RIVER OF SMOKE
Amitav Ghosh John Murray, June 2011, RRP $27.95
The second in Amitav Ghosh’s Ibis trilogy, River of Smoke first takes up some 40 or 50 years after the events of Sea of Poppies, to reveal the ultimate fate of several of the characters. Since the end of the last book left things up in the air*, this choice threw me a bit when I started it. Perhaps I have a tendency to become complacent when reading certain things, so am particularly confused when shown an unexpected curve ball. I wondered if, perhaps, this second book took place entirely at this juncture. Fortunately for my state of mind, the novel does quickly return to the 1830s and the continuing development of the first Opium War.
Let me tell you about buying this book. After being provided with a review copy of the third in this Ibis trilogy, I sought the first two books. I initially purchased them from the Book Depository, since despite its purchase by Amazon, it has served me well in the past, and given the size of the books, time was somewhat of the essence. Unfortunately, my order for the second book was cancelled after a few days and I was refunded. The first book, though, was ostensibly sent in early March. By the beginning of April, I had not received it. So I contacted the Book Depository and received a swift refund for that too. And I turned to Booktopia, which delivered both books promptly, albeit in rather strange jaffle-style packaging. Surprise, surprise, John Murray is a trading name of Hachette, with whom Amazon and by extention the Book Depository have been having a well-publicised tiff*.
Book finally in my hands, I expected something of a dour book. Nominated for the Man Booker Prize, Sea of Poppies is firmly targeted at a literary market. I feared it would be a worthy†, possibly depressing novel about serious issues. But while this book is certainly about the slightly serious issue of the first Opium War, it is neither dour nor worthy. In fact it is frequently hilarious.
THE QUIET AMERICAN Graham Greene (William Heinemann, 1955; Vintage, 2004) ISBN: 9780099478393
So, ah, have you ever started reading a book you thought was about something completely different than it turned out to be? Because I was under some kind of misapprehension about The Quiet American before I started it. All I really knew about it was that it was made into a movie some time in the early to mid 2000s starring Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser. I only know this because I had a cousin involved in the picture, who at the time called his mother to say, “I’ve just met Michael Caine and you’re the only person I can think of who’ll care.” Because this was back before we all had decided Michael Caine was cool again when he started being Batman’s butler and that sort of thing.
I think I had the book confused with The English Patient and possibly some other book that doesn’t exist. Essentially, I knew the plot involved two men in love* with the same woman, but for some reason I believed it involved either a hospital or POWs. This is what a hazy memory for pop culture does to a person. I recommend you all study hard on what the Kardashians and real housewives are up to right now, for it may be tested later.
If you’d like to (I’m not your real mom, I can’t make you), this video I’ve attached seems thematically appropriate. The song, a cover of Wishful Thinking’s Hiroshima by German band Puhdys–though it is of course about the wrong city–ran through my head a number of times as I read Burnt Shadows. Because this book is, amongst other things, about a nuclear world, the Cold War, and the constant two minutes to midnight. I’ve provided an original, literal and probably poor translation of the German lyrics, which are themselves a more poetic translation of the original English lyrics, below the video.
Only a shadow remains of him*, in Hiroshima
Silent as fire
But nobody knows, in Hiroshima,
Stone becomes a scream.
And it cries, “Remember well,
Or you will bring the embers** like here.”
Fly, my song, to Hiroshima
Fly to the shadow stones
And promise the man in Hiroshima
That it will never happen again
Because the world remembers*** well —
Or they will bring embers like Hiroshima****.
*This may also be “it”, ie, “the bomb”, which is a feminine noun, but changes in its dative form.
**The original word, “Glut” has a number of possible appropriate meanings, including “blaze”, “glow” or “fervour” as well.
***It’s possible there’s an imperative attached to the word “remember” that I’ve missed.
****The delivery of this line suggests a pun on here/Hiroshima.
Burnt Shadows, by Kamila Shamsie is a story about the world’s unluckiest woman. Hiroko Tanaka is caught up in the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. After recovering from her injuries and accepting her grief, she finds her way after the war to an India on the cusp of Independence and Partition. Later, as the blurb reveals–so no spoilers here–she spends some time in Pakistan before managing to be present in New York in time for September 11. Crikey. Yet she survives it all and, truth be told, the story is not at all as melodramatic or contrived as it might sound.
IN THE NIGHT OF TIME
Antonio Muñoz Molina (trans. Edith Grossman; Tuskar Rock, 2015) ISBN: 978 1 78125 463 9. RRP $35.99
Antonio Muñoz Molina is a Spanish literary heavyweight who I, poor ignorant, had never heard of before reviewing this book. In the Night of Time is his 23rd book, a tome of luscious long paragraphs* and reverie; of love and desire; and of Spain at the outbreak of the devastating civil war of the 1930s.
My familiarity with Spanish literature, it must be said, is virtually non-existent. I’m also not particularly well-apprised of the history of Spain, with my familiarity of any kind ending with the reign of of Ferdinand and Isabella. That’s a good 650-odd years of history there. Shame on me. But the point of all this is to say that I can’t really comment on a number of matters regarding Molina’s novel. Is it historically accurate? It… seems to be. Where does it fit in terms of Spanish-language literary trends? It kind of seems vaguely similar to some of the South American books I’ve read in the past? So for that I apologise, guys.
Barbara Kingsolver (Harper, 1998) ISBN: 0-06-017540-0
Ah, Africa. Africa, Africa, Africa. Having re-viewed Binyavanga Wainana’s How to Write About Africa (which I have tried linking to, but cannot make it work–sorry!), I’m somewhat more satisfied that The Poisonwood Bible at least doesn’t commit the most egregious of authorial crimes against the continent. And being aware that the book was written more than 15 years ago, for a white American audience, I should perhaps try to be more forgiving. Nonetheless, this novel seriously rubbed me the wrong way. I wanted to like it. I wanted to love it, because it had been recommended me so many times by people whose opinions I trust. I felt certain I would love it. What a bitter betrayal.
Boris Pasternak (trans. Max Hayward and Manya Harai, Vintage, 2002 (first published Collins and Harvill, 1958)) ISBN: 9780099448426
Boris Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago has been lauded for almost 60 years as one of the greatest love stories of all time. An epic set during the Russian Revolution, it saw its author awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature and has been adapted several times for the screen in both Russian and English. With the weight of its renown, but without much notion of what the story was actually about, I looked forward to falling in love with this book. Unfortunately, I didn’t.
Americanah is a sharp and absorbing consideration of the migrant experience, identity and relationships. It follows Ifemelu and Obinze, who fall in love as students in Nigeria and have two very different experiences upon deciding to migrate to the US. Though it is the story of both Ifemelu and Obinze, Americanah concentrates foremost on Ifemelu and her quest for identity.
Anna of the Five Towns is the first of Arnold Bennet’s five novel series set in the Staffordshire potteries. It has the authentic ring of someone who really knows the town and its people, and this is true for Bennet who was writing about his own beginnings and the people … Continue reading
RIVER OF SMOKE
