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The reckoning by John Grisham

Book review

Rating 3.5/5

Spoilers- The only spoiler is why and for that you must read this small print 500 pages diary!

So the most favourite Son of a farming town gets up calmly one fine day and Shoots the most respected Minister. That’s not the spoiler! That’s even given in the back cover! Now rummage though 500 pages to read why!

If an act of passion is your answer and everyone else’s from the very beginning of the book then you are in for a double shock!

The setting is a cotton producing town during the black and white and world war II era.

Since it’s John Grisham, rest assured that you will be treated to a detailed retelling of the process and procedures of the court and since it is set more than 50 years back it’s different to say the least!

With shades of his earlier work like Time to kill and more recently, the confession this one takes gloom and despair to bigger levels. Not one page has even a lasting moment of happiness or hope. The gloom reminds me of both Camino island and Rooster bar. John Grisham has decided to be melancholic and it shows as you slowly turn the pages of this tear jerker.

The description of the exploits of America and Japanese during the war though sad and brutal has been executed in the style of Ken Follett! And that’s a great thing since John Usually sticks to get court and lawyers! The end note by him mentions couple of books on this and am guessing that’s his source material!

It’s always a challenge to read such Book where not the whodunit but why did he or she do it is the thing which is racking your brain and giving you insomnia!

If you want to save yourself the torture then you can just skip to the last two pages which will give you your answer! Or you can just enjoy the journey rather than worry too much about the destination!

My only concern was that John gave more than 500 pages for mundane things and I was scared whether just two pages of climax was enough! Thank you for not leaving us Murakamised! (I have invented this term for novels mostly written by Murakami with surreal endings!!)

In the recent times I had like Street lawyer which was like the Lincoln lawyer and The Writing guidelines in Camino Island was real cool.

This one may not have been his best but it certainly ranks better than his works like Gray mountain or The Confession. But the charm of his earlier works like The Firm or Runaway Jury or The king of Torts is missing.

Regular Grishamites can lap it up while the others can take the short cut and read the first and the last chapters!

Non spoiler PS!: This may have been a true story or inspired by one!

Sputnik sweetheart by Haruki Murakami

Book review

Rating 3/5 (a Murakami fan would give maybe 4/5 because of a bold narrative!)

Spoilers- it’s Murakami! It can’t be spoiled since most of the thinking and imagination will be done by the reader!

In a narrative reminiscent of his previous works, Murakami describes the one sided love of a young girl known as Sumere and a man who is the chief narrative simply known as k!

Then there are characters who may or may not be real! Or it is very possible that the characters are real but these two protagonists are imaginary! That’s Murakami!

Of course some essence usually gets lost in translation but am sure even in Japanese only essence maybe found and not sense!

Only one more main character is present called as Miu! Now my Indian brain first thought that this was a guy but later turned out to be a gal! Which was a deviation from classic Murakami since he describes an almost classic rendering of true love albeit lesbian!

He had made similar sexual inclinations in Norwegian wood but in sputnik he had gone direct and straight! (I mean gay!) Which is of course a change of times so to speak!

Just when you may think that this may be a different Murakami, he does a Kafka and an IQ84 and introduces his famed parallel world or parallel imagination!

The first half is completely Sumere and her lesbian fantasy while the final half is the journey and subsequent destination (this is Murakami so not the end!) Of K!

To be fair though in this one there is a partial sense of fulfillment though most of the closure and questions are literally left in the sky!

And yeah the novel has nothing to do with Sputnik or Sweetheart! Wasn’t that clear!!?… Good…. That means you have been Murakamised!!

Taking a break from Murakami to get back to reality and also since John Grisham’s new book is released!

Have fun reading this (for Murakami fans!) Or not (for everyone else!)…..

Men without women stories by Haruki Murakami

Short Stories Collection

Book review

Spoilers- You can never have spoilers in Murakami stories!

Rating- 3/5 (If this was my first Murakami I would have given it negative rating! But I know what to expect so it’s a fair and neutral 3! For a Murakami fan like always it would be 8-10/5!!)

Some time back I was following a car and like always I noticed the bumper sticker! I love bumper stickers mostly in the big vehicles! They are cool guides! Mostly though it will just be some common things like SOUND HORN OR DRIVE SLOWLY! but in this case it was written, “don’t follow me! I don’t know where I am going!”

That’s Murakami for you! He will start by sometimes describing the most minute details like in the first story about a lonely actor (not a spoiler by any stretch!) He describes women driver and after a description of three paragraphs he finally gets to the point! Only to shock you with the abrupt end! And in the end the driver being a woman is of little consequence! If it was Higashino am sure that the girl driver would have turned out to be the actor’s lost daughter!

Now a book called men without women would obviously have men in situations where women have either died or left or just gone Back to reality (since it’s Murakami!) So that’s not a spoiler in any count!

If cliffhanger is the theme then Murakami is the king! So he continues in the subsequent stories like the second one describing a lonely guy whose close friend tells him to go on a date with his girlfriend! And just when you think it’s bizarre Murakami again you are struck with a time warp! And twenty years later it’s status quo! You would then say much ado about nothing!!

Then you have the doctor who has loveless affairs all over without marriage and finally the one love he had gives him the boot!

You then have a story about a guy and a bar and an unfaithful wife added by cats (his favourite just like in Kafka on the shore!) And snakes! And a rare closure! Just kidding! No closure here! Imagine what you can and go to the next story!

You get some common themes in many stories. The lady or the married gal or the housewife is having an affair! And turns out to be a Heartbreaker or a sea creature (Sea Sucking Eel!). It is apparent that women and marriage are things that don’t impress Murakami or he doesn’t have high opinion of either.

Then in an ode to Kafka he has a sequel to the Samsa of METAMORPHOSIS! again starts with a bang and doesn’t end! Yes! That’s Murakami for you! It’s like life! There is no closure! It’s a flow! Just because the pages have finished doesn’t mean that the story has to end! The show must go on!

The book ends with the story named after the book, men without women! Of course here also great space is given on the affair of the man and woman but how and when she dies is just left unanswered! The impact it had on the man is reflected.

It’s like a soap opera to which you are hooked and the time for the particular episode to end is near! You grit your teeth fervently hoping that it doesn’t end in those three dangerous words!…TO BE CONTINUED! With Murakami it is that and also the fact that it will not be continued or closed! Make your own conclusions!

Once apparently Murakami looked in the sky and thought why it should not rain fishes! And lo it did in his Kafka novel! Whether it makes sense or not, it’s something to ponder about that Murakami sometimes writes whatever comes to his mind without any inhibition! Maybe that’s why he has such a fan following and also maybe why an equal number of people would like to rip out their hair after reading his books!! As far as I am concerned, I like my hair and sanity so I will just remain neutral!

Since it’s a short story collection I have this great fear that the story will end now! Or now! Every page gives me a dread of being the last page! And of course my fear gets realized when it does turn out to be the end! You would ask, so what happened!!? The answer would be… You have been Murakamised!!

Kafka on the shore by Murakami

Book review

Mild spoilers

Rating 3/5 (only because I am not a fan of this genre! For a fan of this genre the rating would have been 10 out of 5! )

Before reading this one which is apparently one of his best works, I had finished the highly acclaimed Norwegian wood (which I felt was a total let down!) And then IQ84 (A mammoth of close to 2000 pages of mayhem and fantasia!). This is my third Murakami and by now I have at least understood what to expect from him!

So though I am not swimming in the Murakami sea!; I am gently floating on the surface without thinking of drowning! If that makes sense then welcome to the Murakami world!

Also about this book, Murakami has told that you may need to read this over and over again to understand the book! In the days of Twitter and Instagram I really don’t think many have time or patience to read any book as bizarre as this even once (but I do know many who have read this one many times! Now that’s a pickle!)

So you have a kid who is 15 with mental age of a big guy who runs away and is still running away from home, reality and everything else! and (like IQ84) this one also has a parallel track of another dude who is around 60 but with the mental age of a kid who cannot read!

So while the first one talks to his alter ego (of imagination or maybe a real crow! I or Murakami doesn’t really know or care!!) which is a crow! And the other dude can talk to cats! (At least in the beginning when nothing makes sense! )

It starts with a modern reimagination or retelling of the Oedipus Rex story with bizarre twists and if you had cringed with Oedipus complex then here you will just retch (or not if you are Murakami fan and this is just a CONCEPT!)

So in the usual Murakami style you have talking cats, talking stones and even a dog which can do telepathy!

You have the regular worm hole like phenomenon where reality and imagination overlap!
It’s your routine bizarro world where like the dream theatre album, the dream and day unite!

I am truly amazed though at the frank sexual innuendos and fantasies! The description of other books and musical stories are pretty vivid and well put. It definitely shows that the author is well read if nothing else. Even the simple description of rain or beach or even a poem is so abstract that you either love it or hate it! I have learned to tolerate it!

According to The Guardian there will be three types of people after reading this one! First who will like the book and Murakami and rave about it and support it with full intent! The second are the neutrals while the third are the ones who will ask themselves why they had to torment themselves so much and hate both the book and Murakami!

I have felt all the above in different pages of this book! But I have never been able to understand the hype (apparently neither can Murakami!)

In the end you have more questions than answers! You have to use your own imagination to fill in the gaps! If it’s answers you are searching for then you will be sorely disappointed! But then you don’t read Murakami to get answers!

Basically, the reader, the story and the writer are in their respective fantasy worlds! So just read and don’t try to make sense! This is not the Kiego Higashino world where 1+1=2! Here everyone and everything is simply on the dream and fantasy shore!…. Just like kafka!

Some may find it a bore! Some may read it many times more! But one thing is sure that it will shake you to the core!

Kashi by Vineeth Bajpai..

Book review

Mild spoilers…. None to change the course of your opinion though!

Rating…3/5

Finally the adventure which started with one book got its final season in this one! (Or is it!!?)

My daughter Kashika lept up in Joy seeing the title of the book thinking that I bought this one because of her!

In the same treatment as with his earlier works like Pralay and Harappa; Vineeth takes the gore many steps further and gives a generous dose of death and mayhem!

The battle scenes and the description of the chief villian reminds me of the beast villian and war scenes of Bahubali!

Though I pre ordered this one, I could get to it only couple of days back and I had to brush through the previous books to remind myself of the story till now!

The fact that both Patala prophecy by C Doyle and Kalchakra by Ashwin were also written on similar lines, it was a miracle that I did not mix up the characters and story with this book!!

So Vidyut who is the original hero and Devta has been shown to be taking over the mantle of humanity! A parallel track describes Manu in a similar manner!

The middle description of scriptures in the style of Ashwin Sanghi was more vocal and open in this book! Everything from templar knights to religion to terrorism to black plague and most importantly world trade centre attack have been given juicy theories! Don’t fringe now please just because it’s an Indian and not Dan Brown who has written this!

The author also mentions several real conspiracy theories and a special mention about Yuval Noah Harari means that he himself is well read!

So with an overdose of puranas and religion, this is a good way to spend your three hours wanting for more!

To those who drool over anyone who abuses curses or demeans the scriptures, you can give this one a pass and save us the review stating the abysmal grammar and vocabulary nuances!

For those who liked the works of Amish, Ashwin or C Doyle or even Dev Dutt Patnaik, you will like this one too!

For those who have read the first two books, you have no choice but to read and get a closure! Or would you!!?

Kashi, the temple is only black but it’s also blue!

The girl in room 105….by Chetan Bhagat

Book review

Rating 2/5

Spoilers…the only major spoiler is the end which will not be shared in the review! Rest of the book there is nothing left to spoil!!

Let me be quite frank in admitting that I pre ordered the book before the screenshot controversy and I never waste a book so though personally my opinion of CB has gone literally down the drain like his works, I did finish the book.

The review is hence very biased and may show my hatred towards him and hence his book. In this context I am sure that getting a neutral review of a CB book is now close to impossible!

Reading CB was usually a recap of the next bollywood screenplay and in the context some of his earlier works like Two States or Half Girlfriend was tolerable but am sure no producer will touch this one even if CB paid him!

Imagine that first the life and then the character of his leading lady is lost and do you expect any producer to make a movie on that!!?

Some recurring themes like IIT and coaching classes have already been used in his earlier works so I am guessing that the story warehouse is low in stock!

Starting with a love story of Ranjanaah style it gets the treatment of Baghi 2 when the lead investigates (rather amateurish I must add!) a murder and finally it become Crime patrol and Savdhaan India!!!

In his usual style he brushes upon controversial topics like Muslim and RSS and loud prayers and finally Kashmir!!….of course it’s just peeling the edge without any deeper probe or use!

And the greatest irony is that he describes a married old prof who is a pervert and tries to exploit his student! Look in the mirror sometimes CB….

So all in all an exercise in futility which can be finished quite fast considering the simple language and bare minimum vocabulary! I am sure the Hindi curses used in the book are a result of Sacred Games!

So read it to just rant about it like me!.. if you inbox me I can save you the strain and give you a personal summary of the book!

Oh CB why do you do this!??….
But I liked the end note! This is not a spoiler!….the way you unfriend someone…. sometimes it’s better to Unlove someone!…

IQ84…

By Haruki Murakami…..

Book review

Mild spoilers…. nothing which will give the story away!

Rating….3.5/5 (only because I am not a big fan of fantasy or magic or voodoo or dystopian fiction!)

Let me start by this line…(this is not in the novel though!)

‘ The sky was blue and he looked at the moon…’

If it’s a normal story then the sky is actually blue and there’s only the moon!
But if it’s Murakami then apparently you have to think and read beyond the words! Maybe the sky being blue is only a reflection of your loneliness or melancholy!….maybe the moon is not normal in the true sense of the word! In any case you must read between the lines!!

But then why this special treatment to Murakami!? Because he has apparently established himself as the master of Surrealism and abstract! I made the grave mistake of reading his previous Norwegian wood as a routine coming of age story but apparently there was so much more in between the words and some unsaid emotions! Still think it’s over hyped though!!..

So while Murakami can get away with magic, mayhem and dystopian fantasy; any Indian author mentions the word magic he or she is immediately hanged by the literary rope! Not fair at all!!

My second step onto Murakami territory was slow! Close to 2000 pages (this book was apparently realeased as three volumes and sold more than a million copies!)

To be fair though the language, the grammar and the retelling was pretty straightforward and clean which made the pages turn (or swipe! Since I read it as an EBOOK!) pretty fast!

One of the problems with Ebook is that you may not know the size of the book beforehand (note to self- see the end page number next time!!).

This is a major problem since my time is rationed to the last minute and to devote so much is an ardous task indeed! And the fact that Murakami takes long time to come to the point does not help one bit!

In a short brief this is a love story which transcends time (and year!!) And the way all the characters gel in is quite good!

So on one side we have a bored mathematics teacher who in spite of having an affair with a married woman is lonely in life and on another side we have a trainer by day and assassin by night green peas (read the book!) Gal!…made for each other you might say!!

Lots of sex and violence in between with an almost casual description (different I would say!).

Then you have a confused half baked (literally!!) Girl who just fades in and out along with many quirky characters who are nothing but props!

The alternate and parallel narrative is very nicely done though! And when you get the flow you actually feel sad that it’s over!

Predictable ending though some questions are left hanging in the sky!

If anyone has read this then we can discuss!

Next Murakami here I come!…..kafka!

Norwegian wood by Haruki Murakami..

Book review

Mild spoilers

Rating 3/5

This was vigorously recommended by many and since I had already finished all the English translated work of another Japanese legend Kiago Higashino it was natural to give this one a go!

It’s unbelievable but every Japanese has read this novel! It’s been translated into many languages and this is the official English translation!

The best thing about the novel is that I listened to Norwegian wood by Beatles and many other English numbers as recommended in the novel!

I guess that’s the problem with hype because frankly I was let down by the novel though as an afterthought I think that’s how it was meant to be.

To capture the confusion of a growing teen alone in a college with just death despair and boredom sorrounding him is a great feat indeed.

Though I wonder how the protagonist can afford to have so much bloody time to literally screw around! My college days I don’t remember having time to itch my own eyes!!

All in all I think college life is more or less the same everywhere. The rooms, the food, the fuss, the fights and girls!

But why the author has to infuse so much of death and dispair is beyond me! Maybe that’s why the novel has such a fan following! The real reason of course can very well be the fact that it feels like a soft porn novel with vivid description of the protagonist’s sexual escapades!

So an apparent coming of age novel set in the 1960s it ends up being too dramatic, too dark and frankly too unreal!

So you have this dude called Watanabe (don’t care if the spelling is right!) in a college and he has a friend and his girlfriend and then he has a friend who wants to be his girlfriend but something happens to his friend and now his friend’s girlfriend is his responsibility and his girlfriend!..hope this is not very confusing!!…also his friend’s girlfriend who is now his girl/friend has a girlfriend and she has a emotional story to boot!….just your average teen soap opera!!…

This first step into the Murakami territory has been a let down for me! Hopefully the next ones will be better.

21 lessons for the 21st century by Yuval Noah Harari

Book review

No spoilers since it’s a non fiction

Rating 4/5

From the wizard who gave us blockbusters like Homo Sapiens and Homo Deus; here comes another fact filled bounty!

So while Sapiens dealt with the past and Deus with the future, this one deals with the present in theory though it takes ample inputs from both past and future!

The keywords of the present namely, nationalism, religion, immigration and the most scary, Terrorism has been dealt with a neutral viewpoint.

The chapter on immigration was a revelation to me when Yuval placed the inputs of pro and anti immigration lobby. That’s how a debate should go and how!

Yuval also takes on God (as expected!!) And tries to put sense in religion with a scientific rigour!

Then he tells about how what you are learning today may not be relevant in future! How many jobs will be obsolete in the years to come!

He uses most of the holy book like Bible and Quran which is expected but surprisingly he also uses the Gita and the Vedas for making his points which was a refreshing change at least for me!

Yuval is a vegetarian jew and an openly gay atheist historian from Israel!… So being controversial is his middle name!

This of course is not a story but bare fact and that can be tedious to read in a go. It’s of course going to be a reference book of sorts in the coming years.

The coolest thing which he said was how a lie repeated million times over years becomes the truth! With examples to moot! That and many introductions to the chapters may well be the way of the future!

He has discussed things like Humility, war, post-truth (very interesting read!) And God amongst many other relevant topics of the present.

He takes movies like Matrix, inside out, lion king and so many more and gets them to mean somethin!… One major controversy when he compares a book to Harry Potter!!

So from Trump to Putin to Brexit, Yuval mentions about everything which is relevant and makes sense out of it..

In the end he talks about meditation! Which I guess is definitely required after that roller coaster ride!

Read it to enjoy it….I wonder though if past present and future is done!…what would Yuval write about next!!

Daddy day in!!…. When the flu attacks!!

It all starts with that innocent ice cream or that colourful cold drink and the next day you will hear that dreaded sound! Cough and that too continuous and persisting!
You give warm water and desperately hope for it to go away but like the illegal immigrant the flu is here to stay!

Being the kids of practicing ENT SPECIALISTS doesn’t help one bit because when it comes to your kids then you are a parent and nothing else!

So normally the mom stays at home (that’s not the norm in my house but it is what it is!); But today she simply couldn’t take leave as there were surgery to do!

Since I had none posted for that day and since we couldn’t arrange a quick caretaker it was my turn for the sick bay duty!

So the status is this, son has throat infection ( I would know this!) And daughter has the stomach flu!

First things first! The Big mug to catch the vomit! (The night before was not pretty! All carpets and bedsheets and towels were wet and smelly if you get my drift!)
Luckily though today my daughter told me that she will go to the toilet if she feels like hurling!

So first brush their teeth! Red colour Barbie image strawberry flavour paste for the gal and blueberry Spiderman one for the dude!

Then Milk! Lots of sugar and Luke warm for the boy and less weet more thick and hot for the gal!.. blue and pink straw of course!!

Then breakfast!…. Luckily Minu (my better half!) Kept bread and dosa batter so we had a choice!…. hot dosa vs hot bread battle was won unanimously by the humble bread! (I guess they were fed up of dosa from school!)….. Again less crispy more jam and less buttery for the boy! And less jam more crispy and more butter for my princess!!

Cut into small pieces and make them as good looking as possible!

Water….. Warm for my boy and hot for the gal!…. If you don’t follow these then you can be rest assured that no one will finish the food or water so take risk at your own peril!!

Then the endless visits to the toilet for all the different types of outcome!!

Then the medications! Now since am a professional I could manage but I always wonder how others do it!??

So fever syrup only for the gal but before that gastric syrup so that she wouldn’t vomit!…. Then antibiotics for both if they did not hurl!
Cough syrup only for my son and to hold his nose so that he will not retch it out!… Phew!….
Medicine session of the morning over!

Quick tea and left over bread for me!… While the bargained TV Time is on!

Then some playtime so that TV watching stops and then lunch time!!

We have sambar (Radish and made by me; yes that’s possible!!) And we have rasam and curd rice!…. But the dialogues and judgement finally settled on to pizza! (Hopefully with lots of veggies!)

Waiting for the pizza we try to finish some homework while lying down and after cajoling, threatening and finally pleading we finally finished some pages!….

Good thing about pizza is that it’s not messy and they don’t need to be fed (yes, I had to feed them the bread in the morning!… Wasn’t that evident!??)

Finally I grab my piece of the left over pizza and while there get their prize of tablet viewing for five minutes I try to tidy up the house so that it doesn’t look like a tsunami just came!….

Clean bed and a wish that the mom comes soon! Also this is only half day! Have got the full duty in the evening! But after all this I am sure that it will be a piece of cake or pizza (whatever’s left!!)….

The 8km bike ride workout done yesterday night was easier than this!!
To all the mom’s in the world; you folks are the best!…..