Book review: Life & times of Michael K

Title: Life & times of Michael K
Author: J.M. Coetzee
Pages: 250

Life & times of Michael K is the story of Michael K, a hare-lipped simpleton living in apartheid-era South Africa. Michael’s father is dead and his mother is a maid who despises her son and abandons him in an insititution for many years.

Michael makes his living as a gardener for the city. When his mother falls sick she turns to her son for help. Michael accepts the burden of looking after without complaint and even considers it his purpose in life.

His mother longs to move out of the city and into her birthplace, the rural town of Prince Albert. They try to travel by train but fail to obtain the necessary permits. Finally they decide to travel on foot. Michael builds a rickshaw to carry his mother and starts walking toward Prince Albert.

The first part of the book follows Michael’s journey through the war-torn country after the death of his mother. K (as Michael is referred to in the book) lives as vagabond but is frequently picked up the police and other authorities. He spends time in camps but always manages to escape.

The second part of the book is narrated by a camp-doctor who takes an active interest in Michael because he refuses to eat food even though he does not want to die.

The third and final part of the book follows Michael after his escape from the camp.

Life & times of Michael K was an interesting and easy to read book. Recommended because it is a Booker-winning work by a Nobel prize-winning author. Indeed, the prizes impress me more than the book did.

Book review: My Name is Red

Title: My Name is Red
Author: Orhan Pamuk
Pages: 503

My Name is Red is a novel set in the city of Instanbul in the late 16th century. The main characters in the novel are miniaturists (artists) who work in the workshop of the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.

The story is a murder-mystery involving the mysterious death of Elegant Effendi who is one of the master miniaturists working on a top-secret book commisioned by the Sultan.

The story is related by the characters themselves in a smooth, linear manner. Each chapter is narrated by a particular character and the chapters are named accordingly. For example, the chapters narrated by the murderer are all named “I will be called a murderer”.

What makes this book even more unique is that inanimate objects like a coin and the colour red also act as narrators (admittedly through the tales of a storyteller, you will have to read the book to understand what I mean).

This book was strikingly unique and it gave me a pleasant glimpse into Muslim culture. Definitely recommended.

Book review: Silas Marner

Title: Silas Marner
Author: George Eliot
Pages: 183

Silas Marner is a touching novel about a miserly weaver called Silas Marner whose treasure is stolen from him.

Silas is a bitter and lonely man who is angry and confused about God and religion. He leaves his native city after being falsely accused of a crime and settles down in the village of Raveloe. Silas avoids contact with his fellow villagers and is in turn ignored by them. His only joy is the small fortune in gold and silver coins that he has collected from his weaving.

One day however the money is stolen and Silas is utterly desolate. He loses whatever little interest he took in life until an orphan girl mysteriously appears in his home.

Silas adopts the orphan and she brings about a transformation in him.

The story is interesting but the english is old and not easy to follow, especially the conversations between characters.

Book review: Animal Farm

Title: Animal Farm
Author: George Orwell
Pages: 88

Animal Farm is a brilliant satirical novel that mocks the Russian revolution. It shows how revolutions are led by “unconsciously power-hungry people” who end up making conditions even worse than before the revolution.

The novel is set on a farm in England called Manor Farm. The animals on it are ill-treated, overworked and underfed. One fine day they get together and decide to revolt against the owner of the farm. They kick him out of the farm and set about managing it themselves.

The pigs, the smartest of all the animals, assume leadership slowly. A pig called Napoleon (who is based on the Russian leader Stalin) gradually becomes a supreme-leader of sorts after he wipes out his opposition.

This is easily one of the best books I have ever read, highly recommended.

Book review: Kane & Abel

Title: Kane & Abel
Author: Jeffrey Archer
Pages: 550

Kane & Abel is a far-cry from the other Archer books i’ve read. Its plot is exciting and has plenty of surprises.

It tells the story of two men, William Kane, the son of a rich banker and Abel Rosnovski,  desperately poor Polish immigrant. Both men are incredibly smart and are full of ambition. Abel builds himself up slowly and enters the world of hotels when he is hired by a hotelier called Davis Leroy.

Abel runs into Kane when his boss, Leroy, cannot pay back some money he borrowed from Kane’s bank. Leroy risks losing his entire chain of hotels if he cannot pay his dues to the bank.

Pretty soon they turn into enemies and will stop at nothing to destroy each other. Archer does a good job of showing the futility of hatred. Both men have compelling reasons to hate the other, I had a hard time deciding who to sympathise with!

This is the only book by Jeffrey Archer I have found to be worth reading. Recommended.

Book review: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Title: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Author: Haruki Murakami
Pages: 607

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is a strange and complex novel that covers themes like philosophy, history, fantasy and the occult. Most of the book is narrated in the first-person by a Japanese man named Toru Okada.

Toru leads a simple and rather unimpressive life. He quit his job and stays at home while looking for a job. His wife, Kumiko, supports both of them with her income. However, strange things start happening to Toru – an unknown woman keeps calling and trying to get him to have phone sex, his cat disappears, his wife disappears, etc.

He soon realizes that his life is inextricably linked to a complex series of events that go back to the second world war (which took place before Toru and his wife were born).

I liked how Murakami weaves in secondary stories in the form of letters, dreams, flashbacks and newspaper articles. I especially liked the newspaper aticles, they were laid out quite realistically.

The “unreality” of this novel made me prefer the other novel of his (After Dark) that I had read a while back. Although the plot is complex and unreal the book was interesting and far from being difficult to read.

Book review: Paul Has a Summer Job

Title: Paul Has a Summer Job
Author: Michel Rabagliati
Pages: 145

This is easily one of the best graphic novels i’ve read. It tells the story of a Canadian teenager called Paul. He is a rebellious teenager who drops out of school after being refused permission to work on a art project because of his poor grades.

Paul starts working at a printer’s shop as an apprentice. After a year of drudgery Paul is offered the opportunity to work at a summer camp for poor kids. Paul jumps at the opportunity and goes off to work as a camp counsellor for two months.

His time as a counsellor marks his transition from a teenager to an (not yet fully matured) adult.

Although this book has no plot as such and it is most likely made-up, it was still funny, interestig and moving. Highly recommended.

Book review: Laika

Title: Laika
Author: Nick Abadzis
Pages: 203

Laika is a touching graphic novel about the first animal to be launched into orbit, a dog called Laika.

It was decided that a dog would be launched into space soon after the Russian’s successfully launched the spacecraft Sputnik into orbit. Nikita Khrushchev, the soviet leader, wanted the launch to coincide with the 40th annivesary of the Bolshevik Revolution.

As a result the designers were hard pressed for time and decided that the spacecraft would not return to earth, Laika was sent to die in space. Laika was a stray dog who was found wandering the streets of Moscow. Russian scientists preferred stray dogs for their experiments because they were already used to extreme cold.

Although the Russians claimed that Laika lasted several days and was euthanized using poisoned food the truth is that she (Laika was female) died after a couple of hours in orbit. She died from stress and overheating, definitely not a painless death as the Russians claim.

Abadzis has researched the book well but a lot of it is fictional. He does a fantastic job of creating a fictional account of Laika’s early life.

Book review: A History of Violence

Title: A History of Violence
Author: John Wagner
Artist: Vince Locke
Pages: 286

A History of Violence is the story of Tom McKenna, a small shop keeper from a small town in rural America. His life is peaceful and Tom is well respected. One fine day however, Tom’s life is disrupted and dragged into the glare of the media when he fights off some thugs who try to rob his store, he kills one man and puts the other in the hospital.

Tom becomes something of a celebrity and his story is flashed all over the country. Unfortunately, in a life he ran away from, Tom had crossed the New York mafia. He had run away and assumed a new identity with which he started a new life.

The mafia recognizes his face in the media and decides to come to his town and take revenge.

A History of Violence is a little weak plot-wise but it was still very entertaining. Recommended.

Book review: Outliers

Title: Outliers: The story of success
Author: Malcolm Gladwell
Pages: 285

Outliers is a book that proves that extraordinary success does not come purely from hard work and talent, it is also a combination of history, legacy, community and luck. It, just like Freakonomics, aims to dispell common myths by answering intriguing questions like “What do rice paddies have to do with math reuslts?”.

A number of things made me like this book less than Freakonomics:

• It is somewhat restricted in its scope, Gladwell does not cover as many areas as Freakonomics did. Rather, he restricts himself to long-winded background stories that take up most of the book.

• I didn’t learn any new methods of looking at information. Unlike Ben at A Modest Construct, this book did not make me feel like investigating further.
  After reading Freakonomics I felt like doing some research on census data. I never got around to even getting hold of the data, but still, I was inspired to do it.

• I found the whole theme of the book to be rather obvious to warrant so much elucidation. Ofcourse extraordinary success is the result of extraordinary circumstances, I don’t need hundreds of pages to tell me that.

Although, I prefer Freakonomics it must be said that Gladwell presents his information clearly and convincingly. It was interesting and light reading.