Top Ten Tuesday | Most Intimidating Books

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Ayn Rand, books, Dark Tower, don quixote by miguel de cervantes, james joyce, JD Salinger, literature, Miguel de Cervantes, roberto bolano, salman rushdie, satanic verses by salman rushdie, stephen king, Thomas Pynchon, Top Ten Tuesday, ulysses by james joyce, virginia woolf

This meme is brought to you by The Broke and the Bookish. Today’s topic is the top ten most intimidating books that we all dread to read for one reason or another. Here is my list of titles:

1. Ulysses by James Joyce – I will feel like a complete failure/idiot if I cannot get through this book in one sitting. Especially since it is THE most important book in modern literature. EVER. *shudders*
2. The Waves by Virginia Woolf – Sometimes Woolf can be completely incomprehensible to me. Her writing is like a strange melody with a hidden beat. I have to hunt for the damn thing in all the dense foliage of her prose. ‘The Waves’ completely baffled me and I wound up running to the nearest exit to this weird labyrinth of fiction.
3. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes – The sheer size of it puts me off. It lives on the shelf next to Milton’s Paradise Lost.
4. Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger – I really don’t know why people call this a great novel. Never really saw it myself. Intimidating when you can’t see what millions of others can.
5.  Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon – He is so awesome. ‘The Crying of Lot 49‘ changed my taste in books drastically. It was also one of the hardest damn books I’d ever read. What if I don’t get this one?
6. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand – The books scares me (sheer size), Ayn Rand scares me (have you seen her?) OMIGOD.
7. 2666 by Roberto Bolano – I have a love/hate relationship with Bolano. I keep expecting the same kind of pleasure I get when I read Borges but get confused when I don’t. Confused and angry. Not quite the same as intimidated, but…
8. The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie – So much controversy around this novel. What if I end up hating it? Will it cost me a well-respected author?
9. House of Leaves by M.Z. Danielewski – I read this once before. I don’t think I’ll read it again anytime soon. I have never been so scared of words and the things they can unravel both within and without. Danielewski is king. I grovel at his feet.
10. The Dark Tower series by Stephen King – A mammoth seven book series that I have only briefly dipped into. I don’t know if I can last the distance…

That’s my list of intimidating books guys. How about yours? Are there any above that scare the bejesus out of you? Would you add to the list?

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Book Review | ‘Midnight’s Children’ by Salman Rushdie

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book review, Deepa Mehta, India, Indian literature, magical realism, midnights children, salman rushdie

Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

“To understand just one life you have to swallow the world … do you wonder, then, that I was a heavy child?”

Like a weaver at his loom, Rushdie manages to gather in his hands the medusa-like threads of India’s unique oriental history. With this he doesn’t merely write a story, but rather proceeds to reconcile a heady clash of colours and ideas into a startling pattern that (despite the magical realism) seem to mimic the oftentimes absurd flow of life itself. Even though I would like to call this a novel about the ‘birth’ of Pakistan, it is also the story of India’s greatest loss. ‘Midnight’s Children’ is riddled with themes of abandonment, prejudice and unusual circumstances. It addresses the cultural abortion and geographical divorce of a nation in a most astonishing way. Within the midst of the civil war is Saleem, our narrator, who is quite literally beginning to crack under the weight of his extraordinary life.

You see, Saleem is not an ordinary mortal. He is a changeling and moreover one of the most prolific and talented members of the secret ‘Midnight’s Children’ society. Born on the stroke of midnight, on the very moment of Pakistan’s birth, Saleem was hailed by all as the golden child, the lucky one, the ‘little piece of moon’ that would grace the flag of his brand new motherland.

“I have been a swallower of lives; and to know me, just the one of me, you’ll have to swallow the lot as well.”

Therefore twinned twice as he is (once through religion, and again through the hour of his birth) Saleem begins a personal history that is far from personal and reveals how painfully he remains yoked to the same tempestuous fate as these two enemy nations. But as the story goes on, we learn of how other more ancient personal histories often return to seek their own terrible vengeance. For if Saleem knows one thing about this life that shouldn’t even BE his own, it is that blessings and curses, once uttered, carry on like an arrow obsessed until they find and meet their target. Anthing that stands in the way is pierced. And Saleem, this thief of fate and destiny with his dark twins and superhuman powers is the luckless crucible in which history chooses to shape its’ weird alchemy.

“Why, alone of all the more-than-five-hundred-million, should I have to bear the burden of history?”

It is extremely difficult to talk about ‘Midnight’s Children’ without going into detail. The story is so full of twists and turns that as a reviewer I feel scared to let anything slip. One thing I’d hate to do is spoil any of the plot developments that so delighted me when I read it. But there is one thing I can talk about. The very IDEA of the story that took Rushdie almost 10 years to get down on paper that is so ambitious that just thinking about it makes me dizzy. Where does one start telling the story of countries? And not only this, how does one go about ‘twinning’ a country with humans? There is also the task of harnessing a mind-boggling range of cross-cultural mythological and religious symbolism. The real question I would like to ask Rushdie is ‘where and when do you decide to not draw inspiration and call it enough?’

The writing of stories is a labyrinthine process, we can get lost in the intricacies of the art if we are not careful. Yet Rushdie has a very firm grip on his narrative, introducing this multi-faceted, many-headed Hydra a morsel at a time. In fact, he worked this frustration of ‘where to begin’ into the first chapters of the story, as we see Saleem bemoaning the how he must begin his personal history from his grandfather, as it is here that we find the real ‘roots’ to his birth.

“I am the sum total of everything that went before me, of all I have been seen done, of everything done-to-me. I am everyone everything whose being-in-the-world affected was affected by mine. I am anything that happens after I’m gone which would not have happened if I had not come.”

Anyone with a liking of magical realism will love reading ‘Midnight’s Children’. The cast is full and varied. My favourite has to be the Brass Monkey, who Rushdie admitted was based on his own sister who was affectionately called so. As expected with Indian literature, the settings are handsomely portrayed and are vibrant with colour and movement. Although there are many characters that come and go, I found it easy to follow. This was my first book from Rushdie, and I found it pleasantly surprising. My advice to newcomers is do not be put off by the thickness of the book nor the hype surrounding its’ author. Give it a try and you will definitely like it.

View all my reviews

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Literary Blog Hop | What’s Your Ultimate Book in Times of War?

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carl jung, communism, george orwell, jk huysmann, meme, oscar wilde, salman rushdie, sigmund freud, spinoza, voltaire, william godwin

Welcome to the ‘Literary Blog Hop’, a meme hosted by The Blue Bookcase for book bloggers who focus on reviewing literary fiction. This weeks’ hop comes with the question:

 

If you were going off to war (or some other similarly horrific situation) and could only take one book with you, which literary book would you take and why?

 

This is a very, very interesting question. It has never occurred to me to think what book I’d take if I were ever caught in the middle of a war.

 

Imagine this: you are living in a country that is known for its’ political unrest. Two opposing parties are constantly trying to overthrow each other, and civilians are the ones getting caught in the cross-fire for victory. It has come to a point where you are not allowed to sit on the fence as far as your beliefs go. You are either the fundamentalist, the religious fanatic, the nationalist or you are a member of the democratic camp who believes in liberty and freedom of speech. No one meets anyone halfway anymore; it’s all or nothing. One morning, you are violently awoken to the sound of sirens blaring through empty streets. You stumble out of bed and rush downstairs to discover that there has been a coup d’état. Faced with the very real threat of a bloody civil division which would bring the entire country to its’ knees, the army has decided to take drastic steps and overthrown the current corrupt government. You and the entire population are now at the mercy of a military regime, that will swiftly and surely weed out all troublemakers from every level of society, including you.

 

What does a military coup mean? What does it entail? You know full well. Someone calls for everyone to calm down and listen, that there is still time. The soldiers haven’t reached your neighbourhood yet, but they are close, and they will be ransacking every house for evidence of conspiracy against the state or clues that point to affiliations with terrorist organisations. The person in charge is now shouting orders left and right. People rush to try to hide their personal belongings the best they can. You run to your room trying to remember everything that might offend or cause suspicion. 
Foreign DVDs, personal journals, posters of Che Guevara; all get torn down, shoved in a box. You hear the shuck-shuck of someone digging a hole in the backyard. It’s already knee-deep, but not deep enough to hold everything. You look out the window and see black smoke billowing from other houses. Some prefer burning to digging.

 

There is one thing you left to last: the books. Hundreds of them are lined up behind the glass cabinet doors. Voltaire, Spinoza, Freud, Jung, Godwin; all free-thinking, dangerous men that sow seeds in your head and watch it grow from their graves. You have the Marxist Manifesto, but not because you are a Communist. There’s also Miller’s ‘Tropic of Cancer’, not because you are a nefarious sex-freak. Rushdie’s ‘Satanic Verses’ gleams like a conspiratorial dagger as does Wilde’s ‘Dorian Grey’. Huysmann’s ‘Against Nature’ is ready to play Russian roulette with your life if it’s ever discovered, and Orwell’s ‘1984’ mocks your hopelessness by merely existing: a mirror to everything that is happening around you. You smash the cabinet and throw all the books out the window, where people are shoving them into the ever-deepening hole. Once buried, the soldiers finally storm the house. They find nothing. Oddly enough, they are content to overlook the ungainly dirt-mound at the back.

 

You are commanded into single-file, and searched. As the last one, you look around the house one final time. The soldiers pat down your pyjamas and the greatcoat you have on. You get the urge to say a prayer for all the books buried in the dirt, breathless, cold and dead. The soldier suddenly shouts, and cocks his gun at your face. He kicks you in the stomach and makes you kneel with your hands behind you back.

 

You venture to look up. He waves a bit of tatty paper at the others. Something he found in your pocket. Something he found. What was it? Think. On the way to the market, the guy in the fatigues, the one that handed you that stupid propaganda leaflet. The one with ‘death to the president’ written on it in big, bold red font. You knew you should have thrown it away.   

 

HAHA! Talk about a fantasy man! That was intense. But yeah, if you put yourself in the shoes of someone in the middle of war, you’ll quickly realise it’s not so easy to carry books with you. Books are always deemed dangerous during times like that. Some could even get you into a whole load of trouble. Even execution. Luckily for me, I’ve never had to witness anything as devastating as that in my lifetime, but I have read books that describe the terrors of war; especially the effects it had on children. If I were ever caught up in a battle and had the opportunity to have ONE book and get away with it, I’d probably choose Anne Frank’s Diary, or do as Anne did and get my hands on a blank journal and a pencil. I’d see it as my duty to record everything that went on around me.  

 

When I think about all the things that one would face in wartime, I’d have to make sure that my chosen book serves my emotional and spiritual needs in times of distress. Great hefty classics like ‘War and Peace’, and ‘Les Miserables’ come to mind, but since they are written from a third-person perspective, I don’t think I’d necessarily connect with them. I’d imagine war to be the kind of thing that is too big and complex to look at from an omniscient place. Everybody would be living their own nightmares, their own problems. Your world would be tightly coiled around you. The circumference of your existence extending only into the next few seconds ahead, maybe not even that. So that’s why I choose Anne Frank, because it’s honest and from a girls perspective (closer to me) and has equal moments of hope and despair.

 

What would your choice be?

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? (24/01)

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aleksandr solzhenitsyn, alexandre dumas, ian fleming, Its monday what are you reading?, meme, salman rushdie

A new year brings new books. And I’ve got some really good ones lined up to take me through to February. This years going to be all about clearing that TBR pile (and chasing up on those half-read fat classics that are beginning to weigh heavy on my conscience).  

Books Read
‘Midnights Children’ by Salman Rushdie
  
3/5 stars for this one. I really enjoyed it and it had some very funny moments and memorable characters. Word of warning though, it’s a hefty book (600+ pages) and took me about a month to get through. It was well worth the while. 

‘Octopussy and The Living Daylights’ by Ian Fleming

Another 3/5’er. This collection of short stories, or rather ‘scraps’ of stories is perfect for those who want to get a taste of the original 007 action. My favourite was ‘The Living Daylights’, which actually had a half-decent ending. Back in the day, the world of espionage was very glamorous.  

Currently Reading
‘One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich’ by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Ever wonder what life was like in a Soviet gulag? I do. And guess what, it was no picnic in the park. This week I decided to put myself in the freezing-wet ‘valenki’ boots of a prisoner of war. My teeth chatter as I read on… 

‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ by Alexandre Dumas

One of my ‘fat fiction’ reads that I left off at page 800-something. Great book, fantastic characters. Good to be getting re-acquainted with it at last. An absolute must-read. Get it on your TBR list if you haven’t already.

 

Midnight’s Children Readalong | Part 3 Discussions

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1001 book list, midnights children, readalong, salman rushdie

Reading ‘Midnight’s Children’ has been quite an experience, and I’m both glad and sad that it’s over. This is the final set of questions that wraps up this modern literary classic and I would like to thank JoV at Bibliojunkie for hosting this readalong, the insightful questions she posed and for all the people who joined in.

I can say that best part of this has been answering the questions. It’s forced me to take a really good look at what I’m actually reading. Interpretation is what gives a book its flavour. Discovering that you have your own spin on something also sheds light on what kind of reader you are (and subsequently, what kind of WRITER you might be if you put your mind to it). So I took the opportunity to look at some of Rushdie’s more elaborate motifs/ use of language as a way to develop myself as a writer. This was why it probably took me so long to finish the thing! 

Below are some of the discussion questions (pages 350 – 500) and my responses to them. Click here for part 1 and here for part 2 of the discussions.

Question 1: What is the role of the 1001 children?

At first glance this question had me a bit stumped. I think the number 1001′ comes with its own special meaning; the most obvious being the ‘1001 Nights’, the legendary Arabic story-within-a-story that winds and rewinds around itself to create a continuous narrative. Therefore the children could be just this; people who signify stories, and who come to culminate and echo inside Saleem’s mind, or the ‘Midnight Conference’ as it’s known. At first, Saleem converses with his fellow brethren within the fictional realm of the psyche. The children are really nothing more than voices who are telling their own stories. It is only later, when that secret agora is permanently destroyed that Saleem actually meets some of the midnight children in reality.

Each child has his/ her dark gift bestowed by the powers of midnight and each is like a prophet in their own right, a little living god/ goddess. Rushdie uses a lot of religious symbolism, often juxtaposing Islam (Monotheism) and Hinduism (Polytheism). At the beginning we are introduced to Aadam Sinai, whose faith in Islam is suddenly tarnished when he accidentally hits his nose on the ground during prayers. This foreshadows the breaking of the country into two pieces (Pakistan and India). People of different faith who have managed to live together for centuries suddenly feel an urge to separate. This nationwide feeling or obligation to choose sides grows like a cancer in the population. The most affected by this are probably the mothers, whose as of yet unborn babies are suffused with this unbearable sense of divide and the ‘yoke of destiny’, as Saleem puts it.

In a sense, the country undergoes a caesarean section of sorts. There is a cutting and a taking out. A certain set of people are forced to leave their homes and make a life elsewhere. While birth is the creation of life, it can also be an expulsion of it. What was in the womb, or ‘mother India’ is expelled, and the moment of expulsion when ‘both hands meet’ is the creation and expulsion of the children. It is in effect the cancer made manifest. The ‘1001 children’ also personify the common hatred of the two communities. In effect they are quite literally born out of the synchronised birth/ death of a nation. These magical imps are each a vessel of foreboding and prophecy. Saleem’s often inadvertant hand in political scheme of things (pepperpots) indicates this. The rounding up and systematic castration of the midnight’s children also shows that anyone who understands the real reason of the breaking up of India, knows that the children are a gross representation of the many-headed gods/ beliefs/ ideologies that made the break possible in the first place.

Question 2: Why did the author give so many characters two names?

At the heart of the story we have a country who is hacked in two and given a different identity. The hopes and misgivings that such a divide causes is questioned by the thought that midnight might bring the two nations a fresh/ different set of values. When this is so, Rushdie probably went one step further and mirrored this in his characters. The notion of midnight is one of change or magical transformation. The idea that things morph during this particular moment into something else is also thwarted, as many people expected the land to undergo some sort of magical transformation and become better, more fertile and lucky for its inhabitants. The only transformation that midnight had was on the people themselves. This also goes for what became Pakistan, or ‘land of the clean’ as it was so hopefully named.

There is also the fact that a person is born with a given name. That name may have set values or expectations that come with it. Saleem is constantly called ‘little-piece-of-the-moon’ by his mother and is faced with the  tremendous expectations of his family. But as a person grows and begins to ‘become’ the person they are, they may change names to suit their evolving identity.

Wondrous Words Wednesday | Radicarian Rushdie II

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salman rushdie, wondrous words wednesday

 

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by BermudaOnion at Bermudaonion’s Weblog where we get to share new words that we’ve encountered in our reading. Anyone can join in!

Welcome to part deux of the rather too-prolonged exploration into Rushdie’s prodigious vocabulary. This time I offer radicarian oddities that revolve around ‘hearing’. Yes, the protagonist in ‘Midnight’s Children’ (see my progress/ thoughts on the book here and here) has lost his Professor X abilities as clairvoyant but finally gained a sense of smell. Our Saleem now has an olfactory system that would make Suskind’s Grenouille go green with envy! Here are my latest wordly gems:

1. Orotund – “the orotund emissions of power” (the smell coming from the exhaust of a bus to Saleem has a ’rounded’ shape…)

adj 1. (of the voice) resonant; booming
2. (of speech or writing) bombastic; pompous [from Latin phrase ore rotundo with rounded mouth]

2. Effluvia – “the competitive effluvia of the bus-drivers”

n. pl. ef·flu·vi·a (-v–) or ef·flu·vi·ums
1. A usually invisible emanation or exhalation, as of vapor or gas.
2. a. A byproduct or residue; waste.b. The odorous fumes given off by waste or decaying matter.
3. An impalpable emanation; an aura.

3. Itr – “mosques poured over me the itr of devotion”
Means ‘very pure fragrance/ perfume’. This is one of the foreign words Rushdie uses to pepper his narrative. I think it might be of Arabic origins.

I think it’s hard to choose a favourite from these three. But Effluvia is probably the most beautiful sounding word with the most nasty meaning. I’ve made up my mind to use itwhen talking about people I don’t like. Think about it, instead of saying ‘so and so smells like crap’, you could be a little more elegant and say ‘He has an effluvial scent about him’. Sounds more elegant, and with a bit of luck, no one will really know what you’re talking about!

Problems with Colloquialisms? Here’s the Solution… | Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie

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colloquialism, Indian literature, midnights children, salman rushdie, translation

When I began reading Rushdie’s ‘Midnight’s Children’ back in November, I knew I was in for a bit of a culture shock and braced myself for the slew of foreign words that often pepper Eastern narratives. Personally, I don’t mind the odd foreign word that pops up every now and then. In fact it’s great to learn a few words in a different language and it adds colour and texture to the text. And anyway, if I don’t know the word I can usually suss it out through the context of the sentence.

Also reading Rushdie wasn’t as hard as I thought it might be, and the words he did throw out were all somewhat familiar (despite variations in spellings), but I only realised how inaccessible the book could be for an audience with no knowledge of basic Arabic. One fellow blogger in particular Adam (roofbeamreader) pointed this out to me. I have since looked on the internet for some kind of source (apart from free translation websites) and discovered a really cool glossary someone created specifically for ‘Midnight’s Children’.

Anyone wanting to read this book, but is concerned they might be alienated by the language will be able to look up the meanings from here. In fact, it might be a good idea to print it off and have it with you while you read.

Here are some of my favourite words from the book and their meanings:

Bombay-duck/bombil

A type of salt-water fish

Chapat

a slap. This is real Bombay slang

Funtoosh

Finished, disappear, excellent, etc..

Rakshasa

goblin, demon, evil spirit

Shiv-lingam

Shiva is one of the gods in the Hindu trinity (Brahma-Vishnu-Shiva), in the divine division of labor Shiva is sometimes the destroyer, sometimes the creator. A Shiv-lingam is black rock representing Shiva’s penis, worshiped as the source of his creativity.

 

Wallah

is almost like the word “smith” as used in English last-names. It can sometimes be appended to one’s last name to reflect the hereditary profession, in common parlance it simply means “one who is engaged in”.

Midnight’s Children Read-Along | Part Two Discussions…

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Indian literature, midnights children, readalong, salman rushdie

I have finally arrived at Part 2 of the read-along discussions and can’t wait to write up my views on what I have experienced so far. As you may be aware, the read along has actually ended, but I will continue to post the next two discussion points as and when I come to them. If you are interested in this read-along and other people’s views about the book, then you can find this hosted over at Bibliojunkie by JoV.

Without much ado, I will go onto the questions.

Question 1: What did Methwold represent? Why did he specify that nothing be changed in his houses?

Methwold and his estate didn’t strike me as important at first, but it was only when he finally left the Sinai family and the country altogether, that I realised how crucial he was as a character. In the story, Rushdie makes a big to-do about how Methwold’s great-great grandfather was the pioneer of modern Bombay, and how he had a hand in making it the bustling city that it is now. This puts a lot of emphasis on the notion of ‘hereditary origins’ at a time when India is slowly changing hands and returning back to its’ native people. This also goes nicely with highlighting Saleem’s extensive back story. When Saleem recalls the rapidly changing geography of the region and the colonial influences that suffused throughout Bombay; it made me think about how history sometimes leaves marks in places that are often impossible to get rid of. And sure enough Rushdie went further with this notion by downsizing it to Methwold and his estate.

The estate is an almost chess-sized version of the ‘real’ battle between the Indian population and it’s invaders. The natives are represented by the Sinai’s and the other families who come to live on the estate. The British colonists are embodied by a single man; Methwold (apt because he quite literally inherits the role!), and the estate comes to symbolise an India that has been split up, isolated into ‘pockets’ of foreignness and given an identity and history alien to itself (major parallel here with Saleem, as he was switched at birth and therefore lead a life that was theoretically not his own.) The game of conqueror and conquered is played out through 
psychological methods. Methwold’s odd request that nothing be changed in the houses is his way of getting his new tenants to get used to the British way of life. The cocktail hour remains as one of the lasting effects of this psychological warfare of a colonist determined to inoculate the ways of Britannia, even when he is in the last steps of the so-called ‘handover’ of power.

In Saleem’s case, Methwold has two separate meanings. Firstly, he is undeniably his biological father. Secondly, he is also a mirror that refracts and reflects what Methwold is doing to the Sinai’s back onto Methwold himself. As Methwold (colonist and conqueror) leaves behind the last bitter seeds of his revenge as he attempts to bastardise the cultural beliefs and traditions of the native population; Methwold leaves behind a son who is quite literally a bastard (unbeknownst to him) which grows up in the intense atmosphere of Indian customs. Rushdie adds a touch of poetic justice to the whole situation, as he ironically depicts Methwold’s line continuing in the form of Saleem, but without a trace of the English heritage that runs through his veins. For me, this reminds me of the symbol of the Ouroboros; the snake that bites its own tail. Methwold is snake-like as he feeds his unassuming venom into the future inhabitants of the estate. But it is his own son who destroys what is most dear to him; a sense of Britishness. Saleem, with all his knowledge of the past and his ability to see into other people’s minds embraces his ‘cuckoo-child’ existence. Taken from his real parents and planted into the arms of another, Saleem accepts his adoptive Kashmiri relatives with complete ease and in turn bites the tail of Methwold as an act of divine revenge.

Therefore, the estate is almost certainly a battle ground for ethnic identity,  a scaled-down version of the games played on India and her people.  

Question 2: At the very heart of Midnight’s Children is an act of deception: Mary Pereira switches the birth-tags of the infants Saleem and Shiva. The ancestors of whom Saleem tells us at length are not his biological relations; and yet he continues to speak of them as his forebears. What effect does this have on you, the reader? How easy is it to absorb such a paradox?

The paradox for me came as a bit of a shock. Switching babies at birth is quite an old literary device and regardless of how many times I’ve heard it being used in stories; this time it did give me quite a jolt! In fact I went back and read the page two times to make sure I understood what was going on but it’s quite a powerful twist to the tale. I suppose what Rushdie is telling us through the character of Saleem is that it is not our blood that dictates our future or indeed our ethnicity. The ‘nurture’ part of our upbringing, whether it be with our biological parents or not, plays a big part in how we identify ourselves. Saleem being a ‘midnight’s child’ has powers that enable him to look into the past through other people’s memories. He talks of how events outside him, even before his conception, heralded his coming. He seems to believe that he is the ‘fated’ child of the Sinai’s, which promotes a much stronger sense of belonging.

End of questions! Wow, it has been a real roller-coaster ride for me reading this book. I have learned so much and it just keeps getting better and weirder. Can’t wait for part three discussions. I wonder what’ll happen next!

Wondrous Words Wednesday (8/12) | Getting Radicarian with Rushdie

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meme, midnights children, salman rushdie, wondrous words wednesday

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by BermudaOnion at Bermudaonion’s Weblog where we get to share new words that we’ve encountered in our reading. Anyone can join in!

First things first, I am extremely proud of myself right now, as I have finally been able to use my adopted word for the first time in a meaningful way (points above to title). Second things second, my ‘radicarian’ ways have now been directed towards  Salman Rushdie’s wonderfully exotic prose  as I’m having the greatest pleasure of reading ‘Midnight’s Children’ right now. My vocabulary is benefitting enormously from his colourful language. Here are my finds so far:

1. Fustian 
   a. A coarse sturdy cloth made of cotton and flax.
   b. Any of several thick twilled cotton fabrics, such as corduroy, having a short nap.
   c. Pretentious speech or writing; pompous language.
2. Eccrine
   a. Relating to an eccrine gland or its secretion, especially sweat.
   b. Exocrine.
3. Apocrine
   a. (of exocrine glands) producing a secretion in which part of the secreting cell is released with the secretion; “mother’s milk is one apocrine secretion”
4. Piscine
   Of, relating to, or characteristic of a fish or fishes.
5. Declension
   1. Linguistics
   a. In certain languages, the inflection of nouns, pronouns, and adjectives in categories such as case, number, and gender.
   b. A class of words of one language with the same or a similar system of inflections, such as the first declension in Latin.
   2. A descending slope; a descent.

My favourite is ‘piscine’. Reminds me of the French lessons we used to take back in school. If you’ve come across any odd words today, please share!

Teaser Tuesday (7/12) | ‘Midnight’s Children’ by Salman Rushdie

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meme, salman rushdie, teaser tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Greetings book addicts. After a bit of a hiatus I’m back posting my Teaser Tuesday posts. This week my chosen text is ‘Midnight’s Children’ by Salman Rushdie; the read-along challenge I have been participating in. This monster of a book looks scary, but is great fun once you get into the groove of things. ‘Midnight’s Children’ has many twists and turns. Saleem’s imperfect narrative is also full of many colourful characters that come alive on the pages. If you loved ‘The God of Small Things’ by Arundhati Roy, then you’ll like this one too. My teaser sentences are from page 145:

“To understand just one life, you have to swallow the world. I told you that.” 

In brief, the story is about a young man, Saleem Sinai; whose birth, life and death are inextricably connected to the history of India. He calls himself ‘yoked to history’, as he discovers that he is one of the 1001 ‘midnight’s children’ who were born at the stroke of midnight; the very moment of India’s Independence from British rule. His parent’s realise he is a special child, but they live in ignorance of who he actually is, and the extraordinary powers he inherited due to the circumstances of his birth.

The teaser is short and sweet, but it kind of sums up the whole book. If you ever get a chance to read it, you’ll know why.