Book Review : ‘Done With Men' by Shuchi Singh Kalra

‘Done With Men’ begins in a hospital where you have the patient, Kairavi or Kay being worriedly looked at by her best friend, Baani. So, you might be thinking that the story might be another one of those ones, with the heroine on her death bed and the hero coming in to rescue her.

But thankfully, nothing of this sort happens (well, the death bed is out). And I was sighing away in relief. So, in a hospital in Goa, we soon discover that Kay is a travel writer with a job in Mumbai. Her best friend, Baani gets her off on this trip to Goa for the New Year. The idea behind it is that Kay, who has been in a bad relationship has to recover while writing her travel story.

Kay, who was drunk and almost in a lesbian experience falls and injures herself. She was trying to escape her ex-boyfriend who lands up in the same place, with a hot girl in tow. So, cut to the accident. 

Stuck in the hospital for a few days, Kay soon discovers that her doctor is the good looking Vivian, who might have a girlfriend. As time passes, she becomes friendly with the doc and we soon have him taking her out on a date. 

Kay soon finds that she likes him too, when she discovers that the only photo he has on his desk are his sister’s and nephew’s. We soon discover that the two are in love. Baani, on the other hand might not be going strong with Kapil, who she has been in love with, for a long time and we also welcome Kay's editor/boss, Ravi, who is in love with the girl, who almost had the lesbian encounter with Kay!

How will this tale, which is fast turning into a disaster, end? What does happen in the finale in this very confusing but funny story is the author's take on love life. A smart girl, but still stuck in the fanciful aftermath of love is this chick flick’s end. Oh, she is in hospital again, although you have to read it to discover the end.

The novella has a simple tale and had all the necessary trimmings at the correct places. Oh, did I mention that I did not find even a single grammatical error? Liked the book's cover too, since it reminds us about our own vacations! The author, Shuchi Singh Kalra’s stuck to the story with all its misadventures and Kay’s inevitable conclusions.

Author: Shuchi Singh Kalra

Genre: Fiction

Publisher: Indireads

ISBN: 978-1-927826-32-4

Price: Rs 199 /-

Writing and Dreaming... Many thoughts. Many Ideas.

Dreams and writing are two totally different things. But then, the connection they have is evocative. One is something which could occur at night. You wake up in the morning and if you remember it, you would probably look for meaning of it.

Writing is something which you have to be conscious for and you are probably not dreaming, when you do it. Bringing the two of them together was something, I had never thought of. Once I had a strange kind of dream, when I dreamt of a friend, who lives far away was weirdly enough, in a tree. The tree seemed to grow around her, and all around was a jungle. I woke up and on realising that it was a dream I just had I put it down on paper. Of course, I found out that my friend was doing pretty well, unlike in my dream.

The first thing from that dream I got was, an idea. An idea, which I developed into a story. That was when I decided to dream and write about it. Of course, does not happen that often. Writing characters for your story can be got out of dreams. Some body could be angry or happy to see you. Why and how could be the main things, one needs to think of.

But then, I could always day-dream. I remember the time when I was going on a trip, and I did not have much to do. And I used to end up day- dreaming. And what stories, I used to think of. When I was at school too, I used to day dream in every class. That would explain a few things, but let’s not go into that now. :)

You can pause for minutes during writing, to just think about something and actually let it flow into a dream. I know that I can spend minutes doing this, and actually develop the idea, or perhaps a person’s character, and the circumstances he is under.

It becomes easier to do so, when one can actually view it. It gives you perspective and you can view it at different angles. You must put every dream you can remember through a good thinking process. This gives you a framework for what you can do. Remember your thought process of the all the things, before and after your dream. What you were thinking of before you went to sleep, and what did you wake up with. (Some of the best ghost stories, I could write, were due to dreams.)

Soon, you could be a) Getting imaginary ideas b) You can develop and imagine sequences of your dreams c) You could have a clearer mind and a fresher perspective since you are emotionally free of anything when you are dreaming.

Either way, at least you are letting your imagination grow. So, good night and sweet dreams! :)

Author Interview: Gabrielle Zevin, author of 'The Collected Works of AJ Fikry' (Thanks to Hachette)

People, though an interview with Gabrielle Zevin, was not possible by me, Hachette (the publishers of her book were kind enough to share an interview with Ms Zevin with me) and below you will find her interview. :) You can read my review here and you could also buy the book right here.

Even though bookstore owner A. J. Fikry is so cantankerous, he’s impossible not to love. Where did this character come from?

There’s good potential for getting myself in trouble with this question! I sold my first novel about ten years ago, and let’s say Fikry came from just under a decade of experiences in publishing. Fikry’s the culmination of many, many conversations at publishing lunches and dinners, and ill-to-modestly attended bookstore events and book conferences in summer. He’s a little bit Silas Marner, a pinch of Mr. Darcy, and—dare I admit this?—a dash of myself, too.

Your fictional store, Island Books, has the slogan “No man is an island; every book is a world.” How does that apply to Fikry?

Although this is not mentioned in the book, the slogan is something A.J.’s first wife, Nicole, wrote or at least modified from John Donne. A.J. would never put something so sentimental on his store's sign. And I think it can almost be understood as a private joke between a married couple.

Even before Nicole died, A.J. wasn’t necessarily the most gregarious bookseller or person, and the slogan is a reminder from Nicole to A.J. not to shut himself off from people and from the world. There’s a danger in reading or in any intellectual pursuit for it to become too solitary and myopic, but I believe a true intellectual has a desire to share, to teach. In many ways, that’s A.J.’s journey—from resident of an isolating, intellectual island to citizen and participant in a greater community. So, yeah, the moral of the story is on the sign! Makes it easy for readers to find.

Peppered throughout the novel are Fikry's favourite short stories. Are these also your favourite short stories?

In a few cases, yes, but in many cases, they’re not. And I’m not sure they’re Fikry’s favourites either, but the ones he feels his daughter should read. Fikry comes from an academic background, and I think the list is Fikry in teaching mode and should be taken as his syllabus for a budding writer.

But like Fikry, I am a lifelong short story reader and enthusiast. For recent-ish collections, my favourites are Love Stories in this Town by Amanda Eyre Ward, Lucky Girls by Nell Freudenberger, and Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by ZZ Packer. I am also very into disastrous dinner party stories – it’s a whole subgenre really. “The Dinner Party” by Joshua Ferris is a terrific recent example as is the titular story from Bobcat by Rebecca Lee. (I think Fikry would adore Rebecca Lee’s entire collection — it’s as close to perfect a collection as I’ve ever read.)

For all-time favourites, I love Pam Houston, Amy Hempel, Raymond Carver, Grace Paley, Aimee Bender, and so many others. When I was a kind, my favourite short stories were probably "The Veldt" by Ray Bradbury and Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl. Back then, I was partial to a twist.

There are some great book clubs in this novel, from the one Fikry starts to the book club the police officer leads. What is it about book clubs that you find so appealing?

Book clubs force people to discuss something other than themselves and their own problems. Yet, the guise of discussing the fictional can allow people to be incredibly revealing. There’s that perfect moment in Tom Perrotta’s Little Children. The main character, Sarah, defends Emma Bovary in a book group, and it says as much about Sarah and where she is in her life as it does about Emma Bovary.

On another note, modern life is increasingly organized into virtual spaces with like-minded individuals. The book club fights this trend a bit. For a while, I ran a book club arranged around themed cocktails. We’d read, say, The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett, which is the delightful novella where the Queen of England takes up reading, and I'd serve a Royal Dubonnet, which is supposedly the Queen's favourite drink. Unfortunately, everyone would get too tipsy to discuss anything properly. I might start it up again someday. There's a perfect ratio between drink and books, which I have not yet mastered.

Fikry has very specific tastes. How do you think he’d respond to a novel like this?

Ha! He’d have a lot of complaints, I’m sure. He’d think I’d gotten a lot of things wrong about bookselling, adoption and childrearing, the geography of Massachusetts, brain cancer, and the Green Animals Topiary Garden of Rhode Island. He’d think I made him too cartoonish. But let’s imagine that the book crossed A.J. Fikry’s desk on the right day and caught him in just the right mood. 

Maybe he’d write a shelf talker like this: “Despite its modest size and the liberties its author takes, The Collected Works of A.J. Fikry has a few lovely moments. Though my taste runs to books that are less sentimental than this one, I’m sure my wife, my daughter, and my best friend the cop will love this book, and I will heartily recommend it to them.”

Book Review : ‘Solo' by William Boyd

William Boyd’s Bond, in the novel Solo is not James Bond of Ian Fleming’s fame. Yet, he has his own bit of reputation and notoriety. It is the year, 1969. Bond, all of 45, is still the same heavy drinker and smoker and still the ladies’ man. Bryce Fitzjohn is the heroine of this book. 

Bond has a new task at hand. Bond, who cannot quell the trauma of WWII, is put right in the middle by M. He has to single-handedly stop a civil war in the West African state of Zanzarim. Zanzarim is a tribal area, and though it is full of oil, it remains an impoverished zone. The war is between the southern and northern tribes, the Fakassa and the Lowele for the spoils of the oil. 

The British government is on the side of the official government. Bond, who is pretending to be a French journalist, sets out to find warlord, Solomon Adekawhom he has to neutralise.

Bond’s job is to stop the war, and he finds that he has to stop Adeka to get the job done. He has the usual ingredients in the form of women and vicious villains. The station’s chief at Zanzarim is a young Harvard educated woman called Blessing is on his side or so he thinks.

Joined by her, he travels into the interiors of Zanzarim, where he meets with mercenaries, the press and is introduced to the fate of hungry and war torn children. You soon find that Bond seems to have accomplished his mission, and finds himself back at MI6, but he is betrayed. But this is not the end, as I thought.

Deciding to have his personal revenge, he sets out, ‘solo’ to Washington DC and here he is surrounded by Blessing, African villains, Simon Adeka again? along with the usual, guns and cars.

Okay, first things first. He is not the same Bond, but only a similar kind of Bond. We have the usual at MI6, pipe smoking M, a much younger Q, Miss Moneypenny and of course, the Cold War scenario in Bond’s dreams.

One thing, which struck me, was the character of James Bond. Though ruthless and bold, he is also a little sad, and misery seems to strike him right at the start. He is not so full of himself, and the women’s names take a backseat too.

I do not really have an opinion of this book. I thought Bond’s character has a very different variation, and does not seem very close to Fleming’s Bond. If we are talking of Hollywood version, then we do not at all have any similarities. It is probably unfair to call it a James Bond novel, though otherwise it would do alright. Maybe, an all-new character?

Author: William Boyd

Genre: Fiction

Publisher: Random House India

ISBN: 9780224097475

Price: Rs 599 /-