers” Ernest Hemingway and is enamored with the works of this great writer. Emulating Hemingway’s sparse style, he writes his own stories about his family (in fact, Sharma adopts this style for the whole novel). The power of art in healing life’s wounds is succinctly emphasized. Besides this love for books, he falls for girls, gets acquainted with the popular American culture, and chats with God and daydreams. These coping mechanisms enable him to transcend the life-shattering grief in the family.

Birju´s tragedy defines the life of his family so much that Ajay has to fulfill his elder brother´s dream of getting good grades and being useful to the family. Denied of parental love after the tragedy, Ajay fends for himself and studies diligently. However, the bedridden Birju continues to haunt Ajay even after achieving something in life, making him feel as if he were living a vicarious life. "That spring I was continuously aware that if the accident had not occurred, Birju would be graduating from college, that he would be applying to medical schools. The awareness was like a physical sensitivity, like when your back is hurting and you are careful all the time how you take a step". The Indian values of emphasizing family over the individual may have influenced Ajay´s thoughts. However, Ajay´s loss of the self is regained towards the climax.

The novel deals with migration at two levels. At the apparent level, an Indian family´s emigration to America brings along with it the issues of difficulties in cultural adaptation, "We even discussed what part of a dog a hot dog must be made of". Ajay is bullied by the white boys in school because of his color. The father aggressively pushes the family for assimilation into the American society. He makes his sons watch American news channels every evening and asks them to play tennis as he considers the game to be played by the rich. The family is slowly Americanized.

At the deeper level, the migration from happiness to grief characterizes the Mishra family. The single traumatic event defines the family and misery takes the center stage. The members of the family become clueless after the event and lapse into their idiosyncrasies. The father drowns his grief in drinking while the mother turns to religious superstition and miracle workers. They keep fighting with one another most of the time. But with the passing time, they learn to live with their grief.

This novel deals with a dark and maudlin matter but the reader is not bogged down in the narrative because Sharma sprinkles humor at times. For instance, Ajay and his mother tease Birju for not paying attention when they play cards by his bedside, at other times they accuse him of being lazy for never getting out of bed. This dark humor shows the lighter side of human nature that is not suppressed by tragedies. The acceptance of life in all its forms and the power of love and hope that works as a beacon in the darkness of despair elevate the novel to the first grade work of art.

Naseeruddin Shah's memoir "And Then One Day"

Naseeruddin Shah’s memoir “And Then One Day” left me desiring for more. Shah has focused more on his personal life and failed to give equal consideration to his professional life. I wanted to learn more about the films he played and his reactions to them. The reactions (mostly negative) are there but he talks nothing about his career after 1980s.

Shah feels himself a misfit in Hindi film industry where people who don’t know their onions rule the roost and produce cat’s vomit that goes by the name of commercial cinema. He feels comfortable only in so-called “art-cinema” (he waxes eloquent about the movie “Sparsh”). Ruthlessness in passing judgment on others and even on himself is the hallmark of his memoir. The strained relationship with his father perhaps makes him a tempestuous man of temper who is garrulous and disobedient to directors in film sets.

However, the warm appreciation he shows for fellow actors Om Puri, Shabana Azmi (barring one place where he criticizes her acting), Smita Patil and some others is delightful. His frank observations of Indian theater and movies show us the murky reality of the show business. His command over the English language is superb and the memoir consists of delightful phrases and sentences. He could have written more.