Short Stories, Never Let me Go

This comes after a while. Lots of things happening, was under the weather for a while, so no significant reading. Finished stuff started earlier - Selected Short Stories by Balzac (unkindled) and kindled The Wife and other stories by Chekhov. And also kindled Never Let me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. So three books on kindle so far :). Started the Bluest eye on kindle and Fever off the kindle.

I like the kindle, the fondness increases day by day. It allows one to read faster and this whole thing about adjusting font size to suit the mood and light, thumbs up to that. Simple, uncomplicated, not too many things you can do implies that you don't waste time changing settings...and one can just curl up and get down to reading. And battery...after the iphone, I have stated treasuring anything whose battery doesn't run out in a day...and this one is good to go for almost two weeks. Great, ain't it?

The Wife and Other Stories by Anton Chekhov

I have read other stories by Chekhov but never a collection. He writes about different people from different vantage points and that makes the stories colorful and interesting. Chekhov's stories are not like Saki or Maupassant or O Henry with a twist hidden somewhere. But these are reminiscences, a capturing of those moments when the life turns a corner or a recital of the way things were and the way things are. I liked his old man story...these are way different from Pushkin's...and have a much modern element and a much human element attached to them. And they deal with human issues - old age, lost love, betrayal, unnamed feelings but feelings and emotions all the same.

I started reading this on the iphone, finished it on the kindle :)

Selected Short Stories by Balzac

Where Chekhov wrote about people, farms, sometimes education but at more times communist stuff, Balzac was the other end...it's about art, collectors, the artists and the bourgeois and it's about the French, the way they lived, their societies. From Chekhov's stories people did travel to France but the color that Balzac has in his color-palette is quite distinct. His stories - most of them had a sad end to them. And again, like Chekhov these stories capture certain people at certain point in time or they form good coffee table conversations when people relate to others what they once saw or knew or met. These had some other-world or the extreme of this world element attached to them. I look forward to reading more Balzac - his novels. This was the first book I read by Balzac, not many short stories he wrote anyway.

Never Let me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Quick read.Nice read. Quite an emotional read.

Spoiler alert. Its about clones... the only question I had throughout the novel was why don't these guys run away somewhere, why don't these guys just go away. Why do they go through their destiny knowingly? Why do they accept their lives as is.

I guess that must be the reason Mr. Ishiguro wrote the novel - to let people ask themselves this question. It was emotional, senti, I cried at times on certain pages...it may have to do with other things, but the people in the novel are just so vulnerable! And being a mother, reading while your kid is sleeping next to you and when you read about the vulnerabilities of those Hailsham kids ...even though it's an alternate universe...you just want to hold the kid closer to you and make him realise that life is to be lived to the fullest no matter what destiny holds in store and never to give in to the pressure of conforming to the world.

I don't know where I got that but the book must have triggered it.

I am mixing of lot of issues right now and it may not have to do with what the story is about but as Ms Woolf said, a memorable book is the one which triggers other thoughts in your mind...allows your mind to think and make its own connections.

Hope I am able to convey the thought to the kid.

Bookshelf and Bookmarked (October 2009)

Finished the First Women in Love by D H Lawrence in August. Then work got the better of me. Read Identity by Kundera over a flight in September. After that…some short stories by Balzac (end September) – not yet finished. Were quite bleak if I remember well. Then came Dan Brown…Lost Symbol. Then Pushkin – Queen of Spades collection. Then Nocturnes – which I finished last week. So October has been a good month.

On the bookshelf - Infinite Jest (started the same day when kindle arrived. Am just 10 pages deep in a 1000+ pages book). Also reading (unkindled) - the art of the novel by Milan Kundera (got more suggestions on the kindle list) and Consider the Lobster...(Wallace) and writings of E B White (charming) and finishing up the short stories by Balzac. We are sometimes tempted to write as Mr. White writes.

Striking, interesting stuff registered recently on books read (may be colored still):
First Women in Love – Broken notes. Lawrence writes like someone I’ve never read before.

Some notes from the time I started reading the First Women...
I like the book. And I am humbled by the depth of thoughts of almost all the characters in the book. Somehow, I realize that the way Lawrence looks at life through the lens of all his protagonists, it leaves you a lot richer in terms of new ideas (given the recent readings I have done) – This seems like discovering a new Doris Lessing. I like the voice, the tone. Soliloquies are interesting and so are the dialogues. And you realize that you have so much to learn about the craft, so much to discover, it leaves you hungrier for more such texts. I think, given the last book I read (Revolutionary Road), which was a novel, though beautiful in its own way – the way Richard Yates uses language and approaches situations; Compared to that, this book definitely gets categorized as a literary classic. I am joyful, at the opening up of more such rich experiences, to savour more of Lawrence's works.

Notes post finishing the book -
He is on a slightly higher level of awareness about the world. I guess, as a writer, one is supposed to be. Otherwise, how does one observe, capture and convey in simple terms the thing that is so complex. So far, so good. Most writers are on a higher plane of awareness. What distinguishes Lawrence from the people I’ve read earlier including Lessing is the way his characters are also on a much higher plane than may be the people I meet on a daily basis. Or maybe, the people are talking about their innermost thoughts, even movements of thoughts, motions, changes, how one thought leads to another and not just an action – and that’s why it seems different. Its not what people talk about on a daily basis. Hmmm but then didn’t Lessing also record something similar…the innermost? But maybe, it is the time that is different….but I’ve read other books about England during that time. Ok, its not just about the same time. Even Archer/King/Brown are in the same times as Kundera/Marquez/Lessing….but the things they talk about are different…the material is different. The viscosity is different.

Identity – Milan Kundera picks up a thought and turns it into a dream like novel – you don’t know the difference in the material. If Archer/Grisham are water, Lawrence is thick lotion/potion, and Kundera is like smoke – hazy, difficult to catch, elusive, filling up the room but still not what you can put your hand on, or in.

The Lost Symbol – pros - the extent of knowledge, the things you get to learn. But was quite saddened…it didn’t resonate. I was saddened by the way it turns back to look at something which was and which doesn't seem to be the right way instead of looking forward – getting lost in rituals when all that matters is faith – that kind of thing. But he sells and makes movies…as a story, good fun, fast - but what it talks about sometimes borders on the thing I can talk about for ages and still wonder (life, its origin, beyond) to things that can be classified as absolute crap (sacrifice – fine, but ritual of sacrifice?)

Nocturnes – Ishiguro -New discovery. K picked it up. Quite interesting….good part is it’s a quick read. Sometimes it leaves a sad taste and sometimes, an unfulfilled question – what happens? What would have happened? No way to know or to google. You just leave the question, and try not to look back and move ahead to the next story. A lot about music. Since I know just so much about music, think I may have not understood the full depth of some of the stories…just followed the story lines. He can be quite funny at times and then quite unfulfilling at certain other times. The book kept talking about piazzas, cafes, coffee, the artistic life…which, just because is quite inaccessible becomes more desirable and interesting. Liked reading it.

Queen of Spades…Pushkin - like the other Russian guys but a much more flowing story kind of thing rather than ruminations or thoughts or viscosity. Old times type/ recording stories. The beauty is the stories have such a different subject matter and are set in a different time and land…that makes it interesting and worth spending time on. More Pushkin soon.