I wandered through the
rain swept roads of Ayemanem, Kottayam, a small town village in God's Own
country when Arundhati Roy kept me breathing with her wonderful prose in
"God of Small Things ".
A tale of love, survival and companionship of Estha and Rahel, twins who had
parted in their early childhood and then re-joined by the inevitable
uncertainties of life. The book reminds you of your childhood , especially if
you are a Keralite with the dense description of characters whom you would have
at least once come across in your life in Kerala. Talking about the apartheid
system which prevailed in Kerala quite sometime back, Ms. Roy seems to be
following a path which Harper Lee created in "To kill a mocking
bird". Nevertheless, the book is lovely for its prose and its vivid
descriptions.
My next encounter was with a
notorious, yet smart kid called Vernon who proved himself God. DBC Pierre's
"Vernon God Little" is an amazing story of a teenager told in
funny manner. Its a fast paced page turner filled with smutty language
which makes it all the more interesting and trust me, it is not a bit obnoxious at all. As
Vernon fights with his demons, we find ourselves contemplating on how to tackle
our own age old ones who have been always lurking about in the shadows near
us.
I moved on with memories of Vernon
and his struggles. Smiling, learning how to survive in the most difficult of
situations.
Milan Kundera had always been there,
appearing and disappearing then and there in the form of "Laughable
Loves", a short story collection which I clung onto in the intervals
between my eternal novels. Kundera's explicit language and philosophical
connotations make you sit down, sip a cup of coffee and dream. As Kundera
unveiled the comical undertone of relationships and infidelities in
relationships, I couldn't help myself from pondering about that one love which
I have had and now when I look at it and consider it, how insipid it proved to
be.
Then came the totalitarian regime of 1984. A brilliant novel written in the late 1940's foreseeing a world of 1984. Isn't the telescreen
mentioned in the novel a distant cousin of our CCTV cameras installed and
getting installed everywhere we can possibly think of ? And who among us hasn't
at least once compared the Big Brother to our Big Bosses at work ? Honestly ? A
brilliant book which is extremely intimidating and disturbing. Orwell rightly observed the circumstances he lived in and how they are going to affect the future and then gathered up his imagination to create this beautiful masterpiece.
My reading was halted now and then because I was engrossed in George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones (TV series). I became so obsessed with the whole series that I decided to read them also. I started with the first book in the series. The book is good, but somehow I feel that the TV series and the book both are equally good (for a change this time, I have never liked any of the movie adaptations of any of the books which I have read so far). Its a careful manipulation of imagination and also, though you know the entire story Martin's wonderful prose will keep you hooked till the last page of the book.
Finished "Old man and the sea" last night. I will be writing about it soon.
Meanwhile, you carry on with the huge one you kept aside to read this nonsense of mine.
Happy Reading..!!
- Nisanth Thomas
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