Thomas Hardy - The Mayor of Casterbridge

It was delightful to read an old master after a long time.

When I was in school, the fiction section in the library was well stocked with the likes of George Eliot and Thomas Hardy among others.  I can recall going through all his novels except Jude the Obscure and Well Beloved.

Almost 40 years have passed since that time.  I can be forgiven for forgetting the exact contents of the book I read so many years ago.  Yet, to my surprise, the story came back to me in snatches as I read on.

Thomas Hardy's plots are quite like hill roads, full of twists and turns.  I was surprised to find so much happening in the lives of the main characters.  It kept me glued to the book, I was loath to put it down.

The Plot : Micheal Henchard is on the road looking for work as a hay trusser with a young wife and a baby in tow.  He stops for supper in a furmity tent in a fair in a village they are passing through.  He opts for rum to go with his furmity and soon becomes intoxicated.  He auctions his wife off to a Sailor before passing out.  His wife, Susan, disgusted by his action, goes off with the Sailor in a huff.

Next morning, Henchard is overcome with remorse and swears not to drink for next 21 years.  He tries to track Susan and the Sailor down, but does not succeed.   His sobriety and hard work finds him, 18 years later, a prosperous man, and the Mayor of the town of Casterbridge.

It is at this time that Susan and Elizabeth Jane, a grown young woman now, reach Casterbridge.  The Sailor, Newson, is lost at sea, presumed dead. Susan wants to look for Henchard and see if she can find some support for her daughter.  Henchard is repentant of his previous misdeed, and wants to make amends.  Not wanting anyone to know of the circumstances which made them part, Henchard opts to pretend to woo the good widow and marry her.

About the same time, he hires a Scotsman, Donald Farfrae as his manager to look after his dealings in corn.  Farfrae is a very capable man and helps Henchard's business grow.  Henchard looks upon Donald as a close friend and associate and confides in him his past secret.  He tells Donald about Susan and also about another lady in Jersey.  He had happened to get intimate with her and promised marriage.  But with the appearance of Susan, he has to let the other lady go.

Henchard settles into domesticity with Susan and Elizabeth Jane.  But his life is not settled yet. Susan's death reveals a secret that throws him off his equilibrium and he finds himself sinking into a mire he cannot get out of.

The Characters:

Micheal Henchard, our principal character, is given to deep impulses.  He has sworn off drink, hoping it will make him more temperate, but his impetuousness makes him take rash decisions that sink him into a mire.

He hires Donald Farfrae as his manager, recognizing his talent and hard work.  His impulsiveness makes him confess to Donald all about his past.  He regards the younger man as his friend and confidante.  But at the first shade of doubt, he casts Donald out into the cold and turns a true friend into an enemy.

Similarly, he loses Susan because of a rash, alcohol driven impulse.  Yet, in a hurry to redress his wrong, he fails to try and understand the woman he abandoned so easily many years ago, and fails to benefit from her wisdom.  He fails to allow Susan to turn his later years blissful.  He foists his prosperity upon a simple woman looking for some security and a safe haven.

He treats his daughter Elizabeth Jane with the same wavering to the extremes.  He loves her deeply one day and the next he is gruff and distant.  Even though he has a good reason to be distant, he is too impulsive to allow reason to temper his actions.

Because of this, his admirers and friends, Susan, Donald and Elizabeth Jane find themselves perplexed and hurt and thwarted by him.  They are unable to reach out and be his friend and support him when he is in need.  His pride does not allow him to soften to them, and he finds himself a bitter and a lonely man.

He does meet his match in Lucette, the woman with whom he had an intimacy in Jersey.  When Lucette resettles in Casterbridge after Susan's death, his intention is to do the noble deed and offer to marry her to repair his past misdemeanor.  However, Lucette proves to be as fickle as he, and falls for another man.

Donald Farfrae is another Henchard in the making, but with a lot more temperance. He is swayed by the beauty of Lucette and forgets about Elizabeth Jane.  When faced with the prospect of becoming a Mayor, he is swayed by ambition and is in danger of becoming too drunk with power.  Like Henchard, he likes the good life and acquires Henchard's old house and fine furniture.  The people of Casterbridge, who loved the Scotsman ready to burst into a dance and a song, do not like his transformation into a powerful man and are ready with their criticism of him.

On the other hand, he is not as impulsive as Henchard and is able to make level headed decisions.  At the begining when Henchard seeks Farfrae's advice in his personal matters, we find Farfrae comes up with some sensible words.  He loses his head over Lucette, but returns to sanity when he regains the affection of Elizabeth Jane.

Lucette is the most intriguing character of the lot. She happened to nurse Henchard back to health when he fell sick on a visit to Jersey.  She became deeply attached to him and attained notoriety in Jersey because of her liaison with Henchard.  This prompted Henchard to offer to marry her, but just then, Susan and Elizabeth Jane came back into his life.

Impulsive Lucette kept firing piteous epistles to Henchard about her misery without him.  But things take a good turn for her when she comes into an inheritance when a rich aunt of her dies.  She moves to Casterbridge because she is still hurting over Henchard's rejection.  But the fickle girl is soon bewitched by the handsome and successful Donald Farfrae.

She does feel a measure of guilt about having married Donald despite being attached to Henchard.  She brings about her downfall when she tries to bury her secret and unwittingly reveals her previous dalliance.

Elizabeth Jane is the archetypal heroine of the Victorian era.  Beautiful but prim, intelligent but muted, loving but silent, always doing the right thing; she can be chided on only one account, being too strict.  She is the epitome of virtue, and to possess of the affection of Elizabeth Jane is to possess all that is good and correct in this world.  That is a heavy burden for any woman to bear.  But Elizabeth Jane rises to the occasion, as heroines must.

She puts up with the harshness of Henchard, just when she is beginning to accept him as a father, not knowing the reason why he is suddenly harsh.  Donald Farfrae smites her heart when he falls for the coquettish Lucette right under her nose. Yet she keeps her equanimity and is rewarded when Henchard warms to her finally.  Later, she finds Donald Farfrae returning her affection as well and her virtue is rewarded.

Susan appears in the book more as a catalyst, changing the course of the story by her presence or action.  She appears in Casterbridge and sets the story in motion.  She is anxious to provide a good life for her daughter Elizabeth Jane.  For herself, she does not set much store by her husband's riches and position.  Yet the secret behind the birth of Elizabeth Jane weighs heavily on her.  Her letter to Henchard about the truth, sets the story moving in another direction altogether.

These are the major characters whose doings shape the events of the novel, make it a compulsive read.  Thomas Hardy sets the novel in his beloved Wessex and the scent of the country pervades through the novel.; through the mentions of the Hay trussing, the corn sowing, the simple folk dancing and singing over ale.  Hardy's prose lacks the elegance of many of his colleagues.  But it is matter of fact, direct and befitting a folk who live close to the earth.

Graham Greene - The Human Factor

There was a time a month or two ago, when I yearned to read something by Graham Greene.  My pocket being on the slender side, my budget for books is not much.  Hence, such wishes are not followed necessarily by an order on Flipkart.

I can redress that by joining the State Library.  I am also lazy, and forget to just walk into the library and get myself a membership.

I did remember to walk into the sprawling second hand book market that we have in Chandigarh in Sector 15, right next to the Lajpat Rai Bhawan.  This time round I managed to find myself quite a treasure.  Among my second hand loot, was a book by Graham Greene, The Human Factor.

The books starts elegantly, languidly, describing a routine day in the life of Maurice Castle, a secret service employee.  Along with his colleague Arthur Davis, he mans the Africa desk at the embassy.  Their job is not glamorous or of any earth shaking importance.  Their mundane existence is shaken by a sudden scrutiny of their lives by a new security officer.  Being an old hand Castle knows exactly what that means.  There is a breach in the security and he is a suspect, along with Davis.

Castle has had an unblemished service.  He did have a spot of trouble with apartheid when he was posted in South Africa and fell in love with a black woman of the Bantu tribe, Sarah.  He managed to get her out of there and married her, and had a son.  Ever since he has settled in the suburbs, and lives a dull domesticated life.  His conduct is exemplary and he has nothing to fear.

On the other hand, Davis was caught taking official papers out with him.  He drinks too much, gambles and womanizes. The needle of suspicion is likely to point to him, but he is not guilty, Castle knows.

Colonel Daintry, Hargreaves and Doctor Percival are some of the people conducting the inquiry into the leak.  Despite their jolly and bluff manner, Hargreaves and Dr. Percival are not as harmless as they seem.  Despite his blustering ways, Colonel Daintry is not as threatening as he looks.  The secrets, once they start tumbling out the closet do not cease, until we learn the entire sad truth at the very end.

The book starts slow, the pace is unhurried, as I mentioned earlier, languid.  But readers of fiction of this sort know that the calm is merely that on the surface of the hill just before the volcano erupts.  The story picks up pace, and takes us through rapid climaxes to the end.

It is a story about love, and what people do for love.  It is also about politics of our world,  just what we expect a Graham Greene novel to be about.  It is as incisive as Graham Greene novels are, and we wind up feeling sad for the state our world is in, and the way it uses ordinary people as grist to its mill.

To quote a blurb at the back of the book:

"To the lonely, isolated, neurotic world of the Secret Service, Graham Greene brings his brilliance and perception, laying bare a machine that sometimes overlooks the subtle and secret motivations that impel us all."

Anne Tyler - A Slipping-Down Life

I love Anne Tyler's books, and rarely let one go by unread.  Considering that, it is strange that I have written a review of only one book of hers, Breathing Lessons.  I found the book captivating.  It won the Pulitzer Prize for literature in 1989.  The first Anne Tyler book I read was Searching for Caleb.  I have been hooked to her ever since.

Coming back to A Slipping-Down Life, the novel opens with Evie Decker a fat, unpopular teenager in Pulqua, North Carolina. She has one friend in school, Violet.  At home-between the busy housekeeper Clotelia and her father Sam Decker, who keeps to himself-Evie finds herself lonesome.  She listens to the radio a lot.  That is how she learns about Bertram Drumsticks Casey, who is a rock and roll singer who plays at the local nightclub, Unicorn.

Fat and frumpy Evie has no chance of catching the attention of Casey.  On an impulse, after a performance of his, she cuts his name upon her forehead.  Casey's drummer and manager David thinks her little caper can win the fledgling band some publicity.  Things are looking up for all of them.  Evie is happy to be close to Casey, despite his discomfort at her presence.  David is happy things are working out for his band.  They soon get an offer to play in another fancy club a little way away.  Evie feels she should break with Casey now, as he refused to soften up to her.

Those were the only times they met face to face.  They were the only times Evie lost the feeling that she was tugging at Drum's sleeve while he stood with his back to her, gazing outwards toward something she couldn't see.

 Just when Evie wants to give up on Casey, he fails.  He is kicked out of the new nightclub because he flirted with the owner's daughter.  His father wants nothing to do with him, and his mother is also angry with him.  Evie finds him on her porch, beaten and tired with nowhere else to go.  She finds her heart melting for him once again.

...when he suddenly tightened his arms around her, pulling her close, it came as a surprise.

 "Don't fret, I'm here," he said.

 But such promises are rarely kept.  A slipping-down life takes a look at two teenagers, both losers in their own way, as they try to make a life together.

Another beautiful little novella by Anne Tyler, just 154 pages long, about life in a small town, with its limited choices, that makes its inhabitants behave in an odd fashion at times.  Anne Tyler has a knack of making commonplace look so attractive.  Her books are almost always winners, and so is this one.

Cooking pasta - the simple way

I am a huge fan of simple and quick cooking.  A working woman needs handy tools and quick results.

Take a packed of Delmonte pasta, some Delmonte corn and some Delmonte pasta sauce.  Chop up a large cup of vegetables like carrots, peas, cabbage.

On one burner, boil the pasta till it is just el dente, strain and keep aside.  On another burner, drizzle some Delmonte Olive oil in a pan and put in the vegetables.  Garnish with a little salt, pepper, oregano and chilli flakes. Cover the pan and let cook on low flame for a few minutes till the vegetables are almost done.  Add the cooked pasta to the vegetables and toss together with some Delmonte sauce.  Serve with some grated cheese.

Finger licking Good!

P.G. Bhaskar - Jack Patel's Dubai Dreams

Excellent!

This was my reaction when I shut the book after reading it.  Of course I was captivated by the book right from the start, but I have often read books that are great in the first few chapters and then wimp out after the fourth of fifth.  That was not the case here, this book held my attention from the start to finish.

Jaikishen Patel's Dubai dreams start when he sends in his CV to a prestigious investment banking firm Myers York.  He is called in for an interview and learns that he will be required in the company's Dubai office to tap their Indian market.

Jai's father had been forced to leave Uganda after Idi Amin deported Indians.  He tried to settle down in Gujarat, but was not able to.  He moved to Chennai and found success in Garments business.  Jai refused to join the family business and followed his passion for finance by getting a degree in Business Management from IIM Bangalore.

This led him to Dubai, working for Myers York.  At his company the amount of business the Financial Advisors brought in was marked on a blackboard.  Jai, now renamed Jack Patel, wants to reach the top of the board! That is his Dubai dream.

We get to know, in a very entertaining manner, how Jack Patel brings in clients and how he deals with them.  His mentor, Mr. Kapoor, helps him nab a lot of clients.  He even goes over to Africa often to snag clients among rich Gujarati businessmen settled there who are looking to expanding their fortunes.

A whole array of lively characters pepper the book, from Jack's colleagues, Kitch (the vegetarian, straight laced Tamilian), his boss Peggy, Melissa, Rachel - who used to pole dance before she got into finance, Emma and Baby Jacob - the handyman who also made delicious ginger tea for them.  His client, Sunny Singh who had coined the phrase 'Singh is King' before Akshay took it for his movie.

He falls in love with Mina, the beautiful daughter of a client of his in Kenya.  At this stage in his life, everything seems to be going his way.  He has money and he has love.  Everything he touches turns to gold. Jack Patel's Dubai dream is realized finally,  he is the star achiever of his company, he is at the top of the blackboard finally!

All is fine until the crash of the banks in USA brings the financial world down with it.   So Jack Patel, who is at the top of his game, suddenly finds his fortunes plummeting fast.  His clients are losing money rapidly, and he is blamed roundly and abused. Mina's father also loses a good amount of money, and no longer wants Jack around his daughter.

How will Jack cope with the crisis?  Will he claw his way back out of this mess or will he go under?  This is what the book is about.

P G Bhaskar keeps the tone of the book light and funny.  At no time does the narrative lose its momentum.  There is always something going on, some tidbit of a funny happening that keeps you glued to the book.

This is another in the series of Metro Reads produced by Penguin books.  It is surely one of the best books in the category. 

Bharat Wakhlu - Close call in Kashmir

This book by Bharat Wakhlu is another offering from Metro Reads by Penguin books.  It is intended to be a light read, something that will hold your attention during the boring metro journeys.

The author uses the backdrop of unrest in Kashmir to create a mystery thriller.  The militants are planning to kidnap an Indian Scientist so they may be able to secure the release of some of their mates in jail.  On the other hand, there is a group of highly placed people who want to make money by selling ancient artifacts of Kashmir.

Against this backdrop, the head priest of Aishmuqam shrine, Shamsuddin Bandey makes a trip to Delhi to visit an old friend Professor Noor.  What he has to tell is explosive, there is some treasure dated from Dara Shukoh's time that is in the safekeeping of the priests of Aishmuqam.  The secret passes from father to son and survived many generations.  Now Shamsuddin is not sure he can preserve the integrity of the amanat much longer.

Mike Zutshi gets a frantic call from India when his 'rakhi' sister is abducted by the militants.  He is also asked by the CBI to assist them in a mission to locate an international gang of artifact smuggler that are being aided and abetted by an Unknown Enemy in Srinagar.

The book has all the ingredients of a great mystery thriller.  There are credible characters like Namrata, Mike Zutshi, Minnie, Ashok, Shamsuddin Bandey, Professor Noor.  The backdrop of Srinagar, Kashmir is very attractive too.  The author knows his subject well, and is able to write about it with authority.  These are all the pluses of the book.  It is very well written and well edited too.

So what is the problem, you may ask.  The writer needs to bring some more excitement into his work, one needs to feel the emotions the characters are going through.  We need some more passion in the characters.
The scenes need to develop properly so we can really get involved in them. The chapters are so short that just as you have begum to grasp what is going on, the action moves to another scene.  Even though a lot of things are happening here, it does not really get you to the edge of the seat.

However, the author plans to write many more books.  I am hoping he sticks to Srinagar background, I loved it.  Maybe Mike Zutshi will return with another mystery to solve, and this time things will be more zingy.