So yet another year has passed, and while the pace of life has slowed
down a little there is much that has happened which I should like to record
here. Actually, I can repeat the second sentence of my review of last
year more or less word for word thus: [a]lthough this blog has not been updated
since the last entry of 24 February [yes as long as that], I have done a fair
amount of writing elsewhere – reviews, papers, articles and other stuff – but
for now let me start with
Books
Books
1) `The Underground Railroad` by Colson
Whitehead – ISBN 078-0-7088-9839-0 – h/b Fleet 2016 UK – © CW 2016 – 306 pp –
hard hitting and starkly revelatory but imaginary tale of Cora, a slave on a
cotton plantation in Georgia, who follows the eponymous escape lifeline for
slaves fleeing their harsh and inhuman fate from the American south across
hostile territory all the way to the north and Canada – the cruelties, the
punishments, the degradation and the sheer inhumanity of their very existence –
all this is so graphically described as to numb the reader`s sensibilities –
the narrative however is not linear, nor is the railroad of the title which is
a virtual construct of an escape route for fleeing slaves.
2) `Kind
of Blue: A Political Memoir` by Ken Clarke – isbn 978-1-5098-3719-9 –
Macmillan h/b – © KC 2016 – 498 pp – an independent minded liberal Tory
of the old one-nation school - a delightful read – written in
characteristically easy-going off-the-cuff style with self-deprecating humour
and unpretentious frankness – we get to know from the horse`s mouth, as it
were, exactly how his political commitment and career absorbed his adult life,
from his Cambridge days until more or less the present – he attended his first
Conservative Party conference in 1962 – his easy-going nature shaped his
politics – one thing of note: according to him David Cameron did not consult
the cabinet about holding the EU referendum. As he says (at p 477):
"My sense of political ease within the Cameron government never fully
survived the lurch into a referendum. But there were other problems, too,
including the declining level of collective responsibility with the
government. Little serious discussion was now taking place at the short
Cabinet meetings, which were sometimes taken up with ministers making
presentations on routine aspects of their departmental policy. Actual
decisions were being taken by the gang of four led by David Cameron and Nick
Clegg." He left the Cabinet in a reshuffle but on mutually good
terms, successfully fought the 2015 election at a time when his wife was
seriously ill, returned to Parliament for his final term - lots of glimpses
into how government works in the 21st century.
3) `Burmese
Days` by George Orwell – original © 1934 G Orwell – this Penguin edition
p/b reprinted 2009 with a new Introduction under isbn 978-0-141-18537-8 –
300 pp – Orwell`s cynical portrayal of the shenanigans of the colonial Brits in
Burma then part of the Indian Empire in the 1930s – the interactions between
the Brits and the native characters Dr Veraswami and U Po Kyin, the
sub-divisional magistrate at the remote station of Kyauktada, and indeed the
broader physical setting of the novel are reminiscent of E M Forster`s `A
Passage to India`- made enjoyable and pertinent reading during our Myanmar trip
– had to buy this from a bookseller in Yangon on the first day of our arrival
as I had left the book I had taken with me (`The Sympathizer` by Viet Thanh
Nguyen) on the plane at Dubai on our transit stop there! According to
Orwell (at p 296) “Mandalay is rather a disagreeable town – it is dusty and
intolerably hot, and it is said to have five main products all beginning with
P, namely pagodas, pariahs, pigs, priests and prostitutes” – well that may have
been then, but what we saw of Mandalay was impressive (pagodas and priests,
yes, but also many environmentally attractive features).
4) `An
Impressive God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America`
by Henry Wiencek – isbn 0-374-17526-8 – pub: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New
York – © HW 2003 – 404 pp – this was my `study` book during the SE Asian cruise
that followed our cultural tour of Myanmar – a fascinating biography by an
accomplished academic and writer whose depth and breadth of research was
evident all through the text and the detailed notes, references and index – GW
owned slaves, defended slavery and saw to it that it was enshrined in the US
Constitution, though in his will he set his slaves free, once his widow had
died – the book`s graphic accounts of how slavery was so intimately intertwined
with the lives and fortunes of the slave owners and how it gave rise to mixed
race relationships within respectable families pointed to only part of the
whole story – there is so much more in terms of factual detail – coming on top
of my reading of the Underground Railway and other literature and films such as
the ones mentioned below seen during this trip, the book made gripping
reading.
5) `The
Afghan` by Frederick Forsyth – a Corgi p/b 9780552155045 – © FF 2006 – 462
pp – a spy thriller in the post 9/11 world – a good holiday read.
6) `Nutshell`
by Ian McEwan – ISBN 9781911214335 – Jonathan Cape h/b – © IM 2016 – 199 pp – a
21 century McEwanish take on Hamlet – combining the poetry of a narrative by a foetus
– from within the confines of its embryonic casing – who is witness to the
unfolding drama of a conspiracy to the murder of its father by the mother and
his uncle who is her paramour – unconventional but readable!
7) `The
Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from My Life` by John le Carré – isbn
978-0-241-25755-5 - Viking h/b – © D Cornwell 2016 – 310 pp – a delightful and
kaleidoscopic journey through the author`s personal and literary life – he is
very forthright about the character of his father and his relationship with
him, warts (and a lot of them) and all, and not much warm about his mother
either, though he had lost touch with her for most of his childhood and only
came to know her as a mature adult – he is also frank about his professional
background and history – but all is told in an unassuming and disarming
way. I had booked to go to his appearance and presentation at the Royal
Festival Hall on September 7 (at £75 for the ticket) but then decided that this
book was a good enough substitute and so cancelled the booking.
8) `based
on a true story` by Delphine de Vigan (translated from the French by George
Miller) – isbn 978-1-4088-7880-4 – Eng lang © GM 2017 – bloomsbury h/b – 374 pp
– a pretentious plot – fictional author chasing and being stalked by her own
alter ego – the supposed mystery is wrapped up in a mass of introspective
narrative – a timewaster – lesson learnt: be wary of reviewers`
recommendations, most of which (like so much else) are targeted at people much
younger than oneself and easily impressionable, as in this very case!
9) `Black
Water` by Louise Doughty – isbn 978-0-571-27867-1 – Faber p/b – © LD 2016 –
360 pp – brilliant, gripping, mystery about the travails and trajectory of
`Nicolaas De Herder, born (during WWII) on the island of Sulawesi in the Dutch
East Indies, to a white Dutch mother and an Indo officer in the Dutch Colonial
Army` (p 154) who had undergone several changes of name but then been assigned
(and so assumed) the simple name of John Harper by his superiors at the `Institute`
(a coded description really of a cryptic intelligence organisation based in the
Netherlands) when he graduated from their training course to become a field
operative. He gets posted to Indonesia in the mid-1960s, where he could
`pass` as a native if needed be but otherwise remained a westerner, and lives
through the 1965 coup that brought Sukarno to power. He gets caught up in
the bloody purge of communists that followed. The plot thickens and we
are taken through both his past and present in a complicated series of
flashbacks and agonising detail about his personal and familial life through to
1998 when, after an absence of more than 30 years, he is sent back to Indonesia
to confront that year`s sequel to the 1965 revolution and when his professional
undoing that follows. Throughout, he is referred to as plain Harper - a really
great piece of literature, by an established author.
{Note:
reading this made me look up the case of Perez v Sharp, where the Supreme Court
of California decided, in 1948, that the state`s ban on interracial marriages
violated the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution. Andrea
Perez (a Mexican American
woman) and Sylvester Davis (an African American man) met while working in the
defense industry in Los Angeles.[2] Under the state of
California law, individuals of Mexican ancestry generally were classified as
white because of their Spanish
heritage. This was germane to Harper`s story – and see further down under
Special Note for more on the case, which has relevance to the film `Loving`
noted below under Films etc.}
10) `William
Wilberforce: The Life of the Great Anti-Slave Trade Campaigner` by William
Hague– isbn 13 978-0-00-722885-0 – HarperPress h/b – © WH 2007 – 515 + Notes
Bibliography Index = 582 pp – a fascinating, gripping, comprehensive biography,
narrated in the same easy-going style that we associate with Hague as an
effective and persuasive speaker and communicator – WW born … in the family
home on the High Street (in Hull) on 24 August 1759 (p 4); in May 1780, not yet
twenty-one, began canvassing in expectation of an election the next year – June
1780: the Gordon Riots … election followed … got elected and on 31 October 1780
… took his seat on the backbenches (p 36) … died Monday 29 July 1833 … The
Abolition of Slavery Bill was passed in August 1833; thus was his life-long
campaign accomplished at his death, after nearly 50 years of struggle - the
first breakthrough having been in the form of the Slave Trade Abolition 1807
Act.
11) `The
Mile End Murder: The Case Conan Doyle Couldn`t Solve` by Sinclair McKay –
isbn 978-1-78131643-6 (Autumn Press h/b) © 2017 Quarto Publishing – 312 pp –
fascinating reconstruction of the trial of James Mullins for the murder of Mrs
Mary Emsley, a wealthy widow aged 70 at her house in Grove Road in London`s
East End one August day in 1860, with the aid of the extensive coverage of the
case in The Times and other papers and related literature. We get
a huge insight into the make-up of the population, local culture and history of
the period. Very soon after the case was concluded, doubts were raised
about the conviction of Mullins, and forty years later Conan Doyle wrote about
it with his own take on the subject in `The Debatable Case of Mrs
Emsley`. The Times`s archives can be searched to verify the many
references to its reports from August to November of 1860 – key words: The
Stepney Murder, eg report of the proceedings of the preliminary hearing at the
Thames Police Court on 26 Sep 1860 in the following day`s paper, and of
Mullins`s execution on 19 Nov 1860 in the following day`s paper. This true life
setting was indeed Dickensian/Victorian – my favourite period of literary
history.
12) `Home
Fire` by Kamila Shamshie – isbn 978-1-4088-8677-9 (hb) – Bloomsbury –© KS
2017 – 260 pp – on contemporary theme of British Muslim youth
radicalisation in response to the spread of Islamophobia – a clever plot
involving a wealthy Muslim Brit (how he acquired his millions is not exactly
clear), a child of immigrant parents brought up in Bradford in humble
circumstances and in a traditional religious/cultural household who makes it
good in politics to become Home Secretary, along the way marrying an American heiress
from New England – somewhat incredible this – his son, a posh boy with a public
school/Oxbridge background who first meets a young postgraduate woman student,
a Muslim like himself from England, in Amherst though their romance never
materialises – back in England gets entangled with her sister and a complicated
scenario emerges – I got the book and had it autographed by the author at her
Tara Arts appearance in September (see below) during which she talked about her
deep underlying concern about the effect of citizenship deprivation laws aimed
at jihadist Muslim Britons.
13) `The
Fall Guy` by James Lasdun – isbn 9781910702833 – Jonathan Cape h/b – © JL
2017 – 266 pp – a clever 21st century mystery set in the upper crust
milieu of upstate New York – too much pretentious detail about the cooking
ability of the central character who meets his comeuppance in a thrilling
denouement – light reading during the extended Xmas season.
(Note:
am currently reading (1) `Emigrants: Why the English Sailed to the New World`
by James Evans and (2) A Legacy of Spies by John le Carre - more about them
next year!).
(Special note about the
significance of the case of Perez v Sharp extracted from
Wikipedia:
By its
decision in this case, the California Supreme Court became the first court of
the 20th century to hold that a state anti-miscegenation
law violates
the US Constitution.[6] It preceded Loving
v. Virginia, the
case in which the United
States Supreme Court invalidated all such state statutes, by 19 years, and antedated the
civil rights milestones such as Brown
v. Board of Education from which
Loving benefited. Indeed, in Loving, Chief Justice Warren cited Perez in footnote
5, and at least one scholar has discussed the extent to which Perez influenced
his opinion.[7]
Perez was much of the basis for the
California Supreme Court's 2008 decision In re
Marriage Cases (2008) 43 Cal. 4th 757, which declared that the California law
restricting marriage to be between a man and a woman to be unconstitutional [in
effect allowing same-sex marriages, RS].
Films,
Plays, Concerts etc
1) Sun 22
Jan – Odeon Epsom - `Lion` (Dir: Garth Davis – Aus – 2016 – Dev Patel,
Nicole Kidman, Sunny Pawar) R & K – Brilliant - 9/10
2) Thu 02
Feb – Odeon Epsom – NT LIVE: `Amadeus` - Lucian Msamati as Salieri in P
Shaffer`s play + Southbank Sinfonia - 9/10
3) Tue 07
Feb – ICA - `A Stitch of Life` (Dir: Yukiko Mishima – 2015 - Japanese
with Eng Sub) elegant, endearing, slow-paced – but then it seemed to lose
momentum with an inconclusive ending – part of the UK wide Japanese
Foundation Touring Film programme – 7/10
4) Tue 14
Feb – Curzon, W`don - `Denial` (dir: Mick Jackson; Screenplay: David
Hare; starring Rachel Weisz, Tom Wilkinson + others (based on Deborah
Lipstadt`s History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier)
absolutely superb; impressive background and legal scenes; the drama of the
court sequences was gripping; well-acted throughout with a perfect re-enactment
of the case - 9/10
5) Sun 19
Feb – Odeon Epsom - `Hidden Figures` (Dir: Theo Melfi; starring Taraji P
Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe, Kevin Costner)
absolutely brilliant – hidden history of the crucial role of black female
mathematicians in the US space programme of the 1950/60s revealed in an
unsensational manner with no overt sentimentality – superbly acted by all
- 9/10
6) During our various flights to and from Singapore and Yangon, saw the
following in-flight movies:
`Fences` (2016
- dir: Denzel Washington – starring DW and Viola Davis) - 7/10
`The Salesman` (2016 – dir: Asghar
Farhadi – starring Shahab Hosseini and
Taraneh Alidoosti (Persian
with English subtitles) - 7/10
`Loving` (2016 – dir: Jeff Nichols – starring
Joel Edgerton, Ruth Negga) – 8/10
`The Birth of a Nation` (2016 – dir: Nate
Parker – starring Nate Parker as Nat Turner – 8/10
`Queen of Katwe` (2016 - dir: Mira Nair –
starring David Oyelowo, Lupita Nyong`o) – 7/10
(Normally I do not list such movies or those seen on tv or dvd, but
these were all marked on my list for viewing in the cinema during these months
and the opportunity to see them in-flight was most welcome – I wrote about Loving
in detail in my AwaaZ column in issue 1/2017).
7) Fri 21 Apr – ICA - `I Am Not Your Negro` (dir: Raoul Peck,
France/USA 2016, 93 mins) – a powerful documentary on the life, literature and
activism of James Baldwin with historical footage of his
appearances/interviews/interactions etc – 8/10
8) Fri 05 May – NFT2 - `Crosscurrent` (dir: Yang Chao, China
2016, 116 mins, Mandarin with English subtitles), a cinematic voyage down the
Yangtze River, with reflections of the captain of a barge on his life and loves
– atmospheric – 7/10
9) Thu 11 May – Odeon Epsom – NT
Live : `Obsession` (dir: Ivo van Hove; starring Jude Law, Halina Reijn
etc) – superbly acted and with impressive stagecraft but towards the end the
play seemed to lose its marbles, as it were - 6/10
10) Fri 19 May – RFH – Ravi Shankar`s Sukanya The Opera (RPO,
Royal Opera, Curve, large cast) – simply superb - 9/10
11) Wed 31 May –
Chestnut Grove Academy SW12 - `Bedroom Farce` by Alan Ayckborn (A
Southside Players` presentation, dir: Julie Weston; well acted by Kanan
Barot as Delia) - 6/10
12) Sat 2 Jun – RFH –
Grand Opera Gala (The Great Choruses) Philharmonia Orchestra – cond Stefan
Beviar - 5/10
13) Fri 04 Aug - ICA - `Railway Sleepers` - dir. Sompot
Chidgasornpongse, Thailand 2017 - a fascinating documentary about a real
time train journey from the north to the south of Thailand – we learn the
history of the railway in Thailand going back to 1893 when the line in question
was inaugurated – more importantly we see the train in motion as it speeds
through its route, with real life footage of the passengers and all that goes
around them through different stages of the journey – young and old, men women
and children, how they interact, what they do, the condition of the carriages,
the seating and eating and sleeping and basically everything that people do on
board, with passing shots of the stops along the way and glimpses of the
country the train traverses and the stations and their immediate vicinity it
passes through (reminded me of the train journey from Chang Mai to Singapore
that we had done in 2009) - 7/10
14) Thu 07 Sep - NFT2 - `Hotel Salvation` - dir. Shubhashish
Bhutiani, India 2016 – (cast: Adil Hussain, Lalit Behl, Palomi Ghosh,
Geetanjali Kulkarni); The Guardian reviewer described it as “This beautifully
rendered Indian arthouse film (that) enacts a subtle family comedy-drama”, but
it is much more than that. It is a deeply philosophical exploration of an
ageing parent`s journey towards death that he wants to be in control of.
The social setting is a nuclear family of his son Rajiv, daughter-in-law Lata,
and their mischievously delightful daughter Sunita, all of whom are greatly
fond of him and reluctantly let him go to Varanasi to await his final departure
from this earth. The acting and the direction are simply superb.
Bhutiani is an incredible 26 year old, who had already won an award in New York
for his short film Kush in 2013, and now has won a Unesco award from the Venice
Film Festival for this movie and no doubt in line for many more - 9/10
15) Fri 06 Oct – NFT2 (LFF) - `Razzia` - dir. Nabil Ayouch –
France 2017 – subtitles – Moroccan setting – 4 narrative streams – a dedicated
young poetic teacher who is cruelly put down by the education authorities for
teaching in the Berber dialect instead of Arabic, the official national
language – he migrates to Casablanca – where fast forward to 2015 the rest of
the action takes place – repeated references to Casablanca the movie classic -
5/10
16) Mon 09 Oct -
Haymarket (LFF) `Lucky` - dir: John Carrol Lynch – USA 2017 - `Harry
Dean Stanton is Lucky` - so he is – and his last performance too!
Absolutely brilliant – superb performance by Stanton as Lucky who is defiantly
coming to terms with his age and the relentless march towards death - 9/10
17) Thu 12 Oct –
Embankment (LFF) `Sweet Country` - dir: Warwick Thornton – Aus
2017 – a stark Aussie Western – with the aboriginals as the `Indians` or, more
appropriately, like the negro slaves of the American wild west at the receiving
end of every kind of raw racism and brutality that was possible – we see the
scenes of violence against them with increasing horror – leaves one cold
9/10
(LFF = London Film
Festival – this year was able to see only three films; one I had to forgo,
despite having pre-booked, to attend Raila Odinga`s disappointing talk at
Chatham House – see below!).
18) Thu 02 Nov – RFH Concert
(Philharmonia Orch – cond: Karl-Heniz Steffens; Esther Yoo violin
– Beethoven Overture Egmont; Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto; Brahms Symphony No 4
- 8/10
19) Thu 16 Nov –
Odeon Epsom – NTLive screening of `Follies` - excellent musical –
thoroughly enjoyable – 8/10
20) Fri 24 Nov – NFT2
- `Body Double` (Dir: Brian De Palma) – USA 1984 – Craig Wasson; Melanie
Griffith - historical, thought would see it again after so many years! -
7/10
21) Sun 26 Nov –
Odeon Epsom - `Murder on the Orient
Express` - (Dir: Kenneth Branagh – himself + other celebs- USA 2017 – 5/10
22) Thu 21 Dec - ICA - `Prince of Nothingwood` -
(Dir: Sonial Kronlund) – the eponymous Prince is Salim Shaheen)
- this 85 minute documentary is about Afghanistan`s film industry
personified in Shaheen`s prodigious output of over 100 films produced in the
most inhospitable environment (social, political, physical) of the country
where everything is stacked against the art – the absence of women in the
public view is only one, though important, element of that - the French
producer/director follows Shaheen and his team as they persevere through all
kinds of odds and obstacles – the shining star is the charismatic Shaheen,
whose frank description of film-making in Afghanistan as `nothingwood`,
relative to Hollywood and Bollywood, is both damning and satirical – all in all
most enlightening and yet it leaves one with pessimism about the fate of
Aghanistan where modernity and enlightenment will remain beyond reach for a
long time - and yet one has to admire the likes of Shaheen and his team for
their bravery and persistence - 8/10
Lectures, Talks, Events etc
1) Thu 02
Feb - RSA - `The Age of Anger` - Pankaj Mishra (ch: Anthony Painter) - good
analysis; short on prognosis
2) Thu 09
Feb - RSA - `On Corruption` (Laurence Cockroft & Anne-Christine Wegener +
Matthew Taylor, ch)
3) Sun 09
Apr - Ickenham Village Hall – Gujarat Literary Academy event to mark 80thBirthday
of Vilas Dhanani
4) Sat 20
May - London Jaipur Lit Fest @ BL – attended 2 talks (The Dishonourable Company
& Migrant Words)
5) Tue 04
July - RFH Talk - Naomi Klein: No Is Not Enough (ch: Jude Kelly) – ok. predictable,
being on a book tour
6)
Fri 15 Sep - RFH Talk – Orhan Pamuk – (ch: ?) – talks too
much and too long without breaks – Good English
7) Thu 28
Sep - Tara Arts – Kamila Shamshi in conversation with Razia Iqbal – Re:
Home Fire - excellent
8) Tue 10
Oct - Emmanuel Centre SW1 – Salman Rushdie in conversation with Mark
Lawson - excellent
9) Fri 13
Oct – Chatham Hse - `Kenya`s Next Test: Democracy, Elections and
the Rule of Law` - Raila Odinga
10) Mon
16 Oct - RFH : Man Booker Prize Readings – (ch: Gemma?) – good but didn`t stay
on for the Q&A
Miscellany
This year again I have lost some dear friends, relations and
acquaintances - and that is going to go on. As for foreign travel, we did a
major trip to South East Asia - a wonderful tour of Myanmar, followed by a 12
day cruise from Singapore and back, up and down the coast of Vietnam, Cambodia,
Thailand touching at ports we had visited before a couple of times, but lovely
to visit again. Another cruise is
looming ahead, in the next four weeks, skirting the north west coast of Africa
through the Canaries and Morocco down to Madeira and back up via Portugal,
after which I have booked another exciting trip to the Far East - looking
forward to that.
The most important development however is my book project - a
collection of my selective writings. This has been keeping me busy and there is
much work still remaining to be done but I am hoping to have it published by
the end of 2018. I know it is a bit premature
to talk about it, but I have to give myself a deadline and an incentive to do
that, for otherwise inertia will triumph.
As things are, I am definitely slowing down, even though it may appear
otherwise from the above. I continue to write my regular columns on the AwaaZ magazine and to contribute to the IANL Journal, the A/O and other forums but I don`t think
I can keep up the same level of activity and output for the coming years. Well, we shall see.
Thank you and best
wishes for 2018.
RAMNIK
SHAH
(c) 2017
(c) 2017
Surrey,
England
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