book reviews, honest and partial! :D
i will my stick my neck out and say it...The God of Small Things is an AWEsome book! I havent finished it yet...am somewhere near the midway mark, but it has been too much so far. I cant say i like it - but i have to acknowledge its brilliance all the same! Succhh a fantastic way of chronicling thoughts and people. But it is way too negative...shockingly so. I wonder what must be in the author's mind when penning such a book - is a book always a reflection of the author's mentality, or can it easily digress into an imaginary philosophy? A Picture of Dorian Gray was classic in this sense - the perfect way Oscar Wilde constructed Sir Henry's materialistic p.o.v whereas he is infact firmly against materialism. It was toooo good, the way the ideology was torn apart: such simplicity in idea and such power in execution.
Oh well thats enough of mushing over those, now lets get to brass tacks. Ernest Hemingway. An author i was so looking forward to. A Farewell to Arms. What the fuck.
I dont get it, whats good about that book?? The title had me expecting a grand novel which would make a compelling case for peace. Pffft. Ok, it had a few war scenes which were just a wee bit poignant, nothing more. I found the protagonist to be a fucking bastard! Calmly accepting bravery awards for free, and later shooting off 2 officers in frustration. i donno, cultural differences or not, surely there isnt any justification for shooting a deserter in the time of retreat - especially when our hero himself aint a saint. i spose the romance angle was alright - it started off showcasing how ppl get crazy in war, a la Catch 22. But thereon it just progressively degrades into a stupid script [i felt]. Disappointing.
[btw i guess i would have been much happier with the novel if only the protagonist had been shown having some ethics]
Back to the small things. memory. it is such an important theme in roy's book. and indeed, i have long felt that our outlook towards life, our life itself, is defined by our memories of it. We are what we remember [choose to remember?]. I feel so bad that i have this rotten memory - i can hardly remember anything. Not childhood events, not watershed events, not happy moments, not sad moments. So i desperately cling on to whatever i do remember, and i desperately try to note down what has happened recently. what a life! why, i am pretty much an optimist...i would have been much more cheerful if i had a more reliable memory bank and a retrieval system which could be used if i were blue :D
Oh well thats enough of mushing over those, now lets get to brass tacks. Ernest Hemingway. An author i was so looking forward to. A Farewell to Arms. What the fuck.
I dont get it, whats good about that book?? The title had me expecting a grand novel which would make a compelling case for peace. Pffft. Ok, it had a few war scenes which were just a wee bit poignant, nothing more. I found the protagonist to be a fucking bastard! Calmly accepting bravery awards for free, and later shooting off 2 officers in frustration. i donno, cultural differences or not, surely there isnt any justification for shooting a deserter in the time of retreat - especially when our hero himself aint a saint. i spose the romance angle was alright - it started off showcasing how ppl get crazy in war, a la Catch 22. But thereon it just progressively degrades into a stupid script [i felt]. Disappointing.
[btw i guess i would have been much happier with the novel if only the protagonist had been shown having some ethics]
Back to the small things. memory. it is such an important theme in roy's book. and indeed, i have long felt that our outlook towards life, our life itself, is defined by our memories of it. We are what we remember [choose to remember?]. I feel so bad that i have this rotten memory - i can hardly remember anything. Not childhood events, not watershed events, not happy moments, not sad moments. So i desperately cling on to whatever i do remember, and i desperately try to note down what has happened recently. what a life! why, i am pretty much an optimist...i would have been much more cheerful if i had a more reliable memory bank and a retrieval system which could be used if i were blue :D
posted by Rukesh Reddy at 3:37 PM
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