“How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia” by Mohsin Hamid: A Success Story or a Tale of Humanity?

I admit I have been looking forward to the release of Mohsin Hamid’s latest novel, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, for quite a few months now, so I made sure to purchase it right after its release early this month. But as with any beloved author, I couldn’t help but approach his book with a bit of trepidation. Would he be able to stand up to my already preset high expectations? Or would this be the book that would forever ruin my image of him as a brilliant writer? So with a nervous flutter in my stomach, I dove in…

It took me a bit to really get into the story. For this novel, Hamid chose a rather unconventional means of narrating the protagonist’s life: he refers to the main hero simply as ‘you’ and we never learn the names of any of the other characters. Instead they are mother, father, wife, son, pretty girl, and so on. Although it took some getting used to, it felt completely appropriate and adds a definite magic and allure to the whole story. It makes it possible to better empathize and live what the main character experiences. The anonymity allows readers to imagine the father, mother, wife, and son from the book as living, breathing, blood infused characters from their real lives.  It is a very clever method which lends a certain air of intimacy to the tale, a familiarity so profound that you cannot help but feel the strength of the hero’s youth, but also the weakness of his old age, and all the poignant moments in between.

It is not a story about success, but rather a gripping narrative of the constant motion that propels us all forward towards the same conclusion. It is the story of being human, of breathing and living, and yes, even dying, and Hamid’s gritty, life-infused rhetoric does this journey proud.

Devouring Life of Pi

Just last night I finally managed to put down the novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel – and this was only because I had finished reading it. Why did I devour it so voraciously? Well, it is a touching and gripping account of a young boy’s will to live; and there’s an enormous Bengal tiger thrown in for good measure. Some of it will make you squeamish, some of it will make you teary eyed, but all in all it’s definitely worth the read! Especially since a film based on the novel will be coming out very soon! Exciting stuff!

Too many Oscar Wilde fans have kissed his tomb that it is now close to being irreparably damaged

The legendary writer, Oscar Wilde, has a tomb like no other. Thousands of kisses have been planted on his beautifully designed tomb, decorated with a monument of a flying Assyrian-style angel. Since 1999, when someone decided to plant a big, red, lipsticked kiss on it, Wilde admirers from around the world have traveled to his tomb in Paris to do the same. It’s so popular that the accumulation of grease from people’s lipsticks have slowly eroded the surface of the monument. Paris’s Irish Cultural Centre said in a statement,

The grease base of the lipstick penetrates the stone and long after the coloring pigments have faded, a grease ‘shadow’ is still visible. The tomb is close to being irreparably damaged; each cleaning has degraded some of the stone surface and rendered it more porous and has subsequently necessitated a more drastic cleaning.

A Fresh Batch of Zombies!

Posted recently on www.salon.com is an article titled: This Year’s Must-Read Zombie Epic. The passage is talking about the novel Zone One by Colson Whitehead which has apparently received rave reviews as of late. Whitehead’s book follows the typical zombie narrative (the world awakens to a spreading zombie disease) and yet creates a completely unique take on zombies at the same time (you’ll have to read the book to find out what I mean!). It’s great to get a refreshing take on the already much used and abused topic of zombies! I hope you get a chance to pick up this novel! Enjoy!

Unofficial E.M. Forster Day!

Today I am in the mood for a classic novel so I have chosen E.M. Forster as my writer of the day! Love, love, love this novelist (did I mention I love him? ). He first drew me in with his novel A Room with a View which details the life a young woman traveling in Italy. It is meant to focus on how repressed her life is as it is filled with the constant need to be ‘proper’ about absolutely everything. I can’t describe why I found this book so beautiful and moving, but it is. I quickly followed it up with two other favorite books of mine: Where Angels Fear Tread and A Passage to India. Don’t forget that Forster is also the author of many charming short stories! There is nothing special about today so I declare it E.M. Forster day! I hope that you get to enjoy one of his novels today and come to love this author as much as I have!