Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
With the goal to end my dull spell of reading, I randomly picked up this classic book highly read by fans of English literature. Having read books by Jane Austen, I thought I’d enjoy reading this one immensely. But it was unwise to stereotype my expectations from English literature based on my account of only Jane Austen’s books. This book is the first one I picked up from Charlotte Brontë without any idea about the author’s style or the book’s plot.
On the whole, the book has a wonderful story. However it wasn’t engaging or easy to read. I had to will myself to read further and further. The novel’s style was just too dry to engage people in 2022. It definitely doesn’t reflect poorly on the author because the contemporary reads these days are very different than the time when this novel was written. Also, unless you’re a major of English literature or have been reading classic books published in 1840s by Dickens or Dumas, you wouldn’t know what to expect when picking up such a book. However the fact that the story told in the book still earns praises from people after about over a century and a half, that just goes to show that book has worthy material to read.
Because of the dry and detailed description of things, situations and thoughts which don’t always seem relevant to the story it gave me the impression that this is a horror story. Haha.. I know some people might find it hard to believe but the description of Jane’s time at Lowood, entry to Thornfield Hall, days and lives of people there working and living there was very long and bland. This gives your mind enough time to conjure your own story-line birthing some random dread and mystique. This idea of some impending spooky twist stayed with me until the time Mr. Rochester asked Jane to marry him. Funnily, along with Mrs. Fairfax warning Jane to be wary of Mr. Rochester I kept thinking the same.. That is, something sinister was about to happen. Well, the twist didn’t turn out to be the supernatural, gory horror but the shoe did drop with reveal of the fact that Mr. Rochester was already married when he set out to marry Jane. The book did become interesting to read because you’re now engaged to find out why did Mr. Rochester hide the truth about his wife. From this point on, you’ve read enough to know how to skim through the bland parts and still get the gist.
It’s very admirable of Charlotte Brontë to have written this story in 19th century where she created this character of Jane who walked away from prospect of marrying Mr. Rochester and spend life blissfully when she had no family or friends who’d object to such a union. That made the character respectable. It made you want to root for her, cheer for her and hope she gets a happy ending. Rest of the novel after Jane flees from Thornfield Hall reads more easily than earlier parts.
I’m not going to talk about the end of the book but leave it for the readers to find for themselves. Barring the initial struggle to continue reading this book, I’d recommend readers to persist and read to the end. Hope you enjoy it :)
PS - I watched the 2011 depiction of this story in the movie immediately after reading this novel. While reading the earlier parts of this book and having watched the trailer, I strongly felt that the movie would end up being much more worthwhile to watch rather than reading the book. However after reading the complete book, I felt that the movie was rushed and didn’t cover a lot of aspects and details. I’m afraid I’ll still hold on to my belief that reading books is always a much better experience than watching movies made from them.
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Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book has been so much fun to read. Completely unexpected feel-good book. Feel-good not in the unrealistic manner (except that the odds of a romance between the First Son of the US and the Prince of England would have a really really low probability of happening) but in a believable-oh-that-I-know-that-boy kind of way. The author has so carefully crafted the characters that you feel for each of them. When you’re reading their dialogues, you feel you’re right with them. When you’re reading their struggles, you feel that they’re very much similar to your struggles at the bottom of everything. When you read their feelings, you feel like they’re echoing your feelings too.
– SPOILERS AHEAD –
This book embodies a lot of Utopian things in a very eloquent manner that we almost feel like it’s real but it’s still far ahead of our current 2021 times - like having a female US President, gay prince of England, bisexual young First Son of US and to top it off the romance between these two highly sought-after public figures. Sprinkle on some tabloid email and photos leaks in background of a cut-throat Presidential election, you’ve got a nail-biter. For optimists this would make the book very exciting to read. (Another unreal thing - the story leads up to 2020 Presidential elections which we all know how it went with COVID-19).
For a brief time mid-book, after both Alex and Henry confess their feelings for each other it felt that the book dragged on for a while with their early-honeymoon-can’t-keep-my-hands-off-of-you-phase. Looks like the author wanted to portray the depth of characters and their relatively unknown facets. However things do quickly become exciting and lead up to an eventual meeting with the Queen of England. The supporting characters are just fabulous and their part in the story is absolutely heart-warming.
I’m simply going to wrap this review up without talking about the end of the story. For all the hopeless romantics, go ahead and give this book a try. You’ll have a great time reading this one!
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The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Not a book I’d normally pick but it was recommended by a friend. This book has withstood the test of time, translated to over 100 languages and is still in print. Says a lot about how far has it resonated with people around the world. Printed in 1923, the book is a short collection of 26 fables.
Al Mustafa, a prophet from city of Orphalese on his departure from the city is sought by different residents to share his wisdom about various things in life ranging from love, friendship, marriage, children, giving, time, pain, religion, joy & sorrow, good & evil, etc.
If you’re used to reading contemporary books or if you’re at the stage in life when you’re in rush of things then you might not enjoy reading it much. However, it’s one of those books that age well. However, if you go back to this book from time to time at different stages in your life then it might reveal a completely different meaning for you. And that’s why this book is a piece of timeless wisdom of life.
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The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Even if you’re not a fan of fiction or suspense thrillers, I highly recommend reading this book. I can’t be more glad that I picked this up. This is a page-turner I’ve read in a long long time. The writing by the author being more contemporary makes it so easy to read and not put it down until you’ve finished it. Another great thing about this book is that every chapter is just 3-5 minutes long which makes it more digestible and lets you take a break easily. However due to the great plot and the gripping writing it hardly came to that.
Let me briefly provide the plot of the book. It’s a story about a woman Alicia Berenson who’s accused of killing her husband by firing a point-blank and then goes silent for years after his death. Theo Faber, a psychotherapist decides to help and heal her. I think this should be a compelling tease to convince one to read the book. Haha.
You keep getting the feeling that the story of Alicia Berenson and the narration by Theo Faber is intertwined way beyond Theo just being her psychotherapist and wanting to help her. There are chapters containing the excerpts from Alicia’s diary which does give the sense of events described therein being from a previous time. But it’s not very clear right away that the chapters about Theo and his life with his wife Kathy are not happening at the same time as he’s starts working at the Grove and with Alicia as his patient. This might stump you as learn about it towards the end of the book. However, I think that’s part of what makes all this more intriguing. Another thing which keeps gnawing is the connection between Theo’s and Alicia’s story - why is he so desperate to help her, why does he not care about breaking all the norms of a therapist-patient relationship, the unique aspect of countertransference.
I’m going to simply wrap this up by saying that this is an exciting thriller that you’d not be sorry to have taken up.
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Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of NIKE by Phil Knight
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Phil Knight is an underrated and relatively less famous co-founder and former CEO for a lifestyle-defining brand Nike. As with other memoirs, it’s always one person’s narrative of the story but boy was it inspiring.
There are a couple of things that takes a while to grow on you and be relatable -
1. Unless you’re a “Shoe Dog”, it takes a little time for the reader to fully understand the Crazy Idea that Phil talks about in the beginning of the book.
2. Since the book starts during the time of late 1950s there seems a big generation chasm that makes it difficult to comprehend the life and the challenges at that time.
But once you start reading about his struggles, his ways of dealing with them and his perspectives about situations you begin to admire him. The journey about Nike with stories about the early employees, their teamwork, determination and faith not just in the company but also in Phil’s leadership is inspiring. Truly a story about misfits getting together to create something that outlives them and influences masses around the world.
Definitely a good read if you enjoy reading about the legendary business founders’ stories, challenges they face and how they persevere through them.
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