Advance Booking

This month's Author Feature stars one of my favorite authors, one who has enriched English literature and made us all laugh in the process.

Brief Bio: Pelham Grenville Wodehouse was born in Guildford in 1881. His father was a judge, and he and his brothers rarely saw their parents, spending their childhood in a variety of boarding schools. After school, he found a job at HongKong and Shanghai Bank (HSBC), while writing part-time for The Globe newspaper. He went on to write for a variety of papers and magazines, including Punch, Vanity Fair and The Saturday Evening Post. During the war, Wodehouse lived in France, and was imprisoned by the Germans for nearly a year. After unfounded accusations of treason, he moved permanently to New York. Wodehouse died on Valentines Day in 1975, shortly after being awarded the Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire. To learn more about him, you can visit www.pgwodehousebooks.com

Selected Bibliography:



Thank You Jeeves
Very Good Jeeves
Jeeves in the Offing
Full Moon
Heavy Weather
Code of the Woosters
Uncle Fred in the Springtime
Hot Water
Meet Mr. Mulliner

My Reviews:
Hot Water

My Views:
What would literature be without Wodehouse? A lot less fun, to be sure. Wodehouse is one of the greatest writers I've read, and I think English would be quite boring if he hadn't been around.

My first introduction to Wodehouse was my dad guffawing during his reading of Galahad at Blandings. I wondered what was it that made my dad laugh so much, so I borrowed the book one day and sat down to read it. And I have never looked back. I've read nearly all the Jeeves and Emsworth stories, and I enjoyed all of them.

What I enjoy most about Wodehouse's writing are the intricacies of the plot. There is a standard formula: one of the characters gets into a fix, or two lovebirds have a tiff and get engaged to unsuitable people. But every situation is different, every plot element fresh. As you read, a problem that appeared to be standard and easily solved develops layers which become increasingly complex, and you think the hero can never get out of it. But there is one character who saves the day, the wits of whom gets everyone out of their respective messes and reach satisfactory conclusions. One example which comes to mind is Code of the Woosters. Bertie becomes engaged to the soupy Madeline Bassett, has to steal a cow-creamer belonging to Madeline's father, get Gussie Fink-Nottle and Madeline back together so that his engagement to Madeline is broken, recover a notebook where Gussie has detailed the failings of Madeline's father so that neither father nor daughter see it, outwit Roderick Spode, and stay out of jail. Confused? I was, too, and I was pretty sure Bertie couldn't escape unscathed. But Jeeves made it all right, with a flourish that had me cheering.

Wodehouse's cast of characters are memorable, and nobody who reads about Bertie or Jeeves or Emsworth or Galahad, can easily forget them. Each character is unique in himself, even the smaller ones. My favorite character is the loony Lord Emsworth. When he starts talking about his pig, Empress of Blandings, I can't stop laughing. Most plot elements set in Blandings Castle figure the pig in a major role. People are trying to kidnap the pig, or make it lose weight, things that make Emsworth's hair stand on end, and are the driving element of the story. Out of the smaller characters, I particularly like Beach, and the description of his portly nature cannot fail to crack you up. And Baxter, Emsworth's long-suffering secretary, who tries to impress his employer buts ends up being berated by him.

There are many more great people in Wodehouse's world, such as Uncle Fred, Psmith, Monty Bodkin, Ukridge and Mr. Mulliner. Wodehouse was very prolific and wrote 96 books in his 73-year long career. I have read most of them, except some of his earlier works, and his last novel, Sunset at Blandings. That book was released in its unfinished form, with Wodehouse's extensive notes, but I don't want to read it. There is something very disheartening in reading an author's last unfinished work; it reminds me that he is no more and he couldn't finish what he had started.

Anybody can make someone cry, but the greatest challenge is to make another person laugh. That is what Wodehouse did all his life, and did it masterfully. On his birth anniversary, that is how I'd like to remember P.G.Wodehouse.

Do you love Wodehouse as much as I do? Which is your favorite Wodehouse novel?

I've got my mid-term exams going on right now, so I don't have much time to blog. That's why I thought of combining my Sunday Salon and Author Feature posts together. Today is Roald Dahl's 93rd birth anniversary, and I hope you all will join me in remembering this literary legend.

Brief Bio: Dahl was born in Wales to Norwegian parents. When he was three, his eight-year old sister died of appendicitis, and his father died of grief weeks later. He attended many boarding schools, but his experiences there were not pleasant ones. After finishing his schooling, he joined the Shell Petroleum Company and was posted to Dar-Es-Salaam in Tanzania. When World War II broke out, he joined the Royal Air Force, ending the war as Wing Commander. His first children's book was The Gremlins, about mischievous little creatures that were part of RAF folklore. The book was commissioned by Walt Disney for a film that was never made, and published in 1943. Dahl went on to create some of the best-loved children's stories of the 20th century, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Matilda. He also had a successful parallel career as the writer of macabre adult short stories, usually with a dark sense of humour and a surprise ending. Dahl died in 1990 of a rare blood disease, aged 74.
For more about him, you can visit his official website www.roalddahl.com.

Selected Bibliography:


Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Matilda
The BFG
James and the Giant Peach
The Witches
The Twits

My Reviews:
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

My Views: When I decided on doing Author Feature, the first author who came to my mind was Roald Dahl. I loved his books so much while growing up, and while re-reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory sometime back, the magic started to weave itself around me again.

The reason I love Roald Dahl so much is because of his inventiveness. I remember reading Matilda and going "Whoa! What an idea!" The same with all the other books I've read. Actually, when I read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I pestered my dad to buy me all the chocolates that Dahl described. And all my dad's explanations about fiction and imagination cut no ice with me. That is the impact Dahl has on you; kids are drawn into his fantastic world, and wish that our own world was just as magical as the one woven by his words.

Most of Dahl's stories have a common premise: there is a hero/heroine who usually suffers a lot, a villain who antagonizes the lead character (and the reader) at every step, culminating in the hero teaching the villain a lesson he/she will never forget. But the way the characters are described makes each story unique. Whether it is Ms. Trunchbull or the BFG or Willy Wonka, each character comes alive before your eyes, and it's like seeing a movie running through the pages. It's not all hunky-dory; some characters are scary, mean or flatly unlikeable, but that's what makes his books interesting.

Dahl also subtly inserts many morals throughout his stories. Through the behaviour of the people in the tales, he leads the reader to understand what qualities he/she should develop to become as loved as their favorite characters. One major theme is reading vs television. Dahl makes the case very strongly against television, whether it be through Mike Teavee in Charlie or the Wormwood family in Matilda. But there is no preachiness; the message naturally springs out from the story. I want to share with you a verse from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory where you see this coming in effect.

So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.
Then fill the shelves with lots of books,
Ignoring all the dirty looks,
The screams and yells, the bites and kicks,
And children hitting you with sticks —
Fear not, because we promise you
That, in about a week or two
Of having nothing else to do,
They'll now begin to feel the need
Of having something good to read.
And once they start — oh boy, oh boy!
You watch the slowly growing joy
That fills their hearts. They'll grow so keen
They'll wonder what they'd ever seen
In that ridiculous machine,
That nauseating, foul, unclean.
Repulsive television screen!

Dahl's greatest gift is his style of writing. His descriptions are just so amazing, so creative and sometimes so utterly ridiculous that it's brilliant. His ideas are eccentric and completely original, yet so simple that you wonder how nobody could have thought of it before. Dahl also doesn't talk down to the reader; you feel like you're listening to a story your friend is telling you. That's why it transcends all boundaries of age; whether you are 9 or 90, Dahl's storytelling enchants you.

I have never experienced a dull moment while reading a Roald Dahl book; he is, and will remain, one of my all-time favorite authors. What books of his have you read? Which is your favorite? Do you agree with me when I say his writing is unparallelled?

One of my favorite thriller authors, one I've grown up with. Frederick Forsyth is the author I'm featuring this month.

Brief Bio: Forsyth was born in Ashford, Kent, educated at Tonbridge School and and later attended the University of Granada in Spain. After serving as one of the youngest pilots in the Royal Air Force, he became a journalist, joining Reuters and then BBC. His first full-length novel, The Day of the Jackal, was published in 1971 and became an international bestseller. Since then, he has written many bestselling novels, some of which have been turned into movies, notably Dogs of War, The Fourth Protocol and The Odessa File.

Selected Bibliography:




The Day of the Jackal
The Odessa File
The Dogs of War
The Devil's Alternative
The Fourth Protocol
The Fist of God
The Icon
The Afghan

My Views: I haven't reviewed a single Forsyth book on my blog, but it's not for the want of reading them, but because I read every single one of them long before I started blogging. I probably will review a couple of them soon, but as of now, there are no reviews you can read.

I was introduced to Forsyth when I filched my dad's library copy of The Day of the Jackal many years ago. Since then, I devoured his books, and I loved most of them. He is usually my benchmark when I read other thriller authors, I keep comparing them with the thrill I felt as I turned each page of The Day of the Jackal or The Devil's Alternative, my two favorite Forsyth books.

What will strike you when you read his books is the amount of research involved. From money laundering to identity theft to stealth satellites to political maneuvering, every word he writes is carefully researched. The meticulous plotting and the keen eye for detail keeps you hooked. And also, almost every book has the twist in the tale, the hidden agenda which is revealed at the end which brings things to a head. His books have a heady pace, but nowhere do you feel it is rushed. Though recently, I've felt that the magic of his writing is dimming: I had a lot of difficulty finishing The Afghan.

A lot of the stuff Forsyth describes in his books have actually come to pass. For example, the technique of identity theft he describes in The Day of the Jackal was actually possible during the time he wrote it, and the bugging of IRA leaders' coffins by British agents was also confirmed by the government. Almost all his books feature fictional events happening to or connected to real life personalities. This trueness to real life is something I find awesome, it adds a touch of reality to the grandiose plot and makes you believe that the events he describes in his stories could actually be true.

If you have not read Forsyth, you are definitely missing something. Whether or not you like thrillers, I am sure you'll be hooked by the world of assassins and spies he creates.

I did a Harry Potter marathon to celebrate Rowling's birthday, in addition to which, she is the author I'm featuring this month.


Brief Bio: Born in Glouchestershire in 1965, Rowling studied at Wyedean School and College, then pursued her B.A. in French and Classics at the University of Exeter. She moved to Portugal to teach English as a foreign language, married a journalist, but they separated a year later. I guess the story of how she came up with Harry Potter is so famous that I don't have to repeat it here. If you don't know it, check it (and lots and lots more) on her website www.jkrowling.com. She is now married to Dr. Neil Murray and has 3 kids.

Bibliography:




My Reviews:

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

My Views: J.K. Rowling is indeed one of the coolest fantasy writers I have read. I owe my initiation into fantasy to her. I used to believe that fantasy was for kids. But she opened my eyes to the wealth of stories that the fantasy genre encompasses. I learned that fantasy is not just cute and lovey-dovey, with happy endings, it can be grim, dramatic and heart-breaking as well.

Rowling's imagination is possibly her biggest asset. She comes up with such cool stuff, from Quidditch to Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, things that you so wish were a part of your world. She also draws from a variety of stories and legends, and adapts them to suit her story. For example, the bit about Death and the three Peverell brothers in Deathly Hallows is similar to a story in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales; the concept of Horcruxes drawn from legends of putting your soul in someone else's hands for safekeeping, the search for the Horcruxes themselves remind you of the quest for the Holy Grail. Her knack of foreshadowing makes every book very interesting to read; clues to future books are strewn all around, sometimes as a major plot element (Chamber of Secrets), sometimes in a couple of words (the locket and diadem in Deathly Hallows). This is something I find really cool, it makes you go back and read the previous books again and say, Oh, look, it was there all along!

Rowling's style of writing is simple and direct, not much fruity prose, a little bare-boned, if you can say that. She is a children's book writer and that might be expected, I do expect a little more description when it comes to fantasy. I mean, what makes Tolkien's works so enjoyable (among a lot of other things) are his elaborate descriptions of Middle Earth. It's not that Rowling doesn't manage to create vivid images of Harry's world before my eyes, but...well, maybe I'm cribbing too much. I was a more than a little disappointed with her later books, the magic, the enchantment seemed to be missing, lost in the whole PR exercise. But if you consider the series as a whole, it is a gem.

A lot of people credit Rowling for bringing children back to reading, and believe she is a wizard. Well, she is, kind of, because she brought to her books the hallmarks of a good storyteller: engaging writing, well-thought plot and memorable characters, elements that distinguish an ordinary author from an awesome one. Her books are easy to read, but not just bits of magical floss. She weaves in concepts of loyalty, friendship, courage, greed and evil into her stories very well. I don't know if her books can be called classics, it's too early to tell. But of one thing I can be sure: 50 years from now, children will enjoy her books as much as I did when I first read them, so maybe you could call it a classic. I'll leave you with the school song from Philosopher's Stone, a song which always makes me laugh, and wish that my school song had been this fun, instead of the usual sermon on honour and hard work.

Hogwarts, Hogwarts, hoggy warty Hogwarts,
Teach us something please,
Whether we be old and bald,
Or young with scabby knees,
Our heads could do with filling,
With some interesting stuff,
For now they're bare and full of air,
Dead flies and bits of fluff,
So teach us things worth knowing,
Bring back what we've forgot,
Just do your best, we'll do the rest,
And learn until our brains all rot.

This month I'm featuring an author who I think has influenced a lot of my thinking. It's his 106th birth anniversary of Orwell today, and I wonder what he'd have to say about the current state of affairs.




Brief Bio: George Orwell was born Eric Blair in the Bengal Presidency in British India, on 25 June 1903. He spent his schooling and college life in England, before signing up for the Indian Imperial Police and moving to Burma. After 5 years, he contracted dengue fever and returned to England, deciding to be a writer. His Burma police experiences yielded his first novel Burmese Days, along with a couple of essays. He wrote a couple of novels about economically depressed England in the 1930s, and also was briefly involved in the Spanish Civil War, the experiences of which were chronicled in Homage to Catalonia. During World War II, he wrote for the Tribune and the Observer, while working on his satirical masterpiece Animal Farm. He followed it up with another of his best known works, 1984, written during a time when he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. Orwell died on 21 January 1950 of a burst artery in his lungs, and was buried in Oxfordshire. His gravestone bears the simple epitaph: "Here lies Eric Arthur Blair, born 25 June 1903, died 21 January 1950"; no mention is made on the gravestone of his more famous pen-name.



Selected Bibliography:




Animal Farm
1984
Burmese Days
Homage to Catalonia
The Road to Wigan Pier

My Reviews:
Animal Farm
1984

My Views: I really think that George Orwell is one of the greatest satirical writers of the English language. His writing is simple, no flowery language, no convoluted descriptions, nothing that would go over an average person's head or make his books difficult to read. In his essay, Politics and the English Language, Orwell provides six rules for writers:

• Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
• Never use a long word where a short one will do.
• If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
• Never use the passive voice where you can use the active.
• Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
• Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

His books have contributed to a number of ideas such as the Thought Police and Big Brother, words that have become a part of the English language, concepts that are so relevant in this age of heightened surveillance (though Big Brother is now more associated with the dumb TV show than Orwell's invisible puppet master). His essays are also very topical and give you an insight into the mind of a great writer and are a snapshot of the tumultous political situation in the World War era. Also, he was one of the very few writers who did not get caught up in the Soviet socialism romance and called out Stalin for what he was. At a time when the world was courting the USSR, he wrote Animal Farm. He also foresaw the advent of intrusive surveillance quite a long time ago, and while I strongly believe that things will not be as awful as 1984, I am pretty wary as the government adds enhanced snooping capacities to its arsenal.

It's not easy to appreciate Orwell's books in a single reading. Every time I sit with them, I discover something new, something I missed the previous time I read it. I am able to draw parallels in today's world as well, to countries that have adopted the 1984 model quite chillingly. To give you just a small example: I realised that the events in 1984 not just resembled the political and social situation in the USSR and Germany, but also in modern day Myanmar and North Korea. Orwell's works explore every facet of literature, psychology and political science, and provoke every reader to question their surroundings and be more vocal in expressing their beliefs.

Have you read any of Orwell's writings? What did you think of them?

I'll kick off my new monthly feature with this Irish author, born May 14, 1965. Happy Birthday, Mr. Colfer!!







Brief Bio: Eoin Colfer was born in Wexford on the South-East coast of Ireland (a fact that features prominently in his writing). His first published book was Benny and Omar, based on his experiences in Tunisia; he, however, attained worldwide fame with the Artemis Fowl series, tales about a young criminal mastermind. Most of his works have reached the New York Times bestseller list at least once, and he has been commissioned to write the sixth instalment in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, entitled And Another Thing... His book, Half Moon Investigations, featuring Fletcher Moon has been adapted into a TV series by the BBC. To learn more about him, visit his website at http://www.eoincolfer.com/.






Selected Bibliography:

Artemis Fowl

Artemis Fowl and the Arctic Incident

Artemis Fowl and the Eternity Code

Artemis Fowl and the Opal Deception

Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony

Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox

The Legend of Spud Murphy

Benny and Omar

The Wishlist

Airman

The Supernaturalist

Half Moon Investigations

My Reviews:
Artemis Fowl
Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony
The Supernaturalist


My Views: I liked the the two books I have read (I am halfway through another, and enjoying it). He is a children's writer, but the dark humour that fills his works will appeal to older readers as well. Also, there are elements of his books that are decidedly adult- Artemis blowing up the whaler with Semtex, the paralegals' actions in Supernaturalist. His Fowl series has been compared to Harry Potter, but there is a world of difference between the two. The Potter series have clearly defined good and evil characters, and you root for the good guys; but in the Fowl series, the hero is a criminal mastermind, cold and calculating. There are the take-over-the-world type of villains, of course, but the heroes who fight them are not perfect. But that does not take anything away from the wit and sarcasm throughout the books. However, I don't find his brand of humour to be particularly subtle. He sometimes takes the pain of pointing out the wisecracks, and that annoys me. Sarcasm loses its flavour when you add a tag.

Most of his books have a street-smart protagonist wise beyond his years (Artemis, Cosmo, Fletcher). They are more oriented towards young boys, a little violent, but there are some strong female characters also, atleast in the ones I've read. There is a lot of tech stuff throughout: the fairy gadgetry in the Artemis series, the sci-fi setting of the Supernaturalist, building a flying machine in Airman; that's another thing I like. You don't see much technology in fantasy books; Colfer's books stand out in this respect. Another nice thing is that every book is a standalone book, you don't need to read the previous ones in the series to get an idea of what's going on. But the best thing about his books is the non-stop action. It starts right from page one and makes every book a page-turner. I'm a big fan of thrillers, and Colfer is probably Forsyth for children. If you haven't picked up any of his books, give one a try. If you have, tell me what you thought about the writing. Either way, I'd love to hear what you've got to say.