Normal People by Sally Rooney

Title: Normal People
Author: Sally Rooney
Publisher: Faber and Faber
ISBN:978-0571334643
Genre: Literary Fiction
Pages:  288
Source: Publisher
Rating: 5 Stars

So, I got to read this book last month and I must say that I enjoyed this one a lot more than “Conversations with Friends”. It felt as though Rooney has finally found her voice and she must stick to that. “Normal People” is a breath of fresh air that raises so many questions of class, race and above all, it speaks of love and what happens to it over time.

Connell and Marianne grow up in the same town in rural Ireland. They attend school together and are familiar with each other as Connell’s mother is a cleaner at Marianne’s house. Connell, after school,  visits his mother at Marianne’s house so they can go home together. And in that time he gets to know Marianne, who is plain, stubborn and friendless at school. They share a connection, a bond and soon discover that there is something between them. Furthermore, they both get accepted to Trinity College in Dublin and this is when things change. Marianne is now the popular one and Connell is on the sidelines. What happens next and how they realize that they will always be in and out of each other’s lives is what the book is about.

I think “Normal People” is one of those books that has the power to wake you up from your stupor and see love, for what it is – complicated yet simple and a whole lot of wrongs till you get it right. The writing hits you hard and there are a lot of books mentioned which I loved. Connell and Marianne are loveable, endearing, and there are times you also detest them for doing the things they do. But there is always hope and some redemption.

“Normal People” is written in a manner that speaks directly to the reader. Rooney comes to the point quite directly and that is extremely endearing. The characters’ hearts and emotions so to say are placed in front of the reader, without judgement and the story plays itself out quite meticulously, to the point of being extremely relatable.

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Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi

Title: Freshwater
Author: Akwaeke Emezi
Publisher: Faber and Faber
ISBN: 978-0571347216
Genre: Literary Fiction
Pages: 226
Source: Publisher
Rating: 5 Stars

Fierce is the first word that comes to mind when I think of the reading experience of “Freshwater”. I was also dazzled but fierce is way more appropriate. I don’t know if I have ever read something like this book before (in all probability no) but I can say that this one stands out like no other book has for me in the last year or so (beside Homegoing).

Emezi’s book cannot be classified that easy. Actually, I think one of the reasons it breaks form is this. There is a sense of familiarity while reading “Freshwater” and bam!, before you know it, the sense of the known is gone and you are left wanting more.

Ada is born with an Ogbanje (a godlike Igbo spirit) inside her, and the story begins with Ogbanje’s narration from inside her body. Interesting enough for you to pick it up? Oh wait there is more! Ada is not just born with one spirit inside of her. There are more. And that’s what the book is about. Many lives inside and the one that will ultimately live.

“Freshwater” however is more than what I have mentioned here. It is rooted deep in mythology, covering identity, mental illness and trauma. The book will pierce inside of you and make you see things you never thought of before.

Emezi’s powerful prose comes from a different place within her, I think. To conjure different spirits and narrate the book through their points of view is truly magnificent. She then has turned the idea of identity and being on its head, which kept me hooked way into the night.

The idea of a protagonist’s identity being dependent on many and for the reader to be involved for her voice to be heard is not only experimental in form but also when it comes to story-telling. Emezi writes deeply and emotionally, just the way a book like this (or any book for that matter) is meant to be written. This book made me feel all sorts of emotions – love, anger, despair, and also made me perhaps understand myself a lot more.

“Freshwater” is an experience and not just a book on fantastical realism or something dark and powerful (which it sure is). It takes you on a different journey with Ada and her spirits – along with culture, experiences, making it more challenging and thought-provoking read. I cannot recommend it enough.

The Wife by Alafair Burke

Title: The Wife
Author: Alafair Burke
Publisher:
IBN: 978-0571328185
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 352
Source: Publisher
Rating: 4 Stars

“The Wife” by Alafair Burke is perhaps one of the best thrillers I’ve read this year. I say this right at the beginning, because I loved it. There is no unreliable narrator concept (I don’t like those by the way). A plot that is so racy that you cannot stop to even take a washroom break. The story might seem quite ordinary and plaid on the surface, but Burke sure knows how to turn the story on its head for the reader and leave us guessing more and wanting to know more. Also, what I loved the most about “The Wife” is that it doesn’t try to fit too many plotlines in one book. It follows one trajectory and sticks to it.

Angela meets Jason Powell, while catering a function in the Hamptons and does not make much of their romance. Jason is a brilliant economic professor at NYU. The marriage means a new beginning for Angela, to put her past behind and she moves with her son and Jason to Manhattan in search of a new start. Six years pass and something related to Jason comes up which Angela cannot make sense of and doubts every single moment of her marriage. Things change suddenly. Life is never the same.

Burke doesn’t waste time at all in developing characters, places or time lines given the situations that surround Angela, since she is the titular character. I loved the character of Angela and how she is reduced to being a wife from being such a success at her work. This was something I could not ignore. Having said that, Burke doesn’t let go of your concentration for one single moment and that too me for a thriller writer (or so it seems) is a feat in itself.

Read, “The Wife”. You will not want to touch another book as you read it.

The Park Bench by Chabouté

Title: The Park Bench
Author: Chabouté
Publisher: Faber and Faber
ISBN: 978-0571332304
Genre: Graphic Novels
Pages: 336
Source: Publisher
Rating: 5 Stars

The first read of the year – I love the sound of this sentence. 2018 couldn’t have started off better. Yes, it is a graphic novel. Yes, it is a book with only images and no words, but who said, images can’t be read? Who said that this doesn’t count as a book? No one really and even if they did, then well, to each his own. To me, ​it is a read and a satisfying one at that.

“The Park Bench” by Chabouté is about a park bench (obviously in a park) and the people it watches pass, stop, meet, return, wait, sleep, thrown out, and all of this happens in a strangely intertwined manner that is life. The bench in all of this is the central character – stable, stationary and yet witness to all of it. Imagine if the bench could talk, the stories it could tell, isn’t it? The book is just like that.

There is so much hope contained in this book that it will make you see the world differently, even if it is for a short while. The use of space, lines, art that conveys so many emotions and yet there is something hidden that makes you want to know more and above all the recurring characters that become so familiar – the ache when the book ends and you know what you have experienced is something so profound.

“The Park Bench” makes you mull over​ things and people other than yourself (which is a very good thing, given the times we live in). It might also make you want to speak with a stranger, nod at someone in understanding, smile at someone or maybe just be. There have been so many times when I have wanted to reach out to someone and haven’t. Maybe now I will.

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The Country Girls Trilogy by Edna O’Brien

Title: The Country Girls Trilogy: The Country Girls; The Lonely Girl; Girls in their Married Bliss
Author: Edna O’Brien
Publisher: Faber and Faber
ISBN: 978-0571330539
Genre: Literary Fiction
Pages: 704
Source: Publisher
Rating: 5 Stars

So, it took me close to three weeks to finish this trilogy and I really wish those three weeks had not ended this soon. After having heard so much about Edna O’Brien and her writing, this was the first time I was reading something by her (one of her most famous works) and I just cannot wait to lay my hands on more works by her. On an off-note, a lot of people ask me, how every read of mine ends up being five stars or four stars for me? Well, that’s because I pick what I know for sure I will love reading. I think more people should do that. Read what they know they will love, irrespective. Anyway, back to the Country Girls Trilogy.

The country girls are Kate (Caithleen Brady) and Baba (Bridget Brennan) and the trilogy as you must have guessed is about them. It is about their stories that begin the regressive setting of a small village in the west of Ireland in the years following World War II. Kate is looking for love. Baba on the other hand, is a survivor. All that they want is a life that isn’t handed to them, but what they make of it. With hopes and dreams and out to conquer it all, they arrive in Dublin and that’s where the story plays out. The bad choices made, the bad sex had, the bad friends, the bleakness of living and in all of this, the resilience and not to forget the expectations they have of themselves and what is thrust upon by them from society.

O’Brien has written this trilogy with a lot of heart and soul. It is wryly funny too and there are pockets of so much warmth that you cannot help but hoot for Kate and Baba. Initially I thought I wasn’t going to feel anything for these characters, however, as the story plays out, they become a part of your everyday tapestry, through the similarities and differences. Sure, you cannot relate to the Ireland of the 60’s and sure it is all very different now, everywhere in the world (is it?) but the slice of life is what is pertinent and stays relevant to a large extent.

“The Country Girls Trilogy” is a read perfect for winter. Something about it which I cannot put my finger on – maybe the melancholy factor or the transition from hope to despair and vice-versa or even the frivolous to the profound swinging of thoughts and emotions, all in all a read that you must not miss out on.