Review of A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth

This is one of those book’s that everyone recommends you read and you put it on the mental list of must reads. It remains imagined until the point you actually buy it. In my case this was in a bargain bookshop in Beverley for a fiver. Part one accomplished. The next part is building up to it. A holiday is probably a good time but it is a very heavy weight paperback, which would be worthy of most airport stalls although taking up the best part of your luggage allowance.
So after sitting on my shelf for a year or two I decided to try and fit it in between two book group meetings (ish).
For most people this is probably the longest book they’ve read. In the edition I read it came in at 1470 pages long, which is much longer even than Lord of the Rings. It compares with that other well known Indian saga, the Mahabaratta.
Basically, the story is a soap opera about four extended families living in Brahmpur (a fictitious city) and Calcutta and in between.

The Suitable Boy of the title refers to the search for a husband for Lata Mehra who starts the tale off at her sister, Savita’s wedding to Pran. This succeeds in linking the Kapoor and Mehra clans.

The book goes on from there and introduces and draws in many different and interesting characters who all have a tale to tell and a different aspect of Indian life to portray.
For example, you have the sad tale of Rasheed, who initially, is earning extra cash to finance his studies through teaching Urdu to the daughter/sister of Saeeda Bai, local good time girl and chanteuse. Maan Kapoor has the misfortune to fall in love with Saeeda Bai and from the start dotes on her. Eventually, he agrees to spend a month in the country with Rasheed who is also teaching him Urdu. It is here that we first find the extreme poverty there is in India. It is also here that we see the contradictions of his life that Rasheed has to deal with and which eventually makes him crack later in the book.

Then you have the three completely different characters who are vying for the affections of Lata. First off is her fellow student, Kabir, who she falls head over heels for. He’s intelligent, handsome, dashing but most of all his is a muslim, which makes him totally unsuitable. As soon as her mother, Mrs Mehra finds out, she is packed off to Calcutta to spend some time with her brother, Arun, and his wife Meenakshi.

In Calcutta, she meets Amit, a poet who is one of the Chatterji family who live in Calcutta. He seems to be a bit of a layabout but is very charming and clever. He is contender number 2.
Finally, you have Harnesh, who is basically a shoemaker who ends up working for Praha Shoes in Prahapore. He is recommended by her mother and goes through the standard process of formal introduction etc.

All the way through the book you know it’ll end with Lata’s Wedding but you’re never sure who she will choose.

The Indian love of their religious festivals both Hindu and Muslim comes across very vividly throughout the story. Some of these end tragically. One with a mass trampling by the river Ganga and one with the collision of a muslim and hindu procession ending up in a full scale riot in Brahmpur.

A Suitable Boy is a very rich, vivid and colourful book that portrays every aspect of Indian life in the early 1950’s.

There’s even politics and law in parts of the book. The General Election of 1952 plays quite a large part and Pandit Nehru, the first PM of an independent India, even makes a guest appearance.

There is so much more to say about this book that I could write on for pages more.
Suffice to say that this was a fabulous book that everyone should read and enjoy.
As a post script, my only small quibble is the lack of an Indian glossary for some of the colloquialisms used which are untranslated. I should have written them down to find meanings but haven’t. So it was left to using the context to work out their meaning.

Review of the Princess of Burundi by Kjell Erickson

I was lucky enough to receive this as a gift from the SO recently and after the heavyweight that A Suitable Boy is, it came as a bit of ‘light relief’.

Having said that this was, of course, a crime novel from a newly translated Swedish writer, so it wasn’t going to be happiness and light!

The edition I received was an American one, so the spelling and language are aimed at an American market. This doesn’t really spoil the story unless you’re a pedant like me about language.

The story is part of a sequence set in the city of Upsalla, which is located just north of Stockholm. Hopefully, the books will be translated in sequence not like a more famous Swedish crime fighter located in Ystad!

The story’s opening is a bit disjointed but it basically focuses on the murder of John Jonson, an unemployed welder who is knifed to death and dumped in a waste snow facility on his way home after shopping in the week before Christmas.

It turns out that Jonson is a quiet, introspective kind of person who loves tropical fish and has been a bit of a bad boy in his youth and although his brother, Lennart, is still a bit of a wastrel, he is basically a decent person. His death widows his wife, Berit and he also has a sun, Justus.
In parallel case, there is a bit of a nutter, Vincent Hahn, who happened to be at school with John, who has gone off the rails and is attacking people and ends up killing a couple before he is picked up by the police.

The police investigation is led by Otto who is having trouble at home with his wife, Rebekah. This isn’t helped by his attraction to Ann Lundell, a colleague, who is currently on maternity leave.
The story moves quickly on and while the character who carried out John Johson’s murder and his motives take some time to come out, it is well thought out and plotted.

The only thing that doesn’t stand out in this books are the investigators. They come across as an efficient, well-oiled unit with several sketched in characters. However, no one person stands out as a lead investigator. Possibly, this is the intention with Ann Lindell, though in this story she is on the fringes until half way through. This may be because, we have arrived fully formed in the middle of a sequence of books as so often happens with translations.

Given these quibbles, the book is on the whole very good and well recommended to fans of Scandinavian crime.

Review of The Woods by Harlan Coben

Another year… another Harlan Coben thriller. Again, the theme is murder and disappearance in the past.

Some might say that he’s flogging a dead horse. I don’t think so. Although I do have some criticisms, for the most part this is another excellent, page turning thriller which delivers its fair share of thrills and spills.

Paul Copeland is a prosecutor for Essex County in New Jersey. His wife has died of cancer in the recent past and his sister disappeared from a summer camp 20 years ago along with her boyfriend and two other friends who were found dead at the time. Paul himself was a team leader at the camp.

Then Paul is asked by some New York cops to try and identify a body they’ve recently found. Paul identifies it as one the supposed victims from the camp all those years ago. This makes him think, maybe his daughter isn’t dead. This sets the ball rolling.

Meanwhile, he’s embroiled in a court case in which he’s prosecuting 2 rich kids accused of raping a black stripper. This forms the major subplot of the book and in itself is well told.

Some of Coben’s characters from earlier books appear in this one. Loren Muse, an investigator and the siren, Cingle Shaker.

All in all, the book is well paced and taut with the usual Coben humour. This brings me to my only criticism. Paul Copeland comes across as Myron Bolitar. Why? Is Mr Coben losing the plot and mixing up his characters? Never mind, that doesn’t take away from the story

Review of An Amateur Marriage by Anne Tyler

This was a Book Group selection that’s been sitting beside the bed for the last 4 weeks.
Since Book Group is this week I felt that I better read it.

Wasn’t sure if this was my thing. I’d heard of Anne Tyler but not read any of her books, putting her down (unfairly) as a chic lit writer.

Mustn’t grumble as I was happy enough when we picked the title at the last book group meeting.

After munching it over the weekend I found it a very interesting, rewarding book which gave a snapshot of an American relationship which ultimately was destined to fail.

The marriage is consummated after a whirlwind war-time romance between Michael and Pauline. He’s sensible, aloof and dour. She’s bright vivacious, emotional. Do opposite’s attract?

Yes and no. Here they do spark off each other a lot and through the numerous spats they have over the course of the book, you think – why do they bother? I suppose they lived in an age when people were expected to try and work out their differences themselves. Hence, the 30 years before Michael eventually walks out.

Given the emotionality of the core relationship. The book was very good at providing snapshots of suburban American life through the 50’s and 60’s. Each chapter moves the action on a number of years and quickly fills in the details of the intervening years.

Overall, I enjoyed the book a lot and would not be against reading any of Ms Tyler’s books.

Review of Travels in the Scriptorium by Paul Auster

What was Paul Auster thinking about when he decided to write this metaphysical, self-reverential piece of navel gazing?

The basic premise is that Mr Blank is locked up in a room with no window and no memory of what has passed before. He has a bed, bathroom, chair and desk. On the desk is a pile of photographs and a manuscript.

Mr Blank gets several visitors who I’m told have appeared in other Paul Auster’s books and who each impart some sort of information.

Through the book, Mr Blank reads the manuscript and then is expected to finish it which he does in a flash of inspiration. Then at the end he starts reading and it turns out it’s the same story that we’ve just been reading!

Although I’m a fan of Mr Auster, I didn’t particularly take to this book, mainly because I didn’t really understand it and also because it didn’t really have a conclusion. Fortunately, it was very short (130 pages) so it didn’t take too much of my time. Pity

Review of Mystic River by Dennis Lehane

Picked this up in Voltaire and Rousseau in the West End for 70p. I’d already heard of the film directed by Clint Eastwood which starred Sean Penn and Tim Robbins. In fact, we had rented it on DVD a few years ago and not been able to watch it before time run out.

The book was well reviewed given the blurb on its inside cover and it even had a sticker stating that if you were not 100% satisfied with the read you could get your money back. I wonder how many people got in touch?

The book starts off in the ‘70s telling of three boys called Jimmy, Sean and Dave. Two of them live in the poorer area, The Flats and the third, Sean, lives in the more well to do Point. (It’s never that clear but it is all set in the suburbs of Boston.). These boys are only really friends because their fathers meet up on a Saturday afternoon to watch the ball game.

Then an incident occurs which is to affect them for the rest of their lives. Dave, is abducted by two paedophiles, right in front of Sean and Jimmy and although he does return alive to his family, four days later he is psychologically affected as we find out later.

The book then moves to the present day when all three boys are now grown men with families and the various problems that can bring.

Sean has grown up to be a policeman. He is married but separated from his wife. Through the book he gets calls from her where she doesn’t speak at all. Towards the end we find out why.

Jimmy had a life of crime in his late teens and ended up serving 2 years in prison. His wife died during that time but he still had his daughter Katie. He was now married to Annabeth, sister to the notorious Savage Brothers. He was now running a successful convenience store.

Then you have Dave. He was married to Celeste and had a son, Michael. Although he was working, it was poorly paid and they were always struggling to make ends meet. They were both worried about rising rents and being forced to move.

Soon after the exposition of the story, we get into the mea. Jimmy’s daughter, Katie, is murdered on her way home from a night out with her two pals. This was in essence a hen party, because she was about to elope to Las Vegas with her boyfriend, Brendan.

At the same time as this, Dave, is involved in an incident with a ‘mugger’ and comes home covered in blood.

Of course, you know that Sean is going to be in charge of the case.

From this point on the story is a combination of the police procedural and dealing with the issues and emotions arising from the circumstances.

The book is well paced, moving and powerful in lots of ways and in my opinion was very deserving of the good crits.

As post script, I bought the DVD for £3 this week and watched a day after reading the book.
Have to say, that it was one of the best transfer of books to the big screen that I’ve seen for a long time. Sean Penn and Tim Robbins were excellent. Another feather in the cap for Clint Eastwood who doesn’t seem to be able to make a bad movie.