The English Patient- Michael Ondaatje 

The English Patient is a novel written by Michael Ondaatje in 1992. The story line is set against a backdrop of World War II.

The story revolves around the main characters - The nameless English Patient, Nurse, Thief and Sapper, who are strikingly different in every way compared to each other, but the fate has brought them in this situation where they share some part of their lifetime together in a deserted, partly destroyed villa in Northern Italy. The story is disjointed, with starting somewhere and ending somewhere else, but always picking up the missing pieces of puzzle to bring out the beautiful end result. “The story tells the audience what they need to know when they need to know it” (2). This abstract way of describing the plot makes it very intriguing and keeps the readers hooked to the book.

Lost memory (or intentionally forgotten) of the English patient links the characters and explores their relationship in depth. After reading ‘Still me’ recently which I felt was very superficial when it came to exploring emotions and relationships, this book dived deeper into the intricacies of human relationship, how each person is connected to the other, and how past interlinks with present and the grim experiences of wartime Europe. It leaves readers perplexed about the futility of war. They say, ‘All’s fair in love and war’. But when love and war themselves are battling each other which one is going to win? It also gives an inkling to how loving and losing someone or something and the war experiences change an individual. It doesn’t give description of what the change is like, but it manifests in the way characters appear and behave without even knowing that they have changed. 

The writing in itself is beautiful, although I felt it was quite a hard book to read. I am not ashamed to say that I had to use dictionary at several points to understand some of the words. The words emerge like a whiff of wild scent, surround us, frustrate us, fascinate us and etch in our memory. Whole experience of reading this book left me melancholic and ruminating.

I have read about the film version as well, and cannot wait to watch it. I think there are some important variations compared to the book while keeping the main structure of the book alive. Nevertheless it will also be an interesting experience to actually watch the story and give faces to the voices in my head.

References

1. The English Patient- Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_English_Patient )
2. The English Patient (1996)- Deep focus review (https://deepfocusreview.com/definitives/the-english-patient/ )

Mocking Jay- Review

‘Very disappointed’. I am surprised that I gave 2 stars. Usually I tend to be liberal with my reviews, or have I become more conservative with the increase in number of books I am reading. This one certainly didn’t live up to my expectation of Grand finale. Is it because I miss old peeta so much? Is it because it made me hate Katniss more than ever? Or Am I being too judgemental?

I had a really hard time understanding what was happening. Well, that’s not totally unpredictable considering my inability to read in between the lines (I am working on it, really!). But the writing is not up to the mark with it being quite chaotic, repetitive and unsatisfying even. The story line which I thought would be riveting is only fair at the most. I am sure Suzanne Collins could do better.

The first book was marvellous, really amazing! What a gripping tale, strong almost strong characters. I loved each and every one including Gale and Katniss despite me being the one for ‘Team Peeta’. The second book made me adore Peeta, lost a little confidence with Katniss, but overall was a reasonable read.

There was such a good plot, so much hype and build up for something great to be discovered, but I felt utterly let down by the 3 rd book. Except for few scenarios here and there, Katniss is adrift in the realms of self-loathing and self-pity, throughout the book. This is not the Katniss we were introduced to in ‘The Hunger games’. Many of the scenes are so lame if I can call that. May be I am too old to be reading teenage stuff, but still I thought that they deserve better. The ending is exactly what I Imagined wanted it to be when I finished the first book. Nevertheless I am far from being content. Because the ending seems so incongruent and unreasonable. Well, in my view this Mocking Jay didn’t deserve neither Gale nor Peeta.

I actually want to rant about what all I would like to change in the story, but that would be showing too much spoilers there. (Hint: Lot less killing and of course, complete makeover of Katniss’s attitude towards others and herself). OK, fine, I will just stop now with one more line. It’s Ok, but it could be better.

-Sh

DON QUIXOTE- A REVIEW

Many thanks to Stockton reading challenge which made me revisit my childhood memories and read a novel which I devoured as a child. I still remember frantically searching for books that I could read among the heap of old newspaper at the paper recycling shop during my school days. I got all excited when I found this amazing novel mainly because of its reputation during the time of revolution (We were reading all about the revolution, Cervantes’s Don Quixote and Dante’s Divine Comedy at school and I could boast that I read one of them!!) It didn’t fail to live up to my expectation then and it didn’t fail now either.

It’s amazing, how a person could create such unique characters. Knight and the Squire who are made for each other with their lively conversations. It’s hard not to be respectful of the Knight, Don Quixote de la Mancha, Knight of the Lions, formerly known as Knight of the Long face. Mad yet polite, Brave yet humorous... The novel, although written 400 years ago, still feels fresh as grass, and so relevant. There is the right dose of Courage, insanity, humour, heart-warming nobility and striking reality. I thoroughly enjoyed the read. Long live the knight errant! Long live the Squire!! And long live Cervantes!!!

Chickenfeed by Minette Walkers: A review

I read Chickenfeed recently as a part of world book night campaign in my local library. Here we are supposed to pick up a book based on the review by others (you wouldn’t know which book it is until you open at home to start reading it). I deliberately picked up a smaller book as I hardly get time to read. I can take ages to finish a novel at times. But this book, luckily, was a quick read, literally!!

It’s a good read, couldn’t put it down at all. One of the very few books I have read in one stretch. I assume it was partly because it was a quick read and the other fact that it was very compelling made it difficult to pause. Although I knew what would happen at the end, even before starting the novel, I would like to think I was in a slightly better position in comprehending what had happened and the reasons behind it.

Minette Walkers has painted a very lucid picture of the character Norman Thorne and Elsie Cameron. Pretty normal sounding guys right? Well, they are!! But, don’t you think it is difficult to define normalcy. The understanding of these two characters is the fundamental basis of this novel. Story flows seamlessly and one would be so absolved in the psyche of the characters. When you are finished, I am sure there will be a can of worms digging in your little brain.

The story is simple- a crime/ suicide? Not sure. It’s a true story that happened many a decades ago in Crowborough in UK. You can easily look up the story online. After reading, this novel actually made me get off my seat and search for the actual story online. Some believe that Norman Thorne is innocent and Elsie was a tad bit crazy (sorry for the choice of words- probably suffering from a mental health disorder which was not accurately diagnosed/ treated). But Some others hold onto their intense belief that Norman Thorne was the killer. I don’t blame either, as they have their own reasons. This is a novel where in the true story is retold by the above characters as protagonists, and this is their story. We wouldn’t probably be able to understand what exactly happened as they both are long dead now. But after finishing the novel, I don’t deny that I sometimes wonder if Norman Thorne’s life was wasted at a young age of 22.

Its very easy to like Norman. What’s not to like in a young 19 yr old, made redundant of a proper job, trying to hold his platform, struggling to set up a career by himself? But there are lots of mistakes he made throughout his short life. Falling in love with Elsie is not one among them. When you have just fallen in love, you don’t realise what kind of personality your loved ones exhibit (in long term). By the time you understand that this relationship is too fragile and worst of all, dangerous to both, it might be too late. Norman had multiple opportunities to break up with Elsie, but he didn’t want a confrontation, he just wanted an easy way out which was agreeing to all her whims. If he couldn’t get out of it in the beginning, it’s obvious that he wouldn’t be able to get out of it later. I don’t understand why he didn’t see that coming. On the rare chance that he had married Elsie, I still think the end would be almost similar (or may be opposite). Will killing chickens all day had filled him with so much apathy towards a living being that he didn’t flinch while cutting her into pieces and then burying her? Or did she turn him into a person who not only didn’t love her, but had lost all respect towards her as a human being? This one fact is not very justifiable if we want to prove him not guilty.

Coming to Elsie, with her possessiveness, mentality of blaming others for her faults, and her constantly fluctuating emotions with threats of self harm, she comes across as overbearing and eccentric. Most of the traits of her character correlates with the Borderline personality disorder. People close to her, especially her parents, could have identified it and possibly sought medical help earlier. I do feel sympathetic towards her, but it’s hard to like her (atleast in the novel). But that doesn’t mean someone could just kill her because of that. People are different and many a times difficult. We always have a choice whether to do what we want to do or not (I stress we do have choice but we choose one decision over the other, influenced by many things- your past, present circumstances, how it would affect your loved ones and so on).I am not saying what happened actually, because I don’t know. This novel doesn’t promise you the truth behind the crime, doesn't tell you who did what(if that's what you are looking for), but it gives an idea, or lets put it this way, It gives a better understanding of the people involved and their circumstances. After all, we are the puppets of our circumstances, right?

-Sh

P.S: This is only my opinion, and I have the right to my opinion. I am not pointing fingers or making assumptions. If you don’t agree, Please comment in the comment box so we can have a discussion rather than you know?