Book Review: The Resignation by Jainendra

Title: The Resignation (Tyagpatra)
Author: Jainendra
Translator: Rohini Chowdhury
Publisher: Penguin India
ISBN: 978-0-143-41524-4
Genre: Indian Literature, Translated Fiction, Literary Fiction
Pages: 178
Source: Publisher
Rating: 5/5

Indian Literature is under-rated. I have always believed that most Indian writers (great ones at that) are often not spoken about or mentioned at all. Some great books are never discussed. That’s a sad situation for a country that is so rich in literature – considering the number of languages stories are weaved in and then translated for the English reader’s (like me) benefit, only not to be praised.

One such Indian writer that needs to be spoken more about is Jainendra. Born in 1905, he was one of the first to join the Independence Movement in 1921. The interesting part is that most of his stories and novels are centered on the idea of freedom and the right to speech, which is what, pulls me to read his books. I have read his short stories in Hindi; however I must shamefully admit that it seemed like a mammoth task initially.

“The Resignation” or Tyagpatra is one of his most popular books published in 1937, and re-published in English (an amazing translation by Rohini Chowdhury) by Penguin India (God Bless them for that) very recently. The book though written in a time when every person was searching for an independent voice and way of life is still very relevant in our democratic society. The Resignation is a story of Mrinal, a young woman whose idealism is so strong that her family and the society around her rejects her completely and she is living on her own, facing situations as they come along.

That is the basic plot. On the other hand, Jainendra weaves the narration from the point of view of Mrinal’s nephew Pramod, who has adored and loved his aunt with deep passion. The themes of independence and family run deep in this book. Also hailed as a novel of psychological sensibility, The Resignation is an insight into life in those times and for a woman nonetheless as someone who is trying to live life on her terms.

What I found most interesting is that the novel is that Jainendra has taken many chances with its structure – from the plot to the way it has been narrated, which is quite refreshing. It almost reminded me of Tagore’s books and rightly so, considering that the themes of feminism (then I am sure not known as that) and individualism are clearly reflected in both their works.

The writing is fantastic. Every word is in its place and most credit goes to the translator (who often gets ignored) for the wonderful derivation of setting, meaning and the right words to add the much needed pace and communicative technique to the book.

The Resignation when it was first published; I am sure created a stir. It broke all rules of traditional sensibilities and that’s what makes it a great read. Indian literature is not what it seems most of the time till discovered and devoured. Great books such as these make it truly a niche genre.

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Book Review: Fever by Samaresh Basu

Title: Fever
Author: Samaresh Basu
Translated by: Arunava Sinha
Publisher: Random House India
ISBN: 978-8-184-00194-5
Genre: Classics, Literary Fiction
Pages: 129
Source: Publisher
Rating: 4/5

Post-colonial literature in our country can never go out of existence or become outdated. That is also because the issues are the same, all the time – poverty, class, unemployment (to a very large extent), race issues and illiteracy. When a literary genre is named after something that so largely affected the entire nation, then one cannot ignore the genre and what works come out of it. Post-colonial literature is not just about literature post a certain period. It encompasses a shift – in rule, in defiance, in the government, the policies and the implications, which some authors try to document and make note of as literature.

One amongst many such writers happens to be Samaresh Basu. Translated fiction in India is another topic of discussion, maybe meant for a later time; however this post is about his book, “Fever”, translated wondrously by Arunava Sinha and republished recently by Random House India.

“Fever” is a book, though small in its size, took me some time to write a review about, mainly because of its content and what it represents. The book is a paean to the Naxalite movement and what it stood for or rather still stands for. Fever is about Ruhiton Kurmi – a once hardcore Naxalite, now moved from one prison to the next for seven years and eventually freed, looking back at his life – achievements and losses and the ideals he once believed in. Ruhiton not only looks back on the movement, but also his personal life – aspirations (whatever few that he manages), his wife, his youth, the friends he has lost along the way, and how he ended up where he is today.

At one point, I almost lost interest in the book (the pace is surreally slow) and got back to it, thanks to the translation. Arunava Sinha has been a doyen at translating Bengali literature (Tagore, Sankar, and Banaphool) and this one has been translated to the hilt, with excellence.

Samaresh Basu’s originality remains intact or so it seems while reading – for one I did not think the language or expression was lost in translation. Consider this, “He was reminded of all their faces, and of their voices, laughing, crying, talking in unison. He could not control the waterfall coursing down his heart”.

Personally, I do not enjoy novels with a political bent to them. The only other writer whose work I have enjoyed that remotely comes close to the Naxalite movement (very loosely though) is Mahasweta Devi, with her epic, “Mother of 1084”. Fever on the other hand is a representation of the movement through the mind and memories of a broken man, trying to make sense of the past and the present. A read that had me thinking for sure.

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Book Review: The Book of Happenstance by Ingrid Winterbach

Title: The Book of Happenstance
Author: Ingrid Winterbach
Publisher: Open Letter Press
ISBN: 978-1-934824-33-7
Genre: Literary Fiction
Pages: 254
Source: Publisher
Rating: 5/5

The Book of Happenstance begins with a loss, as a linguistic specialist’s home is robbed and defaced, with her precious sea-shell collection stolen. While the theft of the sea-shell collection may seem minor, it is this fact that builds the entire story of love, loss, science, language and relationships. I had never heard of Ingrid Winterbach prior to this book, and now that I have read this book, I will for sure read more works written by her.

Helena is a lexicographer of the Afrikaans language. She doesn’t want to do anything else but understand the essence of life, what it means to be alive and why live at all. She wants to know why she is here and why her life matters. For me that struck a personal chord throughout the book, after all, don’t we all want to know that at some point in our lives?

Helena’s life is estranged at the same time. She is divorced, rarely sees her daughter, her extended family is dead, and she has had a series of love affairs, trying to make sense of every single one of them. Helena has written a novel which has not been successful. When she gets the opportunity to move to Durban for a project, she jumps at it, only to get robbed after three months and is left devastated. Getting no help from the local police, she decides to solve the theft on her own with the help of her new friend from the Museum of Natural History, Sof. While she investigates, she mulls and ponders over her life – her ex-husband, her losses, her gains and begins to fall in love with her married boss.

As events unfurl themselves around her, Helena begins to realize the importance of ‘happenstance’ – the accidents which occur over a period of time to species, which allow them to adapt more successfully than their predecessors.

This novel takes the reader on a complex rollercoaster ride. Winterbach has structured the entire novel of course around Helena’s life; however she has masterfully managed to embody the concept of evolution around her life as well. The concept is striking and more so are the words, which are skillfully translated by the author and Dirk Winterbach. While there is a pervasive sense of dread and foreboding in the novel, there is also a sense of hope and wanting to live life to the fullest, which Helena ultimately realizes and wants to figure it all out. Read this book. It might get you thinking.

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Book Review: The Empty Space by Geetanjali Shree

Title: The Empty Space
Author: Geetanjali Shree
Publisher: Harper Collins India
ISBN: 9789350290521
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 260
Source: Publisher
Rating: 4/5

The Empty Space is not one of those books that can be read in one sitting. Even if you want to, you would not be able to – the plot will not allow you to. I had a tough time getting through this book and the writing had nothing to do with it. It was the story.

The Empty Space by Geetanjali Shree hits you hard and in the right places. It tells the story of a bomb exploding in a university café, claiming the lives of nineteen students. The mother of one of those victims comes home with her dead eighteen year-old son packed in a box and the sole survivor of the blast, a three-year old, who was found in an empty space, living and breathing. The story chronicles three lives – the mother, the boy lost, and the boy who was found. Memories that have to be created and memories that can only remain that for time to come.

What I found most taking in about the story was the relationship portrayed between the mother and the three-year old. Both have so much to say and yet they cannot tell each other anything. There were also times when I thought the language wasn’t perfect in certain places; however I am going to let that go because it was a translation and I am sure that would not be the same in the original.

The Empty Space reminded me a lot of Mother of 1084 by Mahasweta Devi, and that is solely due to the nature of the plot. You begin to start wondering about what the families go through when children die due to such banal acts of terror. Is there anything sacred left then in this world? Is there any sanity at all? This book is one of such attempts to bring to forth the consequences of what happens after an attack. Vividly written, The Empty Space unearths questions and emotions that may be needed in times such as ours.

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Book Review: Bedanabala. Her Life. Her Times by Mahasweta Devi

Title: Bedanabala. Her Life. Her Times
Author: Mahasweta Devi
Publisher: Seagull Books
ISBN: 9788170462910
Genre: Translated Fiction
Pages: 80
Source: Personal Copy
Rating: 5/5

Once again Mahasweta Devi has touched upon the lives of those who are never noticed, never cared for. And her pen cuts a deep wound in the minds of readers, forcing them to sit up and discern the essential from the inessential.

Bedanabala. Her Life. Her Times is a touching tale told in first person of a woman, Bedanabala, whose mother used to live in a brothel. These reminiscences are sometimes personal, sometimes historical. The story begins in the late 19th Century, with the “theft” of a beautiful girl child from a wealthy family. She is Bedanabala’s mother. She grows up in the house of ill repute, to be groomed to enter the profession once she has come of age. But then, Did’ma, the owner of the brothel, grows to love this beautiful child as she would her own daughter and does not want her to enter this profession. She seeks for her a life of a householder. It is story that is seldom told. Did’ma’s contribution to the war effort, her donations to the fighters of India’s freedom and her gifts to the mission are her way of atoning for her sins.

The story is set in a changing India, an India poised on the threshold of progress and transformation. New thoughts and ideas are forming in the minds of idealistic youth and nationalistic passion runs high. I like how she merges topics – nationalism with the issue of prostitution and yet none of them are glorified. She writes the way she imagines and the way she has known. There is not an ounce of superficialness in her penmanship skills.

Mahasweta Devi’s Bedanabala. Her Life. Her Times empathises with a section of women that is misunderstood and disapproved of. She narrates the story with great sensitivity, skilfully weaving into the story a changing India and nationalism. I am a great fan of her works and that is only because she knows how to write and write well. The book is translated by Sunandini Banerjee.

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Book Review: Gopallapuram by Ki Rajanarayanan

Title: Gopallapuram
Author: Ki Rajanarayanan
Publisher: Penguin India
ISBN: 9780143067757
Genre: Indian Literature
Pages: 144 pages
Price: Rs. 199
Source: Publisher
Rating: 5/5

Gopallapuram takes you places you never imagined you could go to. The short vignettes in this wondrous book teach you about humans – the experience through a few characters living in a village, like most villages, unknown to civilization. I had not heard of Gopallapuram, the book before stumbling on to it at the Penguin India website and come to think of it, it is a contemporary classic. I am very glad that Penguin is taking the step to publish translated works and make readers aware of what gems do we have in our trove of Indian Literature.

Gopallapuram is a tough one to write a review of and not because of anything else, but because of the way the stories are layered. The people and their pathos can be felt through the pages of this book. The stories while holding your attention also make you think a lot. For instance, what about the highway robber who murders the pregnant woman for her jewellery? Does he have a family somewhere as well?

Or the fact that a group of people can come together to transform a barren land to a blooming village – I mean who can even think of writing something like this. It is then no wonder that he won the Sahitya Akademi Award as well.
To me Gopallapuram was a revelation. Almost something that was unexpected and hit me from the blue. I love that when books do that you. The ability to take you to lands and times forgotten.

Ki Rajanarayanan has the unique ability to make the reader feel emotive even towards his so-called anti-heroes. There are only shades of grey to his writing, which in effect is brilliant as it gives the reader the opportunity to think and ponder.

Book Review: The Wrong Blood by Manuel De Lope

Title: The Wrong Blood
Author: Manuel De Lope
Publisher: Other Press
Genre: Literary Fiction, Translation
PP: 304 Pages
ISBN: 9781590513095
Price: $14.95
Source: Publisher
Rating: 5/5

There must be something about the way Spanish literature translates into English. Manuel De Lope’s writing kept making me think of the writing of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It is very stately and a bit formal but it is also very entertaining and not to be missed.

The story takes place during the Spanish Civil War and then fifty or so years later. The main characters are Dr. Castro, wealthy aristocrat, Isabel Herraiz, Peasant Girl, Maria Antonia Etzarri and Isabel’s grandson, Goitia Herraiz. The women lived together for years, in Isabel’s home. Also, part of the household is Veronica Herraiz, who will become Goitia’s mother. Dr. Castro lives in the house next door to Isabel and Maria Antonia and was the doctor who delivered Isabel’s daughter. On the surface, everthing seems pretty straight forward except for a secret that Isabel, Dr. Castro and Maria Antonia share.

Goitia comes to his grandmother’s house to study for the Civil Law Notary Exams. It is his presence which initiates memories in the mind of the doctor. He remembers the wedding of Isabel and her soldier husband, Julen and the terrible tragedy which left Isabel a new bride and young widow and pregnant with her husband’s child. Maria Antonia experiences her own tragedies during the war when she was raped and misused by Facist soldiers who commandeered her family’s inn. Shamed and confused, she is left to make her own way and is taken in by a family friend of Isabel’s. She is trained as a cook and eventually is hired by Isabel to be her cook and companion. The decades long relationship between the women causes Isabel to leave Maria Antonia her home when Isabel dies. Goitia has asked permission to study at Las Cruces, as it is named, at the bidding of his mother. Maria Antonia agrees, and they spend two months together with the young man studying and the old women taking care of him.

The story of these people is rolled out carefully and well by De Lope. Along with the story of the main characters is a background description of the Spanish Civil War. Although he doesn’t go into depth about the war, we can see the story of this terrible conflict which we have been acquainted with previously in Picasso’s “Guernica; Hemingway;s “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and Lorca’s poetry and his biography by Ian Gibson. We get a flavor of the trauma of the Spanish as they lived through the war which has been called “The Dress Rehearsal for World War II”.

In terms of the writing, the direction of the plotline is a bit obvious once you begin reading, but that hardly matters in the long run. I only rarely find an author whose prose is so eloquent that I want to read the book again just to appreciate its beauty. And considering this is a translated version, well, I can only imagine how absolutely wonderful it must be in the original Spanish. The story is paced very well; it starts a bit slow, setting the overall tone immediately, while allowing the reader to absorb and appreciate small details that might otherwise be overlooked. The sense of time and place is evoked largely through the use of flashbacks, which take the reader seamlessly and skillfully through the hardships of war into the present and back again, without causing any interruption to the overall flow of the story. It is a book that will you find difficult to put down until the very end.

I highly recommend this book. Even though De Lope has written a number of other successful novels, this is the first one which has been translated into English and John Cullen has done a marvelous job as translator. I hope he will do more of De Lope’s work. This is not a book to read in a weekend. However, I found myself being drawn back to it to sneak yet another page or so in odd minutes. It was a great experience. I hope you will read it also.

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Book Review: Playground – Rangbhoomi by Premchand

Title: Playground: Rangbhoomi
Author: Premchand
Translator: Manju Jain
Publisher: Penguin India
ISBN: 9780143102113
Extent: 692pp
Format: Paperback (Demy)
Source: Publisher
Price:  Rs. 500

I had not read a single book by Premchand (or Munshi Premchand, as he was known) till I read Rangbhoomi. I had read a one-off story in school (since we had a story by him as a part of the syllabus) and that was that. Nothing more than that as he never sparked my interest when it came to either Basha Literature or the fact that I found his works too depressing and rustic. I was at a stage in my life when probably the world literature influences were heavier than the Indian ones. Till lately, my interest varied and I wanted to read something by him. I have read a lot of Indian Literature; however we belong to the generation sadly of translations and must make do with them. Here, I would like to give full-credit to the translator of this work, Manju Jain for providing us with this gem of a work.

Translating a work is not easy. There are times when maybe you miss out on the finer details that the original work intended to communicate to its readers. However, thankfully so that is not the case with this translation, owing to the fact that the translator is also an Indian. Rangbhoomi as a novel is complex – it has many layers to it which take time to unfold and come to the surface. The title itself means, “The arena of life” – which is so apt to the entire book. It is life playing itself in its arena and in many shapes, forms and emotions.

At over 700 pages, Rangbhoomi is a big book and yet it satisfies the reader in ways one cannot even begin to fathom. The plot of the book is simple as the case is in most Premchand’s works: Oppression of the working classes, namely in Rural India, which would mean – the farmers. We encounter the blind Surdas and his chronicle from life to death and the hardships he suffers on the account of his place in the society – that of a farmer.

Munshiji has been the hallmark of Indian Literature. Right from Godan (The Gift of a Cow) to the short story Kafan (Shroud), his penmanship skills have been brilliant and long-lasting in the memory of his readers. The narrative of Premchand is biting – it makes you think and wonder about the caste system that still exists in our country in hamlets and villages. May be a change will come someday. It ought to.