Read 204 of 2021. Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

Title: Klara and the Sun
Author: Kazuo Ishiguro
Publisher: Faber & Faber
ISBN: 978-0571364886
Genre: Literary Fiction, Contemporary Fiction
Pages: 320
Source: Publisher
Rating: 4/5

There is so much going on in Klara and the Sun that it was impossible for me as a reader to not put the book down and mull over what Ishiguro was trying to say, if one can get what authors try to tell you every single time. Ishiguro’s latest (and long-listed for the Booker Prize 2021) has been published after six long years, and all I have to say is that the wait is worth it.

To understand the concept of Klara, an Artificial Friend, and then to understand her thoughts and feelings and how she makes sense of the world is fascinating. Ishiguro’s writing in this one to me was way different from his other works. There is a sense of restlessness that I felt inside of me as I navigated through Klara and the Sun. Her world is very different and when she’s with her human friend, the perspective changes drastically. Memories merge with Klara’s observations that sometimes she comes across as an unreliable narrator, but that is also another aspect of the novel which is joyous to read.

The latent struggle of trying to make sense of what is going on and at the same time to be true to her human friend is real. The loneliness, the meaning of love, and could she ever love someone, and what makes her who she is are elements so complex and core to the novel.

Klara and the Sun was definitely worth the wait after The Buried Giant. I thought it would be similar to Never Let Me Go or on those lines, but Ishiguro not only surprises you, but sometimes urges you to look at the world differently, and in the process perhaps understand yourself, and maybe even your heart a little more.

Read 201 of 2021. China Room by Sunjeev Sahota

Title: China Room
Author: Sunjeev Sahota
Publisher: Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Random House India
ISBN: 9780670095070
Genre: Literary Fiction
Pages: 256
Source: Publisher
Rating: 4/5

I honestly picked up China Room without any expectation. There was zero expectation as I started the book, and savoured it over a period of a week or so. China Room was a revelation of many aspects. It unravels itself as you turn the pages, and with such elegant and deceptively simple prose that makes you go back and read some sentences all over again.

China Room in brief is about three women who are married away to three men in the year 1929, in rural Punjab. Mehar is one of the brides who is trying to find out the identity of her husband, since she has never seen him. The wives are cut off from their husbands during the day and only called on at night if their mother-in-law Mai wills it. All of this of course because there is need of an heir. What comes of it is the rest of the story.

In another time, in 1999 to be precise, another story unfolds. That of a young unnamed man who travels from England to a farm that has been abandoned for decades, with his own demons. The trauma of his adolescence – his experience with racism, addiction that continues, and more importantly the chasm between him and his culture.  In the process of finding himself (or coming of age in some sense), he finds his roots linked to Mehar.

Sahota does a brilliant job of intertwining the two threads. At the same time, at no point as a reader did, I feel I needed to know more. Sahota’s storytelling skills are totally on-point, and at most times I felt I was reading a literary page-turner (which I think it was). The issues that this book brings to light are so many. There is the awareness of India’s struggle for independence looming large, the idea of women’s liberation (that doesn’t exist at all, whether it is 1929 or 1999 in a country like India), and above all the concept of family and loss that makes for the entire arc of the story.

China Room is also to some extent based on what the author heard from his parents and ancestors, of what happened in his family and that’s why you resonate so much with the writing. It is told with a lot of heart and soul. It explores lives that go by without being chronicled, the book aims to understand the human heart, and what often transpires inside of it. A must-read in my opinion.   

All That Man Is by David Szalay

Title: All That Man Is
Author: David Szalay
Publisher: Graywolf Press
ISBN: 978-1555977535
Genre: Literary Fiction
Pages: 272
Source: Publisher
Rating: 4 Stars

“All that Man Is” is classified as a novel, however to me it was just a wonderful collection of short stories that represent man at a pivotal time in his life. Each story advances age to age and gives us a glimpse of man and his complexities – the way he functions, thinks, and conducts himself. The stories at the same time are also interwoven but by very small details – details that you might even not recognize as you go along and somehow comes full-circle at the end of the book. I would call the book dark but not depressing. It just manages to show you men’s lives and how they are. At the same time, it doesn’t make motherhood statements in any story nor does it endorse the concept of “all men”, which to me was very refreshing.

Szalay’s style of writing is brooding. I like the fact that he spends a lot of time on each story and more than that on each character – giving it the full body and flesh as it should be. Also, might I add that these men are away from home, so that adds another layer altogether to the narrative – which is delightful, fearsome and thrilling at the same time. Also, the locales in which these stories are set are quite edgy in the sense of being melancholic – whether it is a suburb in Prague or a dingy hotel in Cyprus to an Alpine village, the drama of life and death unfolds beautifully through the prose.

The book relies heavily on its characters, more than the locales, which is how it should be, however at some point I thought that the detailing was a bit much sometimes and could have been avoided a little. Having said that, the nine lives could not have been put in any other way than what Szalay has done. “All That Man Is” is a tribute to the contemporary urban life and how we are all a part of this gigantic mosaic that doesn’t fail to amaze us with its simplicity, complexity and zest for life, no matter what.

Book Review: Levels of Life by Julian Barnes

Title: Levels of Life
Author: Julian Barnes
Publisher: Jonathan Cape, Random House UK
ISBN: 9780224098151
Genre: Non-Fiction, Biography, Memoirs
Pages: 118
Source: Personal Copy
Rating: 5/5

There are things that are connected in the world. That perhaps come naturally to people – either as a phrase – like chalk and cheese or like the way it is meant to be – like a button and a shirt. They go hand in hand. There are some things that just are not meant to go hand in hand. That maybe by some twist of fate some things just happen or they make you think of them together, in Julian Barnes’s case – love, grief, photography and ballooning. They all strangely come together in his latest work, “Levels of Life”.

He uses ballooning as a metaphor for love – raising us to a higher level and then what happens when we come crashing down. At this point, the focus moves to the crux of the book, which is his grief – the gaping hole left by his wife when she passed on after thirty years of togetherness.

Julian Barnes writing is sparse and very striking. He writes with a lot of emotion (but obviously given the context) and somehow transfers the feeling in his reader/s. Somehow I have found very few writers capable of doing this.
Barnes’ writing is too intense at times, however that is because he was writing with the emotion that could not be faked, which converted superbly into words and sentences. The book scorches you from within – because grief after all is a universal emotion. We have all felt it at one point or the other, and Barnes only connects to that with almost every sentence. It does take some time to get into the book at the beginning, however once the reader does, it is all a breeze, where you wish Pat (Julian’s wife) was there with him, healthy and alive.

“Levels of Life” may be a short book, however the emotion and the construction of the memoir, which is only close to The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion, to me is sure going to be one of the best reads this year. I would recommend everyone to get a copy of this work.

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Book Review: True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey

Title: True History of the Kelly Gang
Author: Peter Carey
Publisher: Faber and Faber
ISBN: 9780571302017
Genre: Literary Fiction
Pages: 432
Source: Personal Copy
Rating: 4/5

The second book in the “The Novel Cure” reading challenge happened to be True History of the Kelly Gang and I took it upon myself to finish reading this one. It was a tough read for sure however I loved it in most parts and therefore could also be done with it. It took some time unlike other books, however having said that, it was quite a rollercoaster of a read.

In “The Novel Cure”, the book is recommended to cure the disease of being accused and it does that to a very large extent. The book is but obviously about the very famously infamous Kelly Gang and their bush-ranging activities, which made them outlaws and ultimately lead to their deaths. It is about how Ned Kelly became an outlaw and a bush-ranger even if he didn’t want to, and it is surprising how his mother pushed him into becoming one under the apprentice of Harry Power (the mother though makes for a very formidable character in the book).

The book’s narrative is a little off – in the sense that the styles keep changing. However, once you get the drift and get used to it, you actually enjoy Carey’s writing. The story is written in parcels – that Ned wrote on scraps of paper for his baby daughter to read, when she grows up, as he will not be around to tell her the story of his life.
There is no high ground in the book. There is no justification for what Ned does besides the love for his family – which is more than enough most of the time and yet there might be some readers who would judge him and his actions, which of course I do not think is the right way to look at this book.

For me, the writing was a little slow at the beginning, however it picked up pace and I liked the book a lot. Some of it was also heard through an audio book, but that definitely counts. Some scenes are graphic if you have the stomach for them. I can also imagine why this book won the Booker. The language and structure are definitely in place. All in all, a very satisfying read. Definitely helps you cure the feeling of guilt and accusation.

Next Up: The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (for Adolescence)