Kindled fire burns my paper backs

A little warning – this piece is going to read more like a diary entry than a review.

The high point of my recent past was, buying my new Kindle. I’m excited! The best thing is, it took far fewer adjustments to switch from paper books than I thought it would take. And then, there are some useful things you could do in Kindle that you cannot do with a real book

An ancient feature, which is, the ability to change font size, turned out very useful in kindle. I was traveling and, a man sitting next to me in the airplane was trying to read my book and it got really annoying. So, I changed the font size to the smallest available and it was not hard at all for me to read at that size. Text to speech is another cool feature, though I do not plan to use that much. A person I know says, he uses text to speech when driving to work. I think, that is a neat use case. Though, I think, I will not be able to drive when listening to a book.

Now, the most annoying thing with Kindle is, having to deal with the-kid-in-a-candy-store syndrome. I have access to all my books right on my device and also all books I can think of, just a few finger taps away! I do not even need to get up and go to the book shelf to fetch a new book. So, I find myself switching between books way too much. One evening, I spent a great deal of time deciding what to read, started book-hopping (if such a phrase exists) and before I could even finish the first 10 pages of the book I finally picked, fell asleep.

Another annoying thing, which is a close second is, there is no way to turn a bunch of pages to skip them. When I’m re-reading a book, I skip boring parts. In kindle, you only get to traverse the book page by page or go to the index and traverse chapter by chapter. This should be very easy for Amazon to fix.

Yet another thing is – I miss the back cover. Especially, the synopsis at the back. Most people see the back cover after the front cover, before starting to read the book. I do not see why ebooks would not have back covers when they have front covers.

Kindle does make up for its little flaws with excellent portability. And then, there are so many free ebooks and the paid ones are so easily accessible and cost just as much as paper back editions if not lesser. And then, there are e-libraries. It is as easy to read from a kindle as it is to read from a real book. I have read six books so far on my kindle and the e-ink technology totally rocks!

But, I do miss the smell of a book and the sound of turning a page. What? Really! Some books smell particularly good. You would know if you read with books close enough to your nose. But, I have given into the fact that, words in a book are more important than its physical self. I can’t imagine our old book club discussing the smell of an old book versus the smell of a new one, the font, the paper quality, the glossiness of the cover, so on and so forth.

Japan

As a reader of this blog, you might know that I’m a cinophile. When reading books based in China, I was more than once intrigued by references to Japan. Enough to want to discover a new culture. I could not get many recommendations from people I know for books set in Japan. So if you know of any set during or after WWII, please let me know.

After seeing the movie, ‘The memoirs of Ghesia’ a couple of times, I read the book. The book was not what I was expecting it to be after seeing the movie. The plot was different, the names of a few characters were different. May be it is my personal bias but, I found the book much better.

Happy Valentines day

After quite sometime, I have come across something so utterly, uninhibitedly, truly, over the top romantic! And well, dramatic. And I absolutely loved this –

Before you, Bella, my life was like a moonless night. Very dark, but there were stars- points of light and reason. And then you shot across my sky like a meteor. Suddenly everything was on fire; there was brilliancy, there was beauty. When you were gone, when the meteor had fallen over the horizon, everything went black. Nothing had changed, but my eyes were blinded by the light. I couldn’t see the stars anymore. And there was no more reason for anything. – Edward

Of the genre: Historical fiction

Reading ‘The Living Reed’ by Pearl S Buck triggered all this. More on the book later. (Note to self – starting the post after a month and a half with a promise of another is not such a bright idea).

Pearl S Buck lived for several decades in China and so we have reason to believe, most of her depections of the county and her people must be close to accurate. But Ms Buck on Korea? I’m not so sure of the authenticity of the facts presented . But, that should be alright, this is historical fiction. Or is it really alright? I am glad I thought of this now, after having read several books that fall into the said category.

Andrew Graham Dixon, a British art historian says –

The historical novel has always been a literary form at war with itself. The very term, implying a fiction somehow grounded in fact – a lie with obscure obligations to the truth – is suggestive of the contradictions of the genre.

It is not only him, many think, historical fiction is “history told as a story”. Actually, it is not! It is fiction. Some would say “fiction set in the past” which I find more acceptable but do not completely agree with.

Defining historical fiction is rather tricky. Multiple parameters here are subjective. There are many opinions on how far in the past must a novel be – for it to be classified historical rather than contemporary. Sir Walter Scott suggested that “historical” meant at least two generations in the past. More recent authors have suggested that 25 years would be a reasonable amount. Society of historical fiction says, the events in the book must have happened fifty or more years in the past, and one in which the author is writing from research rather than personal experience.

Whose past is it? The authors or the readers? Some argue, it is the authors past saying, “The author should never personally experience the era described “. This, for a good reason – most stories are not just vivid imaginations of the authors. They are in fact closely related either consciously or unconsciously to the views of the author on an event. The view is more often than not, more dramatic if the author lived during the era. This bias, tends to distort the presentation of the event.

Some would say, it is the reader’s past that differentiates contemporary and historical fiction. I have seen “The diary of a young girl” being categorized as historical fiction. Going by this, all biographies / autobiographies, at some point in the future, would be historical fiction. But if we go with the “author’s past” definition, some very important works that have been long categorized as historical fiction would no longer fall into this – works like story of Wenamun, The Good Earth, etc.

A more interesting question is – does the book not have some obligation to the truth? How much of truth must be there and how much fiction is allowed before the book is classified as fantasy? The answer depends on who you ask.

Sarah Johnson, Assistant Professor, Eastern Illinois University defines two historical fictions – one, “genre historical fiction” and another “literary historical fiction”

“Genre historical fiction,” by which I mean historical fiction that simply goes out to tell a good story, has always been popular with readers, if library circulation figures are anything to go by.

In this liberal definition, the inspiration is from historical facts which is not necessarily same as truth. To avoid taking off tangentially, lets just say, history is a body of material that has survived over time and political interests of people. This would let some books bordering between fanstasy and history sneek into historical fiction.

The goal of literary historical fiction is not to show readers exactly what life was like in a historical time period, although it may have that effect. Rather, authors who write literary historical center their tales not on the historical setting but on the plot, which may help us better understand the differences (or parallels) between then and now, and on characters who manage to transcend time and speak to us from their own perspective in a way that we, today, can understand. One definition of literary historical fiction is “fiction set in the past but which emphasizes themes that pertain back to the present.”

This, I think is the upper bound, as in the border between historical fiction and history text books. Most books I’ve read fall between the two bounds Sarah speaks of. As a reader of historical fiction, what I look for is, truth about established world events. Also, the author should not alter important facts about famous people without research and evidence. However, the author can fill in details where there are none to give flesh and blood to the story. For instance, we do not know what Tsu Hzi’s food habits were like. So, it is ok if the author says, she likes eating Chinese cabbage / sweet meats or even kimchee. But it is not ok if the author says, she liked pasta. There is a possibility she indeed liked pasta – but that claim requires evidence since it is not believable. I would not take kindly to an author that gets popular folktales/proverbs wrong. If someone has been reading historical fiction for sometime, they spot anachronisms fairly easily and it spoils the reading experience for them.

What I am not looking for is an accurate and dry account of the event(s). If that was what I was looking for, I would go read history. What I’m looking for is an account of the historical event from within the event – thru the eyes of the protagonist or people who might not have played an important role, but have lived in such times and have been impacted by the larger events. Inaccurate every day activities and people descriptions are entirely unacceptable since that is the story of the people, the spirit of the book – the reason for reading historical fiction. What I’m looking for is the truth of the spirit.

Pearl S Buck – Book club

We are looking to join / start up a PSB book club where we plan to read PSB books and also explore similar authors. Interested? Know any already existing book club that is similar? Please leave a comment or leave a mail at – DEE dot YES20 at GMAIL dot COM

You can join us at this Library Thing group

The Good Earth – Pearl S Buck

[Warning: This is an obsessive post on the most popular book of my favorite author who I think is brilliant and did not get her due.]

I know, I’ll not be able to do justice to a classic such as The Good Earth by Pearl S Buck. I should not even attempt. But, I cannot keep myself from trying. So, here goes –

More than 7 decades ago, this book won the Pulitzer Prize and then, helped Pearl S Buck win the Nobel Prize. The Good Earth reads like a song of the war, of china, of farmers (not peasants), of women and men, of marriage, of poverty and riches and, of birth and death.

This, in a sense, is a rags to riches story of a farmer family. The book begins on the wedding day of Wang Lang, a poor Chinese farmer that lives with his old father – with O-Lan, a slave girl at the great house that he buys for himself. O-Lan is talented on many fronts – she is a good cook, clever at mending and stitching clothes. She is a hard worker on the farm and helps Wang Lang with the all the work and takes care of the home bringing a new life to the household in the figurative sense as well as, in the literal sense. O-Lan brings good fortune to the family. Wang Lang with the help of O-Lan reaps great harvests and even buys land from the Great House. O-Lan gives birth to two boys and then a couple of girls.

Drought strikes when the last girl is born and O-Lan kills her at birth and, Wang Lang leaves her out where a hungry dog watches knowing, it would eat her. They starve for many days and finally the family sells everything other than the land and move to a city in the south. The descriptions of sights, sounds and smells of a city with abundance in food and riches from the eyes of starved rural people works like magic. O-Lan teaches the children how to beg while Wang Lang pulls a rickshaw. They survive on the charitable one-cent meal of rice gruel.

When a food riot erupts, a mob breaks into a house of a rich man. Wang Lang and O-Lan steal the riches along with the mob. Then, they return to their land and Wang Lang buys an ox and other tools. He also hires people to work on his land. Good times return to the house hold with the birth of another son and a daughter. Wang Lang buys more land from the great house of Hwangs. He also sends his sons to schools when he realizes he is rich enough and his sons need not work on the land anymore. He takes a concubine – Lotus and becomes obsessed by her. Watering the land and smelling the earth help him come out of it. His elder son gets married and O-Lan dies. The second son also gets married and they move to the town. The youngest son runs away to become a soldier. At the end of the book, the two elder sons contemplate selling the land and Wang Lang is broken at the thought.

O-Lan is the real hero of the book and she has a major part to play in the well being of the family in good times and bad. Her strength and knowledge help the family survive in bad times and prosper in good times.

The feminism in the book is complex. There are various depections of Chinese women in this era. There are references to wife buying, female infanticide and foot binding among other things. When Wang Lang’s marital life is to begin, his father tells him:

“And what will we do with a pretty woman? We must have a woman who will tend the house and bear children as she works in the fields. A pretty woman will be forever thinking about clothes to go with her pretty face!”

When female children are born into the family, they are considered “not worth mentioning” and Wang Lang considers that the time of misfortune has started for him. O-Lan is back to the field helping Wang Lang with the work hours after she gives birth. In order to ward off evil spirits from their firstborn son, O-Lan and Wang Lung pretend thus:

“What a pity our child is a female whom no one could want and covered with smallpox as well! Let us pray it may die.”

The role of earth in the life of Wang Lang becomes clear soon after the book begins.

The kitchen was made from earthen bricks as the house was, great squares of earth dug up from their own fields, and thatched with straw from their own wheat. Out of their own earth had his grandfather in his youth fashioned also the oven, baked and black with many years of meal preparing.

When, Wang Lang learns that the house of Hwang’s is growing poor, he does not believe it but when he discoveres they are selling their land, he says:

“Sell their land! Then indeed are they growing poor. Land is one’s flesh and blood.”

When, Wang Lang’s cousin proposes that he sells his land to certain people from the town during the drought when there is no food for anyone to eat, he says

“I shall never sell the land! Bit by bit, I will dig up the fields and feed the earth itself to the children and when they die I will bury them in the land, and I and my wife and my old father, even he, we will die on the land that has given us birth.”

This is one of those books that people absolutely love or hate. I belong to the former category. I do not generally re-read books but I have read this one thrice.

Pearl S Buck won the Nobel Prize, as per Nobel Foundation, “for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces”. However, some would argue, her depiction of China in the book is not entirely authentic. I understand the argument. At the same time, I strongly believe that Pearl S Buck is a brilliant author that did not get her due. Good Earth is her most popular book and I urge people who liked or did not like this book, to go on and explore her other writings. I would recommend Imperial Woman and Dragon Seed, to begin with.

The language of Threads – Gail Tsukiyama

The language of threads, a sequel to The women of Silk is the story of Pei, a Chinese woman that escaped to Hong Kong when the Japanese attacked China during World War II. Much like its prequel, the tone of this book is – gentle, quiet and yet intense. This is the second book by Ms Tsukiyama that I’ve read and I can say, I like her writing.

After reaching Hong Kong, with Ji Shen, a 14 year orphan in her custody, Pei finds boarding at the house run by silk sisters. With one of the sister’s help, she also finds work as a domestic help at the house of an affluent Chinese family. She stays with her employers while Ji Shen, her only family in the big city is at the boardinghouse. Ji Shen grudgingly goes to the school much against her own will as Pei wants Ji Shen to be educated and to settle down. Unfortunately, Pei is wrongly accused of stealing a Pearl necklace (actually stolen by the jealous Fong) and is fired from her Job.

Later she lands a Job as a domestic help with Caroline, a British expatriate and a widow. Caroline allows Pei to bring along Ji Shen and the three women go on to build a great bond. The worlds of Pei and Caroline are far apart. The part of the book where Ji Shen and Pei adjust into Caroline’s world is particularly interesting. While Ji Shen enjoys the morning music that Caroline plays and gladly accepts her way of life, Pei takes her time overcoming her fears and learning the differences in expectations from a domestic help in an English household and a Chinese household. The cultural differences allow for the development of a great bond as the three characters learn about each other.

Once the Japanese take over Hong Kong, Ji Shen and Pei are forced to part with Caroline. While Caroline is taken away to a camp by the beach, Ji Shen and Pei are left to look after themselves in the war-torn city. Caroline leaves behind her Jewelery and money for the girls. The girls visit Caroline each month until her last days.

Meanwhile, Pei reunites with a silk sister and her best friend Lin’s brother, who help Pei start up a store that mends clothes – something she learnt from her mother. Pei is very skillful at the art of mending tears, worn out embroidery, etc . She knows ‘the language of threads’. The business flourishes as the war ends.

Ji Shen’s death from delivering a child sets back Pei. She moves on and lives to grow old, and to go back to the silk house many years later, to see the silk house where she grew up working as a young girl, and to later reunite with her blood sister.

I liked this book better than the prequel, The women of silk. The characters in this one, especially Pei’s character is much more developed than it was in the prequel. Pei has multiple threads running in her life – Ji Shen, earning a living, attachment to the long lost friend – Lin, memories of her family, the war, etc. All these bring out a very real character. I find the nature of Pei’s character, especially the strength she shows when facing all the difficulties in a city where she knew no one – very appealing.

“The books store at your door!”

I generally would buy books at local stores like Odyssey, Galgotia, etc. They have a far-from-extensive catalog – at least the branches close to my home. The books I want to read are not always best-sellers and it is difficult find some of such books at these stores. Annual Delhi Book Fair or the biennial International Book Fair in Delhi are very good places to buy books. But when you want to read something, you cant wait an year/two – can you? Obviously, Amazon has an extensive catalog and I always found any title I was looking for here. However, Shipping books to India from Amazon (from US based vendors) is expensive. We do have some big online stores that are based in India – the ones like indiatimes shopping and rediff shopping. Steer clear of these! First off, navigating these sites is a pain. I can take the pain (for lack of an alternate) if I knew, I’ll get my book. From my experience, that is only a wishful possibility. These guys take the payment even when they don’t have the book and getting a refund is a nightmare!

When I desperately want a book not available at the local book stores, I begin looking for people I know who would be traveling from US to India soon and see if they are kind enough to carry my shipment from Amazon – which is the only option unless you are willing to pay for the international shipment.

Recently, I heard about this website – and tried it. I am happy, it is reliable and cost-effective. In the last couple of months, I got 8 books shipped (6 local + 2 imported) and each one of them arrived in the promised time and in a very good condition in a rain-proof packing inside a thick cardboard box. I got most of these books at better prices than those at the local bookstores! They don’t charge for shipping if your book costs more than 100 rupees which means – almost always! They have an extensive catalog and ship these books themselves as opposed to asking third-party merchants (who actually have books) to ship them.

There are some minor things flipkart needs to set right though. You can search for books using their ISBN, Name, Author, etc – if you know what you are looking for. But if you do not know what you are looking for and are browsing books by genre – it is a bad experience. Primarily because, the classification is not very good and then the UI is bad too. Moreover, they don’t seem to have tag-metadata on books to make their search better. For instance, search for “world-war fiction” or “romance” and you’ll get books with those words in the title though that is clearly not what you are looking for.

Despite the minor issues, I’m pleased with the service at flipkart!

“It’s Destiny, and That’s Why I’m Back”

I am happy to be back – two years, a pregnancy and a baby later. It beats me how people take care of twins – leave alone sextuplets and then sextuplets after twins! I learnt a lot of things though, could not read much. I am slowly getting back to reading – not entirely uninterrupted .

In the last couple of months, I’ve read the whole of The Good Earth trilogy and then the sequel to Women of silk – The Langugage of Threads and some more. Thats reviews for a bunch of books due! I guess, I should pick up more titles by Gail Tsukiyama. I seem to like these books.

I’m also discovering books set in Pakistan. If you have pointers to writers/books – please ping me. Speaking of pointers, I leave you with a forwarded e-mail on this:

The title of this post could very well have been one word – Back. The rest of the words only serve the purpose of creating a dramatic setting.

Women of the Silk – Gail Tsukiyama

The many praises and reviews got me to read this book. Gail Tsukiyama’s first novel, Women of the Silk deserves all those praises. It is a moving, quiet and yet intense coming-of-age novel of a young Chinese woman, who is sold to a house of silk by her poor parents.

Pei is born as one of the many daughters, into a patriarchal family, dominated by her father. She tries to have as much fun as she can in the constrained household. Pei is the most talkative, curious and opinionated girl among her sisters and according to a fortune teller, the “non-marrying” one. Another girl child is born into the family and Pei’s mother is sorry and father, displeased. Soon, she sees the death of the little baby. Her father determines Pei’s fate and leaves her at a silk house run by a warm, motherly woman, Auntie Yee. The arrangement is that, she would work at a silk factory, stay at the silk house and her family would get most of Pei’s salary.

She meets many girls of similar fate at the silk house. In fact, many poor families keep a girl child aside for silk work so that, she could provide for the family in difficult times. Failed marriages and aversion to arranged marriage also lead some girls to this place. These girls live together, work hard, earn good money, make strong bonds with one another and look forward to retiring as spinsters at an early age.

The effect of war with Japan begins to touch the village and the silk house. It results in the death of some girls and Auntie Yee at the silk house. Pei visits her parent’s house for the first time after she was left at the silk house. She forgives them and re-bonds with her mother. After many tragedies, Pei takes the brave step of escaping to Hong Kong in search of a new life.

The characters in the book have gentle, quiet charm. The author takes you through the personal losses Pei faces and you begin empathizing with her and her friends at the silk house. As the pages go by, the story picks up pace and Pei’s drama and her universe engulf you. Even after having read a bunch of books set in China, this one strikes me as exotic.