In Other Words - Jhumpa Lahiri (Book).

Book: 28/52
In Other Words - Jhumpa Lahiri
My Rating: 4/5

After reading a lot of fiction, I decided to pick up a non-fiction book, and fortunately came across this one in our library. And anyway, after reading two of her books (The Lowland & Whereabouts) earlier this month, I decided to give this one a try too. But I must say it was an amazing experience reading her personal account of a much-loved and acclaimed writer searching for herself in words. This was more like when she challenged herself to learn a new language, not only to be able to communicate but to write in it as well. And I guess this was the first book that she actually wrote in Italian, and then never stopped. All other works after this one she has written originally in Italian and had them translated by others, as she believes she will be betraying the language if she does it herself. Three years back, my favourite nephew (I have a few to choose from) moved to Finland, the first thing he was supposed to do there was to learn the language, because it was a must to find a job in his field. His struggle and the effort that it took him to learn, and especially the way he did it, by talking to everyone around initially in broken words and sentences, while some kept correcting him and others just turned and never looked back, Jhumpa’s experience was no different, but Italian is a much easier language in comparison to Finnish. On top of that, I end up reading this book while I too was contemplating learning a foreign language myself and picked up French to start with. After taking three lessons in the last few days, I am so excited about it, and the way she has captured her feelings in this one actually inspired me big time to not only learn it fully and not just learn it that much to watch movies, but I would someday love to learn French literature in its originality too, let’s talk about writing in it some other time. 

Of course, just like all her other works (so far, what I have read), they are more about an Expat’s life in a foreign land with its own challenges and all that, this one was no different. Born a British / American with Indian origin parents, she is neither accepted in America or Britian nor any of her relatives or friends take her to be Indian in India as well. Although she can speak Bengali and Hindi fluently, while her parents struggled with English in their own ways, she developed a proper American way of life too early, which again wasn’t acceptable to her parents; even in America, it was compulsory in her home to speak only Bengali. Now look at her dilemma, just like any NRI in today’s time, they are neither here nor there properly. But if her talent is to be praised (much due), she is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author with terrifically acclaimed books to her credit. And now she writes in Italian while living in London. But her obsession with Italian and the final result, as this book has to be praised big time, as her words (even the translation in English) just flow like honey and never gets boring for one moment. This book is compared with Vladimir Nabokov’s intensity and clarity for a startling act of self-reflection and a provocative exploration of belonging and reinvention. Now, that will be sent to me, Nabokov’s way, as I haven’t read anything from him, maybe I will start with his Autobiography, assuming he must have written one if this is how they compare her with him. 

Do let me know if you have read this one or any other Jhumpa Lahiri book that became your favourite. I am going to read The Namesake after finishing all her other books first. 

 

Forrest Gump - Winston Groom (Book & Movie).

Book: 27/52
Forrest Gump - Winston Groom
My Rating: 5/5

I must have watched the movie “Forrest Gump” at least a dozen times by now, and twice in the theatre, the first time when it was released, I was in Noida, the second time I watched it in the Pragati Maidan movie festival (New Delhi). And I must say, every time I watched it, I loved it more. Tom Hanks was totally amazing and in character as Forrest Gump, doing some idiotic things, but to the audience's shock and amazement, everything he touches turns to gold. Just like the love of his life, Jenny tells him at the very start, that whenever he feels he is in trouble, he should “Run, Run Forrest Run”. And that mantra takes him to unbelievable heights. On the other hand, his own mother doesn’t accept at any cost that her child was special, if you know what I mean. Now let’s come back to the main question, after all these years, after watching the movie so many times, I never picked up the lovely book by Winston Groom on which it is based. Winston Groom even partnered to write the movie too, making it not only visually delightful but leaving a lot of deep meaning in between too; it never loses the gist his terrific book offers. As the book cover rightly says, in P.J. O’Rourke’s words, that “Winston Groom has created the ideal citizen for the modern world - a perfect idiot”. The greatest strength of both the book and movie both is the way it is narrated by Forrest Gump himself and the satire behind almost everything he does or happens to him.

But as it is always the case, the book is far, far better than the movie and offers so much more character to Forrest and his story, right from childhood to the end, which I wouldn’t like to disclose for those who have neither read nor watched the movie yet (can there actually be someone like that?). The way his mother helps and raises him, on top of that, the way his life changes after Jenny comes into it and goes out of it pretty often to break his heart. Jenny herself has her own painful story to tell, and the small revenge that Forrest takes for her in the end was so heart-touching. How he ends up getting a college degree just by running in any direction, and becomes a world football (rugby) champion too, is a hilarious story. How many presidents he meets, how they all get killed, the legendary Elvis Presley's dancing steps to his travel to space and back with an Orangutang who becomes a friend for life. From almost getting eaten by cannibals to learning chess from one of them to becoming a professional wrestler, it has so much of him. His army mate Bubba, who plays a huge character in his life and their shared dream, which later Forrest fulfils and makes them all millionaires, his boss Lt Dane, one heck of a man and a perfect mentor for Forrest. His histrionics in ping pong and how he offends the Chinese, who were supposed to be the masters of the game, was one hell of an episode from his life. The book and Forrest’s story have so much heart that I never wanted it to finish, but with hardly 250+ pages, I could only stretch it to five days. But there is a catch, that there is a sequel to this one, and I need to lay my hands on it at the earliest. And on top of that, if I tell you what it is about, that will be a huge spoiler for this one :), so, you’ve got to read it for yourself and very well follow it with the multiple Oscar-winning movie, which actually got Tom Hanks, I believe, his first best actor Oscar award.

I must say why I enjoyed the book so much was because of Tom Hanks, as the way Forrest’s character talks in the book, bad English and almost no grammar, is exactly how Tom has done in the movie and that kept giving me visuals at the back of my head throughout the story. Although Winston Forrest is six feet six inches and bulky, barring that, Tom is almost a perfect fit for the character. Its visuals and background score do so much justice to Winston’s writing, and no wonder why it got so many awards and acclaim. If the truth be told, the book didn’t sell well initially; only 30k copies got sold, but once the movie came out, it sold more than a million copies. Do let me know if you have read the book and watched the movie, just like me and loved them both big time. Also, have you read anything else by Winston Groom? I will surely be looking forward to reading some more from him once I am done with this one’s sequel first.
 

Whereabouts - Jhupa Lahiri (Book).

Book: 26/52
Whereabouts - Jhupa Lahiri
My Rating: 3/5

These days, I have decided to read all my favourite writers back to back till I finish all of their books before moving to any other Author. As per my personal record of the last 12 years, I haven’t read anything from Jhumpa Lahiri other than The Lowland that I read last month. Hence, as soon as I saw this in the book rack, I picked it up and jumped on it. Turns out, this is more of a reminiscing of a single woman in and from Italy, name unknown, city undisclosed, year unknown, but the good part was her words simply flowed like honey. Originally written in Italian, she herself translated it into English (thank God for that) for a wider audience like us. All the chapters are like 3-4 pages max, talking about where she eats breakfast, who she meets in places she regularly visits, and a very brief mention of a lover who, I guess, was married already. Basically, the whole 200-odd pages are nothing but the narrator travelling around an unnamed European city, contemplating her solitude (thanks, wiki). In the train journeys that take her to her mother, not much is said about her dead father. There is a brief encounter with her grandmother, even. But as I said, her words flow beautifully and keep it engaging for the reader. I predicted no set ending, and that's how it goes. Now that I have read this one, I am craving to go back to The Namesake at the earliest, followed by Interpreter of Maladies, whereas I have one more from her “In Other Words) which I believe is a collection of stories on my book rack.