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Desi News Corp - Desi News - March 2009 - Index

bookWORM
TRAGI-COMIC INTERLUDE
Embroideries
By Marjane Satrapi
There was a time
when thewere
called comics.
Everything from Dennis
the Menace to Asterix,
with Archie and Phantom thrown
in for good measure... they were
all comics.
But my kids tell me I am
relapsing into “olden days” talk
when I call them comics now.
“Graphic novels, mom!” they
say.
To be sure, two of my favourites,
For Better or for Worse and
Between Friends, are more sliceof-life
than funny ha-ha.
Marjane Satrapi’s Embroideries
falls firmly in the graphic
novel category. Though it is
hugely funny in places, it is a
sharp, sly, insider’s view of the
lives of women as revealed only
to an inner circle.
“Opium has many virtues,” my
grandmother would say. “Look at
me. I always had wide open eyes like
you...So when I was younger, I took
a little taste before going to parties.
It made my eyelids heavy. It gave me
a languorous look. By the way, you
should learn to close your eyes a little.”
“You really think I look vibrant
and intelligent like this?”
“No, but you’ll find lovers more
easily.”
The women gather around
with endless cups of tea and
exchange notes on their lives,
on sons, lovers, and other
sundry males.
They share their secrets and
have no hesitation in revealing
those of others.
“To speak behind others’ backs
is the ventilator of the heart,” says
Satrapi’s grandmother.
Delightful and insightful as
the style is, in the end, the
collection of stories is mournful,
too. It’s as though every man
on the planet is a cad, out to
beat up his wife or cheat on her.
The inclusion of one decent
man would have been a
mitigating factor.
Oh, and book’s title refers to
the surgery women resort to, to
restore virginity in a society that
places a premium on virgin
brides.
RINGSIDE
SEAT
Water for Elephants
By Sara Gruen
Water for Elephants is
your ticket to the big
top. Not just a ring-
side seat to the exciting acts, but
to a whole world that exists
behind the tarp curtains.
Jacob Jankowski runs from a
world that has collapsed around
him after his parents are killed in
a car crash and unwittingly
hitches a ride on a circus train.
Just before he is thrown off the
train, the happy discovery that he
is just one exam away from being
a full-blown vet allows him to
stay. In the
circus, Jacob
meets
colourful
as well as
un-savoury
characters,
and also
the love of
his life.
The story begins with Jacob
Jankowski in a retirement home
where he spends his days
reminiscing about his life in the
circus and ruing getting old.
Age is a terrible thief. Just when
you’re getting the hang of life, it
knocks your legs out from under you
and stoops your back. It makes you
ache and muddies your head and
silently spreads cancer throughout
your spouse.
As his mind swings between
then and now almost seam-
OLDEST TRICK IN THE BOOK
The Appeal
By John Grisham
This offering by that most
prolific of writers reveals
an astonishing fact:
John Grisham is a fan of the
old Indian radio program, Hawa
Mahal!
How else can one explain the
plot of The Appeal? When a jury
returns a shocking verdict
against a chemical company
accused of dumping lethal
carcinogens in a town’s water
supply, the company appeals.
Its fate now rests in the hands
of the nine judges who make
up the Supreme Court. This is
the starting point
for a series of powerful,
behind-the- scenes
manoeuvering that
replace a sitting justice
with one more amenable
to looking kindly
at corporate interests.
Though the narrative
lacks the tautness
and crispness that
one has come to
associate with Grisham,
there are
enough juicy legal
details to keep one’s
interest. So far so
good.
Paradoxically,
where the narrative
picks up is where
Grisham resorts to
lessly, the reader is taken into a
world of sequins and acrobats,
of extreme love for animals and
extreme cruelty towards them.
In the beginning of the book
Jacob confesses to keeping a
secret.
I knew how important it was to
keep her secret, and keep it I did –
for the rest of her life, and then
beyond. In seventy years, I’ve never
told a blessed soul.
It’s only at the very end one
realizes just who he was protecting
all these years.
the oldest trick in the book.
Straight out of the aforementioned
Hawa Mehal.
How?
Well, once upon a time, long,
long ago, one episode of the
popular radio plays on Vividh
Bharti was about a man who
manufactures spurious drugs.
He rakes in millions, totally
insensitive to the plight of his
victims. Until his son is
seriously ill and the life-saving
injection he is given is one of
the spurious ones.
Justice Ron Fisk, the newest
member of the Mississippi
Supreme Court gets his comeuppance
in a similar manner.
March 2009 Desi News 17