Entries from December 2008
Sea Of Poppies
Sea of Poppies, December 2008, 4.5/10.
Written by Amitav Ghosh. Published by Farrer, Straus and Giroux.
I was disappointed with this book, which I found predictable and bland. I was hoping that its good reviews and Booker shortlist selection would make it a good read, but instead I found the storyline very cliched and the characters predictable and for the most part boring. Even worse was that the points that the novel tried to convey about society and social interaction, particularly in a colonial environment, were made in such a blunt way that there was little scope for interpretation by the reader, who was instead forced by the lack of subtlety to accept the author’s perspective, regardless of whether it made much sense or not.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: 4.5/10, Amitav Ghosh, Fiction, India
Dance Dance Dance, December 2008, 6/10.
Written by Haruki Murakami, published by Vintage books.
This novel did not live up to the expectations I had after reading the admiring review by Jay McInerney. I was fascinated by the feeling of urban alienation that pervades the book. This generalised numbness – a silenced pain – makes the characters of the book quite interesting. Despite this, I was never able to be completely into the book, as I usually am. There is way too much paranormal and psychic activity in the book to make it a really compelling murder mystery, and it does not adventure far enough into the surreal to make you stop questioning where the border between fantasy and reality lies. On the plus side, some of M.’s metaphors are really poetic.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: 6/10, Fiction, Japanese, Murakami, Translated Books
The Crying of Lot 49, December 2008, 8.5/10.
Written by Thomas Pynchon, published by Vintage.
This novel is highstrung and incredibly funny. It is tinged with psychedelia and creates a web of allusions to popular music, contemporary writers and artists that is amusing to navigate through. All characters, who sport wild and symbolic names such as Gengis Cohen and Mr. Fallopian, revolve around a mysterious centuries-long conflict among competing mailing systems. It is amazing that P. manages to turn such an unappealing topic in a captivativing LSD-drenched odyssey through California, and through man’s need for certainties. Oedipa, the novel’s Ulysses, zigzags through the state trying to guess if the mystery she is uncovering is her paranoia, a huge complot or just reality, but the uncertainty is never resolved.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: 8.5/10, American, Fiction, Pynchon
