Reading in 2021
2021 has been a tough year in a very different way from 2020. There was a despondence to 2020, a lot more desperation. 2021 brought acceptance, a level of this-too-shall-pass tranquility, and a lot more thankfulness for what we have got. Perhaps some impassiveness too?
I read a considerable lot more this year than I normally do. A lot-of re-reads, but a lot of new reads as well. I have got a bit of discipline about my reading habit, which I never had previously. For at least a couple days a week, I would wake up early and sit on our balcony with a book for an hour to start the day. And for the days when sleep is a problem, I would put myself to sleep with a re-read of a classic from my childhood.
Anyway, here are my top -10 reads for the year. 2020’s best-books update was in Bangla, so naturally, 2021’s Top-10 has to be in English.
Aranyak ( আরণ্যক ), by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay – is the best book I read this year, in a year of excellent reads. A classic of the Bengali language, it is at once a paean to nature (oh, what descriptions! I could smell the forests), a call to arms for conservation and against deforestation, and a detailed examination of how a part of India lives. Essential reading. Available in translation too.
A Coffin for Dimitrios, by Eric Ambler – is fascinating. One of the pillars on which the template for the classic international thriller is built, it is a delight which I am sure I will revisit in the future. And there are so many crevices and detours in the story which could well be fascinating full-length novels in themselves!
A Month in the Country, by J.L. Carr – is absolutely lovely. A bright little mood-piece of a novella, it’s become an instant favourite of mine. The delightful little story of painting-restorer and former soldier Tom Birkin, and the one month he spent in Oxgodby in Yorkshire to restore a mediaeval painting in a church there – is the most joy I found in reading in a long, long time. Lovely, lilting, poetic prose, and joie de vivre.
Shekol Chhera Hater Khoje ( শেকল ছেঁড়া হাতের খোঁজে ), by Samaresh Basu – is an exceptional political novel. When I was very small, Samaresh Basu reigned as the most famous of all Bengali novelists, but is rather forgotten these days. I have just started exploring his writings, and this one, the story of formerly-hallowed-and-now-exiled Communist-party-leader Nawal Agaria – and his looking back at the years and decades and even perhaps centuries that had led to this day, is excellent literature.
Half Lion: How P.V. Narasimha Rao Transformed India, by Vinay Sitapati – is the life and journey of one of my favourite Indian politicians from the past. A person of non-existent personal charisma and one of the forgotten old fogeys, Narasimha Rao came to power by happenstance in the aftermath of tragedy, and in just one term of five years, transformed the trajectory of the country from a limping also-ran to one worth its weight. It’s academic and detailed (and non-hagiographic), but also extremely readable. Not dense at all.
Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line, by Deepa Anappara – is achingly good. It’s the story of three depressingly poor kids, Jai, Pari and Faiz, who live in a shanty not far from the city of Delhi – who decide to investigate the disappearance of kids in their neighbourhood. I haven’t read a better novel in Indian English in the last 5 years.
Razorblade Tears, by S.A. Cosby – is an excellent modern thriller. Fast, brutal, coarse, emotional, sharp. This is how to write a thriller. Two old ex-cons from Richmond VA, one black and the other white, get together to get back at the folks who had killed their sons (who were married to each other). Watch the movie when it does come out.
Ei Dweep, Ei Nirbason ( এই দ্বীপ, এই নির্বাসন), by Manoj Bhaumik – had been a pleasant surprise! Manoj Bhaumik was one of the first generation of educated white-collar Indians who travelled to the US for work, and stayed around the New York City area. This is the story of the lives of those folks. An absolutely delightful novel, completely forgotten even in his native Bengali. Remember Ashoke Ganguli? Ashima’s husband, Gogol’s dad? If he’d have written a novel, this would have been it.
The Three-Body Problem, by Cixin Liu – is monstrously good! I cannot wait to get my hands on the next parts of the ‘Remembrance of Earth’s Past’ series. First warning: This is a true Hard-Science-Fiction story, so if you are not very familiar with at least high-school level science, you might struggle. But if you are, you have to pick this up! The reputation of the series is well-founded.
City of Thieves, by David Benioff – was surprisingly good, and got another novel with a similar theme, The Bridge of Sighs by Olen Steinhauer, out of my top-10. World War II Saint Petersburg / Leningrad, an unlikely friendship, an impossible (and trivial) pursuit, the brutalities of war, love in the most unexpected – all dealt with a delightful lightness of touch.
