Novels I Have Read- Part III

Do you take a little time to warm up when you write? I do. More on that later. To the novels now.

1. Diary of Anne Frank (2000): It is tough to belive that this book is the diary of a thirteen year old. Sweet book. Not for the intellect, but for the soul.

2. Heart of Darkness (2002): It is impossible to belive that the author wrote the book, ten years from the time he had his first brush with the language. The language, as I remember, is definitely a challenge. The book talks about White pioneers in Africs, of the white man's burden. Will have to re-read the book. This exercise is throwing up an unexpected benefit. I know which books I can and should re-read.

3. Tamas (2002): One of the two books I read as part of an Indan writing in english course. Talks of the communal tensions just prior to partition. Distinctly average book. The author came to address our class. next year he was dead. I had an autographed copy which some borrower never bothered to return.

4. Those Days (2002): The other book. Liked the book much more, much better told story. There are many love plots woven in a broad theme of the ills of Bengali society and its subsequent reform. The author is Sunil Gangoadhyay. His other book. first light is one which I will read on of these days.

5. Far from the madding crowd (2002): A simple romance by Thomas Hardy. A simple man and his fair maiden. Stuff of extremely naive dreams and crappy movies of the sixties. However the same story comes across much better in verse.

6. Ivanhoe (2002): A really old book, early 1830's I belive. Love and fighting. A gallant hero and a beautiful heroine.

7. Train to Pakistan (2002): I had heard so much about the book before reading it that expectations killed it. Frenzied hatred and inherent goodness of human soul set against the backdrop of partition is the theme.

8. Midnight Children (2002): The book began impressively well. Its a chronicle of India's progress from Independence to eighties. A lot of fantastic story telling which makes no attempt at sounding true at all. However, towards the end, it became well nigh impossible to follow the book. Left it incomplete