Book Buzz

AMITAV GHOSH

What pulled me into this novel were the great characters. Characters were introduced with such rapidity that I wrote a character sheet to keep them straight. Deeti  is a young mother living by the Ganges some 50 miles east of Benares. She grows poppies because she must (the destruction of the rural economy is of no concern to the British), but though she is not  user, her husband is an opium addict. The people are no longer aloud to grow crops to feed themselves, they must supply the British with opium to sell to the Chinese, who don’t want it. This book reminds me of all I learned in Liquid Jade about the opium trade and wars in colonial times. Historical fiction puts it in a human context.  All the main characters come alive. Ghosh’s characters breath life into the story.

I also enjoyed the use of local and antiquated vocabulary. There are words and expressions from Hindi, Urdu, Hindustan and others as well as colonial and sailing vocabulary.  Though it got waring by the end of the novel.

At almost 500 pages the novel was too long. It dragged in the last quarter though the very ending picked up speed. The final ending seems to lead to a sequel and isn’t  diffinative  which was disappointing.

But all and all worth the read. And this type of  historical fiction usually isn’t my first choice.

NOTE:  image not the book cover but Sea of Poppies by Louise Southan watercolor landscape (http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.dreamgallery.co.uk/watercolor_e_detail/sea_of_poppies.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.dreamgallery.co.uk/watercolor_e_amain/aimage04.htm&usg=__6bc7Hqj9dvlZEQK-yofZVwVX6lE=&h=300&w=432&sz=72&hl=en&start=7&sig2=nREF97fXnX68HDPZWom2PQ&tbnid=3PTuBbYAJUKgsM:&tbnh=88&tbnw=126&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsea%2Bof%2Bpoppies%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG&ei=cEe0StqpBovUMtb7-doO

KATE HORSLEY

Set in Ireland at the time Christianity was starting to take hold, and over power the old ways of the pagan Druids. Gwynneve learned the ways of a healer gathering herbs and fungi deep in the forest from her mother. Her mother frequently was called upon to help and to heal. Gwyn was also known to take sustenance to families in need. Her husband was also a Druid but he was taken way by the monks, the tonsured ones, who burned their simple home and all their medicines and belongings. Eventually she joined a community of nuns but that life spoiled when a group of brothers joined them and the abbot took control. Fascinating reading about an irresolute time.

“I had thought that the love of Christ would make us kinder and less likely to smash skulls. But now I see that we will be asked to smash skulls for Christ.

GIL ADAMSON

2009 Canada Reads Nominee on CBC

Outlander tells the story of Mary Boulton who lived at the turn of the century. She was “a widow by her own hand” (she shot her cheating husband in the thigh and watched him bleed to death). As a result she is being pursued by her husband’s two brothers. It is a story of incredible strength and determination as she learns to survive in the Canadian wilderness. Eventually she ends up in Frank, BC.

Good read.

NADEEM ASLAM

The best fiction written about Afghanistan. Incidents from the times of the Shah to the on-going war are woven into this complex tale that centres around Marcus. Marcus is English born but has lived in Afghanistan for decades. Liberal and forthright, his Afghani wife was stoned by the Taliban. (Blood leaked out the lace eye opening of her burka.) Laura, a Russian, is searching for information about her brother who never returned from the Soviet invasion. David once a CIA agent, has been in Afghanistan for 25 years.”He knew of no other war that was fought with the help of as many spies.”  Casa, a young Afghani, has been trained as a terrorist. James is an American special forces soldier who reminds David of the black and white morality that was once his. 

A must read.

CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE

YELLOW SUN is about the birth of Biafra, a short lived country in Africa late 60’s early 70’s. I remember Biafra: pictures of starving children with swollen bellies. George Harrison organized a rock concert to raise funds for relief. I had the album. I thought drought. I was wrong. War! And all of the issues that I associate with modern trouble in Africa were in this situation in the 60’s: child soldiers, tribe against tribe, rape as a weapon of war, genocide, refugees, starvation, western nations ignoring what was happening.

If I just read what I wrote I’m not sure if I would want to read this book but it isn’t all war. The book tell the story of twin sisters Olanna and Kainene and their loves and families as Nigeria ajusts to post-colonial times.

This poem is a quote from the book. Is the title not evocative?

WERE YOU SILENT WHEN WE DIED?”

Did you see photos in sixty-eight

Of children with their hair becoming rust:

Sickly patches nestled on those small heads,

Then falling off, like rotten leaves on dust?

Imagine children with arms like toothpicks,

With footballs for bellies and skin stretched thin.

It was kwashiorkor—difficult word,

A word that was not quite ugly enough, a sin.

You needn’t imagine. There were photos

Displayed in gloss-filled pages of your Life.

Did you see? Did you feel sorry briefly,

Then turn round to hold your lover or wife?

Their skin had turned the tawny of weak tea

And showed cobwebs of vein and brittle bone;

Naked children laughing, as if the man

Would not take photos and then leave, alone.

*kwashiorkor  the illness or symptom of starving children developing a swollen belly

Great read!