Sandhya

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Sandhya rated a book 2 of 5 stars

The Towers of Silence
by Paul Scott

read in February, 2013

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Very over-written and frenzied. My interest was sustained for about 200 pages, and then I gave up. Paul Scott is a writer of some talent for sure. He is perceptive and etches out characters well. But the whole thing just gets tiresome after a point....more

Sandhya is reading The Towers of Silence: Very over-written and frenzied. My interest was sustained for about 200 pages, and Paul Scot is a writer of some talent for sure. He is perceptive and etches out characters well. But the whole thing just gets tiresome after a point. Scot tends to overload you with information and exhaustoin levels are reached pretty soon.

The Towers of Silence
by Paul Scott

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Sandhya marked as to-read:

Lucky Jim
by Kingsley Amis

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Robert Bristow
by Jesse Russell

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Sandhya rated a book 3 of 5 stars

Liza of Lambeth
by W. Somerset Maugham

read in September, 2012

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Liza Of Lambeth (1897) is perhaps Maugham's only novel which I don't have the heart to revisit. Not because it is poor, but because it is so chillingly tragic. It isn't as if his other novels are all light and sunshine. Maugham in fact always had a g...more

Sandhya rated a book 4 of 5 stars

Christmas Holiday
by W. Somerset Maugham

read in December, 2012

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Among all his works, Christmas Holiday published in 1939 counts as Maugham's most political novel. It still has all the central themes of love and coming-of-age which the author engaged with, but certainly, here, Maugham was keener to make a politica...more Among all his works, Christmas Holiday published in 1939 counts as Maugham's most political novel. It still has all the central themes of love and coming-of-age which the author engaged with, but certainly, here, Maugham was keener to make a political point.

Written just before the outbreak of World War 2, the entire novel can be seen as an allegory of the situation that was unfolding in Europe, post the Russian revolution. The novel gives you an overview of the history of the time, and acquaints you with some people that this troubled age could well have produced. The action of the novel is Paris, which is one of the cities where many White Russians immigrated. Like all immigrants, they had left behind their property and wealth under the Bolshevik regime. Many of them belonged to affluent families but were now penniless, desperate for work. The second generation Russians in Paris now had only a faint idea of their motherland, and were holding on to any crumbs of nostalgia.

The French population viewed the ever increasing Russian émigré with distrust, and slowly with lack of opportunities, the Russians were pushed into fringes of society doing lowly jobs. The novel's young protagonist, Lydia is representative of this class. A White Russian, she works for a dressmaker for a while but when she is introduced in the book she has become a prostitute called Princess Olga (because the idea of going to bed with a Russian queen is appealing to men) . She is disturbed and over-worked. She has individuality and a naive intelligence to make conversation that is unaffected and straight from the heart.

The novel however moves by way of Charley Mason, the 24 year old male protagonist of the novel who has arrived to Paris on a short Christmas holiday. The trip is a gift from his father and by extension his loving family in England. A good many pages at the start of the novel are devoted to an elaborate description about the Masons. The family which came up through modest means, now finds itself in its most prosperous phase. Charley has parents who are interested in art and culture and have taken pains to inculcate in their children a taste for the finer things in life. Their dining tables are well-laden with expensive silver and healthy, nutritious food. The comfortable rooms, with well-appointed fire places and cushy beds, the drawing rooms, with paintings of the great masters displayed on the walls, have an effect of a decorous, well-ordered home that envelops its family of four in a smug blanket of security and warmth. It is in this home that Charley grew up. An exemplary English boy, well-bred and genuinely nice, Charley is attracted to alternative cultures and there is some charm for the risqué in him. His friendship with Simon, a childhood friend, who is drastically unlike him, explains this. Simon talks and talks, much of it to use Maugham's phrase is 'confused eloquence' His ideas are grand, confusing, bizarre, mean, contradictory. But Charley is enamoured by his quixotic appeal.

Charley wants to have a good time, and a visit to a brothel is in order. Simon has a familiarity with the place, more as a journalist and less because he is a regular. He brings together Charley and Lydia, and thus begins the story.

The book works on parallel narratives from here. One is Charley and Lydia's own interaction in a hotel. Both spend a good part of a week together which passes in a surreal round of sleep, breakfast and then lunch and again sleep.

the rest http://sandyi.blogspot.in/2012/12/chr...(less)

Sandhya liked Amy's review of The Dyer's Hand:

" What a completely strange & engrossing collection of essays. They are (so far) a little bit aphoristic and very certain of themselves, in which Auden stands on his soapbox and tells it as he sees it. Oddly enough, I find myself completely char... "
Read more of this review »

Sandhya rated a book 3 of 5 stars

Candide
by Voltaire

recommended for: students of literature and history

read in January, 2005

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I don't think this is a timeless classic but it's nevertheless an interesting work by Voltaire, who ruthlessly satarises the 'movement of stoicism' that was gaining momentum in the 17th century. Even amidst great calamities, the stoics preached that...more

Sandhya marked as to-read:

The End of the Affair
by Graham Greene

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Sandhya is now friends with Kartiki Nitin
Feb 21, 2013 01:13am
Sandhya rated a book 2 of 5 stars The Towers of Silence by Paul Scott read in February, 2013	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Very over-written and frenzied. My interest was sustained for about 200 pages, and then I gave up. Paul Scott is a writer of some talent for sure. He is perceptive and etches out characters well. But the whole thing just gets tiresome after a point....more
Feb 05, 2013 09:12am · see review
Sandhya is reading The Towers of Silence: Very over-written and frenzied. My interest was sustained for about 200 pages, and Paul Scot is a writer of some talent for sure. He is perceptive and etches out characters well. But the whole thing just gets tiresome after a point. Scot tends to overload you with information and exhaustoin levels are reached pretty soon. The Towers of Silence by Paul Scott	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Feb 05, 2013 09:01am · like · see status
Sandhya marked as to-read: Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Feb 05, 2013 05:52am
Sandhya marked as to-read: Robert Bristow by Jesse Russell	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jan 23, 2013 04:00am
Sandhya rated a book 3 of 5 stars Liza of Lambeth by W. Somerset Maugham read in September, 2012	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Liza Of Lambeth (1897) is perhaps Maugham's only novel which I don't have the heart to revisit. Not because it is poor, but because it is so chillingly tragic. It isn't as if his other novels are all light and sunshine. Maugham in fact always had a g...more
Dec 30, 2012 12:15am · see review
Sandhya rated a book 4 of 5 stars Christmas Holiday by W. Somerset Maugham read in December, 2012	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Among all his works, Christmas Holiday published in 1939 counts as Maugham's most political novel. It still has all the central themes of love and coming-of-age which the author engaged with, but certainly, here, Maugham was keener to make a politica...more
Dec 30, 2012 12:10am · see review
Sandhya liked Amy's review of The Dyer's Hand: " What a completely strange & engrossing collection of essays. They are (so far) a little bit aphoristic and very certain of themselves, in which Auden stands on his soapbox and tells it as he sees it. Oddly enough, I find myself completely char... " Read more of this review »
Dec 21, 2012 09:38am · see review
Sandhya rated a book 3 of 5 stars Candide by Voltaire recommended for: students of literature and history read in January, 2005	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I don't think this is a timeless classic but it's nevertheless an interesting work by Voltaire, who ruthlessly satarises the 'movement of stoicism' that was gaining momentum in the 17th century. Even amidst great calamities, the stoics preached that...more
Nov 25, 2012 12:17am · see review
Sandhya marked as to-read: The End of the Affair by Graham Greene	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Nov 24, 2012 11:43pm

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