Category: Books

Refreshing departure from Roth’s recent (the past few books at least) haunted narratives of old age and experience to a story of a young man’s education in more ways than the academic– a story about inexperience, foolishness, arrogance, intellectual resistance, discovery of every sort, courage, error, vulnerabilities and chances.

Reminds me of someone. Reminds me of myself too…

No kowtowing to Islamic sensibilities and pieties here—Amis rips loose to examine and expound on one of the most historic and momentous events of this new century: 9/11. By way of fourteen articles and short stories (previously published), Amis takes you inside the heart of Islamic fundamentalism, and spares no one in his analysis of the West’s flummoxed response to it—especially not Messrs. Bush and Blair.

In one of the pieces that focuses on the plight of flight United 93, there is a surprising (and factual) revelation of an unlikely facet to the persona of Ziad Jarrah, the Saudi leader of the terrorist group on board that plane: his last cellphone call to his fiancée. His six words were: I love you. I love you.

And so, Amis says this: Love is an abstract noun, something nebulous. And yet love turns out to be the only part of us that is solid, as the world turns upside down and the screen goes black. We can’t tell if it will survive us. But we can be sure that it’s the last thing to go.

Having read his Isabel Dalhousie series, I knew what to expect from Alexander McCall Smith. And it wasn’t disappointing.

Simple characters with simple life situations that aren’t so simple when you look at them closely. All these ethical dilemmas one faces on a daily basis can wear you down. And life isn’t all that it appears to be– but you knew that anyway.

What’s interesting to see is how McCall Smith’s character’s discover this enigmatic truth.

This is the young Amis we see in Charles Highway! What a character he is… terrifyingly brilliant and funny and smart too– everything I love, what can I say?

Devious in its simplicity to cause hurt. Amis is brilliant as most always.

“What happens when galaxies collide? Most frequently, nothing. Stars are sparser than the conglomerations they form. Galaxy moves through galaxy. Anti-galaxy moves through anti-galaxy. There is plenty of room.”

Excellent short stories written by the author who also uses the pseudonym Lemony Snicket (famous children’s writer!)

Well-written short stories for the Indian diaspora, especially in these United States of America. 

I had the pleasure of meeting the author at a book-signing in our local bookstore, by the way. 

Amis’ ‘Experience’ is a memoir written ten years ago. Having only recently discovered this literary giant (which rock was *I* crushed under all this time?!), it was a treat to get an insight into the man himself– beyond his fiction and works of non-fiction.

Besides the honest accounts of his childhood spread out in England and the Continent, and the seemingly endless phase of school and University– presented non-chronologically by way of letters written home, this memoir is a tribute to the people he loved/loves dearly: his father, mother, step-mother, siblings, cousins, spouses, children, friends and lovers. Most notable is his heart-wrenching affection for the loss of his cousin, Lucy Partington. In addition to the effect of these relationships on his life and work, Amis’ excruciatingly painful “relationship” with his set of natural and then later artificial teeth is an event to itself or a series of events that shape his entire outlook on life from the physical to the spiritual.

As a sidebar, we are introduced to an impressive array of contemporary post-modern writers, all his peers: Bellow, McEwan, Rushdie, Roth and Graves, among others. Note on writing style: Amis is so liberal in the use of footnotes so as to cause the reader to momentarily lose grasp of the main narrative at times! One note of interest re his mother: in the mid-70s, she lived in Ann Arbor with her then third husband, a professor at the University of Michigan, and they ran a fish-and-chips shop called Lucky Jim’s! (Note to self: ask Jim Montgomery, retired IC advisor if he remembers…).

All in all, a must-read if Amis is your man. Prepare to plough through many a section of his antic prose that is meshed undoubtedly with superb literary insights alongside poking fun at self and the universe.

P.S.: Amis, put all your insecurities about your height to bed (if you haven’t already)– your 5’6″ doesn’t make a difference to me! You’re still a giant, and you know it!