Mini Reviews - V

Pied Piper

-          Nevil Shute

This novel is about an elderly English gentleman caught in the middle of German occupation in France, and must return back home. What starts with his generosity in agreeing to take two children from his French hotel to England with him, gradually builds up into something huge – along the way, amidst the tragedies of war, several other children join his band. He continues this arduous journey with patience and compassion that is in his heart, despite his own suffering inflicted by his old age and lack of skill in handling young children and survival training. The group faces severe trials in the war-torn lands, but also receives help from strangers along the way.

It is a beautiful, touching story, told in a simple narrative. However, I found that magic something missing, which so enchanted me in his other books like "Requiem for a Wren" and "On the Beach". I felt that this was not as crisp, and though the characters were endearing and believable, the story had few too many coincidences that stretched the imagination.

English, August

-          Upmanyu Chatterjee

The only feeling I had after finishing it was that of relief. It must be one of the most awful books I read, and I think that it can perhaps only be enjoyed by intellectual snobs or depraved minds (and I suppose nothing says they can't co-exist). I would have abandoned it after the first few pages, had I not finished almost two-thirds of it on an idle weekend when I had nothing else to read, and I was feeling too lazy even to move.

I didn’t like the language used, and didn’t find anything redeemable about the protagonist. I found his thought process repulsive rather than amusing. If that is indeed the way an average Indian male thinks, there is no surprise that the society today is the way it is. The story doesn’t go anywhere, and there is probably not even a single paragraph without a mention of getting stoned, shit or mast*******. I didn’t find it at all witty as it is supposed to be, and if there was any humor, it was rude and sick.

Anne of Green Gables

-          L. M. Montgomery

This is a delightful book about an orphaned Anne, who lands up at the home of an elderly couple who actually intended to adopt a boy. She is a spirited and kind-hearted girl, and her journey of settling into her new home and the community, and making mistakes and learning from them makes for an engaging read.

The language is easier to read than the typical Victorian classics (which are not my cup of tea, by the way). Though I quite liked it (first read in my thirties), I would certainly have enjoyed it much more in my teens.

Sisterhood of Traveling Pants

-          Ann Brashares

Quite an adorable story of friendship and coming-of-age. The pants (a pair of jeans procured from a thrift store) gives four teenage friends strength through the troubled phase of growing up, and forms an unshakable bond between them. Besides the bond of friendship that is of utmost significance at that age, the book also explores other relationships and emotions – love, family, infatuation, pain, kindness.

I wouldn’t say that it is a perfect or a very believable story, but it does portray the turmoil and fears and joys of that age in a realistic manner. It is more of a YA fiction, but I enjoyed it, and I feel that I would have really connected with it in my college years.

A Town Like Alice

This is another book by Nevil Shute I had got along with On The Beach. Since I had read it once some years back, and found it fairly good, though not wonderful, it was a long time before I was inclined to read it, though my brand new copy was lying prettily in my shelf, untouched, for almost six months.

The story is set against the background of World War II. The premise is the atrocities of Japanese on the prisoners of war, when they invaded the eastern parts of Asia. The first half of the story revolves around a group of English women and children, who are forced to march on foot, from one city to another, since there is no camp for women. Although the Japanese do not want to cause them harm, no commander wants to take the responsibility of this group. They have to struggle against lack of bare necessities - food, medicines, clothes, while they are forced into an aimless walk, which takes a toll on the group which reduces to half its initial number. The leader of the group is young Jean Paget, who takes over the responsibility of her friend's child after her death. During the march, they meet an Australian prisoner, Joe Harman, who is driving trucks for Japanese. Joe steals food from Japanese for this group, and is crucified for his "crime". Joe assumes that Jean is a married woman, while Jean gives him up for dead. After months of marching, Jean's group finds refuge in a Malay village, where they spend the rest of the war.

Years later, Jean receives an inheritance, and desires to give back the Malay village something for the generosity they had shown her group. So, she travels to the village, and builds a well and wash-house, as the village women had to fetch water, two or three times a day, from a well some miles away. Here, she learns that Joe Harman survived the Japanese torture. So, she decides to go to Australia to find him, although she does not know much about his place, except the name of the cattle station he used to work on as the ringer. When she reaches there, she learns that Joe has gone to England (talk about ironies!). She finds that although the station is huge, the town is very small and dreary, with nothing to do, and so people tend to move out as soon as they grow up - a "dead" place, just as Joe had described it, in their brief encounter in the war. While she waits for Joe to return, she visits Alice Springs, which is also a cattle station, but is a thriving, lively town. So, she comes up with a plan to develop Joe's rundown town into "A Town Like Alice".

Meanwhile, Joe learns that Jean was not married as he had assumed, and travels to England to find her. When he returns (unable to meet her, or even learn of her whereabouts!), he finds her waiting for him in his homeland! Knowing that it would be difficult to settle a family to adjust in his rundown town, Joe talks of leaving his job, and moving to another livelier place. Jean disagrees, mot wanting him to leave the work he loves, and tells him about her plan ...

The story is narrated by an old lawyer, Mr Strachan, who has the responsibility to find the heir to the legacy (Jean), and disburse it to her. He forms a strong bond with her, and helps her judiciously. Overall, a nice, heart-warming story, although predictable. I liked the first part of the story, the war years - they feel very authentic, and gripping. The second part, when Jean goes back to Malay, and then to Australia, are fine, though embedded with too many coincidences. The last part, where Jean (with help from Joe and other) proceeds to build up a whole town single-handedly, stretches the imagination a bit too far.

On a reading spree - On the Beach

The extreme temperatures during the days, as well as nights, kept me inside over the weekend. Further, heat and a slight quirk of health kept me mostly in bed. So, I went on to a reading spree, and cleared up a part of my to-read list :-)

I read 'A River Sutra' by Gita Mehta, that my brother had gifted me last week. I had started it the last week itself, as it was indicated as a collection of stories )though interlinked), rather than a novel. If I start reading a novel, I find it difficult to put it down, making it hard to go the office the next day. I finished it late night on Friday. On Saturday, I picked up 'The Life of Pi' that I started reading a month or two back, but put it down somewhere in between, and could not start again. Another late night ensued. On Sunday afternoon, having nothing else to do, I opened 'On the Beach' by Nevil Shute, and didn't do anything else till I finished it in the evening. And yes, that night we went to dinner at a friend's place - yet another late night, and I was no good for anything on Monday ;-)

Of the three books that I read, I first want to write about the one that had the greatest impact on me - On the Beach [The world after nuclear war]. One of the editorial reviews described it as 'the most shocking fiction in recent years'. I quite agree with the assessment - it left me somewhat shaken too. As indicated by the tagline of the title, the story is set in the context of the aftermath of a nuclear war. A nuclear war takes place, arising out of selfishness and misunderstanding, destroying all life in the northern hemisphere. The novel does not describe the nuclear war itself, but starts about two years after the war is over, in the southern parts of Australia, as the last of the humanity waits for the approaching death, as radioactive particles are propelled to their part of the world by elements of nature.

Lieutenant Commander Peter Holmes, of Australian Navy, has not had an assignment for close to a year, and is asked to join as the liasion officer of a US submarine docked in Australia. Almost all the ships and airplanes that are left, are out of commission due to lack of fuel. The submarine runs on nuclear fuel, and is in the charge of Commander Dwight Towers. Although it is known that there is no possibility of life anywhere else, the submarine is sent on a fact-finding mission, first to north of Australia, and later to the USA. As Holmes prepares to leave for a long journey to USA, he tries to prepare his wife for what to do for herself and their little daughter, in case he is not able to return before (or ever) the deathly winds reach them. When the submarine is in USA, it reaches a port town, which is (or rather was) the home of one of the men - against the Commander's orders, he escapes from the sub, chosing to die in his home in a few days, rather than few weeks later in the alien lands of Australia. Moments and incidents like these, are rather heart-rending. The book beautifully describes the psychology of people under such unavoidable cicumstances - some people are in the denial mode, some are at peace with the fate, others chose to make the best of whatever time they have left. As months change to weeks, and to days, as towns fall one after another, helpless people ["innocent victims of an accidental war" as described by another review] continue to work and live as normal, planning for the coming years, even though they are aware that this is not going to materialize. People do not panic and rush south, knowing that they cannot escape the fate - they chose to die peacefully in their homes, terminating the agony of radiation sickness with cyanide. But even though they have accepted their fate, they cannot but help ask, why did it have to happen.

Perhaps all of us understand the futility of wars, but they keep on happening, on different scales of magnitude. This book was perhaps an extrapolation in extreme, of the desctruction resulting from avoidable conflicts, but given the times we live in, this might just actually happen.