Review: "Devil Water" by Anya Seton

It seems to be History season for me. After ending 2010 with American history, my first read this year was set in the stormy Jacobite struggles of England, again from a Reader's Digest Condensed Books edition. For all the English authors I have read, my knowledge of Britain’s history is fuzzy at best. The English are to be blamed for that, they have way too much print on their history, you know. Ok, before I wander off as I usually do, let me get to the review part.

Having started off historical fiction with Kalki’s unmatched Ponniyin Selvan, my yardsticks for historical fiction are quite high. And Anya Seton’s Devil Water did live up to the expectations as best as any non-tamil writing could. The comprehension of the story and even my review requires some reading up on the history of the 17^th and 18^th century England.

While I cannot do justice to the review without some introduction to the Stuarts Monarchs of England, the history is highly complicated and difficult to explain. I will endeavor to state only the barest of essentials here. The Stuart Monarchs descended from the Kings of Scotland where they had ruled for over 200 years in the 14^th, 15^th and 16^th centuries. The Stuarts then ruled over the entire island of Britain from 1567 until the staunchly Catholic James II was overthrown in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. The Stuarts did not rule between 1649 and 1660 when monarchy was inoperative as a result of the English Civil War. The novel is set in the Jacobite struggles of late 17^th and early 18^th century, when attempts were made to restore James II, then his son James III and later his grandson Charles to the throne. The word Jacobite derives from Jacobus which means James.

And now for a little bit of geography - Northumbria or Northumberland is the picturesque north corner of England, just south of Scotland.

The narrative of Devil Water unfolds from Charles Radcliffe, brother of the Earl of Derwentwater, James Radcliffe. The Radcliffe brothers were cousins to the Pretender James III and devoted supporters of the Jacobite cause.

The beginning of the book is a romantic read – descriptive and adventurous. The setting is pastoral and political connotations are sparse. The accents take some getting used to. Completely unfamiliar with how the Northumbrian, Highland accents sound, I stumbled over the dialogues quite a bit initially. Thankfully the author did not insist on sticking to accents throughout, that would have made it a bit tiresome.

The initial part of the narrative follows adolescent Charles Radcliffe romancing Meg Snowdon, a Highlands girl. The romance of Charles and Meg comes to an abrupt end when Meg disappears. With the arrival of James Radcliffe into the scene, the story moves between London and Dilston Castle. Charles is all set to marry his cousin Betty Lee, when he is snatched by Meg’s brothers and married to Meg who is pregnant with his child. Meg gives birth to a daughter – Jane, that very night.

Charles loves Jane as soon as he lays his eyes on her. Robert Wilson, Meg’s brother-in-law, a rustic young lad of ten, dotes upon little Jane. The affections these two widely different characters – one aristocratic, the other a simpleton, hold for Jane forms the centre stage of the story.

For a while it looks like the three are set to go their separate ways. While Charles works for the Jacobite cause with his brother James, Rob Wilson tries to make his own way in the world. Jane meanwhile, is sent to Betty Lee’s (who is married to another cousin now) household at the behest of Charles, to be brought up a lady. The Jacobite risings churn the waters and inexorably bring the three together.

Anya Seton writes suspense, romance, narrative and description with equal ease and in splendid style. The story has the right amount of drama, intrigue and the right pace to hold one’s interest. The author takes care to ensure the descriptions do not make the story unrealistic in anyway. The portrayal of Jane and her inner turmoils as she grows up at Betty’s household, is exceptionally well-written. The description of 18^th century London is refreshingly new and far removed from being cliché. 

The author moves to colonial America with ease as Jane follows Rob Wilson into Virginia. Plantation owners and their pride in their plantations and mansions is just so colonial America. Seton doesn't dwell too much on gory details, yet manages to bring out the situation of slaves succinctly.

The themes of the time – Jacobite struggle, contemptuous treatment of colonials, slavery in America are all beautifully captured in their essence. There is not a dull moment in the entire novel. The canvas stretching from Northumbrian Highlands to London to Virginia is vast and the pains the author has taken to carefully research each aspect of the story is self-evident in the flawless narratives.

It is an extremely difficult task to combine thoroughly researched history and intriguing story into one. Anya Seton has done the job well. There is definitely a very good storyline but this book is to be enjoyed equally for its portrayal of the times and the flow. It is a book I thoroughly enjoyed and would strongly recommend to anyone with a little patience to understand the history a bit.

P.S: I have tried to avoid too many details here so as to not give the story away.

The Revenge of Her Highness

Bangalore this year does seem to have a winter. It does indeed, as opposed to last year when it did not show any sign of the winter’s passing. So bad was the situation that I got laughed at for having advised my friends to get their woolens out of the closet, aired and ready for December. Having been in Bangalore for more than a couple of years now, I have to concede, albeit grudgingly, that it does have a cooler weather than many cities in the South, atleast in the winter. All the legends of “hill-station-ish Bangalore of all seasons” are definitely a myth today. But winters do bring a drop in the temperature, mist and the worst of them all, a breeze that can chill you to your bones.

Oh yes! This year there is a royal cold wave sweeping over parts of the country – global warming, etc, etc. Yes, but there is another side to the story as well.

This is the story of my room(respectfully Her Highness, Lady Room hereon) and her teaming up with Her Coldness, Lady Winter. So frustrated has Her Highness been with my almost-nil care for her throughout the year, that she decided to get her revenge.

Let me explain what angered my Lady Room so much. I am a sunny person - I love open windows, bright natural lighting and get absolutely claustrophobic when there is a lack of ventilation. So throughout the year, I left my windows open, day in and day out. The poor windows got battered by the winds so much that one of them lost the keep-it-open hook-latch. Hinges un-oiled and exposed to the elements for 365 days, the windows got the screeching, wheezing voice of an old lady.

With the windows open all day, I guess neither Her Highness nor her maid of honour, my cot, appreciated being cooked by the sun either.

I am lazy when it comes to adding décor of any sort to my walls. In a fit of creativity I add a brightly crayoned mural to the wall then forget all about it. The chart paper loses its sheen; the colors fade and the cello tape peels, yet I happily ignore it. In a moment of josh, I put up a cartoon I sketched and leave it there till the pencil marks nearly disappear. I put up India maps and Krishna pics and let them be till they are yellowed with age. I guess Her Highness did not appreciate my affront to her dignity this way.

From my forays to bookstores, rendezvous with pavement second-hand-bookwallahs, I added more and more books to my sagging bookshelf till my room literally bulged with books. To top it all, I dump loads of things unwanted-but-cant-throw-them-away onto my tiny loft.

Her Highness decided she had had enough. She called up Lady Winter and propositioned her to bring along a breeze that will teach me a lesson. One of my windows doesn’t shut properly you see, the latch(yes, the closing latch too :() doesn’t work.

“And why doesn’t it work?” asks Her Highness in a haughty voice.

Shivering under my blankets, from the bone-numbing breeze that has slipped in through the crack a few mms wide to do Lady Winter’s bidding, I reply miserably, “Yes, yes, Your Highness, it is my fault indeed. The latch is slightly rusted due to my negligence.”

“Slightly!” exclaims Her Highness in a shrill voice.

Then there is a sudden silence.

“No, no.. Rusted, I meant royally rusted.. “ I whimper.

But the damage is done; she has gone to complain to her friend. There is a gust of wind, I hear Lady Winter’s high laughter and suddenly my latch-less window swings wide open, the curtain flaps madly and the temperature in the room drops a bit more. I pull my blankets tighter around me but to no avail.

I struggle up in my bed, free myself of the tangled blankets and with my teeth chattering I reach out of the window into the cruel cold night and pull the window shut. I can hear Her Coldness laughing softly with her maid, Miss. Breeze and her friend Her Highness.

“Please, Your Coldness, I have always loved your visits every year. I look forward to them. And I love coming to the north or the higher altitudes to meet you,” I plead.

“Yet, you ignore my dear friend. Every time you have fun with me, who takes care of you shielding you from my worst?”

“Her Highness. Her Highness and her friends everywhere,” I answer in a whisper.

“You have fun with me cocooned in your blankets, in the warm cozy arms of Her Highness.”

“Yes, Your Coldness,” comes my shivering reply.

Silence reigns.

After a few minutes, I reach up and pull the curtains closed, tuck it into the crack and snuggle back into my blankets.

Needlessly to say, next day my windows are oiled, the rust in the latch scraped away, my dilapidated décor cleared. The day after that my loft is cleaned out, order is restored to my bookshelf and new décor pondered over.

Her Highness is glowing and Lady Winter is my gentle friend again. Lady Winter whispers jokes in my ears on my evening walks, enjoys hot jalebis with me and at the end of the day, softly closes my eyelids and lulls me to sleep under my warm blankets.

Ignorant or insane?

If there was an article in The Hindu that I had me sputtering in shock and disbelief, it was this article in today’s Metro Plus titled “Peddle Power”. If you have not read the actual article, power politics, media-politics nexus or something on those lines will probably cross your mind.

You are totally off the mark my friend. The “Peddle” was supposed to be “Pedal” actually. We are talking environment conservation here. Wonder how? Cycle rickshaws! I can hear your “huh” now. Not my idea folks. I will be at a psychiatric ward before I come up with such an idea. This is the wonderful idea that purportedly won Ms. Nicole Faria the title of Miss Earth 2010.

Ms. Faria’s reasoning behind the fabulous idea – cycle rickshaws save fossil fuels and provide employment. And oh! I forgot, they come cheap plus we also get entertainment and tourism guidance as an add-on by way of chatting with the rickshaw-puller. Can you understand my shock now?

One human hauling another manually is nothing short of slavery and servitude. I know there exist other forms of exploitation in the world today. But atleast slavery is something we got rid off, and way back in the 19^th century for that matter. And here we are instead of working on getting rid of the other evils, talking of getting one back on board. Yes, we still have the cycle-rickshaws in some parts of our country and that is very sad. And efforts are on in various quarters to do get rid of the practice.

How can one get away with such a statement? And get awarded the Miss Earth for that! God Forbid! Where are our Human Rights Organisations now? Are governments the only ones who will be condemned for human rights violations?

Almost as an afterthought, there is a mention of bicycle-renting(or I think that is what she meant) Bicycles and cycle rickshaws are galaxies apart, one noble and the other deplorable. Does she even know the difference? I don’t know what to think.

The Hindu of all newspapers published this “interview”. And made a headline out of that statement and spelt it wrong too! Please, not The Hindu too, going down the drain L

As I started writing this, I google’d for “Nicole Faria on cycle rickshaws” and noted with even more shock(if that is possible) that quite a few news articles had quoted it. I simply cannot believe it. How can this be? Has everyone lost their head or am I the insane one??

East and South-East Asia Reading Challenge

The upcoming year is ridden with challenges for me. Yes, as the title of the blog post indicates, I am signing up for another Reading Challenge. This time it is Violet Crush’s “East and South-East Asia Challenge”.

This one has me really excited. I love reading books set in different cultures and I really look forward to engaging with the EAS(East Asia Summit) and the ASEAN with this challenge :)  My exposure to this part of the world, though I live pretty much in the immediate neighbourhood, is pretty limited. “Good Earth” by Pearl S. Buck is the lone representative of this geography(corporate lingo ;) ) in my “I’ve-read-list”.

And this is not too ambitious a challenge – 3 books is pretty much the best deal you can get. I am yet to pick my books. I will list them here later.

1)

2)

3)

& Hopefully a 4)

Or, I will add them in a separate post – if I am so enamoured with them that I want to rave even before reading them :)

P.S: Also, this should show you I did not sign up for the Mystery Challenge only for the ARC :D

Book Chick City's "Mystery & Suspense Reading Challenge 2011" - I am in!

2010 has essentially been a messy year for me. I did loads of things, but many of them haphazardly. And my reading was one of them. I read with a fury then slacked. I wrote/blogged in spurts, then again slacked. Determined to rectify my vagrant ways, I am set to welcome 2011 with a vision, a mission and a challenge!

With my “discovery” of book blogging, I invariably discovered Reading Challenges. I looked at a whole lot of them, was tempted by many, but decided to be rational and pick something I can really hope to complete.

Book Chick City’s “Mystery & Suspense Reading Challenge 2011” is a cool option for various reasons. Mystery is a wonderful genre that can accommodate variety. The one thing I was skeptical about in participating in Reading Challenges was that I might get bored with monotony. A Mystery and Suspense Challenge has no danger of that. Also, twelve books is very doable.

And of course, the offer of an ARC of “The Survivor” by Sean Slater from Simon & Schuster adds to the pull:P So “Mystery & Suspense Challenge” here I come!

Review: “Lady Washington, The Story of America’s First First Lady” by Dorothy Clarke Wilson

I have reason to believe every US President is a stimulus of economic activity in his own right, the reason being the number of books written on him. And these books are popular regardless of the President’s popularity or effectiveness. The fascination with the First Ladies seems to be even more hysterical. I had thought this began with Jackie Kennedy, but it goes long into the past.

I chanced upon “Lady Washington, The Story of America’s First First Lady” by Dorothy Clarke Wilson in a Reader’s Digest Condensed Edition (which I pick up without bothering about the books or summaries, provided they are pre-1990) volume of 1984. I was intrigued because I was just reading about the period of the American Independence and its related events.

Set in Virginia, the initial part of the book reads almost like fiction set in colonial America. There is not too much about the plantations, trade and related issues of the time. The focus is on the households of the plantation owners, socializing and the Colonial Assemblies that are more social affairs than political. Martha’s character buildup is quick and not very colorful.

Once George Washington comes into the picture, political events make themselves felt but only mildly. The author takes great care to ensure the book does not deviate into political waters or turn onto Washington. Washington is always viewed in Martha’s eyes. The author deserves credit for her focus here.

Contrary to my expectations that the book would become more interesting with the Declaration of independence, confrontation with Britain and the Presidency, it progressively became monotonous and slow.

Always following Martha, the writing style is very dry and often feels like a chronology than a story. As we go on, one can almost predict the sentences. There are repetitive phrases like “.. and his arms were around her.” every time Martha meets Washington after a separation. The lives of Washingtons seem to scattered with deaths of dear ones – they are also mentioned in the same fashion over and over again. Another lacking aspect is that there is very little on her interactions with her friends and contemporaries. They are mentioned only in passing, only exception being her first interaction Mary Washington, George’s mother.

Washington is portrayed reluctant to be in public affairs all the time.  And Martha in the vortex of it all, has no leaning towards any political ideology or opinion. She remains only a devoted and supportive wife for a very long time. While she has won the affection and admiration of the people by her unassuming self and good-naturedness, it is only at the end of his first Presidency that she actually realizes the significance of her position as First Lady. Even her caring for his soldiers is the duty of a wife to her husband’s affairs not patriotism.

The book in its devotion to correct chronicling of events misses out on innovation in writing. The narration of six years of Washington’s campaigns seems almost as tiring to the reader as the actual campaigns were to Lady Washington.

The book is a glorifying account of the life of Martha Washington and is all praise for George Washington's devotion to his country and modesty. It fails to make any mention of, or rather diligently avoids, the controversies surrounding the Washingtons, esp with regard to slavery. It only mentions that George Washington sets his slaves free in his will.

This was either a bad condensation(it is thick enough with 175 pages) that did not capture the essence of the book very well or the book itself has been written in a plain style. The book can be called informative at best, but netiher a very engaging read nor a non-partisan account. It can be read for its history – one who is ignorant of American independence history might find it useful and even a light way of understanding the sequence of events.

Discoveries this week.. (Contd)

As I stretch out listening to BBC podcasts subscriptions, I send a silent prayer to bless the developers of Miro yet again for the handy tool. As to my friends here, I have not forgotten my promise to write about my other discovery this week. In fact, this has been quite the “discovery” week. But I will not reveal my other web-treks as yet – yes, they are mostly cyber-world discoveries. I will save them for future posts ;)

“Discovering” Book Blogging almost three years after my baby steps into the world of blogging, does throw into sharp relief what an amateur I still am ;) Another irony of this discovery is that, my first blog post ever was a book review! One would have thought I would be a veteran in book blogging! Well, things did not progress on that front as you can see. I spent too much time racking my brains and keeping my eyes peeled for things around me to blog about, that I missed what has always been close to my heart. Sure, I have blogged about books and bookstores. But I never got into mainstream book blogging. This is not to say I will stop boring you with these musings :P and do only book reviews hereon, but I do intend to make an attempt at reviewing.

A lot of the book blogs I looked at were semi-professional – there was a proper book review policy, reviews done on books picked up from the store as well as on requisition by author, etc. I am not aiming to get into the high-flying league though. Even I am not that deluded you see ;) My reviewing will be mostly for my own sake. I went back and re-read my first post and my only book review in history. I remember the pleasure I experienced writing it, my first piece of writing that was not a school essay or exam paper. And it helped me refresh my memory about the book beautifully and inspired me to pick up a book from my to-be-read stack as well. And that is reason enough for me to try book blogging!