Release and Other Stories

“Release and Other Stories” by Rakhshanda Jalil is a collection of ten stories featuring Indian Muslims. Each story  is sensible in its own way and lingers in one’s mind long after it’s read. Above all, I loved the look and feel of sleek hardbound and its crisp pages with beautiful font and generously spaced text. Loved the book cover too. I found it irresistibly giftable.

“A Mighty Heart” is about a woman who accepts the sons of her husband with his, so far secret, other wife. It is incredulous that that person maintain two wives simultaneously keeping the first wife in dark, calls both his wives with the same name, produces similar set of offspring in the same order with the two women and even names the two sets of children the same to avoid confusion and possible trouble. Lol!

“The Failure” is about a man, in the opinion of the narrator, who has failure written on his face. He turns his majestic house in the middle of nowhere  into a luxury hotel and keeps it in tip-top condition for two years until his first guests arrive.  In “The Perfect Couple”, the husband gets all distressed and shaky upon the sudden and possibly terminal illness of his beloved wife. When an equally distressed colleague of her visits her in the hospital room, the husband receives the jolt of his life when he witnesses the love between his wife and her colleague, as is evident by the way they look at each other holding hands.

“The Strange Man” is about a wealthy man who wanders the streets of a popular hill station in a strange manner, clasping a tape recorder to his breast and cooing to it, oblivious of his surroundings. The story ends with the narrator’s reflection upon learning who the man actually is : “Compulsions that drive people, compulsions that make them do the oddest of things.”

In “The Stalker”, a middle-aged, plain-looking woman is stalked by an unknown person, whom she confronts in the end only to find the face of a teenage boy under the mysterious baseball cap. She couldn’t let out her anger and frustration seeing the innocent expression of pure love etched on his face. She could only wonder -” Who can ever fathom the depths of another heart?”

When Zulfi meets Dia after about 25 years, he discovers that the demure young girl of 19 got transformed into “A Real Woman” of mid-forties and he feels intimidated by her. “The Incident of the Frozen Snake” is a gossip story about a rising star who turns mad after seeing a frozen snake trying to get up from the birthday cake,  which was sent to her as a revenge from the Fading Star, whose long-time beau had been smitten by the rising star. Is it funny or tragic?? Not sure!

“Release”, the title story is about lost love, similar to Devdas. Hasan, who couldn’t stand up against his mother, loses Arza, his childhood love and puts his past behind him until he visits Arza on her death bed fifty years later.

Loved this quote from Release:

“A flower, no matter how sturdy the branch it grows on or how deep the roots of the tree that bears it, can have only one of the two fates: it can either bear fruit, or fall off the branch. No flower can expect to linger forever. So it is with young love; it must find union or wither away.”

A couple of verses from famous Urdu poets appeared in this story, which simply captivated me:

Your thought kept coming and going

Like my breath, all night long

——- Makhdum Mohiuddin

Come, let us weave our dreams of tomorrow

Or else, this night from these hard times

Shall sting us, and for the rest of our lives

We shall never gain be able to weave another beautiful dream

——-Sahir Ludhainvi

“The Break Up” is about a woman who finally finds the courage to break up her marriage. In “A Holiday Gone Awry” three girls get raped by a few men in the hills in front of the brother of one of the girls. As ghastly a tale as it turns out to be, the narrator wonders about what could have been the impact on the 12 year old boy who had to witness such a gruesome event.

Interestingly, all the stories are told in third person, who is often a person inside the story narrating a story.

Acchhaa hai dil ke saath rahe paasbaan-e aql

Lekin kabhi kabhi isey tanhah bhii chhor de

–Iqbal

Short Cuts

This collection of short stories (9 stories and a poem) by Raymond Carver is a delightful read. It offers glimpses into the ordinary lives of American families. What makes these stories endearing is the utter simplicity of them and their characters. It is easy to relate with them.

I’ve always felt uncomfortable around the stories which leave unanswered questions, either as to the motives of the characters or as to the rationality behind the happenings or the like. So many of the critically acclaimed stories come into this category that I was first afraid that I was going to read another such bunch in Short Cuts but I was wrong. These stories cannot be farther from such stories which evoke strange feelings and often leave me utterly confused.

I always prefer those stories which have a proper beginning and more importantly, a proper, clear, and satisfying end. While I can’t say that the stories in Short Cuts meet this expectation of mine completely, they do not seem unreal or distant or make me feel  bewildered. The stories in this collection are different in that they portray the true picture of emotions people feel. In life, we don’t always act or feel rationally and we cannot always explain our urges or motives or actions. It is this struggle with our own selves and with those around us that these stories tried to depict.

Only one story in this book, titled “Collectors” made so little sense to me that I’m not even able to describe what it’s about. I may want to read it again sometime later with a fresh mind, in the hope to be able to better appreciate it.

It may be interesting to note that these stories are made into a film titled “Short Cuts” by Robert Altman; like a string of stories with exposes different facets of something. In fact, it is Robert who brought these stories, which were part of different collections earlier, together in this book.  The movie “Short Cuts” vaguely reminds me of “Das Kahaniyah” of Bollywood (a string of 10 separate stories).

Rashomon and Other Stories

This is a collection of six stories written by Ryunosuke Akutagawa and translated by Takashi Kojima. These stories were written in the beginning of the twentieth century. The author is considered to have a significant place in the modern Japanese literature.

The six stories are each strikingly different and fabulous. “Rashomon”  was the largest gate in Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan. With the decline of the West Kyoto, the gate fell into bad repair, and became a hideout for thieves and a place for abandoning unclaimed corpses. The story is about how a samurai who just lost his job prefers to thieve to starvation against his initial reservations.

“In the Grove” is the story of the killing of a samurai through the conflicting testimony of witnesses, including the spirit of the murdered man. “Yam-Gruel” is a story about a lowly official, who has forever been humiliated by everyone, whose only desire in life is to have his fill of special dish – Yam-Gruel; how this desire has made him go very far; and what happened when he actually had his wish fulfilled.

“The Martyr” is about a boy who follows Jesus in practice and sacrifices his life in the process.  “Kesa and Morito” is a complex, seemingly conflicting lines of thought of two secret lovers. Finally, “The Dragon” is a fable about a priest who invents a lie with the malicious intent to make fools of everyone as a sort of revenge.

This short book is truly a rewarding read.

My reading in 2010

The count this year is a modest 60. Not much change in the statistics. The same <20% still holds good for non-fiction. But, to my satisfaction, I’ve tried various subjects – from self-help (Nine Rooms of Happiness) to travelogues (The Lost Continent); memoirs (Angela’s Ashes) to pure technical stuff (Business Intelligence) and more.

I read more number of Telugu books this year compared to the previous one. I tried a few authors for the first time this year – Mohammad Khadeerbabu (Poleramma Banda Kathalu), Chilikamarti Lakshminarasimham (Ganapathi) and Bhanumathi Ramakrishna (Athagari Kathalu). I loved them all.

If I have to name a book from this year’s list, which I’ve liked the most, it would undoubtedly be The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It touched me, surprised me, and above all shook me. I read only a few mysteries (by James Hadley Chase) but more than a few  thrillers, which include The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson and techno-thrillers (Timeline, The Terminal Man, Pirate Latitudes) by my favorite Michael Crichton. I felt that the Millennium trilogy was ok – new and interesting.

I also covered a few family dramas and those, which I guess cannot be called pure chick-lit – Amy and Isabelle by Olive Kitteridge fame Elizabeth Strout, Letter from Peking by Pearl S Buck, Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan and a few by Maile Meloy. Each and every one of them left me thinking more about the lively characters.

I tried horror (Raven Stole the Moon by Garth Stein) for the first time and I have to admit that the experience was far from being pleasant. I deliberately avoided reading it during the nights and had to gather my courage many a times in order to continue with the book.

Another heart-felt book I was fortunate to read this year is The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk. It was simply amazing. The author had left me awestruck. Looking forward to read more of him. In fact, I just started his My Name is Red.

Coming to the Short Stories, I had better luck in Telugu compared to English. While Alice Munro’s (Too Much Happiness) and Maile Meloy’s (Both Ways is the Only Way I want) were just fine, it was Tagore’s collection of stories, which cast a deep impression on me. They were just brilliant.

Other books, which I cherished this year include – The Curious Incident of a Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon, The Secret of Laughter by Susha Guppy (Magical Tales from Classical Persia), Traffic by Tom Vanderbilt (Non-fiction), and Kane & Abel by Jeffrey Archer.

I feel blessed and I hope to read better, if not more, books next year.

Jeffrey Archer and I

Kane & Abel is perhaps the best thriller I’ve read in the recent years (with the exception of Dan Brown’s). I came across several raving reviews and recommendations for this novel by Jeffrey Archer from time to time but I never really cared enough to give it a try; the reason being my not so good opinion of Archer. Nothing personal though J

It so happened that my first impression of the bestselling British author was far from good. I think my first book of him was A Quiver Full of Arrows, a collection of short stories. On second thoughts, it’s not at all a disappointing work but because of some bizarre reasons, which included my displeasure at his adaptation of Somerset Maugham’s Luncheon and my uneasiness at the perceived similarity of Old Love to Love Story of Erich Segal, I found myself reluctant to pick more of his books. In the later case, it’s not the story line that is similar, but the undercurrent and the soul of it. I can’t explain clearly but Old Love distinctly reminded me of the Erich Segal’s famous work.

I tried one of his novels, False Impression, after a few years since my first encounter and it turned out to be a disaster. Reading it was painful and I couldn’t go beyond the 100 page mark. I seldom leave a book unfinished and False Impression had the rare honor of being one.

With these experiences, I didn’t dare to pursue Archer anymore. Even a trial at Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less resulted in any significant change in my views. I don’t say that Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less is bad, because it really isn’t but I was not exactly spellbound by it. Life would have been simpler if I had considered the issue settled then and there. But what with the seamless positive reviews from friends and others, not to mention the author’s popularity, I couldn’t help feeling that I’m missing something. And finally, Kane & Abel managed to reverse all my unpleasant feelings and unflattering opinions by completely sweeping me off the ground and things will never be same with Archer from now. Kane & Abel is a saga of two ambitious and inspiring men and their destinies. I’m glad I read Kane & Abel this and I eagerly look forward to read more of Archer’s books.

Nocturnes

This is the latest offering by the renowned author Kazuo Ishiguro. ‘Nocturnes’ is a collection of five interrelated short stories with music as the main theme. In fact, this is the author’s first attempt at short stories. His novels are widely acknowledged as among the best contemporary literature. When I first read his Booker winning ‘Remains of the day two years ago, I was spellbound. Reading it was sheer pleasure. No other has book has invoked in me a reaction with greater intensity than this one.  It has ever since been the most favorite book of mine and I fell in love with Kazuo’s writing. Later, I tried his Never Let Me Go and was equally impressed. But I must say that ‘Nocturnes’ couldn’t quite replicate my earlier experiences with Kazuo Ishiguro. 

Every time I read short stories, I wonder at their nature – most seem to reflect a slice of a character’s nature or life or sometimes a tiny little facet of a culture or society or time period. The most striking feature, of course is the way the stories end – most leave questions unanswered, leaving the readers contemplating and guessing. That way, those stories and their characters haunt the reader long after finishing reading them. I always feel that reading short stories is a kind of psychological and emotional exercise. And I love the experience. I especially like the ones by Somerset Maugham, O. Henry, Scott G. Fitzgerald and the likes. But of course, there are all kinds of short stories – simple and straight-forward, subjects ranging from simple observations to the complexities of life or nature – and I enjoy them all. ’Nocturnes’ clearly belongs to the former category.

In ‘Nocturnes’,  I was especially intrigued by the second story, ‘Come rain or Come Shine’, in which a man thinks that the realization by his wife of the relative unsuccessfulness or blandness of a mutual friend’s life would lower her expectations of him and make her appreciate him for what he is. In another story, an ugly uprising saxophonist doesn’t feel good about the need to get a plastic surgery in order to trudge to the top. In fact, all the stories touch on the disturbing nature of the deep and sometimes unfathomable feelings and attitudes – dissatisfaction, regret, hope, struggle for success, uprightness, selfishness, etc. 

Everything considered, ‘Nocturnes’ is definitely a good read.