Books I've read so far this year...

[nekosensei]

1. The human Christ: the search for the historical Jesus by Charlotte Allen. [I forget this one. Ancient history interests me, but I thought this one was a little on the dry side.]
2. Lisey's Story by Stephen King
3. Orientalism by Edward Said
4. I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb
5. The curious incident of the dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon
6. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
7. Language death: The Life Cycle of a Scottish Gaelic Dialect by Nancy C. Dorian
8. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
9. The Inferno by Dante Alighieri. Tranlated by Robert Pinsky.
10. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
11. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
12. Fray by Joss Whedon
13. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie -- I picked up this one because of a post written by tastyfusionfare saying that the writers of Heroes must have been influenced by this book. Well, as far as some of the powers of the Midnight's Children, there are some similarities, but it's still possible that Heroes and Midnight's Children drew from the same source-- comic books-- and not necessarily Heroes stealing material from Midnight's Children. Let's see. You have a telepath, a person who can heal others, a person who can jump through time, and another person who can fly. You even have super strength in the shape of a "war-hero" who can suffocate people using only his knees. (Man...I'd really like to have super-powered knees right about now). I think the coolest power, that isn't present in the show, is the one who could use mirrors and water to transport himself other places. Nifty.

I would have the say that, overall, the book bears a very strong resemblance to Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, which uses the technique of magical realism to tell the story of a family living in India, and later Pakistan. In fact, the ending of both books are *very* similar. You have the story of his parents and grand-parents followed by the story of the the narrator, Saleem Sinai, who is born a few seconds after midnight on the day that India gained Independance from Britian. Because of this event, his life and the lives of roughly 500 and some odd children born during the first hour of independence became tied up with the events of their countries history. Most importantly, the events in Saleem's life mirror what is happening in his country.

Mostly, you see Saleem, a telepath, plan to use his position as the first child born at midnight and his powers in order to help his country. Does he end up making a difference? Absolutely not. He was hopeful as a child, even trying to rally the other Midnight's Children to his cause, only to have the Midnight's Children Conference that he created fall into discord and then disassemble. In his adult life, he bounces around from one tragedy to the next. In the end, he ends up more as a victim of India's history rather than the victor over it.

Overall, I would have to say that it was a very fascinating book, and an interesting allegory about Indian history from 1915 to the late 1970s. I definitely recommend it.

Comments

[fuzzyscribble.livejournal.com]

How did you like the Lisa See? I tried to read one of her books and found it slow and overly political...but have been told that you need to read "from the beginning" to really get the flavor of her writing.

[nekosensei.livejournal.com]

I haven't read any other books by Lisa See, but I did like Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. I did find it slow or overly political...

[tastyfusionfare.livejournal.com]

I never knew that Joss Whedon also writes novel. I thought he only does television :-)

Could you recommend anything else from your list?? (I already read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time). I'm just compelling my summer reading list and therefore I'm still looking for material.

I would have the say that, overall, the book bears a very strong resemblance to Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, which uses the technique of magical realism to tell the story of a family living in India, and later Pakistan.
Everybody who read both books says that ;-) We actually discussed that in class a lot (we also included The Glass Palace though). I personally think that Midnight's Children feels different. The tone is just so much sadder (probably that's because that part of history is closer to me than what Márquez describes :-)) I also think his understanding of history is different because he actually describes it circular and metaphorical while Rushdie relies on actual historical practice.

[nekosensei.livejournal.com]

I would recommend Lisa See's Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. It's about foot-binding in China and how women use a secret written language called Nu-Shu to keep in contact with their family and friends once they marry into a new home. By the way, Nu-Shu is a legitimate system of writing, and it was used for one thousand years by women in China.