Howling Frog Books

 Happy July!  I had an unexpectedly busy week so I'm a couple of days late but who cares.  One thing I did was spend an afternoon at the county board of supervisors' budget meeting, lobbying for them not to cut the library budget (which they already did last year).  It would have brought the largest branches in the system down to three days a week.  To our great surprise, it actually worked and the board decided not to enact the cuts -- but only for one year.   We also held an unexpected early birthday party, due to various factors such as the presence of the person involved and another friend being present from out of town.  So I spent a lot of time thinking about food -- a thing I don't do a lot any more now that I'm an empty nester.  And now, on to the books!  Actually, I have been too lazy.  There are too many books here for just one post.  I'm going to put my Books of Summer here, and do another post on the books I've read...

The Forest of Enchantments, by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni I have been looking forward to this book for SO LONG.  And then when I got hold of it, I delayed reading it because I was looking forward to it so much, which is a silly habit of mine.  But I saved it for a summer treat, and wow, it was great. Ten years ago, after Divakaruni wrote The Palace of Illusions , she said that her next project would be the story of Sita from the Ramayana .  Then it was really difficult to get started, because Sita is a hugely important figure, and one that just about all Indian women have to reckon with.  Sita is the embodiment of perfect womanhood and wifehood, and girls are often told "May you be like Sita."  But a lot of times that carries the meaning of 'be meek and mild and put up with everything,' because Sita is often held up as more of a Griselda-like model.  A deep dive into the story of Sita, however, reveals a woman who is brave, strong and determined, and Divak...

Malgudi Days: I, by R. K. Narayan Here's another find from the great big university library.  This one just caught my eye as I was walking along; I didn't even look for it.  This shelf held several books published in India, in English.  (Actually, the library was crammed with Indian literature, but most of it wasn't in English.)  This was just a collection of the twelve Malgudi stories that had been turned into episodes of the TV series. I'd read a couple of these stories before, but most of them were new to me.  I read the Penguin collection of Malgudi Days just a few months ago, but this was a different thing with little overlap. I particularly remember a story about a little boy terrified to sleep away from his grandmother...and when he's forced to sleep alone, he accidentally catches a burglar and becomes a hero.   Another story features a family that promised to sacrifice their little boy's hair if he survived a dangerous...and now, twe...

Ganga: A Journey Down the Ganges River, by Julian Crandall Hollick This guy Hollick, who has spent much of his career in radio explaining India to the English-speaking world, as far as I can tell, decided to take a trip down the Ganges to look at the river as a whole.  Except you can't actually do that; it's impossible to just start at the top and go all the way to the sea, for several reasons*, so he just did his very best to travel the length of the river in a few stints.  On the way, he describes the cultural and religious importance of Ganga, and studies some of its many difficulties -- environmental, industrial, and biological. There are some problems specific to Ganga that are very difficult to solve.  India's massive appetite for power means that flow is frequently diverted to generate electricity, to the point that the river gets too small in places (happily constantly refreshed by new flow from tributaries).  Irrigation takes even more, and then there's ...

My copy features the movie poster One Night @ the Call Center, by Chetan Bhagat A couple of novels by Chetan Bhagat came across the donation table, and I took them home to see what they were about.  Bhagat is a popular young Indian author who, I gather, writes about the problems of young Indians.  This is only his second novel, written in 2005.  Bhagat writes in English, but a very Indian version of English, which I liked. Shyam, like a zillion other young adults in India, works in a call center.  They do a lot of computer support, but Shayam's department deals with appliances.  All night, he and his five team members take calls from Americans having trouble with their ovens or vacuums, which doesn't give them a wonderful opinion of American intelligence.  Shyam wants desperately to move up in the company; he and his co-worker Vroom built a webpage that deals with a lot of customer problems, but his manager just keeps spouting business cliches and t...

Malgudi Days, by R. K. Narayan Here's one I've been wanting to read for a long time.  R. K. Narayan used to relax by writing short stories about the imaginary town of Malgudi.  It's an average town somewhere in southern India, full of just ordinary people  -- who all have compelling stories of their own.  These stories were written over 40 years. Most of the stories are quite short, and tell about one particular person: a gardener, a retired official, a street vendor, a knife-sharpener.  Some of the more humorous tales are told by 'the Talkative Man,' who always has an odd episode to narrate, like the time he won a road engine at a fair, and the terrible consequences.  (A road engine appears to be something like a steamroller or a small locomotive; it's mechanical, huge, and takes skill to drive.)   A good number of the stories have ironic finishes, but not so many that it's tiresome.  They're often comments on Indian governance or cultur...

Here is a whole set of books I've read from various countries in the last few weeks.  Most of them will show up in my Reading All Around the World list, and one I picked for August's Women in Translation event, which I nearly missed!  Most of these were also on my original 20 Books of Summer list (which currently stands at 17!  No way will I finish that list in the next week, but I read quite a few other books too). Lyrics Alley, by Leila Aboulela  (Sudan) : This novel of a wealthy and powerful family in 1950s Sudan is a tapestry of interwoven lives.  The patriarch, Mahmoud Bey, is a forward-looking man invested in bringing infrastructure and wealth to his country.  His son, Nur, is about to marry a cousin and they are very much in love, but a tragic accident leaves Nur paralyzed and depressed.  The family dynamics are complex and sometimes disastrous. Nur has to break through the weight of expectations and pity in order to forge a new life and id...

Shakuntala (The Recognition of Shakuntala) , by Kālidāsa Some time ago I read The Cloud Messenger , a longish poem by the Sanskrit poet Kālidāsa , who lived about 1500 years ago apparently.  I thought I would like to read his play, too.  The introduction of this book says that ancient Sanskrit drama was considered divine, a fifth Veda that was supposed to instruct through pleasure.  All could understand it (unlike the four Vedas), and it should represent the world, give good advice, and "bring peace of mind to those afflicted with the ills of the world" (such as kings).  Drama is not particular and individual, but shows a generalized picture and should produce "the aesthetic emotion" called rasa by building impressions through the words, music, and art.  The story therefore reads like a legend or fairy tale. Shakuntala is a lovely, sheltered girl living in a holy enclave with her adopted father, the sage Kanva.  Other holy disciples and girls live ther...

The Death of Vishnu , by Manil Suri For some reason, I thought this was a post-apocalyptic SF novel.  It is absolutely not.  It is the first in Suri's "Hindu Myths" series, which so far has three volumes; they are unconnected except that they use mythology as their inspiration and symbolic language. Vishnu is the errand ganga for a block of apartments; he therefore sleeps on the stair landing and lives on a system of tips and perks, but now he is dying.  As he lies there, waiting to die, he (mentally?  symbolically?) ascends the stairs, considering the life stories of each tenant, and possibly attaining godhood along the way. We get to know each family and personal drama.  The Pathaks and the Asranis constantly quarrel over every little thing, especially over who should pay for Vishnu's ambulance.  Kavita plans to elope with her upstairs neighbor, Salim, but really she just wants to live in a Bollywood movie--her feelings have very little to do with ...

Palace of Illusions , by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni I had the opportunity to meet Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni a few months ago , which was a very exciting event, and so I decided that it was high time I finished the only Divakaruni novel I had not read-- Palace of Illusions .  I got about halfway through it several years ago, and I was convinced that something completely terrible would happen to Panchaali, the protagonist, and I just couldn't keep reading!  But this time I did it, and it's a great novel. This is a retelling of many of the events of the great Indian epic, the Mahabharata , from the point of view of Draupadi (or Panchaali, as she is called here), the wife of the five Pandavas.  If you're not familiar with the basics of the story, it's about two sets of cousins: the five Pandava brothers, who are rightful heirs to the kingdom of Hastinapura.  Their uncle, the blind king Dhritarashtra, wrongfully appoints his son, the eldest of the hundred Kauravas, ...

Before We Visit the Goddess, by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni As a long-time fan of Divakaruni, I have been excited about this new book for a while.  And it lived up to everything I could hope for; it's a lovely novel.  But it's not really quite a novel, actually--Divakaruni wanted to offer different perspectives, and it's written as nine short stories spanning nearly sixty years, each from a different person's point of view.  It's a technical feat that acts as a prism, showing us shades and nuances we could never see otherwise--and also shows the author's impressive power.  She's better than she's ever been, so I hope there will be many more books. The focus is three generations of women: Sabitri, a Bengali sweet-maker, her daughter Bela, who elopes to the United States, and Bela's daughter Tara, who is having a difficult time figuring out her life--as they all do.  Each of them make choices that bring far-reaching consequences, and often they...

Guess how I just spent my evening?  I was at a reception for Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, and she did a reading from her new book, Before We Visit the Goddess .  I've been a fan since I read Arranged Marriage about 20 years ago, and I've been super-excited for a couple of weeks, looking forward to this.  It was even better than I thought it would be!  We had a real conversation with her!  We sat in the front row!  We took photos! I am pretty much flailing around with excitement here, so I thought I'd just tell you.  I'll write a proper post when I get the photo, which will be soon I hope (the pro ones should be hugely better than the one on my camera).  Meanwhile, if you live in California, she's got several events coming up right away, so go check her schedule.

The Lady and the Unicorn, by Rumer Godden The Universe wants me to know all about the Cluny tapestries.  That is my conclusion, after several months in which I have met them at every turn.  It started with a miniature embroidery pattern that I happen to want and have not yet bought.  A friend of mine ordered me to read the Tracy Chevalier novel, which I haven't gotten to yet, because I ran into this Rumer Godden one as well, but it's on the shelf.  I read Rilke (post pending!) and he makes them a feature.  Their presence in the Harry Potter films came up. These tapestries are everywhere, I'm telling you.  Even in Calcutta, which is where Godden sets her novel--rather unexpectedly I must say. Rosa and Belle are twins; their family occupies one part of a large tumbledown Calcutta mansion.  They are poor and their mixed race limits their social possibilities in this 1930s Raj setting.  Belle, ambitious and ruthless, sets herself to climb by beco...

 OK, I still have four books on my pile and no time, so I declare a mini-review post.   The Old Wives' Club , by Arnold Bennett Two sisters, young in the mid-Victorian era--their lives diverge for many years.  One stays at home, marries the assistant, and has a small family.  The other makes a runaway marriage and lives in Paris for 30 years.  In their later years, they reunite. Lots of realism here--Bennett was an Edwardian with no interest in conveying a message or finding meaning in his novel.  The sisters live their lives and wonder what it was all for. I do like this novel for its mention of fancy clothing for children!  What we now call heirloom sewing--a hobby of mine, and a particularly oddball one--gets a whole page pointing out that it is really kind of ludicrous.  I cannot disagree; in fact, the first time I saw an heirloom sewing magazine, my thought was "how incredibly impractical!"--and then I got hooked anyway. This book ...

The Mahabharata, by R. K. Narayan No, I didn't read all 18 volumes of thousands of poetic verses, but I did read this short prose retelling of the Mahabharata .  It's really short--less than 200 pages--so I guess it's really more of a summary than anything else!  Call it the Cliffs Notes version.  I enjoyed it though, and it's a fine introduction to the world's longest epic.  If you just want to know the basics, start here. I did have a little bit of an advantage over someone who has never read any of the stories.  I had the comic-book version as a kid, and I must have read it many times, because I already knew many characters' names and who they were.  If you're coming to it completely fresh, you'll find the character list in front to be a big help, and it wouldn't be a bad idea to look up pictures of the characters as well; many of them are easily recognizable. India's major epic is the story of the rivalry between two sets of cousins: t...

Meghadutam, or, The Cloud Messenger, by Kalidasa I must say, the Classics Club has been good for me. When I first compiled the list, I added a bunch of titles that I didn't actually know what they were.  Surprise is good, right?  Several of the surprise titles were ancient or medieval texts from Asian sources.  So, I have Kojiki (Japanese) and Muqaddimah (Arabic) on my list, and I'm tracking those down.  And I had The Cloud Messenger , by Kalidasa, who lived about 1500 years ago and wrote in Sanskrit.  Kalidasa wrote plays and poetry, and the web page where I read the poem says that he "created a new genre in Sanskrit literature" with The Cloud Messenger .  Instead of an epic or a hymn, this is a poem about love and longing.  It's too long to be called a lyric, but the website describes it as elegiac, which is pretty good. In the poem, a young Yaksha--an attendant on Kubera, the god of wealth--has committed some fault and has been exiled from t...

A Moment Comes , by Jennifer Bradbury 1947, Punjab: a British cartographer working to map out where the boundary between India and Pakistan will be established has three teens in his household: Tariq, an ambitious young Muslim determined to get the best education so that he can be a leader; Anupreet, a Sikh girl anxious about her relatives and traumatized herself; Margaret, the daughter, a disgraced debutante liable to get herself and everyone else into trouble. Tensions are already extremely high.  Tariq is under pressure to participate in mob violence, and he's desperate to stay out of it.  Anupreet is, somewhat unfortunately, very beautiful and has already been in danger.  And Margaret is bored, frustrated, and clueless enough to blunder into situations she doesn't understand at all.  As the violence gets worse, the lives of all three are changed along with the future of India. Bradbury does a great job of evoking the dangers of border areas in 1947, a...

About Daddy , by Meena Arora Nayak I picked this up from the stacks at work because I'm always attracted to works about India.  I'm kind of ambivalent on this one though. Simran travels to India on a mission to scatter the ashes of her beloved father, whose last wish was that he rest on the border between Pakistan and India.  But then she's arrested for suspicious activity and spends three months in prison, where her perspective and priorities totally change.  Simran's boyfriend gets her out, but then she goes underground to join a peace movement led by the charismatic Kalida as she tries to heal the wounds left by Partition. I liked that the novel portrayed a woman stuck in an Indian prison, where she makes connections with a bunch of different people.  But the setup felt contrived to me; Simran is horrifyingly naive (her parents never talked about India, because her father was so severely traumatized by what he had been through and done during Partition) and ...

The Story of My Experiments With Truth (Gandhi's Autobiography) , by Mohandas Gandhi Experience has taught me that civility is the most difficult part of Satyagraha.  Civility does not here mean the mere outward gentleness of speech cultivated for the occasion, but an inborn gentleness and desire to do the opponent good. I read Gandhi's autobiography for the first time when I was about 18, and I loved it.  I whipped through it in three days (which is unbelievable to me now).  So when I made up my Classics Club list, I put it on as a re-read, thinking it would be nice to re-visit a book I don't really remember too much about. Gandhi wrote this in installments for a weekly publication, and all the chapters are quite short.  It must have taken several years.  He starts with his childhood, especially his struggles with dietary and religious questions, and goes through to cover the development of his satyagraha philosophy and its application in several early...

Playing With Fire: Feminist Thought and Activism Through Seven Lives in India , by the Sangtin Writers and Richa Nagar Uttar Pradesh is one of the most poverty-stricken areas of India, and there are many NGOs there trying to make a difference.  Some focus on people of the lowest castes.  One such NGO encouraged these women to form their own small group, which they called Sangtin.  As they met over years and told their stories to each other, they decided to write down their experiences and publish a book, and here it is.  It was originally published in Hindi and garnered a very strong reaction; in fact officers of the NGO concerned took great offense and there was something of a kerfuffle.  The book is here translated into English, bookended with explanatory chapters at either end. The introductory chapter is really quite academic in tone and even rather off-putting with its jargon, but it boils down to explaining that these seven women tried very hard for co...