tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43140461063364683442024-03-13T22:40:55.300-04:00The Freudian CouchThe Freudian Couchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02846833382241285200noreply@blogger.comBlogger101125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314046106336468344.post-83297990455803281472023-01-03T22:36:00.002-05:002023-01-04T18:57:58.214-05:00My 2022 in books
We are already into the new year, but I did not want to give up on what has now become my little routine - a summary of all the books I read in the previous year. In 2021, I had written about momentous changes to my life that left me little time for reading. The impact of those very positive changes continued, so much so that my only aim going into 2022 was to just continue reading, regardless The Freudian Couchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02846833382241285200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314046106336468344.post-88796756581206173922022-07-26T22:09:00.003-04:002022-07-26T22:26:05.365-04:00Review of ain’t i a woman? black women and feminism by Bell HooksLess than a year after my arrival to the U.S.A, and soon after the inauguration of the country’s 45th President, hundreds of thousands of women decided to send a message to the new administration. In what was dubbed the “pussyhat” riots, women across the country marched wearing pink pussy-hats in an attempt to demonstrate solidarity against the President who had confessed on tape to The Freudian Couchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02846833382241285200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314046106336468344.post-72962073977390261402022-07-04T23:53:00.001-04:002022-07-04T23:53:22.333-04:00Review of Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange "It may not be nice to be good, little 6655321. It may be horrible to be good.. What does God want? Does God want goodness or the choice of goodness? Is a man who chooses the bad perhaps in some way better than a man who has the good imposed upon him?.. And yet, in a sense, in choosing to be deprived of an ability to make an ethical choice, you have in a sense really chosen the good. "I The Freudian Couchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02846833382241285200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314046106336468344.post-74792812017886869792022-05-26T15:00:00.000-04:002022-05-26T15:00:14.180-04:00Review of A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman “For the greatest fear of death is that it will pass us by. And leave us there alone.”Dealing with a subject that is charming and humorous on the surface, but layered with serious emotions underneath, is a tightrope walk. Only some creators manage to achieve success in such an endeavor. Markus Zusak's The Book Thief and Roberto Benigni's Life is Beautiful come to mind. Fredrik Backman The Freudian Couchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02846833382241285200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314046106336468344.post-20951755963022860152022-01-03T21:01:00.001-05:002022-01-03T21:01:51.337-05:00Review of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman "You can't eat the orange and throw the peel away--a man is not a piece of fruit!"– Willy Loman"He is not the finest character that ever lived. But he's a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid… A small man can be just as exhausted as a great man"–Linda LomanI did not want to begin my thoughts on the brilliant contemporary classical play The Death The Freudian Couchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02846833382241285200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314046106336468344.post-24973803800791928932021-12-30T23:16:00.003-05:002021-12-31T08:21:07.433-05:00My 2021 in books 2021 was a year of ennui. I discovered very late in the year that there is a medical condition that could potentially describe my state of mind through the year - languishing. 2021 is also a year marking a momentous change in my life, a change that could affect my reading choices for the next few years. Given the circumstances, I am happy to have read any book at all this year. I read The Freudian Couchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02846833382241285200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314046106336468344.post-45536643891416415442021-12-09T11:00:00.003-05:002021-12-09T16:11:31.377-05:00Review of Salman Rushdie's QuichotteHe said he was trying to write about impossible, obsessional love, father-son relationship, sibling quarrels, and yes, unforgivable things; about Indian immigrants, racism towards them, crooks among them; about cyber spies, science fictional and "real" realities, the death of the author, the end of the world.. incorporate elements of the periodic, and of satire and pastiche... And it's about The Freudian Couchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02846833382241285200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314046106336468344.post-43488909523575002702021-12-07T21:46:00.002-05:002021-12-08T08:29:20.477-05:00Review of Marjane Satrapi's PersepolisIt is hard to classify Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis. The medium is Bande_dessinée – a French precursor of what English readers would come to term as the graphic novel. But this is not a novel, it is a memoir of a teenager growing up in tumultuous times in Iran.
Marjane Satrapi’s narration starts during the Iranian revolution which ultimately led to the overthrow of Iran’s last Shah belonging to The Freudian Couchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02846833382241285200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314046106336468344.post-16599883050894015872021-12-05T23:05:00.002-05:002021-12-30T10:50:50.094-05:00Review of Pearl S.Buck's Kinfolk "It takes a certain kind of person to live in China now," Chen mused."What kind of person?", Mary asked.“Someone who can see true meanings, someone who does not only want the world better but believes it can be made better, and gets angry because it's not done, someone who is not willing to hide himself in one of the few good places left in the world-someone who is tough!”Pearl S.BuckThe Freudian Couchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02846833382241285200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314046106336468344.post-61534413167463917722021-12-04T12:35:00.003-05:002021-12-04T13:46:15.020-05:00Review of Nadine Gordimer's The House Gun A house gun. If it hadn't been there how could you defend yourself, in this city, against losing your hi-fi equipment, your television set and computer, your watch and rings, against being gagged, raped, knifed. If it hadn't been there the man on the sofa would not be under the ground of the city.Nadine Gordimer’s The House Gun begins with Harold and Claudia, an upper-middle class white The Freudian Couchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02846833382241285200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314046106336468344.post-7422279796458010482021-01-01T00:48:00.001-05:002021-01-01T00:49:00.672-05:00My 2020 in booksI have a link to my blog in my resume, which also smugly mentions "writing" as one of my hobbies. A recruiter took the effort to visit it and wrote a quick note to me about it ("Unfortunately we decided not to proceed with your application at this moment"), triggering memories of long, long ago. I took a quick look at the blog myself and realized that despite being constituted of one part The Freudian Couchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02846833382241285200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314046106336468344.post-85799833781241960942018-10-16T17:54:00.002-04:002018-10-16T17:54:46.224-04:00Join my wedding*
Hi there! Long time. How’ you been? I have been fine, thanks for asking. Well, wait! Actually, not so much. I have been avoiding people like plague. I have been frustrated about how things are turning out to be. To the collective us. I have been fighting an early onset of a midlife crisis. Mostly, I have been irritated by things I should ignore.
I learnt today that there is aThe Freudian Couchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02846833382241285200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314046106336468344.post-67399842587903767352017-12-28T14:58:00.000-05:002017-12-28T14:58:35.833-05:00Review of Roshani Sinha's Snippets
Snippets: Short Stories by Roshani Gash Sinha
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Note: The author of this book, Roshani Sinha, is a friend, and I had read a few of the stories from Snippets prior to its publication.
Snippets is an apt title for this wonderful collection of ten short stories, for they are just that - snippets from various lives at different stages of relationships. The Freudian Couchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02846833382241285200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314046106336468344.post-44617100224153705862017-09-02T11:30:00.000-04:002017-09-02T11:30:11.875-04:00Review of Sujatha Gidla's Ants Among Elephants : An Untouchable Family and the Making of Modern India
Ants Among Elephants: An Untouchable Family and the Making of Modern India by Sujatha Gidla
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
"Your life is your caste, your caste is your life."
Sujatha Gidla was born a Dalit-Christian - an untouchable. She had to move to a different country, the USA, to realize the unfairness of her life in India. Her opening lines in Ants Among Elephants are "My stories, my family's The Freudian Couchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02846833382241285200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314046106336468344.post-63118188626285989442017-08-12T23:39:00.000-04:002017-08-12T23:39:54.669-04:00The Prodigy
"Thalangu thaka thimi thalangu thaka thimi thakathari kitta thom…”
"Stop it!", shouted TVR sir, and waited for the percussionist Shree Haravahanan's Mridangam to stop. He allowed a couple of minutes silence and said,
"Darling, I asked you to use the complete stage!"
They were in classroom 28 of Rajaji Girls Primary school, whose principal had generously offered to host their practice sessions The Freudian Couchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02846833382241285200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314046106336468344.post-90484159498850952102017-07-29T11:47:00.000-04:002017-07-29T11:47:51.367-04:00Nithya
“ONE LITTLE KITTEN, TWO BIG CATS”, wrote Mala ma'am in big, bold letters on the blackboard, reading her words aloud. The letters curled towards the right, in contrast to the upright letters of the words “HONESTY IS THE BEST POLICY” written in bigger and bolder letters at the top of the blackboard. Rajaji Primary school was in its first post-lunch session on an unusually hot February day. The Freudian Couchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02846833382241285200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314046106336468344.post-3750590142767662422017-07-24T22:54:00.000-04:002017-07-24T23:07:49.738-04:00Review of Alan Moore's Watchmen
Watchmen by Alan Moore
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
"It doesn't require genius to see that America has problems that need tackling. An' it takes a moron to think that they are small enough for clowns like you to handle" - The Comedian
I recently came across this engaging Podcast conversation between the controversial author Sam Harris and history buff Dan Carlin. Among other things, Sam The Freudian Couchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02846833382241285200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314046106336468344.post-22941875480685788142017-06-28T18:23:00.001-04:002017-06-29T17:38:05.843-04:00Review: The Way of the Strangers: Encounters with the Islamic State
The Way of the Strangers: Encounters with the Islamic State by Graeme Wood
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), or the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS) has been continuously losing territory in Iraq and Syria, and there seems to be no doubt among experts that it will be comprehensively defeated in just a matter of time. There is even an The Freudian Couchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02846833382241285200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314046106336468344.post-35911512320548498772017-06-19T00:29:00.000-04:002017-06-19T10:51:28.848-04:00Review of Arundhathi Roy's The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
"We're jackals who feed on other people's happiness, we're Happiness Hunters."
In a thought provoking 1973 short story titled "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" (which you can read here), Ursula Le Guin describes the Utopian city of Omelas where there is no crime, no police, and enough resources to feed every The Freudian Couchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02846833382241285200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314046106336468344.post-20808098512286524862017-06-14T16:22:00.000-04:002017-06-14T16:24:23.367-04:00Review of R.K.Narayan's The Guide
The Guide by R.K. Narayan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
R.K.Narayan is the direction I would like to take in my own writing. Concise, clear and unobtrusive language that tells simple, timeless stories. In The Guide, we meet Raju who -- fresh from serving a two-year jail term -- is mistaken to be a wise and learned sadhu. This third person narrative interweaves with a first person narrative of Raju'sThe Freudian Couchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02846833382241285200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314046106336468344.post-46842411978096547342017-06-10T23:58:00.000-04:002017-06-10T23:58:36.869-04:00Review of Liu Cixin's The Three-Body Problem
The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
"It was impossible to expect a moral awakening from humankind, just like it was impossible for humans to lift off the earth by pulling up their own hair. To achieve moral awakening required a force outside human race."
Chinese science fiction author Liu Cixin's first book of the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy -- The Three-Body The Freudian Couchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02846833382241285200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314046106336468344.post-15923107099689603162017-05-29T22:09:00.000-04:002017-07-04T18:19:57.493-04:00Review of Virginia Woolf's Mrs.Dalloway
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
"Human beings have neither kindness, nor faith, nor charity beyond what serves to increase the pleasure of the moment."
There is a word that we usually do not associate with classics. Science-fiction? Sure. A thriller with a convoluted plot? Probably. A classic? Surely not. But then, Virginia Woolf's most famous classic, describing a The Freudian Couchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02846833382241285200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314046106336468344.post-34096739374146790032017-05-17T16:32:00.001-04:002017-05-17T16:32:47.282-04:00Review of Manu Joseph's Serious Men
Serious Men by Manu Joseph
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
"If you stare long enough at serious people they will begin to appear comical"
"Of all deformities, genius is the most useful"
If there is any doubt about the tone Manu Joseph's debut novel Serious Men would take, the book's opening lines -- "Ayyan Mani's thick black hair was combed sideways and parted by a careless broken line, like the The Freudian Couchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02846833382241285200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314046106336468344.post-47566435105338878132017-05-14T23:15:00.000-04:002017-05-14T23:28:36.758-04:00Review of Scott Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise
This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
"It was always the becoming he dreamed of, never the
being"
I picked Scott Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise from my local public library for two
reasons : I wanted to read a classic; and having moved to an area not far away
from Princeton, I was attracted by the blurb that indicated that a major part
of the story The Freudian Couchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02846833382241285200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314046106336468344.post-64092599546037186262017-04-27T21:38:00.000-04:002017-04-27T21:38:33.479-04:00Review of Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
"I think prime numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time thinking about them"
There are two possible reactions to Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time : people either love it, or people hate the fact The Freudian Couchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02846833382241285200noreply@blogger.com0