Tuesday, October 16, 2007

teller of tales - the life of conan doyle

this book was a very good find since i had not come across any biographies of the creator of sherlock holmes...........

it talks about the influence that doyle's mother had during his childhood with her stories of knights and ladies; of the unconventional relationship she had with a doctor slightly older than him when his father was in a lunatic asylum; of the blind eye she turned when doyle himself fell in love with another woman -while his wife fell prey to tuberculosis- and whom he eventually married.

his medical career was something which he kept in the background though he did try to earn his living initially by being a doctor, but his heart does not appear to have been in it...

then there is the unimaginable success of his sherlock holmes books while he tries hard to get his other novels noticed by his devoted readers. he was proud of his other novels but i doubt if any of us have even heard of them!!!

in his later years he took to parapsychology and was staunchly supported by his wife. it somehow cast a shadow on the reputation of such a great man- a doctor, the creator of holmes who though a fictional character, relied upon reason to provide him solutions- was now advocating and devoting time and energy to the study of ghosts...........

Sunday, October 14, 2007

making money - terry pratchett

this one is on terry pratchett and his most recent contribution to reading happiness - making money
making money is about an earlier hero who was introduced in 'going postal'. in the earlier book he revamps and re organises the postal deptt of ankh morpork after being pardoned - saved from the gallows -by lord vetinari who runs the city.

in making money, the postmaster is asked to do his magic on the city's bank and the mint. so among other things, ankh morpork is introduced to the advantages of paper money.

the style of writing is extra ordinary - in that the reader is obliged to make sense of oblique references to many of our real world practices and is invited to laugh at the illogical procedures that we have. this is true of disc world per se and is not limited to the current book. real life blended with ingenuity into a mythical world...........

in 'making money', there is a long serving clerk -the backbone of the bank- who has been required to systematically reduce the gold reserves of the bank by the past owners and come up with creative accounting processes to hide it from the world.

then there is the formidable chairman - wife of the earlier owner- who owns 50% of the bank. she is a woman who managed to charm the previous owner, when she was a dancer [i think], then marry him, get his share of the bank and convince the husband to provide her dog with a 1% stake in the bank. the dog is hers and she is therefore in charge of the bank....however it doesn't pack as much punch as some of the other terry pratchett novels. the concept of paper money is a little lost in the process of being translated into ankh...and so the satire seems diluted.

the sea - john banville

the sea is a book by john banville and won the booker in 2005.

though i have always had reservations about reading such prize winning books especially after life of pi by yann martel, i felt that i must give these prize winners another chance and decided to try out the sea.

it is about a man who has recently lost his wife and is in a sort of holiday home. this home turns out to be in the same place where he spent some of his childhood holidays. the children he played with used to live in the very same house which is now a "home."
the story revolves around the lives of this widower as a child and that of the twins with whom he played on the beach. the twins behavoiur, that of their parents and of the nanny are narrated and the point of reference is that of an adult, looking back and reflecting, making sense of the memories.

the sea touches lightly on the dead wife of the protagonist, and their daughter. it has a haunting sense of trying to capture and make sense of past events, while grappling with the day to day issues of dealing with the other occupants of the 'home', the daughter's unsuitable suitor etc.
just like real life...makes for an interesting read specially since it is also a slim volume and does not get tedious.

Friday, October 12, 2007

arthur and george - julian barnes

my sister made it very clear that if books were put on a bookshelf in shelfari.com then i should also comment on the reasons for the books being there.
so in this blog i will attempt to introduce arthur and george.

Why i chose the book in the first place:

because it was about arthur conan doyle who created sherlock holmes.
holmes is the first detective i read about. the book is semi biographical in nature and gives a perspective about conan doyle's interests at an eventful time in his life. his first wife dies after a prolonged illness and he is yet to propose to his chosen new wife. this is a woman whom he has been courting for nearly ten of the years when his wife was ailing. george edalji becomes the reason that arthur regains his zest for life after his first wife's death.

george edalji is the son of a parsi father who became a priest in mumbai and migrated to england. he then proceeded to marry a 'white' woman in england and became a parish priest. george was a meticulous, self contained person, studying to become a lawyer. but he is accused of killing cattle. the investigation is biased as he is a reclusive person, he is unjustly sent to prison and sentenced. arthur takes up his cause and delivers him to justice.

george edalji fascinated me since he is a 'half caste' in england but knows no other culture other than the one in which he is born and brought up in. he is very trusting of the british sense of fair play and cannot accept the fact that maybe he is being giving an unfair trial.