My review of 2011

As usual, here is a record of my activities during the year, as it draws to a close.

BOOKS

1) "Sister" by Rosamund Lupton - ISBN 978-0-7499-4201-4 - piatkus p/b – © RL 2010 - 375 pp

By an extraordinary coincidence, I began to read this just as the horrendous murder case of Jo Yeates hit the headlines around Xmas. (The investigation was still continuing around 10 January when I finished reading it. Then, after a number of false starts, the murderer was caught, tried and convicted before the year was out). It has a certain resonance with the plot of this novel - beautifully narrated, utterly captivating, with minute detail and an all-pervasive psychological undertone - and keeps the reader guessing even as the final denouement unfolds – a truly magnificent first novel by a promising author.

2) "House Rules" by Jodie Piccoult - ISBN 978 0 340 97908 2 - Hodder p/b – © JC 2010 - 603pp

A gripping plot, superb characterisation and hugely instructive about what it means to have a growing autistic teenager with the Asperger`s strain, a form of mental disorder. One is trans-ported into the complex world of the single parent struggling to bring him up together with a `normal` younger brother in all its minutiae of daily living and struggles, with the overarching crime scenario that engulfs them all. The legal technicalities of the trial are explained well but the ending does not somehow quite fit into that jigsaw. By that time, after nearly 600 pages, perhaps the author did not quite know how to wrap it all up?

3) "A Bend in the River" by V S Naipaul - no ISBN - first published by Andre Deutsch 1979 - Penguin p/b 1980 – © VSN 1979 - 287 pp

Re-reading this after so many years engendered a feeling of what I can only describe as acute melancholia - an ex-colonial`s lament at the advent of change, turned into a painful reminiscence, with an underlying sense of despair over loss and uncertainty. The plight of all those caught up in the moment does not even in retrospect warm the reader to them or to the situation. The mood of the period and the physical space inhabited by the characters are vividly captured and to that extent the book will always remain a source of historical reference. Found it hard to get through.

4) "The Outcast" by Sadie Jones - ISBN9780099513421 - Vintage p/b – © SJ 2007 - 441 pp

A dark, stark portrayal of a dysfunctional family within an apparently respectable social milieu of affluent Surrey in the 1950s - the depressingly overwhelming stench of macho-sadism typical of the English upper middle-class men and the helplessness of their women folk on account of their inferior gender status of that period is so pervasive and corrupting that in the end you lose empathy with the principal female characters, even those at the receiving end of physical abuse and cruelty (of which there is plenty, such as the ritual caning of teenage daughters as punishment for disobedience or other infractions, described in graphic detail).

5) "A Journey" by Tony Blair - ISBN 9780091925550 - Hutchinson h/b - © TB 2010 - 718 pp

This was my `train journey` book, finished over a period of some 6 months` commuting into London. Fascinating, revealing, instructive = in parts = not so much self-serving as a reasoned, if often smug, explanation and apologia for his `journey` across the minefield of British and international politics, even given his candid admission that he was always more interested in religion! It made interesting reading for the obvious reason that one could re-trace the various historical events and developments and reappraise them in the retrospect.

6) "When The World Calls: The Inside Story of the Peace Corps and Its First Fifty Years!" by Stanley Meisler – © S M 2011 - Beacon Press, Boston - ISBN 978-0-8070-5049-1 (h/b) - 272 pp

A pleasure to read, this history of the Peace Corps, with a detailed insight into its genesis and operation over the last 50 years, written by a personal friend whose voice resonated throughout.

7) "Solar" by Ian McEwan - ISBN 9780099549024 - Vintage Books p/b – © I M 2010 - 285 pp –
A disappointing read, too much narrative, too little directness in terms of characterization or dialogue; a tale of an ageing hero`s descent into moral and physical decrepitude – the pathos is reminiscent of Phillip Roth`s more recent writings.

8) "Histories of the Hanged: Britain`s Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire" by David Anderson - ISBN 0 297 84719 8 - h/b - www.orionbooks.co.uk – © DA 2005 - 406 pp

Re-reading this in the wake of the Mau Mau case heard at the High Court in April and other current and recent happenings in Kenya has been a cathartic exercise almost. We had known about the abuse and cruelties, the injustices and traumas associated with the great Emergency, but the book revealed and reminded the reader of them in their stark detail. The subject is bound to be revisited again when the ruling in the case is given sometime in 2012 .

9) "blueeyedboy" by Joanne Harris - A Black Swan Book 9780552773164 – © Frogspawn Ltd 2010 - p/b - 526 pp = rubbish boring!

10) "The Confession" by John Grisham - ISBN 9780099545798 - Arrow Bks p/b – © Belfry Holdings Inc 2010 - 456 pp = a disappointing read ... off-handish and irritating narrative ...

11) "The Slap" by Christos Tsiolkas - ISBN 978 1 84887 355 1 - Tusker Ross Press p/b – © CT 2008 - 483 pp - Winner of the Commonwealth Writers` Prize 2009 - a brilliant exposition of the social mores and minutiae of immigrant life in present day Australia, more specifically that of the Greek-Aussies in various stages of assimilation into the mainstream - the force of the narrative is relentless, the portrayal of the characters and of their everyday preoccupations is so realistic as to make the reader feel more like a participant than a critical observer but the end is disappointingly inconclusive - maybe leaving room for a sequel perhaps!

12) "River of Smoke" by Amitav Ghosh - ISBN 978-07195-6698-5 (h/b) - John Murray- © AG 2011 - 522 pp

This is the second in the so-called `Ibis` trilogy, and sequel to the first, `Sea of Poppies` - long and rambling, after the initial excitement of meeting up with the characters who had featured in the earlier novel, one was left with a constant craving to get back to their narrative, while navigating the tortuous histories and struggles of a whole new set of characters in China of the 1830s as a prelude to the Opium Wars, which no doubt will be covered in depth in the last of the trilogy. The reader is easily led to connect empathetically with Bahram Modi, the enterprising opium merchant outreaching from Bombay to Canton. The author has, once again, drawn on a rich list of documented material to present a fascinating picture of how the European and American merchants interacted with the Chinese and how their trade relations were destined to morph into an imperialist agenda. The period setting, the physical locations and the personal relationships, these are all explored in minute and at times boring, tiresome detail. As in the `Sea of Poppies`, the use of vernacular and obscure but no doubt contemporaneously correct spelling and terminology often jars, but it does lend a certain historical authenticity and the reader must just plod along.

13) “The Other Barack : The Bold and Reckless Life of President Obama`s Father” by Sally H Jacobs – ISBN 978-1-58648-793-5 (h/b) – © SHJ 2011 – PublicAffairs NY – 295 pp

A fascinating, riveting, frank and penetrating portrayal of Barack Obama Senior. A separate review which I had begun still remains unfinished, but the impetus for it has now waned in light of Jackson Lears` piece in the LRB (Vol 34, No 1) due out on 5Jan 2012.

14) “The Executor” by Jesse Kellerman – ISBN 978-0-7515-4029-1 – © JK 2010 – Sphere p/b – 482 pp = a gripping literary thriller.

15) “The Sense of an Ending” by Julian Barnes – ISBN 978024094153 – © JB 2011 – Jonathan Cape h/b – 150 pp = simply superb – can relate to both its theme and period – surely should win this year`s Booker Man prize? (That`s what I wrote at the time I made this entry soon after finishing the book, and a month or so later, Julian Barnes did win the Booker!!).

16) “Our Kind of Traitor” by John le Carre – ISBN 978-0-141-04916-8 – © D Cornwell 2010 – Penguin p/b – 388 pp = a disappointing holiday read – about the Russian mafia and MI5 – starts well but then fails to engage the reader and loses the plot, as it were. This was one of the two books I took on my holiday cruise and to that extent it did the trick.

17) “The Cat`s Table” by Michael Ondaatje – ISBN 9780224093613 (h/b) – © M O 2011 - Jonathan Cape London - 287 pp = about an 11 year old`s first voyage across from Ceylon to the UK in the early 1950s – an imaginative fictional recreation of the author`s own passage – poetically evocative and nuanced – with detail and atmosphere graphically recalled from a child`s perspective, richly spiced in retrospect in terms of time and space – my other holiday book.

As usual, this has been an eclectic collection, though once again I wish I could have chosen better. Early in December however I began my research and preparation for the paper (for the GSA Conference in Dubai in February) on Naipaul and Theroux. And so I am currently immersed in their literature about India and the Indians and in biographical or critical works about or by them. This means having to reread and reappraise such familiar works as `An Area of Darkness`, `India: A Million Mutinies`, `India: A Wounded Civilisation`, `The Mimic Men`, `Sir Vidia`s Shadow` and `The Great Railway Bazaar` plus a few others.

Reading has thus remained a compelling passion, to be engaged in mainly as a night-time bedside activity, except for research and writing book reviews etc.


FILMS, PLAYS, CONCERTS etc


1) Sat 1 Jan - Odeon KT1 - "The Way Back"

2) Sun 2 Jan - NFT Studio - "Winter`s Bone"

3) Sun 9 Jan - Odeon KT1 - "The King`s Speech"

simply brilliant - one was drawn into the plot, the characters & the history as it unfolded - not overdone in any way - superb acting and direction - surely an Oscar win? (That`s what I wrote immediately after seeing the film – and of course it did win the Oscar).

4) Sat 15 Jan - Epsom Church Concert (Franshawe`s `African Sanctus` + other items)

5) Sun 16 Jan - Odeon KT1 - "Conviction" – can`t remember now what this was about!

6) Sun 23 Jan - Odeon KT1 - "Black Swan" – simply superb, and this too won some Oscars!

7) Tue 01 Feb - RFH - Venezuelan Brass Ensemble - Mussorgsky`s `Pictures at an Exhibition` + music from `West Side Story` + 2 other items

8) Sun 20 Feb - Odeon KT1 - "True Grit" – Enjoyable remake of the old John Wayne movie

9) Sun 27 Feb - Odeon KT1 - "Never Let Me Go"

Beautifully done; it brought the book alive. I had always wondered how the book would be translated into film – it proved to be a moving portrayal of the relationship between the three principal characters.

10) Sun 06 Mar - ICA - "Confessions" (Kokuhaku)- Dir Tetsuya Nakashima, Japan 2010-
disappointing ... too stark and unyielding ... walked out 2/3rds way - a teacher whose daughter has been murdered by two of her teenage students controls the narrative, standing before her unruly class and laying out her reasons for the revenge, which is depicted graphically as the truth behind the tragedy is revealed as the film moves inexorably between numerous perspectives.

11) Fri 11 Mar - Odeon KT1 - "Fair Game" - Dir: Doug Liman (Naomi Watts as Valerie Plame & Sean Penn as Joe Wilson – the story of the betrayed CIA operative, exposed by vindictive superiors; informative and thought-provoking.

12) Fri 18 Mar - Odeon KT1 - "The Lincoln Lawyer` - Dir: Brad Furman - disappointing, poor, probably pilot of a failed tv series!

13) Fri 25 Mar - Sth Bnk: Purcell Rm - "ShivaNova & Yasmin Alibhai-Brown" = music and reading/talk – Y A-B is always a pleasure to listen to: here she was utterly frank about her background and passage through a critical phase of her life.

14) Sun 17 Apr --do-- "Soumik Datta`s Circle of Sound" - enjoyable fusion music entertainment

15) Tue 10 May – City of London School, Senior Summer Concert

16) Fri 1 July - V&A - "Rang Rasiya (Colours of Passion)" - Dir: Ketan Mehta - London Indian Film Festival season (Q&A with Director) - about the life, works and passions of radical artist Raja Ravi Varma (modern parallel with M F Husain), a bit overdone but ok

17) Sat 2 Jul - Odeon KT1 - "The Conspirator" - Dir: Robert Redford (James McAvoy, Robin Wright, Kevin Kline etc) - Recreation of the tale of an alleged conspirator who was tried and convicted together with her co-accused of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, with the grisly scene of their simultaneous public hangings – parallel with 9/11 as far as the absence or corruption of proper legal process was concerned -

18) Thu 7 Jul - NFT1 - "That Girl In Yellow Boots" - Dir: Anurag Kashyap - Kalki Koechlin, Naseeruddin Shah, Gulshan Divaya) - R – separately reviewed in blogspot

19) Sun 10 Jul - hmvCurzon Wimbledon - "A Separation" (Dir: Asghar Farhadi) - absolutely1st rate – even at the time I thought it would win some plaudits and awards; well it has, for its intimate and graphic depiction of the breakup of a modern middle-class Iranian couple`s marriage in present-day Tehran, under the glare of the complex legal and judicial process, with a stark look at the social and class tensions integral to the plot-line; the narrative moves on relentlessly with no concessions to the western audience`s sensibilities (and why should it) – one of the two or three best films seen during the year.

20) Wed 07 Sep - ICA - "Akunin (Villain)" - (Dir: Sang-il Lee - 139 mins) - good up to the point where the villain confesses guilt, then becomes too long and soul-searching tiresome and predictable.

21) Wed 14 Sep – Epsom P/h – “The Tree of Life” (Dir: Terence Mallick) - Disappointing – too long and repetitious –

22) Sun 18 Sep – Odeon KT1 – “Tinker Tailor Solider Spy” - Dense, atmospheric, one follows the complicated plot without quite grasping it, superb acting

23) Fri 23 Sep – Rose Th KT1 – “The Importance of Being Earnest” – wanted to see how this period and peculiarly Edwardian comedy of manners would appeal to 21st century audiences; seemed dated but minimally enjoyable nevertheless; also wanted to see what the Rose Theatre looked like, ok

24) Mon 24 Oct – NFT1 (LFF) 3.45 pm - `Medianeras` (Dir: Gustavo Taretto (2011) - excellent, enjoyable … about contemporary life Buenos Aires dominated by the internet and other means of modern of communication, more particularly about one man and woman whose lives intertwine with each other though they do not meet until right at the end (QA/with Director) - Argentinian – Spanish with English subtitles - *****

25) Thu 27 Oct – NFT1 (LFF) 3.45 pm – “A Simple Life” (Dir: Ann Hui) (2011)
a heart-warming tale of the relationship between the young master, a successful film director, of a well-to-do Hong Kong Chinese family settled abroad, and their domestic maid who has served them for 60 years; what happens when she is disabled by a stroke and how he takes charge of her care and welfare; the working of the old people`s home she is placed in is captured in minute detail, as are all relationships – a very moving film sure to be recognised by critics? – Mandarin with English subtitles – SUPERB - *****

26) Mon 07 Nov – Odeon KT1 - “Tosca” – ROH production relayed live on screen of Puccini`s opera = Angela Gheorghiu (Tosca), Jonas Kaufmann (Cavardossi) and Bryn Terfel (Scarpia). Conductor: Antonio Pappano, Music Director of the Royal Opera = Excellent, enjoyable

27) Fri 25 Nov – RFH – LPO Concert (Edwardo Portal, Cond; Craig Ogden, guitar) = incl Joaquin Rodrigo`s Concierto de Aranjuez for guitar & orchestra & Mussorgsky`s Pictures at an Exhibition orch Ravel)

28) Sat 17 Dec – QEH - `The Bollywood Trip`(Award-winning Danish director Rolf Heim collaborates with leading modern kathak choreographer and Southbank Centre Artist in Residence Gauri Sharma Tripathi. Music = composer Stephan Grabowski and band provide the musical score) – an entertaining mixture of dance, music and parody of `One Flew Over the Cuckoo`s Nest`involving a Bollywood star receiving treatment in a Danish psychiatric hospital - enjoyable but forgettable!


LECTURES, TALKS, EVENTS etc

Wed 12 Jan - RSA 1pm: `How the West Was Lost` - Dambisa Moyo - Ch: Hugo Dixon

Moyo argued that the western world has squandered its dominant position through flawed economic policies, and must fundamentally change its game-plan to compete with the emerging world. According to her, by forging closer ties with the emerging economies, rethinking trade barriers, overhauling their tax systems to encourage savings rather than ravenous consumption, and specifically addressing the three essential ingredients for growth (capital, labour and technology) it might yet still be possible for the West to firmly get back in the race.
Q&A badly handled

Thu 20 Jan - RSA 1 pm: `The Future of WikiLeaks` - Evgeny Morozov (`Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom`) Chair: Charlie Beckett

Wed 26 Jan - RSA 6pm: `What has become of the Mother of All Parliaments` - Stein Ringen (keynote) + Zac Goldsmith, Margaret Hodge, MPs & George Parker, FT with Fiona Booth of the Hansard Society, Chair)

Thu 27 Jan - UofL Senate Ho 5.30-7pm: `India`s Elite Africans` - Panel presentation - Prof J McLeod, Dr Fooeza Jasdanwalla & Dr Shihan de Silva – Q&A/

Thu 03 Feb - RSA 1 pm: `Five Lessons From India` - Patrick French - Ch: Amit Roy Q&A/

Thu 10 Feb - RSA 1 pm: `On Nations and Nationhood` - Shlomo Sand - Ch Rosemary Hollis

Tue 22 Feb - RSA 6 pm: BBC R 4 recording of `Four Thought`, Episode 4 of 6, Ahdaf Soueif - Q&A/

Wed 16 Mar - RSA 6 pm: `The Unfinished Global Revolution` - Mark Malloch Brown - Ch Sheena MacDonald - Q&A/

Thu 17 Mar - SOAS 5.30 pm: `From the Herero to the Mau Mau: Litigating Reparations Cases for Colonial Atrocity` – panel incl Prof David Anderson on the Mau Mau case - Q&A/

Mon 04 Apr - RSA 6 pm: `A Time for New Dreams` - Ben Okri (Ch: Claire Armistad) Q&A/

Mon 18 Apr - RSA 6 pm: `Constraining Consumption` - Chandran Nair (Ch: Sir Crispin Tickell) - Q&A/

Mon 16 May - QEH 7.45pm: Francis Fujiyama (ch: Anne Mclevoy)

Tue 24 May - QEH 7.45pm: Paul Theroux (ch: Anita ?, not v good) Q&A/

Thu 09 Sep - RSA 6 pm - Ten Years After (John Gray, Lisa Appignanesi, Sarfraz Manzoor, Mehdi Hassan + James Robbins, ch) Q&A/

Thu 15 Sep – RSA 1 pm – “DarkMarket: CyberThieves, CyberCops and You” – Misha Glenny (Ch: John Kampfner)

Tue 20 Sep – ILPA 7 pm – Talk by Clive Stafford Smith (Reprieve) - US Death Row – Q&A/

Wed 05 Oct – RFH 7 pm – President Jimmy Carter with Jon Snow

Mon 24 Oct – RSA 6.30 pm – “British Pakistanis and Pakistan: 21st century citizenship and diasporas” (panel incl Anatol Lieven)

Tue 13 Dec – RSA 1 pm – “Out of the Ashes: Britain after the riots” – David Lammy MP (Ch: Mathew Taylor, Chief Ex of the RSA)

Thu 15 Dec – RSA 1 pm: “2011 – The Year in Rhetoric” (Sam Leith; Ch: Philip Collins)

FOREIGN TRAVEL

This year we managed only one joint trip abroad (though my wife did do one on her own to Kenya in March) in October: a few days in the Lake Garda area of Italy followed by a week`s hugely enjoyable Mediterranean cruise on a Costa liner that took us to Ancona, Dubrovnik, Mykonos, Athens, Corfu, and back to Venice, at each of which stop we were able to look around or take excursions.

GENERAL

The main reason for not having travelled abroad more was that during this year we had to have a lot of long outstanding jobs done to our house, spread over the spring, summer and autumn months. We also hosted a major birthday celebration party, involving several months of preparation. So this year has been quite eventful and on the whole things have worked out pretty well.

Looking back and taking stock of everything that has happened during the past 12 months, as always it is amazing to reflect on how much has been accomplished or what one has lived through. On the literary front, I cannot now recall what had prompted me to pick up Naipaul`s `A Bend in the River`, but in retrospect perhaps it was that, reinforced by meeting and talking to my other favourite author, Paul Theroux, in May, that may have subconscious-ly led me to choose them as the subject of my paper for the forthcoming GSA Conference?
And to think that when I chose the topic and submitted my abstract, in October, I did not even know that the two of them had made up their long and bitter quarrel, which I only discovered when I started my research at the beginning of this month! As for books, the most worthy of mention were `The Other Obama`, `The Sense of An Ending`, `River of Smoke` and `The Slap`.

The most outstanding movies were undoubtedly `The King`s Speech`, `A Separation`, `A Simple Life`, `That Girl in Yellow Boots`, `Medianeras` and `Ras Rasiya`, in that order; the others, with the exception of one or two, were not that far behind either.

And as for talks etc, some of them seem so far back in time now! And yet it was less than a year ago that I had the pleasure of meeting and talking to Ahdaf Soueif, the Egyptian author, whom I have always admired and whose `Map of Love` I had reviewed on the GlobalEar forum more than 10 years ago! And to think that she had come hotfoot from Tahrir Square, in the wake of the Arab Spring that had swept across North Africa and the Middle East, to speak ex tempore about its significance! The next month, in March, it was the turn of Mark Malloch Brown to talk about the Unfinished Global Revolution. Then followed Francis Fuji-yama, Paul Theroux and Jimmy Carter. At Carter`s appearance in the Royal Festival Hall, I joined the queue at the end of his talk to put a question to him, but with six or seven others ahead of me, there simply wasn`t time and I had to abandon the attempt. I knew I had a perfect point to put to him: how did he feel about the mega-power of the US, which it does not shy from flaunting and using at its will and whim?

Anyway, this then was 2011 for me. Despite other, more mundane and time-consuming, pressures and preoccupations, I have tried to adhere to a well established pattern of activities, though I have now become a little more discerning and conscious of creeping limitations! My greatest regret has been that I have not been able to update this blog more regularly or to post more material from my archives. I hope I can do more of that in future. More immediately, I am worrying about how little time I have to prepare my paper for the GSA Conference. It`s an immense task and a huge challenge. I have set myself a deadline to start writing it in ten days` time. How will I do it? Watch this space.

Meanwhile, best wishes to all who may read this for a happy and peaceful 2012!

RAMNIK SHAH
© 2011
Surrey England