The Waves - Virginia Woolf

Another one of those books that I picked up while idling in a book store. After "To The Lighthouse" I had not dared to pick up another Woolf. But I had read nothing challenging for a while and thought myself up to the task. But this was before Nietzsche.

Woolf did not surprise me this time. For the first few pages, I was utterly lost. Was this a play? A dialogue? People talking to each other? Playing games? What was this? Turned out, while I was reading the introduction later (one of those few that do not strive to show the introducer's intellect but actually introduces the content of the book) that they were, what Woolf called, soliloquies.So it was akin to a play after all. But not quite a play. Woolf has tried to do something different by representing characters as threads of individual thoughts rather than build them up through plot.

The book is more of character building than a story. The story is sparse and widely spread out. It centres around six individuals : Bernard, Neville, Louis, Susan, Jinny and Rhoda. Each has his or her own individuality that they speak out loud as a stream of thoughts. The story follows them from their childhood through to their waning ages. There is a seventh "silent" character of Percival whom everyone adores. Bernard is somewhat more central than the others and finishes the book with an existential piece that revisits the life of all his friends.

 I was expecting nothing different of Woolf. Despite all the difficulties that it posed, the book was something of a delight to read. No one uses words like Woolf does. They are a piece of art by themselves. But then I strongly hold her conscious disregard for a plot against her. It was as if I had jumped from one Nietzsche to another, only, the original was far easier to read.

The Orphan Master's Son - Adam Johnson

Nietzsche had me by my balls. I decided to make him more of a background read (like I did with Tolstoy) and pick up something more akin to fiction as a foreground read. The problem was, I did not want to go back to the classics and the 1800's just yet. I wanted to taste something more present; I wanted something contemporary. Award winning novels would not be bad I supposed. So I picked up a random one from a wikipedia list suggested an interesting name. Looked it up on flipkart; ordered; done.

Adam Johnson has picked an extremely daring topic for his fiction : the North Korean dystopia. It is hard to classify the novel into one category though; as the author himself agrees, he was not working towards a specific genre. Thriller is the best broad classification I have for this work. It was utterly un-put-down-able. The story moves leisurely without any bogging stretches. There are no fillers. It is just a long string of disconnected events taking place in the life of a singular character. The story in itself seems incredible but it is the protagonist who holds your attention. It is he who makes everything incredible about the story seem vaguely possible.

Jun Do is this protagonist who has been brought up in an orphanage. Orphans in the DPRK are considered a separate social strata and are treated as such. The totalitarian regime that looks to oppress by means of threats probably finds nothing to threaten orphans by. Jun Do lives through the Arduous March and grows up to be a tunnel rat, an off shore kidnapper and a radio transmission reader. His life is extremely adventurous and he finds himself aspiring without any real emotions against the regime. He, in his own words, outlives every one of his friends. In a society where the story is more important than the individual, he lives his story, and another's, and another's. He finds the love of his life and makes her fall in love with him. And then he is damned to the dungeons of the North Korean secret police.

Adam Johnson has written a very interesting story. One that thrills all the way, grips you till the very end. However, there is that naked contempt for socialist societies and the glorification of the USA and it's concept of freedom that cakes the pages. Other than this irritating angle, the book is an extremely good read. It is easy in it's pace and it's demands. And the imaginations of the author deserve applause. 

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Volume 1) - Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill

Since my last book, Trainspotting, that I wrapped up in August, I have been reading Nietzsche. My comments on him, I will reserve for a later post. For now, let's just say that he leaves the head heavy and the being desirous of something entertaining and refreshing. Moore! shouted my brain. And so it was that "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen"s first volume slowly made its way to my hands.

"The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" is a pathetically made movie. So much so that I would really not have considered buying this book had it not been my blind trust in Moore's storytelling skills. I had read another Moore in the interim - "Lost Girls" which he and the co-artist, Melinda Gebbie, describe as a work of "pornography". Other than the obvious delights that the controversial book held, it showed a remarkable ability of Moore. That of perverting a well known stories and presenting them in a radically new light. Tracing back, it was the same with "From Hell" and "Batman : The Killing Joke". And it certainly was the same with "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen". You meet well known characters from stories unrelated. Dr. Jekyll, Edward Hyde, the Invisible Man, Captain Nemo, Professor Moriarty, even Well's time traveller! All twisted and mixed into a concoction that serves to entertain. O'Neill impresses with his psychedelic art. It is hallucinatory and slightly dark. The consistence of detailing is very impressive.

The story starts with Mina Murray being recruited by Campion Bond in the name of a certain Mr. M to form a menagerie of adventurers to help the British empire against its enemies. Miss Murray hunts down the opium addicted aging adventurer Allan Quatermain with the help of the supposedly deceased Sikh pirate Captain Nemo and the three go on to capture Dr. Jekyll and Edward Hyde from Paris, and Hawley Griffin (The Invisible Man) from Edmonton, London. The collection complete, they set out to thwart the oriental Doctor's plans to dominate the Empire and the world. But that is certainly not the end of their adventures!

I did get what I was looking for : some light entertainment, however, Moore did not impress me as much as he had done in the previous works, though the art was amazing, probably the best after "Batman : A Killing Joke". I think the plot was looser and lacking in a theme as compared to the likes of "V for Vendetta" and "The Watchmen". But then this is just the first volume. Who knows whether the future volumes will hold me just as mesmerised. And I just have to commend these guys make the graphic novel. It is so much more than a simple comic book. There is commentary, extra notes, side stories, etc. that offer a variety of entertainment to the reader. I was comparing it with the recent rising graphic novel scene in India - Ramayana, 18 Days, Devi, etc. There is much lacking in terms of story-telling here.

Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh

It was in college that a friend had told me that "Trainspotting" was a good read. I was surprised then to find out that it was a book as well. Danny Boyle's movie was the only thing I had seen, mostly for the music back then. When I picked up "Fight Club" I thought I would also order "Trainspotting", the intent being to compare the movie and the book.

A couple of pages into the book and I was swearing loudly. Welsh had written the book in a Scottish accent! It took me a long time to understand which word had what English equivalent. The complexity of the reading took my mind off the plot and the flow of the story many a times and I had to turn back and forth to establish a connection between what I was reading and what I had read. All this edge of interest in the book. Welsh has written the book as individual chapters being narrated by some character or third person. The characters usually do not identify themselves immediately and at times are randomly introduced. This makes you more interested in what is happening rather than to whom it is happening, which, in my opinion, is the better way to enjoy this book. Welsh has portrayed a gang of junkies and addicts at the center of a vague plot. This is more of an insight into how junkies think and why they behave the way they do. No moral lecturing makes it even better. The social and legal implications of the British punk is highlighted pretty well. Compared to the movie, the book lacks a strong story but more than makes up for it with the strong thought processes and the per chapter protagonist structure.

Rents, Spud, Sick Boy and Begbie are mostly at the center of the story, each addicted to heroin, heroin, sex and violence respectively. They live in Leith in Edinburg and are unemployed, resorting to various illegal activities to gather money for survival and drugs. The story moves between their lives and circle of friends touching many briefly. The frivolity and irresponsibility with which they lead their lives is highlighted. Eventually people start dying because of AIDS and the remaining try mending their lives.

"Trainspotting" was a light read once I got over the word mapping exercise. One in which you particularly did not care about the plot and just enjoyed the thoughts of a man. The way he thought in the given situation and how he acted because of it. I will probably not pick up another Welsh anytime soon but perhaps I might consider "Porno" once I am done with my list of pending books.

The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde

Bookshops have a strange magnetism to them. I have been a happy customer of flipkart.com for quite a few years now. But it has been mostly due to the ease of discovery and availability of desired books. But make me walk past a bookshop stocked with volumes and my steps divert in the direction of the establishment. It is the same exhilarating sense that led me to a local shop advertising a sale on its gate. I browsed through a lot of books with a certain restraint. The constant awareness of a humongous and increasing pile of books lying on my shelves was dogging me. My eyes fell on a book that displayed the name of 'Oscar Wilde' in big fonts. I picked up the book. "The Picture of Dorian Gray" had an interesting teaser. A story that I remembered having heard. But I could not remember where and I certainly could not remember Oscar Wilde being the author. So I picked it up and brought it home and dumped it with the rest of the books in my shelf. I picked it up at long last to accompany me in my Uttarakhand travel. I intended to finish it over two weeks. I was done in half the time.

Oscar Wilde is a well known name. I think I had first heard of him back in school when I used to read. Or perhaps in college when I had resumed my affair with literature. I had, for some reason, thought of him as a poet. But a man of literature is rarely bound to a single form. "The Picture of Dorian Gray" is Wilde's only novel. He has written several plays and essays which combine into an interesting bibliography. He is an expert raconteur and the story is extremely witty. Every page of the book contains witticism that makes you smile inwards at its frank realism. You agree with Lord Wotton's view of the existing world and his idea of a new hedonism. You agree with Dorian Gray's loss of morale and his repentance. You agree with everything that Oscar Wilde puts on those pages.

The story is about a certain beautiful young man who, in his age of innocence, befriends a perverted gentleman - Lord Henry Wotton, while sitting for a portrait by an artist friend. This portrait and Lord Wotton's enchanting words produce in the youth a revelation of his own beauty. He cries at the injustice of the portrait retaining all the beauty while he bearing the brunt of age and character. He wishes that things be otherwise. As he grows corrupt under his new friend's influence, he discovers that his wish has miraculously been granted. He hides the portrait and goes about committing one misdeed after another owing to the shield of his undying youth and beauty while the portrait changes to reflect his soul.

Oscar Wilde has pleasantly surprised me. I was expecting the work to be drier for some reason but it was certainly not. My interest piqued, I have been looking at the list of Wilde's works. Perhaps I will order another in near future.

Watchmen - Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

Moore is my second love, after Dostoyevsky, in terms of storytelling. I had thought of reading "Watchmen" before giving Moore a break. So I got the novel, a few days later than I was expecting it but in time for me to pick it up. I read it at leisure while travelling back and forth between cities and the book kept me good company.

Moore stands out for his storytelling. Period. His stories are engrossing and bizarrely adorned with stuff that engrosses you further. "Watchmen" is a twelve part series that was published by DC. In the compiled edition, you see a small feature that digresses from the story and elaborates on a certain part of it. It was fictional research and I found myself reading those five pages with as much zeal as I had read the main story with. The story tries to look into the concept of super-heroes in a real world. The theme 'Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?' is, in my opinion, wrongly used but like every other imperfection in the storyline, this one too adds a certain degree of respect for the author. It is a sign that the story evolved during the twelve editions. In order that I might be able to compare, I watched Snyder's 215 minute ultimate cut before I read the book. And guess what, Moore outshone like every single time before. The inconsistencies were smoothed out in the movie but the novel was just too good. Gibbons' art was a true equal to Moore's story.

The story opens with the murder of a 'masked adventurer'. Rorschach, another of the masked adventurers, investigates deeper into the matter and finds that many of his former colleagues from an erstwhile group 'Watchmen' were being targetted. He suspects someone with a vendetta but further investigation leads to astounding revelations. The story is set in a nuclear cold war scenario where a war is expected at hand. The presence of a certain 'superman', Doctor Manhattan, in the United States of America has led to huge technological improvements and a morbid arms race.

Moore still spellbinds. Gibbons was quite an equal. My itch has not been cured yet though. Probably one more Moore before I let him rest for a while. I am eyeing "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen".

Poor Folk - Fyodor M. Dostoyevsky

This is one of the Dostoyevsky's that I had been partially itching to read for quite some time now. I finally thought it was time to get back to another Dostoyevsky and hence the book.

"Poor Folk" was the first novel that got Dostoyevsky a decent amount of fame as a writer and represents a side of him before the death sentence episode that scarred his life. It represents a comparatively less mature style than one encounters in his later works, for obvious reasons. The book talks about, as is apparent from the title, poor denizens of St. Petersburg and their thoughts regarding themselves and others. It is very interestingly presented as a chain of letters between two main characters and nothing else. It starts abruptly and ends with the same abruptness.

The two main characters of the story are Makar Alexievitch Dievushkin and Barabara Alexievna Dobroselova, a copier in his later middle ages and a young woman still to see her prime. The are distantly related and closely situated in their lodgings and affections towards each other. Both being poor, seek solace in the other. They share their lives with each other and an occasional book. Makar Dievushkin showers gifts upon Barbara to his best capacity and she returns his gift with her affections as well as monetary help on a couple of occasions. In the background are the lives of the few people that these two associate with, mostly of the same class as theirs. Towards the end there occur a tumult of gay and saddening occasions.

This was a comparatively less gripping Dostoyevsky than the others but it was still a Dostoyevsky. My interest lies more in the author now than his work. The concept of the story was interesting though there were occasions where the author might have been inconsistent. But all is forgotten and forgiven since he is Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky!