The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera

           A disturbing novel set in the late 60's and early 70's of  Czechoslovakia which starts with Prague Spring. Prague Spring refers to the period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia which continued until the invasion of Russia. The story revolves around four central characters, Tomas, Tereza, Sabina and Franz. Kundera plays somersault with your mind referring to impenetrable theories of philosophy with the help of Parmenides, the ancient Greek philosopher from whom lightness was positive and heaviness negative. What is lightness..? The lack of an ultimate goal in life symbolizes lightness, if your are capable of altering yourself now and then and you live for the moment, it is lightness. Tomas and Sabina symbolize Parmenides' lightness in the novel. They practice polygamy and lack a goal in life which makes them travel around and they hate to settle down in life. Whereas Franz and Tereza represent  heaviness. Franz hates to travel from one woman's bed to another and thus abandons his wife to join with his mistress. Tereza's affair with the engineer is portrayed as dangerous and sinful which leaves her terribly disturbed. While the novel gives you a good pleasure of eroticism and unbearable lust, it also teaches you the essence of living. At one point in the novel you start thinking about yourself and your ultimate meaning in life. Written in hard prose and with each sentence making you to think about random subjects, I tell you, this is one novel you must read before you die. If you wanna grab the whole meaning of it, read it at least five times in a stretch.

        My connection with novel is a co incidence. I was finishing my Silent house and wandering around not knowing which one to read next. Then my cousin came in with a list of novels, in which this one was the first. Now the co incidence part. Here in the novel one of the central characters is Tomas, which is nothing but my Dad's name Thomas. Later in the novel Kundera introduces Tomas' long lost son Simon, which is my grandfather's name. So in fact i was reading about two characters whose names have got a significant meaning in my life. Kundera says, " Books are a symbol of a secret brotherhood". Here in the novel when Tomas meets Tereza in Prague, she was found carrying Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. So his attraction towards Tereza was eternal. Thomas, my Dad and Rose , my Mom can never imagine a life without books, were they met the same way Tomas and Tereza met ?  During the course of this novel, I had to undergo terrible mental unrest that I almost drove one of my friends crazy with random irrelevant messages( which i normally do, but this time it reached its extremes) and philosophical thoughts. End result : She stopped talking to me. But Kundera is a writer who really matters, read him and if you go crazy, consider its time to think about lightness and heaviness.
   
                                                                                                                             - Nisanth Thomas

Silent House - Orhan Pamuk
 
           A slow and silent read. Pamuk talks about his place Turkey and the political unrest of early 80 's. Takes you through the life of six central characters in a soliloquy kind of writing. He describes the fig trees and cherry orchards along with the nationalist communist riot  in a simple but serious manner. The country side of cennethisar is described in wonderful prose through the eyes of the six central characters. Makes you fall in love with Nilgun,  the communist...while u are lost listening to the stories of Faruk,  the historian...when the housekeeper Recep offers you a coffee, you are far away with Metin and his folks driving on an old anadol listening to "Best of elvis", almost running over Hasan and his natinalist friends while they are out on the highway in the middle of the night on a mission to paint all the walls with nationalist slogans...while you think about home and the grandma waiting for you.
        

One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez


                   The best book in the history of mankind. This is one book in which you would spend time even without realizing it. Filled with the elements of magical realism, a literary style in which unnatural things happen in the most natural way. Prose is wonderful and urges you to read and reread the content again and again. The story revolves around a town called Macondo and its inhabitants. Goes in detail about the Buendia Family and the changes which they face in course of time. Takes you through the period of civil war in Latin America and its impact on the the people in Macondo. Maconda is magical and imaginary. But one thing which people look forward every year is the arrival of gypsies with the news on inventions from outside world. Melquaides, the gypsy stays behind and leaves a parchment with the Buendia family, which no one can decipher until it attains one hundred years of solitude.

                A beautiful read....


                                                                                                            -Nisanth Thomas
                                                                                                         (nisanththomas@gmail.com)

Memories of my melancholy whores - Gabriel Garcia Marquez


       It was during a summer vacation that i came to know about Gabriel Garcia Marquez for the very first time in life. I was just 12 years old back then. A steaming coffee at his side, head resting on the raised portion of an old cane chair, Dad is busy reading "One hundred years of solitude" on an extremely hot Indian Summer afternoon. I tried to get the right pronunciation of  author's name. He sensed my effort and read it out for me. He found my curiosity rising up and explained that Marquez is a Spanish writer and  has got a line of good novels to his credit. One who writes in the literary style known as "magical realism". You should read, he said. Read and understand Marquez, but not now..you are too young for that. No one writes in the way Marquez does and that is exactly why it is magical, he took a sip from his coffee mug and smiled.

    It took me 12 long years to finally get to Marquez and that feeling is inexplicable. Dad was right, no one writes like Marquez. Memories of my melancholy whores starts with the following sentence,

 "The year i turned ninety, i wanted to give myself the gift of a night of wild love with an adolescent virgin."

  The first sentence itself grips you down into the story and takes you away into a far away land and into the life of an old cable editor. He has never married,never loved, never been to bed with a woman he didn't pay and  he feels young even at the age of ninety. He contacts the owner of an illicit house, Rosa Cabarcas in order to fulfill his birthday wish. Rosa mocks him saying" the only Virgos left in the world are people like you who were born in august". But yet she finds a girl. He calls her Delgadina..finds her sleeping each night he visits her. He never tries to disturb her sleep and watches her quietly. During these solitary hours his love for her deepens and reminds him of the loveless life he has led. His Sunday columns in the local newspaper details how he found love at the age of ninety.

 Marquez is witty and extremely narrative. His magical procreation of words is mesmerizing and excellent. Marquez is not a subject of critics.

                                                                                                    -Nisanth Thomas
                                                                                                (nisanththomas@gmail.com)

  

Narcopolis - Jeet Thayil


                       Mesmerizing and deeply moving. Jeet Thayil takes you on a ride through the suburban Bombay of late 70's. The story begins and ends with Bombay, the city dreaming troubled dreams, a pile of inexhaustible accumulation of small defeats. A story of Opium with hijras, pimps and fucked up opiates who caress it. His vivid description of Rashid's opium khana, the smoke, the procedure of making opium as if its a religious duty and later how the introduction of  heroin made things bad make the story a wonderful read. Puts u on a dream, a hallucination, makes you feel like you are there right next to Dimple, the hijra, Rumi, the friend, Bengali, the care taker and the author himself.. waiting for your turn to have a drag at the pipe... to cloud  Rashid Bhai.s khana with thick smoke.. to laugh for no reason...to talk about importance and unimportance of religion...to walk on Shuklaji Street which extends till Bombay central, crowded with paan wallas, drug traffickers, pimps, sluts and opiates...to have a look at the brothel numbered 007 and smile.. to smile for one last time before this hallucination gets over. Reluctantly acknowledging the story has come to an end.


                                                                                                          -Nisanth Thomas
                                                                                                           (nisanththomas@gmail.com)

How I braved Anu aunty and co-founded a million dollar company - Varun Agarwal


             When I met this guy Varun at Hindu lit fest in chennai two weeks back I was skeptical about getting his book and reading it. Of course he wasn't an accomplished writer. But yet there was something in the title which made me buy this book, i believe. A crazy title about about a very crazy out of the box business which he started with his friend, Mal (that's what he calls his friend Rohn)

       A neatly narrated book, i should say..hilarious and informative. His anticipatory bail in the prologue about not being a good writer makes it more interesting. Save for the over usage of F- word, the book is a must read for budding Indian entrepreneurs It takes you through his struggles, fantasies and his accomplishments regarding the business. If you are worn out reading all serious stuff..grab this book...sit back..relax and laugh your fat ass out.. oops...!! Varun does leave an impact,you see.

                                                                                                      -Nisanth Thomas

Memory Keeper's Daughter - Kim Edwards

                         Story is about a girl who has down's syndrome who had been given away in her birth, and about her father who tells the wife that the daughter died in infancy. Carrying this secret all his life. Shows the deepest secrets which every family has and how these secrets would finally get revealed on its own. Apart from these two factors, the whole book could be concluded in just one word "trash"!! The book is filled with irrelevant characters and unimportant incidents. Author, just for the sake of making the read more sentimental creates sad incidents which would make the reader just giggle with sarcasm not cry. Any person with sense would find the book extremely boring and scientifically incorrect.

                     One humble request to all the ladies, please avoid this book because it teaches you on how to be infidel. The Mother of the girl, Norah Henry who apparently thinks that her daughter is dead starts sleeping around with all the men who comes across her way and at the same time suspects her husband who happens to be a beloved doctor. Never knew that this is what American wives do when they find that their infant is dead. And also there is a thirteen year old boy who sneaks in his Dad's study and smokes marijuana with his friends.When his dad finds out, he just stays silent and forgives the child. Wonder what would have happened if the Dad had been an Indian..!  Strange world, indeed. Thirteen and grass and in Dad's study...?? you must be kidding me..!! Though the story is about a girl, nothing much is said about her in the novel. She is like a guest, appearing now and then, reminding the readers, " people, read on.. I am still here..somewhere". The book is a collection of poorly crafted incidents which have been intended towards nothing but increasing the volume.

                  Dear Author, bribing book reviewers and making them write its a deeply moving one is utter cheapness and a marketing technique. Your book is dead slow and will make the readers curse themselves for picking it up. Please stop writing and be in some business where you can mint a lot of money. Writing is for the illuminated souls and please do acknowledge this fact. If it had been a best seller its just because you have portrayed all the male characters as good for nothing, selfish pricks who doesn't even utter a word when they catch their wives cheating on them.. Which apparently any woman would love to read.

           My dear friend (who suggested this book to me), u hate me so much is  it ?

                                                                                                     - Nisanth Thomas

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