The Shallows by Nicholas Carr – Book Review

 

Publisher’s write-up:

‘Boldly reactionary... What looks like feast, Carr argues, may be closer to famine' Sunday Times'Chilling' The Economist. In this ground-breaking and compelling book, Nicholas Carr argues that not since Gutenberg invented printing has humanity been exposed to such a mind-altering technology. The Shallows draws on the latest research to show that the Net is literally re-wiring our brains inducing only superficial understanding. As a consequence there are profound changes in the way we live and communicate, remember and socialise - even in our very conception of ourselves. By moving from the depths of thought to the shallows of distraction, the web, it seems, is actually fostering ignorance. The Shallows is not a manifesto for luddites, nor does it seek to turn back the clock. Rather it is a revelatory reminder of how far the Internet has become enmeshed in our daily existence and is affecting the way we think. This landmark book compels us all to look anew at our dependence on this all-pervasive technology.’

The Shallows is a ten chapter book written by the tech writer Nicholas Carr. This book in particular, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. It needs to be kept in mind that the first edition was published in 2010, when iPhone was ‘new’ and social media did not have the level of impact it does today. However, in the foreword of my 10^th anniversary edition, the author claimed he stands vindicated considering what we have made of the internet. The title of the book states that the author tries to establish how the internet changes the way we think, read and remember, and I would evaluate whether the author has built the case for that.

The author starts by telling us how the concept of knowledge changed over time, where memory was important till the time writing and archiving were invented, it was associated less with knowledge from thereon. He also explains in detail the revolution brought by Gutenberg with the invention of printing press changed the way we processed information. I also liked how he compared Google to that of a church, wherein, the company despite its shortcomings are convinced of their vision statement where they are ‘making knowledge free’. The arguments about how our brains were impacted, sounded technical but was interesting when it came to making his case.

Having said that, I still found the book a tad outdated, wherein, many studies conducted on hyperlinks and its effect were from 90s, while I understand that many of it might still be relevant today, it is far easier to refer hyperlinks and get to the original text now that in was 30 years ago. It still raised a valid point, considering how it is easy to get distracted by hyperlinks. There are also other points where the author spoke of how we have not reduced television consumption but significantly increased the time we spend on the internet, and thus are left with less time. However, these days it is hard to distinguish between television and the internet as compared to 2010 (is Netflix television or internet? Is streaming on YouTube using your television be considered by the author as television or internet?)

While the author spoke of digressions, I felt for most of the book, the writer himself was digressing, with most of the book speaking very little about the internet and rather, the evolution of how we processed information over the centuries.

Many points raised by the author are interesting, such as the ineffectiveness of multi-tasking, which is all the more relevant in today’s work environment with real time conversation capabilities, we are often tasked with many different things to do at once. It also talks about how hyperlinks, rather than giving more information, provides less information to the reader. Ironically though, his own books cited a lot of sources, which, is required in a non-fiction work.

To conclude, I would say the book raised a lot of interesting points that ought to be discussed, such as how internet keeps us distracted. Many points got touched on the surface but none of it went deep enough to have an impact. On that note, I would award the book a rating of four on ten.

Rating – 4/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

Aliss at the Fire by Jon Fosse – Book Review

 

Publisher’s write-up:

‘In her old house by the fjord, Signe lies on a bench and sees a vision of herself as she was more than twenty years earlier: standing by the window waiting for her husband Asle, on that terrible late November day when he took his rowboat out onto the water and never returned. Her memories widen out to include their whole life together, and beyond: the bonds of one family and their battles with implacable nature stretching back over five generations, to Asle's great-great-grandmother Aliss.

In Jon Fosse's vivid, hallucinatory prose, all these moments in time inhabit the same space, and the ghosts of the past collide with those who still live on.

Aliss at the Fire is a haunting exploration of love, ranking among the greatest meditations on marriage and loss.’

Aliss at the Fire is an experimental novel written by Jon Fosse, who is a well-known playwright from Norway. Having said that I do not know how to place or where to place this. This novel goes through several generations of the Signe’s husband Asle, and talks a lot about his great-great-grandmother, Aliss and how since her days, the same events have been repeating in her family. Even Signe, who has been ‘waiting’ for her husband for over twenty years even though it is very apparent to the reader and everyone else that her husband left on a day when the weather was terrible and the boat sank, and that he is dead.

There are texts that are complex, which require the level of detail and verbose writing is enjoyable to the reader. And then there are books like Aliss at the Fire which have no content and is complicated for the sake of being complicated. I tried my best to get into the experiment of the author and I often like such innovative ideas or experiments and give it the widest time possible for me to judge, but this tested my patience immensely. The first five pages of the novel effectively conveyed that Signe looked out of her window, in so many words (mind you, this is an 80 page novel). It reminded me of a character from the British satirical show Yes Minister, the Permanent Secretary Sir Humphrey Appleby, who spoke such sentences but at least his intent was clear, that was to confuse the minister and in the end get his own agenda through. However, what was the intent of Jon Fosse? I would presume to frustrate the reader.

There are some parts of the text that I enjoyed, such as the description of Signe’s rural home by the Norwegian fjord, but that was all the content that was available on this book, the rest of the 75 odd pages were fluff. I read this book for a book club, and there were those who had positive views on the book, especially among those who enjoy poetry, so if you are someone who enjoys such works, you may try this book.

Since I read a translation, I also did not appreciate how the translator changed the title of the book, wherein, the Norwegian name of the title character is ‘Ales’ but the translator added a note stating that he changed it to Aliss (which is not a traditional Norwegian name), since it could have been misinterpreted as a story about ale and other types of beer. I hardly think anybody would have thought this book is talking about some technique to ferment an ale using fire. 

I would conclude by saying that reading this book was one of the worst by which I used my time and on that note, I award this book a rating of two on ten.

Rating – 2/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville - Book Review

Note : I read the French translation of the novella

Afin de lire mon avis de lecture en français, cliquez ici

Publisher’s write-up (translated by me from the French edition):

‘The world described by Melville in this 1853 novella is already the world of ‘start up nation’, automation, surveillance, uberisation, the world of ‘bullshit jobs’, of open space, a world that is empty and impersonal, digitized and petrified in which all forms of resistance are criminalized. The world of copyright, the fast life of the megacity. To summarise, a mercantile world, brutal and closed, born during the first half of the 19^th century in Wall Street, and that which has become ours today. It is thus not surprising that ‘I would prefer not to’ is a slogan that was used by the protesters of the Occupy Wall Street movement’.

Bartleby the Scrivener is a novella written by the American author Herman Melville, who is known for his novel ‘Moby Dick’. In this, Bartleby is a new scrivener employed by a Wall Street advocate who was at first impressed by Bartleby’s sincerity at work. However, little by little, he loses interest in everything and thus, always responded to every question or request with his famous phrase ‘I would prefer not to’.

Even though the novella was written two centuries ago, it is still relatable as mentioned by the publisher, that the text is still relevant in the world of Uber and ‘Bullshit Jobs’ (to read my review on Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber, click here). Through this novella, the author had also shown the absurdities in the work environment, where the advocate did not lose anything even when Bartleby was doing nothing, never sacked him owing to sympathy and he was forced to eventually sack Bartleby not because of ‘cost cutting’ but because his reputation was being damaged in front of his clients who were observing that there was someone in the office doing nothing. If not for that, there was no impact in paying Bartleby for doing nothing.

The study of psychology and psychiatry was not that developed in the 19^th century but today, Bartleby might have been diagnosed as someone suffering from a severe depression. It was also a commentary on the American society of this era, where the a person’s profession defined who they were, which is even the case today where the society prefers a person who does some ‘work’ even though it is not useful for anyone rather than someone who does nothing (though the value added to the society in both these cases is nil). As mentioned earlier, there were many similarities between what was described in this novel and the 21^st century essay written by David Graeber on the phenomenon of ‘Bullshit Jobs’.

I would also add a point on the translation, I normally hate reading translations if I know the original language, especially in this case where the original language is my native language. However, the French translation was done very well and had a lot of footnotes which are required for the understanding of a 21^st century audience, for example, the book talks of a ‘dead letter office’, a concept which people are unlikely to be familiar with today, but, my French edition had a footnote explaining what it was and I could understand Bartleby’s plight further, thanks to that.

Overall, I enjoyed this novel, even though it was at times a caricature and the situation described by the author was an extreme and totally absurd, but still, sometimes it is these absurdities that help us think of more important questions on the society and the discussions that we need to have. On that note, I would award the book a rating of eight on ten.

Rating – 8/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

Promised Land by Karel Schoeman – Book Review

 

Publisher’s write-up (translated from the French edition by me):

Afin de lire le commentaire en français, cliquez ici.

“For George, this trip to South Africa was a promise to return to the land of his Afrikaner ancestors. However, they were just not the nostalgic memories that resurfaced. Between fear, silence and a ruined world from ‘the past’, the return of the prodigal son turns quickly into suffocation. For the peasant families forgotten by history, George represented everything at once. The foreigner who is a son of the country. The past and the present. A role that would soon prove to be too heavy to bear.”

Note: I read the book in French translated from Afrikaans by Pierre-Marie Finkelstein.

Promised Land is a novel from the well known writer from South Africa, Karel Schoeman, who wrote novels in Afrikaans, a language spoken by a majority of the Afrikaners in South Africa. The plot takes place in 1972, during the apartheid regime of South Africa.

George Neethling returns to his country of birth, after having been raised and lived in Switzerland for most of his life; in order to see the farm where he grew up in, the farm that belonged to his family at Rietvlei in South Africa. En route, he stops at the house of the Hattingh family, who inform him that there is nothing left in Rietvlei considering how his mother had left long ago and that there was nobody who took care of the farm. He was welcomed into the Hattingh family and everybody were interested in him for some reason or the other, as most of them had never seen a foreigner, or in this case, someone who had lived abroad. The conversations between Carla (Hattingh’s daughter) and George was my favourite part of the novel, where both sides made some very strong points. I also enjoyed the feast organized for George, where during the party, everyone wanted to dance with George to strike a conversation with him, for reasons of their own.

The author also explored most human emotions that is common all over the world, such as nostalgia with George, where he spends too much money to come all the way even though he had very little hope that he was returning to a better country than the one that his mother had left; and equally on the other side, the family values that are displayed by Hattingh and his friends. There was always an air of mystery, be it with George or the Hattingh family and their friends, which lasted for almost two thirds of the novel, which was something I appreciated. The contrast between someone from the countryside and someone from the city was also a topic well explored, where Carla even tells George that though they speak the “same words”, they do not speak the “same language”. I also enjoyed the description of the landscape and the Afrikaner village – where I felt like personally being in that setting in 1972. The novel also subtly touched upon political aspects of the time, though not directly, by using characters like Gerhad, who reminds George of his duty towards “his country”, “his people” and “his ancestors”. Even George’s gradual change was interesting, where he initially saw himself as being in his country but eventually identified himself as a foreigner.

A potential problem for readers could be that they need a context as the novel is written for Afrikaans speaking population in South Africa and if we do not know the history of the Afrikaners or the country, it could be difficult to appreciate the subtleties of the novel or even boring. It was a remark made by around half of the participants in the book club I attended to discuss this book (in French), and I understand their point of view.

To summarise, I loved this book, it was well written and the author invoked several complicated subjects despite the small size of the novel (around 250 pages in my pocket French edition). So, I award the book a rating of eight on ten.

Rating – 8/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

Maus by Art Spiegelman – Book Review

 

Maus is a Pulitzer winning non-fictional work from the illustrator Art Spiegelman in the form of a graphic novel – presenting us the survival story of his own father under the Nazi regime and various concentration camps. The book goes across various periods – the writer’s present, in the US in the 70s; Czechoslovakia and Poland before the war; the survival of his father post war and eventual emigration to the United States.

The book starts with the author visiting his father, Vladek, a Jew from present day Czech Republic, and discusses his idea of presenting his father’s survival story in the form of a graphic novel. The account is dependent on his fathers recalling of the events and one could only trust his father to be a reliable narrator. It starts with him recalling how he met his wife Anja, the birth of their first child Richieu. He has had a lot of personal tragedy, the death of his firstborn during the holocaust, the trauma he had to face in the camps, the suicide of his wife much later in their life (and the impact it had on Art, the author himself), and the present relationship issues that he was having.

I liked how the author chose to present the discussion between his father and him as is, including the various arguments that they had during the course of the discussion (at one point with the son calling his father a murderer but I would not divulge that). This was an interesting choice rather than just present his father’s survival story in the camps as a graphic novel, as we could understand a lot of their present day struggles, years after the holocaust, including for the descendants of the survivors (such as the author).

There were also several subtle themes presented by the author – wherein all characters were presented as animals – the Jews as mice, the Poles as pigs, the Germans as cats, the French as frogs, etc. These reflect stereotypes and also the absurdity of classifying a whole group of people as ‘the same’, considering none of the groups are a monolith. The author brought this out as well, where there was an instance of an ideological argument between a Russian Jew – who holds communist ideologies, hit out at Vladek, for being a capitalist and never having ‘worked’ in his whole life.

Much as this is a remarkable survival story, one also needs to note that the story is narrated by Vladek, the character who seems to have solutions to every problem and has a solution for all of his wife’s problems as well. The book also brings out his evolution as a character as in the present day, there is an argument between Vladek and his daughter-in-law (Art’s wife) where Vladek makes a racist remark on a black person (confronted on the basis that he is doing to the blacks exactly what the Nazis did to him).

The struggles of Art was also shown well, where he was in sessions with his psychiatrist, and also remarks that his deceased brother is like that ‘perfect child’ and every instance, he was competing with a photo, which proved to be very difficult for him.

The only downside, much as I would not comment on life choices on an individual when it comes to a biography, I would still say Vladek was not a particularly likeable person for me, he was a racist, to me he came off as a 1930s version of a gold digger – wherein he rejects the advances of a woman not over a lack of interest, but over the fact that she came from a very poor family and could not afford his dowry and for that matter, one of the virtues he stated of his wife Anja was that she came from a very rich family.

Overall, I liked this book – it was well presented, I particularly appreciated it being presented more in the form of a memoir and that it was non-chronological. It presented a very serious event, one of the greatest tragedies in human history as a comic, with its own subtleties (when it came to presenting groups of people as animals). On that note, I would award this book a rating of eight on ten.

Rating – 8/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis – Book Review

 

Publisher’s write-up:

‘Zorba the Greek, Nikos Kazantzakis’ most popular and enduring novel,, has its origins in the author’s own experiences in the Peleponnesus in the 1920s. His swashbuckling hero has legions of fans across the world and his adventures are as exhilarating and exciting now as the were on first publication in the 1950s.’

Zorba the Greek is a novel written in the 20^th Century – originally written in Greek set in the island of Crete. The book mainly features a mysterious character going by the name Zorba, who accompanies the narrator to the island of Crete and works as his foreman for coal mining.

The book is set in the early 20^th century, after the first world war, wherein the narrator is impacted by the departure of his friend’s departure to the Caucasus, to fight for the ethnic Greeks in the region. The author being an intellectual, wanted to leave his books aside for a while and take a break in Crete, under the guise of mining coal. This is where he meets Zorba, in the ship – a personality he finds to be interesting and at the same time, highly eccentric. The two have contrasting views of the world and unlike the narrator, Zorba is a man of action and experience, and does not find a meaning in the intellectual pursuits of the narrator.

The best part of the book is the location – the fact that it takes place in Crete. This is from the perspective of an outsider, wherein, most of the Greek literature I have read is from ancient times and this is the first book that I am reading that has been written in the 20^th century and that I could read the description of a modern Greece. I also liked the interactions between the two main characters, where at one point, the narrator does feel that Zorba is the person who is living the life that he wishes to live, though he is not accepting of Zorba’s  impulsive methods.

While I repeatedly asserted that the book is featuring a modern Greece, however, there are instances that could be shocking to the average reader as to how regressive the outlook was, towards women and also for what reasons the people are willing to kill another human being (this is towards the end, I would not go into details at the risk of spoiling the book).

Personally, I had a split opinion on Zorba, where his views towards women were regressive, to the extent that he doubted whether they were part of the same species, but at the same time, he supported certain other ideas that I liked – such as being someone from that period, he rejects ideas of irridentism, going on to say that Greeks attempt to take over Constantinople is as good as a Turkish attempt to take over Athens and it should not be pursued. While I preferred the character of the narrator more, this was where I preferred Zorba’s views, in the topic of irridentism.

There were also several minor characters who were used well, particularly, that of Madame Hortense, the manager of the inn where the two characters stay. There is also a romantic sub plot between Zorba and Hortense and while Zorba was unaffected by almost any event, we could see the emotional side of him when there was a tragedy that struct Hortense.

Having said that, the story is not for everyone – to the extent that some might wonder if there is a plot at all or just one man describing his holiday for a month. However, I would not go too much into that considering that was the narrator’s aim as well, to escape his routine. Another point that disturbed me was I could not quite understand the adulation of Zorba by every character, I found him a bad person who was morally compromised and I found the character of the narrator much better.

I understand that this book is a translation, however, I do not know the reliability of it – to give the context, I read this book for a book club (discussion in French) and I found that the French edition was significantly bigger than the English version – and the difference I was told was that my edition was a 1950s translation where there were a lot of cuts, and the more recent editions are elaborate and authentic. If anyone wishes to read, I recommend to buy a more recent translation than mine.

To conclude on the book, the highlights of the book is the rural setting in Crete, the two main characters and the narration by the writer. A little further focus on the philosophical aspect could have made it better, and considering my overall experience, I award the book a rating of seven on ten.

Rating – 7/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

Think Again by Adam Grant – Book Review

 

Publisher’s write-up:

‘Think Again is a book about the benefit of doubt, and about how we can get better at embracing the unknown and the joy of being wrong. Evidence has shown that creative geniuses are not attached to one identity, but constantly willing to rethink their stances and that leaders who admit they don't know something and seek critical feedback lead more productive and innovative teams.

New evidence shows us that as a mindset and a skilllset, rethinking can be taught and Grant explains how to develop the necessary qualities to do it. Section 1 explores why we struggle to think again and how we can learn to do it as individuals, arguing that 'grit' alone can actually be counterproductive. Section 2 discusses how we can help others think again through learning about 'argument literacy'. And the final section 3 looks at how schools, businesses and governments fall short in building cultures that encourage rethinking.

In the end, learning to rethink may be the secret skill to give you the edge in a world changing faster than ever.’

Think Again is a self-help book written by the psychologist and professor, Adam Grant. This book emphasises the importance of rethinking and relearning considering we often fall into the trap of ‘best practices’. The author gives several examples of success where the persons involved managed great things by managing to rethink and act differently in a situation and those who are intelligent in the traditional sense ended up in failure.

The author starts the book with the incident among a group of firefighters, where most tragically lost their lives even though they followed exactly what was taught to them, except for one who thought differently in the book and did something that was never in any of the manuals. The author’s point is that while the traditional understanding of intelligence is to think and learn, it is equally important in the modern sense to rethink and unlearn.

Considering that the book was written recently, in the post covid-19 era, the examples given are relatable and the author even cites examples of early failures arising because of a failure to rethink and unlearn what they knew till date. The examples cited were very interesting, where the author cited multiple personality types – about people getting into a ‘preacher’ mode when it comes to ideas they believe in and a ‘prosecutor’ mode when it is related to an idea that they do not agree with. This was the first time where I saw someone argue that the ‘impostor syndrome’ is not necessarily bad, and having that forces oneself to rethink and relearn than the ones who are certain – and the author backed it up with data to suggest that there was no data to suggest that those who considered themselves as impostors performed worse that their peers who did not hold such views.

However, there were parts of the book where I do not believe are practical, either in terms of safety or in terms of one’s mental health, where the author gives the example of Daryl Davis, an American singer from the African American community who had convinced several members of the Ku Klux Klan by engaging with them and enabling them to rethink their positions. Even if one ignores the safety aspect, often, a discussion with someone who holds such views would leave oneself very upset for having such a conversation in the first place (here I am speaking for myself).

Some of the author’s conclusions were extreme from what I saw, in some ways arguing that those who have IQ or are considered conventionally intelligent are at a disadvantage as they could identify patterns with ease, and thus go by a past trend rather than rethinking (giving the example of Lazaridis who was adamant about Blackberry’s design).

This book is an interesting and a rather easy read, and could give you some tips and a lot of confidence to those who have a lot of doubts about where they are. Whether all of these suggestions are practical, only time would tell. Considering my personal experience with the book, I award the book a rating of seven on ten.

Rating – 7/10

Have a nice day,
Andy