January 02, 2007
The Year (2006) in BooksLiterature
Red Snapper wrote me and suggested a post reviewing the books of 2006. This is of course somewhat difficult to do, because unlike some readers I tend to spend most of my time reading books written years and years and years ago — and I often let new works of fiction simmer into paperback before venturing to sit down with them. In this case, I haven’t actually read several of the books on the list below, and the list is as much a “to read” as it is a “best of.”
Secondly, the ordering isn’t especially significant. The list is more about the group as a whole than it is about putting X above Y or Y above Z. As I mentioned, I haven’t read some of the titles, and anyway ranking books isn’t usually a very intelligent exercise, especially when you’re talking about different genres of writing.
Third, I’m curious to know what was on your list in 2006. What am I leaving out?
1. Kaavya. It was undoubtedly a lively year for South Asian literature of the diasporic variety, though not always for the right reasons. “Kaavya Viswanathan” quickly became the name on everyone’s lips (including Sepia Mutiny’s bloggers and commenters) for about three weeks in April and May, but in contrast to other desi writers it wasn’t for her exotic choice of subject matter. Kaavya’s plagiarism scandal was the biggest of the year (and 2006 was also the year James Frey caused Oprah to go ballistic, and Dan Brown got acquitted, so this isn’t a small accomplishment).
2. Kiran Desai also won the Booker Prize for The Inheritance of Loss. (Manish’s review; Siddhartha’s post). This is great news for the general reputation of South Asian writers, though it isn’t clear to me that the book has had very much buzz in its commercial life. Still, I’m long overdue to pick it up.
3. Sudhir Venkatesh, Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor has made a big impact, all the more so because Venkatesh doesn’t come from a background remotely similar to the people he studies. Interestingly, though this book has little to do with South Asia, Venkatesh’s Indian background probably did help him get his research done, because it marked him as belonging to a group in between the African-Americans he was studying and the wealthier white America beyond the south side of Chicago.
4. Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Imperial Life in the Emerald City. It’s too bad this book didn’t come out even earlier, but it’s apparently one of the most scathing accounts of the botched American reconstruction effort in Iraq to have yet appeared. As with Sudhir Venkatesh in a poor black neighborhood, journalists like Chandrasekaran and, to an even greater extent, Time Magazine’s Bobby Ghosh, benefit from being South Asian. Since they register to others as belonging an indeterminate racial background, desi journalists can pass for Iraqis and go where their white or black peers can’t.
5. Vikram Chandra’s Sacred Games. This book isn’t even out in the U.S. yet, but it’s already getting some U.S. reviews, the most widely circulated of which was Sven Birkerts’ review-that-isn’t-one.
6. Lads. Earlier in the year there was a fair bit of hype about books like Nirpal Singh Dhaliwal’s Tourism and Gautam Malkani’s Londonstani (see Manish’s post). Now, not so much. It probably didn’t help that Dhaliwal’s book was nominated for a Bad Sex Award. But Gautam Malkani wrote an important column on the real vibrancy of Asian life in Britain this past August. I haven’t read either, though of the two I’m more likely to pick up Londonstani.
7. Lads who Like Lads Should Be Allowed To Like Them, Legally. In 2006, Vikram Seth made headlines by prominently participating in the movement to repeal India’s Section 377. Seth’s magnificent memoir of his uncle and aunt’s relationship, Two Lives, doesn’t foreground homosexuality, but it is a loving consideration of another kind of coupling often considered taboo. Two Lives actually came out in November 2005, but the paperback was released in June 2006.
8-11. The heavy duty. Amartya Sen’s Identity and Violence, Amitav Ghosh’s Incendiary Circumstances, and Pankaj Mishra’s Temptations of the West. Serious books of essays meditating on very serious issues. All three of these books struck me as important. Of the three, Mishra’s book reflects the greatest effort in terms of actual footwork. And even if you’re unhappy about Mishra’s reporting on the massacre at Chattisinghpura, Kashmir, you should still read this for the excellent chapters on Pakistan (which, Mishra shows, is a mess), Tibet, and Afghanistan.
12. Upamanyu finally makes it. Upamanyu Chatterjee’s English, August was finally released in the U.S. in 2006, almost 18 years after it originally appeared in India. In one sense it doesn’t matter that much, since most people who are interested in Indian literature had already found a copy somewhere. But in another sense it absolutely does matter: if it’s in print in the U.S., it’s a lot easier for people like me to assign it in our classes (which I did for the first time, this fall)
13. Marina Budhos, Ask Me No Questions. Marina Budhos’s book is a sophisticated dystopian vision that belongs somewhere between the juvenile fiction shelves and the adult shelves. I was impressed by Budhos’s writing when I saw her read at the SAWCC conference, and I enjoyed the book itself.
14. Eqbal Ahmad’s collected writings. Eqbal Ahmad was a legendary leftist radical from the 1960s whose political beliefs were not at all doctrinaire. Amitava Kumar published a very smart review of the new collection of his essays in the Nation back in November.
amardeep on January 2, 2007 03:40 PM in Literature · T·r·a·c·k·b·a·c·k address · Direct link · Email post
I've only begun reading it, but I have high hopes for Pete Takeda's An Eye at the Top of the World. (Here's my original post that explains the desi connection.)
Amardeep, can you please explain what would make some unhappy with Mishra's reporting on Chattisinghpura?
Amardeep, can you please explain what would make some unhappy with Mishra's reporting on Chattisinghpura?
This will explain some of it.
Better, if you go to his own Texas two-step in NYT over the years.
Great list, Amardeep. All said, Pankaj Mishra does the foot work but is nevertheless delusional.
great idea. is this list restricted to books with a south asian connection?
From the world of youth literature...
1. HOW OPAL MEHTA... by Kaavya Vishwanathan (of course)
2. ASK ME NO QUESTIONS by Marina Budhos because it was interesting to read a work of young adult fiction that made a serious political point about the experience of South Asian immigrants in the United States.
3. LOOKING FOR BAPU by Anjali Banerjee (review by Tamasha, review on A Fuse #8 Production, interview with Anjali on cynsations)
4. BRINGING ASHA HOME by Uma Krishnaswami, a picture book about a biracial Indian-American boy who finds his own way to bond with his sister while his family awaits her adoption from India. Beautifully rendered, both the words and pictures brought tears to my eyes. (Its also the perfect raksha bandhan present from any brother to any sister!)
In 2007...
I am looking forward to seeing the reception of RICKSHAW GIRL and FIRST DAUGHTER: EXTREME AMERICAN MAKEOVER, both by SM regular Mitali Perkins (FIRST DAUGHTER protagonist Sameera Righton is a blogger ;)). Both books are very different and oh-so-wonderful.
Whose God, no, feel free to mention any good books you happened across.
A list of new non-desi fiction I really enjoyed this year would include Ian McEwan's "Atonement," Colm Toibin's "The Master," Rattawut Lapcharoensap's "Sightseeing," Lisa See's "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan," and Yiyun Li's "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers."
On non-fiction, I would recommend "What's Liberal About the Liberal Arts?" by Michael Berube -- for people who are curious about what it is we English professors do all day.
I just finished reading Kiran Desai's book and I can only feel quite underwhelmed and disappointed. Sure, she writes well and stuff, but why the same old subject matter. And why do Americans (and the Booker/Pulitzer types) keep liking these stories as if nobody's written them before?
Thanks for the post, Amardeep! I highly recommend Londonstani, it's a fun read to say the least.Sudhir Venkatesh and Rajiv chandrasekharan are next on my list.
William Dalrymple's 'The Last Mughal' seemed to be all over when I was in Mumbai last month. I even just missed a reading by him. You might want to add that book, though I have NO clue how good it is.
Andrew Holleran's Grief was quiet and telling.
Have to agree. I've read Kiran Desai's Inheritance Of Loss in April and was very underwhelmed. When I heard she got the Pulitzer I was surprised. But I guess critics are looking for entirely other qualities besides 'fresh material' like I am. Hmmm...
Have to check out the other suggestions. Thanks for the interesting list.
though I have NO clue how good it is
White Mughal is very well written. I am reading it right now.
Jai Singh, who comments here often talks about the book from time to time.
Technophobicgeek, The Last Mughal doesn't come out in the U.S. until March 07...
Then again, "Sacred Games" isn't coming out until 07 either, so it's inconsistent of me to put one book on the list and not the other. This has been a big Dalrymple year for me personally (I taught "City of Djinns" in the spring of 06), and certainly the Indian media has showered the guy with interest and attention this fall, even if certain former SM commenters feel (without having ever read him, of course) he is an evil colonialist.
Put "The Last Mughal" in at #15 then.
Pooja, thanks for the recommendations. I hadn't heard of some of those titles!
Yay Pooja - I was just going to "page" you!
I second Pooja's #2 and #3 (haven't read #1 or #4). Ask Me No Questions is wonderfully written. I was able to read an advance copy of Rickshaw Girl and loved it. I'm planning to read it aloud to my kids in the next few weeks.
Not sure Pooja's thoughts on Koyal Dark, Mango Sweet, but here are mine.
And in non-desi news: Grab On To Me Tightly As If I Knew The Way was phenomenal.
Technophobicgeek, The Last Mughal doesn't come out in the U.S. until March 07...
Amardeep, I just bought it from Amazon (US) in December.
Sacred Games comes out in US next week, one can pre-order @ Amazon.
Kush -- oops, I guess I misread that! Ok, now there's really no question.
I can't recommend the novel, THE BOOK THIEF, enough. (NY Times' review here. And here.) Like ASK ME NO QUESTIONS, the book sits somewhere on a shelf between "adult" and "young-adult" fiction.
I really enjoyed Madhur Jaffrey's Climbing the Mango Trees, a memoir of her childhood in Delhi. It's a must read for the truly food-obsessed, and for anyone who wants to experience a slice of India on the cusp of Independence.
Like many others I was not overly enthused by The Inheritance of Loss. Not because I don't think she is a great writer, which I believe she is, style-wise, but because
a) Like other books about similar periods in Indian history (A Fine Balance comes to mind), it is depressing and without much hope. Do stories about India win critical acclaim only if filled with pathos?
b)I can't reveal the other reason without a spoiler, but it involves the dog. I almost wish I had never read the book.
My thoughts are similar to yours, tamasha. I too wondered what sort of image of modern India Ms. Sheth was trying to portray/reinforce and those parallel translations set my teeth on edge, too (i.e. "For desset, we served russgulla, creamy white balls of cheese in light syrup."; "The worst thing was that Neel was sitting right across from me eatng spicy batata vada, potato balls."; "Mummy had shown Mohini's and Sunand's horoscope to a pundit, a scholar of Vedic philosophy including astrology." [That last one is particularly bad!]) I, too, understand the need for definitions in books for younger readers, but there are ways to do it that are not so grating. RICKSHAW GIRL, for example, offers a glossary.
for the canadians - try to look up 'Louis Riel - a comic strip biography" by Chester brown. the story has broader reach than just canadians. it tells of how john a macdonald created the metis insurgency at the behest of big business - so as to take control of the metis lands and get to build a railroad across canada. simple reading but deep. very deep.
Also of desi interest - Rohinton mistry's The Scream was released at http://www.worldlit.ca in Q4-2006. You wont find it at stores though. These were collector's editions - each book sold for $500 each.
I read a few of the books on your list Amardeep!
Inheritance of Loss
Some people have been player-hating Kiran Desai since she won, but I read her book in three engrossed sittings over a weekend, and relished it all. Its wide in scope and other people have written about it better than I could, especially Pankaj Mishra here.
Tourism by Nirpal Dhaliwal
Look, I am glad this novel was published, as well as Londonstani, if for no other reason than that it opens a space in mainstream publishing for something other than arranged marriage mango chutney curry fiction. Like The Buddha of Suburbia its about how an Indian boy from the outer suburbs of London who moves to the big city and shags his way through white middle class society. But it doesnt altogether succeed. This is a novel desperate to be shocking and liberal-baiting explicit, pornographic sex scenes, touching on race, class, religion, fashionable misogyny, thrillingly, transgressively politically incorrect, with a tone of a kind of deadpan nihilism about modern multicultural life in Britain and it is all dreadfully derivative of Michel Houellbecq -- fatally so, shamelessly so, and ultimately, tediously so.
However, the scenes in which Bhupinder, the main man, recounts his childhood in Southall, and the shame he feels over his working-class Punjabi roots, the shame he feels over his Mother and her ideas, superstitions and backwardness, the claustrophobia of the world he wants to escape from are all parts of the novel that I felt worked best, something freshly expressed that stood out amidst the sweat and cum and sneer --- I hope he writes around these aspects of life in future books.
Londonstani by Gautam Malkani
Like Dhaliwals novel I am glad this was published, because it means that books addressing second and third generation contemporary British-Indian life from a male perspective are getting out there. Like Tourism, this was I feel, only a partial success. Written in an exaggerated West London Punjabi-Cockney-Jamaican Hip-Hop patois, the language ultimately stunts the novel (not fatally though, the novel lives), because I felt it circumscribed the expression of the main character who narrates the tail of a bunch of Sikh and Hindu wannabe gangsters from Hounslow (a very desi part of London near Southall and Heathrow airport) as they hustle and move. The slang and demotic becomes restrictive to expression at a certain level, I felt.
About the scene it describes --- rudeboys and teenage desis cruising the streets in their BMWs, everyone in England will recognise them, their pose and lingo, but Malkani has spoken in interviews about how the novel grew out of a dissertation he wrote about the formation of youth identity amongst British Indian youth and the role of masculinity as a proxy for race and the thing is, it ultimately reads like a sociological paper, all worked out with conclusions and morals and insights in advance. It is interesting in an anthropological sense but the trouble is it makes the novel read like a pre-determined study, as though the author had to cram his sociological conclusions into his plot at all costs.
This gives it a rather forced and over-constructed feel. The characters dont breathe or have ambiguities or a real sense of life they felt two dimensional to me. And ultimately that is why I found the novel to be sometimes too cartoonish in terms of representation of individualised experience. I dont want novels that read as though everything was planned in advance and the characters actions were schematically arranged to fit the anthropological conclusions of the author. There is also a surprise twist at the end that just doesnt work as far as Im concerned. However, the novel does have a certain zip and pace, which I think is its main strength. It has been over-hyped by the publishers though.
But Im glad that both of these books are out there. They are first novels and so Im not too tough on them --- there is enough shown to suggest that they have talent, and they always have something interesting going on even when you drift from them. And I want more and more novels to come from the British-Indian experience in all its complex range.
In the Wake - Per Petterson. Norwegian guy goes on a bender. (fiction)
Alexander Masters - Stuart, My Life Backwards. British guys tries to help a bent mind. (non-fiction)
Old news, but I read about Siddharth Shanghvi in the press, so I picked up his "The Last Song of Dusk" sublimely romantic for the ever hopeful bollywood actress in me. Worth a read for women, but the men won't get it, as it sooo far eloquently sexy from a feminine perspective...thanks Amardeep for the great suggestions!
The Push Man & Other Stories: Yoshihiro Tatsumi
American Elf 2: James Kochalka
Chicken with Plums: Marjane Satrapi
This year I went back to the classics, following Chomsky, who said something to the effect that we will always learn much more about human relationships reading novels rather than studying scientific psychology.
I read or re-read: Eugenie Grandiet, Anna Karenina, Bleak House, the first four volumes of In Search of Lost Time, and Midnight's Children.
Sadly, I'm not a whit wiser.
You impressed me risible. Only one of those I've read is Midnights Children.
D'oh! Two more additions to my list:
5. AMERICAN BORN CHINESE by Gene Luen Yang, a wonderful graphic novel for teens.
6. YOUNGUNCLE COMES TO TOWN by Vandana Singh. Originally published in India, this middle-grade title arrived on U.S. shelves this year. Ms. Singh is wonderful, whimsical storyteller.
Upmanyu Chatterjee's Weight Loss is a good addition to the list, although it's a little out there. I was also underwhelmed by The Inheritance of Loss....a bit too dark.
Thanks for compiling the list Amardeep.
Another one for the 2006/07 list, that is out in Europe and India, but not yet in the U.S. is Edward Luce's interesting portrait of modern India, In Spite of the Gods. Amazon has the book's release date as early January so the wait shouldn't be too much longer.
The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (translated from Spanish)--a book for people who love books. Technically came out in 2005 but is all over bookstores now.
Also, Jonathan Safran Froer's Everything is Illuminated. There's a lot there (including Rushdie-esque magical realism)that wasn't in the movie, which twisted the story for Hollywood neatness.
Another one for the 2006/07 list, that is out in Europe and India, but not yet in the U.S. is Edward Luce's interesting portrait of modern India, In Spite of the Gods. Amazon has the book's release date as early January so the wait shouldn't be too much longer.
Sajit,
You are contibuting to my poverty.
Moorish Girl, Laila Lalami has an excellent book out "Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits". It was published in 2006. She speaks poignantly for people from developing world.
I feel like the only brown person who hasn't yet read Kiran Desai's Inheritance of Loss, but I'll be honest, I'm nervous about it :)
Chandrasekaran's Imperial Life... was great, and I would definitely recommend it. I really enjoyed Nikhil Pal Singh's Black Is A Country (non-fiction, critical race/cultural studies). Not published in 2006, but interesting and timely nonetheless -- and with a distinct desi from the des slant (although a bit uninteresting for those with familiarity with water issues) -- was Vandana Shiva's Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution, and Profit. I'm also looking forward to Vijay Prasad & Howard Zinn's The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World (due out at the end of the month). I think that's enough propaganda in that list ;)
You impressed me risible. Only one of those I've read is Midnights Children.
Hardly mate. Writing is impressive; reading not so much. Start with Proust. Everyone should read Proust.
I didn't dislike the film, but I wish I had seen it first so I could appreciate it for itself. I did think they did a good job with the characters and the screenplay, given that it was a difficult book to adapt. I only made that comment so that anyone who had seen the film but not read the book would know there was more to the book. I think the key to liking film adaptations of books is to forget the book and try to appreciate the film for itself.
In the "heavy duty" category, I'd add Nicholas Dirks's "The Scandal of Empire":
I'm only part way through but it's pretty interesting.
As for Kiran Desai, "Inheritance" is one of the best books I've read in a long time. Rajiv Chandrasekaran's book was quite a good read also.
Kush,
I believe you are confusing White Mughals (which is available from Amazon now) with the Last Mughal (which releases here in March).
I'll second Imperial Life and The Inheritance of Loss. I also loved "The Perfect Man" by Naeem Murr -- don't think he is a desi -- but the book's protagonist is a half-Indian half-Brit Rajiv Travers who grows up in a Mississippi town in the early '50's. Breathtaking read. It releases in the U.S. in April -- I bought a copy from Amazon UK.
In non-desi reads, I loved "The Echo Maker" by Richard Powers and "The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries" by Marilyn Johnson.
hey!! there was a big promo in truntoo by this vancouver based punjoo of a novel on life as a desi gangsta. sort of a canuk version to londonstani. i thought the book was called dakoo, but i cant find it on google or amazon.
anyone in the know?
A plug for a 2006 desi book I haven't read yet (it's on my bedside table right now), but written by a writer I love: Ambai's In a Forest, A Deer. Ambai is a Tamil writer whose short stories are translated into English in this volume; the last, A Purple Sea, is a beautiful, real portrait of Indian life.
I loved A Long Way Down, and Serving Crazy with Curry. I realize that both books happen to deal with suicide, but rather than be depressing, the books are funny and uplifting to anyone going through a hard time. At least they were for me.
On a side note, I e-mailed the author of Serving Crazy With Curry after I finished reading it, and she wrote me back the next day! Wheee.
I believe you are confusing White Mughals (which is available from Amazon now) with the Last Mughal (which releases here in March).
Yes, I did. Sorry.
Now I remember, India Today did a special article on Last Mughal a few months ago.
Wow, there are some good books that I have yet to add to my must read pile, thanks guys, here are a few that I fancied, I am afraid you all already named most of the good desi ones:
Everyman: Philip Roth; Inheritance of Loss: Kiran Desai;
Skinners Drift: Lisa Fugard; EAT,PRAY,LOVE: Elizabeth Gilbert;
Thats all I can think about right now, I am sure a few will pop up when I get home and look at my book shelves!
i feel that reading is one activity that can stimulate any or all of the five senses, at least for me. i suppose music can do the same but reading makes it the most accessible. i am still experimenting with this as an art form - and i usually try to numb the reader through confusing wordplay and then throwing in something pungent to stimulate a particular emotion or sensory perception. the act is sort of like palate cleansing before a wine tasting. anyhow, that's how i'd shape words into an experience - but in the current context - i wanted to share the little high i just had.
i loved the translation 'the purple sea' - tho that might be just me. winters are painted on a palette of blue, grey and white here in canada - it is a muted beauty and is always a heavy experience for me - 'the purple sea' - just that expression - it sent me over the edge and i thought i'd share this to thank you desishiksha. salut! i'll look up ambai.
Mango Pickle (#41), the author of Serving Crazy with Curry, Amulya Malladi, seems to be one of the most down to earth desi authors I've come across (not that I've come across too many!) - she has also responded to emails from me. A friend of mine who has met and/or talked to quite a few desi authors, including Malladi, agreed with me as well. If you liked that one, I think you should definitely check out her other books, especially Song of the Cuckoo Bird, her latest. Sorry if I sound like a groupie, but she is one of my favorite authors!
uh i didnt read that many books this year by desi authors ( i have yet to read Kiran Desai's book)..but Bindis and Brides was good (the name of the author escapes me at the moment), Four point Someonne was damn funny and i read Kaavya's work as well, lol. In the non desi category...i read tons, including The Afghan by Fredrick Forsythe, State of Denial, a bunch of Clancy stuff, a couple of Chriton novels...too many others to list. The best for me this year was prolly Four Point Someone cause it was hillarious and also it shows that even regular dudes can get the hottie :D
hairy_d, that's exactly what I like about Ambai's writing. If she mentions dosas and chutney, you can smell dosas and chutney without her actually describing the smell. If she mentions a sari, you can imagine how it might feel if you touched it. I hope you enjoy her stories.
Anar Ali's Baby Khaki's Wings is a great read.
hmm, looking back at the books i read in 2006, most were older (as with movies). but of the ones that came out in 2006 in one form or the other these stood out:
English, August
Maximum City
Eat, Taste, Heal: An Ayurvedic Cookbook for Modern Living
The Illustrated History of Indian Cricket (Boria Majumdar)
Seeds of Change: Six Plants that Transformed Mankind (Henry Hobhouse)
Blue Shoes and Happiness (McCall-Smith , actually this was the weakest one of the series)
of the many older ones:
Voyage of the Beagle (Darwin)
Travels With A Donkey (R.L. Stevenson)
A House for Mr. Biswas (Naipaul)
The Rosetta Stone (D. Valbelle)
thank you for validating my gut instinct about ambai, desisiksha. a couple more thoughts before i sign off for ze day today.
which is why... it isnt totally off-color for publishers to package desi-lit with henna, mangoes etc. it is merely an attempt to appeal to the moonie crowd who are more attuned to the sensory stimuli than the loonie* crowd who're more hard-headed and buy books only for the solid plot, the strong binding and the parchment.
*the canadian dollar is called a loonie because of the image of a loon on one side and a bird on the other.
>*the canadian dollar is called a loonie because of the
>image of a loon on one side and a bird on the other.
Ummm... a loon is a bird. Or are you refering to Queen Elizabeth? I like to think of her as an old bat.
Hi Amardeep,
I bang my fists on the table and demand a section for Books on Cricket; a grotesque oversight not at all becoming a South Asian site. I nominate Indian Summers by John Wright, erstwhile coach of the Indian team. Also, I second Whose God is it anyways in his choice of The Illustrated History of Indian Cricket by Boria Majumdar.
Howzaaaaat? :D
That is a great analogy; she is indeed like an old bat. She has played millions of balls and seen Sixes, Fours, and streaky edges fly past her. She has tasted both victory and defeat; love and hate. It is time to retire her, oil her for one last time and place her in the glass cabinet. Charles has been seasoned to the hilt and it is time for his debut innings.
Peace
Spot on Uber! I heard Indian Summers is great - Andrew Symonds book is said to be quite good too. However, the first cricket book I plan to read is Pundits from Pakistan. I'm gonna slow down now -- too much cricket talk for one comment.
Uber- posting at 3am...watching the Ind-SA test eh? Go India!
Staying on with cricket, the best cricket book to come out of India last year is definitely You Must Like Cricket?: Memoirs of an Indian Cricket Fan by Soumya Bhattacharya, a must read.
Best book I've read this year -- Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimimanda Ngozi Amichie. Much better than The Inheritance of Loss and by a 27 year old. Great stuff.
Luce's In Spite of the Gods was also very good, though I can't help feeling that it was the kind of analysis of modern India that "is how non-Indians (and desis living abroad) always see India."
Yeah! I work in the Middle East, so it is the afternoon for me. Ganguly seems to be playing real well after getting pinged on the head:D Sorry Amardeep, last post on Cricket; I promise.
Peace
Good to see a couple of people mentioning The Last Mughal. I was going to recommend it too; I already have my own hardback copy (for those of you in the US who can't buy it yet but are shortly planning a trip to India, you can get it there for Rs 695 -- quite a bargain compared to the £25 it costs in the UK). I haven't read it yet as I'm still ploughing through White Mughals, but I've flicked through it and the book certainly looks superb -- absolutely packed with details of the period. Plenty of anecdotes regarding Ghalib too (and general late Mughal-era life in Delhi), if you're interesting in all that, and it's written in William Dalrymple's usual engaging and informative style. It's even regularly made the lists of "most highly recommended books from 2006" in the mainstream journalism media here in Britain.
Pied Piper's recommendation "The Scandal of Empire" (post #36) definitely sounds like an interesting accompaniment to White Mughals, in order to provide the flipside to Dalrymple's more positive (but not necessarily sanitised) description of the era. Before anyone jumps on that statement, I should stress that Dalrymple is more enamoured of Mughal courtly life and is sympathetic towards British EIC employees who became "Indianised"; he's certainly not an apologist for colonialism by any means.
On the non-desi side, I can recommend Persian Fire and Rubicon, about the conflicts between the Persian Empire & the Spartans/Greeks (including the Battle of Thermopylae) and about the Roman Empire respectively, although both pre-date last year. For those interested in "classic" fiction, I very strongly recommend Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier; it's one of the most brilliantly written stories I've ever read, and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that every single paragraph is a poetic masterpiece.
**************************
Absolutely fantastic post by Red Snapper (#19), by the way.
My reading list is in no way up to date. I can never seem to keep up, and the only time I actually get to read for pleasure is when I'm on vacation.
In any case, I've been working through A Suitable Boy along with a collection of short stories and poems by Poe and occasionally reading a fairytale or two from Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales. I haven't gotten to read The Inheritance of Loss yet, but that's on my list, along with Kite Runner.
Some good books I read in 2006: Blindness, by Jose Saramago and its sequel, Seeing
I read Shiva's Fire a while ago and loved it :]
And to those that like a little bit junkier fiction, check out books by Tami Hoag (suspense/thriller/drama)
Oh, there's also a memoir/autobiography by Mukhtar Mai that seemed worth a look.
For anyone who is interested, here is an extensive interview with William Dalrymple where he discusses The Last Mughal and some of his thoughts on that era and its legacy, particularly in relation to Delhi.
The Vancouver Punjabi gangsta book is Daaku (see comment #38). I haven't read the booki, and one review called it "genre fiction", which can't be good. Has anyone read it?
The Last Mughal is available now in Canada, so if you're very eager to read it, and live near the border ...
Pooja,
Yes, yes, yes! Younguncle Comes to Town by Vandana Singh is great fun!
I think Jerry Pinto's book about the fabulous Helen was also worth a read, at least by any filmi enthusiast.
Thanks to posts on Sp.Mtny, I got to pick up some interesting new desi authors in 2006...I just ordered 'Patna Roughcut', loved Samit Basu's 2 fantasy books and liked Chetan Bhagat's 2 books (well the writing might be below par but i liked his easygoing stories and characters. Atleast he has displaced Shobha De from the Bestseller lists in India. And it was a good move to price it @rs.95).
People seem to like Vandana Singh's 'Younguncle' series but it did not quite work its magic on me. Maybe her 'Y comes to Town' is more absorbing compared to the 2nd book of hers which i read. Well again i didnt quite enjoy Artemis Fowl.
Is anyone familiar with J. P. Kerawala's comics and books. I have an old Timpa comic which comes close to beating Tintin. Can't seem to find his 2006 book 'Gifts of the Gods- A Timpa adventure'.
I'm going to ramble about some of the great books i read in 2006.
read Naipaul's 1971 Booker winner 'In a Free State'. Really liked the story in which a cook lands in the US. read Shudraka's Sanskrit play 'Mricchakatika/The Little Clay' Cart. T Gopichand's absorbing- 'The Bungler/Asmardha Jeevanyatra' (1947,Telugu, Sahitya Academi winner). Wish i could get more translations of Regional classics.
read a couple of business books - 'Freakonomics:by Steven D. Levitt' and 'The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy' by Pietra Rivoli. Rivoli's book explores how a t-shirt origintes from the cotton fields in Texas, processed into Tshirts in Asia, worn in the US and finally recycled in Africa. It has a desi angle as India historically has been a player in the cotton/t-shirt market and more poignantly touches the issue of suicides by cotton farmers in Andhra
read almost all of Christopher Buckley's satirical novels after watching his 'Thank you for smoking'
re-read SF Ender's Game/Shadow, Necromancer and a couple of 'Sudden' westerns and 'Hornblower' sea epics.
read some awesome comics- jeff smith's 'Bone' series, Hugo Pratt's 'corto maltese' books, Flight, Dungeon Vol. 1: Duck Heart by Lewis Trondheim, Joann Sfar(Samit Basu fans this last comic will appeal to you). But ended up disappointed with the acclaimed 'David Boring' comic.
hmm.. cant seem to remember having read any travel writing in 2006
Am going to start 2007 with Bhalchandra Nemade's Marathi classic 'Cocoon/Kosla' and then check out Douglas Preston's 'Relic' which my newphew says is like an Indiana Jones story.
Oh, another one I almost forgot -- "Terrain Tracks," Purvi Shah's award-winning book of poetry.
another book i enjoyed was marley & me: life and love with the world's worst dog.
Regarding airy_d #38 and Ikram #62
Check out the review on Daaku by Ranj Dhaliwal done by Lotus Reads
Hi
I have just had my own book published..it is the first in diaporic Punjabi and published by a western publisher..
I am going to get interviewed by Desi Radio next satuday at 10am GMT channel 1602am
I hope people take an interest
Nila Noor - The Blue Light £6.99
Click to enlarge
by R S Dhillon
Published by Exposure Publishing, January 2007, ISBN 978-1846855641
A book written in Punjabi.
Resham is a British Punjabi boy whose parents die in a serious accident whilst on holiday in Europe. As he has no other relatives he is taken to India where he stays with a strict religious aunt. They both tolerate each other. Six years later he has developed friendship with Laal Chand who is an associate of a smuggler called Baldev Sidhu. Laal Chand tells Resham of the legend of a diamond called the Blue Light which is believed hidden somewhere by Ahmed Khan, who had duplicity, stole it from a Nawab. Reshams curiosity leads him to seek the diamond and before he know it he is on the run from the law with Baldev, wanted for Murder, globe trotting from Lahore to Venice, chasing a cursed legend .
BUY FROM US DIRECT - ALL EUROPEAN CUSTOMERS PAY JUST £1.99 P+P ON THIS ITEM OR IF YOU PREFER BUY FROM LEADING WEBSITES SUCH AS AMAZON, BARNES AND NOBLE, PLAY.COM, POWELLS.COM, TESCO.COM,WH SMITH, OR ORDER FROM A BRICKS AND MORTAR BOOKSTORE IN THE UK OR USA. HERE'S THE LINK TO AMAZON (NB JAPANESE CUSTOMERS, WE ARE ALSO ON AMAZON JAPAN)....
This product will be in stock on Thursday 25 January, 2007.
"Namesake" by Zumpa Lahiri.
Good one..must read..!!!
try it friends...
Hey Guys, I have discovered a really bizaare Indian novel. A Brtish novel written by an english born and educated Punjabi guy...in Punjabi.
I have just finished reading it and have to say it really is good
check it out
see link
http://diggorypress.com/index.php?osCsid=7944dee7d6c2b41c15706f9dc7571c08&manufacturers_id=446&osCsid=7944dee7d6c2b41c15706f9dc7571c08