BOOKWORM
LANGUAGE IS A KNIFE
Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie, Alfred A. Knopf Canada, $34.95. On the morning of August 12, 2022, Salman Rushdie was stabbed multiple times and gravely wounded on stage at the Chautauqua Institution in New York just as he was preparing to give a public lecture on, of all things, the importance of keeping writers safe from harm.
As the man, a 24-year-old, wearing black clothes and a black mask rushed down the aisle wielding a knife, Rushdie’s first thought: So it’s you. Here you are. Was this Ayatollah Khomeni’s old 1989 Satanic Verses fatwa springing back to life?
That morning, intolerance came armed with a knife. And a murderous intent. Live on stage, for all the world to see.
The attack horrified the world and left Rushdie seriously maimed, cost him the use of his right eye, and he has had to endure months of painful, often uncertain, recovery back to a semblance of his former self.
Language is a knife, says Rushdie. Words can cut deeper than any sharp-edged steel blade can. And Knife is Rushdie taking the fight back to his would-be assassin, using his muscular storytelling “to cut open the world and reveal its meaning, its inner workings, its secrets, its truths.”
He doesn’t name the young man, just Mr A. My Assailant, my would-be Assassin, the Assinine man who made assumptions about me…I have found myself thinking of him, perhaps forgivably, as an Ass.
And Rushdie has a message for him, now cooling his heels in a penitentiary:
Your intrusion into my life was violent and damaging, but now my life has resumed, and it is a life filled with love. I don’t know what will fill your imprisoned days, but I am pretty sure it won’t be love. And if I think of you at all in the future, it will be with a dismissive shrug. I don’t forgive you. I don’t not forgive you. You are simply irrelevant to me. And from now on, for the rest of your days, you will be irrelevant to everyone else. I’m glad I have my life, and not yours. And my life will go on.
AN UNRAVELLING
Everything There Is by M.G.Vassanji, Doubleday Canada, $36.95. What happens when a world-renowned physicist, a happily married man, falls in love with a graduate student?
Professor Nurul Islam is a world-renowned physicist, a professor at Imperial College, London – and a controversial public figure in his country of birth, Pakistan, where his views on God and physics have earned him the ire of fundamentalists. And there are whispers of plagiarism, a smear campaign about his contribution to the Islam-Rosenfeld theory.
Everything There Is is about the unravelling of a traditional, religious man caught in the maelstrom of politics, passion and personal convictions. The promise of the book’s title drew me in, raising expectations of an exploration of that space deep within us all where science meets spirituality. But alas, the book takes the more beaten path of human frailties. While the story moves at a quick pace, and it’s a story well-told, I am left with the feeling that it’s a missed opportunity.
HISTORIC CRIMES
Winston Churchill – His Times, His Crimes by Tariq Ali, Verso, $25.95. Can a historical figure be measured with today’s yardstick? The blurb on Tariq Ali’s new book, Winston Churchill – His Times, His Crimes, has this to say:
The modern Churchill cult is out of control, closing down historical debate and encouraging support for twenty-first-century wars. The man has become a household god for many, preserving an antiquated vision of Britain. In this coruscating portrait, Tariq Ali audits Churchill’s crimes – both globally and at home – and shows the celebrated wartime leader to be Britain’s most shameless imperialist.
Unsurprisingly the book is a list of Churchill’s crimes – from the famine in Bengal to the re-mapping of the Arab East and the origins of the Cold War and a number of others. Knowing Churchill relished a good political fight, I wonder what his rebuttal would have been had this book been published before 1965, the year of his death.
ECONOMY EXACTS A PRICE
Monetary Policy and Its Unintended Consequences by Raghuram Rajan, The MIT Press, $41. Central banks took extraordinary measures to stabilize markets and enhance growth after the financial crisis of 2008, but without giving much thought to the long-term consequences.
It was a response, Raghuram Rajan argues, that set a dangerous precedent: the more the banks did, the more they were expected to do, and the more they ended up doing. The former head of the Reserve Bank of India looks back at what this has meant for where the global economy is now.
A SOARING ADVENTURE
Where the Falcon Flies by Adam Shoalts, Allen Lane, $36. Looking out the porch window one spring morning, Adam Shoalts spotted a majestic peregrine falcon flying across the neighbouring fields near Lake Erie, Ontario.
Each spring, falcons migrate from southernmost Canada to remote arctic mountains. Grabbing his backpack and canoe, Adam Shoalts resolved to follow the falcon’s route north on an astounding 3400-kilometre journey to the Arctic.
Along the way, he faced daunting challenges and obstacles, including storms on the Great Lakes, avoiding busy commercial freighter traffic, dealing with hunger, bear encounters and navigating white-water rapids on icy northern rivers far from any help. Through his travels, he reveals the history of the places he passes through, how interconnected wild places are, and the vital importance of these connections.
FAMILIAL BONDS
A Small Sacrifice For An Enormous Happiness by Jai Chakrabarti, Alfred A Knopf, $37. In the fourteen stories that make up this collection, Jai Chakrabarti crosses continents and cultures to explore what it means to cultivate a family today, across borders, religions and race. A closeted gay man in Kolkata, an Indian widow engaged to a Jewish man, a guru, a young woman from an Indian village who leaves her child behind to take care of the toddler of a biracial couple in Brooklyn – arranged by the grandmother in India so her grandson could learn Bangla – the characters seek to balance their needs against those of the people they hold closest, as they struggle with transformation and familial bonds.
BELOVED POEMS
Robert Frost: Sixteen Poems to Learn By Heart by Jay Parini, Library of America, $32. The title will delight those who were raised on a steady diet of learning poems “by heart” – an expression that feels very retro now. But this little gem includes tips for memorization!
Once, during a public reading, Robert Frost was asked why he so frequently recited his poems from memory. “If they won’t stick to me,” he replied, “I won’t stick to them.” In this keepsake edition, acclaimed poet and biographer Jay Parini has selected 16 of Frost’s greatest works to learn by heart.
It includes The Road Not Taken and Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, as well as other favourites such as The Sound of Trees. Each accompanied with stories and anecdotes about Frost.
IT WAS A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT
The Night of the Storm by Nishita Parekh, Dutton, $39. A family battens down the hatches as a hurricane descends. They are seeking shelter and comfort together.
But then the night turns deadly and they turn upon one another. Everyone has a secret, but is one of them a killer?
Jia will do anything to keep her ex-husband Dev from gaining custody of their son Ishaan.
Nishita Parekh captures the behaviour of a scared, tense mother perfectly.
A lot of Jia’s mothering was performative, whether refraining from yelling at Ishaan in the supermarket, or arriving extra early to his pediatrician’s appointments...
And that of a child dealing with his family having been split wide open.
... Ishaan was making the story better in real time, sharpening the edges, enhancing the imagery using artificial filters.
There’s a not-so-necessary holding forth on societal norms and expectations. While Jia’s mom having taught her daughters to “adjust” in marriage might have a bearing on how the characters function, did we really need to know how the behaviour plays out in South India vs North India? Seeing as how the story is set in Houston?
But the tongue-in-cheek depiction of immigrant life is spot-on.
An immigrant’s house was a time capsule for the era in which farewells were said to their homeland.
The tension builds, layer upon layer, minute by minute, though the cliff-hanger approach at the end of each short chapter feels just a little contrived.
SEEKING REFUGE
Little Sanctuary by Randy Boyagoda, Tradewind Books, $24.95. Little Sanctuary is the story of children from an unnamed place in the Global South.
They enjoy all the privileges that affluent families take for granted. But with their country wracked by war and their world falling apart around them, they are dispatched to a place their parents believe is safe.
But something is very wrong and the children’ suspicions about the people caring for them grow. When they witness an act of violence, teenaged Sabel and her siblings must rally the others and plot an escape.
While at one level, this is an exciting read for young readers, this reviewer read it as a parent and discovered a multilayered narrative that evokes the heartbreaking headlines today.
But no one spoke after the prayer. No one was eating, either. Sabel knew why. Starting meant they would have to finish, and after clearing the table, it would be time to leave home.
The fear the children feel, their sheer helplessness, is palpable.
Others ducked down. Still others tried to push into the backs of their seats, bracing themselves against being taken again.
War after war, decade after decade, all across the globe, parents hand their children over, placing their faith in the kindness of strangers.
Will Sabel and her siblings find their way home again? Will their world be as they left it?
TEEN REVIEW
By ARYAA DALWADI
Fish In A Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt, Penguin Young Readers Group, $12.49. Fish In A Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt is very inspirational as it shares the experience and hardships a girl with dyslexia has to go through.
This girl, Ally, has dyslexia and there are bullies at her school who make fun of her even when her teacher is helping Ally more. Her teacher, Mr. Daniels is kind and caring as he helps Ally through this tough time.
The author may have written this book to show what kids who struggle with learning go through, and how bullying clearly does not help. This book also relates to strong friendship as Ally and Keshia stood up for Albert when he was getting beaten up. I believe that the author has shown an incredible example of how much some students may be struggling.
The title of this book is also very unique and has a lot of meaning behind it. I believe that Fish In A Tree means “Everybody is smart in different ways. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its life believing it is stupid.”
This is a great book and I recommend reading it as you will experience the hard as well as sad experiences that Ally had to go through, with her.
• Aryaa Dalwadi is a youth volunteer at Brampton Library.