Salad # 4 : A Man & A Woman

A Man and a Woman (1986)

This is something I penned in 1986, a reflection on the complexity of  the man-woman relationships I had witnessed, been told about or personally experienced.....

The moth and the naked light
The river and the land
The firefly and the moonless night
The seashell and the sand

The stubble and the razor blade
The tempest and the skiff
Bright sunlight and adjacent shade
The climber and the cliff

The artist and the drawing board
The foetus and the womb
The tuna and the fishing rod
The mummy and the tomb

 

The puncture and the tyre
The water and the fire
The leaflet and the dew
Your reflection and you

The indifferent, the rejected
The untouched, the dejected
The sharpened, the blunted
The hunter, the hunted

They’re all hurting
They’re all flirting

Book Post # 3

Here we are again, then - five more books from my collection, reviewed briefly for you.

11.  Sad Wind from the Sea by Jack Higgins

With Jack Higgins'  fan following firmly established, his publishers have decided to dig into his archives and fish out all the manuscripts earlier published under his other pseudonyms, Harry Patterson and James Graham. And so it is with this book - we are informed that this was actually the first Jack Higgins novel. Readable enough, but it lacks the style and depth of storytelling that characterised later books. It’s not difficult to work out why Higgins wrote under so many different names.

12.  Absolute Power by David Baldacci

After reading thousands of fiction novels over a 30-year period, it was refreshing to find, after a very long time, an author whose style is so racy that his books are quite impossible to put down. I did 1100 pages (two novels) in less than a week, and I'm looking for more. Definitely recommended as a stressbuster - whether on flights, late at night, waiting for interviews :-), or in the car on the way to work

13.  I, Lucifer by Peter O’Donnell

Peter O'Donnell can be alarmingly addictive. A writer with an uncommonly slick turn of phrase, a perpetually present sense of wry humour, a great storyteller and resoundingly original......you don't get villains like these in any action novel, nor do you get such detailed research in what appears to be an ordinary set of action stories woven around one character. I know a surprisingly large number of people who are Modesty Blaise fans and quite proud to admit it. That perhaps explains why Crossword  Bookstore has put on sale a retrospective, the entire set of novels, which has made these books available on Indian shelves after a very long time.

You can say it's not your type of read - but you won't say you dislike it. Guaranteed

14.  How to be a Brit by George Mikes

No, it’s not pronounced like "bikes" – this author is Hungarian, so you need to say "Mikesh".

"How to be an alien" is George Mikes' definitive work, and this one isn't all that far behind. I read this 10 years before I actually went to England; read it twice while I was there; and I've just finished reading it once again, chortling every few pages. Whether or not you’ve met and interacted  with a Brit, this is a hilarious read

15.  Trojan Odyssey by Clive Cussler

With Cussler, you get two for the price of one, with each book - a great deal of maritime history and oceanographic lore, along with a cracking good story. This one is not among his best, but is still a good read. I'm actually just finished reading it for the fourth time, over an 8-year period.

Book Post # 2

I thought I would mention a few more books, some of them curiously different. I will add more soon, since I'm on a re-reading spree (much more fun than a reading spree, I assure you) these days.

6. Godel, Escher and Bach : An Eternal Golden Braid  by Douglas R Hofstadter
This is one of those books which you would normally overlook on a bookshelf -not least because it is heavier, thicker and larger than the average dictionary; and in the process, you would miss an astonishing experience. Rarely have the principles of Zen Buddhism been explained through a series of conversations between Achilles (he of the heel) and the Turtle (he of the hare); and rarely has any treatise on philosophy invoked a musician, a mathematician and a three-dimensional artist in a single book. Absorbing reading. If you pride yourself on being a different kind of thinker, I would recommend you peep into this book: peep may well lead to keep.

7. Two States :The Story of My Marriage  by Chetan Bhagat
A remarkable fellow, Chetan. His most hyped book was easily his worst - "Five Point Someone" definitely lacked a something illa illa something. On the other hand, Two States, probably his least publicised book (at least, before someone in Bollywood decided to make a movie out of it), is the one to recommend to readers who want to know what his writing is all about. You don't have to be IITian or an IIMite to appreciate it, but you do need to be Indian. This is a love story about a male and what used to be referred to at the IIMs as a "non-male", though that description clearly doesn't apply to the female lead in this book. There's something in this tale for everyone, I'm sure that even my grandmother would have seen the funny side, had she been alive today.

8. The Golden Rendezvous  by Alistair Maclean

When I was just 13, I met an Admiral's daughter who said to me, "You haven't really read anything until you've read Alistair Maclean". I lost track of her some 30 years ago, so I've never had the chance to thank her for a sublime understatement. Alistair Maclean, a Glaswegian professor who copyrighted many of his books under the name of A.G.Gilach, was an exceptionally gifted writer who could make metaphors do a breakdance. You may or may not like his plots or his characters, but you will have no choice but to agree that few people can do what he does with the English Language. This book, if you will pardon the deplorable wordplay, is a golden example. READ !

9. Notes to Myself : My Struggle to Become a Person by Hugh Prather
I was gifted this book in 1983 by one of the most remarkable people I have ever met.....which is perhaps appropriate, because this is easily one of the most remarkable books that I have read. The illustrations are an inspiration, a single dark leaf and a light leaf on each page, curved at just the right angle to suit the mood of the text. This is one of those books that you read and mutter to yourself, every hundred lines or so - "Good Lord ! My sentiments exactly ! Why didn't I write this book ?"

Tell you what: walk into any bookstore; pick up this book; open it at any page, and read what's on the page; do this for another two pages; and if, after that, you don't buy the book, do let me know !

10. The Other Side of Me by Sidney Sheldon

Most readers of fast fiction have been Sidney Sheldon fans at some point of time or the other; those who weren't, may have seen one or the other of his movies. This book, written like a novel but conceptualised like an autobiography, reveals, to our surprise and delight, that Sheldon was so much more than just a fiction writer - he even won an Oscar ! Worth reading for the detailed insights into the man and his life.

I think 5 books at a time works well ! More in the next, then......

Book Post # 1

LinkedIn, a professional networking site where I spend some of my spare time, has an interesting option called "Reading List", which allows you to  select a book and post a comment on it. I found that a great new way to suggest books to people, so I thought I would transfer some of those "teaser" reviews to this blog. A word of warning, though - I have very different tastes, so I pick all sorts of books......read on !

1. Beyond Desire by Pierre La Mure
Perhaps the saddest part about the writings of this brilliant biographer-novelist is that you can't find his books anywhere: they're either out of print, or they're not in stock - which is a tragedy indeed, because few narrators have managed to bring the past of great people to life the way he has. This novel is about Felix Mendelssohn's relentless search for that definitive Bach composition, the Passion of Our Lord According to Saint Mathew, and his efforts to make it available to the world. A gripping narrative, told with infinite skill, that will make you yearn to read it again, just after you've turned the last page.

2. The Chosen One by Sam Bourne

Gone are the days when the President of the United States was a hallowed figure, making a guest apppearance at the tail end of the book - these days, he has been brought down to the level of a mere mortal, and occupies a large chunk of the book. In this taut thriller, Sam Bourne, a gifted writer who is just about four books old, takes us through the innards of the Presidency and its frailness. A compelling read.

3. Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

The world waited a long time to get another Jules Verne, and couldn't cope with the one that arrived. Had it not been for Steven Spielberg, Michael Crichton might have sunk without a trace - which would have been a tragedy of enormous proportions......concepts such as those described in "The Andromeda Strain", "Westworld", "Sphere", "The Terminal Man" and, of course, "Jurassic Park" will not be seen again as the output of a single mind. The films, although brilliantly made (some of them directed by Crichton himself), capture only a small part of the complexity of the original. Read this book first, but if you don't like dinosaurs, choose from the array of subjects available from Crichton's collection.

4. Twisted Tales from Shakespeare by Richard Willard Armour

Richard Armour takes humour to a new level altogether - and for those who have read Shakespeare (even if it is only for the school final exam), this is a classic revisitation of his plays. The style is very different - each play is summarised in a few pages, with piquant illustrations; and the summary ends with a series of rhetorical questions that are more hilarious than the summary itself. Richard Armour has written a slew of such books - other memorable ones include "It All Started with Eve", "It All Started with Columbus" and "The Classics Reclassified". Long out of print, these books are almost impossible to find at a retail outlet - I had to get them in the second-hand mail-order market in the US. Richard Armour is a must-read for all those who thought that P.G. Wodehouse was the last word in humour and sarcastic takes.

5. Shout at the Devil by Wilbur Smith

You haven't really understood what the word "elemental" means until you've read Wilbur Smith - he makes the earth, the sea, the sky, the wind rear up and slap you so hard in the face that you're still recovering from the shock, years later. A compelling storyteller who builds an epic in 500 pages, combining the complexity of human depravity, the starkness of an Africa squeezed bloodless by war, and the intricate web of human interrelationships, in a collection of words that leaves you breathless with wonder, pain and longing. This is one of his better books - other masterpieces are "Hungry as the Sea", "Eagle in the Sky", "Gold Mine", and "The Diamond Hunters". But to experience the definitive Wilbur Smith, read his Sean Courtney Trilogy - "When the Lion Feeds" / "The Sound of Thunder" / "A Sparrow Falls"

Do I hear agentle snore or two ? Right, then - I'll leave the other reviews for later !