(This article forms a part of The Hindu on Books newsletter which brings you book reviews, reading recommendations, interviews with authors and more. Subscribe here.)
Welcome to this edition of The Hindu on Books Newsletter. Award-winning and bestselling novelist Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, who will be at The Hindu’s Lit Fest 2024 (January 26-27) to talk about her new book, An Uncommon Love (Juggernaut), writes an essay on the creative tools she employed to narrate the story of the Murthys – Infosys co-founder Narayana and author Sudha. “After the Murthys shared certain cardinal incidents from their lives with me, I sat, eyes closed, imagining and feeling. I focused on the protagonists’ very human emotions, desires and flaws. And the scenes began to come alive.”
Three journalists have come together to counter viral falsehoods with facts in a new book, Love Jihad and Other Fictions (Aleph). Sreenivasan Jain, Mariyam Alavi and Supriya Sharma interrogate a set of viral claims seemingly landing from nowhere in the WhatsApp chat and social media feeds of thousands of Indians every day. “Their proliferation signals a bizarre new normal, in which Shah Rukh Khan can be accused of ‘population jihad’ and Aamir Khan of ‘love jihad’, only because they are Muslim.” In an interview to Vijaita Singh, ahead of The Hindu’s Lit Fest 2024, where Sreenivasan Jain will talk about the book, the journalist said the idea was to try to find evidence through facts to settle the debate around these questions. For Mariyam Alavi, the motivation came from a need to chronicle the story in such a way that it survived the news cycle. Supriya Sharma hopes the book will acts as a guide for ordinary citizens who are being bombarded with Hindutva propaganda.
Shilajit Mitra talks to funnyman Kannan Gill who is out with his debut sci-fi comic novel, Acts of God (HarperCollins), and will be at The Hindu’s Lit Fest. Asked about the candid meditation on anxiety and fear in the book, Gill said: “My personal philosophies barge into anything I want to make, stand-up or fiction....Maybe I write what I need to hear, or maybe I want to make my sales pitch: freedom from suffering possible – now for an attractive price of Rs. 399!”
In reviews, we read Amitava Kumar’s follow-up to The Blue Book, a retelling of Nineteen Eighty-Four through the eyes of Winston Smith’s lover, Julia, stories from Korea and more.
Books of the week
The clocks don’t strike 13 at the beginning like in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, but Sandra Newman’s Julia (Granta Books), a retelling of the dystopian classic from the perspective of the “girl in the fiction department”, is imaginative and full of empathy, and a wonderful companion novel to the original. In 2021, it was announced that the Orwell Estate had given its nod to the American writer to retell Nineteen Eighty-Four through the eyes of Julia Worthing. It’s 1984 and Julia works as a mechanic, repairing the novel-writing machines in the Fiction Department at the Ministry of Truth in Oceania. Newman’s description of the totalitarian state, and what it is like for women, is spot on. Though it will be fair to say that Orwell’s depiction of what transpires at the Ministry of Love is more chilling and utterly hopeless. There are some departures from the original – no Julia does not declare her love for Big Brother like a defeated Winston does in the original.
Like its predecessor The Blue Book, Amitava Kumar’s The Yellow Book: A Traveller’s Diary (Harper) is a hybrid work, containing text—as diary entries, letters, essays—and images—as drawings, paintings, and photographs, and act as a guide for writers. In his review, Tanuj Solanki writes about two essays that moved him. “In Enemy of the People, an essay about Salman Rushdie and his attacker Hadi Matar, we get eight pages with no images, and The Yellow Book was nowhere more riveting for me than here. That said, there is indeed a part where Kumar’s hybrid approach reaches its pinnacle. This is in the essay titled Host Country/Lost Country, where Kumar writes of visits to his father in Patna and their village of Jadopur, and of his father’s deteriorating health. The essay is deeply moving, and the images add to the poignancy of the material in choking ways.”
In her novel Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982, Korean writer Choo Nam-joo told the story of a young mother and her breakdown, tapping into the state of women in contemporary South Korea. In her new book, Miss Kim Knows and Other Stories (Simon&Schuster), she expands on her insight into Korea. In all nine stories, Nam-joo keeps a firm eye on the lives of common Sough Koreans through the story of a female protagonist. In her review, Veena Venugopal says for people who are interested in the culture and lifestyle of South Korea, the book provides a wide-angle view. “Behind the attractive men in perfectly tailored jackets and glowing, slim women with not a hair out of place on our screens, lies a real society, warts and all. And Nam-joo is not afraid to be its unblinking narrator.”
Spotlight
Jaya Jaitly’s new book, Inspirations for Graphic Design from India, co-authored with professor Dimple Bahl of the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) and published by Arthshila Trust, advocates an overhaul of design education in India by recognising indigenous sources. She tells Kunal Ray that there is a wealth of indigenous inspirational material lying unnoticed. “Tagore’s sketches scattered across many of his handwritten poems are also fine examples of indigenous graphic design. My point is, look within the Indian cultural world to find a cornucopia of inspiration.”
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- In 11 essays, external affairs minister S. Jaishankar (Why Bharat Matters/Rupa) analyses the global landscape in foreign policy and identifies India’s opportunities. He writes in the introduction: “There is the big picture but also the real practicalities that make up the world. Some forays take us into the past, others into the future. All together, they seek to explain a decade of change.”
- How are Indian family businesses built and nurtured? Why do only a handful survive? Beyond Three Generations (Harper) by Navas Meeran, M.S.A. Kumar, Firoz Meeran and George Skaria studies 12 family-run enterprises across sectors and explore the reasons for their longevity and how they have managed to balance family and business.
- Through the eyes of a young protagonist, Malati, Swallowing the Sun (Aleph) by diplomat Lakshmi Murdeshwar Puri recreates one of the most tumultuous periods in modern Indian history: the struggle for Independence. Thanks to her father, both Malati and Kamala push back against patriarchy and push the boundaries.
- Amid the opulence and brutality of 19th century India, colourful bandits fight for survival in Stephen Alter’s new novel, Silk and Steel (Aleph). James Webley and Colonel Augustine reject the rigours of mercenary service to pursue a lawless career of pillage, and the aftermath of this pursuit makes up the novel.
