The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

You know you’ve read something truly wonderful when you can’t stop thinking about it — even when you are asleep. Like the kind of book that digs its way under your skin and quietly makes a tiny hovel in the most forgotten recesses of your heart.

There aren’t many such books, but I tell you now without any doubt — The Book Thief is one of them. Beautiful. That's how I would describe it if I had just one word to breathe.

Beautiful.

It’s a triumphant piece of literature that wrings you through the entire emotional spectrum. It will make you laugh and cry, fall in love, and hate venomously, and at the end of the day it will break your heart with the tenderest of care. This, my dear friends, is what storytelling is all about.

Set in the all too common setting of Nazi Germany with an all too common protagonist in the form of a surly 10 year old, Liesel Meminger is a girl surrounded by war and death. Given this, the book would seem to have a lot going against it and little new to offer, but that definitely isn’t the case here. From this pot of commonness, Markus Zusak manages to pull out the most alluring of tales. Like an expert magician with an empty hat, he manages to pull out not only a rabbit, but an entire cornucopia of delights and wonder.

The Book Thief also has the most unassuming of narrators, the unlikely Death which makes the entire experience somewhat surreal. Death, who was busier than any man in this dark period of our history, finds himself (herself?) drawn to this little girl with a dangerous habit of thieving books. Death’s observations are sometimes funny and often poignant, and serve as a reminder of the futility of war. It might seem like hammering in the point to some people, but maybe that's the point. We never learn, do we?

The world of Liesel Meminger is a magical world populated with characters that are as alive as any of us. And that is why it’s gut-wrenching knowing where all this is headed while the characters in the story still believe otherwise. From the stoic Hubermanns who take in a child to raise as their own and later on a Jew, to the wannabe negro and hopeless romantic, Andy, who shall forever be in love with Liesel, the book is rife with characters that will nest in your hearts for a long time after.

Also, the structure of the story is such that Mr. Zusak chooses to give us the ending right up front so that we don’t have any allusions of happy endings, but the journey there is such a beautiful one that we keep hoping against hope for a miracle (like no doubt many who lived in that time did). But we know the author isn’t lying. There are no real happy endings. Just lessons we learn along the way — in case we survive that long.

Part of the exigency in putting up this review now is thanks to the upcoming movie adaptation. Yes it’s got Geoffrey Rush in it, but by god! if it hasn't sucked the life and soul out of the original work like a monstrous amazonian tick in an Alan Quartermain story! Judging by the trailer, it seems as if they’ve thrown everything that was amazing and unique about the book by the wayside in favour of another generic, "up-lifting", World War II movie. BAH!

So do yourself a favour. Go pick up a copy of The Book Thief. Read it. It will do you good. It’s chicken soup for the soul but only better. And if you can’t afford it, borrow it from me. This is one book I believe everyone should read. It is human and real, and veined with a childlike innocence that will drive a splinter through your being. So go. Now. You can thank me later.

— Sidharth Sreekumar

Life Of Pi (movie)

A lot of people believe that the "3-D revolution" that is taking place in the wake of Avatar is just a fad, a new fangled attraction that will soon lose its charm without adding anything concrete to the art of cinematic story telling. But then again, the same was also though about CGI, color and sound, and look how they turned out. While it's true that 3-D has been beaten to an inch of its life in the past few years with every Tom, Dick and Michael Bay trying to squeeze in as many exploding robots and sissy face Shea Lepoops into every frame, it doesn't mean that the technology has no potential. All it needed was a skilled helmsman to take the oar and guide it to shore.

Enter Ang Lee.

Life of Pi had always been regarded as one of those unfilmable books. It was the story of Piscine Molitar Patel, or Pi, who was migrating to Canada with his family and a bunch of animals from the zoo they used to own in Pondicherry, when a storm capsizes their ship. Pi, the sole survivor, escapes on a life boat along with an odd menagerie of animals that include a zebra, an orangutan, a hyena and a bengal tiger, and makes his way across the Pacific ocean whilst coming to grasp the complexities of faith, life and everything in between.

As someone who had read the book a long time back, I had never imagined that I would ever get to see it play out on the big screen, let alone in 3-D. It was just that strange and mystical a story. But then I am glad to report, that this is one of those rare movies which actually does justice to its source material. Yes, the director has taken some creative liberties, but none of them that actually detracts anything from the whole experience. And the 3-D, let's just say that it is good enough to take a dive in and go for a swim.

Life of Pi is a movie that works on so many levels. It already had an amazing story that has been adapted with a tempered hand and then superbly directed for good measure. It has great performances from both Suraj Sharma, the newcomer and the star of the movie, and the eclectic cast of actors that support his tale. It has great CGI (at least that's what I think it was) that never makes you doubt for a moment the authenticity of Pi's carnivorous shipmate. And finally, it has fantastic cinematography that if nothing else will make you want to believe in God. Honestly, there are some shots that I don't think I will be forgetting any time soon. (you'll know them when you see them)

Ang Lee has always had a penchant for capturing the intrinsically beautiful but with Life of Pi he has outdone even himself. Hardly a frame goes by where you are not bombarded with either a riot of colors or a serene simplicity that you never knew could ever exist. From film roll to film end, Life of Pi seems like a giant canvas being painted over with the most meticulous of details. If nothing else, it is a work of art. I don't know any better way to put it.

But while I was swayed by the breathtaking visuals and enjoyed the steady handed direction of a movie that in lesser hands would have been worth less than a bowl of tiger crap, I could not help but be a bit dismayed at the ending. Maybe it was because I already knew what was coming, but somehow for all the beauty and spectacle that preceded it, the end never really caught me. I felt strangely disconnected as the final scenes played out. Maybe I was still lost in the thoughts of some of the most breathtaking moments caught on film I had ever seen or maybe there are some things that better felt read. Either way it did diminish a bit of the grandeur of the experience for me.

Nevertheless, that little hiccup aside, Life of Pi has been one of the most sumptuous movie experiences of the  year and definitely the most beautiful. I have never been happier since Avatar to have watched something in 3-D and especially on a giant screen. The tiger itself was worth the prize of admission. I don't know about oscars and the like but this definitely has earned a place in my books amongst the best of the year. Right beside Hugo, The Avengers, Moonrise Kingdom and Cloud Atlas.

p.s. and as a friend of mine pointed out. This is not an Indian movie people, so don't Slumdog Millionaire it!

Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner

Ever so often (well not so often even) you will chance upon a great book that you never knew existing. That is the beauty of shopping at second hand book shops. You can’t go there searching for a certain book or a certain author, there’s no guarantee you’ll find it, but what you do find is an assortment like no other. Its like a magic box, you never know what you will get. This Christmas I had the good fortune of finding myself at one such place. Its located in Nehru Place in New delhi, for all of you who care to know, and its run by this delightful old man with whom I had wonderful conversation on topics ranging from books to art. He recommended me two books that I might never had purchased myself, the first is the Hotel du Lac and the second is Guards! Guards! By Terry Pratchet which I will be reviewing in a while. I would recommend anyone who wishes a good read to visit this place because both of them were incredible.

Hotel du Lac is a very different sort of book than the sort I usually read and I was a little apprehensive to say the least when I first began it, being already informed it is a love story. I admit I forced myself to trudge through the initial chapters, not because of any fault of the writer but my own inherent disregard of Romantic stories, and was slightly hesitant even to accept the characters lest I grew fond of them. But as I made it past my initial pessimism I found myself quite enjoying the company of the residents of the Hotel du Lac.

The story in itself is a very simple one and would have fallen quite flat in less capable hands. The Booker Prize of 1984 is a testimony to this statement. It is of a middle aged woman, Edith, a writer, who has found herself in banished (self-imposed) to the hotel du lac – a less reputed holiday get away that believed in serving only a limited clientele of only the highest social distinctions. The reason for her exile does not seem quite evident till about half way through where it is revealed that she is in hiding after having her heart broken by a married man, her lover, and she is here to get away from the pain, to finish her current novel and most importantly, protect him from further embarrassment.

And though Edith is the main protagonist in this tale, the true star of the story is a certain Mrs. Pusey (yes, that’s her name and stop snickering). She is an embodiment of everything perverse in the upper classes. She is presumptuous, self indulgent and narcissistic and refuses to acknowledge anyone else’s importance other than her own. She is countered by another intriguing lady – Monica, a more a younger and less successful version of herself (perhaps the reason why they resent each other so much) who is on sabbatical after having embarrassed her husband more than once. She makes her gold digger tendencies easily perceptible.

The story in the end is less about love but about the fallacies that the concept of love presents. Edith, a woman torn by the love of a man whom she can never have, someone who used her a side dish for the better of her life, Mrs. Pusey for whom love means no more than the act of looking into a mirror and Monica who has fallen head over heels for the deep pockets of her man and believes in leeching it as much as possible. All this is brought to the forefront by the arguably, undeterminable character of Mr. Neville - a smart, middle aged gentleman with the charisma, charm and a bank account that all women desire. He tries over and over again to convince Edith of the futility of love and asks her to embrace his views of objectivism and utility. I will not disclose you the ending but it will suffice to say that it’s a clash of ideas of the two, of whether love is a bond or is it a treaty to signed, stamped and executed to meet social requirements.

The story in itself opens up a worthy debate for us who might still believe in the hope of a perfect loves and old age spent in the cheerful company of soul mates. Is it worth waiting for the one even though we might not ever find them? Or is it better to settle for the one that offers the most stability and security even though the sentiments may not be in line? It’s a pertinent question when you think about it because in the end almost most of us will end up having to compromise on our choice, love is not in each one’s destiny but is not the pursuit of it worth the risk? Whatever be your choice, this masterclass in the English language will whet your appetite.

Verdict: Seconds Please