Sumit
Had started this last year but had given up 70% of my way in. Although the story was intriguing, the writing felt too regimented, colouring in numbers. Had made my way through the first book with hopes of continuing here but alas
Then at the start of this year started with its audiobook and surprise surprise, it is a much better experience now! Turns out when you're looking for beautiful prose when the writer has his full focus on the plot and characters, reading it feels tedious, at least for me. In the audio, there's no need to highlight a sentence so the story flows much better and GraphicAudio does a good job of bringing the book to life.
Hopefully this continues and I “read” more sequels of this story.
This was a solid 4 stars, was enjoying the world and these characters and the prose a lot until the last chapter and then it suddenly was bumped up to 5. I can't explain how closely it mirrored what I'm going through at the moment. It didn't give me an answer, nor did I expect it to, but seeing what was inside me being resonated on the page gave me a certain sense of solace.
A concise but gripping retelling of India's political history told with a first-hand perspective and anecdotes. I'm woefully ignorant of our post-independence history and this serves as a fantastic primer for anyone wanting to both, wet their feet in the waters and get a brief understanding of what forms our governance. Of why we are where we are now and get a sense of where we would go from here. It's fascinating to see our leaders, past and present, as just humans. Flawed, emotional humans and how their whims affect us massively. After reading this, I'm probably ready to tackle the subject in depth. I hope Vir Sanghvi updates this with the Modi years included.
I liked the concept but it's shoddily & predictably executed. I'll bet that majority of the people here might be able to predict what the end might be based on just the blurb. The philosophy is handpicked from the masters so those lines are the only ones that I've highlighted as the prose was pretty average. It's a fast read though. Could've been better as a short story/black mirror or twilight zone episode.
Learning about the man way after his death, it would be fair that I am smitten with him. The way he describes food and people and how the two are interlinked with each other is something to learn from. Read this and intersperse it with the Parts Unknown TV show and you will go back and forth for about 60 years of this Bourdain's life and career. And knowing what you know now, you can't help but feel sad at certain passages that look like premonitions, even though they were absolutely not meant to be and ideally, shouldn't be read as such. The world became a bit more dark after he decided to take his own life but I hope the work he has left behind and the people that he has touched would be able to show the light to others.
This is more a note about the man rather than a review of the book and I am absolutely fine with it.
Things get broken. Things get lost.
Except for a few clunky romantic dialogues, which, to be fair, might've been a reflection of the time, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this. This read way better than Old Man and the Sea, which I have to revisit to see if I've changed my opinion on it. There was the bit about horse racing that went a tad too long I felt, but without that we wouldn't get the gem of a phrase ‘throwing benches'. The action hurts physically sometimes, the deaths come out of nowhere and still you have to perform duties as if it's normal life. Sentences were simple yet carried so much weight, I shudder at how much effort went into editing this book.
It's life, it goes on.
I couldn't help but noticing a lot of Hank coming through in April. Maybe it's coz we know the author so well, but the perceived value & fame of being internet famous bleeds so well in April that you couldn't help but notice the similarities. The story is , in simple terms, a first contact story & as most first contact stories the protagonist is a woman coz, well, the smarter sex. After reading Artemis, I had given up on male authors writing good female leads, but this one is up there. The story is in first person, like a memoir. The end felt too rushed for me. Maybe I'll have to revisit that at a later date.
The implications of the current pace of technology is presented in an interesting way. I kept thinking what would my reaction to such a sort of life would be. There are instances where you begin to question reality, free will and the mere essence of what means to be a human. If we are the dominant species, was it by our choice or it was coded within is, what if we go extinct, are we wholly responsible or does that just mean that our time is up. This book opens up your mind to a lot of questions and for the better.
One of the best audiobooks I've listened to. Trevor Noah's childhood is akin to the favelas shown in “City of God”. The detail is rich. We move back and forth through the first quarter of his life and the way the story is structured is something to be marvelled at. He brings so much heart into that story that even if you are like me, an urban-dwelling, middle-class guy from India, you could still resonate with the stories. We have our fair share of prejudices, old grannies, ass-whipping mothers, car troubles etc. The part where he geeks out about girls or tech is so relatable, esp his CD piracy days for, ahem, we used to deal in that when we were in school here. That was the only way we consumed foreign stuff and we revelled in it. Not like now when I have Netflix, Prime, YOutube etc.
I was laughing where Trevor wanted me to, I bawled when he wanted me to. He had the story and my heart in his hands and he was twisting every emotion. I will now stop rambling and youtube like crazy where the characters of his story are now.
Trevor! Sun'qhela
(Adding a review so that when I go back to the book I'll know how I felt just after I read it)
The first book of the year and what a start. I listened to it, given my dream is for aziz to read a pasta recipe to me at bedtime. Even though this is a review, think of it more like a free writing. I'm probably going to review just the book and not the review. So coming back to the point, this book, like Aziz I presume, goes down easy. The stats are mind-blowing at some points and he doesn't indulge in them too much and moves forward pretty smoothly. At 6 hours, it's a short listen and thoroughly enjoyable.
We get to see romance from ages past till the modern ones, from the erudite men in Japan to the over promiscuous one in Argentina, the perspectives are vast. I wished he covered one from his parents' country of origin, India for the uninitiated, that would have been interesting seeing that we have the ultra-prude and the uber-creeps in the same country, with a dash of the urban and rural romantics to boot. I'd love to see him take this and many more countries and times on his sequel, the name which has stuck with me since I came up with it on the pot today, Post-Modern Romance. hmmm.
Some points of the book hit too close to home. The boring “hey”s sent to girls, the mind games while texting, the herbivore men. All too real. Though this book might be better if you are a straight male reader, but that's just me projecting. I can't know what others can take away from this, but I'd love to hear the thoughts.
Anyway, As you may now know I'm a big fan of him and his work and love how he divides his life into small projects. Looking forward to what he puts up next.