Book Review #51: The Secret History of Food by Matt Siegel

Though I am being extremely reductive, this book is Sapiens but with food. It also reminds of Medical History, given how outlandish yet true our very misplaced beliefs about food have been through the ages.

I honestly have learned so many weird facts and want to retain it for eternity and spout to unsuspecting victims of my knowledge. For instance, origin of cheese is an accident (stored milk in animal stomach ‘pitchers’), pellagra caused from corn (a crop that was transported from the Mayans’ backyard to essentially the entire world, but the colonists rejected their crude cooking methods, which was essentially nixtamalization, a process that unlocked corn’s vitamins) led to ‘vampire attacks’ in eastern Europe or how Mongolians strapped buckets of cream and sugar on to horses and running them up freezing mountains so that the mixture froze and churned by the movement and subzero temperature became delicious ice-cream.

These are just a few instances of the treasure trove this book is. I would definitely recommend to anyone, even those who don’t particularly enjoy non-fiction.

My rating:

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 5 out of 5.

~Till I write again!~

Book Review #50: The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

This being the fiftieth review on this blog warrants some kind of celebration and it is fitting that I landed on this gem of a book for this post.

Esperanza is a girl who lives in a ramshackle house on the Mango Street- a street of immigrants, with struggles and lives that would seem all to familiar to any brown person of limited means. These detailed and unique accounts of the people in the book seem very unique, yet so universal at the same time. Who doesn’t know an Aunt Lupe who used be virile and athletic- or so one has heard- but has only been sickly and frail as long as one can remember? Or a Cathy who, barely on the cusp of a higher economic parenthesis, immediately chooses to look down upon the people they’d barely just surpassed. Or a Marin, whose eyes are so full of dreams that you don’t have the heart to tell her they’d never come to pass?

The story is a collection of vignettes extracted from the life of Esperanza. With a great deal of nuance, Sandra Cisneros has portrayed the coming of age of little Esperanza. In the vignette ‘The Family of Little Feet’, Esperanza and their friends get their hands on shoes that make them feel like grown ups. But in the same vignette, they are catcalled at- it makes them feel unsafe and they discard the shoes. The vulnerability that comes from puberty and it’s rejection marks the beginning of the end of their adolescence. While Esperanza rejects the shoes, she is unable to ward off an unwarranted kiss later in ‘The First Job’ and thus the arc that firmly establishes that she is no longer a little girl.

Esperanza is also driven by the ambition to leave Mango Street. The economic strappings of the barrio is further buckled down by patriarchy and Esperanza believes she can only escape if she has a house of her own. Her Aunt Lupe, a seer of some sort, tells her to look for a home in her heart. Esperanza is not mature enough to understand that the only place she can escape what she wants to escape is a refuge in her own heart. No brick and mortar house can ever afford her that.

We also get a bit of insight into the lives of the immigrants when young boys are arrested for possibly stealing a car or when a handyman dies due to lack of medical care. We see the rampant misogyny that allows only a handful of outcomes for women- be a ruined woman like ‘Sally’ whose budding youth is subjected to vicious judgement, an outcast like Mamacita who longs for her home in Mexico and doesn’t assimilate in the US, refusing to learn the ‘language that sounds like tin’, or, like Minerva, live with an absent abusive spouse in spite of having great talents. Or perhaps, like the beautiful Rafaela, be locked up by her man in the house until her youth and beauty waste away- hidden from a world of possibilities.

Sandra Cisneros’s poesy is second to none. The entire book is peppered with beautifully chaotic similies like ‘dropped from the sky like a sugar donut’ or laughter ‘like a pile of dishes crashing’ or feet ‘descended like white pigeons from the sea of pillow’. The phrases were so viscerally beautiful that I had to read each of them several times to savour them. It was indubitably once in a lifetime read for me.

My rating:

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 5 out of 5.

~Till I write again!~

Book Review #49: Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

This is the second book I have read of TJR, after Daisy Jones & The Six. Judging by the buzz in social media and the quirky Daisy Jones, I had expected Reid’s works to be one of the better contemporary reads. Alas, Malibu Rising is desperately mediocre.

For one, the story is entirely too… clichéd. And the opening is grand, and alludes to a great symbolic fire, which will supposedly make a huge impact on our protagonists. But in the end, it turns out to be so very trivial and has almost no effect on the plot of the book. The characters are also half-baked and instead of showcasing their ‘talents’, the author says they are talented. That further takes away the depth of these characters.

In the last quarter of the book, we read about an epic party that goes out of hand. But again, the author fails to capture the scale of the party and instead, adds POV chapters of random characters whom you have not invested in. In fact, these ensemble characters have their backstories haphazardly shoved into bite-sized chapters and it makes for tedious read. Now that I have read the book, these chapters seem highly skippable and add nothing to the story.

Anyway, that’s it from me about this very forgettable book. I don’t mind though, because this is my first read in months, and it was easy to power through.

My rating:

⭐⭐

Rating: 2 out of 5.

~Till I write again!~

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Book Review #44: Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar

I had finished reading this book about two days ago and I wanted to review it right then and there, but I restrained myself because I wanted to take time to unpack all of the heavy metaphors the Iranian author has masterfully weaved into the story of a family falling apart in a war-torn Iran.

The political backdrop is the Islamic Revolution of 1979 in Iran- an incident the author has witnessed first hand as a child. A family of five escapes the volatile Tehran to a remote village. We read the story from the perspective of Bahar’s ghost, though it took me a while to understand that. Thirteen-year-old Bahar’s particularly horrifying death is written much later, but as we see her describe her father’s sadness, her mother’s detachment and the growing dread in her little sister, Beeta, an insidious feeling of doom emerges.

Bahar’s brother Sohrab is also killed after being held in inhumane conditions for some time as a political prisoner. Beeta, the youngest and the only surviving child, had wanted to become a ballerina and their father, unwilling to squash her freedom lets her go to Tehran. Beeta turns into a mermaid, gives birth to fishes and leaves them in little jars at home before she makes Caspian Sea her home. But she too, like her siblings, meets a gruesome death in hands of men who brutally violate her in public and kill her. Beeta’s story is the most glaring example of magical realism in the book. But in all cases, it is an analogy of a real event, in this case what I suspect was Beeta’s own mind falling apart in delusions. There is also the political backdrop of Khomeini’s rise and death that has been fictionalized with stories and actions of the many spectres the book introduces.

Iranian folklore has been generously added into the story, each described in footnotes. As an Indian, these are subjects I rarely come by, so it was quite new and refreshing for me. The book has won a lot of critical accolade, deservedly so, in my opinion. My rating:

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

~Till I write again!~

Book Review #43: Accidental Magic by Keshava Guha

As a reader, my snobbery and my limited capacity to understand books are sometimes at odds. For instance, when posed with really meta subjects like a book about another book or a story inside a story, my initial approach is always one of enthusiasm. But most of the times, I feel inadequate in fully appreciating the depth and subtlety of such books.

And then sometimes I come across a book like Accidental Magic that is subtle and mature, yet very close to my heart. Debut author Keshava Guha has arrived with a bang. As a first time author, it takes a big leap of faith to write a book that is based on another book- especially when the story is so deeply entwined with the all-inclusive, safe-space-preaching, yet quite possessive and esoteric fandom like Harry Potter.

The book follows four characters- Kannan, Curtis, Rebecca and Malathi- all connected by a single thread- Harry Potter. Their connection is in such tandem that if you were playing Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon with any of these these characters, the others are bound to be lined up one after another.

Kannan is a mediocre Indian immigrant undergrad forever trapped in his overachieving elder brother’s shadows, stoically struggling to assimilate in America and finds Harry Potter to be the straw he can clutch on to. Curtis, a pompous older man, obsessed with all things English, sort of takes Kannan under his wing. Together, they run a book club cum weekly gathering and fan website- all dedicated to Harry Potter. Rebecca and Malathi’s treatment of the fandom is interesting because in the book, they are both newly introduced to Harry Potter in presence of the reader. While Rebecca’s immersion in the fandom is complete and almost religious, whereas Malathi retains her critical eye and regards the fandom with bemusement.

As a Harry Potter fan (stan?), who has read more than half the series as it was published, I have been obsessed with the series for nearly two decades now (wow, this sentence hits me hard). I was from that generation that has had the privilege to grown up with Harry Potter- our school lives have more or less overlapped perfectly. Naturally, this was a high stakes book for me because the various arguments and ‘ships’ discussed in the book were the burning questions I have discussed fervently with my friends.

The book reminded me of Jhumpa Lahiri. Guha has a similar flair for portraying human misery from an objective perspective- no one is a villain or hero in the story, every one is mucking on the best they can.

Keshava Guha is definitely an author I would watch out for. His writing is very insightful and mature and I am sure his next books would receive the same perceptive treatment as this one.

My rating:

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

~Till I write again!~

Book Review #42: Happy And You Know It by Laura Hankin

This was another book that I read after seeing it on the Book of The Month– list for May. There wasn’t a lot of buzz about this book on social media even though I felt that this book fits perfectly in the niche of those Instagrammable, cute-dust-jacketed books with just enough pretense of being ‘the latest release that you should definitely read’.

It’s being touted as ‘Sex and the City’ meets ‘Nanny Diaries’, though I can hardly credit it for being anything more than a crossover of the two in the most literal sense. Yes, it’s a story of a nanny-esque music entertainer for babies for a group of privileged, elite women of Upper East Side, New York. But the similarities are skin deep.

Claire, a failed musician, is trying to find her footstep in the treadmill of a city that New York is and isn’t doing a very good job of it. But while Annie in Nanny Diaries assumed an insightful perspective of viewing the Upper East Side moms from the eyes of an anthropologist, Claire’s character doesn’t provide anything other than a superficial viewing of these women. Perhaps due to the prosaic narrative of events from Claire’s perspective, the author switched perspective in each chapter and sets up the chain of events quite linearly from the moms’ POVs as well. There’s no suspense or build-up, the thing are just happening.

So, what about the Sex and The City part of the book? Weeell, there’s a midly scandalous affair in the mix, but things are pretty watered down and nothing to inspire gasps of shock as SATC did in its time.

As an overall read, I would not rate it badly because I knew what I was getting in the bargain. It’s a fluff book, not to be judged to harshly and there is not much to ‘take away’. I finished it in between other books and they were those doorstopper classics that I have been re-reading and needed to intersperse with something light.

My rating:

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

~Till I write again!~

Book Review #41: The Sundown Motel by Simone St. James

Over the last year, I have been looking into genres that I have not explored. One such genre is horror.

I am not into supernatural- vampires, werewolves, fairy, pixie, mermaid- these just aren’t my cup of tea, whether it is in books or in movies. Given the explosion of this genre in young adult fiction in the last couple of decades, I have been fairly insulated from the trend. But I do love a good horror- gore, vengeful spirits, formulaic jumpscares- I love them all.

I bought this book off the maiden One Club Box (a fresh new Book of the Month service in India) in February and got it delivered in May. It took me about five days to finish the story in a very busy week. The story is very engaging.

The book runs through two parallel timelines- Vivian had never planned to stay long at a rundown, small town in upstate New York. But she ended up taking the a job as night clerk in the Sundown Motel where strange things happen. The place is rife with mysterious sounds, smells and sights – that and the string of women murdered in cold blood makes Fell a dangerous place. Viv is tangled deep in the mystery of the motel, it’s unsavoury past- and then, one night, she disappears…

Viv’s disappearance haunted her niece Carly and after her mother dies, she takes up the ambitious task of uncovering the mystery of Viv’s death. But when she relocates to Fell and starts unraveling the tangled knots at Sundown Motel, she starts experiencing those same creepy occurrences as her aunt.

Unlike what often happens with the thriller/mystery genre, the story did not fall flat in an attempt to tie up the loose threads. There was no conclusion wedged in awkwardly; the pace was quite even.

My rating:

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

~Till I write again!~

Book Review #40: Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore

This book was on my to read list because of my new-found love of what they call ‘domestic fiction’. It’s a light read with a good premise. The age skip trope is one that has been explored extensively in the Hollywood rom-com circuit. This is a slightly polished late 2010’s update on it.

Oona Lockhart is your typical teenager with an adoring boyfriend, a close knit band and a promising acceptance letter from London School of Economics. At the 1984 New Years’ Eve party, her pretty sorted life is thrown out of balance as, when clock strikes midnight, she is transported to her 2015 self!

The initial shock aside, she adjusts quickly thanks to her trusty friends and family. Every year, she flits between various years of life and experiences her life in this strange order,

As with most books in this genre, the trick is to not think too hard; otherwise you might trip yourself up on plotholes. But overall, it was a good book and serves as a break between other heavier reads.

My rating:

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3 out of 5.

~Till I write again!~

Book Review #39: Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa

A beautiful story was promised. Things start disappearing off an island- hats, birds, flowers, fruits- as the island becomes more and more serious. When things disappeared, people lost all memory, all senses of the object. The few who don’t forget, don’t lose their senses are arrested by the Memory Police.

In the midst of this story, our protagonist, a novelist whose mother had been taken away by the Police for ‘remembering’, is hell-bent on saving her friend (who also ‘remembers’).

I rated this book 3 stars on my Goodreads. I would have loved to rate this higher, as the premise felt like an Orwellian version of Ruth Ozeki’s Tale for the Time Being. I wrote a line in my GR review- ‘The plot crawled through most of the book and I did not particularly like the romantic angle. It did not gel with the grief, the restlessness the protagonist was feeling.’ on which my old English teacher commented that there was no romance in it; just the course things take in dire straits. I have to admit, I immediately felt childish. Of course, there is nothing romantic in the narrator and R’s relationship. It’s just two people, who know the end is inevitable and don’t even have the luxury of denying it, clutching at straws for comfort.

There is a metafictional story that our narrator is writing, about a girl unable to speak but can communicate through typing. Mirroring the narrator’s own loss of her faculties (when novels disappeared from the island), the girl loses the power to type and is forever caged in the tower (allegory of one’s own mind, unable to express the thoughts?) without any means to communicate.

It’s a good book depending on what you expect from it. For me, this one fell short of the expectation I had. I believe that interpretive books like this one relies heavily on perception. I was disappointed by the lack of closure I was seeking- I suppose it was presumptuous of me, but while reading it, I was more bothered with the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of it it all, rather than the story itself. I think it was because I read it as science fiction (speculative fiction would be more appropriate) which is usually more conclusive than magical realism. Perhaps if I read it years later, I would be able to appreciate it.

My rating:

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

~Till I write again!~

Book Review #38: Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

I re-read this after almost a decade. I was almost the ages of Watanabe and Naoko when I read it back then, but now that angsty period of life is over. I understand their perspective even better now because I have come out on the other side of that tumultuous time.

One thing that stands out in the book is Murakami’s style. The dialogues, in the words of a lesser author, would have sounded like melodramatic, heavy-handed teenage angst. But my oh my, Murakami paints with his prose.

Toru is reminded by several people how he speaks like it’s straight out of an F. Scott Fitzgerald book and Toru himself is enamored with Jay Gatsby. This is Murakami’s version of Easter Egg (East Egg?) because of the author’s deep love for Fitzgerald.

While most people believe Norwegian Wood should be one’s first Murakami- unlocking the door to a wondrous world, I believe Norwegian Wood is an entirely different style of Murakami’s writing. It doesn’t have his idiosyncratic magical realism, which he is a master at, but the pain of youth, the loss of adolescence is so viscerally captured, I refuse to categorize this as a Murakami starter pack.

However, I can’t give it five stars because, well, the women. Murakami has often been criticized for his stilted sex scenes which often come off across negatively for the women characters while the man is stoic in pleasure- and Norwegian wood has its fair share of that. But the manic pixie dream girl Midori, the wallowing mysterious Naoko don’t get the same care in character development as Toru does, even though they are almost equally important.

My rating:

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

~Till I write again!~