Author: Rupi Kaur
Rupi Kaur has brought us a new genre of poetry. There are a few contemporary poets like her and they are referred to as Instapoet — a reference to the fact that they post their short pithy poems on social medium like Instagram.
I have very limited experience in free-verse poetry and am not even sure I could recognize it if isn’t for the formatting of left aligned lines. However, I have to say that Rupi strikes an emotional chord with her poetry. It comes across very authentic. I couldn’t help but feel that it was her personal struggle as an impressionable young woman growing up in Canada. Through her verse, I experienced the joy of falling in love and then the pain of a breakup. Rupi ends by emphasizing the virtue of healing, saying “you must want to spend the rest of your life with yourself first”.
Author: George Saunders
Just when I thought I'd seen it all, there’s another crazy writer's artifice that pops up from an unexpected corner. First let’s get a definition out of the way. Bardo is apparently a Tibetan word that refers to the intermediate state between death and re-incarnation.
Willie Lincoln, the third son of Abraham Lincoln died unexpectedly at the age of 11 from Typhoid. He was temporarily interred at the Oak Hill cemetery where apparently President Lincoln visited him a couple of times. Out of this little thread of story, George Sanders weaves a magical tale that is told by no less than 166 ghosts who are in the bardo. The beauty of this setting is that George is able to summon a huge cast of characters who must have been present during Lincoln’s time to provide us with a good rendering of what life must have been like then.
If this was set as a conventional novel, he would have had to create a whole lot of fictional settings to bring these 166 characters together. However, using his bardo trick, he is able to have them all at his beck and call. They are a varied bunch and do come from all walks of life. Since most of them have been plucked out of their lives, it is interesting to learn about how each of them died.
It seemed like some of them had been in the bardo for a long period of time. I couldn’t quite figure out what triggered their re-incarnation, but did see that it was punctuated by the “matterlightblooming” phenomenon. All of this serves as a backdrop for President Lincoln’s grieving over his loss and the influence of the varied cast of characters in the bardo have on him.
Author: Joshua Green
I resisted reading this book for a long time. I felt that I had already overdosed on the news and information related to Trump and the last thing I needed was to read a whole book on Trump and his Chief Evil Influencer, Steve Bannon.
Once I got down to reading a few pages, I quickly realized that the book was more about Steve Bannon than Trump. I learnt that the seeds for the Trump’s victory in 2016, were sown way back and the unifying theme of all these supporters were a hatred for Bill and Hillary Clinton. Apparently the Ken Starr investigation stoked all the flames of the Clinton-haters, but failed to deliver as Bill continued to remain President. Worse still, after he retired, his Foundation was very successful both in raising money and having an impact on the world.
David Bossie spent his lifetime trying to prove some of the scandals that swirled around the Clintons. When Trump enlisted Bossie to his campaign, he pulled in Steve Bannon and fellow Clinton hater. However, Steve was more than just that. He was a naval officer during Carter’s presidency and had seen the disastrous attempt to rescue the Iranian hostages from up close. When the Twin Towers were brought down by Islamic terrorists, he was convinced that the spread of Islam had to be stopped.
The book follows the twists and turns of Steve Bannon’s career and it is amazing to read about all of his exploits. He started out as a Naval Officer, but quickly figured out that it would take him a long time to wield any influence there. He made his way to Wall Street and made money at Goldman Sachs. He launched his own investment firm specializing in the media and made money off a bunch of shows including Seinfeld. He then got the opportunity to make movies and made a total of 18 movies. He founded the Government Accountability Institute (GAI) where he helped feed the media with all kinds of stories, most of which were aimed against the Clintons. In fact, he used the GAI to publicize Peter Schweizer’s book Clinton Cash, which documented the foreign donations to the Clinton Foundation, and some possible reasons into why they were made. It is during this time that he developed a relationship with the Mercers and Breitbart news. All of this is quite a journey for one individual and I couldn’t help but admire the drive and influence that Steve wields.
The book is well written and helped me understand all the supporting cast in the Trump victory. I quickly realized that Trump was a convenient front-man for the whole movement. What is interesting is to try and figure out how they will manipulate Trump, now that he is in the Oval Office. The book doesn’t quite go there, and I would love to see some speculation on that.
Author: Grame Macrae Burnet
This book is classified as historical fiction and is set in an Alsace town in France. It’s very clever in its setup and I don’t want to divulge too much here lest I spoil the surprise. I have to say that Graeme Macrae Burnet completely sucked me in and it’s only now, as I write this review that I realize the ploy. On reading several amazon reviews, I can see that many a reader is completely unaware of the duplicity.
The main story is a classic a thriller set in a sleepy old French Town, Saint Louis. It excels in painting the idiosyncrasies of the main character, Manfred Baumann who as a Bank employee, is as unexciting as ever. The plot meanders slowly between his youth and current times. The detective Georges Gorski is a Poirot-like character. Mr. Burnet moves the plot slowly along and the pleasure is not so much in uncovering the next moves, as it is in discovering the foibles of the characters and their friends and family. There’s always some sexual tension in the air to keep you riveted and eager to turn the page. You kind of guess the end, but are still eager to connect the dots and see how Burnet is going to lead you there.
It’s a quick and entertaining read.
