i had the opportunity recently to pick up a couple more books towards my goal of 12 fiction books this year. i had fallen off the pace quite a bit, but it may still be possible for me to finish. in october/november, i’ve read “an outline of the republic” by siddhartha deb, and “fallen land” by patrick flanery.
i won’t attempt to review these books here. not only do i not want to spoil the experience, but there are many more folks who are much better at those types of things than me. i have a couple of thoughts that may be worth sharing…
first, flanery’s novel, from the very first sentence, reminded me of a story so midwestern and so american that i couldn’t resist it. every character was a personality i’d encountered, the descriptions of the midwestern cities so familiar, and the historical setting linked to an account that i’d only become acquainted with in a mythical way. i loved that book because it felt like home. and the story also didn’t disappoint. at times, the way the narrative changes perspectives from person to person–almost like you will have seen in a documentary where the subjects speak individually in different camera shots about the same event–this can be disorienting at times. while this gets irritating when you are waiting for more eventful moments, this is also what makes you never put the book down when you are expecting a moment of tension. i can’t say enough about this book.
siddharta deb i found when i was wandering the info shop at 17th and Pennsylvania Ave in DC. this book was a great value and a great journey. set in the far eastern indian states of Manipur and Nagaland, along the border of Nepal, it is the story of the search for a woman in an old photo who may have been the victim of revolutionary violence while working for a mercurial NGO which everyone praises but has never seen. one thing that i loved about the book was deb’s way of allowing us to follow the personal development or struggles in the soul of a young journalist while never making any resolution to the story. although there is some description in the novel about the subjects of the search, many others who’ve read and reviewed this novel were very frustrated in what they thought to be a long-winded story about nothing. for me, that’s what i loved about it. a young professional trying to find himself, taking a risk on a story that had no leads and no credible conclusion. Seinfeld, a story about nothing, yet with a purpose. this book also confronts the reader with very independent and autonomous women characters. it is a detail american readers, confronted with indian news reports of gang rape and religious violence against women, will not fail to take note of.
if you have a chance to read either one of these novels, i’d love to hear about it. absolutely fantastic reads and two very unexpected pleasures.