The Diving Pool -by Yoko Ogawa

is a set of three short stories. The first is about a girl whose parents take in orphans, the second about a woman whose sister is pregnant, and the third, a wonderfully creepy story about a man without arms and only one leg, who keeps a boarding house.

The writing is wonderfully spare, and yet detailed. Each story focuses focuses on physical appearances and the emotions that they evoke within. Her descriptions of the human body, especially, are like a pencil drawing, sharp lines and curves, gently shaded. She deals with the dark thoughts, the fears and suspicions of everyday life, the ends that may or may not be reached. The first story is the cruelty of children and the shame and loss of discovery; the second is an unusual perpsective of pregnancy, the disgust of a woman of the changes in her sister's body- her half hope that the pregnancy should fail, the third seems to narrate a horror story, but leaves more questions behind than it answers.

Madras in Monsoon

There is something particularly sweet about the scent of rain in the hot Chennai air. The humidity settles slowly on the skin, almost suffocatingly; the clouds slowly overpower the sun, the whole place goes just a little misty, a little dreamy without that blinding glare; and with the lush green of mango and coconut trees, and the sound of the koel, it all seems like a place from a forgotten era.

Intricate Fantasy

The first book of Robin Hobb's liveship series- 'Ship of Magic' introduces you to a detailed fantasy world with highly developed characters and a twisting, intricate plot. While the take off is slow, once in flow, the book moves smoothly, alternating a number of points of view that come together slowly to reveal the plot.

The story is set in Bingtown, where the old Trader families own ships that come alive. One such family is the Vestrits, and the plot takes off with the death of the patriarch and the passing of the legacy to the son-in-law Kyle Haven, instead of the younger daughter Althea. Althea must prove that being female is no impediment to becoming an effective trader. In the meantime, Kyle is faced with his recalcitrant elder son, who was forced to join his father aboard the ship, while he wishes to join the priesthood. Althea's mother must find a way to keep the family from losing their lands to debtors until they are able to raise money to pay them back, and also keep her young granddaughter out of trouble. In the meantime, the pirate Kennit is determined to win himself a liveship and become King of the Pirates, and finally there are the serpents who are looking for some destiny of their own. All these lives and stories come together to form the plot of this book.

The most interesting thing is that Robin Hobb is able to separate means and ends and keep the characters, their actions and the results separate- Kennit who's only looking for power ends up the unlikely savior of slaves, Wintrow, once a non-violent priest ends up enslaved by his own father, then leads to the capture of his own ship, and death of his ex-coworkers. Vivacia is torn between her needs as a young liveship and her growing knowledge of the world.

And in the meantime Althea must fight society's disapproval of women on ships which has deprived her of her inheritance. Its nice to see a fantasy book with an out and out feminist heroine- in most fantasies the heroine simply sits and waits to be rescued, or is effectively a prize for the hero at the end of his travails. Althea and her mother are both in their own way, action characters.

It says a good deal for the book that after finishing its 700+ pages, I feel the need to read the rest of the series- not tired of reading at all.

Safety only in Death

.... is the conclusion of Hilary Mantel's 'A Place of Greater Safety', , a novel of the French Revolution, focusing on three of its initiators- Camille Desmoulins, Danton and Robespierre. With rapidly moving events, multiple points of view and a vast cast of characters that enter and leave the story at various points, Mantel makes no compromises. Everything is meticulously researched, every person given their due.

Her story focusses on the growth and change in these three men, and the relationships between them - Danton- to whom the Revolution was the means to greater fortune, Robespierre- Tyrant or Incorruptible, depending on how you perceived him- to him the Revolution was the end in itself, and the man caught between the two- charming, passionate Camille.

It was Camille whose reckless enthusiasm led to the storming of the Bastille; his newspapers that incited the people to revolt; he who encouraged the use of violence to further the aims of the revolution- and it was he who looked into the abyss and recoiled to see it staring back at him. And then not even his friendship with Robespierre could save him from the heirs of the Revolution- the men to whom dissent was equal to treachery- who replaced the tyranny of monarchy with the mechanical mercilessness of the Committee.

Robespierre himself- who started off hating violence, but would in fact, do anything for his principles- except his principles vacillated between the end and the means, his friends and his ethics. He changes from a man who deplores violence to one who condones it- in the supposed interest of the state.

And Danton- who seems initially to be only an opportunist- no idealist like Camille or Robespierre- who finds in himself a core of idealism - to protect his friends and the Revolution he set off.

And there are the supporting characters, many of whom could have books based on themselves- Marat, Lafayette, the King and Queen of France, Lucile, Saint-Just, and on and on, and even a brief mention of Bonaparte.

For all the size of the book, its the last pages that help you realize just how much you've been drawn in to the lives of these characters- as Camille protests the depths the Revolution has sunk to, as Danton finds himself facing off against his enemies, and Robespierre reaches the limits of his personal power. As they each find that the avalanche they set off is going to bury them in it- then you come to sympathise- to see that they had each dreamed of a Utopia, but had only succeeded in creating a hell.

The Long Flight Home

15 hours, then 10 in Bombay, then another two... and with the time change that's two days lost- and likely two more to sleep it off.

I like Continental and Kingfisher both. Continental, to my delight, has On Demand movies even for the Economy seats. Precisely what my neighbors made of the fact that I watched three animated ones in a row, I'm not sure. I suppose I should be relieved that no one sent me to the room for Unaccompanied Minors.

I watched 'How to Tame your Dragon' first. It had come highly recommended, and I did like it- best of all, the dragon looked just like Nuggy!

The others that I watched were 'Moster's Inc' - cute but too long, and The Incredibles- which actually reminded me a good deal of Spy Kids, and so in spite of the excellent reviews, I wasn't too impressed. None of them came close, in my opinion, to 'Wall-E' or Up- which set a whole different standard for animated movies.

A Reason to Believe

- Foucault's Pendulum- the intellectual's Da Vinci Code- though that description doesn't do it justice. The story is based on those elements of historical and mythological motifs, but the subject addressed is much deeper- going into what it means to believe- religion and magic and mystery- mystery which has more meaning when still left unresolved than when it reaches that final solution when it becomes comprehensible to all- the power that mystery gives- to the person with the so called solution, as he shares it with the select- what happens to that person when the solution bursts into light, no longer requiring a teacher or a priest to initiate others into it?

What if there was no mystery? Only a made up fantasy- put together as a prank and then took life of its own- the elementary plot of an Enid Blyton maybe - but bringing together disparate people determined to destroy those who would bring their secrets- or lack thereof- to light.

And all of it addressing that deepest mystery of all- is there a God? What is God? How does he reveal himself? Or is God- and the questions surrounding him- the invention of a fevered imagination? If God did reveal himself- would we believe? Or has he already done so- if he did, do we know? Do we believe the things we do because we know them to be true- or because to believe otherwise would shake the foundations of our world? If enough people believe in something, does that qualify as proof... how far will people go to prevent their beliefs from being upended?

The pieces of our history- of religion (which is inseparable from history)- that we put together as well as we can- and believe in them. That we are good, god-fearing (loving) people- that what we believe, we know- that what we know is right. And these pieces could so easily be put another way- like some three dimensional object seen from a different point of view- and come to mean something entirely different.

Spun with threads of Gold- History turned fairytale

Jai Sen's lovely 'The Golden Vine' , another Alexander story- this time a graphic novel. I was slightly startled and somewhat impressed that an Indian-origin guy had come up with this - then I was reminded of Amar Chitra Katha and went... "Oh wait..." Still, on the side of art, its simply gorgeous. The story deviates from history at many points - the most important result being that Alexander Lives (!) and discovers the Americas(!). That may sound a bit far-fetched, but I wonder if the whole discovering the America's wouldn't have happened sooner if the Dark Ages hadn't been there? And Alexander was definitely an explorer type person... But the important message in the book is an eternal question - as important in his era as it is today- the role of religion in the state.

Another AU- memorable mainly for being another Alexander book- was Judith Tarr's 'Lord of the Two Lands'. Certainly Alexander seems to have had an easy time of it there, and of course there's the mystery of his meeting with the oracle there, and Alexandria where he was immortalized... a good deal of magic and mystery and egyptian gods woven in. The story follows Meriammon - daughter of the late Pharoah- who wants the conquering Persians thrown out, and invites Alexander in as a liberator. There's a bit of the romance angle there with Meriammon and a brother of Ptolemy- who would later become pharoah.

One thing I was struck by, was how much Alexander used religion and the gods to make his claims- he followed all the ceremonies, celebrated all the gods wherever he went- and the other thing that struck me was how little politics has changed in that sense- through the years- the Holy Wars of course, Henry VIII,  but even in the democracies of  today- with all the talk of Obama's church - in some ways we haven't come very far in 2000 years.

 Then came with 'Stealing Fire' by Jo Graham, which is not so much about Alexander, as the events after his death- the stealing of his body from Persia to Egypt by Ptolemy- both books make much of the Egyptian connection.

... Leaving New York... City of Food

... or at least that seems to be the best thing about it. Appa even swears that there's a vegetarian Korean place, though I haven't yet been there. There are excellent dessert places though... my favorites being...

1. Magnolia Bakery - There's one at Rockerfeller Center, and one in Grand Central, both of which I frequent.

2. Crumbs- where the Raspberry cupcake is simply delicious.

3. Pinkberry- I realize that this is hardly unique to NY, but this is where I discovered it so...

4. Cafeteria- not exclusively dessert, but their lemon ricotta pancakes are smashing!

5. The roadside Dosa- which is absolutely awesome!

And of course there's my regular- Kati Roll....

Of course food isn't all I'll miss about NYC... there are the plays and the places to see... and Strand, with its 18 miles of books...

The lives of Great Men...

... may remind us/ we can make our lives sublime/ and depaarting/leave behind us/footprints in the sands of time...

Continuing on with my quest in following the lives of great men, I picked Churchill- the book ' The Last Lion' by William Manchester, which talks about the years that Churchill spent before the war, years spent fruitlessly warning the world about Hitler. The only man who recognized the truth in Churchill's words was Hitler himself, who saw him as the enemy, even when he was descredited and out of power.

The writer is a fairly obvious Churchill partisan. He makes much of Churchill's many virtues- his incredible grasp of language, his loyalty, his perspicacity, his interest in modern warfare; and glosses over his many flaws- his lack of understanding of how the rules of warfare would be modified, his tendency to use people and forget about them, his backing of a king who was clearly too self-involved to be an effective ruler- in many ways, Churchill was an anachronism- even in his time, he was a man from an earlier time- a man who still owed the sovereign his loyalty, who in some ways still held to an older code.

Reading the book though, I realized so much that our history books left untouched - how many ways the war could have been prevented, if only people had acted sooner, acted differently- how easily Hitler could have been defeated if only he'd been taken care of earlier- before Czechoslovakia and before Poland. But the men in power saw visions of eternal peace- and were not willing to fight for it- and listened to their sycophants and not their rivals, and paid for it- in the eternal eyes of history, if not then and there.

It seems like Hitler changed the rules of both warfare and politics- before him, war was declared and then fought, he fought and then declared. I don't know if he was the first to instigate riots and enter to 'bring peace to the German people in the area', but those are tactics we see so frequently today- what was so shocking then, as to be virtually unbelievable, is now a matter taken for granted.

Churchill's solution - to ally with Stalin to defeat Hitler- though the government was too slow to act on it- and as a result, in the early days of the war- it was Stalin and Hitler who were allies- makes me wonder, if in seeing Hitler as his enemy, Churchill lost sight of the fact that Stalin was no angel either- maybe if things had gone differently, and Hitler had been squashed in the early days, we would have spoken of a second world war with Russia and her allies- and Churchill would have been the fool who brought us there.

There are so many lessons for us from the events leading up to the war- the reluctance of the states to go into another war, following the horrors inflicted by the previous one- its a similar fear that keeps us from going into great wars now- I wonder if it will last forever- it didn't, after all, the first time round. I wonder also, if we're seeing something similar to the desperate compromises reached to keep Germany from going to war- if we're doing something similar, unknowingly- to reach clarity only when no other path remains- the truth is, for all we talk of learning from history, its fairly hard to learn while we're living it.

Pride and Prejudice and Losing Sense and Sensilibility

Have you had that feeling where its like waking up and realising that this book that changed your life, yuor point of view, just about everything about you, is about as real as a Disney movie? It happened to me once before with Ayn Rand, and now, I'm afraid its happened with Pride and Prejudice.

With "Atlas Shrugged", it was a slow awakening, as I shrugged off bits and pieces of the philisophy that had taken hold of so much of my imagination. With Pride and Prejudice, it happened in a flash. Suddenly, Elizabeth and Darcy were no longer who I wanted to be (or meet), and the last(?) of my illusions.

I blame it on Shannon Hale's "Austenland". Now, virtually every woman I know, has a favorite Austen, one to read and re-read, over and over again- i've vacillated, myself, between Persuasion and P&P. So I picked up Austenland- Shannon Hale's young adult stories are cute and funny, and I expected this one to be too.

And it was cute, and funny, and utterly disillusioning. Not because Elizabeth didn't get her Darcy, but because she did. And I wish she hadn't. Not because he wasn't a perfectly nice guy with a veneer of gruffness, that only that special woman could see through- actually, that's precisely why.

So it is a truth now, universally acknowledged that a woman -any woman- must be on the look out for a husband- why is it that Austen two centuries ago was so much more modern than we are now- all of us stuck in the 18th century?

Tamil movies and women

I don't know the name of the movie that started it. But it was on Sunday evening, and on Sun TV here in the US, and it was absolutely terrible. For those who are interested, here's a brief recap of the story- There's a guy. He's having an extra-marital affair. He marries this woman and orders her to basically put up with it. When she refuses he tries to kill her. The woman's younger brother walks in. He captures evidence on his cell phone showing the hunsband attempting to murder. When the police come, the three of them pretend that nothing happened. The woman tries to walk out. Then her brother makes her go back (says he won't see her on the street.. blah blah). He threatens the husband blah... blah... if you hurt a hair on her head types... long story goes on forever- in the end the husband repents. Goes to jail, promises to return a changed man.

But here's the thing. It was completely revolting to me that it was portrayed that the woman's best shot at life was with her (murderous) husband. What is wrong with these people??? Ok, its just a movie- fine. But don't tell me that people aren't influenced by the stuff they see on screen. And how many families tell their daughters/sisters to go back to their abusive husbands and put up with it, hoping that things will change. And look to stupid movies like these, and tell themselves that someday the guy will repent, he'll become a better person.

Who cares if he becomes a better person! Why on earth should this poor lady suffer until he finds the light. Let him find the light on his own time. She should walk! And when he goes to jail or gets his comeuppance, chortle gleefully and go on with her life.