Category Archives: Asian Fiction

Mailbox Mondays: June 17, 2013

Asian Fiction, Books, Literary Fiction, Mystery/Thriller/Horror, Tags, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Welcome to this week’s Mailbox Monday which is hosted this month by Meredith of Dolce Belezza.

I received an interesting set of books by different publishers this week.

Books I received this week

Some of the books I received this week

For my usual thriller fix, I got The Snowman by Jo Nesbo. I read The Bat recently (the first novel in the Harry Hole series), which was ok, but I was really unmotivated to read the next book called The Cockroaches (I mean, really! What a put-off title). Then I read this post from Keishon and decided to ditch the order and just go for the books that interest me.

Another thriller that I got is Ghostman by Roger Hobbs. As per the blurb, this is a heist novel and is Roger Hobbs’ debut novel. It doesn’t seem that well-known although it has received some mixed reviews on goodreads. I am looking forward to this one too.

And the last, and the one that I am most excited about is Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. It’s received a lot of buzz on the blogosphere…it is THE thriller to read in 2013 I think. The reviews have been both positive and negative, but from what little I have read, it is a thrilling book for sure, and unless it’s really very bad almost definitely going to be the first book I finish from this lot.

After all the thrills and chills, what’s better than a nice, contemplative, quiet novel that also ticks the checklist on my Man Booker Reading list? And that one is The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twang Eng. This deals with many Japanese themes as well and so I just may add it as part of my Japanese Literature Reading Challenge if approved by Dolce Belezza.

And some more Indian fiction in the form of Complete/Convenient by Ketan Bhagat. Yes, he is the brother of the best-selling Indian author Chetan Bhagat. The premise of his story seems interesting. I don’t know too much about this book to comment anything further.

Note: Couldn’t get a photo of all the books stacked up as some of them came in just today and I couldn’t wait to get this post up :)

So, a full month of reading for me!! I am really excited about the books I received this week. Did you receive any books this week? What are you looking forward to reading?

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Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, Thoughts

Asian Fiction, Books, Fantasy, Literary Fiction, Science Fiction, , ,
Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami

Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami

Story Synopsis: Gosh, this is a hard book to summarize. Part science-fiction, part fantasy, full bizarre, this book takes you on a rollicking roller-coaster ride.

Half the chapters are set in Tokyo, where an unnamed narrator negotiates underground worlds populated by INKlings, dodges opponents of both sides of a raging high-tech infowar, and engages in an affair with a beautiful librarian with a gargantuan appetite.

In alternating chapters a narrator who lives in a strange land called The End of the World tries to reunite with his mind and his shadow and escape from this strange land back to where he came from.

Both worlds share one common theme – Unicorn skulls that moan and groan.

My Review:

So does the synopsis sound interesting to you? Honestly, if I read this, I would just close the book and put it back on the library shelf. Too bizarre for me.

The actual synopsis on the back of the book mentioned something vague about Tokyo underworld, and I went into the book with an idea that this was a book that was about the Japanese mafia. No prizes for guessing how surprised I got as I read further and further into the book. It all just got curioser and curioser…if I may paraphrase Alice in Wonderland.

The surprise is quite pleasant though.

The book is well-written and fast-moving and there is a very suspenseful aspect to the book that kept me reading late into the night.

The chapter titles and the map of The End of the World bring a strong fantastical aspect to the book. Chapter titles? Why am I blathering about chapter titles? To explain, I include the titles of the first two chapters here…

  1. Elevator, Silence, Overweight
  2. Golden Beasts

I don’t know about you, but I normally don’t even notice chapter titles much. But these made me stop right in my tracks, and try to think through the events that happen within.

And of course, the unicorns…they are so bizarre, so out-there, and provide another fantastical aspect to the book.

Now, apart from bizarre and fantastic, you do want to know what the book’s all about, don’t you?

Well, the tragedy is, if I told you, it would spoil the entire fun of reading the book. So, after leaving all these intriguing (I hope!) hints, I want to tell you that reading this book is really worth the time. It is the literary equivalent of The Matrix movie, and if you liked The Matrix, well, you will like this book as well. I guarantee it!

If you don’t like books where you don’t know what is happening, or you like books that spell things out explicitly, this book isn’t for you.

Ending this review with one last thought:

It sounds odd to say this but this book is especially memorable for the protagonist’s tastes in music and literature. The book is peppered with numerous references and it seemed to me that perhaps Murakami was adding in his personal preferences. It immediately made me want to create a playlist (singers like Bob Dylan and John Coltrane and tons of classical music references) and read some Russian literature (Turgenev! Dostoyevsky!). This is pretty high-brow stuff!

Here is a small snippet to illustrate what I am saying…

“Ever read The Brothers Karamazov?” I asked.

“Once, a long time ago.”

“Well, towards the end, Alyosha is speaking to a young student named Kolya Krasotkin. And he says, Kolya, you’re going to have a miserable future. But overall, you”ll have a happy life.”

…

“When I first read that, I didn’t know what Alyosha meant,” I said, “How was it possible for a life of misery to be happy overall? But then I understood, that misery could be limited to the future.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Neither do I,” I said. “Not yet.”

What I love about this snippet is that at the time I read The Brothers Karamazov, I remember reading this and going What??? Now, after reading this book, I think I begin to understand what he meant. I can be really slow sometimes :D

This is my first book I log as part of the Japanese Literature Challenge hosted by Dolce Belezza.

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The Sea of Innocence – Book Trailer

In my review last week, I talked about how much I liked The Sea of Innocence by Kishwar Desai. So, when the book publicist mailed me requesting me to post this book’s trailer, I couldn’t say no.

Take a look at this trailer, and if you are into thrillers, and/or find the backdrop of Goa intriguing, I think you will like this book very much.

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Japanese Literature Reading Challenge? And me?

Asian Fiction, Books, , , ,

Jap Lit 7 I have always followed Dolce Belezza’s Japanese Literature Reading Challenge project with interest. I liked reading all about the writers and stuff, but never felt motivated enough to join.

Why? I guess because Japanese literature has always seemed too out there for me…a little too esoteric, a little too dry and unemotional. Also, I read Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami and just found myself unable to appreciate that book. I didn’t care about the bizarre love triangle, the missing girl, nada. It was a disappointing book for me and I never read any Japanese authors (except for Ishiguro who I love) since.

Until just recently, I picked up Haruki Murakami’s Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. So far, I am loving this book and re-thinking my stance on Japanese books. See a teaser of this book here.

Also Meredith’s reading challenge doesn’t seem so taxing. A Japanese book a month for 9 months? That’s doable, right? And since, this year, I am almost done with my Indian Fiction reading challenge well ahead of time, it could be time to try out Japanese. What say you?

Are you doing this challenge? Do you have any Japanese reading recommendations for me?

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The Sea of Innocence – A Book Review

Asian Fiction, Books, Mystery/Thriller/Horror, ,
The Sea of Innocence by Kishwar Desai

The Sea of Innocence by Kishwar Desai

Goa, south India. A beautiful holiday hideaway where hippies and backpackers while away the hours. But beneath the clear blue skies lies a dirty secret…

Simran Singh is desperate for a break and some time away from her busy job as a social worker-come-crime investigator. And so the unspoilt idyll of Goa seems just the place – white beaches, blue seas and no crime.

But when a disturbing video appears on her phone, featuring a young girl being attacked by a group of men, she realises that a darkness festers at the heart of this supposed paradise. And when she discovers out that the girl is Liza Kay, a British teenager who has gone missing, she knows she must act in order to save her.

But first Simran must break through the web of lies and dark connections that flourish on these beaches. Everyone, it seems, knows what has happened to the girl but no one is prepared to say. And when more videos appear, and Simran herself is targeted in order to keep her quiet, the paradise soon becomes a living nightmare.

Before jumping headlong reviewing this thriller by Kishwar Desai, it is necessary to give a little background on the writer and the story.

Kishwar Desai’s Simran Singh books are a series of detective fiction books primarily focussing on gender-based crimes.

I have not read any of the earlier books in the series but

  1. Witness the Night is a book on female infanticide
  2. Origins of Love is based on illegal surrogacy and IVF issues

The third book, The Sea of Innocence is loosely based on the infamous rape and murder case of Scarlett Keeling. I am ashamed to admit that when this murder first hit the newspapers, I avidly read all about it, followed the case for a few weeks, hotly debated the various issues with my friends…and then…promptly forgot about it when the next big scandal hit the newspapers.

That’s what I always tend to do.

I am so glad that Kishwar Desai and other such women do not forget as easily. In many ways, this book is less of a mystery/thriller, but a book that seeks to highlight the injustice meted out to rape victims such as Scarlett Keeling. Scarlett never got justice in real life, at least in fiction, there is some hope.

So, with this as the basis of the story…on to the review.

My Review: Even taken as pure fiction, this book is very good. The main character Simran Singh is a strong-minded if rather unrealistically described social-worker cum detective. She is fairly hard-boiled and gutsy, and stubborn to a fault. All good qualities to have if you are facing up to a deadly nexus of corrupt politicians and incompetent police.

When she receives a series of disturbing videos of what may be rape, she is forced to ditch her holiday and get to work trying to find the truth. Unfortunately, nothing seems clear. Nobody seems to care about the rape victim, Lisa Kay. She is missing – presumed dead, but since she is mysteriously spotted here and there, there is no conclusive evidence to say she is dead.

Her sister, Marion is Simran’s major hope, but she isn’t revealing everything she knows. Does she even care about her missing sister? Is she actually colluding with Lisa’s killers? Who is helping Simran mysteriously? All these and other questions are brought up and answered in the rest of the story.

So, the book is thrilling. Definitely. But, it does slow down in the middle. There was a bit too much of repetition of sequences that slowed the pace of the book. In a lot of places, Simran muses on the situation of women in India, and the degeneration of Goa, and these ruminations slow down the pace of the book. Also, I would have liked it very much if Simran figures out the truth on her own. Nearing the end of the book, Simran is still stuck. She has her suspicions, but no evidence, nothing to back up her guesses. It is only with a lot of hand-holding that she is able to solve the case.

All this would still have been fine if the final climax was super-thrilling. Unfortunately, this book stays too close to the facts of the real-life case, and things peter out towards the end. The truth is revealed, but whether the miscreants actually pay for their crimes…that is left to the reader’s imagination.

There is also a rather macabre drug-smuggling angle tied to the story. In my opinion, it was a little unwanted and diverted attention from the actual rape/murder. But after reading some accounts of the Scarlett Kealing case, where drugs played a part, I can understand why Kishwar Desai may have included it in the book.

In spite of all this, I enjoyed the book thoroughly. It is well-written, the descriptions of Goa are true to life, the tension/suspense meter stays high throughout the book. I love the character of Simran Singh and plan to read the first two books in the series.

A good mystery/thriller based in India is hard to find, and this is one of the few gems in the market currently.

Thanks to the publicist for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami

Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami

I think this book might be too smart for me, or may be I am not smart enough for this book. Anyway, here’s a longish teaser that made my head spin a bit…

The encyclopedia wand’s a theoretical puzzle, like Zeno’s paradox. The idea is t’engrave the entire encyclopedia onto a single toothpick. Know how you do it?”

“You tell me.”

“You take your information, your encyclopedia text, and you transpose it into numerics. You assign everything a two-digit number, periods and commas included. 00 is a blank, A is 01, B is 02, and so on. Then after you’ve lined them all up, you put a decimal point before the whole lot. So now you’ve got a very long sub-decimal fraction. 0.173000631… Next, you engrave a mark at exactly that point along the toothpick. If 0.50000′s your exact middle on the toothpick, then 0.3333′s got t’be a third of the way from the tip. You follow?”

“Sure.”

“That’s how you can fit data of any length in a single point on a toothpick. Only theoretically, of course. No existin’ technology can actually engrave so fine a point. But this should give you a perspective on what tautologies are like. Say time’s the length of your toothpick. The amount of information you can pack into it doesn’t have anything t’do with the length. Make the fraction as long as you want. It’ll be finite, but pretty near eternal. Though if you make it a repeatin’ decimal, why, then it is eternal. You understand what that means? The problem’s the software, no relation to the hardware. It could be a toothpick or a two-hundred-meter timber or the equator – doesn’t matter. Your body dies, your consciousness passes away, but your thought is caught in the one tautological point an instant before, subdividin’ for an eternity. Think about the koan: An arrow is stopped in flight. Well, the death of the body is the flight of the arrow. It’s makin’ a straight line for the brain. No dodgin’ it, not for anyone. People have t’die, the body has t’fall. Time is hurlin’ that arrow forward. And yet, like I was sayin’, thought goes on subdividin’ that time for ever and ever. The paradox becomes real. The arrow never hits.”

“In other words,” I said, “immortality.”

“There you are. Humans are immortal in their thought. Though strictly speakin’, not immortal, but endlessly, asymptotically close to immortal. That’s eternal life.

~ Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami

Anyone read this book? I am struggling a little bit with it at this moment :(

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
  • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

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Jacob Hills – A Book Review

Asian Fiction, Books, Mystery/Thriller/Horror,

Jacob Hills by Ismita Tandon Dhanker

Jacob Hills by Ismita Tandon Dhanker

I received Jacob Hills from the author Ismita Tandon Dhanker yesterday, and I am done with it by today. That should give you an idea about how addictive this book is, and how much I liked reading it.

Here’s the blurb from the back of the book…

It’s just another evening at the Tiller’s Club.

Near the bar, Capt. Rana, the Young Officer undergoing training at the War College stands among his course mates, consciously avoiding his pregnant, Muslim wife, Heena. Rumour has it she had forced him to marry her because of the baby.

Saryu, village belle turned modern babe, drink in hand, chats up a YO. Her husband, Maj. Vikram Singh, shoots angry glances at her. She isn’t bothered; the question is, who will she go home with tonight?

Pam and Gary, the flamboyant Sikh couple, chat merrily with the senior officers, charming as ever. Who’d ever guess that they lead the infamous Key Club, an underground swinger couples’ club.

And in one corner stands the Anglo-Indian wife of Maj. George Chandy, Eva, who finds herself at the heart of a murder mystery when a woman’s bleeding body is discovered at the old church under the black cross. The murdered woman’s body is covered with cigarette burns. A six-year-old girl’s wrist is similarly marked. Another little girl shows signs of severe abuse.

The basic story is set in a place called Jacob Hills – somewhere close to Simla, a hill-station in the Himalayas in India. Jacob Hills is a military training facility to train Young Officers to become high-ranking military personnel.

In this seemingly idyllic place, a murder happens that no one is willing to look closely into…a murder that could embarrass the top brass in the army.

What happens next, how this murder touches the lives of the people living in the camp, that’s what happens in the rest of the book.

My Review:

Like I said upfront, I really liked this book very much. It’s a well-written, well-plotted mystery with a very intriguing set of characters. All the characters in the book are sketched out with a lot of detail.

As a thriller, it doesn’t work all that well, and to be honest, I don’t think that’s the intent of the author at all. If you go into this book expecting a high-stakes thriller with multiple murders and serial killers and all that jazz, you will be disappointed.

Instead, it is a book about how claustrophobic and political a place can get when people with varying backgrounds and education levels are cooped up together. It’s pretty terrible to socialize only with the same circle of friends, but when that friend’s husband is your husband’s boss? well, then the situation can get downright awkward. I loved these sections of the book that dealt with all these inter-personal issues between the characters. I loved how the author showed the gossipy nature of the social circle and how it undermined people’s happiness.

Also, the scene setting and the descriptions of the army way of life are all very realistic and seem true to life, right from the fashions of the time to the attitudes of the characters.

Overall, it was a great read. Only two gripes with the book:

  • I’m not a huge fan of the cover artwork and font type. When it came in my inbox for review, my first instinct was to refuse after seeing this garish cover. All that red, and the huge font size was a real turn-off. I think it was something about the email that prompted me to accept and I am so glad I did because I love the book.
  • I wish the sections about Captain Rana and his relationship with his wife was fleshed out a bit more. I liked both these two characters and could have dealt with a more in-depth resolution to their marital issues. Also, they are the first people mentioned in the book blurb, so I thought they were one of the main characters but that really isn’t the case.

One last word: This is a very minor aspect of the book, but I love the sweet illustrations that appear in the chapter headings. Like I said very minor, but still I liked it, and it adds a nice creative touch to the entire book.

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The Secrets of the Dark – A Book Review

Asian Fiction, Books, Fantasy,

The Secrets of the Dark by Arka Chakrabarti

The Secrets of the Dark by Arka Chakrabarti

This is the first book in a planned Fantasy series by author Arka Chakrabarti and this is his debut novel.

This book is set in the mythical land of Gaya. It is a tale of wise kings and evil guardians, brave warriors and devious renegades fractured by a prophecy foretelling of doom. Involving elements of both Western and Eastern Fantasy and myths, the author vividly creates a new world of wild adventure.

My Review:

For a debut novel, this is a pretty strong offering. It’s a good, if not very original tale of adventure and fantasy. The hero is Agni – a boy who grows up in a foster family with no knowledge of his parents or destiny. After an attack on his foster family, he and his friends go on a mission to find the evil doers and extract revenge.

On the way he learns a bit more about his heritage, and the prophecy that seems to refer to him.

I liked this book very much, but didn’t quite love it as much as I expected it to.

Here are some reasons why:

  • Pacing issues: The book starts off fast, and then starts to slow down in places. Towards the end, it picks up and becomes really exciting, but the middle of the book was very slow.
  • Stereotypical plot and characters: Probably later books will develop the main characters a bit more – now they seem like stock fantasy characters…you know, warrior princess, boy with super-natural powers, the chosen one, etc.

    In some places, the plot also seems a little contrived. There are references to a wall that is built to keep the demons of the North away, references to the Seven (all these reminded me much too much of George R R Martin’s plot constructs), and I hope that future books in the series will take the plot through less well-known paths.

Once I got over the plodding parts, the book starts to flow freely. I loved the second half of the book where our hero and his friends actually embark on their quest. All the fight sequences are very well-written, and there is a certain suspense to the proceedings that brought me to the edge of the seat.

The plot then moves into a really thrilling finale, and I admit makes up for all the flaws in the beginning and middle sections.

Last Words:

This is a promising debut. It will be interesting to see what is in store in future books in this series.

Oh and btw, you guys know how much I love maps in Fantasy books, so here’s one drawn in the author’s own hand. I loved reading about the places in the story and then going back to the map to see where it is…it’s one of the best things about Fantasy books according to me :) . Do you get all excited like that?

A Map of Gaya

A Map of Gaya

Thanks to Srishti Publications for sending me a copy of this book to read and review.

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The Reluctant Fundamentalist – The Movie

I never read the Booker prize nominated The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid. I don’t know why that is, it’s been a pretty popular read in India but although I’ve always been meaning to read it, I just never got around to actually doing it.

Then yesterday, while switching channels, I came across this rather haunting and beautifully sung song by Atif Aslam – Mori Araj Suno. I love Atif Aslam’s voice and I love this song and the way it’s filmed). It also reminded me that I need to reserve this book next time I go to the library – which is a bit of a rarity these days…somehow lost the urge to read over the last couple of weeks.

Anyway, here’s this song…isn’t it nice?

The movie trailer also looks good (although more Bollywood than Hollywood in style), but it seems to have received mixed reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.

In spite of the mixed reviews, I would like to watch it anyway (purely based on this song, and the lead actor’s charisma on-screen). If I am unable to watch it, I can at least read the book. It sounds very interesting.

Have you read the book and/or watched the movie? How did you like it?

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The Homing Pigeons – A Book Review

Asian Fiction, Books,
The Homing Pigeons by Sid Bahri

The Homing Pigeons by Sid Bahri

In the middle of the catastrophic 2008 recession, Aditya, a jobless, penniless man meets an attractive stranger in a bar, little does he know that his life will change forever…..

When Radhika, a young, rich widow, marries off her stepdaughter, little does she know that the freedom that she has yearned for is not exactly how she had envisioned it…..

They say Homing Pigeons always come back to their mate, no matter where you leave them on the face of this earth. Homing Pigeons is the story of love between these two unsuspecting characters as it is of lust, greed, separations, prejudices and crumbling spines.

My Review: This is an unexpected little gem of a book. This is the author, Sid Bahri’s debut novel and so my expectations starting the book were not high. But, apart from the initial rawness, the book flows smoothly through the story.

This story is told in alternating viewpoints by Aditya and Radhika, and it weaves through the past and present. This technique of writing is not the easiest, but the author has managed it very skilfully.

Primarily, this story is a romance, but quite unlike most romances where the focus is on the girl’s thoughts and feelings, and the hero is merely a prop. Aditya and Radhika are both well-developed characters complete with flaws. Both make massive miscalculations and hurt each other terribly, but both are human and I could empathize with them very well.

If this book were just a love story, then my review would end here stating that this is a nice, well-written love story. But, the book also subtly introduces some harsh realities – the slaughter of Sikhs after the riots after Indira Gandhi’s assassination having an impact on the characters 20 years later, the recession and the troubles of getting a job after being laid off and it’s impact on the psyche…these are just some examples.

The characters are also so well-written. Aditya as a hero is terrible – his self-loathing, frequent binge-drinking, the way he walks away from his responsibilities…they are not what I expected. But at the same time, it’s hard to dislike him knowing his background, and seeing him from both his and Radhika’s viewpoints. He is one incredibly well-written character.

There have been a few reviews online criticizing Aditya’s weakness in choosing his profession (don’t want to reveal more as I want to avoid spoilers in this review), and I agree with them, in part. But, then I thought about it more, and then realized if Aditya had chosen another way of life, then that would be against his character. It’s precisely because Aditya is Aditya that he is in the mess he is. He needs a backbone and so does Radhika and it’s lovely in the end when they finally get together and help each other out, and decide on a new life together.

In brief, this is a lovely novel, very easy to read. A must pick-up if you like a more serious and less clichéd kind of romance.

Thanks to Srishti Publishers for sending me a copy of this book to read and review. I also read this book as part of the Indian Quills Reading Challenge.

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