The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr

This was so long again, and not because of number of pages.

There are some books which you can rush because they feel like a natural rhythm but this one was something I slogged and not jogged through.

This was a story the author wanted to tell himself and I am glad that he found a publisher too. But this was not the best one to read. There are much real accounts of that era and all of them tell a story worth telling but not this.

It has a lot of dark episodes but they don't lead to a thought, it is just there. You can pick the one that echoes your thoughts but I couldn't find one. The one thing I really liked was that the thoughts of every character was out there and that might be a reason for so many pages which feel like a drag but it might be much more interesting for a different reader.

The second best thing is a long acknowledgement. It is great to see so many people being recognised by a writer who directly or indirectly influenced the book.

Peace

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

A blind girl, an orphan, a lost diamond and a war. This is what the book is all about.

It is a rather longer read and moves among different timelines which requires a bit of jog to the memory but good to read.

War is an end of a lot of things but the worst of them is end of innocence. The thoughts and feelings which it consumes. And this is what feeds it.

Wars will keep happening. It may change its form but that struggle is constant. We will always be choosing between our ideal and survival and none of them are wrong, they are just circumstantial.

Peace

The Fortune Men by Nadifa Mohamed

Sometimes it is difficult to understand when someone calls somebody fortunate. The idea of possession of something or absence of calamities viewed by others can be called fortune while this "fortunate" person may have different thoughts altogether.

It is a story of a Somali seamen in Cardiff. A family man who finds himself on the wrong side of the law for a crime that he claims to be not guilty of.

The story is set in 1950s and it is easy to claim that things are different now if not better. But this for someone to say who is on the receiving end. The partial blindness of justice which overlooks a lot things can drag people down even today.

I started on this one without any thought, and slowly it turned into a crime thriller with some philosophy thrown in. It tried to be all the things at one time and kind of failed on all of them. The last 100 pages were real stretch and not because it was going in rounds but this could have said more substantial things without a lot of white noise.

It is too innocent a thought to believe that there are no more Mahmood's in our time but unfortunately the victims of prejudice, greed, hate or simple stupidity are all around us. They will never be loud enough to be heard by all but those dreamers, who fought against everything but failed to see the end because it was not the end which they dreamed of, will keep coming.

Love

The Promise by Damon Galgut

How a girl differs from her family when it comes to the perception of truth.

Apart from anything else this one is all about patience and justice. It took long for Amor to circle back to the truth she believed in but it wins after all.

It goes into a lot of details for the characters to come out and portray them in a way which makes them all the more human. The greed, dishonesty, reluctance or even procrastination are very well represented. But the patience for truth to find its way is the most dominant one.

There were even some passages where you can doubt if the promise was actually made or just imagined. Because at times it is very much possible that your sense of justice creates a moral argument in favour of something which doesn't even exist. And later you are not interested in the conception, but you want to see the end of it.

Worth a read.

Love

No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood

 This is a rather short book and I will say that the first half of it really got my nerves.

All of it was utter rubbish and senseless to me but I may not be the target reader in this case.

But the second half was real good. It actually captured the essence of the situation and put it so vividly that the reader feels like being a part of it.

Death is not easy and it is more difficult to talk about. You add a beautiful small creature to it and it will be unbearable to read because it is difficult to see the right or rational into it. The helplessness just takes the whole experience a notch above.

I have read about this syndrome earlier and people are definitely talking a lot about it but all the awareness is good. Specially, when it comes from a personal experience.

If you are picking this up I suggest just skip the Part 1 if you feel like lost in the first five pages.

Love

The Overstory by Richard Powers

This is a one big book.

A lot of trees because the whole story is about them. There are humans who hear the voice of the trees and pick up the cause of conserving it.

There is nothing like sustainable consumption. It is just there or not there. For a real long time (billions of years) the eco system was growing with the disruption until the humans start growing their consumption exponentially. There are so many technological and scientific advances that this was bound to happen. Nobody was thinking what burning coal would cause when the first steam engine moved. We are moving from one fuel to another but the consumption is going to stay.

The trees are getting extinct fast and deforesting is one of the biggest cause. Blaming the conglomerates for this disturbance is the fastest conclusion that we can jump on to but the one thing which gets neglected is that eventually all of these are individual consumption. There are cars, machines factories which are releasing these poisonous gases into the environment but they are serving for the individual human need.

It needs more of a revolution than rebellion to bring the balance back. It all came with the technological advances and the technology is going to find a solution for this. To make it happen it will require a habit of conscious consumption which is equally difficult but not impossible. And if it doesn't happen, nature will find its way which is going to be very disruptive for the whole ecosystem (trees or living beings).

Coming back to the book, this is big and a tad bit boring at times with a lot of details. But if you are not looking for a quick summary reading it whole is recommended.

Peace