What are you reading now?

"The evil that is in the world almost always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack understanding "

                                                                 -Albert Camus¨

( quoted in "saving fish from drowning")

I have a weakness for books that like any addiction gets worse when the weather gets worse or when life gets stressful so at the moment i have a mountain of books that i have packed into large Ikea bags

The conclusion i have reached is like that of clothes, they say if you dont wear a dress within a year, you will never wear it, and the same goes for books though there are exceptions. some books we grow into , others we just never find the need for, because i think like whiskey drinkers say about the drink , a good book just hits the right spot

Philip Roth's novel "The Humbling" , a short 140 page novel took me about a day to get through and after i had finished reading it i felt yes i have to pass it on and i did. 

The plot is about an ageing actor who finds that he can not perform anymore, he falls into depression, what came first is not clear, the depression or the lack of ability to play macbath on stage however as the rats leave the sinking ship, the wife leaves , the actor falls into a deeper depression and worried he might kill himself, he checks himself into a psychiatric clinic where he meets a woman who has had a traumatic experience that had led her to attempt suicide too, not a very cheerful topic however an important one.

The plot evolves and a daughter of old friends of the actor comes into his life she is s reformed lesbian whose partner decided to become a man and so she attempts to become heterosexual, the actor supports the process and finds himself led through all sorts of strange experiences amongst them a fertility clinic in attempts to please the woman, several characters walk in and off the stage and the topic of relationships gets a good airing of the cupboard

I will not reveal the ending but to say that if you know Checkov's famous saying

a gun in  the first scene  does lead to an action at the final act 

Philip Roth and i went through a love hate relationship for some years till finally i matured into seeing beyong the sex and realized that somehow he tries to use the writing as a lab situation where human beings experiment with life and try to find the right formula for life, never quite getting there but in the process learning does take place on some level.

i am grateful in any rate that we are living in such times where there are few if any tabus, Philip Roth i believe uses physical relationships to point out to the limitation of it,

In one interview Philip Roth says that in 25 years readers of novels will be like a small  cult, very few and rare because reading a novel demands a high level of concentration and attention.

I have never realized it because i have a difficult time focusing on movies and prefer reading novels but perhaps he is right which is why he writes such short novels in his later years.

Philip Roth can still provocate and shake the dust off the shelves of the mind and society and he does it in a very communicative way, which basically means i found him not too challenging to read.

I recommend this book to anyone who has struggled with the issue of relationships, meaning of life and purpose

well, there must be one or two people at least..

Another novel i am reading now is "saving fish from drowning  " By Amy Tan, who is a chinese American writer that writes about Asian culture in America. i have read her earlier novels but have been out of touch,

the current book is very flowing, she is very good in character description and though the topic is morbid, a woman is murdered and she writes from the point of view of the deceased looking down at her own funeral , it is the way she writes and the insight into Asian culture that keeps me hanging on 

The plot is about twelve American tourists on an art expedition that beings in The Himalayan foothills of china , after the mysterious death of their leader the plans fall apart,

Amy Tan asks how we can discern what is real and what is fiction and how do we know what to believe. 

The characters are sympathetic, she uses contemporary themes

"she spins a provacative and mesmerizing tale about the mind and the heart of the individual ,the actions we choose, the moral questions we might ask ourselves , and above all, the deeply personal answers we seek when happy endings are seemingly impossible"

sounds good, i am on page 14 making my way towards page 474 in slow but steady steps..it is an enriching and delightful experience to communicate somehow with such a gentle yet intelligent mind as Amy Tan, who never forgets humor is the key to opening the doors of the mind.

Enjoy the rainy June reading !

Namaste