Flowers of Darkness by Tatiana de Rosnay – Book Review

 

Publisher’s write-up:

‘Author Clarissa Katsef is struggling to write her next book. She’s just snagged a brand new artist residency in an ultra-modern apartment, with a view of all of Paris, a dream for any novelist in search of tranquility. But since moving in, she has had the feeling of being watched. Is there reason to be paranoid? Or is her distraction and discomfort the result of her husband’s recent shocking betrayal? Or is that her beloved Paris lies altered outside her windows? A city that will never be quite the same, a city with a scar at its center?

Stuck inside, in the midst of a sweltering heat wave, Clarissa enlists her beloved granddaughter in her investigation of the mysterious, high tech building even as she finds herself drawn back into the orbit of her first husband who is still the one who knows her most intimately, who shares the past grief that she has never quite let go.’

Note: I read the French version of the book

Cliquez ici afin de lire mon avis en français

Flowers of Darkness is a novel by Tatiana de Rosnay published in 2020. The main character of the novel is Clarissa Kastel, an old writer past her prime in her 70s, has just moved to Paris. It is not the Paris of today but in an unspecified date in the future, highly impacted by climate change, artificial intelligence and terror attacks. For instance, the Eiffel Tower no longer exists, destroyed by a recent terrorist attack, and since this event, the city has changed a lot.

Clarissa moves into a residence that is dedicated to artists and writers, called CASA where everything inside the house is managed by an AI assistant, to whom Clarissa gives the name Mrs. Dalloway, named after the character from Virginia Woolf’s novel. Clarissa has just been separated from her husband and with her, she has her daughter and grand-daughter. Little by little, Clarissa starts to feel uncomfortable in her new apartment. She tries to raise the issue to CASA, but her complaints are ignored. So, is it an old writer hallucinating things or is CASA really snooping into all details of her life through their AI assistant? That is the main theme of the novel.

It is not the first time that a novel is talking about a dystopian future where AI has full surveillance which controls our life. The repetitive nature of the theme is not my problem as it is still possible to have a good novel by the way in which it is presented. However, in this novel, she has tried to bring in too many themes – climate change, artificial intelligence, surveillance and even terrorist attacks (which was not at all necessary for this particular novel) and she did not particularly go deep into any of these themes she had chosen. Some were more important than others such as surveillance but overall, none too profound to leave a mark.

It felt to me like reading a draft and not a novel published by a well-established author given the number of references to Virginia Woolf or Romain Gary at random, without much relevance. It felt like it was only to show the dual identity of Clarissa, who is French and British, like the author of the novel Tatiana de Rosnay herself (so, even the main character is a version of the author herself).

To conclude, I had a very difficult read, and was not pleasurable at all. The idea was interesting but with a horrible narration. I award the novel a rating of two on ten.

Rating – 2/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg – Book Review

 

Publisher’s write-up:

‘Who and what are supercommunicators? They're the people who can steer a conversation to a successful conclusion. They are able to talk about difficult topics without giving offence. They know how to make others feel at ease and share what they think. They're brilliant facilitators and decision-guiders. How do they do it?

In this groundbreaking book, Charles Duhigg unravels the secrets of the supercommunicators to reveal the art - and the science - of successful communication. He unpicks the different types of everyday conversation and pinpoints why some go smoothly while others swiftly fall apart. He reveals the conversational questions and gambits that bring people together. And he shows how even the most tricky of encounters can be turned around. In the process, he shows why a CIA operative was able to win over a reluctant spy, how a member of a jury got his fellow jurors to view an open-and-shut case differently, and what a doctor found they needed to do to engage with a vaccine sceptic.

Above all, he reveals the techniques we can all master to successfully connect with others, however tricky the circumstances. Packed with fascinating case studies and drawing on cutting-edge research, this book will change the way you think about what you say, and how you say it.’

Supercommunicators is a book written by the journalist Charles Duhigg, known for his previous book The Power of Habit (click here to read my review of the book). Having loved that book, I was looking forward to reading Supercommunicators, given how important communication is in our everyday lives.

The book is split into different sections and similar to Power of Habit – the author explains the key to effective communication is answering these three questions in any situation – What’s this about, How do we feel, and who we are ?. These address the subject, emotions and identity as well, all of which have always been important to us.

The author gives examples of a CIA agent, whose job it was to recruit spies and after initial failures, how he had managed to overcome by clearly expressing how he felt. Other examples include that of a doctor who manages to engage with people who oppose vaccination and explain how people are emotional much as we try to think of ourselves as ‘logical robots’. There was also the case of Leroy Reed that the author examines, a convict in the US who was tried by the jury for violating terms of his parole and how by effective communication by one of the jurors, they could move the consensus position.

The author’s quest to simplify communication down to three simple questions is interesting and is even perhaps effective. I think I would perhaps keep that in mind the next time that I get into a conversation. The author also gave several real world examples of how these principles were used effectively.

That said, this book did not communicate effectively with me. The reason why the previous book communicated with me was that the examples were relatable whereas here, it is obscure – either someone in a scientific study or a CIA recruitment agent trying to hire someone for one of the most risky assignments, a situation which most people would never be in.

Some of what the author says is evident to most people, that nobody likes someone who is patronising or condescending. That said, some of the author’s suggestion seemed to indicate that he wanted the reader to put the other person’s needs at utmost priority, which is a good trait for a salesperson but not for a conversation among equals and I am unsure of the impact that could have on the mental health on the long run. This was the same criticism I had about How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie (click here to read my review of that book).

To conclude, I felt this was a very interesting idea for a book, but also a topic that has been written a lot about and the author did not present any significantly new ideas. There have been several books written post Covid-19 pandemic of doctors convincing anti-vaxxers using effective communication techniques, that one more added no new perspective to me. However, the small parts where the author structured the questions to be asked and answered to strike an effective communication could still be useful and pertinent. Weighing these aspects, I award the book a rating of four on ten.

Rating – 4/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

The Algebra of Happiness by Scott Galloway – Book Review

 

Publisher’s write-up:

‘Scott Galloway teaches brand strategy at NYU's Stern School of Business, but often his class veers to life strategy. His students are smart and hardworking, but they struggle with life's biggest questions, just like the rest of us. What's the formula for a life well lived? How can you have a meaningful career, not just a lucrative one? Is work/life balance really possible? What does it take to make a long-term relationship succeed?

Galloway explores these and many other questions in the take-no-prisoners style that has made him a sought-after commentator and YouTube star.’

Algebra of Happiness is a book by the public speaker and YouTuber – Scott Galloway. In this book, he attempts to create a formula for happiness and how to lead a happy life. For most of it, he used examples from his own life to substantiate his ‘formulae for happiness’.

I would address the elephant in the room – this is a horrible book and does not do justice to the title. It is written by an extremely privileged man who is oblivious to his privilege. There is nothing wrong in being privileged but given that his ‘advice’ is mostly based on what ‘he did’, it is not necessarily open to everyone else – wherein, his father was the vice-president of a major company and grew up in an upper-middle-class house in Orange County California. He talks about how he could persevere and find other avenues of study that interested him even though he was very average at university – but most people in the US or anywhere else in the world do not have the safety net that he has.

Next, this is exclusively addressed to cisgendered heterosexual men. For instance, here is one of his advice:

‘Don’t ever let your wife be cold or hungry. I mean … ever.’ - did not use the gender-neutral word ‘spouse’ or just could have said ‘partner’. Moreover, if one’s wife is hungry, wouldn’t she have the independence to help herself? This whole point that one’s wife needs their husband to take care of their basic needs is a very patriarchal thought to begin with.

I fall into the demographic that the writer is targeting (cisgendered heterosexual man), but then, his advice is not entirely relevant given he was largely reinforcing patriarchal tropes such as the one above and had a kind of saviour complex. I am not against books written for a specific demographic – in this case, cisgendered heterosexual men, but then, that must be clearly stated as the objective – here the author repeatedly presents this book as though it is universal that could be read by anyone.

There were also several contradictory statements throughout the book, and I would cite some of them below:

‘The cosmos recognizes this and rewards this behavior with the deepest meaning and well-being that any of us can register. As an atheist, I believe this is it.’ - using vague words such as ‘cosmos’ / ‘universe’ rewarding oneself is often what is used by spiritual gurus and saying he believes this as an atheist, is contradictory to begin with. It is augmented by the next quote that I am adding below:

‘I’m 100 percent certain there is no god. At least not the Morgan Freeman/Lifetime/Fox version of God. However, I do pray.’

The statement above is equal to an alleged vegan saying that they would never consume animals, however, they like to catch fresh fish in the lake and eat them.

He insists on how marriage is the solution to happiness and at the same time states that he never believes marriage is mandatory. If I go on citing his contradictory statements in the book, this review would be endless, so I would stop here.

So, he is someone unsure of himself and at the same time unaware of his privilege of coming from a rich background. Of all things that the United States is known for, generous social spending is not one of them. For him to say, ‘The difference is being born in America, and the generosity of California taxpayers, who gave the child of a secretary the chance to attend a world-class university.’ - it must be noted that many people from other backgrounds cannot afford to attend these universities in the first place and the fact that he finds this generous is telling of the wealth in his family. He also conveniently cites only the profession of his mother here, whereas he does state once in his book about his father - ‘I was the only son in a nuclear family where Dad was a vice president for International Telegraph and Telegram (ITT) and Mom was a secretary.’

To conclude, this book is for cis-heterosexual men, who believe in yesteryear patriarchal tropes and if that is your thing, read this book. To all other reasonable people, avoid this at all costs. I would award this book a rating of one on ten.

Rating – 1/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess – Book Review

 

Publisher’s write-up:

‘Fifteen-year-old Alex doesn't just like ultra-violence – he also enjoys rape, drugs and Beethoven's Ninth. He and his gang rampage through a dystopian future, hunting for terrible thrills. But when Alex finds himself at the mercy of the state and subject to the ministrations of Dr. Brodsky, the government psychologist, he discovers that fun is no longer the order of the day ...

The basis for one of the most notorious films ever made, A Clockwork Orange is both a virtuoso performance from an electrifying prose stylist and a serious exploration of the morality of free will.’

Clockwork Orange is a novel written by Anthony Burgess, made significantly famous by Stanley Kubrick’s film that came out in 1971. The novel takes place in a dystopian future, where teenagers are running amok and that there is no law and order. We have our main character who is a fifteen-year-old and has his friends with whom he does on a rampage, when it comes to killing people or raping women. One of the pivotal points is when Alex rapes and murders a woman, which eventually leads to his arrest.

It was a difficult book to read, I do not have a problem with novels that portray a negative character as the lead, but there is often some kind of a reason or cause, there is a complexity behind that character. Alex had none of it, he was violent for the sake of being violent. Did this dystopian future enable him to be that way? At least to me, the world created by the author does not explain this violent behaviour of Alex.

There is an element of science fiction later in the novel where Alex goes through a ‘treatment’ (I would not describe what it was to avoid spoilers) but again, despite this, he never expressed any kind of repentance for what he did.

I have not seen the film but judging by what I read in this book, I have no intention of being traumatised again by such violent images. Reading it once was sufficient.

The prose was difficult, not because the language was complex but because the author invented a language. It is a mix of cockney and for whatever reason, a lot of Russian words. Some of it was ingenious, I must admit, such as ‘horror show’, which is a corruption of the Russian word хорошо (kharasho). However, I usually do not like use of constructed language unless it is relevant to the plot and in this case, I found no relevance to the plot. Moreover, what was bizarre was that it was not that the language had evolved to this, it was only Alex and his friends who were using it and other characters seamlessly understood this language.

To conclude, it was  a story without a plot. In some stories like this, I find the idea of the plot to be interesting but poorly executed but here I did not find the idea to begin with. I award the novel a rating of three on ten.

Rating – 3/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

How to Stop Fascism by Paul Mason – Book Review

 

Publisher’s write-up:

‘From Putin’s war on Ukraine to Trump’s assault on American democracy, we’ve seen the ideas of fascism proliferate. But why? Where did it begin? What do its new adherents believe? And how do we stop them? Fascism, Paul Mason shows, is ‘the fear of freedom’, and only a new democratic coalition can defeat it.’

How to Stop Fascism is a book from the journalist Paul Mason, mainly analysing the return of fascism in the world, with several authoritarian leaders around the world taking power in the last decade, such as Donald Trump in the US, Narendra Modi in India, Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, Giorgia Meloni in Italy, etc. who rose to power largely by exploiting the insecurities of the majority from a ‘perceived external threat’ of the country. There are three parts to the book, with the author first introducing fascism and its ideology, then moving on to its history and finally on how we can resist it today.

To cite from the book, here is one example of the type of rhetoric employed by the above stated leaders:

‘The ideas of the these self-styled ‘philosophers’ of the far right are not simply grotesque, they would not last five minutes if subjected to the rigours of logic and analysis in an actual philosophy department. That’s why they communicate in obscure, long-winded and often unintelligible prose. However, they are persuasive.’

This is a very important topic given with rise of new technology, political ideologies that were earlier in the fringes have found effective means to reach the mainstream. Taking France for instance where I am from, the party which was earlier considered a pariah, the Rassemblement National led by Marine Le Pen, is today seen as a normal ‘opposition party’ often platformed in the mainstream media. Similar trends could be observed in other countries. The author takes the example of the 2020 Delhi riots in India (my country of origin), where there was open violence initiated against Muslims of the city following provocative speeches by the leaders of the Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The author then talks about the history, how there were similar complacencies about people writing obituaries of Mussolini’s political career in the 20s, or for that matter after Hitler’s failed Beer Hall Putsch, there was more infighting among the German left – where the Communist Party (KPD) considered the Socialist Party (SPD) as the bigger threat an ignored Hitler. The author sends us a pertinent warning that we are ignoring the present day fascists and neo nazis at our own peril. The author talked about the mobilisation of these groups, often picking up culture wars, be it on transgender rights or gay rights, as their main rallying points to enthuse their base (as is often seen in Trump rallies).

There were parts where I felt the book was a tad alarmist, where reading it, one could be convinced that fascists are just one election away from taking power from everywhere, but that said, that is also the point of the author’s book, wherein, we should avoid the complacency that good sense will prevail. The author also breaks the myth that people drawn to fascism are often those who are left behind my the establishment / are in a precarious position, rather, in case of both Mussolini and Hitler, barring their base, they had widespread support from the mainstream middle class, which is what made them efficient when they were in power.

The book largely focus on the West, occasionally touching upon India and Brazil, but I felt East Asia was largely ignored, given it has had similar tendencies in the past decade, especially the rule of President Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines. Similarly, though the People’s Republic of China is not a democracy, Xi Jinping has become the ‘strongest’ Chinese head of state since Mao Zedong, often stoking up militarist and etho-nationalist sentiment to legitimise his hold on the establishment.

To summarise and conclude, I would say that this book addresses a very important topic, given 2024 has major elections, which effectively have democracy on the ballot – be it in US or India, or for that matter the rise of vote share of authoritarian parties across several member states in EU (such as Vox in Spain). It is also very important for us to keep in mind the history that was involved, which brought fascists to power, so that we can be wary of the same history repeating itself and act accordingly. While the focus was highly on Western Europe and US, it could have concentrated on certain other regions as well. On that note, I would award the book a rating of eight on ten.

Rating – 8/10

Have a nice day
Andy

Trust by Hernan Diaz – Book Review

 

Publisher’s write-up:

‘Trust is a sweeping puzzle of a novel about power, greed, love and a search for the truth that begins in 1920s New York.

Can one person change the course of history?

A Wall Street tycoon takes a young woman as his wife. Together, they rise to the top in an age of excess and speculation. Now a novelist is threatening to reveal the secrets behind their marriage. Who will have the final word in their story of greed, love and betrayal?

Composed of four competing versions of this deliciously deceptive tale, Trust by Hernan Diaz brings us on a quest for truth while confronting the lies that often live buried in the human heart.’

Trust is a four part novel historical novel from the writer Hernan Diaz. Most of the story happens during the Great Depression of the 1920s and 30s. The first part of the novel, titled ‘Bonds’, features the investor Benjamin Rask, who had immensely profited from the Great Depression. It also talked about his socialite wife Helen, where the marriage was not one of love but simply out of mutual respect, Benjamin for her intellect and Helen for the success of Rask in Wall Street.

However, the second part of the story talks about Andrew Bevel, a Wall Street investor again, but this time we understand that he is the real life version of ‘Benjamin Rask’ from the novel within the novel – Bonds. He is disappointed about the portrayal of his wife (Mildred being the real life version) in the novel and how she ended up in a mental health facility in Switzerland and to him this was an unfair portrayal. Bevel was at the same time, more concerned about his reputation and portrayal he did not like how his success was attributed to his wife.

To correct this, he hires an Italian-American writer Ida Partenza, who had to anglicise are last name as ‘Prentice’ at a time when discrimination against people of Italian origin in the US was still very high. Much as she initially took up this job for the pay offered by Bevel, she tries to uncover more and discover who Mildred really was. In the fourth and final part, we get the story from Mildred’s own perspective.

I liked the idea of an experimental novel in the backdrop of a financial crisis – first featuring a novel about a Wall Street investor who had made money out of the financial crisis and then going on to present an alternative perspective. Moreover, this was also highly relatable to many of the present-day readers given how billionaires across the world increased their wealth manifold during the Covid-19 crisis when the rest of the working population suffered.

It is also often seen how many living persons are not happy with the fictionalised versions of their own story and it was good to see the reactions of Andrew Bevel. Through his reactions, we also understood his personality, who was the typical 1920s misogynist in Wall Street, who was prepared to increase his wealth at any cost but at the same time, has a wife only for his social image but does not want any credit attributed to her.

The mystery that was kept around Mildred Bevel, till the very end was interesting too, after which, and in the end, we are left to wonder whose perspective was closer to the truth – the fictionalised account Bonds, Bevel’s perspective or that of Mildred.

The weakest point of this novel I felt was the sub-plot involving Ida’s personal life, be it with her egoist boyfriend or her anarchist father. It is true that women struggled to make a mark back then and she had her own challenges, but given how deep we got into the plot involving Andrew Bevel, this felt like an unnecessary digression even though individually this could have been a great story to tell.

As an economist and professional accountant myself, I would have liked the author to have gone more in detail about what was it that Andrew Bevel did that led to his success in the markets, but we just had passing mention that he was successful but I did not have any insights into why and how.

On the whole, I would say that this was an interesting novel to read and I would award it a solid seven on ten.

Rating – 7/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

Claude Gueux by Victor Hugo – Book Review

 

Note: I read this novella in French

Cliquez ici afin de lire mon avis en français

Claude Gueux is a novella by Victor Hugo, a story that brings to light the cruelty in France in the 19^th century, and also the absurdity of the death penalty. These are debates that are relevant even today, even though most of Europe has eliminated the death penalty from their statute, a majority of the global population still lives under systems that continue to apply this barbaric practice (like US, China, India, Japan, Indonesia, etc.)

The story starts with the arrest of a poor worker, Claude Gueux, accused of stealing groceries as he was unable to feed his family anymore. However, the rations given to him in the prison was not sufficient for him and he found an inmate named Albin who was willing to share his bread with Claude. A friendship developed between them over time, which did not please the director of the prison. As a result, the director transfers Albin to another prison which impacted Claude a lot, and despite multiple demands from him to the director bring Albin back to his cell, it was rejected by the director, which provoked Claude to do crimes far more serious in nature for which he was eventually sentenced to death.

The bias and the cruelty of the system was shown well by the author, where the system forces people under precarious circumstances to commit small crimes and then, the environment in the prison is so grave that it provokes far more violent crimes. Even the judges were not willing to listen to the words of Claude and how he was provoked whereas the statements of the prosecutor and the police were taken verbatim without much of cross-examination from the judges.

The problem I had with this book was the notes that were provided by the publisher of my pocket edition (Emmanuel Buron). I understand that this is a novel that takes place in the 19^th century and a present day reader needs a bit of context for which the notes could be important. However, on most occasions it was more like a dictionary giving definitions of words which we commonly use in France even today, such as ‘sinistre’ in which case I was not sure if the target audience were Francophones or students of the French language. The important footnotes were sunk in between so many of these definitions that it became difficult for me to focus.

To conclude, I enjoyed this short read, and is a novella that is pertinent even today, given the reforms we need in criminal justice. I award the book a rating of eight on ten.

Rating – 8/10

Have a nice day,
Andy