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.

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!

Reading Nani Palkhivala - contd

I seem to have been bitten by the writing bug(I didn’t think it had any liking at all towards me, whatsoever), I can’t seem to stop writing or raving about Palkhivala for that matter. That is why you find me sitting at my desk at work after a weeklong vacation… and writing!

I have completed devouring “We, the people” by Nani Palkhivala. The title “We, the people” is the first words of the Preamble of our Constitution that seeks set out the vision set for the Republic of India under the auspices of the Constituent Assembly. So, true to the title, the book is a collection of Nani’s thoughts, assembled as a compilation of his speeches and writings(already published in newspapers/magazines) on what we have managed to make out of our noble Constitution. True that what we have made of it can be summed up in one word – “mockery”, yet Palkhivala goes beyond. He pulls apart the curtains of darkness we have put upon ourselves and reaches deep within to grasp the shining fabric of our civilization, and exhort us to realize our potential. His voice throughout the book beckons “We, the people” to relate to “We, the people” who framed our Constitution and their vision.

An eminent jurist, who has contributed vitally to safeguarding our Constitution through the Kesavananda Bharati case, he talks passionately to look at the Constitution as an enduring body, not to be interfered with at every step and stumble. On the ever-running conflict and debate on the supremacy of Fundamental Rights vs Directive Principles of State policy, he captures the essence in a few words(not quoting verbatim), – “Directive Principles of State Policy are indeed the end goals, the Fundamental Rights provide the means by which to realize the ends. A determined government can achieve the ends while observing the limits on the means”

On problems of governance, especially centre-state relations, he urges us not to fall into “the fallacy of legal solubility”, but to develop conventions that align with the constitutional spirit, and the discipline to abide by the conventions.

The book is not for people who are looking for a narrative of sorts. It is a bundle of thoughts in various contexts – speeches delivered in convocations, business forums, articles written in magazines, etc. As a package, it is resonant of the heartbeats of the first decades of the Indian Republic. It touches upon the numerous issues that faced a very young modern republic – some of the issues have been firmly resolved, some have faded into insignificance in the evolving world, and some, have compounded over the years.

The book is not an easy read either – the versatile genius of Palkhivala requires work to comprehend in entirety. Personally for me, it has been the single most informative and insightful book on India after independence.


P.S : This short piece took me over three days to complete. I had to put it on hold minutes after I started writing. I had completed more than half the content in those few minutes, but I could never get the flow quite right again and it took me over three days and many aborted attempts to finally complete it :( That teaches me to try to write at work.

Bestsellers, Flashy Bookstores and the Rare Intellectuals of today

The “Bestsellers”, “Must-read” and “Catch-of-the-week” sections of bookstores appear to be so very predictable these days. “Critic’s choice” sections seem to have disappeared or have metamorphosed into clones of the “Bestseller” section. The so-called bestsellers are the ones that are often very superficial, create that dejavu feeling when the reader can relate some aspect of the book to his life and have a sense of cynical humour. My main grouse with these bestsellers is that they are rarely enlightening, they neither add much to the reader’s knowledge nor provide any food for thought. They all seem geared towards satisfying the ego of the reader that he knows rather a lot about something. High in rhetoric and low in substance is how I can sum up these so-called bestsellers.

Talking about Bestseller sections, it isn’t as if the other sections are great either. Sometimes I venture into a store and I am shocked to see the entire Books section is about 300 sq ft. I say “Books” section in particular because accessories, home décor and gift items take up space in thousands of square feet. Given the limited space, the titles hold no surprises, they are the same over and over again. See a new title? Now, don’t get too excited, take a closer look, it is probably a new title by a “best-selling” author cashing on the success of his previous (or last but fifth) book which made it to the best-seller lists. Oh, on another note, I am forgetting the fancy lighting in these bookstores that makes it a pain to read even a few paragraphs. Well, who wants you to read the book, just pick it up and bill it! (Don’t believe me? Check out the Odyssey bookstore in Bangalore and if you can read two pages before your eyes start to burn, you have such extraordinary eyes that you could possibly walk in the Antartic in summer without goggles and not suffer from snow-blindness.)

Reading these days is focused on these so-called bestsellers and people rarely develop an interest in any subject or theme in particular. This again creates more of these superficial bestsellers and the vicious circle continues creating a whirlpool, which is fast sucking into it any leftover knowledge in print and creating a vacuum of bestsellers.

OK, I am being too harsh, it is not that no good books get published these days. I know a good many volumes of scholarly writing do get published, but who reads them? A very select handful with an interest in the subject. The bestseller lists of yesteryears always showcased a wide variety of themes. Our grandfathers, dads and uncles were extremely well read and could discuss at length on contemporary thoughts and issues. The arguments were not based on any rule of thumb and blind emotions, they were informed discussions that captured the topic in all facets. Knowing the issue as completely as they did, they did not feel a compulsive inclination to take sides and argue senselessly. They could capture succinctly in a few words the dilemmas, delicate balances and tangled issues that presented no easy solutions. And they were just not jack of all traders, each had a special interest, and read and researched on it in detail. How many of us can boast of that? Intellectual activity today appears, at best, limited to discussing on the Vidu Vinod Chopra vs Chetan Bhagat.

To compound the problem, the fancy bookstore chains seem to have done away with knowledgeable bookstore-wallahs as well – exception being perhaps the Sapna bookstore in Bangalore, where the attendants seem to know the titles in their section, or atleast, have the common sense to refer to the computerized catalogue to say if a volume is in stock or not. This helps the knowledgeable reader who wants to read a book in particular but it cannot help a fledgling reader to develop an interest in any subject.

Next come the pseudo-scholarly books which over-simplify the subject and the reader ends up thinking he has a rounded knowledge of the subject when he has just skimmed the subject with a dash of the author’s opinion to garnish it.

Sometimes I think, the days are not far off, when one has to write to a publisher to get a scholarly book. And you might even get a reply expressing regret on the book being out of print (the one that was published last year?!?! Yes sir, we printed only about a hundred and fifty) and suggesting you could get a printout of the book in spiral binding for a fee. God Forbid!

I am not a fan of doomsday prophecies, but this page seems to be full of them, doesn’t it? :) Sorry, but the picture looks so dismal that I just couldn’t help it.