Mistress by Anita Nair

This book is a clear evidence of the writer's skill, pure creative talent. Nair has adopted a very difficult writing style in choosing to tell the story from the perspectives of all the three major characters, Radha, Shyam and Koman. Not only that, Nair also infuses emotions in the narrative through the use of Koman's art form - Kathakali. 

Nair evokes a sense of understanding in the reader for both Shyam and Radha even though Radha cheats her husband Shyam. It is one those well written books where the villian is nobody yet everybody. 

I won't hesitate to compare it to Anna Karenina by Tolstoy where you feel sympathethic to Karenin, Vronsky and Anna, all of them at the same time, souls caught in the web of life.

In terms of the story, there is not much happening in their lives but there is a lot happening in their hearts and minds which is at the essence of this book.

Nair is an excellent writer both in technique and depth of her writing.

Untouchable by Mulk Raj Anand

I picked up this book because I had read one of Anand's short stories at school for English. This is his first novel. Its a day in the life of an Untouchable toilet cleaner Bakha set in the period of Bristish Raj in India.

There is no doubt that Anand highly regarded as an author and compared alongside Charles Dickens. Every proof of this can be seen in this novel.
Anand evokes awe, disgust, sympathy and laughter through his deep narrative. He almost makes you live Bakha's day.

His description is complete, use of language beautiful and characterization impeccable.  His brilliance at characterisation can be seen in Bakha's thoughts when Mr Hutchinson wants to convert him to Christianity and when he hears the Mahatma's speech. Its like Anand has dived into Bakha's mind and knows what Bakha may or may not understand, remarkable. You can even see the attention to detail throughout the book.

This is however a book for people who like literature. Its definitely not fast paced as a modern novel. It is slow and detailed like the classics but full of meaning and colourfull language, not to mention the few new words you would learn.

Chetan Bhagat

Recently read two of his books and would like to write a few lines about each:

Three Mistakes of My Life

This was my first experience of Chetan Bhagat's work. 

This novel has a refreshing start with the author playing himself  at the beggining receives an email from Govind Patel, finds him and hears his story. Written in the form of a personal narrative of Govind Patel, it offers an engaging read with cricket, friendship, romance and the Gujarat riots. Bhagat comes out to be a better story teller than a writer although some people may debate that the two are essentially the same. I say so because the attraction of the book is in the story and not in the writing style although that too is engaging. The story keeps moving at a steady pace and the dialogues between the characters are very realistic and modern. It was good enough to make me read a second book by the same author.

Five Point Someone

I was somewhat  reluctant to read this as I had watched the movie Three Idiots. That is the reason I started with Three Mistakes of My Life. This too is written in first person and follows Hari's story of friendship while at IIT. Friendship is at the core of this book. The movie Three Idiots is definitely based on this book but they have altered a lot for the movie so I would say read the book even if you have seen the movie.

Bhagat has used a different style of narrative here. Although it is Hari's story narrated by Hari, Bhagat has used some chapters where other characters speak. This gives the narrative a slightly different touch and also keeps it interesting. Once again, Bhagat's art is more in the story than in the writing. Excellent story teller! Looking forward to reading more of his work.