Wednesday, November 23, 2005
A good Idea is not enough
Is just a good idea enough to make a good book?.No not for me.I came across two books with very good ideas, but not an interesting narration and plot.
Shashi tharoor's The Great Indian Novel
This is a novel which see's Mahabharatha from a different perspective. This books merges mahabharatha with indian politics. Shashi tharoor's perspective is fascinating, mahatma ghandhi as the grand old bhishma, the man who never wanted anything for himself, but was always with the kauravas(congress) and dhirthrashtra nehru.That perspective was fascinating at the start, but as the novel moves, the story is nothing but mahabharatha, there is no big suspense, you just have to wait to see which character is what and how the indian political incidents are merged into the great novel. Shashi gives lot of interesting incidents that happened in indian politics or about the famous personalities like gandhi etc.Even though those information might be true.NOthing can be taken for sure cause the whole book is a fiction.And as you know that the story is mahabharatha, there is not much to expect in the next chapter as you already know the story. Shashi tharoor's narration style is just boring and for the second time i dropped his book after 100 pages. The first was midnight to millennium which was pathetic.
Jose saramago's Stone Raft
Jose Saramago is a portugese Nobel Lauret, who's books have been translated to many languages.Iam sure some of his books must be available in Malayalam(The regional language to which highest number of books are translated in india).All his books are based on some wild imagination. And this book is also based on one such imagination. The basis for this novel is "what if the Iberian peninsula(spain,portugal) broke away from europe'.Suddenly the land mass gives away and the Iberian peninsula slowly drifts away from europe(metaphorically meaning the relationship of portugal with rest of the europe).The novel starts like a latin magic realism one with so many interesting incidents but it later becomes the journey of a few people and follows them. Then saramago goes to the smaller things and start explaining the minutest of the details of various things.Apart from the knitty gritty way of explaining things, his writing style is very hard to read. Many of the pages will be one single paragraph and some of the pages might be one whole sentence. Yes, he just writes one sentence that comes almost to one page length. I got bored and dropped it.
Shashi tharoor's The Great Indian Novel
This is a novel which see's Mahabharatha from a different perspective. This books merges mahabharatha with indian politics. Shashi tharoor's perspective is fascinating, mahatma ghandhi as the grand old bhishma, the man who never wanted anything for himself, but was always with the kauravas(congress) and dhirthrashtra nehru.That perspective was fascinating at the start, but as the novel moves, the story is nothing but mahabharatha, there is no big suspense, you just have to wait to see which character is what and how the indian political incidents are merged into the great novel. Shashi gives lot of interesting incidents that happened in indian politics or about the famous personalities like gandhi etc.Even though those information might be true.NOthing can be taken for sure cause the whole book is a fiction.And as you know that the story is mahabharatha, there is not much to expect in the next chapter as you already know the story. Shashi tharoor's narration style is just boring and for the second time i dropped his book after 100 pages. The first was midnight to millennium which was pathetic.
Jose saramago's Stone Raft
Jose Saramago is a portugese Nobel Lauret, who's books have been translated to many languages.Iam sure some of his books must be available in Malayalam(The regional language to which highest number of books are translated in india).All his books are based on some wild imagination. And this book is also based on one such imagination. The basis for this novel is "what if the Iberian peninsula(spain,portugal) broke away from europe'.Suddenly the land mass gives away and the Iberian peninsula slowly drifts away from europe(metaphorically meaning the relationship of portugal with rest of the europe).The novel starts like a latin magic realism one with so many interesting incidents but it later becomes the journey of a few people and follows them. Then saramago goes to the smaller things and start explaining the minutest of the details of various things.Apart from the knitty gritty way of explaining things, his writing style is very hard to read. Many of the pages will be one single paragraph and some of the pages might be one whole sentence. Yes, he just writes one sentence that comes almost to one page length. I got bored and dropped it.
