Truth is stranger than fiction

Book Review     Title: The Mezzanine Author: Nicholson Baker Genre: Fiction   The Mezzanine chronicles the mundanity of everyday life of a twenty something office goer and what happens during his office lunch break.    Meet our protagonist-.Howie. While riding the escalator to the Mezzanine floor, he recollects the events occurred that day. His main goal is to get new shoe laces for himself and during this time, he gets lost in his thoughts about milk cartons, straws, office colleagues, his experience at the pharmacy and the men’s room. While he mulls over these observations, he realizes that he is largely influenced by his childhood.    The specialty of this book is mainly the protagonists stream of consciousness. The author manages to get the readers into the interiority of this character. It’s interesting to observe how Howie categorizes his thoughts in a scientific manner. People tend to have fleeting thoughts but not all of them spent a lot o...

Book Review   Title: Karate Chop Author: Dorothy Nors Genre: Short stories/ Translation (Danish)     Karate Chop is a collection of 15 short stories that captures the mundanity of everyday life. These are lives of ordinary individuals which oscillate between reality and imagination.    The stories are set in Copenhagen and revolve around various Danish people You have two men who plan to kill each other’s dogs, a woman whose thoughts flutter on a recent occurrence, a woman who finds solace in a graveyard, a depressed actress finding an escape by the sea, a man who reinvents himself to become a Buddhist and a woman finding proximity with a heron.    The characters in these stories clearly experience loneliness and thrive on their imaginations to break the monotony in their lives. They appear to enjoy their solitude and eccentricities. The author gives an insight on how people deal with traumas in several ways. She gets into the characters’ hearts elicit...

  Book Review  Title: Why We Swim Author: Bonnie Tsui Genre: Non-Fiction   Water as an element is mysterious and magical. Despite its imperceptible dangers, there is something that draws people to it.     In ‘Why we swim’ author Bonnie Tsui explores this mystical element of water and immerses the readers into an unforgettable aquatic journey. She believes that everybody has their own swimming story. She goes on to her own tryst with the swimming pool that morphed into a passion for swimming in open waters. The book takes us through the various terms associated with swimming and also numerous inspirational tales.    We learn about the Homo sapiens’ first attempts to feel at home in water and the sea nomads-the best free diving fishermen who swim down to two hundred feet. These tribes namely Moken and Bajau have unique abilities to understand the mercurial nature of the ocean. She also introduces us to the most compelling and inspiring people. ...

      Book Review  Title: Klara and the Sun Author: Kazuo Ishiguro Genre: Dystopian/Science Fiction   Reading a book by the winner of the Nobel prize in literature feels like traveling to a different era and experiencing the sheer magic of being alive.    Klara and the Sun takes us on a pilgrimage into a world of humans and humanoids. The story is set in a dystopian society, somewhere in the United states. It’s a time when technology has led to the unemployment of many people. There is a hint of a caste system where we see the ‘lifted’ people on top of the hierarchy. While this is the broad social set up, the story is told from the perspective of Klara who is an AF or Artificial friend.    Klara is appreciated by her manager in the store for having remarkable observational abilities. These AFs are designed in a manner to provide companionship to little children. One day a teenage girl named Josie sets her eyes on Klara and chooses her as...

Book Review   Title: Scare me if you can Author: Sid Kapdi Genre: Horror   One writing workshop in a hill station resort. Nine people and ten stories.    ‘Scare me if you can’ is a novel that has a feel of an anthology of short stories in the horror genre. The novel starts off with the protagonist Sivan-a best-selling author, who conducts a workshop in advanced horror writing in a resort. After the four-day workshop, each participant reads out their stories. Besides these nine people, there is an outsider whose story turns out to have an interesting twist.    The collection has a good range of diversity with regards to the degree of scares and locations.   It’s interesting to observe the presence of sub genres within the main genre of horror. In his simple style of writing, the author covers a range of topics with a subtle message in some of the stories. This includes romance, reincarnation, premonition, cruelty to animals and serial killings. He ...

Book review   Title: The Kindest Lie Author: Nancy Johnson Genre: Fiction   The Kindest Lie is a poignant portrayal of how lies and secrets impact lives.  It’s the story of a woman who carries a secret from the past that she must confront before starting a family with the man she loves.    The story is set around the time of the election of the nation’s first black President, Barack Obama. We have our protogonist  Ruth a Yale graduate Black woman engineer and her husband Xavier. When Xavier is eager to start a family, Ruth is forced to confront her past memories –a baby boy she was forced to give up when she was a teenager. She is curious to know the whereabouts of her son and goes back to her home town to discover the truth. During her quest, she befriends a white boy named Midnight. She stumbles upon secrets and witnesses traumatic instances that are a manifestation of the racial tensions in the community.      The story is s...

Book Review   Title: The Coldest Winter Ever Author: Sister Souljah Genre: Urban Fiction    After a discussion on the topic of Urban Fiction this semester, I was compelled to pick up a classic in this genre.    The Coldest Winter Ever chronicles the story of 17-year-old Winter Santiaga, daughter of Ricky Santiaga who is one of the biggest drug dealers. She thrives and takes advantage of her name, stature and sexuality. This rich spoilt brat’s life takes a turn when her mother is shot and the FBI arrests her father. Things take a turn for the worse when her family possessions are confisticated and when she discovers her father’s mistress and baby. Winter is enraged and determined to seek stature. Amidst her roller coaster is a series of bad choices, pain, suffering and betrayal.     There is rawness in the voice that is manifested in the roughness and raunchiness in the language. It contains considerable amount of lingo that is typical of a book un...

  Based on a professor's recommendation, whose class I am taking this Spring Semester, I watched this movie. Incidentally it won a Golden Globe award in the Best Supporting actor category and has potential to win an Oscar as well.  Set against the cold backdrop of Chicago, the movie showcases the movement of the Black Panther Party who stood of civil rights and communism. Two things that were averse to the American Government in the 1960s. The movie attempts to showcase certain events that precede Fred's death. One key event is when William decides to become an informer of the party to the FBI when faced with an ultimatum. Either he goes to prison for his car thefts or helps the FBI bring down the Black Panther party. Willan opts for the latter albeit reluctantly. It is evident with the stiffness that he portrays and faces a lot of inner conflict. His conscience pricks him every second and resigns to his sad fate for being subjected to something like this.  What follows i...

Title: The Wife Upstairs Author: Rachel Hawkins Genre: Thriller/Gothic Fiction    Reading ‘The Wife Upstairs’ feels like revisiting Charlotte Bronte’s 'Jane Eyre' in many ways. This Gothic thriller offers some interesting twists and delves deep into the complexity of each character.    Our protagonist is Jane who is a dog walker in Thornfield estates-an affluent community with flashy cars and stylish housewives. A perfect place for the newly arrived Jane to escape from her past. Things change when she meets the Eddie Rochestor. Eddie is a wealthy and handsome widower whose wife Bea and her friend died in a mysterious boat accident. When Jane and Eddie fall in love, Jane is constantly haunted by Bea’s accomplishments-a sophisticated owner of a lifestyle brand. It makes matters worse when Jane begins to hear thumping sounds inside Eddie’s mansion. The narrative unravels some skeletons in the closet. This includes the traumatic past lives of the characters and their dyn...

Book Review   Title: Who is Vera Kelly? Author: Rosalie Knecht Genre: Spy thriller/ Historical fiction   There are books where the storyline allows it to be classified under multiple genres. ‘Who is Vera Kelly?’ is one of them. While its technically classified as a spy thriller, there are many layers to the characters that leads to an overlap in genres.    Vera Kelly works at a radio station and is struggling to make ends meet in New York city. When a recruiter from CIA notices her for her technical skills, Vera finds herself in Argentina on a mission. As an undercover spy, she disguises herself as a student of Psychology amidst the political unrest in Buenos Aires. Things go awry when she finds herself betrayed in the middle of a coup. In order to fight for her survival, Vera resorts to some extreme measures which spirals into a series of incidents.    Narrated in first person from the point of view of Vera, the story alternates between the past and presen...