A Clockwork Orange

I have quite a number of books on my “to read” list, some making it to the list as recommendations from friends and most from the ‘top 100 books’ lists I constantly keep looking up on the net. A Clockwork Orange was one from the latter category of online recommendations and I should have known that like most other books that miraculously make it to the top one hundred books to read before you die (!!!) lists, this too wouldn’t be worthy of making it to my personal list.

A Clockwork Orange is Anthony Burgess’s magnum opus which was later adapted into a film that came to be critically acclaimed. The book was published in 1962. 

The author has been quoted to have been ready to repudiate his book. He resents the fact that out of all the books that he’s written, this is the only book of his which is known. He has also gone on to call the film a damned nuisance. The book was apparently written in 3 weeks.

The book is partially written in a Russian influenced Argot (secret language used by groups to prevent others from understanding their conversation) called Nadsat and that is my biggest problem with this book. Well, the author has clearly succeeded in preventing me from understanding the book. One does get a hang of it after some time but I found it annoying. There’s a Glossary of Nadsat Language towards the end which I spotted ONLY after I completed the book. Here are a few examples : Appy polly loggy –apology, Bezoomny – mad, Bog – God, Choodesny – wonderful, Krovvy – blood, Oobivat – to kill, Prestoopnick – criminal, Pretty Polly – money.

If y’all wormsies got your noogies in em books for majority of the rotation of the limbs of the timepiece, you’d understand my consternation. Yours truly picked up the kindle and after 15 clicks felt the urge to tonker the lightweight into smithereens.  Oh, the style of writing and the choice of glued letters of Anglais have left me with lesser strands on my cerebrum cage. (Imagine having to read an entire book written like this).

The book is narrated by Alex, a teenager who with his gang members, wreaks havoc in the neighbourhood by beating up old defenceless people, robbing homes, raping women all under the influence of milk laced with drugs. One such burglary attempt goes awry and Alex ends up in prison. In prison, he’s chosen to participate in an experiment that seeks to modify the behaviour of violent criminals by making them watch violent pictures while simultaneously force feeding them medication that induces nausea. Alex is now gripped by nausea at the slightest hint of violence around him. Satisfied with the effectiveness of this experiment, Alex is released from prison. What follows this is Alex’s attempt to escape what he now considers a meaningless life. However, his actions from the past catch up. Will Alex truly reform? To know that, read the book at your own risk!

I have somehow made the book sound “thrilling”. It isn’t!

I find it difficult to be objective when the language of the book itself left me frustrated! When Alex’s father first makes his appearance in the book and I got to read the first coherent paragraph, I had tears of joy which sadly lasted for only a page or two.

As for the storyline, I fail to understand what all the hoo-haa was about.  The latter half of the book reminded me of One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (another book that I didn’t enjoy reading). If you enjoyed OFOTCN, you may probably tolerate this book.

The book gained popularity mostly amongst teenagers for its representation of rebellion against suppression of free will. The author was also accused of glorifying sex and violence as crime rates went up especially after the release of the film.

I have no issues with the content of the book (but that could also be because I failed to understand half of what was happening in the book). If you go knock the tooth off of an old person after reading this book, the problem lies within you and not the book.

The only commendable quality in the story was the manner in which the author subtly condemns subjugation by State and stresses on the importance of free will.

Please do leave a comment below if this book is on your list of top100 books!

I started to watch the movie and then promptly deleted it after the first 5 minutes. I trust LP’s judgement who said the movie was far worse.

The Book Thief (Novel)

Image Source - Google

The reason I picked up this book to read is because I recorded the movie on TV. I prefer reading the book first and then watching the film.

The Book Thief, published in 2005, is authored by Markus Zusak and was also adapted into a film in 2013. (I shall post a review of the film soon).   

  

The book is centred on the life of a young German girl, Liesel Meminger in war torn Germany during the time of the Second World War. The year is 1939 and Liesel steals her first book at the cemetery where her brother has just been buried. Unable to look after her daughter, Liesel’s mother gives her away to foster care where she is taken care of by Hans and Rosa Hubermann. Fraught with nightmares and fearful of the sharp tongued and tactless Rosa, Liesel’s initial inhibitions thaw as Hans takes her under his wing and teaches her to read. Liesel also befriends a neighbour boy, Rudy Steiner and together they have a series of adventures, mostly involving thieving that almost always end with Rudy trying to get a kiss from Liesel.

Times are tough, Germany has invaded Poland and war is looming ahead. Jewish people are being marked, their books and paraphernalia burnt. Life on Himmel Street is not smooth with unexpected air raids and the Hubermanns are managing to scrape through until one day, when Hans is made to keep a promise made in the past. The Hubermanns now have Max Vandenburg, a Jewish person, hidden in their basement.

Max and Liesel become close friends, their bond is forged by their dependence and protection offered to them by the Hubermanns. Knowing her love for books, Max writes illustrated books for her. (The stories along with the illustrations are seen in this book.)

Two random incidents by the members of the Hubermann and the Steiner family, one of kindness towards a stranger and the other of familial love upsets the lives of these families. Through all this, Liesel has her stolen books and her precious words that give her and others around her much comfort.

The story is narrated by Death himself.  

In the words of Death, “It’s the story of one of those perpetual survivors- an expert at being left behind. It’s just a small story really, about, among other things: A girl, Some words, An Accordionist, Some fanatical Germans, A Jewish fist fighter And quite a lot of thievery”.

I’d at times forget that the story is being narrated by Death until I was rudely jolted to that fact by descriptions of the narrator having had to carry a soul away from the limp body.

The story is tragic. It ought to be. It involves a war, a girl who has suffered loss at a young age, Germans harbouring a Jewish person, frequent mention of Hitler and the atrocities committed by him. But don’t let that perturb you. Death is a very fascinating storyteller. He’ll make you want to pick that book back up again.

His style of narration is perspicuous. He creates vivid images in your mind through his descriptions. “The sky was like soup, boiling and stirring. In some places, it was burned. There were black crumbs, and pepper, streaked across the redness.”

Death also likes to play around with words which makes the book an interesting read, the kind that brings a half smile on your lips. “A translation, Himmel=Heaven. Whoever named Himmel Street certainly had a healthy sense of irony. Not that it was a living hell. It wasn’t. But it sure as hell wasn’t heaven, either.”

Death takes pleasure in passing caustic remarks and subtly belittling Hitler and his followers. “Mr.Steiner placed his hand on Rudy’s head and explained, “I know, son – but you’ve got beautiful blond hair and big, safe blue eyes. You should be happy with that.” “You see, people may tell you that Nazi Germany was built on anti-Semitism, a somewhat overzealous leader, and a nation of hate-fed bigots, but it would all have come to nothing had the Germans not loved one particular activity: To burn”

He has a droll sense of humour. “It kills me sometimes, how people die”. “It’s probably fair to say that in all the years of Hitler’s reign, no person was able to serve the Fuhrer as loyally as me”.

He teases you by revealing the death of a character at the beginning of the chapter and also tells you how the character does not die.

This story covers the life of people on the other side, the presumed privileged faction in Germany. But while Jewish people were being sent off to concentration camps, the Germans fared no better. Unlike Hitler, war does not discriminate. But as Death says “The Germans in basements were pitiable, surely, but at least they had a chance. That basement was not a washroom. They were not sent there for a shower”.

If you like the war genre, you must read this book.

At the end of the book, my thoughts went to another little girl, a Jewish girl, who, hidden in a room behind a bookcase, was penning down her thoughts into her Diary at around the same time as Liesel.

BUDDHA

All those who know Bob, also know her obsession with Japan and all things Japanese! Once she starts talking about manga and anime, she will not stop until you threaten to cut the call or start singing the Jungle Book title song in Hindi *sly grin*

Two years back, on my birthday she gifted me the Buddha (Manga) Box Set by Osamu Tezuka. I remember muttering ‘touché’ under my breath when I opened the gift wrap. Skip started jumping up and down saying “cartoon books for me”. I gave him the bubble wrap and that had him placated.

Mangas are comics created in Japan and unlike the American comics, these books tell a story in its entirety over a series of chapters which are then divided into volumes. Comics on the other hand live on for over a 100 years and more. Mangas are mostly in black and white, merely because these are hand drawn and the mangakas do not rely on technology but “human assistants”. Also Mangas let their art do the talking and hence you find very few dialogues in some chapters. This series too is printed in black and white but unlike traditional mangas, this translated version doesn’t have the script from right to left. These are the primary differences. But as Bob tells me, Japanese culture is very accepting of people and hence has no censorship when it comes to Mangas. In most countries certain books are not sold to children because of censorship or because it has mature content.The Japanese that way are sly – Mangas meant for kids between ages 3 to 12 are written in Hiragana and Katakana but Mangas that have mature content are written in Kanji. (Chinese characters which can often be confusing if one hasn’t learnt them. Hence if you want your hands on something adult you need to get your education.)

I picked up the set of books and placed them in my bookshelf where they sat looking pretty and colourful for quite some time until Bob kept enquiring whether I’d started reading them. (In my defence, ever since I’d gotten the Kindle, I very rarely resorted to reading paperbacks).

We are all mostly familiar with Buddha’s story or at least his travails. The only other book that I’d read on Buddha was Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha and I still fail to understand what made it so popular with people spewing out quotes aplenty (more than the wisdom doled out on WhatsApp) in their review of this book. 

I love reading comics and it had been quite some time since I’d read one so I finally picked this up (it was also my first Manga). Buddha comes in Eight volumes, covering the life of Buddha right from the start, at his birth as Prince Siddhartha, weak of mind and body, him running away from home conflicted with the questionable practices of caste system and untouchability, his spiritual journey fraught with sufferings-self imposed and otherwise, his interaction with the other characters and then finally him attaining enlightenment.

Having said that let me make it clear that this series is not just about Buddha. In fact, he doesn’t even make his appearance until almost the end of the First Volume. The series is a complex web of stories, each story having its own protagonist, treading through his or her own life, unaware of what the future holds. As you keep progressing into the next volume, you find that these stories and characters are interlinked with each other, with Buddha being the glue that holds the fine threads of their lives together. Each character is held responsible for the deeds committed by them in the past and in the final act, the characters yearn to meet Buddha for varying reasons. The entire series is a summation of Buddha’s teaching that the whole world is interconnected and that all actions, good or bad, shall have consequences.

Having read the above, you would assume that the books are preachy, with sombre dialogues being exchanged between the characters. Well, please stop assuming that. Here’s why I loved the series:

v The book is filled with eccentric writing. One moment you are reading about the cycle of life and death and then suddenly you have a dopey face pop up comparing Buddha with E.T. and then just as suddenly, you have a few characters dying. (Thankfully, GoT has made me insensitive to character deaths in books) (Okay, not entirely insensitive)

v The series has strong messages of Buddhist philosophy and teachings conveyed in a light-hearted manner.

v The characters are well-etched and some, even lovable (As(s)aji- a young boy who tags along with Buddha in the Third Volume, who has the ability to prophesy)

v The landscapes are so beautifully drawn; I would spend a few seconds just admiring them.

If all of that hasn’t got your attention, this should - there’s nudity in the book.

I would definitely recommend this series and would advise you to read it at a stretch if you want to avoid returning to the previous volumes repeatedly to figure out who is who.