Shreya's Treasures

A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS KHALED HOSSEINI  GENRE: NOVEL, FICTION FIRST PUBLISHED: 2007 “One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs, Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls.” In his novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, Hosseini provides a vivid portrait of a country shattered by a series of ideological leaders and wars imposed on it by foreign and internal forces. The narrative, which spans several decades, is driven by the stories of two women, Laila and Mariam, who, despite starkly different beginnings, find themselves intimately connected and dependent upon one another. Hosseini’s women, much like the country of Afghanistan itself, appear to be propelled by the whims of outside forces, familial and societal, with little chance of influencing their own lives and futures Yet Laila and Mariam are neither passive nor helpless as they make choices and accept consequences to affect desired ends, both hopeful and tragic. This portrayal of their dreams, trials, an...

THE SUBTLE ART OF NOT GIVING A F*CK MARK MANSON GENRE : SELF-HELP FIRST PUBLISHED :  2016 Charles Bukowski was an alcoholic, a womanizer, a compulsive gambler and, to use the words of the author, a “lout”, “cheapskate” and “deadbeat”. Well, as all of us know, Bukowski was also a poet. As far as Manson is concerned, Charles would be the last person to ask life advice from. He would also be the last person to be quoted in a self-help book. And that’s exactly why Manson begins his book by telling us his story. Bukowski spent more than thirty years living like this. Then, one day, the manager of a publishing company gave him a chance. The poet wrote his first book and thus became, at the age of fifty, a renowned novelist and poet. In Manson’s opinion, this man embodies the American dream. Indeed, he fights for what he wants, never gives up and finally realizes his wildest dreams. Nevertheless, the author doesn’t believe it is that determination that lead Bukowski to success. A...

THE BOOK THIEF MARKUS ZUSAK GENRE : HISTORICAL FICTION, WAR NOVEL, YA FICTION FIRST PUBLISHED : 2005 "Together, they would watch everything that was so carefully planned collapse, and they would all smile at the beauty of destruction." Try­ing to make sense of the hor­rors of World War II, Death in Markus Zusak's book "The Book Thief" relates the sto­ry of Liesel, a young Ger­man girl whose book-steal­ing and sto­ry-telling tal­ents help sus­tain her fos­ter fam­i­ly and the Jew­ish man they are hid­ing, as well as their neigh­bors. Fortunately, this book isn't about Death; it's about death, and so much else. It is about love, kindness, friendship, trust, books, and lots of thievery. It is about finding small happiness during the dark times, and having faith in humanity. Liesel Meminger's little brother dies just before her mother leaves her with the foster parents in a dismal town in southern Germany (her father, a Communist, has been take...

CATCH 22 JOSEPH HELLER GENRE : SATIRE, DARK COMEDY, WAR NOVEL, ABSURDIST FICTION FIRST PUBLISHED : 1961 ""You mean there's a catch?" "Sure there's a catch," Doc Daneeka replied. "Catch-22. Anyone who wants to get out of combat duty isn't really crazy." There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind." Reading Catch 22 wasn't for me. It was a kind of book I had never expected it to be, with an altogether different writing style which I had never experienced before. So, I will be honest; it took me much more time than I had initially thought I would take to complete this novel. A novel full of satire and dark humour was definitely what I had signed up for when I started reading this, but I had no clue how very intelligent and mad this novel was going to be. Catch 22 is a slo...

THE LOTTERY SHIRLEY JACKSON GENRE : HORROR FICTION FIRST PUBLISHED : 1948 When I first read Shirley Jackson's chilling story "The Lottery", I was curious, almost uniformly bewildered and disgusted in the end. And maybe this unprecedented, unexpected shock the story presents before its readers, makes it a so very popular read. Although, when the story was released, it gave rise to a very strong avalanche of negative reaction and backlash, it is, with a number of literary devices, a story that is almost impossible to forget. Before you proceed on with the review, I would seriously recommend you to read the story, if you haven't yet.  "The Lottery" takes place on a beautiful summer day, in a small rural village in America, where all the residents are gathering for their traditional annual lottery. Though the event first appears festive, it soon becomes clear that no one wants to win the lottery. Tessie Hutchinson seems unconcerned about the traditi...

GOING TO MEET THE MAN JAMES BALDWIN GENRE : SHORT STORY, FICTION FIRST PUBLISHED :  1965 It was indeed a great risk for Baldwin, an African - American author, to insinuate himself into the mind of a character of a different race - a political risk as a writer. He explores - from the inside - a character who is a southern white racist, Jesse. The story is a bold statement that transcends the festering sore of racism on the face of American history and cries out for the reader to examine all of the values which he or she subscribes to and to honestly appraise the foundations on which these beliefs have been constructed. We see how the novel begins with Jesse, a police officer, and his wife in bed. It seems Jesse is impotent. Blaming tiredness and heavy work for this, his wife goes off to sleep but Jesse moves into a recollection of his day's affairs with a black man, who "had caused them much trouble".  The narrative is in the form of flashbacks and soon enough...

THE GREAT GATSBY GENRE : SATIRE, TRAGEDY, BIOGRAPHICAL FICTION F. SCOTT. FITZGERALD FIRST PUBLISHED : 1925 "This is a valley of ashes — a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air." The Great Gatsby, The Great American Novel, is F Scott Fitzgerald's ultra-modernist novel about jazz-age America. The novel tells the tragic story of Jay Gatsby, a self-made millionaire, and his pursuit of Daisy, a wealthy young woman whom he loved in his youth, which ultimately led to his own destruction. It's highly unreliable protagonist is Nick Carraway, who recounts his story of the two years he spent with Gatsby. Almost 90 years later after its publish, The Great Gatsby is regularly named one of the greatest novels ever written in English, and has annu...

A VERY OLD MAN WITH ENORMOUS WINGS GENRE : MAGICAL REALISM, FICTION GABRIEL GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ  FIRST PUBLISHED : 1955 “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” was first published in the pages of the New American Review (1955), much before the majority of his work and twelve years before One Hundred Years of Solitude, probably the most familiar of his stories. What we have here is a children’s story about a place warped by sadness and visited by a distressed, lost Daedalus. Yet its vibrant colour is all its own. It is a story deeply overlapping the febrile plenitude of fiction’s strangeness and the complex relationship we, as humans, have with each other. Like so much of Márquez’s writing the story aches with a luxurious language of sadness and beauty.  "He had to go very close to see that it was an old man, a very old man, lying face down in the mud, who, in spite of his tremendous efforts, couldn’t get up, impeded by his enormous wings” We are introduced to a world ...

THE YELLOW WALLPAPER CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN FIRST PUBLISHED : 1892 “ The Yellow Wallpaper” is a short story about a woman, written in a diary form, who has a mental illness but cannot heal due to her husband’s lack of belief. We here get inside the mind of a troubled lady who soon enters a state of madness. "I think sometimes that if I were only well enough to write_ a little it would relieve the press of ideas and rest me.But I find I get pretty tired when I try.It is so discouraging not to have any advice and companionship about my work."  The use of imagery and setting helps illustrate this theme throughout the story. The setting of the vast colonial mansion and particularly the nursery room with barred windows provides an image of loneliness and seclusion experienced by the protagonist. The way the wallpaper of the room is described throughout the story fills the reader with a sense of eeriness. "The color is repellent, almost revolting ; a smoldering...

THE METAMORPHOSIS FRANZ KAFKA FIRST PUBLISHED:1915 “Father. You must just try to get rid of the idea that this is Gregor. The fact that we’ve believed it for so long is the root of all our trouble.”  ‘Metamorphosis’ is one of Franz Kafka’s known works. Written from the vantage point of Gregor Samsa, Kafka provides readers with an individual’s sudden transformation into a vermin and the corresponding impact it has on his family, identity and state of consciousness. His family is forced to adjust lives to accommodate to living with a human-sized insect in the house. In The Metamorphosis, Kafka explores the four stages of isolation through symbolism, plot, and contrasting characterizations of Gregor and his family. One of the many symbols is a picture that hangs on Gregor’s wall. Kafka describes Gregor’s surroundings in great detail, making sure to include a lengthy depiction of a cut out picture of a lady “sitting upright, dressed in a fur hat and fur boa” . The lady sits, ...

THE CATCHER IN THE RYE JD SALINGER FIRST PUBLISHED : 1951 J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye has become, since its publication, an enduring classic of American literature. The novel is a favorite because of its humor, its mordant criticism of American middle-class society and its values, and the skill with which Salinger captures colloquial speech and vocabulary.   The basic story of The Catcher in the Rye follows the adventures of sixteen-year-old Holden Caulfield, an independent, self-indulgent, idealistic, and sentimental figure of adolescent rebellion, during a forty-eight-hour period after he has been expelled from Pencey Prep, the latest of three expulsions for Holden. His brother, Allie, died only a few short years before. H is growing anxiety about what people will think and make of him when they found out that he failed his academics again, forces him to impromptu decide what action to make.  After confrontations with some fellow students at Pencey...

THE ALCHEMIST PAULO COELHO FIRST PUBLISHED: 1988 "My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer," The boy tells the alchemist one night as they looked up at the moonless sky. The alchemist replies "Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse that the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a seconds' encounter with God and Eternity." We too easily give up on our dreams, yet the universe is always ready to help us fulfill them. Paulo Coelho paints the reader's mind with surreal settings, a fascinating story-line, and a simple style of writing full of meaningful insights that will leave the reader feeling warm-hearted, inspired, and ready to shoot for the stars. The settings in this book are so vividly described that the reader can feel the lush, cool grasses of the Andalusian fields; the soft glow and warmth emanating from the buildings of the town...

ANNA KARENINA LEO TOLSTOY FIRST PUBLISHED: 1878 “All happy families resemble each other; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way” We all have books that imprint a lasting memory on us, not simply for the entertainment value, but rather for the way in which they communicate the truth of the human person. For me, Tolstoy’s  Anna Karenina  is an exemplar in character development and as such presents an unparalleled disclosure of the human condition and the effects of both sin and virtue in the life of man.  The story follows four individuals arranged as couples.  The first, for whom the novel is named, is Anna.  When she comes on the scene, she is nothing short of captivating: beautiful and mysterious in every way.  Anna is married, albeit unhappily.  As the story progresses, she falls into an illicit affair with the young Count Vronsky, who pursues her with both intensity and persistence.  The third is a young woman named Ki...

MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN HISTORIOGRAPHIC METAFICTION SALMAN R USHDIE FIRST PUBLISHED: 1981 Salman Rushdie was knighted due to his literary work and this career of his started with Midnight’s children, his second novel. It was ground-breaking in its treatment of history, memory, and fantasy. Rushdie used all three avenues in a compendious effort to grapple with the history of India just before and thirty years after it gained independence from the British. It is the biography of Saleem Sinai, a child with psychic and (later) olfactory powers, born on the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947. His destiny is inextricably linked with that of India (this gets reflected in the entire story), the country that gained independence at the exact same time as he did. Saleem quickly establishes himself as an unreliable narrator; he makes factual errors and tells lies. However, he is a very engaging and endearing storyteller because of his humor , his sense of foreshadowing, his uni...