Dear Reader - October reads and November releases
What you're reading is work in progress, which means I'm still figuring out the how's and why's of this newsletter. Here's what isn't fuzzy: Dear Reader will have lists of new books coming out that month and some chatter about older books. Of the new releases, some I'll have read and if I have, I'll tell you how I liked them. Some, you'll want to add to your reading list. Occasionally, the twain shall meet, but whether or not our reading habits are aligned, I'm hoping if you're interested in picking up a book, you'll find this newsletter useful.
I've been in touch with most of the big Indian publishers to ask for their lists, but if you have a book that you'd like me to list, please get in touch via Twitter (@dpanjana) or my website. If you've got suggestions for the newsletter, they're most welcome too. Like I said, work in progress. ***
Alright then, October. The irony of starting this newsletter after a month that's been all about watching movies and then recovering from watching said movies (it's all Mumbai Film Festival's fault) is not lost on me, but we've got to start somewhere, right?
You have no idea how relieved I was that the new Magnus Chase came out before Mumbai Film Festival started. I don't know how I would have managed five films a day and finishing Ship Of the Dead (Puffin. I'm a huge fan of Rick Riordan's writing. He's a myth junkie (same pinch) and I love how he keeps these ancient stories alive. There are a lot of dark, complicated issues that Riordan tackles in his books, but I can't remember ever feeling like he was giving me a lecture on a subject or telling me how to judge someone. Plus, he's a really, really funny writer. Drawing on Norse mythology, in the Magnus Chase series there are abusive fathers, negligent mothers, happy families, broken hearts, tremendous violence, bloodlust and, of course, death. Magnus is dealing with a lot of darkness, as are most of his companions, but this never overwhelms either characters or the story.
Also, I'm totally crushing on Alex Fierro, with their fluid gender identity. Just think about that for a moment. In mainstream, entirely popular young adult literature, there's a character who sometimes feels male and sometimes feels female. Forget young adults, reading Alex is an education for grown-ups because there's a directness in the way Riordan approaches issues like gender fluidity that doesn't shy away from the difficulties but still offers acceptance to the character. Especially through Alex Fierro and the way they're seen by Magnus and the rest of the gang, Riordan is normalising something that's deeply stigmatised and usually avoided in regular conversation.
So yes, loved Magnus Chase: Ship of the Dead. It's the third in the series, after The Sword of Summer and The Hammer of Thor.
While in the realm of fantasy, I picked up The Liar's Weave by Tashan Mehta (Juggernaut) simply because of its gorgeous cover. Unfortunately, reading the book wasn't as effortless an experience. Set in British India, this is an alternative history set in an India where the magical is real and normal. Zahan Merchant has the curious power to make those around him believe his lies are the truth. This means with his lies, he can actually alter the perception of reality and so he could potentially alter the course of the future. This is a great premise, but there are more serpentine sentences tangled in poetry than there is plot. And there's a description of an enchanted forest that's just teeming with exotic cliches — tribals, drums, painted faces, strange rituals, dancing, intoxication; you name it, it's there. My eyes almost rolled out of their sockets when I was reading that part.
On the other hand Bloodprint (Harper Voyager) by Ausma Zehanat Khan was a lot easier to get into, although it takes a while to get out of it since it's 425 pages long. Set in an imaginary landscape that's reminiscent of Central Asia, Khan's heroine is Arian, who must find a relic called Bloodprint, the only manuscript of a magical text known as The Claim. You'd think that a quest with a woman warrior as its hero would feel new, but Khan can't keep from using some standard tropes, like of course our heroine is pale and beautiful with a black sidekick whom no one pays attention to (gah); and but naturally, all the men are in love with our heroine (double gah). Still, it's not a struggle to get through this tome and in the last 100 pages, things get particularly interesting.
Closer to the real world, I had to read Call Me By Your Name (Picador) after watching the film. The book was published back in 2007 and is a coming-out story, nestled in a romance between a young adult and a young man. You'd have to be inhuman to not be charmed by the setting — a villa in rural Italy with orchards, ponds, and an army of domestic help that conjure up fabulous meals. Add to this hot young men. It's almost a Mills & Boon in the way it immerses itself in a world of unreal prettiness where the greatest trauma is a subtle come-on being rebuffed. Except André Aciman has a way with words that no Mills & Boon author I've encountered can match, and that — along with the fact that this is a gay romance — makes Call Me By Your Name high art. There are some beautiful passages and Aciman does a great job of creating this voice that's filled with adolescent energy. And that peach bit? Freud shed a single tear in proud admiration somewhere in the afterlife. Gorgeous and lush as the book is, I have to admit that I found it verging on sentimental in parts. But that's probably because I'm a crotchety old curmudgeon. Quite, quite lovely.
Poetic flourish is the name of the game in Traitor (Tranquebar Press), a translation of an Urdu novel by Krishan Chander. It's a slim little thing with an astonishingly bad cover. I'm not sure if it's Rakshanda Jalil's translation or Chander's original writing, but the prose is gummy with lyricism. Part of the reason that the style feels awkward is that novels and storytelling have changed since 1960, when Chander's book was published. It's no longer standard operating procedure to have a hero standing in the middle of carnage and lapse into a poetic description of migrant birds. What is fascinating about Traitor though is Chander's hero, Baijnath. Not only is he morally flawed (he's a married man having an affair, with a Muslim woman who effectively saves his life), through Baijnath, Chander shows how a suave cosmopolitan gent can become one of the frenzied mob. I have to admit, the more I read, the more I wanted to rewrite Traitor, polishing it so that the interesting facets shone.
My pick of this month's reading list has to be Jeffrey Eugenides's first published volume of short stories, Fresh Complaint. Eugenides delivers to us the package that is the modern American dream. Money is an obsession that ties many of the stories together. Fissured marriages are another. The men in the volume are mostly unlikeable idiots and yet you feel empathy for some of them because Eugenides often writes from their point of view. As a result, their flaws are revealed to us slowly, with elegant subtlety and frequently, wicked humour. "Air Mail", "Baster", "Great Experiment" and "Capricious Gardens" are cracklingly good. The one I had most trouble with came at the end. It's about a professor who is accused of raping a girl of Indian origin, and the case follows a predictable and regrettable route. It's not among the most persuasively-written in the novel and it's worth noting that Eugenides doesn't whitewash the professor. Still, it left me with a bitter aftertaste. After all, the the last we see of the girl is her crying, alienated from her family and facing an uncertain future, while the professor gets the last word because Eugenides ends the story with him taking a step towards stability. I wonder if someone with more conservative leanings than mine would read this story differently. Who knows? ***
NEW BOOKS IN NOVEMBER
Bloomsbury India - Non-Fiction
Ambedkar, Gandhi and Patel: The Making of India’s Electoral System by Raj Shekhar Vundru
Indian history, documents the evolution of electoral history in colonial and independent India.
Becoming China: The Story Behind the State by Jeanne-Marie Gescher
Non-fiction, how China’s image of itself and its relations with the outside world is derived from 60 years of Communism and the an older, more diverse history.
Demonetization: Modi’s Political Masterstroke by Pankaj Sharma and Saurav Sanyal
Non-fiction, dissects the political implications of demonetisation.
Yoga Guru to Swadeshi Warrior: The True Story of Baba Ramdev by Sandeep Deo
Biography, or maybe hagiography considering the blurb includes lines like “If Baba Ramdev would have been in any other country then there would have been so many Universities that would have done PhD on his life history.”
Harper Collins India - Fiction
The Whispering Room by Dean Koontz
Thriller, sequel to The Silent Corner.
East of Hounslow by Khurrum Rahman
Thriller, first in a series about an “accidental jihadist”.
Little Secrets by Anna Snoekstra
Crime and mystery, contains creepy dolls that look like miniatures of real kids.
Coldmaker by Daniel A Cohen
Science fiction, first in a three-book series.
The Midnight Bell by Jack Higgins
Thriller, sequel to Rain on the Dead.
No Man’s Land by Simon Tolkien
Historical fiction, debut novel by JRR Tolkien’s grandson. No elves in sight.
The Birthday Girl by Sue Fortin
Thriller, set in a remote cottage where a group of friends realise one of them is a murderer.
***
Dear Reader will be back next week, with more new books and more nattering. Thanks for reading.