Sunday pageturners

1. Himalaya by Michael Palin, paperback, published by Phoenix books, pp 320, Rs 695

2. Fury by Salman Rushdie, paperback, published by Vintage Books, pp 272, Rs 425

3. Shame by Taslima Nasrin, published by Penguin books, price Rs 360

4. The Theory of Everything by Stephen W Hawking, published by Jaico Books, pp 136, Rs 275

5. Mr Muo’s Travelling Couch by Dai Sijie, published by Vintage books, pp 272, Rs 595

What the books are about

Himalaya

Having risen to the challenge of seas, poles, dhows and deserts, the highest mountains in the world were a natural target for Michael Palin. In a journey rarely, if ever, attempted before, in 6 months of hard travelling Palin takes on the full length of the Himalaya including the Khyber Pass, the hidden valleys of the Hindu Kush, ancient cities like Peshawar and Lahore, the mighty peaks of K2, Annapurna and Everest, the gorges of the Yangtze, the tribal lands of the Indo-Burmese border and the vast Brahmaputra delta in Bangladesh. Facing altitudes as high as 17,500 feet as well as some of the world’s deepest gorges, Palin also passed through political flashpoints like Pakistan’s remote north-west frontier, terrorist-torn Kashmir and the mountains of Nagaland, only recently open to visitors. Michael Palin is a fantastic writer and the text reads beautifully, making this a perfect read for the armchair traveller.

Fury

The Fury of the title refers both to the mid-life rage of the protagonist, who finds himself standing over his sleeping wife and son armed with a kitchen knife, and the mythological furies who tore to pieces those men whom the gods had judged. As in his previous novel The Ground Beneath Her Feet, he explores the relationship of the artist to his creation and to his audience. Solanka — Cambridge philosopher, doll-maker and possible serial killer — is the unlikely and unwilling creator of a pop-culture phenomenon that comes to represent everything he despises about modern cultural malaise. He is a part-creator of a culture he hardly understands — an anachronism. The novelist’s prose reflects this alienation, but unfortunately with few insights or pleasures for the reader used to his contemporary mythological lyricism. Rushdie’s pop references check-list the late 20th-century US from Clinton to OJ to the World Wide Web, and this, combined with their built-in obsolescence, renders Solanka/Rushdie’s narrative strained. The urban culture of New York and Webspeak provide rich seams of traditional and new vocabularies and grammar for this most magpie-like of playful language lovers to line his literary nest with. However, in so doing, he cuts himself off from the emotional intensity and drive, combined with layered cultural complexity, that has distinguished his work, the most celebrated being Midnight’s Children. Rushdie at his best is an intriguing writer; ultimately, it may be easier to extract him from the media circus that surrounds him than from the comparisons with his own compelling body of work.

Shame:

The reader who wondered why Hindus didn’t just convert to Islam or relocate to India obviously failed to understand the message of the book. The tearing apart of the ideals and optimism of a family very much in love with Bangladesh make this book essential reading for all readers remotely interested in the struggles of minority groups anywhere in the world.

The Theory of Everything:

I must admit that when Iwas first introduced to Stephen Hawking’s books I did regard them as far too heavy. but when I came across this, and bought it, I realised truly how amazing he is at putting forward complex concepts in an entirely understandable way. it’s almost like reading a normal novel as bed-time reading! Clearly the grey matter inside the book is extensive, but I would recommend it to anyone hoping to gain more of an insight into our complex universe without passing out.

Mr Muo’s Travelling Couch:

Dai Sijie’s bestselling and much loved first novel, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, was a delightful fable. His second is a Chinese Don Quixote following the peripatetic misadventures of Mr Muo, China’s first psychoanalyst. It’s over 10 years since Muo has visited his native China. He’s been in Paris, exploring his subconscious and devouring the works of Freud and Lacan. But, he knew the idyll couldn’t last. When Muo hears that his first great love has been thrown into a Chinese jail for selling a newspaper article to the foreign press, he feels he must rush home and rescue her. He returns to a China where everyone is corruptible, provided you find the right bribe. Sadly, the $10,000 Muo offers Judge Di to free his beloved aren’t enough. The judge, tired of cash and cars, orders Muo to bring him a virgin girl to satisfy his sexual predilection for the unsullied. Thus, begins a series of hilarious adventures as Muo goes in search of a virgin, setting himself up as an itinerant interpreter of dreams and losing his own virginity in the process.