Yeah. The trilogy. Yum. Yum. Actually I had a tough time hiding the 3 books away from the teenagers roaming at home during the reading breaks. And so I devoured the books within a week and now I'm a certified speed reader. Too bad that I didn't get time to highlight or write footnotes nor ref reminders.
Moral of the story:- A few ideas, objects n positions can color up the grey shade of your life.
Confusion. Confusion. How to categorize this book? Fantasy? Children's Lit? Classic? Political satire? Magical realism? Whatever. It's brilliant to the beat. I loved the names of places n characters like - Kahani, Chup, Princess Batcheat, Prince Bolo, General Kitab, Iff the water genie, Khattam Shud..... But my teenaged junior finds the names a li'l difficult to comprehend. Hindi like Delhi is far far away.... The story is racy, action packed , suspense filled and makes the reader content n victorious at the end. Granted, I find the sequel Luka and the fire of life a better witty and joyful ride.
Rushdie dedicates this story to his then teenaged son. Great. But look at the mother figure. Haroun's mother elopes with their neighbor in the beginning of the story itself and joins them back at the end as cool as a kakdi. What nonsense. Autobiographical?
Anjali Joseph:''Stop trying to label me.''
Hii Anjali, are you a Malayali ? Half-Malayali ? Google says you are a Bombayite. Not that it matters. Anjali - a commoner in South India. The lack of a surname - so typical of Keralites and so I bought the book because of your name.
Another Country details the dull n dusty daily dramas of Leela Gosh - born in India, brought up in London, works in Paris, London and Bombay. The supposedly modern chick suffers from commitment phobia and dutifully goes through a string of 'boring' affairs. She seems to celebrate the staleness of modern life.
The novel is a freeze-dry read, full of stomach clenching real life situations. I didn't like the former and the latter too bitter to swallow. This surely is not my cappuccino. I'm on holiday.
