All That Man Is by David Szalay: A Warm Portrayal of Male Psyche

All That Man Is is written by David Szalay and was short listed for Man Booker prize 2016. Though it is listed as a novel, it is actually a collection of nine stories with many recurring elements and themes. Basically it is a portrayal of manhood through specimens of nine European men of different ages and at diverse stages of life.

The book starts with the story about Simon, a young introvert British teenager, sightseeing in Berlin along with his friend. It ends with the story of his knighted grandfather Tony who is seventy three and recuperating from surgery. In between there are diverse stories about men of many ages and social status facing testing life situations where either love, money or in most cases both are at stake.

All the protagonists are invariably flawed men in humiliating circumstances, mostly of their own making. Some are indifferent, some are with bloated egos and most of them totally break down. The stories are pretty bleak, but told with a very mild dose of humor and with much sympathy. They are so realistic that they have the potential to be case studies of psychologists.

All nine stories feature their protagonists in international journeys- some of them holidays, some personal errands and some business trips. Invariably while they are in a foreign situation, they face an issue where a tough choice has to be taken which can affect their life. The stakes- sex, love, money, job, assets and ultimately life- build up as the age goes up. The book is an existential comedy.

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His Bloody Project: Account of a Gruesome Crime

His Bloody Project is a novel by Graeme Macrea Burnet that was short listed for Man Booker prize, 2016. It is a historic crime novel based on the Scottish peasant life of 19th century. The novel narrates the story of a young man in late teens who end up murdering three persons in cold blood and is awaiting trial. His brutal act marks the title of the book.

The story is told as a collection of  documents acquired accidently by the author about a long forgotten crime. The main body of the novel is an account narrated by Roderic Macrea, a teenager imprisoned for murder, on the insistence of his lawyer. He writes about the events that lead to his desparate action. It also contains legal testimonies of the people of his village, a paper by a criminologist about his involvement in the case, post mortem report and trial report.

The novel maintains its intriguing style for its whole length and manages to keep the reader invested. It is successful in making us feel inside that the truth is not what that meets the eye and there is something more than what's revealed. It exploits the unreliable narrator technique. Instead of being just an account of a gruesome action, events that lead to it and the aftermath, it stands as a powerful character study of a young man who is in the midst of tremendous pressure due to his conflicts with the society and family.

The novel also is a study on inequalities, abuse of power and existence of class in society. Though the background of the story is the Scottish croft system, I felt that there is a universality to it. In some form or other, our society displays the same callousness and absence of empathy. We can observe the distrust between people of different social structures of our society.

His Bloody Project is a remarkable novel that mirrors the contemporary reality in the guise of historical crime fiction.


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The Sellout by Paul Beatty: A Loose Cannonball

I just finished reading Paul Beatty's novel The Sellout. It is the Man Booker prize winner of 2016. The Sellout is a biting satire about post racial US society, the one with a Black person as it's President. It was a tough read for me as it took almost double the time that I usually take for a book of its length. I had to re-read many parts again to find out if I had missed something and there were many points that were clear only while re-reading.

The protagonist of The Sellout is a black man whose first name is never mentioned and his surname is just Me. He is summoned to the Supreme Court to deliberate a case of apartheid. It seems the guy was reinstating segregation and owning slaves in his home town, Dickens in Los Angeles.

This guy is the son of a psychologist, a single black father, who used his son as a Guinea pig for his psychological experiments. He was counting on his memoirs to take them out of poverty. But one fine day police 'accidentally' shoots him. The son continues his father's part time career of a Nigger- whisperer - rescuing suicidal black people.

When he realised that his home town is no more in the American maps, totally wiped off, he comes upon the idea of reinstating segregation as a means of retrieving it, much to the horror of his father's friend and later rival, Foy. An aged black actor, Hominy forces Me to take him as a slave. What follows are the attempts by the duo to reintroduce segregation and reclaim Dickens.

The book consists of a torrent of wise cracks and jokes about post racial US society. As a novel, it doesn't have a strong structure or plot. The whole book gives you a feeling of watching a very long stand-up act about racism. Several of the jokes and observations are ingenious. The author deliberately avoids any meaningful characterisation and keeps them all two dimensional caricatures. Instead of weakening the novel, it makes you not to care for them and concentrate on the rants of the protagonist, which is actually the strong point of the book.

I feel the intention of the book is to criticise the attitude of modern society to avoid discussing of racial difference altogether. The author tries to put forward a view that it is better to go back to the old ways of segregation if there is no atmosphere to openly discuss and agree on racial differences. It is more difficult for the minor ethnicities to live in a society that obliterate it's identity and makes it conform, rather than giving it space to develop its culture. In the novel we can see that segregation leads to better performance of students and general uplifting of the quality of living.

The Sellout is a highly contextual novel. It is specific in its historical, political and social contexts. To appreciate it fully, one has to physically experience these. There are many elements that are universal, and easy for people without the background to enjoy, but I feel it will be a different reading experience for people who are aligned to any of the sides portrayed in the novel.

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Hot Milk by Deborah Levy: A Deceptively Simple Tale

Hot Milk is a novel written by Deborah Levy and was short listed for Man Booker prize 2016. On the surface it appears as a sweet, short and simple tale about the love-hate relationship shared by a mother and her daughter. But I feel the simplicity of the plot is a clever facade, below which can be identified a complex study of human identity and self esteem.

Rose and her daughter Sophie is staying at a beach side holiday spot in Almeria, Spain. But they aren't vacationing. Rose is partially paralysed and they are to consult Dr Gomez, a doctor with a dubious reputation. Sophie feels tied up with her dominating mother and is tired of tending her whimsical wishes. She is not even sure if her mother is actually sick. But a chance meeting with Ingrid, a German girl transforms her life and makes her confront her absent Greek father. She finds herself finally fighting her worst fears.

The cover of the book, picture of a bikini-clad woman and its beginning like a chick-lit generic story is the first deception in this book. My knowledge that it is shortlisted for Man Booker is the only factor that kept me from tossing it aside then. But gradually it made me invested in the proceedings. The characterisation and narration is very effective. Each character make us feel that there is something more to him or her that will be shared with us soon. And we keep on reading. Apart from the mother and daughter, the character of Dr Gomez kept me thoroughly entertained and I was perpetually waiting to see what new trick he pulls up his sleeve next.

It is only by the time we reach the part of Sophie's meeting with her father, which comes around second half from the middle of the story, do we appreciate the symbolic importance of several instances in the first half that we thought trivial while reading. And by the end the author succeed in making us realise the strong undercurrent of drama and emotion that never makes it to the surface, but nevertheless makes us aware of its silent presence underneath.

Still I feel many important instances and their significance went above my head. Probably I may have to read the novel again to appreciate and understand its nuances fully. It is a captivating read, of course, but as I mentioned before it is also a slippery and deceptive one. And, if somebody who read the novel could educate about the connection between its title and the story, I would be grateful. I know it is something related to Sophie's occupation in England as a coffee maker and how she prepare milk, a fact that is touched upon a few times in course of the novel, which is also the only reference about milk in it as far as I observed. But I cannot pinpoint the payoff of that information to the themes covered in the narrative.

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