ELIZABETH IS MISSING

This book was up there on the NYT bestseller list for quite some time.I was intrigued by the title and cover.
Finished reading it early morning today.Having 48 hours in a day would solve at least some of my problems but lets not get into that.

So coming back to the story...

Maud ,eighty one years old ,is slowly but surely losing her memory.However ,one thing she is sure about is that her friend Elizabeth is missing and in terrible danger despite everyone around being nonchalant about it.Maud doesnt trust Elizabeths son and is desperate to help her friend.However noone takes her seriously,neither her daughter nor her carers.So she decides to take things in her hands and get to the bottom of it.She knows that her memory is failing her and takes help of small handwritten notes which tell her what it is she is supposed to do.This obsession takes Maud deeper into the recesses of her mind where long forgotten memories suddenly come to the fore and lead her to the unsolved disapperance of her sister Sukey who vanished shortly after World War 2.

Sukey gets married to Frank against her fathers approval.Frank is a shady character who deals with black-market goods.Sukey is also friends with a boy named Douglas who she puts up as a lodger in her parents home.There is also a mad-woman who Sukey is terrified by.So the suspicion falls squarely on these three because Douglas seems to know much more than he is letting on.Frank disappears for a brief while and the mad woman always hangs around Sukeys house.Past muddles with the present and the result of this is something very unexpected .

My Views:

I have spent the past few days reading this book and before I begin to tell you how I felt about it, I need to applaud the author for giving us a story which is disturbing ,mind-boggling and impressive at the same time.This is one of the strangest books I have ever read.Strange because it is entirely narrated by Maud who is having a mental-illness.It is not spelt out in clear words about what it is that is making her lose her memory(Alzheimers/dementia) but living in her mind for the duration of this book was frustrating and scary.It requires a bit of an effort on the part of the reader to keep up with the memory loss and sudden moments of clarity because it alternated seamlessly between her past memories and the present and it gets to a point when you are left wondering about what is the truth and what is the memory.I got a bit obsessive when I was reading this book because I wanted to know what's happened.At the same time ,I found it confounding when her past and present memories muddle up.It is a wonderfully crafted plot and undoubtedly was very difficult to write.

I know how painful it can be to deal with patients having Alzheimers and how terribly frustrating it can be for their carers.This book just lets you see how living with Alzheimers can be first hand.It scared me.As it is,its so difficult to make sense of life when you have your wits about you.

It shows us how Mauds memory goes on a steady decline,but she is as feisty as ever.She knows what is happening to her but still wants to maintain her dignity and independence.I got a bit annoyed with her daughter and her carers for being overbearing,but they werent living in Mauds mind.How would they know what was really happening?It does get extremely difficult for carers in a situation like this.Noone takes her seriously because they know that she has no clue of whats happening around her,she cannot remember what happened a few second ago,she has no idea about who her carers are or how they land up at her place,she has her time mixed up.She confuses between the past and present.It gets to a point where she doesnt know who her daughter and granddaughter is.However such patients do have stark moments of clarity about events that occured many years into the past.

We think the whole mystery is about what happens to Elizabeth but maybe this obsession stems from some unresolved issues in her past.Maud is so perceptive that she tries to do things by keeping small notes in her pockets telling her what she should be doing.However they only muddle things up for her.Now ,what was frustrating to me was why the daughter doesnt talk about Elizabeth but that isnt a loophole either because it is mentioned later that they have had this discussion but Maud forgets to tell the reader that.There are lines like 'I pull up a sitting thing,for sitting on'--when she doesnt get the word 'chair' and just two lines down she says chair as if thats the most natural thing to do.You just have to deal with this way of narration throughout.

There is dark humor too in this book and times when you really dont know how to react.It is an accurate depiction of mental illness and just goes to show us that however worse we think the situation might be we need to have empathy and just not tell these people off.

But wait,didnt I tell you that you need to have a lot of patience while you read this book.There is an unexpected twist at the end and I didnt see it coming.

You learn something from each book and though I liked the mystery part of it,this one just taught me the meaning of treating someone having mental illness with all the dignity and care they deserve.I really hope they find a cure for Alzheimers soon.

Excellent for a debut.

I rate this book a 4 out of 5.

ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE

This book has been on the NY times bestseller list for as long as I can remember.I had it with me since some time now but hadnt got about reading it.I thought it was just another war novel until I picked it up a few days ago and was rendered completely speechless.

The story in brief.

Marie Laure lives with her father,a locksmith working in the museum of Natural history in Paris.She loses her eyesight when she is six and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighbourhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home.She has a near-idyllic childhood for a few years when she spends her time with books and people who contribute greatly in teaching her.However this does not last forever and when she is twelve,the Nazis occupy Paris leaving them with no choice other than to flee to the walled city of Saint-Malo where her reclusive great-uncle lives.At the time of fleeing ,her father smuggles the world's most priceless jewel called the 'Sea of Flames' out of the city,on behalf of the museum.Unfortunately a German sergeant major is hot on its trail and will go to any lengths to acquire it.

In a parallel setting ,a young orphan boy Werner lives with his sister in a mining town in Germany.He is enchanted by a crude radio they find and soon becomes an expert at instinctively fixing and operating the instrument.This talent leads to him to gain admittance in the National Political Institutes of education(Schulpenforta), a boarding school for the elite.Werner sees this as the perfect opportunity to leave the mining town he detests.However he soon comes to realise that he has been sucked into a whirlpool at the cost of his intelligence and has to pay a high price.Werner travels through war-ridden zones and finally reaches Saint-Malo where his paths cross with Marie-Laure.

This story is about how their lives intersect in Nazi occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War 2.

My Views:

I have no idea why I waited so long to read this book.This was a page-turner right from the word go.I was completely enraptured with the exemplary lyrical prose and the descriptions which promptly re-created 1940's Germany,Paris and Saint-Malo right infront of my eyes.It managed to conjure up the most vivid images in my mind,first of the beautiful town,then of the carnage.However there was something weighing in my heart as I progressed with the story. This book manages to move the reader on an emotional level.

It was narrated with riveting flash-backs and flash-forwards and it kept me so engaged and involved that I had to fight the urge to turn a few pages ahead to reassure myself that everything was going to be alright.The characters lives kept me intrigued and the pace is fast.However what happy ending was I looking for at the end of a war?

A war leaves no-one undamaged.Werner,Volkheimer,Frederick were all victims of 'Hitler's Germany'.It is true that we as humans have characters that are never really completely black or white,but varying shades of grey.These children were brainwashed by Hitler and left with no option but to participate in his machinations.Not that this excuses whatever they did during the war,but their lives were not their own,as Frederick rightly points out in the story.But you must never sell your soul and not everyone is capable of doing that.It is also very easy to judge others but then you realise that they were just kids caught up in the movement and some probably didnt even completely realise what was going on.Sometimes we are left with no choice or forced to make choices that we normally wouldnt.

Marie Laure was a bright,perceptive young woman and how she finds her way through insurmountable odds was something amazing.I found myself rooting for her all the way.She probably teaches us that there is something greater than the gift of sight.She dreams in color.All the light we cannot see could mean different things to different people but to me it represented the need to keep faith with the help of a light which may not always be visible to our eyes.

My heart went out to both Marie Laure and Werner and also to Frederick,an innocent victim who stood up for what he believed.The relationships portrayed between the various characters is beautiful.This story was heart-breaking and amazing.There are countless passages so beautifully written that choosing one wouldnt be fair to the rest of them.

There was a parallel story running through about the 'Sea Of Flames' and that kept me interested as well without taking away much from the main plot.'That something so small could be so beautiful.Worth so much.Only the strongest people can turn away from feelings like that'----this was the line that stayed with me toward the end when Werner finally does what he did with it.

I thought the ending was very apt.It couldnt have ended any other way.

The 2014 Pulitzer was well deserved.

I loved this book and would not hesitate to read it a second time.Highly Recommended.

I rate it five STARS and the MOON :)

OUR MOON HAS BLOOD CLOTS

Just a few days back,I got to know about Nandita Haksar’s book titled ‘The Many Faces Of Kashmiri Nationalism -from the cold war to the present day’ which traces the history of Kashmiri Nationalism through the lives of a Pandit (Sampat Prakash)who became active in politics during the Cold war years and also through the eyes of a Kashmiri Muslim (Mohammad Afzal Guru)who became active in the early days of the Kashmir insurgency.

And my thoughts immediately went to ‘this’ unread book sitting on my shelf from way back and I thought ‘If not now-then when?’ and picked it up.I have just finished reading it.

This is the first-hand account of a Kashmiri Pandit ,Rahul Pandita about the exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits.It is narrated as seen through the eyes of Rahul as a fourteen year old and as an adult and describes the way the move impacted the lives of the displaced Pandits from their homeland.The brutality of the torture and killings.The mass massacre.This heartwrenching story is about the violent ethnic cleansing of a community backed by Islamist Militants.About how they had to leave their homes in the valley,seek shelter in refugee camps and spend their lives in exile in their own country.This is a deeply personal story of history,home and loss.

My Views:

This story is the first person account by Rahul Pandita who speaks about his experiences as a Kashmiri pandit and his eventual forcible migration to Dehi in the 1990's.It is a heartbreaking account of a person being forced out of his home.The brutality and horrors they faced,how they were forced to live like refugees in inhuman conditions and forcibly driven out of their homes in the valley to Jammu and elsewhere.He recounts how his father and people from his fathers generation still call it Shahar and still speak of ties that bind them.

It was painful to read about the torture these people went through,constantly living in the shadow of fear.Fearing for their lives,something as basic as that.Watching helplessly as their homes were ruthlessly plundered and destroyed.Pandita says,'I am uprooted in my mind'.He tries to make some sense of home by taking snapshots of his house occupied by someone else,when he returns there years later as an adult.

Reading about all this makes me lose faith in the world.It makes me question everything and view every ‘good’ around me with suspicion and skepticism.

The mass massacres,rapes of innocent,helpless women,being bludgeoned to death,being forced to eat meat when they were non-meateaters,being shamed in public.Where is humanity?The highest form of desecration is an assault on the persons soul.What can be worse than that?And for what?Just because you belong to a different religion or ethnic group?

Pandita talks about how his mother often recalls his home as one with 22 rooms back in the valley.The desperation in her eyes,the hoping till her last breath to go back to that place she called home,that glimmer of hope in her eyes when she talks about it.Everything was too hard to contemplate.It seemed like one colossal mess.

He also goes on to say how the Pandit community have got a raw deal.Even now the funds for the resettlement have been siphoned somewhere else,leaving them in the lurch.

This is Panditas story and his point of view.It was harrowing to read and Im sure terrible to experience.

However Kashmir has been a contentious issue since a very long time.I believe that before anyone voices their opinion about anything they have to listen or be aware of the complete story.An event of such proportions must have surely been witnessed from multiple perspectives.There are two sides to every story and sometimes there may even be multiple points of view to consider before one makes an informed opinion/choice about what ones views are.My knowledge of the Kashmir issue is loosely based on the few newspaper articles Ive read or the news reports Ive viewed on television.Just scraps of information.Just a year back the Pandits demanding resettlement were in the news again.There were a few things I read here which conflicted with something Ive read elsewhere.So even though I strongly condemn the heinous killings and completely empathize with Kashmiri Pandits.I reserve judgement till I have read more and know more. Maybe its about time I pick up Nandita Haksars book.

THE COMPLETE MAUS

This graphic novel by American cartoonist Art Spiegelman won the 1992 Pulitzer prize and I have been relentlessly pursuing this book ever since I got to know about it.I kept badgering the librarians to get the book for me and suffered withering looks from them.Finally got my hands on it and I just spent the weekend reading it.I had thought it would be easy to read considering that it is a graphic novel but I was proven so wrong.This book was unsettling to say the least.

The complete Maus combines two parts of the story.Part 1,"My Father bleeds History"and Part 2,"And here my troubles began".It tells the complete story of Vladek Spiegelman and his wife surviving the holocaust.It shows Art Spiegelman interviewing his father,Vladek about his experiences as a Polish jew and a holocaust survivor.However there's a difference,all the characters are represented as animals:Jews are mice,Germans are cats,Non-Jewish poles are pigs,Americans are dogs,French are frogs.This haunting story told by using graphics captures the horror of the holocaust in a way that has never been done before.It also explores the extent of the psychological impact an event of such proportions leaves on the survivors and their families.

My Views:

Nothing in life ever happens for a reason.There are never any rational explanations about why or how things happen the way they do.Nothing is ever right or wrong or good or bad.Everything is relative.Everything is random.There are no heroes,no villains.There is no after-life,no heaven,no hell.We live and we die,everything in between is optional and at the end nothing really matters at all.How else would you explain something as horrible and devastating as the Holocaust?I am always left disturbed when I read or watch a movie about the genocide of millions of Jews carried out by the Nazi regime during world war 2.I hadnt expected a graphic novel to talk about serious historical issues and evoke a reaction in the reader.I had to go over the pages and re-read them to take it all in.I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach as I turned each page.

I truly admired Vladeks spirit,enterprising nature and resourcefulness even in the face of extreme adversity.I cannot even begin to imagine what he endured and his ability to hang on to hope in the darkest of circumstances just goes on to prove his strength of character.However when you survive something of this magnitude,it just changes something in you.Vladek was a difficult man to live with and Art makes that very clear.He hasnt made him the hero of the story but has narrated it just as it was.He even goes on to tell us about his fathers prejudice towards African-Americans.When someone has been through hell and back, there is always a price to pay not only by the people who go through it but also by the people affected by it indirectly.Art is dealing with his own demons (survivors guilt)and tries to find some way of allaying this guilt in the form of a comic strip 'Prisoner on the Hell Planet' about his mothers suicide.However I dont think catharsis is even a possibility sometimes and you just have to live on hoping to come to terms with whatever it is that happens in life.This story is very emotional because it is so real.

The horrors of concentration camps,Auschwitz,Nuremberg,the bunkers,the zyklon B showers are too
grisly to even imagine.The use of allegory to depict characters as animals works effectively as cats are known to prey on mice.So jews being mice is an apt metaphor.It provokes us to think about nationalities,races and our judgemental views.

It is scary to think that we live in a world that has witnessed such tragedy.It is not easy to write a story about one's own family with such honesty and I think Spiegelman deserves all the credit for it.I went through a gamut of emotions while reading this book.It just manages to change something in the way you think about life.

I unreservedly rate it a 5 out of 5.

THE NIGHT CIRCUS

Do you believe in Magic?Im sure you would answer that with a smirk or a sneer and I wont really judge you for it.Life does make cynics of all of us.I resisted this book for the longest time for precisely the same reasons.However as luck would have it,I ended up picking it last week and have only just returned from one of the most beautiful adventures I ever hoped to go on.

The story in brief:

Le Cirque des Reves or The Circus of Dreams is a travelling circus which serves as the backdrop of this enthralling story.But this circus is unlike any other,it has an air of mystery surrounding it .It has no set schedule,appearing without warning and leaving without notice and it only opens at night.There are numerous tents with mesmerizing acts performed by the most accomplished of artists and everything is meticulous down to the last detail.In this Circus of Dreams,two illusionists trained by great Magicians belonging to different schools of thought have been magically bound to fight one another in a contest which will span their entire lives,until one of them wins.The magicians have created this contest for their own sense of power and are just using their two students as puppets.The circus serves as the arena where this magical duel takes place,however these young proteges are not given any rules to play by,they dont even know who their opponent is,they have been only told to best the other by creating the most complex shows and maintaining them.However competition eventually changes to admiration and then finally into Love.But a lot is at stake and choices involving a lot of other lives must be made.

My Views:

This book was unlike anything I have read so far.But there are rules to be followed when you are reading it.You cannot read it amid distractions.I was cooped up in a closed room with minimal noise for the entire duration I was reading this.Also you dont read a book like this just for the sake of reading it,you have to experience it and truly live inside it.It was an interactive book.Yes,it took me almost double the time it takes to read most books because I was left with no choice but to imagine everything,conjure it up in my minds eye.The vivid imagery and delicious descriptions left me craving for more.The rich imagination was so captivating that I had quite a time returning back to reality.There are good books and not so good books and there are books which you will remember for the rest of your life,as long as you will live.This was one of those for me.

Might I say that it was a wonderful assault on the senses!Charms,Talismans,Tatoos,Tarot of Marseilles,Fortune-tellers,Acrobats,Conjurers,Contortionists,Dancers,Fire artists,Chocolate mice,Caramel apples,Chocolate pop-corn,the ice garden,a sunken rose-garden,the wishing tree,the pool of tears where sorrows can be tossed like stones,the stargazer,I could just go on forever.I was enchanted!I also got to meet the Reveurs-the circus enthusiasts who seek each other out often spending hours discussing the minutest of details and when they depart ,they shake hands and embrace like old friends even if they have only just met,feeling bound to each other in ways only they can know.I loved every character in this story even more when I realised that each of them was there for a reason.Each had a part to play in the grand scheme of things.

This story was about the dark side of magic as well.However it was also about love and defying fate,about how anything can change at anytime because the future is never set in stone.
It was about permanence and endurance.About how people want to believe that magic is just clever deception,because (as the magician says at the end) 'to think it real would keep them up at night,afraid of their own existence'.

Sometimes we need to escape the real world and indulge the child in us.After all, Oscar Wilde has rightly said-

'A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight,and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world'  :)

I know this review doesnt do the book justice.All I can say is that I absolutely enjoyed reading it and cannot recommend it enough.It was Magical!

Needless to say 

I rate it a 5 out of 5.