World Without End

Book Review
World Without End, Ken Follet’s new novel is a sequel to his previous masterpiece, Pillars of the Earth. Sequels, as such are usually disappointing. A good story is complete in itself. And it is a very rare storyteller who can extend the time line of his characters out of a previous book with an intensity that is matched in the original.

Follet, therefore, does not pick up where Pillars ended. He lets two hundred years pass. And he opens the gates of the Kingsbridge city in the fourteenth century, on a cold day in November and introduces the reader to four kids.

One is Gwenda, daughter of a thief, a man who got his hand chopped off because he was caught stealing. Gwenda is terrified that she will received the same punishment, but she is more afraid of hunger and cold. Another is a girl called Caris, daughter of a rich trader. Caris’s mother is sick and at twelve years of age, Caris has inkling that when the monks bleed her mother, it is not doing her any good.

The boys are brothers, but very different in temperament. Ralph, the younger brother, is born to be a soldier. He has a knack of killing, and his first victim is Gwenda’s pet dog. Merthin, the elder, lacks the killer instinct, and hence is low on self esteem. His parents force him to become an apprentice of a carpenter and slowly the concepts of architecture unravel in his mind.

Other than Gwenda, all three are descendents of the Builder family’s of Pillars of the earth. In Pillars, the propelling factor was the building of the Cathedral. In this book, it is the transformation of thinking patterns from blind faith to experience and logic. The evolution of medical practice, a slow painful process augmented by repeated attacks of plague and an intelligent approach of research.

In any society, it is the heros who are worshipped that determine the flow of the tide. In medieval England, the Church and the Aristocracy dominated over the people ruthlessly, and people accepted them, blinded by the faith of fear and superstition. The monks were God’s men, and if they thought a sick person should be bled, nobody questioned them. If a nun said you must wash your hands after you touch a patient who has the plague, she was easily ignored because she was a woman.

The feminine was suppressed, by the practice of killing the so called witches. A rapist who is about to be hung receives a pardon because the king needs soldiers to fight in the war. An eighteen year old girl can be ‘sold’ by her father to an outlaw, by her father who needs the money to feed his other children. And this happens in broad daylight, and it is sanctified by a monk.

And so it is the times they are living in that is the villain of the story. A beautiful aspect about time is that it changes. Bad times become good by certain characteristics in our four characters. One is a basic intelligence, something that is not of much value when people are superstitious. One might say it is courage, and persistence which can bring fruits to an enquiry.

However, the fascinating aspect of this book is how the change in mindset is a result of the circumstances in the flow of narrative. In fact, this is the reason that literature is an easier way to study and appreciate history than text books. Because a book, specially a novel set in historical times, gives us the entire picture.

World Without End is an experience of living in medieval England, during exiting times.

The author takes you through all the different steps of hierarchy, from a peasant to an earl, from a builder to a nun. Their lives are woven into a compelling read.

This book is a reminder to us, to value the times we are living in. Our ancestors have paid a heavy price and gone through immense mental, emotional struggle for us to get a democratic life.

What I liked about the book:

The complexity of the characters make them very real. Caris, for example, is in love with Merthin but does not want to marry. She would rather attend the town’s meetings, write a book on how to deal with plague victims, and fight with the monks. Not because she is ambitious, but because she has a calling. A calling is something which fulfills itself.

What I did not like about the book:

The first part is rather slow. Maybe because as a sequel, it has to deal with the hangover of Pillars of the Earth. But it did not have to go into such long descriptions of the politics a monk plays to become a Prior. The author’s preference towards nuns as compared to monks is a bit too obvious.

However, going by the theme of the narrative, which was a rise of the smart woman, and the falling of the superstitious folk, this preference was necessary.

Roots and Wings : A Handbook for Parents

A self help book on Parenting? But why? All through life, we tried to escape parental advice. They called it rebellion. For us it was growing up. We did not mean to disrespect them. But we owed it to ourselves to find our own voice.

And now that we have children, we would like to help them find their own path too.

Anybody who has been a parent knows that parenting ain’t for sissies. It is a time to stop day dreaming, to get into the action.

Most of us parent through instinct. Which means we do a retake of our own parents. But the scene has changed, the characters have changed. And we don’t want to make the same mistakes. We want to grow, to evolve, to learn.

Just as we struggled for years to find our own place in this world, we have to make a little extra effort and go to a parenting school.

Although we don’t like to admit it, most of us buy self –help books because it is a private school. We get to learn without failing in tests.

‘Roots and Wings,’ a handbook for parents, will to begin with, take the fatigue out of the practical aspects of parenting. It gives fresh ideas and solutions to problems you have been dealing with for months. Are you at a wits end of how to make your child get over his fear of water and learn swimming? Don’t give up taking your child to the pool, just stop insisting that he \she has to learn swimming. Let your child just waddle in the pool. Within a couple of days, ‘peer pressure’ will take over. Raksha elaborates how important it is that your child keeps good company.

With so many alternative schools of thought going on and on about not pressurizing the child with overwork and facts, parents get confused as to where to draw the line on studies, if to draw a line at all. An entire chapter is devoted on developing the creativity of your little monster. A creative environment, essentially, is a matter of exposure. Art does not come out of nothing. And this is the justification for the term, ‘rooted in culture’.

It is of utmost importance for parents to understand what is lacking in the present educational system so that they can make up for it. After being rooted in culture, the child has to step out into nature. City life offers almost nil contact with the

elements of nature we took for granted as children. That children might suffer if they don’t learn how to climb trees is something no school would appreciate. Not that we need convincing, but Raksha gives documented proof of fall-outs of lost contact with nature. And suggests that if trees are not available, gardening is an option that is doable for most of us.

Learning is a process that happens smoothly when we are enjoying the process. The child who is reluctant to pick up a school book needs to first fall in love with the written word. The best way to achieve this is to introduce the child to reading as a hobby.

Raksha gives us a new insight into our role as parents. We are continuously trying to fulfill our own desires through our children. There is a clear line between encouraging and pressurizing a child to excel. What exactly is a sportsman’s spirit? Raksha talks to a few biggies like Sania Mirza for some very useful tips.

Building character is perhaps the most important aspect of parenthood. Certain teachings need to be vocalized, and sometimes we have to be silent. Raksha gives examples from the parental lives of celebrities like Jaya Bachchan.

In this chapter, a sincere reader is taken to task. Do you label your child as lazy, useless, or stupid? What is the better way of discipline? Are you just a Sunday dad? Becoming a responsible parent is hard work and this book shows the way, step by step.

The language is crisp, the style is conversational. The attitude is not higher than thou; it comes from a place of understanding the complexities of parenting.

What I didn’t like about the book:

Some of the tips and suggestions in the book limit the target reader towards the educated affluent class.

What I liked about the book:

It has a holistic approach, something that would appeal to any mother’s heart.

Interview with Loveleen Kacker, author of A Sugar Baron’s Daughter

Loveleen Kacker, author of A Sugar Baron’s daughter.

Loveleen Kacker is a member of the Madhya Pradesh cadre of the Indian Administrative Service. She has written several books for children, including the popular Saloni series. She has also written ‘Terror in the Jungle’, about the Naxalite movement and how it culminated in the formation of the People’s War Group.

Questions

1. Since you are a rare author who has written for kids as well as

adults, can you tell us how the difference manifests to a writer?

Loveleen: Writing for children is far more difficult. One has to remember one’s own childhood, to make an effort, to get into the mind of a child. To understand a child’s interests, one has to be able to think like a child. At my age, most of us have forgotten what it was like to be a child.

In technical terms, writing for children has to be precise, short, and simple to understand. One has to write the same thing in a simple language, using minimum words, which is not easy.

As grown ups, we are given to long analysis, and a lot of inner chatter. So it is easier writing for grown ups, one does not have to compress, they have much more patience and space in the mind to read pages and pages.

1. What is your opinion about the state of literature for children in

India?

Loveleen: Oh, there is huge vacuum in this area. Very few writers write for children in India. I don’t know why, but Indian writers don’t seem to be interested in the challenge of relating to children.

1. Do children always need a happy ending? Do you think violence

and negative characters in children’s books are justified?

Loveleen: Yes, even Harry Potter has so much violence, so many dark, scary elements. And that’s what makes him so interesting. I don’t believe we can entirely cut out negativity, because that would be shielding them from reality.

Of course, the ultimate message should be positive. While conveying that positive message, we have to also reflect society as it is. Bad characters have to be portrayed as BAD. Enid Blyton had a lot of monsters in her books.

1. Ok, Coming to Sugar Baron’s daughter. What made you write about sugar?

Loveleen: My work involved a lot of interaction with the sugar industry. And frankly, I was fascinated by the way it functioned. The politics, the rivalry among the sugar barons, the complexity of it all was immense.

They have a saying in Hindi, ‘Chini me bahut kadwahat hoti hai.’ (There is a lot of bitterness in sugar.)

5. How does the role of a storyteller jell with your profession?

Loveleen: My work has given me so many opportunities to travel and meet people whom otherwise I might never have known. I come across different strata of society and get sensitized to their hardships, their lives. And this is my source of inspiration. One does not write about what one knows nothing of.

I write pages and pages in long hand when I travel. I have also trained myself to write on a laptop. But somehow, I feel that I can think better when I write in long hand.

1. What are you writing next?

Loveleen: I have recently been involved in the Child Protection Sector,

And so I am writing about Child abuse.

I am really grateful that I am doing the kind of work that is not only satisfying by itself, but also allows me to muse over topics as wide as sugar and child.

1. Very rarely we see a writer who only writes. Why ?

Loveleen: Simple. Writers don’t get paid enough. Although we do have a sizable section of readers in our country, it is not enough to make writing into a lurid profession.

Even in western countries, the kind of novelists who are professional writers are the ones who are churning out the easy to read, light hearted novels.

And I think the Indian writer’s psyche is much too complex to write in a simple style. We think too much, there is too much cultural variation in our country, and so not many books are available that could have a pan-Indian readership.

1. Your favorite books, authors are?

Actually, there is hardly any time to read, my head is always so full of ideas to write about. I recently read Kite Runner, Shantaram, and of course Vikram Seth is a good writer.

Interview with Swati Kaushal, author of ‘a girl like me’

Swati Kaushal’s Interview :

· Everywhere we turn, we hear people saying ‘talk to your children,’ etc, etc, and yet, it does not happen. Why do some of us find communication so difficult ?

I think communication takes time. As a mother who worked full time and now who works part/full time but from home, I really feel the extra time I have to
spend with my child is priceless. There are times when things come out when you are just spending time with your child, that he or she won’t reveal if you just
ask them: how was your day? You can’t schedule confidences in my experience.
I’m not advocating that women or men should give up work or something of that nature; just that it is important to create some time that you spend with your
kids that is theirs alone. And I think it’s particularly important as your child grows older and has more things to confront.

· What is your take on the phrase, ‘chick lit’. Do you classify yourself as a chick -lit author?
I have heard that phrase for long enough that now it does not bother me. I do think it creates an expectation of sassiness, attitude and frivolity though; (I mean ‘chick’ – who refers to themselves as a ‘chick?’) and I would hate to see A Girl Like me classified as chicklit; it is anything but.

· When you write, where do you write from? As a woman, as the protagonist, or as a storyteller?

A bit of all three, I’m sure. As a modern Indian woman, I feel there is enough richness of experience still untold and that is the territory I wish to share
with readers. I start my stories not with a plot but with a character who has the potential to become a person and I absolutely have to climb into her shoes,
think her thoughts, feel what she is feeling for her to become real to me, and, I hope, to my readers. At the same time a novel needs a plot and for things
need to happen, not only for the characters to develop but also to generate the momentum in the story. I feel that a badly told story can ruin the experience of
reading and so it is important to tell the story in the most interesting, dramatic and visual way possible. That is why I try to keep things moving
along and work so hard on pace.

· Some writers say that writing makes them think, it gives them a perspective. Why do you write?

Like I said, I write when I fall in love with a character; and when that character’s story can, in my opinion, give readers something new, or something they
can identify with, or something to think about.

· Do you / can you read your own novels for fun? How does writing change the experience of reading?

My God. I must have read and reread each chapter hundreds, if not thousands of times through the writing/editing process. But it is strangely difficult to pick up and read my book when it’s all done and printed. But writing definitely changes you as a reader. I find I have become much more critical, and conversely, much
more appreciative of the books I read.

· If you could be any other writer, who would you be?

Myself, just better! Seriously though, I have tremendous admiration for Ian McEwan, Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies just blew me away, and how I wish I
could write prose like Michael Ondaatje! Amongst women writers my favorites are Annie Dillard, Claire Messud and I really enjoyed Ann Brashares’ Sisterhood of the traveling pants.

World Without End

World Without End, Ken Follets new novel is a sequel to his previous masterpiece, Pillars of the Earth. Sequels, as such are usually disappointing. A good story is complete in itself. And it is a very rare storyteller who can extend the timeline of his characters out of a previous book with an intensity that is matched in the original.

Follet, therefore, does not pick up where Pillars ended. He lets two hundred years pass. And he opens the gates of the Kingsbridge city in the fourteenth century, on a cold day in November and introduces the reader to four kids.

One is Gwenda, daughter of a thief, a man who got his hand chopped off because he was caught stealing. Gwenda is terrified that she will received the same punishment, but she is more afraid of hunger and cold. Another is a girl called Caris, daughter of a rich trader. Caris’s mother is sick and at twelve years of age, Caris has inkling that when the monks bleed her mother, it is not doing her any good.

The boys are brothers, but very different in temperament. Ralph, the younger brother, is born to be a soldier. He has a knack of killing, and his first victim is Gwenda’s pet dog. Merthin, the elder, lacks the killer instinct, and hence is low on self esteem. His parents force him to become an apprentice of a carpenter and slowly the concepts of architecture unravel in his mind.

Other than Gwenda, all three are descendents of the Builder family’s of Pillars of the earth. In Pillars, the propelling factor was the building of the Cathedral. In this book, it is the transformation of thinking patterns from blind faith to experience and logic. The evolution of medical practice, a slow painful process augmented by repeated attacks of plague and an intelligent approach of research.

In any society, it is the heros who are worshipped that determine the flow of the tide. In medieval England, the Church and the Aristocracy dominated over the people ruthlessly, and people accepted them, blinded by the faith of fear and superstition. The monks were God’s men, and if they thought a sick person should be bled, nobody questioned them. If a nun said you must wash your hands after you touch a patient who has the plague, she was easily ignored because she was a woman.

The feminine was suppressed, by the practice of killing the so called witches. A rapist who is about to be hung receives a pardon because the king needs soldiers to fight in the war. An eighteen year old girl can be ‘sold’ by her father to an outlaw, by her father who needs the money to feed his other children. And this happens in broad daylight, and it is sanctified by a monk.

And so it is the times they are living in that is the villain of the story. A beautiful aspect about time is that it changes. Bad times become good by certain characteristics in our four characters. One is a basic intelligence, something that is not of much value when people are superstitious. One might say it is courage, and persistence which can bring fruits to an enquiry.

However, the fascinating aspect of this book is how the change in mindset is a result of the circumstances in the flow of narrative. In fact, this is the reason that literature is an easier way to study and appreciate history than text books. Because a book, specially a novel set in historical times, gives us the entire picture.

World Without End is an experience of living in medieval England, during exiting times.

The author takes you through all the different steps of hierarchy, from a peasant to an earl, from a builder to a nun. Their lives are woven into a compelling read.

This book is a reminder to us, to value the times we are living in. Our ancestors have paid a heavy price and gone through immense mental, emotional struggle for us to get a democratic life.

What I liked about the book:

The complexity of the characters make them very real. Caris, for example, is in love with Merthin but does not want to marry. She would rather attend the town’s meetings, write a book on how to deal with plague victims, and fight with the monks. Not because she is ambitious, but because she has a calling. A calling is something which fulfills itself.

What I did not like about the book:

The first part is rather slow. Maybe because as a sequel, it has to deal with the hangover of Pillars of the Earth. But it did not have to go into such long descriptions of the politics a monk plays to become a Prior. The author’s preference towards nuns as compared to monks is a bit too obvious.

However, going by the theme of the narrative, which was a rise of the smart woman, and the falling of the superstitious folk, this preference was necessary.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time

‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time’ is a novel written in the first person’s voice of a fourteen year old mentally challenged boy called Christopher. In fact, it is very apparent that mentally challenged is a very limited concept. We inadvertently relate this phrase to someone we might call stupid, or at best, a little lacking in the top department.

After reading this book, Christopher comes across as a different, interesting, intelligent and a very lovable boy. His parents probably wouldn’t agree, though, not with the third adjective. Christopher might be lovable, affectionate he is not. In fact, he has a solid mental block against being touched, even by his parents. Which means they can’t pick him up, comfort him when he is crying, and neither can they hug or kiss him. He lives in his own space, with a possessiveness that can be maddening. If anyone, including a police officer, so much as touches his arm, he yelps and hits the guy. Other than this, he is normal. He goes to a special needs school, where he performs brilliantly at Math. He has a keen interest in Astronomy, probably because the stars are too far to be touched, and he has a reasonable grasp of anything logical.

Which is why a dog murdered in the middle of the night is a mystery to be solved. If a murder has happened, there is a murderer at large and he needs to be found. It’s as simple as that. And if you are solving a murder mystery, might as well write a novel about it. However, it is wise to hide the manuscript from the murderer, or he /she will be forewarned and thus you might lose him.

The plot is expertly interwoven with the style. In fact, the book itself acquires a character inside the story, and it is a surprise that the authors name is not Christopher.

What I disliked about the book:

There is a certain hopelessness in the book, about the inability of a nuclear family to survive together if they have a ‘different, special needs child.’ For all the effort the society, or the Government puts into the matter, if the mother is lacking in her capacity to care for her child, if the marriage cannot withstand the pressure of dealing with the misfortune, the writer has no qualms about separating the family.

One wonders whether it is enough for a book to be real. With a story as beautifully written as this, a wholesome solution would have made it a classic.

What I liked about this book:

Mark Haddon puts you right inside the head of this very intelligent, but very strange boy. The beauty lies in the sheer transparence of the boy’s intentions. After every chapter, there is a chapter on prime numbers, or some such topic of interest to the academically inclined teenager. Christopher is passionate about the wonders of science and math, and this is what makes him come to life.

The characterizations of both Christopher and his father, their relationship, their love, are as touching as they are endearingly human.