BOOKWORM
IN SEARCH OF HOME
For Now, It Is Night by Hari Krishna Kaul, Archipelago Books, $29. The exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in the 1990s is one of the darkest chapters in the history of modern India. That over 100,000 people were forced to flee their ancestral homes and live as refugees in Delhi and elsewhere is a reminder that even after 75 years of the partitioning of the subcontinent, lessons have not been learnt.
Many Kashmiri Pandits now call Canada their home. And every Kashmiri Pandit has had to make uncomfortable compromises to survive. Yet, life carries on.
In poignantly human short stories Hari Krishna Kaul explores themes of isolation and alienation, loss of homeland, culture and language.
The administrators must have issued a lot of passes this time, he thought. But for those who have passes there is no disorder or curfew anywhere in the town! Curfews affect only those who are killed with bullets, or are struck with batons or slashed with knives. Only the ones whose houses are set on fire know how it feels. Curfews are selective; imposed on some and not others.
Translated from Kashmiri by Kaul’s niece Kalpana Raina and Tanveer Ajsi, Gowhar Fazili and Gowhar Yaqoob.
Home page credit: A boater on Dal Lake, Srinagar, Kashmir, by JANET ELDHOSE on Unsplash.
NOT YOUR TYPICAL IMMIGRANT FAMILY SAGA
Sorry For the Inconvenience by Farah Naz Rishi, Mindy’s Book Studio, USD28.99. This is a modern-day romance – marrying her best friend to get health benefits – only to find that friendship can be a clear path to love.
It is also a deeply personal story of grief, and of family.
The opening lines in her author’s note: Do you ever think about how you’ve never actually seen yourself? That the closest you’ll ever get is seeing your reflection in the mirror? Yet we know how often mirrors mislead and distort our understanding of ourselves. Objects in mirror are closer than they appear.
Hers is not the typical immigrant family. Or is it? Her mother claims she wasn’t cut out for motherhood. She presents one way to the outside world and all Farah’s friends think she’s the ultimate mom. And yet the same woman insists “The only reason you’d want privacy is because you have something to hide.” When she’s sweet to Farah, her guard goes up because her mother is using her “other” voice.
Her maternal grandfather has schizophrenia. Her father cheated on her mother. Then there was Shaz, her little brother whom she doted on. And her friend Stephen. Handsome, charismatic, loyal and hugely caring.
With Stephen around. I no longer had to worry about the fact that if I choked on my food, I would likely die alone in my apartment, and my cats would probably eat my body.
Except that he’s also biracial – part Jamaican, part Indian. And clearly not the Pakistani doctor groom her parents are hoping she will find.
She tries to win her mother’s attention and love, draws back, returns ... until the “profound, perhaps inevitable realization that your parents are just people – with flaws and imperfections – feels like mourning”.
Rishi lets the reader into her deepest, darkest moments.
Sorry For the Inconvenience makes you wonder how much pain and trauma one can bottle up inside until it bursts out., sometimes in an inadvertent laugh.
There’s the moment when she’s decided to end it all. She fills her cats’ bowls and takes out a box cutter. And then the raucous laughter of a bunch of kids outside her window breaks her trance.
Excuse me, I’m trying to DIE over here! Could you BE anymore disrespectful?!?!
“I laughed, a stomach-clenching laugh that had me doubled over.”
Mindy Kaling had this to say in her promo blurb for the book: “This story ripped my heart in two, had me grabbing for the tissues, and then put me back together again.”
A SLIP OF THE TONGUE
Mother Tongue, The Surprising History of Women’s Words by Jenni Nutall. So many of the words we use to chronicle women’s lives feel awkward or alien. Medical terms are accurate but antiseptic. Slang and obscenities have shock value and perpetuate taboos.
Anatomical words like hysteria have loaded legacies. And really, if you stop to think, rapt is the past tense of the verb to rape, writes Jenni Nutall.
Where are plain, honest words for women’s daily lives?
Mother Tongue is a historical investigation of feminist language and thought, from the dawn of Old English to the present day.
MAKING WAVES
Brave the Wild River by Melissa L. Sevigny, W.W.Norton & Company, $40. In the summer of 1938, botanists Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter set off to run the Colorado River, accompanied by an ambitious and entrepreneurial expedition leader, a zoologist, and two amateur boatmen With its churning waters and treacherous boulders, the Colorado was famed as the most dangerous river in the world. Journalists and veteran river runners boldly proclaimed that the motley crew would never make it out alive. But for Clover and Jotter, the expedition held a tantalizing appeal: no one had yet surveyed the plant life of the Grand Canyon, and they were determined to be the first.
Through the vibrant letters and diaries of the two women, science journalist Melissa L. Sevigny traces their daring forty-three-day journey down the river, during which they meticulously cataloged the thorny plants that thrived in the Grand Canyon’s secret nooks and crannies. Along the way, they chased a runaway boat, ran the river’s most fearsome rapids, and turned the harshest critic of female river runners into an ally. Clover and Jotter’s plant list, including four new cactus species, would one day become vital for efforts to protect and restore the river ecosystems.
A riveting account of two women who risked their lives to save the planet.
THEY EVEN TOOK THE WORD LOOT!
Loot by Tania James, Alfred A. Knopf, $37.99. Seventeen-year-old Abbas’s gifts as a woodcarver come to the attention of Tipu Sultan, the 18th century ruler of Mysore, who finds him a position as an assistant to the legendary French clockmaker Lucien Du Leze at his palace. To commemorate the return of Tipu’s sons from British captivity, Lucien and Abbas build a giant tiger automaton. It’s a tiger mauling a near life-size British man. One hand of the man moves, a wailing sound emits from his mouth, and the tiger grunts. This is Tipu’s way of mocking the mighty British Empire for takings his sons as hostages over an unpaid debt.
Abbas hones his craft, learns French, and meets Jehanne, the daughter of a French expatriate. But when British forces attack and loot Mysore, Abbas’s world is turned upside down and his tiger automaton is seized as a prize of war. To prove himself, Abbas must retrieve the tiger from an estate in the English countryside where it is displayed in a collection of plundered art.
Loot is a heist novel at heart. Tania James traces the bloody legacy of colonialism across two continents. At a time when Tipu Sultan’s legacy is in sharp focus in India – he’s reviled as a Muslim despot by some and hailed as a benevolent ruler who bravely fought the British by others – James serves a timely reminder that while anyone can attempt to rewrite history, some historical facts cannot be debated.
ANOTHER TIME, ANOTHER PLACE
Central Park West by James Comey, The Mysterious Press, $40. At a Toronto International Festival of Authors event, James Comey had shared that he based the federal prosecutor in his crime fiction debut on his daughter and also the trauma that investigators deal with, specially when the crime involves a child. In Central Park West, the former FBI director draws from his decades in federal law enforcement, including his years in Manhattan as a mob prosecutor and later as chief prosecutor.
He takes readers deep inside the world of lawyers and investigators working to solve a murder while navigating the treacherous currents of modern politics and the mob.
WHERE WE ARE
Our Little Farm by Peter and Miriam Wohlleben, Greystone Books, $29,95. Many years ago, Peter Wohlleben, bestselling author of books like The Hidden Life of Trees, and his wife Miriam, moved to a forester’s lodge in a small rural community.
They grew as much of their food as they could, while working jobs and raising a young family. In Our Little Farm, they share the joys and challenges of raising a wide range of animals and plants, from goats to goji berries. Though they have now scaled back and “the only animals” they care for now are horses, goats and chickens, the book is a testament to the respect they have for the land and those who work it to produce organic and environmentally-friendly food.
Like his previous books, it is written in his familiar chatty style. With bits about their respective preferences for jackets, hats and boots.
And this: Unfortunately, chard is like zucchini: we always end up with too much. What do we do with all the chard we are blessed with? After neighbours and friends have been supplied with ample quantities, we use the excess as valuable fresh food for the chickens and goats.
MORE MAGIC!
Magic Tree House, Time of the Turtle King, by Mary Pope Osborne, Random House, $19.99. Jack and Annie are whisked way in the magic tree house to the Galapagos Islands where they must save a giant tortoise from an erupting volcano!
MARVEL- OUS!
Marvel-Verse Guardians of the Galaxy by Brian Michael Bemdis and others, Marvel, $12.50. When Earth faces a cosmic threat so great that even its mightiest heroes can’t handle it alone, the Avengers assemble alongside the Guardians. Can the two teams work together to save the day?
LOOK THIS UP!
The New Children’s Encyclopedia, DK, $39.99. Packed with thousands of facts on everything from Space, Earth, environment and ecology, the human body, culture, history and politics, technology... and more, this is the book every child needs and is sure to become a valuable reference.
This reviewer was delighted to find that encyclopedias are still being published in this age of asking Siri for all information!
TEEN REVIEW
By UDHAY KAPILA
Obasan by Joy Kogawa, Penguin, $19.95. Obasan is a well-written novel that covers the “hidden” tragedy and treatment of Japanese Canadians in Canada during World War 2.
It is a touching and thought-provoking novel that tells the story of a young girl named Naomi who is forced to confront her past and how she was forced out of British Columbia as she was seen as an enemy of her country. The reader sees what she had to suffer in her past and her struggles to accept her identity.
Joy Kogawa does a good job translating her experiences and pain into pages for the reader to observe. She uses vivid detail to paint a picture while covering all the injustice, racism, and realities Japanese Canadians had to go through.
The book explores important themes such as identity, culture, and the dangers of silence. It serves as a warning of what human nature is capable of and the importance of speaking out and advocating for what is right and against injustice, racism, and evil.
Obasan is a well-written novel with an important message, speaking to generations to not forget or stay silent. It is a part of Canada’s past that many do not know about or would like to forget, but it is important to learn from the past so we do not repeat it in the future.
• Udhay Kapila a youth volunteer at Brampton Library.