What Was Your Name, Again?

Just a little over half-way into 'Heat and Dust' - and I'm already feeling a bit sad that it's such a short novel (only 181 pages) because I'm really enjoying it. I feel like 'The Siege of Krishnapur' gave me a really strong basis for enjoying this novel, which is also set in India just 65- and 110-years later. It's been pretty cool, like returning to a well-loved vacation destination where everything feels familiar even though it's all different since the last time you were here.

The story is split between 1923 and the mid-70's where a young woman has come to India to 'research' the life of her grandfather's first wife, Olivia, who ran off with a Nawab (the 1923 story line). The Nawab is a particularly interesting character, domineering and possessive but with charisma, though I can't help but think of his friends and 'guests' as being victims of rather brutal psychological abuse. I have a suspicion that the "romance" will not turn out well.

In the modern story line, I find I'm actually a lot shocked by the naiveté of this young woman (who seems to be nameless?) in her passive regard to what amounts to sexual assault. This probably says more about my world (a world that has always been dealing with HIV and is 97% unanimous that assault is Never a woman's "fault") than it does about the character, who is living in the era of "free love". But I was still shocked - I was, in fact, all "but he could have Anything! You don't want to have sex with him, but you just let him anyway?? What are you thinking! Have some self-respect!" and when a follow-up scene involved a pilgrimage meant to cure infertility, I was all "aw shit! Now you're gonna have that nasty man's kid - smooth move! Grrr. Frowny face.". I'm also a bit concerned about the developing relationship between her and the man she's renting from, which seems to alarmingly echo the situation (if not the dynamics) of the relationship between Olivia and the Nawab. Sometimes I worry that I get too involved with characters.

Now that I'm onto my sixth Booker prize winner (yay!!) I feel safe in making a few generalizations about these early winners. First, and so obvious that it probably doesn't bear mentioning but I will anyway, there's a really heavy British colonial feel to all the books I've read so far. It's not surprising, because the Booker is for "a citizen of the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland" but I didn't realize it would be so... noticeable. The only novel so far which lacked that strong colonization feel was 'G.' which was a bit more international, even though the character was essentially British.

My second observation is that, Dang! There are a lot of literally insane characters! It's become like a game of "where's Waldo" with me scouting out for the crazy person in every book - and usually, I don't have to look that hard. In "Elected Member" it was Norman; in "Troubles" it was Edward; in "G." well gee!; in "Siege of Krishnapur" I'd say the Padre won it; in "Conservationist" it was Mehring; and now in "Heat and Dust" there are a few options, but the obvious one is Ritu. It is a bit disturbing, but also amusing. I'm also kind of wondering if it is a trend that will continue through all 46 books. I'm betting it does.

Anyway, I'm enjoying the novel and glad to feel engaged again. Last week was a bit of a slough.

Happy reading!

Five Books Down, Forty-one To Go!

I finished reading "The Conservationist" last night - again, it took me longer than I'd hoped, but I'm right back on schedule now. So, yay.

As I said in my last post, I really wanted to like this novel, and to be able to say nice things about it. It was not a bad book, in fact some parts of it (particularly the descriptions of the farm) are quite beautiful. However, I'm still not certain that I actually understood the book, or even the main character. I don't like not understanding a book, it makes me feel stupid. The result is that I end up not liking the book because it's made me feel stupid, which is unfair to the book but kind of inevitable. I'm not a good person.

There may be spoilers. I apologize, but in my attempt to understand this book spoilers are not a major concern for me. If they are for you, please don't say I didn't warn you. I'm trying not to Spoil, but I can't make any guarantees. Sorry.

Still with me? Ok, let's go.

My basic understanding of the book is that Mehring, the hobby farmer, feels he has lost the love of his ex-wife, his teenaged son, and his former mistress. He travels the world, flirts with women, over-sees the management of his farm, but feels unfulfilled, empty, unloved. The only consistency in his life comes from his land, and he slowly falls in love with it, until it also rejects him - in the form of a rather gross scene following a flood. Maybe it's Mehring rejecting the farm, as he has slowly shut himself off from the rest of his life. I'm not really sure. The final scene with Mehring on the farm was gross but inevitable. I thought it was a pretty good ending for the farm, which may actually be the protagonist of the piece.

The character of Mehring left me feeling unresolved, even a little dirty. By the second half of the book I was doubting his sanity, and by the second last chapter I was sure he'd lost his dang mind. The novel is filled with rambling train of thought passages where Mehring jumps from thoughts of his farm, his lover, his son, his workers, his indiscretions, all in a completely random way, and then back to where he started. There are also frequent imagined conversations, to the point where I'm still not sure if some parts of the novel were just fantasy sequences. It was very annoying for me, but I suppose it's just one of those artistic choices - you'll either love it, or you won't.

On the 'next book' front, I'm moving on to the winner for 1975, "Heat and Dust" by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. This week I have no dental appointments, no knitting night, and only two hockey games. In theory, I'll be able to finish this book early.

We'll see about that.

Happy reading!