Absence and some good books

I took a three week break from college and went to my brother's place. It is so strange that when you are out of the college and facing the real world, things like blogs and emails become so insignificant. When in college I check my email(s) at least every hour, but in the last three week I have checked only twice. But then you are not so jobless when you are outside the college (you actually have to do some work and not just sit in front of the computer and pretend to).

During this time, I finally finished Of Human Bondage and liked it very much. But I think that if you are going to read only one of Somerset Maugham's books then you should read The Razor's Edge because that is a much better book. Never mind all the hype surrounding Of Human Bondage.

I also read Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie which was highly recommended by my brother. It is a very colourful and imaginative tale. I think the author was having a lot of fun while writing it and so it contains lots of amusing lyrics. But in the end, I think it is just a children's book and not one of Salman Rushdie's serious works.

But the best book I read during this time was Not the End of the World by Geraldine McCaughrean which is about what might have actually happened aboard Noah's Ark. The main character in the story is Timna, Noah's daughter, but the book also provides the perspectives of the rest of the family and also of the animals on board the Ark. The book went on to win the Whitbread Children's Book of the Year Award. But I really think that the book is for grownups too. It is very brutal, especially the scene of the birth of the wildebeest calf on board the Ark, and very thought-provoking. By giving the perspectives of the people and the animals on board the Ark, it makes you question whether there is really any difference between them. It is a very short book but will keep you thinking for a long time.

Hey Maugham, what the Dickens?

I had been reading ‘A tale of two cities’ as an e-book on my mobile (hope Mr. Charles doesn’t turn in his grave). But then I went and bought a real book – Of Human Bondage. The temptation of holding a book and reading it (kind of like having a cake and eating it too) was too great for me to resist. Thus I began reading two great books at the same time.

The styles of two authors cannot be more different. Maugham is extremely descriptive and the book is often described as an ‘autobiographical novel’. The characters are so alive since they are written from life. I could really relate to Philip, maybe not his tempestuous, obsessive love, but his shyness, love of reading, obstinacy and vanity. Then again, I found the book very similar to ‘The Razor’s Edge’.

On the other hand, Dickens is full of satiric humor, that is at the same time very thought provoking. I do not think I have understood all that is implied in the book or that I will after a second or third reading. Each sentence seems to have been written after a lot of thought and deliberation. The book makes me feel like I have been sleeping all these years (this is my first Dickens) and makes me want to read all of his books.

In ‘Of Human Bondage’, Mr. Maugham writes,

… there are two good things in life, freedom of thought and freedom of action. In France you get freedom of action: you can do what you like and nobody bothers, but you must think like everybody else. In Germany you must do what everybody else does, but you may think as you choose. … But in England you get neither: you’re ground down by convention. You can’t think as you like and you can’t act as you like. That’s because it’s a Democratic nation. I expect America’s worse.

Makes you really wonder about India if the ‘land of the free’ is so restrictive, or wonder about France and Germany.