Publisher’s write-up:
Rating – 3/10
Have a nice day,
Andy
"The acceptance that all that is solid has melted into the air, that reality and morality are not givens but imperfect human constructs, is the point from which fiction begins." - Sir Salman Rushdie
Publisher’s write-up:
Publisher’s write-up:
Cliquez ici afin de lire en français
‘What makes a
state? This question has attracted more and more attention in recent years with
Catalan’s illegal vote for independence from Spain and Palestine’s ongoing
search for international recognition. And while Scotland chose to remain with
the United Kingdom, discussion of independence have only continued as the
ramifications of the Brexit vote begin to set in. Kosovo, South Sudan, and the
situation in Ukraine – each in its way reveals the perils of creating a nation
separate from neighbours who have dominated it.
As James
Ker-Lindsay and Mikulas Fabry show in this new addition to the What Everyone
Needs to Know series, the road to statehood never did run smooth. Declaring
independence is only the first step; gaining both local and global acceptance
is necessary before a state can become truly independent, The prospect of
losing territory is usually not welcomed by the parent state, and any such threat
to an existing culture and its economy is often met with resistance – armed or
otherwise. Beyond this immediate conflict, the international community often
refuses to accept new states without proof of defined territory, a settled
population, and effective government, which frequently translates to a
democratic one with demonstrated respect for human rights. Covering the legal,
political, and practical issues of secession and state creation, Ker-Lindsay
and Fabry provide a sure-footed guide to a complex topic.’
What makes a
state? This question is even more pertinent today considering we are facing the
most tumultuous geopolitical situation in decades, with Russia’s unprovoked
invasion of Ukraine, civil war in Sudan, regime change in Afghanistan, Myanmar,
etc. As the author addressed early on in the book, some newly formed states
like South Sudan have gained international recognition without much hassle
whereas others such as Kosovo, notwithstanding their ability to operate as an
independent state, including achieving recognition from major global powers,
still is not recognised by over half the world and is not a UN member. These
are the questions that this book answers, as to what creates a state and what
are the valid causes for secession.
To start with,
this book takes an academic perspective on the issue and is not a philosophical
book on nationhood or sense of belonging. It addresses the widely recognised
international conventions and also the UN charter and the various resolutions
when it comes to statehood and ideas such as self-determination. Even the
definitions of what constituted a state start from the late 18th
century (around the time of independence of the US) and does not explain how
states were recognised in different regions in the past (for example, in
Europe, the church for large parts of the Middle Ages).
It is presented
in an easy-to-read manner – split into chapters and in a question-and-answer
format. The book was published in 2023 and thus, it is updated up until the unprovoked Russian
invasion of Ukraine. For the
uninitiated and at the same time interested in geopolitics and the various
concepts of state recognition– this book provides an overview, explaining what
constitutes a state, what have been the accepted methods used in resolving
conflicts in the past, and also failed efforts and frozen conflicts. There were
several interesting facts that were presented, especially the norms that we
follow in the international community – which I have never thought of it that
way, that the countries have agreed that one sovereign state would have one
vote in the UNGA regardless of their size and population.
A disappointment that people could have is from incorrect expectations
as I already stated, as the book is academic and often uses terms which are not
in common parlance. However, to those who are even partially interested in the
topic, might be familiar with a third of the book, and thus, could proceed with
those sections fast (an example could be a detailed explanation of the
Montevideo Convention on the criteria for recognising a state).
On the whole, I would say that the book was an excellent read, and is
strongly recommended for those who are interested in geopolitics and how the
international system operates. On that note, I award the book a rating of eight
on ten.
Rating – 8/10
Publisher’s
write-up :
‘At first The Emigrants appears simply to document the
lives of four Jewish émigrés in the twentieth century. But gradually, as
Sebald's precise, almost dreamlike prose begins to draw their stories, the four
narrations merge into one overwhelming evocation of exile and loss.’
The Emigrants is a collection of four short stories written
by the writer and academic W.G. Sebald, who wrote the book originally in
German. As the title suggests, this narrates the story of four emigrants, all
of whom are jews who fled Germany to avoid prosecution and living in their adopted
countries.
The first story is about a doctor living in the English country
side, Dr. Henry Selwyn, the second is that of a teacher, Paul Bereyter who now
lives in Switzerland, the third is Amboros, who lives in the United States with
his rich relatives – with whom he travels to expensive places around the world,
and the last character is Max Ferber, who is a young painter in Manchester,
whom the author meets.
The story dealt with different aspects of life, particularly
that of emigrants, where there is always a yearning to belong to your new
place, along with the nostalgia for the place that you had left but you have your
reasons why it is implausible to move back to the previous place. This was best
shown in the story of Paul, who struggled to belong in his new place even though
he was well respected and always had a longing for the mountains in Bavaria.
The author had the setting described well in each of the stories,
be it the countryside in the story of Dr. Selwyn or the various towns of
Switzerland. The best use of a city was the description of Manchester in the
story of Max, where I felt the author had used the city well. The author also
has a unique style of adding pictures without any caption and this allowed me
to visualize a lot of these scenes described to me by the author.
The story I had liked the least was the one of Amboros,
where there were too many characters for one to get lost in the sea of information
and they keep travelling around the world, going from place to place. It felt more
like reading a travelogue than a novel. Unless these characters were completely
based on real people, I felt the stories were unnecessarily sad, even stories
that I felt which did not need such levels of sadness for it to move the reader
(such as the story of Paul), and after a point, it becomes predictable, I had
the shock while reading the story of Dr. Selwyn, but eventually, I started expecting
such events.
On the whole, I would say that it was a good read, not the
easiest of reads, but still has got some interesting stories. I award the book
a rating of six on ten, and I am certainly interested in trying the other works
of the writer.
Rating – 6/10
Have a nice day,
Andy
Afin de lire mon avis en français, cliquez ici
Note: I read the French translation of this book, so I would
be using the names of the characters as it was written in French
Publisher’s write-up (from goodreads):
‘Three recent college graduates in Tehran struggle to
find their footing in this award\-winning debut by Iranian journalist Nasim
Marashi. Roja, the most daring of the three, works in an architecture firm and
is determined to leave Tehran for graduate school in Toulouse. Shabaneh, who is
devoted to her disabled brother and works with Roja, is uncertain about
marrying a colleague as it would mean leaving her family behind. Leyla, who was
unable to follow her husband abroad because of her commitment to her career as
a journalist, is wracked with regret. Over the course of two seasons, summer
and fall, in bustling streets and cramped family apartments, the three women
weather setbacks and compromises, finding hope in the most unlikely places.
Even as their ambitions cause them to question the very fabric of their
personalities and threaten to tear their friendship apart, time and again Roja,
Shabaneh and Leyla return to the comfort of their longtime affection, deep
knowledge and unquestioning support of each other. Vividly capturing three very
distinct voices, Marashi\x27s deeply wrought narrative lovingly brings these
young women and their friendship to life in all their complexity.’
I’ll be strong for you is the first novel of the writer
Nasim Marashi, written in Persian and published in 2014, which was highly
successful in Iran. It is a story of three young women who met at the university
in Tehran during their studies. The three have different family backgrounds,
with Leya having a privileged background, Shabaneh who is from a small town and
lived through her town being bombarded during the war (which war, is not
mentioned) and does not want to leave her brother with special needs alone with
her mother, the latter who does not have a particular liking towards him, and
Rodja, who has big dreams and wants to leave the country. The narration is done
in the first person though the narrator is different in each chapter (Leyla,
Shabaneh and Rodja respectively).
I liked the fact that
the novel was universal and addressed experiences faced by most people living
an urban life anywhere in the world. At times, I was interested in even going
for a coffee with Leyla, just to hear her out, with all the difficulties she is
facing with her mental health. I also appreciated the narration and the writing
style as well, and even though the narrator changed every chapter, the
chronology was maintained and the first person narrator of the previous chapter
is a character in the third person in the present chapter.
Each of the character had to address a difficult situation,
faced my most people, that is, ‘whether to stay or leave’, be it the country, job
or a relationship and each of them had to measure the pros and cons of whatever
decision they were to take.
However, universal nature of the novel was also its weakness,
as regardless of whether this novel had taken place in Tehran or New York or Paris
or Tokyo or Johannesburg would have caused little difference. I had a lot of
expectations considering the novel was translated to French in the year 2023,
with the context of the protests against the regime triggered by the murder of the
young Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini by the state in 2022. However, the author never
touched upon sensitive topics, neither religion nor politics. The former I
understand as based on several articles I have read, Iran is quite a secular
society where religion is less important than its other neighbours in the
Middle East, despite their government. However, with politics, she had an
opportunity, as Iran is a multicultural country despite popular perception
(with Persians, Kurds, Azeris, Arabs, etc.) and I never saw any of these cultural
aspects come out. And given that these women either wanted to leave the country
(like Rodja) or create a positive impact (like Leyla), it was very much
possible to explore the political angle.
To conclude, I enjoyed the book, and though it did not meet
my expectations, if you enjoy reading about universal emotions such as love, friendship
and dilemma, it is still a good novel to read. Considering that, I would award
the novel a rating of six on ten.
Rating – 6/10
Have a nice day,
Andy
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 10th
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
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
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 19th
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 19th 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 21st
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 21st 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