Now in "The Jackdaw's Nest"

"Fifteen Poems from Europe."

Brief Review: "Bombay Time" by Thrity Umrigar

Bombay Time by Thrity Umrigar, 2001.

Bombay Time shows us a small group of closely-connected people, all members of the minority Parsi community and all life-long (or near life-long) residents of a single apartment building -- Wadi Baug -- in turn-of-the-millennium Bombay. The novel focuses on a single important event, the wedding of a young man who has grown up in Wadi Baug, and reveals to us the life stories of almost a dozen of the residents, leading in every case up to each's participation in the wedding feast and, most important, a special gathering of this group following the feast for a gift for each prepared by the bridegroom's father. We learn a great deal about each of these individuals, following their lives in most cases over 30 to 40 years, and come to see their desires, their hopes, their successes and failures, and what they think of themselves and each other after a lifetime together as neighbors and in a sense as members of a kind of extended family. Reflecting on their own lives, some members of the group at least come to a better understanding of themselves and their own lives, particularly after Jimmy Kanga presents them with his gift, and some, although not all, are changed for the better as a result. However, at the end of the novel, the outside world of modern Bombay (now Mumbai, of course), the world of poverty, violence, hunger, and despair, breaks in upon them all in a forceful and unexpected way, and reveals that there is still a larger world which threatens the small, familial world of Wadi Baug, with the result that the novel ends on a rather ambiguous note.

I enjoyed the novel and the exploration of the individual characters who make up the community of Wadi Baug; it's another novel -- like A River Sutra I reviewed earlier -- which presents us with a cross-section of a portion of Indian society, here on a smaller scale than in A River Sutra and confined to a single ethnic group, but still pleasurable to experience. I recommend Bombay Time.

Brief Review: "Pen, Sword, Camisole" by Jorge Amado

Pen, Sword, Camisole: A Fable to Kindle a Hope by Jorge Amado, originally published in Brazil in 1980, translation from the Portuguese by Helen R. Lane in 1985.

Like other of Amado's novels, Pen, Sword, Camisole combines comic farce, biting satire, and life-affirming joy in one work that is a delight to read. The novel is set in Brazil in late 1940 and early 1941, a time when the country was under the control of a rigid dictatorship with clear totalitarian leanings as well as close connections to Nazi Germany. The Chief of National Security is one Colonel Sampaio Pereira who delights in the nickname bestowed upon him by his enemies, the "Brazilian Goebbels," and whose greatest ambition -- aside from participating in the worldwide triumph of Nazism -- is to be chosen a member of the illustrious Brazilian Academy of Letters. The death in occupied Paris of the great Brazilian poet Antonio Bruno creates a vacancy among the 40 members, and the Colonel, through his sycophantic ally Lisandro Leite (already a member of the Academy), begins his campaign to be elected. However, a number of Academy members can't stand the thought of the liberal, peace-loving Bruno being replaced by a self-proclaimed Nazi; two of them in particular, Afranio Portela and Evandro Nunes dos Santos, take it upon themselves to prevent his election and found a committee to launch a counteroffensive.They find a higher-ranking army officer with literary accomplishments to run against Sampaio Pereira, one General Waldomiro Moreira, and persuade him to run for the vacant position; they employ several different tactics, including convincing several of the deceased Bruno's former mistresses to help "persuade" some of the undecided Academicians to vote against the Nazi (the pen may be mightier than the sword, but the camisole quite possibly is mightier than both). Plot and counterplot on both sides swirl, tangle, and intertwine in farcical profusion, and the outcome hangs uncertainly in the balance, right up until a totally unexpected occurrence radically alters the entire situation, and the Afranio - Evandro committee suddenly finds itself having to drastically change course in midstream with little time left in which to do so.

The novel is a excellent satire of academic and social pretension as well as of Brazil's "New State" (as it was called during the late 1930s and 40s) and a thoroughly enjoyable comic romp. But, as always with Amado, there is also joy; here, it takes the form of several accounts by Bruno's former lovers of their relationships with him and how, through him, they came to recognize and embrace the joy that is the essence of being alive, as Bruno himself believed. It is this combination of comedy, satire, and joyous recognition that marks Amado's best works, and Pen, Sword, Camisole belongs solidly among them.

Not That It Matters Really, But

the site counter just hit:

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Brief Review: "Everything Flows" by Vasily Grossman

Everything Flows by Vasily Grossman, written during the early 1960s but suppressed by the Soviet government; finally published in Russia in 1989; translation by Robert and Elizabeth Chandler with Anna Astanyan 2009.

The last novel of Vasily Grossman, completed as he was dying of stomach cancer in 1964, Everything Flows is a scathing indictment of Soviet Russia and its leadership, especially under Lenin and Stalin. The novel is rather loosely structured and follows the central character Ivan Grigoryevitch once he is released after 30 years in prison and the Siberian workcamps for crimes against the state of which he was in fact falsely accused. Lost in a world he knows virtually nothing about, he briefly encounters a few individuals, particularly his cousin, a successful Soviet scientist, as well as Pinegin, the man who had falsely accused him; in each case, we are given insight into each of those individuals and what each has done (and has sacrificed) in order to survive and prosper in Stalin's Russia. He finally finds a home with Anna Sergeyevna, a war widow, and a job as a metalworker in a small machine shop. Becoming lovers for a brief period before she dies of cancer, she reveals to him her experiences as a Soviet official in the Ukraine during the Terror, the period during 1932 - 1933 when Stalin caused the starvation of millions of Ukrainians and what the consequences were to the Ukraine as well as to herself. He spends much of his time thinking about what he learned from his experiences in the camps, and it's these meditations that form the central focus of the novel. His speculations take a number of forms in the work: a short mental drama in which a series of informers reveal why they became informers; a number of brief narratives seen from the point of view of various individuals suffering under Soviet rule (including a wife and mother arrested for failing to inform on her husband and a middle-aged farmer who with his wife and infant son starve during the Ukraine Terror); and a series of journal entries, essentially essays, in which he evaluates the characters of Lenin, Stalin, and Russia itself, and, after reviewing Russian history, comes to understand something of how his homeland has fallen into the state in which it exists under Stalin and his successors. Eventually, he comes to believe:

"The evolution of the West was fertilized by the growth of freedom; Russia's evolution was fertilized by the growth of slavery. This is the abyss that divides Russia and the West" (p. 179).

Ivan Grigoryevitch doesn't know if Russia can ever escape from the cycle that has trapped it from its earliest history. However, despite doubts as to that possibility, he does believe absolutely in what he comes to call the "sacred law of life": "There is no end in the world for the sake of which it is permissible to sacrifice human freedom" (p. 164).

As a novel, Everything Flows is episodic in nature with little narrative progression; however, many of the episodes which take place in the central character's memory or imagination are powerful, painful embodiments of the experiences of those who were arrested, imprisoned, interrogated, and sentenced to serve in the Siberian workcamps. In this respect, I'd say it's easily as powerful as Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. And its damning first-hand analysis of the Soviet State is the final legacy of of a writer who loved his country and hated what it had become in the hands of those he viewed as the most despicable of warlords and powermongers. Everything Flows is not an easy book to read; it is a book I recommend without reservation.

NOTE: There's an excellent interview with Robert Chandler, the translator, here (thanks to Frank Wilson).

For Those Attracted To The Word "The"

Twelve Poems Beginning With The Word The now over in The Jackdaw's Nest.

Brief Review: "A River Sutra" by Gita Mehta

A River Sutra by Gita Mehta, 1993.

I found this work to be a fascinating and enthralling novel that presents a cross-section of Indian society, both traditional and contemporary. The unnamed narrator is a highly placed civil servant in later middle age, a widower without children, who has tired of the constant activity required by his position and who, wishing to live a simpler and more contemplative life, requests reassignment as a manager of a government-operated rest house located in a rural area along the Narmada River, often regarded as the most sacred of all India's sacred rivers. Having a great deal of free time in this position, he takes long walks in the countryside and along the river and encounters many different individuals with whom he strikes up conversations and who tell him their stories. In the course of the work, we meet people of many different religions -- Hindu, Muslim, Jain -- and a broad spectrum of social and class backgrounds, from the most learned and wealthy to the least educated and poor, and gain at least a glimpse into the complex society that makes up India. In some way or another, all are connected to the river and the beliefs and traditions which surround it, a fact which helps to provide insight into the nature of the sacred and its role in Indian culture. At the same time, the narrator himself is coming to learn more about himself than he has ever realized previously.

I have recently begun to read work by Indian writers, something I really had not done previously. I found that this novel has given me a better understanding of India and its fantastically complex culture than anything I've read previously. I also found it to be a rather breathtaking work that drew me in and along with it from the very beginning. I enjoyed it immensely and cannot recommend it highly enough.

Charity Navigator's List of Vetted Charities for Haiti Relief

can be found here.

The Clinton Foundation. is another.

Yoga: Day 1

ouch

First Jackdaw's Nest of 2010 Is Up

Twelve Poems with Food in Them.

Reading Log 2010

I have decided to attempt to keep a reading log of all the books I complete in 2010, just as an experiment. I will list by title, author, type of work, writer's country of origin, original date of publication with date of translation if not originally in English, and date read. An entry preceded by an (R) is a book that I am rereading, usually after many years. An asterisk indicates a book I particularly enjoyed. I will also from time to time post short reviews of some of the works listed here; the titles of those works will be linked to the reviews.)

January:

(R)1. The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper (novel, U. S., 1826; Jan. 1 - 4)

2. Euclid's Window: The Story of Geometry from Parallel Lines to Hyperspace by Leonard Mlodinow (nonfiction -- mathematics/physics, U. S., 2001; Jan. 4 - 6)

3. The Red Carpet: Bangalore Stories by Lavanya Sankaran (short stories, India, 2005; Jan. 7-8)

*4. The Wings of the Sphinx by Andrea Camilleri (novel -- Inspector Montalbano mystery series #11, Italy, 2006 in Sicily, translation 2009; Jan. 8)

5. A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines by Janna Levin (novel, U. S., 2006; Jan. 9 - 10)

6. Slip by Sina Queyras (poetry, Canada, 2001; Jan. 10)

7. Small Things Considered: Why There Is No Perfect Design by Henry Petroski (nonfiction -- engineering/design, U. S., 2003; Jan. 11 - 12)

8. A Personal Matter by Kenzaburo Oe (novel, Japan, 1964 in Japan, translation 1969; Jan. 13)

(R)9. Dilvish, The Damned by Roger Zelazny (short stories -- Dilvish #1, U. S., 1982; Jan. 14)

(R)10. The Changing Land by Roger Zelazny (novel -- Dilvish #2, U. S., 1981; Jan. 15)

*11. A River Sutra by Gita Mehta (novel, India, 1993; Jan. 16)

12. Benjamin Franklin by Edmund S. Morgan (nonfiction -- biography, U. S., 2002; Jan. 17 - 19)

*13. Everything Flows by Vasily Grossman (novel, Russia, 1989 in Russia, translation 2009; Jan. 20 - 21)

14. School for Love by Olivia Manning (novel, England, 1951; Jan. 21 - 22)

(R)15. Bad Blood at Black Range by John Callahan (novel, U. S., 1956; Jan. 23)

16. The Great Chain of Life by Joseph Wood Krutch (nonfiction -- biology/nature, U. S., 1956; Jan. 23 - 24)

17. Dew in the Morning by Shimmer Chinodya (novel, Zimbabwe, 1982; Jan. 24 - 25)

18. The Summer Book by Tove Jansson (novel, Finland, 1972 in Finland, translation 1974; Jan. 25 - 26)

*19. Pen, Sword, Camisole: A Fable to Kindle a Hope by Jorge Amado (novel, Brazil, 1980 in Brazil, translation 1985; Jan. 26 - 27)

20. The Zero Stone by Andre Norton (novel -- Murdoc Jern #1, U. S., 1968; Jan. 28 - 29)

*21. Karma Cola: Marketing The Mystic East by Gita Mehta (nonfiction -- travel/cultural studies, India, 1979; Jan. 29)

*22. Kim by Rudyard Kipling (novel, India/England, 1901; Jan. 30 - 31)

February:

23. Uncharted Stars by Andre Norton (novel -- Murdoc Jern #2, U. S., 1969; Feb. 1)

24. The Folded Leaf by William Maxwell (novel, U. S., 1945; Feb. 2)

*(R)25. As You Like It by William Shakespeare (drama -- comedy, England, 1599 or 1600; Feb. 3)

*26. Bombay Time by Thrity Umrigar (novel, India, 2001; Feb. 3 - 5)

27. The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver (novel, U. S., 1988; Feb. 5 - 6)

*28. Maps by Nuruddin Farah (novel -- Blood in the Sun trilogy, Vol. I, Somalia, 1986; Feb. 7 - 9)

My Favorite 15 Novels Read in 2009

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa (2003 in Japan, translation 2009)

A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian by Marina Lewycka (2005)

A Lesson Before Dying by Earnest Gaines (1993)

Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald (1979)

A Month in the Country by J. L. Carr (1980)

As She Climbed Across the Table by Jonathan Lethem (1997)

Death With Interruptions by Jose Saramago (2005 in Portugal, translation 2008)

Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson (2003 in Norway, translation 2005)

The Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tillburg Clark (1940)

A Woman in Jerusalem by A. B. Yehoshua (2004 in Israel, translation 2006)

Dance Night by Dawn Powell (1930)

Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard by Kiran Desai (1998)

My Antonia by Willa Cather (1918)

Dreamland by Kevin Baker (1999)

The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar (2006)