Macbeth by Jo Nesbø
Series: Hogarth Shakespeare
Published by Hogarth on 05/03/2018
Genres: Fiction
Pages: 512
Format: ARC, eBook
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The latest addition to Hogarth Shakespeare Project is Jo Nesbø’s Macbeth. For those who do not know, Hogarth was launched in London in 2012 to retold one of the greatest stories of all times by modern day bestselling authors of today. Hogarth was founded by Virginia Woolf and her husband Leonard Woolf in 1917.

This modern-day adaption of Shakespeare’s original play, sharing the same title is set in the 1970s. The book starts in a vividly poetic style. It is a crime plus noir version of the play that was written almost 400 years before. It focuses on a police force attempting to shed the drug problem in the local town. A drug lord, who keeps the whole town by the strings as if they are his puppets and him, the puppeteer. He has connections that get him what he wants. Absolute power. A major portion of the main cast is introduced in the first chapter. A Lot happens in the first few chapters which set the speed of the novel.

Macbeth is the captain of the SWAT team. Duncan is the commissioner. Banquo is still Macbeth’s friend and Lady Macbeth renamed as ‘Lady’. There are those three witches which turned the life of Macbeth upside down by implanting the seed of greediness. It does seem Nesbo enjoys a lot by giving these characters a life of their own. The character of Duff, the original Macduff, is developed along with the plot to rain down Macbeth. In the original play, his character was not entirely developed. Nesbø fills this gap in his work.

There are a lot of similarities with the original play. Both sets of characters share almost identical traits. The plot has the identical flow but what makes this book interesting in my opinion is the way it is written. Each and every detail unfolds in front of a reader like an offspring. There are detailing that as a reader you would not expect the author to go into even though you have read the play and know a lot about the plot. Just like the development of characters like Macduff. Every character, now in 21st century breathes on his own. The length of the novel signifies that it is big but I think once you immerse yourself in the book, you will forget about it.

It stays true and close to the original plot. This is the reason I like this book so much and enjoyed reading it. Fans of Shakespeare’s Macbeth will find a delight in this modern-day retelling. Fans of Jo Nesbø’s will appreciate the hard work the writer might have gone through while retelling the tale.

5 out of 5

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Fragments by Heraclitus
Published by Penguin on 500 B.C.
Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Classics
Pages: 128
Format: eBook
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Written around twenty-five hundred years ago, Heraclitus declared that energy is the essence of the matter, that everything becomes energy in flux, in relativity. Fragments if a form of collected writings by the Greek, since the title and the context of the book both suggest that.

Many consider Heraclitus one of the earliest philosophers and his writing is the only piece that conveys that. The text surviving for almost 2500 years, there must something about it. His writing style is unique, his way of conveying the wisdom is one of its kind. Reading these passages are soothing and they enforce the reader to think about for a very long time. The basic consideration that Heraclitus takes into is the mankind and everything that falls under its nature. He talks about nature and the cycle of the universe in proses.

My favorite point of his writing is that he has put enough emphasis on the inner self. I think that is why Heraclitus is considered a master of many modern-day philosophers.

Applicants of wisdom do what I have done: inquire within.

Many of the ideas he speaks about are familiar to us. It is just another way of reminding ourselves the simplicity of life. If you decide to pick this book and try to observe the wisdom, I hope you find what you are looking for.

It is a quick, short piece of writing that you can read in an hour. The amount of wisdom it owns and offers is the reason why one should consider reading it.

The habit of knowledge is not human but divine.

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Q. Hi Mr. Manoj Jain, and thank you for agreeing this interview. Tell us a little about yourself and your background?

By profession I am a businessman running my own export company, a business I started after I completed my studies at IIM Ahmedabad. I have always wanted to write and I finally made the plunge, writing during my business travels. Besides my business and travels, I keep busy with my ongoing psychology studies as well as learning Spanish. I believe that a person should constantly learn and grow oneself.

Q. What led you to your book, “Ramona”?

Soon after Balraj was published, I started to get many messages from my family, friends and readers. Many expressed that they wanted to know what happened to Ramona and to Balraj’s family once he left. While most people enjoyed Inder’s metamorphosis into Balraj and his subsequent journey, they felt that Ramona had been given some kind of a raw deal and her story too deserves to be told.

As I started writing Ramona, a friend remarked that there are many women who, just like Ramona, somewhere got stuck in life without growing to be their own person, even if due to dissimilar circumstances. So I decided to write Ramona to show a way out of this grind, as Balraj had done.

Q. What is the easiest thing about writing?

The writing is the easiest and fun part. The editing and the re-reading of the book is the tough part. The marketing part is the toughest and the part I used to shy form…but over a period of time, I have less resistance to book readings etc

Q. What motivates you to write?

Writing a book for me helps me express many things: what I have seen, what I have learnt, what I want to share, some thoughts, feelings. When I write a book, it takes a lot of energy and I become inward looking and quieter and more withdrawn. But when it comes out, it feels like one has given birth (accompanied by the post-natal depression )

I am glad I have written books- not only is it a realization of my dreams (that seems less important to me now), it has helped shape me and become myself. It is helping me to complete myself.

Q.  When did you decide that you want to be a writer?

I knew as a child that I wanted to be an author. I wrote several short stories in my teens and early twenties. I have been writing poetry forever. By the time I entered the world of business, I reconciled that I would now never write a book. I lost confidence seeing the beautiful way the modern authors expressed themselves. When I was in my late 40s, my nephew suggested I write a blog. Once I started to write for the blog, my son encouraged me to elaborate on it, consequently the story grew and became my first novel.

Q. What are your thoughts on good/bad reviews?

I must admit that I keep checking reviews to see them. Good reviews make me preen (just a little) and bad reviews do sadden me… it was much more acute in my first and scond book. By the time I wrote Balraj, I was more confident about the book and its reception and the reviews seemed to matter lesser and lesser.

I am fortunate that I do not have to depend upon writing as my livelihood. I write because I want to and I am very happy I did. If others enjoy or benefit from the books then it makes me happy.

Q. What do you prefer: Pen or Computer? And how do you stay organised (any methods, systems, tools you use)?

I tend to write on the computer, lying in bed on my stomach and typing furiously. When I am travelling in the car or flight, I often type the stories on my phone on nortes and then email myself the part so I can save it.

I am always nervous that my computer crash, I will lose the story written so far, so I email it to a friend every time I write so I have a copy of what has been written to date. I also do keep notes of thoughts on the book in point form to include and build on as the book progresses but these are fewer than I should

Q. How do you relax?

I like to go for a walk every day, do yoga when I am in Mumbai. Meeting friends over a coffee  and late night gossip session is another perfect way for me to relax.

Q. What would you have done differently if you could do it again?

Alas, too many things…I would have done many things differently but then that is what growing up is all about I suppose.

Q. Something personal about you people may be surprised to know?

I am 52 years old although I feel forever young. I enjoy my life a lot. I am married (24 years ago) to a wife who balances me. I tend to not have too many filters so say and do things that cross a limit- my wife helps me with this problem.

I have two children, who are my life and biggest weakness. They study out of Mumbai- to make up for their absence, I got a Golden retriever puppy (a childhood dream that materialized) who helps fill the void and lets me survive my children’s departure.

I am always struggling to lose weight- I work out and do yoga but I always seem to put on weight – I probably eat wrongly despite a wife and a sister and friends who are qualified nutritionists. I love to smoke and I give up for a long period of time and get back on it especially when I am writing. I do not enjoy alcohol as much and drink with close friends to get drunk on special occasions. I am blessed with being part of a big family with close relationships with my sisters and their kids as well. I have many friends and they are part of my heart and life, they make life fun.

I love art, reading, theatre, movies; I am not fond of watching TV or celebrity news.

Q. Do you re-read books? One book that you would read again & again?

I love to read books again and again. Books that I have read several times over include Animal Farm, We the Living, Fountainhead, Kalki, Myra Beckinridge…what one reads in the book changes with every passing age and one discovers a new side and facet to the book and its charachters with every read.

Q. Your influence(s)/ favourite author(s)?

I have grown up reading and this is an impossible questions. Different authors were favourites at different times of ones life . During my teenage years, I devoured Ayn Rand and Richard Bach, and as an adult enjoyed Gore Vidal and Alexander McCall Smith. Of course one always loved Maugham, Hesse, Wodehouse and there are just too many. Each author has its own place in a readers life.

Q. Are you working on anything at the moment? When can we see your next work?

I am working on a rather difficult cook- its called DYSTOPIA and deals with issues on growing up, adolescence and coming of age. I am really happy with it. I expect a lot of response as it covers many different ideas and should resonate with all readers. I hope it will release in the first few months of 2018.

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First Published: 1938

Originally titled La Nausée and published in 1938, is Jean-Paul Sartre’s first novel and an exploration of his early thoughts and ideas on existentialism that are elaborated in his later works. This book even though comes under the category of fiction is a difficult one to review. Nevertheless, this is my attempt.

Nausea is written in the form of a diary of a fictional writer Antoine Roquentin. To read it, one does not have to be familiar with the writer or any of the characters. I picked this book with little idea of who Sartre is and I can say I enjoyed this book thoroughly by attempting this blunt manner. It begins as Roquentin begins his diary to record things. In diary’s preface, a reader can transparently observe that Roquentin has been travelling for many years and has now returned back in France.

On the brink of his thirtieth birthday, Rouqentin is undertaking a scholarly project in a small town of Bouville (based on Le Havre) and has settled on writing a biography of Marquis de Rollebon, a figure in the French Revolution. In the narrative, a reader can observe that Roquentin leads an isolated life, spending much of his days working through papers in local library and his evenings in cafes and restaurants. In this isolation, he find has little contact with other humans as he occasionally makes love to a cafe owner that too without any emotion and sometimes gets involved in small conversations with another library user.

In this isolation, as Roquentin calls it, suffers from Nausea. He describes it as a sense of meaninglessness in existence with other individual bodies. The purpose of Antoine’s starting a diary is to understand his own documentation on the matter of Nausea that he suffers. It is a process of self-reflection and that is the first important thing to catch if you reading this novel. During this process, Roquentin cannot help but notices that same loneliness that pervades his own life in others around him. This loneliness is a representation of never-ending existence in which every individual is surrounded by though each have their own experiences with it.

“I exist by what I think … and I can’t prevent myself from thinking.”

Roquentin realises he was much happier before this feeling of meaninglessness in his past, before he came across this perception of the world. With contrary terms and conditions of being in existence Roquentin realises that anyone that exists is free but the contradiction arouses when one realises that he has achieved the sense of freedom and that becomes overwhelming. This is the paradox of immense freedom that is heavily burdened that Sartre wants his readers to be aware of and the whole point of self-reflection of Antoine Roquentin in his diary. Since this book is written in the form of a diary, it might be a bit opaque to clearly understand Sartre’s philosophy which is to explore the nature of existence and the challenge faced by an individual who becomes conscious of this thought. I think it is a good start and as I earlier said, is the basis of his later works.

Roquentin is delighted as he welcomes back his former girlfriend and hopes that her love will cure him of his Nausea. However, on being rejected by her he once again finds his own existence repulsive. He then resolves his isolation by deciding to work on a creative project of writing a novel that might be helpful as an antidote to his Nausea.

To read this novel, one does not have to love it or as Roquentin expresses his views on humanism, “Nor do I hate it!” Sartre does well to engage his readers in this terrifying (from philosophical point of view) and intense first person narrative. Beautifully written, this is the kind of work that demands complete attention from its reader. Like me, when reading this novel, you might not start appreciating Sartre’s effort that produced this novel but you will, as I have, to start appreciating it as we dwell more and more into reality.

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Pages: 146, Kindle Edition

First Published on:  1955

Cover Rating: 4/5

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This not the first Alan Watts book I have read. To read this one, I made myself familiar with his writing and philosophy by reading his other books such as The Wisdom of Insecurity (on someone’s recommendation in past) and listening to his teachings in past few weeks. It’s important to know your subject in most cases. In this case, even if you aren’t familiar with Watts’ philosophy, I’d suggest you to go ahead. However, a bit of familiarity only embraces curiosity. The title is the essence of this book, might point to another domino piece in the self-help genre but I can assure you that this text which was first published in 1955 holds the same amount of value and wisdom today as it did back then.

Watts touches various philosophical concepts and offers some practical wisdom to cope up with the life of a human being. He discards the toxic idea of ego among other mental models such as self-consciousness and the illusion of self-control in which we think that there is a need to control and manipulate everything. He offers the perfect meaning of the word Tao and how is it related to every other human being. Much emphasis is given on the Changing nature of life.

It might sound challenging but I urge you to read this book. It has a lively effect on my thinking process and I am sure it will have some amount of the same effect on yours. The way reality works and how it should work (a production of an individual’s thoughts) does not have a thin line in between but rather a large gap that needs to be acknowledged in order to maintain it. The writing is witty and plain. Easy to grasp if you follow along the pace of the book. The ideas discussed here, as I mentioned are contemporary and will continue to do so. I think this book is close to be a basic introduction to the genesis of human nature. That much amount of wisdom it offers.

On reading this book I can suggest that it does not fall into the category of self-help genre completely. With some flavour of Easter philosophy Watts refers the context in more of a generic manner of human nature and the “Way of living”. Written in a manner of concise essays, I’d suggest you tackle each as a chapter in continuation. Wisdom through written words in the previous knowledge does form a basic understanding to various concepts such as Zen and Tao.

I recommend this book to everyone, and especially to those who are forming their own paths.

5 out of 5! Highly recommended.

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“Picking five favorite books is like picking the five body parts you’d most like not to lose.” – Neil Gaiman

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Lord Peter Wimsey, as I like to imagine, is an unusual sort of character to be a detective in detective fiction with his reputation in London’s Society and the wealth of his family.

In good sense, he is curious, just like Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick Dr. Watson, he has his own sidekick in the form of Bunter who is his butler and is almost all the time associated at his command. (Bunter also  buy books for his lordship is his lordship is unable to attend an auction of rare books, and does not overspends. How good is that!) If the reader is familiar with the writings of P.G. Wodehouse, on reading Whose Body? will believe at first that Lord Peter Wimsey is a creation of the wit and humour essentially provided by Mr. Wodehouse.

Lastly, my friend Emmie on her fascinating book blog Another of Reading, discussed in a blog post about how she is reading 5 books at one time. Haven’t read multiple books at same time in months,her post got me thinking, and with the finale of this week, I am ending it up with Wilkie Collins’ Woman in White & Dante Alighieri’s La Divina Commedia’s second part: Purgatorio.

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People have been reviewing Great Expectations for 150 years. It’s the essence of a classic to survive such a long time and still being read. It is also a writer’s name that adds to a classic’s character, but that is not always the case. However, with Charles Dickens it is the former case and readers have expectations. I do. Whenever I start reading a Dickens novel, I expect it to be long, and contain all the elements of a story telling. Certainly, Dickens is one of the masters of the art.

The story is of an orphan,Pip, who from the beginning of the novel is not an ideal protagonist who have to be heroes or emotionally and physically strong. The story in short is tale written in first person narrative is about a person and his “great expectations”. It is the tale of self-understanding and perception. As a young boy Pip, lives with his sister ad her husband, kind soul, of whom he is fond of in his childhood. One day his presence is at demand in front of a strange woman who lives in a grand house with her niece. This is the starting of Pip’s “Great Expectations”.

If you read this novel for the first time, but if it is not your Dickens first novel, you will be able to predict the plot and that will be a bit uninteresting. I did predict a few moves in my mind and they did not seem as shocking or astonishing as some do believe. The plot has a tendency to drive itself forward as most of the Dickens’ books do. The characters are firm, original, but they lacked an asset which I have found in any of the Dickens book I have read before Great Expectations. For example, the character of Miss Havisham did not impress me at all even though she was full of tricks.

The pace of the book depends on the timeline which was something new to me. It starts slow, and after certain observations manage to gain the flow as a reader has been familiarised with every other character. In my opinion, Great Expectations is not Charles Dickens best novel. But one should give it a try. You never know what might be interesting to you until you read it.

3 out of 5!

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Northanger Abbey 

Most of the events described in this book take place in Bath, England and later in Northanger Abbey, an estate. Catherine Morland is this novel’s young heroine who has little experience outside her own country village until she is invited to Bath with family friends, Mr. & Mrs. Allen. In Bath she befriends two families, the Thorpes and the Tilneys.

While spending a few weeks in Bath with a family friend, Catherine meets and falls in love with Henry Tilney, who invites her to visit his family estate, Northanger Abbey. Once there, Catherine, a great reader of Gothic thrillers and especially a fan Ann Radcliffe’s books immerses herself in the shadowy atmosphere of the old mansion and let it mingle with her mind with terrible suspicions. She arouse some questions to satisfy her own appetite of imagination such as what is the mystery surrounding the death of Henry’s mother? Is the family concealing a terrible secret within the elegant rooms of the Abbey? Can she trust Henry, or is he part of an evil conspiracy? Catherine finds dreadful omens in the most prosaic events until Henry persuades her to see the danger in confusing life with art.

The plot having potential, failed me this time. The first half of the novel was not at all interesting, until the heroine of the book  abide inside the walls of Northanger Abbey. To  reach such a point in the book and find out rest of the story, I had to force myself to read it. Once the events of Abbey are ajar by the author the book becomes a bit interesting. The characters span are short. There are signs of usual Austen blended characters such as Mrs. Allen, and Isabella but rest of the characters fail to resemble her creation. Thought this is not the point I disagree with the author. I welcome and appreciate, always, every writer’s experimentation. What works and what not is not the concern. However, the concern of a reader on reading a book is that it should be satisfying. And this one, I have to say is not the one for me. It is a plain tale and certainly a parody.

2 out of 5

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Jack London’s Martin Eden is a rare book that would indulge any reader from page one. It is also rare since it does resemble the typical American writing as one can observe in the writing styles of American writers of early twentieth century. It’s a powerful book, one that will definitely have an impact on its readers and will leave a reader thoughtful in the end.

Set in San Fransisco, this semi-autobiographical work is the story of a sailor called Martin Eden who pursues ambitiously, dreams of education and literary fame. For a start with help of the girl, he falls in love with, he educates himself feverishly and becomes a writer, hoping to acquire the respectability sought by his society-girl. However, fame is a cruel mistress and takes her own time to develop but that doesn’t mean it will knock on one’s door. Martin pledges towards his writing everyday, once he feels confident of himself being an intellectual he starts writing articles, essays and stories and sends them to magazines and newspapers all across the country. 

He gets rejected by most of the magazines and newspapers for quite a time until then the breakthrough appears as well as fame. Lost love turns false and Martin pledges himself back towards the sea. The plot is gripping, I hardly find plots of novels that do not fall under the sub-category of being a thriller or a crime fiction so gripping and fast. I managed to read the book in one sitting. Character of Martin Eden is important. It is well-developed by the author and does not lose focus. Other minor characters are not disappointing. The narrative is a marvellous. Every sentence seems to be in rhythm with every other sentence. Enriched in both emotionally as well as intellectually.

Martin Eden is portrayal of an artist’s life. A showcase of how one can if ambitious and hard-working can deal with society to achieve yet never the satisfaction is lost. The book is available in public domain.

4 out of 5

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