Apu’s World

There is a meme doing the rounds around the blogworld at the moment - a listing of one’s favourite films all the way through A to Z. After reading Shefaly’s interesting take on it, I was tempted to try my hand on it. I have only however started watching good movies in the last 5-6 years, so I very much doubted that I could say anything halfway decent on the subject. So, instead, I’ve decided to do a twist on it, in the form of an A to Z of my favourite books. I thought it would be a good idea to kickstart 2009 with one humungous post. 

Of course, a book meme isn’t much easier either. The choice is complicated by the fact that I am a somewhat indiscriminate reader and find many writers and books interesting. Still, here goes. (I am ignoring articles to make things simpler). 

A is for The Ancestor’s Tale, Richard Dawkins’ account of our ancestry, in the evolutionary sense of it. I liked it both for its factual worth and for the sense that it imparts, that we humans are not as alone as we’d like to believe. Also, for the Adrian Mole series by Sue Townsend - the earlier books in the series featuring young Adrian always get me laughing like a maniac; this is a book about an underdog who stays one. 

B is for The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. A doomed love story set in the Canada of the early twentieth century, to me the novel was an illustration of the power of language. Reading it as a college grad, I was both enthralled and depressed for weeks. I also loved this novel for its technique - a story within a story, where both are equally moving.

C is for The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, for its dry-eyed look at loneliness and teenage angst. Also, A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. I didn’t ‘like’ the book in a sense - there is absolutely nothing redeeming about the story. But, its invented speech is brilliant and it throws up some hard questions on the nature of goodness. 

D is for Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, an early feminist work and remarkable for the transformation in the main character, Nora from docile, subservient wife to a woman who finally understands the necessity of having her own mind. 

E is for Jean Auel’s Earth’s Children series. A fictional account revolving around both homo neanderthalensis (commonly known a neanderthals) and homo sapiens during the time that they coexisted. Before I started reading science, this book got me interested in human pre-history. Also, Vikram Seth’s An Equal Music - while this novel did not receive as much praise as The Suitable Boy, I liked it much better - perhaps because the story revolves around a group of classical musicians. 

F is for the Feluda mysteries by noted director Satyajit Ray. In these mysteries starring gentleman detective Felu Da and his young cousin Topshe, Ray shows us a picture of life in Kolkata as well. The stories do seem a little simple, when we compare them to mystery fiction today, but still, there is something very refreshing about them. 

G is for Graffiti My Soul by Niven Govinden. I found it a gripping story and I like the way the author has captured the life of a bunch of teenagers in Surrey. Love, race, cliques, slang - everything has been done so well. 

H is for J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. Some may consider them simple, but I enjoyed every one of the series, especially part 3, The Prisoner of Azkaban and part 7, The Deathly Hallows. As a child, I loved school series such as Enid Blyton’s St. Clare’s and Malory Towers, and I like the way Rowling has blended the fun of school stories with adventure and fantasy. 

I is for Ambai’s collection of short stories, In a Forest, A Deer. (Strictly speaking, the Tamizh original, Kaattil Oru Maan would fall under K, but since I’m writing in English!) I liked this book both for the insightful stories and from an ideological perspective. 

J is for Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. It is many, many years since I read this one, but I was so taken in by Charlotte Bronte’s picture of a young woman who is severely tested by circumstances and overcomes them to find true love. The scenes around Jane’s childhood are especially written so vividly that I can still remember them. Also, Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth, which as a child, I read with wild-eyed wonder. 

K is for Jeffrey Archer’s Kane and Abel. A total page-turner with generous doses of family drama, conflict, a love story and ambition.  

L is for Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita. I didn’t like this book; can anyone really like this story of a paedophile who abducts and coerces a young girl? But, it is a revelation in how the most negative of characters can still be human, not a caricature, and also, be extremely funny. Also, the Lord of the Rings, for its inventiveness, its adventures and for just being such a damn good story.  

M is for Orhan Pamuk’s My Name is Red, a novel set around miniaturists in medieval Turkey. I liked very much the way Pamuk uses several narrative voices, including voices other than those of people. There is also a murder mystery embedded in the tale. Also, Art Spiegelman’s Maus, that superb graphic novel set in Nazi Germany where the Nazis take on the appearance of cats and the Jews that of mice. Seeing everything in animal form makes the cruelty of the whole thing even more stark. Spiegelman also twines his own personal history including his troubled relationship with his Dad into the holocaust tale. 

N is for The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco - this is one of my all-time favourite books and I have returned to it many times. It is a glimpse of medieval monastic life, a sort-of-biography, a murder mystery and an inquiry into faith all rolled into one. Also, by an author I much admire, Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go for its love story in a dystopian world . 

O is for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, that classic tale of underdog-versus-establishment, a comedy and tradegy set in a mental asylum. Even when you know that the underdog is going down, it leaves you with a feeling of optimism. 

P is for Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice - love, humour, wit, conflict, change - it has everything and inspite of the different age it is set in, it doesn’t tire.  Also, Kenzaburo Oe’s A Personal Matter, an extremely troubling novel that deals with a young man’s reactions to his child, born deformed. Responsibility, parenthood and love - all of which seem to go with each other ‘naturally’ are examined ruthlessly, and one gets a sense of how fragile the links are. 

(I pass over Q)

R is for Remains of the Day, again Kazuo Ishiguro. I find this novel very interesting because it deals with a butler, who all his life, has acquiesced to his master’s beliefs and whose first concern has been his professional duty, even at the cost of a love that could have been. Towards the end of his life, he must answer the question of whether such a life has had any value. 

S is for Sophie’s Choice by William Styron. It is the story of a Holocaust survivor who has nevertheless partly died because of the horrors that she has seen and the choices she has had to make. Add in a manic boyfriend and the worshipful, young narrator with his own coming-of-age story, and it is one lethal cocktail.

T is for Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Though Harper Lee never wrote any other major novels, this one classic quite makes up for it. It is a moving story of two young children growing up in the deeply divided American South with a father who believes in fairness and justice, and takes on the case of a black man unjustly accused of rape. 

(No entries for U and V)

W is for A Wind-up Bird Chronicle. I am quite partial to Haruki Murakami’s work and among the set, A Wind-up Bird Chronicle is one of my favourites. I like it for a number of reasons - the large plot, the seemingly casual way in which extraordinary events are thrown in and the bringing together of a personal tale with events from history. Also John Irving’s The World According to Garp for the wide canvas it covers and for the way he makes bizarre events look completely normal. 

(No entries for X and Z)

Y is for Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking, an autobiographical book that looks into the nature of grief at close quarters. The Year of Magical Thinking is actually the first year after her husband’s death when Didion is unable to really accept that he will not be coming back. 

Note: Links haven’t been provided for books that I think practically everyone is likely to know.  

apu The Literary life