Manushyanu oru aamukham by Subhash Chandran

And I am back!!!

This blog has been inactive for a long time now but I sincerely promise I will be regular in the future!

But I am happy that I am coming back with the best book that I have read this year. And that too a malayalam novel.

Subhash Chandran is a young Malayalam writer and Manushyanu oru Aamukham is his first novel. I don't follow modern Malayalam literature very keenly but I can confidently say that this is one of the best Malayalam novels that have come out in recent times.

The novel describes the life of three generations of a family, Ayyattumpilly, as a prelude to the life of the main protagonist, Jithendran. All the characters in the novel are realistic and well-carved. Any of them can be seen in a large joint family in Kerala. Through them, the novelist also describes the changes that happened in the Malayali society over the years.

Certainly, a near perfect novel and hence a near perfect score, 4.9 out of 5.


Image source:  www.dcbooks.com

The Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Man Booker Prize, made into a motion picture which went on to win many Oscars...There were enough reasons for this book to be in my "To Read " list. And when I picked this up finally to read, the expectation level was very high. Most probably that's what went wrong. When you pick up a book with high expectations, there is a high chance that you end up disappointed.

Having said that, I still don't know why I didn't like the book. The storyline is exceptionally good, narrative good enough, a shock factor present, what else was I looking for? May be I found the details of Pi's struggle for survival gross. Yeah, I sure did. And why shouldn't I? I am sitting in my cozy bed after a good dinner, reading a book. How would I understand the struggle of a boy, stranded in mid-ocean, with no food and no shelter and only a carnivorous tiger for company? How would I understand the loneliness that would force you to wait for the tiger to come back to the boat in the evening rather than leave him in a carnivorous island to die? I would rather believe such things don't exist.

The book sure has its "moments" but for me, it is like that sad movie that you don't want to watch again. Blame it on my high expectations. 

3 out of 5.

Inferno by Dan Brown

There are some authors who have this "one book" that bowled you over.  And you always pick up another book from the author thinking you are going to get another masterpiece. But often you end up disappointed. Even then, when you see another book from that author, you pick that thinking " may be this one is like the first masterpiece".

In case of Dan Brown, there are two books of him that bowled me over - Da vinci Code and Angels & Demons. When I got a copy of Inferno on the first day itself, I had this secret hope in my mind that may be this is going to be another Davinci code.

Like Davinci code and Angels&Demons, Inferno has Robert Langdon as the main protagonist. Like Davinci code and Angels&Demons, he has a smart, intelligent lady to help him. Like  Davinci code and Angels&Demons, they are running around in some picturesque locations in order to stop some loony murderers (In this case, they have to save the world too!).   So like Da Vinci code and Angels &Demons, is Inferno also a masterpiece from Dan Brown? Sadly the answer is NO. The reason? A simple one will be: Unlike Da Vinci code and Angels& Demons, Inferno is boring !

Dan Brown has put Prof.Langdon in many hard-to-believe situations before also and Langdon has come out heroically from all of those. But this is really the limit. Robert Langdon, running for his life and simultaneously trying to save the world and occasionally stopping to admire great works of art and architecture and also cracking mysterious codes and.....all this while he has amnesia!! The novel at many places look like a travellers guide and the end is highly disappointing.

A huge, huge disappointment! 1 out of 5.