First Impressions
The Burn Journals, Brent Runyon, Penguin, price not stated.
If you are 14 and smart and have everything going for you, why would you do yourself in? Brent Runyon was 14 when he set himself on fire. What made his action all the more amazing was the fact that he came from a well-to-do family.
What made him take that terrible action years ago is something for which he has no answers even today. Was it peer pressure? Boredom? There was no preconceived agenda when he decided that fateful day to set himself on fire. He lit the match and waited for something to happen. Nothing at first and then, before he knew it, he was on fire running down the stairs for his brother to help. Brent realised then that he did not want to die. The searing pain blots out all else . Brent has 85 per cent burns and is shunted from one hospital to another. This book is a testimony to the boy that finally emerges a survivor from that ghastly experience. A breathtaking and sometimes shocking account of a teenager's life and thoughts, The Burn Journals gives the reader a glimpse of the workings of a teen mind, totally unpredictable at one level and yet wanting to conform at another. It is the story of a young boy who finally reaches out to the love his parents have for him and in doing so, finds redemption.
The Factory, Granta, Rs. 395.
Full credit to Granta for researching a most unusual subject and managing to bring not just a whiff of nostalgia but also a scent of romance to the writing. Imagine tackling a subject like factories. What this issue of Granta has done and admirably so, is to bring out a whole lifestyle that exists around the factories: the people who worked in them and the people who ran them; the myriad towns that came up alongside the factories. To quote the editor, "The business of making things is becoming a memory for much of the western world... Factories don't just make objects... they created a way of life." Andrew Martin in "Chocolate Soldier" relives his childhood by the famous Rowantree and Hersheys factories and visiting them years later. As an adult who has moved away from, he is struck by some absurdities about the factory and the lifestyle it created. Then there are the huge factories in China today which infuse a different lifestyle among its workers and employees. Alec Soth's picture essay on factory workers in Minneosta is an amazing piece of reportage that speaks volumes of how they view their lives and their works. Was the life of the factory and its workers one? Did the towns that these factories came up in eventually represent the culture of the factory? These are the issues captured so evocatively in this issue.
A Strange Attachment and Other Stories, Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay, Rupa, Rs. 195.
From the surreal to the mundane, these short stories capture the spirit of rural Bengal in all its poignancy. The characters have been sketched with unerring precision and represent a part of the past. Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay is today considered one of the greatest writers of the Indian subcontinent. Simple in style, these stories draw the reader into a different world where time stands still. These stories portray the core of life in rural Bengal but their comment on human nature is universal.
BY SUCHITRA BEHAL
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