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This fortnight at Strand Book Stall
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Shalimar the Clown
Salman Rushdie
Jonathan Cape, Rs. 475
"An epic narrative that moves from California to France, England, and above all, Kashmir." In telling the story of Maximilian Ophulus, his relationship with the Kashmiri dancer Boonyi and India, the daughter born to them, Rushdie is also talking about the American role in Kashmir, and the dangers of terrorism.
Reviews point to Shalimar the Clown as Rushdie's most complex and interesting work since Midnight's Children. It also has the same complex bordering-on-complicated thought and syntax structures and the tense interweaving of the stories of families and particular people with the stories of nations and people in general.
In Shalimar... , several strands of story and plot flow easily into a main narrative that crosses geographical and psychological boundaries time and again, with the silent reminder that the world is indeed a small place and that history may be more common to all of us than we acknowledge.
44 Scotland Street
Alexander McCall Smith
Abacus, Rs. 195
Very different from the No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency, 44 Scotland Street, originally serialised daily in The Scotsman, is about the residents of 44, Scotland Street, and their friends and acquaintances. Most of who are quirky, likeable and interesting in different ways.
McCall Smith's writing here is very different from his vastly popular Ladies' Detective Agency series, set in Africa, with its slow, deliberative African rhythms. Here the narration is brisk and, as serialisation would require, each chapter packs a punch of sorts, keeping the reader eager for more.
Might take a while for devotees of the Ladies' Detective Agency to take to anything else by McCall Smith in the same manner, but this is nice reading.
The Butcher of Amritsar
Nigel Collett
Rupa, Rs. 235
"This excellent new biography is meticulously researched and clearly written," says BBC History. Reviews point out that this is one of the most important books ever on Indo-British relations and also point out that fact that Collett has not done a one-dimensional picture of General Dyer, the Butcher of Amritsar.
Now aged 52, Collett read history at St Peter's College, Oxford, before training at Sandhurst and joining the British army. Later, he was a company commander with the Sultan of Oman's Land Forces, before being loaned to the Zimbabwe army in Harare. He rose to be a Lieutenant Colonel and Commanding Officer 6th Gurkhas in Hong Kong from 1991 and was garrison commander in Brunei from 1992-3.
The Last Mysore Pradhan
M.A. Sreenivasan
Dronequill, Rs. 315
The memoir of the last Pradhan of Mysore, M.A. Sreenivasan, is surprisingly good reading; witty in the self-restrained manner of someone who is aware of his verbal charms, Sreenivasan describes the many parts of his colourful life so concisely that it sometimes takes your breath away!
A book about many things, most of which for us belongs to a far-away era, Sreenivasan's memoir takes us down interesting paths, talking as casually and easily about family as about work, rendering the most complex ideas into the most simple sentences, without losing out on the depth of meaning. A good read.
KALA KRISHNAN RAMESH
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