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.
3 comments:
slim volume uh?? get the book to singapore.. you. hoarder....
why i asked sis to review.. coz the Hoarder picks books of the shelf.. depending on the blurb at the back of the book?? i dont know..
i picked up a highly recommended book by Philip Roth.. a pulitzer awardee.. a short stories book just to be safe and it was a dud.. even today ramachandra guha has reviewd roth and it seems interesting enough. 5th generation jew in the US..... a blog on books read will at least help pick the right kind of books
also H and the HOarder can review terry pratchett and tell us the humour that they see in it. coz i havent been able to go beyond the first few pages of disc world.. morpark and what not.. mere mortals like me.. will def appreciate it:):)
I hope you are not just reading books by penguin, but by other publishers as well. Nice review of "The sea"..but some of the other recent booker prize winning novels/shortlisted ones which are really readable are " A True History of the Kelly Gang" by Peter Carey, "Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguro, "Enduring Love" by Ian McEwan, "An Equal Music" by Vikram Seth.......I also think some great writing in non-fiction is now on, like for example, by Dalyrmple, which needs to be checked out..
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