tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56194424927207036902024-03-04T22:16:35.131-08:00SCRIBES' TRIBEpierref4http://www.blogger.com/profile/16679963689403572906noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5619442492720703690.post-47583812233651067962020-05-06T00:26:00.000-07:002020-05-18T01:06:22.216-07:00INDIAN SUMMER - THE NEW BOOK ON THE BLOCK<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>NEW BOOK ON THE BLOCK</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My novel,
<i>Indian Summer</i>, is out on sale on
various Amazon platforms. The printed book does not ship to India at the
moment, but the ebook is available and can be read on mobile, tablet, and any
Kindle device. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">If you
care to purchase a copy, please leave a review on the relevant site after
you're done with reading the book.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">SYNOPSIS<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiso9iZxMM_haLxqpLEyFyGS7EXaXSO0H-shnc8LLY4gICVqKyQ52S4wec8mmlZ9raOb73YWNooXzUI-OFqKLjPGP7T-e0PPGsD6TBZoe5i9ucs5xb5m2sOabzLdTJeJTKKBlfBPgwgrPkj/s1600/ALTERNATIVE+COVER+for+ad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiso9iZxMM_haLxqpLEyFyGS7EXaXSO0H-shnc8LLY4gICVqKyQ52S4wec8mmlZ9raOb73YWNooXzUI-OFqKLjPGP7T-e0PPGsD6TBZoe5i9ucs5xb5m2sOabzLdTJeJTKKBlfBPgwgrPkj/s320/ALTERNATIVE+COVER+for+ad.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">New York resident Namrata Jadav returns to her hometown in India
in response to a desperate plea from her mother. She is tasked with looking for
her brother, Sandeep, who has been wrongly implicated in a brutal murder and
appears to have gone missing. Supported by a fiery activist and an ambitious
journalist, she embarks on a mission that exposes her to violence and brings
her into conflict with a vindictive police chief. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Namrata’s quest leads her to Mumbai, where she finds her
brother a recovering alcoholic haunted by the past and afraid to return to his
hometown, where he could face imprisonment or even be killed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Will Namrata convince Sandeep to come home to reclaim his
life, restore their family’s honour, and help nail those responsible for a
horrific crime – or will she be stopped by forces hell-bent on destroying her?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A book for our times, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Indian
Summer</i> touches upon such perennial societal issues as dowry deaths, the
abuse of power, the exploitation of women, and hidebound patriarchal attitudes.
It is an absorbing tale about a family keeping itself from falling apart amidst
the vagaries of fate and circumstance. A story of faith, redemption, and
reconciliation, it has a lesson for us all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Indian-Summer-PIERRE-FRANCIS-ebook/dp/B087CL7VPF/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1588569582&sr=8-1" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 12pt;">https://www.amazon.com/Indian-Summer-PIERRE-FRANCIS-ebook/dp/B087CL7VPF/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1588569582&sr=8-1</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
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pierref4http://www.blogger.com/profile/16679963689403572906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5619442492720703690.post-17729618995703833222015-02-09T02:36:00.001-08:002015-02-09T02:36:44.587-08:00The Autumn of the Patriarch<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBRj9JhyOpXfhbyPQNunEUKsQbIJDk9_tAqFxgfjulZ3mqHmlOnqXPnuhlCuXxW0bdiKicDiPMmrY9eNaBGHYebTBq3pNTy0o7QXRdGF_X3a6XGBcJPzT9qcMlVNhuGJlmOy5HOXp_k7vG/s1600/the-autumn-of-the-patriarch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBRj9JhyOpXfhbyPQNunEUKsQbIJDk9_tAqFxgfjulZ3mqHmlOnqXPnuhlCuXxW0bdiKicDiPMmrY9eNaBGHYebTBq3pNTy0o7QXRdGF_X3a6XGBcJPzT9qcMlVNhuGJlmOy5HOXp_k7vG/s1600/the-autumn-of-the-patriarch.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Gabriel Garcia Marquez wrote <i>Autumn of the Patriarch</i> in 1975. I
bought it in 1982. It’s been lying on my bookshelf ever since. I tried reading
it twice in the past, starting at the beginning and getting a little
further into the book with each attempt before giving up.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The reason that one simply cannot continue from where one leaves off (after an extended break from reading) is
that <i>Autumn</i> does not have a linear,
plot-based structure, with clear chronological markers to which one can refer.
Rather, it is a literary version of the Grand Rapids: a relentlessly flowing
narrative, with neither paragraphing nor punctuation (except for full stops),
and sentences that run into pages. Marquez employs stream-of-consciousness to
express interior monologue and fluidly switches points of view, in the process
turning the reader into an omniscient presence, privy to the thoughts of the
protagonist and the other characters in the novel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Autumn</i> is divided into six sections that tell the same story (with
varying perspectives) of a fictional Latin American dictator and the
revolutions, intrigues, assassinations, aborted coups, and atrocities that
attend his reign. The protagonist is a composite of real-life dictators,
including Gustavo Rojas Pinilla of
Marquez’s native Colombia, Generalissimo Francisco Franco of Spain, and
Venezuela's Juan Vicente Gómez. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Needless to say, <i>Autumn</i> offers generous servings of magic realism, which brought
Marquez into the spotlight with his opus <i>One
Hundred Years of Solitude</i>. <i>Autumn</i>, however, is high-octane Marquez:
bizarre, mesmerising, ironic, and grandiose. It is a wild, rollercoaster ride
down the labyrinthine pathways of one of the greatest minds of twentieth
century literature. You will be shaken and stirred – perhaps mildly
disorientated – but you will never forget the trip.</span></span></div>
</div>
pierref4http://www.blogger.com/profile/16679963689403572906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5619442492720703690.post-28411974429408407702015-01-27T02:34:00.001-08:002015-10-03T23:50:09.411-07:00Free Fiction for your EBook Reader<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">What’s free isn’t worth it, right?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">Wrong!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">There’s plenty of free fiction available on the Internet
that’s actually very good – if not excellent – so you needn’t burn your
hard-earned moolah for quality lit from Amazon, Smashwords, Kobo, etc. to keep
your ebook reader busy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">Here’s a brief overview of sites from which I’ve
downloaded files (short stories) prior to converting them to a format my reader
accepts:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Writer’s Type (writerstype.com)<span style="font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">This site invites writers to compete for Amazon Gift
Coupons every quarter. Contests are for first chapters, shorts, and flash
fiction, and the winners and five runners-up in each category are displayed on
the site. Click on ‘Previous Winners’ to
see the stories and then choose the ones you want by opening them on your
computer, selecting them with your mouse, and copy-pasting them in Word before
saving the file.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The Short Story (theshortstory.net)</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">Not a lot of free fiction available here, but what’s on
offer is top-grade. The site displays
First-, Second-, and Third Prize annual winners (shorts) for the years
2011-2013. To download, simply open the story and click on the save/download
icon. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Winning Writers (winningwriters.com)<span style="font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">This site offers serious prize money for poetry, short
story, and essay competitions, so it’s a given that the winners are worth a
read. The site is rich in content and worth exploring. As none of the files are downloadable in the
strict technical sense, you need to go through the copy-paste routine explained
earlier.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Narrative Magazine (narrativemagazine.com)<span style="font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">This site has more than enough to help you tank up your
reader for the whole season. Generous cash prizes are offered to fiction,
non-fiction, and poetry winners, and all the winning works are accessible to
site members. Membership is free, so sign up and harvest truckloads of fine
fiction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Project Gutenberg (gutenberg.net.au)<span style="font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">This Australia based site offers tons of full-length
ebooks by famous writers, in a range of categories: crime, romance, children’s
classics, poetry, westerns, biography, cookery and home science, to name just a
few. There are also helpful guidelines for downloads and conversions. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">East of the Web (eastoftheweb.com)<span style="font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">East of the Web showcases fiction by grey eminences like
Chesterton, Maupassant, Wilde, and Doyle (among others), as well as young adult
fiction by contemporary writers that’s pretty good. You can either copy-paste or go to the App
Store and download the East of the Web Short Stories App onto your iPhone, iPod
touch or iPad. This free app helps you organise your fiction in a library for
easy access.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><i>How to format stories for your ebook reader</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">Where sites do not offer downloadable files or
applications like the one mentioned above, the copy-paste approach will do just
fine:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">a) Navigate to the story of your choice and open it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">b) Select, using the mouse, and then copy-paste onto an
open Word file.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">c) Repeat with all the stories, pasting one after
another, but always on a new page, using MS Word’s page break function.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">d) Give the file a name and save it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">d) Visit calibre-ebook.com and download the Calibre ebook
manager for free. This is a professional yet simple-to-use program that allows
you to create your own ebooks (including cover and contents page) from Word
files you've created. I’ve been using this program to create ebooks for my
Paperwhite, and it works just fine.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">So… load up your ebook reader and read happily ever
after!</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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pierref4http://www.blogger.com/profile/16679963689403572906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5619442492720703690.post-61923539466866937562014-12-18T20:19:00.001-08:002014-12-18T20:28:18.865-08:00Roald Dahl: The Collected Short Stories<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9_WtLCyQXXvnzixusZlAdk_UrTyoMH7rGFuAyY4nKC3UxKE_cCsiWpENVAgCAOEM3DcNOWa4vRofdIQlaSOv257EWZ6oenw6mJtf5G4B1W8_tkAR0JVfcbv0Sw_AZdD9pasyB878DCqwE/s1600/collcover1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9_WtLCyQXXvnzixusZlAdk_UrTyoMH7rGFuAyY4nKC3UxKE_cCsiWpENVAgCAOEM3DcNOWa4vRofdIQlaSOv257EWZ6oenw6mJtf5G4B1W8_tkAR0JVfcbv0Sw_AZdD9pasyB878DCqwE/s1600/collcover1.jpg" height="200" width="131" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This chunky omnibus is a lavish buffet of short
fiction, spiced with the macabre and the
mysterious, with dollops of black humor and surprises galore.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The 760-page compilation has five sections, with shorts taken from such best-selling collections as <i>Kiss Kiss, Over to You, Switch Bitch, Someone Like You</i> and <i>More Tales of the Unexpected</i>. There are
48 pieces in all, most of which have a sting in the end; tales of greed and vanity and worse, which demonstrate Dahl's </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">grasp of character and plot and his keen sense of irony.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In <i>Kiss Kiss</i>, the
first section of the book, we encounter an array of characters - from the
murderously kooky old dame in <i>The
Landlady</i> to Mr Foster who comes to a sorry end in the most unexpected of
ways in <i>The Way up to Heaven</i>. In <i>William and Mary</i>, William offers his brain up to science but inadvertently makes himself vulnerable to a wife hell-bent on getting even. In <i>Parson’s Pleasure,</i> Mr Boggis sets out to con country folk – with disastrous results. And there’s <i>Genesis and Catastrophe</i>, where we are
given a bedside account of the birth of Adolf Hitler that's creepy in its subtleties and ironic in its conclusion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the second part of the book titled <i>Over to You</i>, Dahl weaves stories with threads drawn from his
wartime experiences as a fighter pilot. There are ten tales in all, with
<i>Katina</i> being, in this reviewer’s
opinion, the most memorable for its poignancy; a story of a little girl who
comes under the protective wing of Dahl’s fighter squadron in Greece, but
eventually becomes a casualty of war. <i>Madame
Rosette</i> is about the flyboys on furlough in Cairo, encountering a virago in
the process of exploring that city’s nightlife. And <i>Beware of the Dog</i> tells of an RAF pilot who is shot out of the sky
and regains consciousness in a hospital he assumes to be British, till he
discovers to his dismay that he is on the wrong side of the Channel - in
Nazi-occupied France. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Switch Bitch</i>, the
third section of the collection, comprises four adult stories with sexual
themes. <i>The Visitor</i> is classic Dahl, with the libidinous protagonist
getting his comeuppance in full measure. In <i>The
Great Switcheroo</i>, a couple of men scheme to bed each other’s spouse unbeknownst to the women, while in <i>The Last Act</i> an unstable woman flies off the rails after her husband's untimely death. In <i>Bitch</i>, the last story in this section, a devious plan to embarrass
a woman of standing backfires with delightful consequences for both intended
victim and perpetrator. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Someone Like You</i>
and <i>Eight Further Tales of the Unexpected</i>,
the fourth and fifth parts of this omnibus, are loaded with definitive Dahl
stories like <i>Taste, Lamb to the
Slaughter, Dip in the Pool, Neck </i>and <i>The
Bookseller</i>. They perfectly round off a collection </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;">that’s worth every penny, paisa or peso spent on it.</span></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
pierref4http://www.blogger.com/profile/16679963689403572906noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5619442492720703690.post-33376782628565108112014-12-10T03:50:00.000-08:002014-12-10T04:09:51.320-08:00The Readability Issue<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; line-height: 115%;">Anybody who makes a
living communicating through the written word would’ve heard this little
whisper while he or she was thumping away on a keyboard: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; line-height: 115%;">Just how readable is
this?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; line-height: 115%;">It’s a simple enough
question – and legitimate as well – but can there be a definitive answer? It’s difficult for an author to gauge the
readability of his own work because he’s been too close to it to recognise the rough
spots. His mind, reading what it <i>knows</i>
to be there, will for the most part read effortlessly and get the impression
that the writing’s as smooth as Drambuie. So, how can an author be sure he’s as
readable as he wishes to be?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; line-height: 115%;">Do</span></i><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; line-height: 115%;">
try this at home – or at work, if that’s where you write:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; line-height: 115%;">a) Read aloud. If you
stumble over a tongue-twister or become breathless with a sentence as long as
the Indus, mark out the offending parts for revision.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; line-height: 115%;">b) Give your work to
your favourite beta reader and ask for feedback on readability.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; line-height: 115%;">c) Get online and run
your copy through any program that tests readability. Here is a link: </span><a href="http://read-able.com/"><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; line-height: 115%;">http://read-able.com</span></a><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; line-height: 115%;">
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; line-height: 115%;">Among the few
programs that test readability, the Flesch-Kincaid Index is the most popular. This
gives scores for “Reading Ease” and “Grade Level”, with scores for one test
correlating <i>inversely</i> with scores for
the other. In other words, the more readable your writing is, the lower the
student grade level it can be understood by. For example, if the Reading Ease
score is 60, the writing can be read by 17-year-old Americans. Reader’s Digest
has a readability score of 65; TIME magazine, 52; and the Harvard Law Review, the
low 30s.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; line-height: 115%;">The Flesch-Kincaid Index
analyses writing with mathematical precision, taking into account the average
number of words per sentence and the average number of syllables per word. Long
sentences with polysyllabic words make for heavy reading, and vice-versa. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; line-height: 115%;">The
FK Index is all that matters, right? <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; line-height: 115%;">Wrong! A writer might
use small words and short sentences and yet be so disorganised as to leave his
reader feeling like he’s labouring through sludge with a millstone around his
neck. Conversely, a writer may spin long, sinuous sentences with multiple
polysyllabic words and <i>still</i> carry
his reader with him. It all depends on the writer – and, of course, the mental
age and maturity of the reader. Marcel Proust’s <i>Swann’s Way</i> begins with a 599-word sentence. Marquez’s <i>Autumn of the Patriarch</i> is packed with
Nile-sized sentences that run into pages. Both would get <i>minus</i> scores on the FK Index, but no mature reader would argue that
either writer isn’t readable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; line-height: 115%;">The FK Index is ideal
for gauging the readability of documents aimed at specific age groups: application
forms, prospectuses, inter-office memos/bulletins/newsletters, brochures, and advertising
copy, for instance. If a brochure aimed at corporate elites scores an 80 on the
FK Index, it’s probably too simple to appeal to the literary palates of that
particular group. The language used would have to be upgraded to bring the
score down to, say, 50. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; line-height: 115%;">Fiction
and readability<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; line-height: 115%;">Some editors want to “dumb
down” fiction to make it readable, and some writers like to engage in pyrotechnics. What an intelligent reader expects, I expect, is the middle path.
He wouldn’t want the writer’s voice to be sanitized to the point that it sounds
like Dr Seuss, and nor would he wish to fill his brain with prose turgid enough
to give him an aneurism. In the final analysis, it’s the writer’s call. I, for
one, would err on the side of creative freedom, and <i>then</i> tone down wherever necessary. It’s the “first shoot and then
aim” tenet that I’d follow. And, of course, I’d refer to Flesch-Kincaid purely
out of curiosity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; line-height: 115%;">Incidentally, this
article scored 63.5 on the FK Reading Ease test. It should be easily understood
by 15 to 16-year-old Americans.<span style="font-size: 9pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
pierref4http://www.blogger.com/profile/16679963689403572906noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5619442492720703690.post-50331775062181687722014-11-15T23:38:00.000-08:002014-11-15T23:38:44.883-08:00The Perfect Write: An Impossible Dream?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
It goes without saying that an
edited piece of writing has a better chance of getting the golden nod from a
publisher or a ‘gatekeeper’ (read literary agent) than writing that hasn’t been
comprehensively edited. It’s also a fact that the more rounds of editing a work
endures, the more refined it gets. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Which brings us to the question:
how much is enough? It needs asking because self-editing is thirsty work, and
unless you place a limit on the number of rounds you’re willing to put your
writing through, you run the risk of drying up before your next opus – or
becoming paralysed with paranoia.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
I’d place a cap on six rounds,
each focused on achieving a particular objective. Please note that all the
rounds mentioned below relate to a work of fiction <i>after</i> its first draft has been written.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #cc0000;">ROUND ONE: Be your own critic</span> <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Put the first draft away and
start on another project. Read your draft after a week, but don’t concern
yourself with grammar or punctuation. Instead, focus on the big picture. Are
there lengthy narrative sections (including backstory) that slow down pace? Are
there inconsistencies and errors of logic? Stilted dialogue? Inadequately
explored interior monologue? Too much ‘telling’ and not enough ‘showing’? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Circle out the areas that need a
rewrite, and… rewrite. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #cc0000;">ROUND TWO: Enlist a beta reader</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
After you’ve polished your second
draft to the best of your abilities, send it to a couple of beta readers for an
opinion. Usually, these are writers who understand the demands of fiction and have
an above-average grasp of English grammar and style requirements. They offer free
services to writers and seek similar services in return, and they can be contacted
individually or at a site (more of this in another post).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Limit yourself to just a few beta
readers and stick with them. This will give them a chance to understand your ‘voice’
and fiction preference (literary or genre) and provide relevant feedback. While
giving your beta readers carte blanche to dig out all the bugs in your work, it
would help to mention areas you want focused on. For example, if you’re prone
to overwriting, draw your beta reader’s attention to this weakness. If you have
trouble with syntax, mention it. If you’re into crime fiction, ask whether
you’ve met the criteria that applies to the genre. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Beta readers are fresh eyes that
will see errors you’ve missed. They will help you write a better <i>third</i> draft – and they’re free.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #cc0000;">ROUND THREE: Get to third base</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Rewrite your manuscript, keeping
the feedback from beta readers in mind (if you think the feedback is useful)
and paying attention to grammar and punctuation – assuming, of course, that
you’re in the higher percentile in this regard! <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #cc0000;">ROUND FOUR: Use software support</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
After you’re done with your third
draft, run it through editing programs like ProWriting Aid, Stylewriter,
SmartEdit, Ginger, Microsoft Word and
the like (more of this in another post). These programs will tag problem areas
in your text that you and your beta readers would have missed: word and phrase repetition,
tautology, passive voice, clumsy syntax, parallelism and diction issues, clichés,
and so on. Make changes as you go along.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #cc0000;">ROUND FIVE: Read… and rewrite</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Find a quiet, private place and
read your text aloud. The lines should flow smoothly and logically. If they
don’t, iron out the wrinkles. This is called line editing and follows the
substantive editing process explained earlier.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #cc0000;">ROUND SIX: Proofread, proofread,
proofread </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The crosshead is self-explanatory.
You need to check each word for spelling errors. Check punctuation. Check for
consistency. If it’s British English you’ve decided to use, make sure you don’t
slip into US English in Chapter Ten. Ensure consistency in style. If you’re
writing for American audiences, use the Chicago Manual of Style as a guide. If
your readers are primarily British, use the Oxford Manual. If the audience is
all and sundry, I’d suggest sticking to British English. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Take a long, long break (two
weeks?) and then read your manuscript once more. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Make final changes. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Then send it out… and cross your fingers.</span></span></div>
</div>
pierref4http://www.blogger.com/profile/16679963689403572906noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5619442492720703690.post-70208025962445844032014-11-08T00:19:00.000-08:002015-10-03T23:52:57.915-07:00The Interpreter of Maladies<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh11RG5wYTVTgh5JHASJ7yoMGeswAmx2fl1yw2_Uj6OCuP6AvknBRIO2JVP4d0yeaUhf5QQQymip1bQDuwQpOtOoJI5w3lrbW-_k4Mj9aUUEdiswMwS1fdCOdLO7H4wJHM69pKZYJgWCG2a/s1600/lahiri.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh11RG5wYTVTgh5JHASJ7yoMGeswAmx2fl1yw2_Uj6OCuP6AvknBRIO2JVP4d0yeaUhf5QQQymip1bQDuwQpOtOoJI5w3lrbW-_k4Mj9aUUEdiswMwS1fdCOdLO7H4wJHM69pKZYJgWCG2a/s1600/lahiri.jpg" width="131" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jhumpa Lahiri’s <i>The Interpreter of Maladies</i> is a
collection of shorts that won a Pulitzer in 2000. These focus on Indians – especially
Indian Americans – confronting the complexities of close relationships and the
problems of adapting to a socio-cultural environment quite different from
India’s.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In ‘This Blessed House’, the
author explores the subtle conflict between Sanjeev and his wife Twinkle over
the religious items left behind by the previous Christian owners of a house they’ve
bought. Sanjeev, ever-consciousness of his Hinduness, is not as accepting of
the Christian West as his wife is. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In ‘The Interpreter of Maladies’,
tour guide Kapasi studies a US-based Indian couple and their children through
the prism of his cultural upbringing and becomes judgemental, even as he
fantasizes a romantic liaison with the wife.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">‘A Real Durwan’ and ‘The Treatment
of Bibi Haldar’ look at Indian women trapped in a rural world defined by casteism,
ignorance, superstition, and poverty. These stories are the oddballs in this
collection, to the extent that they do not focus on Indian Americans as do the stories
mentioned earlier, and others like ‘Mrs Sen’s’ and ‘The Third and Final
Continent’.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lahiri’s writing is simple and
straightforward, so readers expecting poetic fugues or linguistic pyrotechnics
will be disappointed. Similarly, those looking for Archer-style twists in the tale
are advised to give this collection a wide berth. The literary minded, however,
will definitely appreciate Lahiri’s ability to craft well-defined characters within
the constraints of the short story form and use everyday situations to spin tales
that are intellectually satisfying.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">It is posited that <i>The Interpreter of Maladies</i> has been conceived as a short story
cycle, where motifs and symbolism are used to fuse stories into an organic
whole, to provide a nuanced yet incisive commentary on the immigrant
experience. </span></div>
</div>
pierref4http://www.blogger.com/profile/16679963689403572906noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5619442492720703690.post-24896983426044285512014-10-27T02:10:00.000-07:002016-07-05T00:57:21.704-07:00Evil: An Investigation<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCla_6ni4TY8kRiZse4yilwLxPttoo7tLRaAOnHOYQmk0R7DJmGBxQRvG-eMlyIaxMO8GT1GadC3idqhnNguonFZzoqHe4QZnqe7Ce-VKquXqxQ9iQHv9txPTtx8ooJT47pt7asO4-Io7U/s1600/evil.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCla_6ni4TY8kRiZse4yilwLxPttoo7tLRaAOnHOYQmk0R7DJmGBxQRvG-eMlyIaxMO8GT1GadC3idqhnNguonFZzoqHe4QZnqe7Ce-VKquXqxQ9iQHv9txPTtx8ooJT47pt7asO4-Io7U/s1600/evil.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Ever since the Devil tempted Adam and Eve with the apple
(consequently, earning them the wrath of the Almighty and banishment from
Paradise), Old Nick has slunk about on the world stage in a host of guises,
from the garish to the banal, going about his nasty business - an assassination
here, a homicidal rampage there, a mass suicide.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It is a daunting enterprise, tackling a subject as recondite
as evil. But Morrow brings to the task all those virtues that make him one of
the world’s finest living writers: a keen sense of perception and history, a flair
for argument and analysis, and – most important – an ability to express even
the most abstract of ideas with telling precision, in language of the highest
order.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Through this 266-page dissertation, Morrow - often described
as the “master of the think piece” - discusses evil in all its manifestations,
whether elusively metaphysical or in such obvious incarnations as Bin Laden,
Jack the Ripper, the Marquis de Sade and Hitler. He talks about the
similarities between humour and evil, offers interesting anecdotes to
illustrate complex perspectives, sets his eyepiece on some of evil’s
ambiguities, and tries to understand the pathology of this malign force on both
global as well as personal levels – the nature of evil in war, and as it
resides in the darker recesses of the id, for example.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In much the same vein as he has handled many of his essays
for TIME magazine, Morrow uses rhetoric and elegant prose – and here is where
the charm of the book lies. Less theology than philosophy, this tome offers no
pat answers to perplexing questions of evil, but it certainly enthuses the
everyday reader to cogitate upon a subject that has obsessed theodicists for
eons.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">On a lighter note: with Morrow hot on his tail,
Old Nick had better keep a low profile…</span></div>
</div>
pierref4http://www.blogger.com/profile/16679963689403572906noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5619442492720703690.post-46464939462825631522014-10-27T01:55:00.000-07:002014-10-27T01:55:05.825-07:00Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii_HLIv7QruahnyRSV6cxqjU8NiMNx_jcQ45cEVhbo8leolBoJky5fseeVAwVu1-P78MR6FiLSz3kbaYrzMfByAgAa1nVi0-yOwpGPLn0gtp2nenCEiclikgmLM-Od61qPTJE-TNlv9eEZ/s1600/HULL+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii_HLIv7QruahnyRSV6cxqjU8NiMNx_jcQ45cEVhbo8leolBoJky5fseeVAwVu1-P78MR6FiLSz3kbaYrzMfByAgAa1nVi0-yOwpGPLn0gtp2nenCEiclikgmLM-Od61qPTJE-TNlv9eEZ/s1600/HULL+copy.jpg" /></a></div>
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I read Kiran Desai’s Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard after
reading The Inheritance of Loss, moving down the author’s evolutionary ladder,
so to speak. The exercise proved instructive. Hullabaloo, Desai’s literary
debut, is full of intimations of the greater work to come. It has the tropes
and stylistic elements that define Inheritance (comedic satire, animated
dialogue, endearingly eccentric characters), though, understandably, it lacks
the literary sophistication and conceptual heft of its successor.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Hullabaloo tells the story of Sampath Chawla who, having
become disenchanted with life in general, takes up permanent residence in a
guava tree in an orchard adjacent to his hometown. Ensconced in this verdant
idyll, he acquires the aura of a “guru”, attracting large crowds – and
eventually, a band of monkeys whose drunken antics are a cause for concern.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The book begins well, focusing on Sampath and the angst that
drives him. However, in an attempt to profile other characters by offering
multiple points of view, the author all but sidelines the protagonist. By the
time the manic monkeys have done their worst and scrambled over the last
treetop, Sampath is reduced to a… well, no spoilers here!</div>
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Hullabaloo soars to literary heights in places, but
generally reads like a children’s book (especially in slapstick comedy
situations). This is not to say that it isn’t hugely entertaining. In the final
analysis, it’s worth the bucks, not just for academicians who seek to broaden
their perspective on Desai, but also for those readers who’d like something
light for the summer.<o:p></o:p></div>
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pierref4http://www.blogger.com/profile/16679963689403572906noreply@blogger.com0