Showing posts with label Magazine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Magazine. Show all posts
2
A Wild Sheep Chase - Haruki Murakami
This is actually a rehashed version of the book review I'd written for the magazine, Renaissance 21. So most of it'd sound familiar to ones who'd read the review back then. (And if you've not checked out the magazine, then do, now! It took many back-breaking hours before the computer and days of frantic phone calls, text messages and emails to bring it out.)
A Wild Sheep Chase was the first of Murakami that I read. And the reason I read it was because you couldn't move an inch in any direction without a dozen people waxing lyrical about Murakami and his writing, the cherry on the icing being a friend, VK, whose taste I can vouch for. And I'm only too happy that for a change I listened to people and picked the book up. The novel, set in Japan of the early 80s, does take its time to gain speed. The protagonist, an anonymous Japanese man, is tricked into a hunt for a particular and particularly mythical sheep, aided only by an old black and white photograph and an array of unusual characters; from his girlfriend with her magically seductive ears to a man dressed in a sheep costume. What comes off is a wonderful amalgamation of urban legends and more traditional myths.
Surely, this novel, like all other books of the magic realism genre, isn't for everyone. From elements of Shintoism to a post modern climax, this is a champion of its genre (I can talk like a real book reviewer! :'D). Translated from the original Japanese, 'A Wild Sheep Chase' is the second book of the 'Trilogy of The Rat' series. But it can be treated as a stand alone book too, which only made me want to read the other books in the series even more.
From the Japanese countryside in Hokkaido to the towering highrises of Tokyo, Murakami excells in his descriptions. Murakami writes lucid prose with the mark of an established writer who can afford to take his time building up the story. All thanks to translator Alfred Birnbaum for making the book read like English was the original language of the novel. Lauds to Murakami for making the storyline, otherwise seemingly outlandish in a three line synopsis, read like a masterpiece in the novel-form. Going with the flow of the words, even the climax seems possible in the world of the un-named narrator.
Despite its slow start, 'A Wild Sheep Chase' is a gripping read, staying true to its title to the last word. While the climax may leave some wondering about what just happened, it is not a disappointing read by any say. Read this one with no expectation of either the ordinary or the extraordinary. A tale of searching of more than one type, it's the perfect companion for a cold evening under the blankets.
A Wild Sheep Chase - Haruki Murakami
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| Isn't the photo giving an optical illusion or're my eyes finally going blind? |
This is actually a rehashed version of the book review I'd written for the magazine, Renaissance 21. So most of it'd sound familiar to ones who'd read the review back then. (And if you've not checked out the magazine, then do, now! It took many back-breaking hours before the computer and days of frantic phone calls, text messages and emails to bring it out.)
A Wild Sheep Chase was the first of Murakami that I read. And the reason I read it was because you couldn't move an inch in any direction without a dozen people waxing lyrical about Murakami and his writing, the cherry on the icing being a friend, VK, whose taste I can vouch for. And I'm only too happy that for a change I listened to people and picked the book up. The novel, set in Japan of the early 80s, does take its time to gain speed. The protagonist, an anonymous Japanese man, is tricked into a hunt for a particular and particularly mythical sheep, aided only by an old black and white photograph and an array of unusual characters; from his girlfriend with her magically seductive ears to a man dressed in a sheep costume. What comes off is a wonderful amalgamation of urban legends and more traditional myths.
From the Japanese countryside in Hokkaido to the towering highrises of Tokyo, Murakami excells in his descriptions. Murakami writes lucid prose with the mark of an established writer who can afford to take his time building up the story. All thanks to translator Alfred Birnbaum for making the book read like English was the original language of the novel. Lauds to Murakami for making the storyline, otherwise seemingly outlandish in a three line synopsis, read like a masterpiece in the novel-form. Going with the flow of the words, even the climax seems possible in the world of the un-named narrator.
Despite its slow start, 'A Wild Sheep Chase' is a gripping read, staying true to its title to the last word. While the climax may leave some wondering about what just happened, it is not a disappointing read by any say. Read this one with no expectation of either the ordinary or the extraordinary. A tale of searching of more than one type, it's the perfect companion for a cold evening under the blankets.
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I wrote this one for the magazine.
***
Beware men. The next time you step forward to protect your women friends from getting sexually molested, be ready to be stabbed repeatedly, all under full public eye. And women, you were never safe to begin with. Just that the few good men ready to lose a few teeth and bones to save you may well lose their lives next time. That’s what happened with Keenan Santos and Reuben Fernandez and which could happen to others too. While the gathered crowd stared in sick pleasure, they were stabbed with choppers after being beaten with sticks by 20 men, all for trying to protect their friends from getting ‘eve-teased’.
Eve-teased. Such a charming word carrying with it images of bold dandy roadside Romeos loudly complimenting every girl passing them. No? No. What happens is that a creepy guy in the bus pinches you and all that you can do is glare at him with teary eyes and not complain. Why’d you complain too? You were just ‘eve-teased’. Chalta hain. And even if someone came to your defense, the irony’d be that it’d be your protector who’d get lynched. And justly so. Eves’re supposed to be pinched by every Adam in the world. No one should and can change that. And that’s what Reuben and Keenan learnt that night. The crowd watching them already knew that lesson. Why else’d they not come forward to help the young men while their friends kept on screaming for help. You can blame the ‘Bystander Effect’ for that. But we all know the truth.
The fact that it happened in ‘The Most Safest Indian City For Women’, Bombay (excuze moi, M. Thackeray) must be a pointer to the state of the world we live in. And no Delhiwalo, you may not rejoice that at last, some dirt got on the Mumbaikars too. We all know how safe you all’re from each other. If it happened in some remote outskirts of the big city, then it could’ve been blamed on the remoteness of the place, the very immorality and imprudence of boys and girls roaming around in secluded places. Then the whole of the city in particular and the nation in general could’ve gasped in collective self righteous horror.
Only this time those immoral, Americanised youngsters were out for a simple dinner at the restaurant they’ve always frequented, in a place very public. At the end of the night, two of those youngsters ended up dead, three sexually molested (oh be done with ‘Eve-teasing’ for Eve’s sake) and two others injured.
We live in a world with no heroes. No one to guard our backs. The sky isn’t going to throw up a caped vigilante to save us anytime soon. When you don’t care whether the other guy’s girlfriend gets molested or the guy gets killed, then you can scream all that you want the time you get screwed, no one is going to give you a second look. What happened to the friends that night shows our cities and their people at their worst. And the possibility of the worst becoming the norm is positively scaring.
***
Beware men. The next time you step forward to protect your women friends from getting sexually molested, be ready to be stabbed repeatedly, all under full public eye. And women, you were never safe to begin with. Just that the few good men ready to lose a few teeth and bones to save you may well lose their lives next time. That’s what happened with Keenan Santos and Reuben Fernandez and which could happen to others too. While the gathered crowd stared in sick pleasure, they were stabbed with choppers after being beaten with sticks by 20 men, all for trying to protect their friends from getting ‘eve-teased’.
Eve-teased. Such a charming word carrying with it images of bold dandy roadside Romeos loudly complimenting every girl passing them. No? No. What happens is that a creepy guy in the bus pinches you and all that you can do is glare at him with teary eyes and not complain. Why’d you complain too? You were just ‘eve-teased’. Chalta hain. And even if someone came to your defense, the irony’d be that it’d be your protector who’d get lynched. And justly so. Eves’re supposed to be pinched by every Adam in the world. No one should and can change that. And that’s what Reuben and Keenan learnt that night. The crowd watching them already knew that lesson. Why else’d they not come forward to help the young men while their friends kept on screaming for help. You can blame the ‘Bystander Effect’ for that. But we all know the truth.
The fact that it happened in ‘The Most Safest Indian City For Women’, Bombay (excuze moi, M. Thackeray) must be a pointer to the state of the world we live in. And no Delhiwalo, you may not rejoice that at last, some dirt got on the Mumbaikars too. We all know how safe you all’re from each other. If it happened in some remote outskirts of the big city, then it could’ve been blamed on the remoteness of the place, the very immorality and imprudence of boys and girls roaming around in secluded places. Then the whole of the city in particular and the nation in general could’ve gasped in collective self righteous horror.
Only this time those immoral, Americanised youngsters were out for a simple dinner at the restaurant they’ve always frequented, in a place very public. At the end of the night, two of those youngsters ended up dead, three sexually molested (oh be done with ‘Eve-teasing’ for Eve’s sake) and two others injured.
We live in a world with no heroes. No one to guard our backs. The sky isn’t going to throw up a caped vigilante to save us anytime soon. When you don’t care whether the other guy’s girlfriend gets molested or the guy gets killed, then you can scream all that you want the time you get screwed, no one is going to give you a second look. What happened to the friends that night shows our cities and their people at their worst. And the possibility of the worst becoming the norm is positively scaring.
0
Yes, as the title says, the magazine's launched! And I'm a bit late in announcing this here. But whatever. Compiling that one issue broke my back into a million pieces. But at the end of the day, it was more than worth the pain. :)
Take a look. Or look here if you're unable to open the flash based site.
Take a look. Or look here if you're unable to open the flash based site.
