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 A problem with most works of literary fiction is that they tend to revolve around sad­ness more than joy. Authors seem to think that narratives that are tinged with despair rather than hope are what will get them critical acclaim and so they stick to that route. It’s a rare author who is able to perfectly juggle despair and hope and make the story relatable for everyone. Clare Fisher’s debut novel All the Good Things manages to strike that balance. The result is a tale as hope­ful as it is harrowing. Bethany Mitchell, 21, is in prison because she has done a ‘bad’ thing (we don’t find out what it is till the very end of the book). Her coun­selor, Erika, asks her to make a list of all the good things in her life. Beth thinks that is a retarded idea because she won’t be able to think of anything but upon Erika’s insistence she begins to comb through her memories. As you read the story, which is mostly narrated in sec­ond person and addressed to Beth’s child, you get the sense Beth causes sufferings wherever she goes and is thus fundamentally bad. But what is bad? And what circumstances cause a person to be so? The novel explores these questions. 

Beth’s birth mother’s repeated fail­ure to show up for scheduled meet­ings when she is in foster care makes for some heartbreaking memories early in the story. You see how she has been failed by the very people who were supposed to care for her. You understand that the absence of her mother and the love she never got have been responsible for her guilt and lack of self worth. You come to understand and love her, and even find similarities between her thoughts and your own.

As the narrative jumps from Beth’s past to her present, the language draws you into the story. Beth’s stark observations and insights make it easy for you to imagine yourself in her shoes. So much so that by the time you know what Beth has done to land in prison you know so much about her that you are willing to forgive her for her crime, no matter how heinous it may be.

A good book will have that effect on you. It will evoke consideration and empathy. This book tugs at your heartstrings because Fisher has crafted a flawed character that makes you realize that as humans we are capable of making mistakes but it is forgiveness, for yourself and those who have wronged you, that decides the course of your life.

The Polish art exhibi­tion at the Nepal Art Council, Babarmahal offers a novel experience for art lovers. The exhibit fea­tures polish art and includes posters made by the polish painter Lech Majewski. This art exhibition continues till August 30, and the posters can be viewed between 10:30 am and 5:30 pm in the first floor of the building.

“The contrast between the colors, and the abundance of words, are what makes the posters in this exhibi­tion unique,” says Kastuv Tuladhar, a visitor. “There is modern art vibe to these posters but unlike other pieces of modern art, they seem imbued with definite meaning,” says Man Raj Pandey, another visitor. There were similar positive responses from other visitors to the exhibition as well.

The posters span various fields, from a simple one showing a person slipping on a banana peel, to the more complex poster featuring eyes staring in different directions. This is an art exhibition you should not miss.

SHORT STORIES

Men without Women

Haruki Murakami

Published: August 2017

Publisher: Random House UK

Pages : 240 pages (hardcover)

Haruki Murakami, as the master of strangeness and surrealism, might more than occasionally leave us confused by blurring the lines between reality and dreams in his stories. But the seemingly connected tales in this recent collection of short stories, ‘Men Without Women’, Murakami’s first in more than a decade, feel a lot more developed and realistic compared to the surreal stories in Murakami’s 2006 collection ‘Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman’. In ‘Men Without Women’, as his characters try to grapple with the fact that they are alone, Murakami, for the first time, doesn’t roman­ticize the concept of being lonely. Instead, the stories are about love, loss, and pain—the very elements that are the driving forces of life. And though it feels un-Murakami like, it’s a refreshing change for those who have had a little too much of the writer’s obsessions with jazz, whiskey drinkers at bars, and van­ishing cats—though there are hints of these in ‘Men Without Women’ too.

Most of the middle-aged men in these seven tales, four of which have been previously published, have lost the women in their lives—to other men or death, and they are thus lonely.

This puts them in a situation Murakami terms ‘Men Without Women’. Though the stories are essentially about men and nar­rated by men, women hold an important place in each of the tales, even though they remain somewhat mysterious.

In the first story, an actor, whose wife has died, hires a young woman driver to take him to the theater and bring him back home. During the commute, he talks about how he was always faithful to his wife, even though she had many lovers. He even confesses that he took to meet­ing one of them at bars to talk about her and somehow get his revenge but, in the end, manages to rise above it.

There is another story where a housewife visits a man at his retire­ment home to bring his groceries and then they have sex, following which she tells him bizarre sto­ries. Then there is an unmarried 50-something plastic surgeon with a long list of girlfriends with whom he enjoys wine, conversation, and sex, ‘a discreet pleasure but never the goal’, until he falls hopelessly in love with one of them.

In yet another story, a man gets a call at one in the morning from the husband of a former girlfriend, whom he has not been in touch with for years, to tell him she has commit­ted suicide.

Studies say loneliness can be lethal. In ‘Men without Women’ it is said to be deep-seated like ‘a red wine stain on a pastel carpet’. And while that might be true, the varied ways in which the characters in the stories deal with it make you realize that, while loneliness is at the crux of our existence and there is no escaping it, we will all eventually find a way to embrace it.

APEX BUREAU : A fitting finale for the online Blackstar Guitar Com­petition was hosted on March 17 at the Shisha Terrace Café and Bar. The event saw both the con­testants and the panel of judges wowing the live audience with their skillful performances.

Organized by Guitar Shop in collaboration with Blackstar Amplifications, the online gui­tar competition had over 100 Nepali guitarists participating with their entry videos posted on Facebook every week. The four-week-long competition then selected a winner each week with the help of the panel of judges: renowned guitarists and instruc­tors Dev Lama, Manoj Kumar KC and Deepak Moktan.

The four winners—Ritesh Tamang, Gaurav Lama, Arun Philharmonic and Manoj Ruchel— received certificates of recogni­tion, as well as guitar accessories and Blackstar ID Core 10 ampli­fier, each, in prizes.

Melamchi project ‘Drinking Water Bina Magar has promised that the water from Melamchi Drinking Water Project will arrive in Kathmandu valley within the next four months.

She said this after visiting Melamchi municipality of the central Nepal district of Sindhupalchowk, the water-source. Since the final leg of the project, tunnel construc­tion, is also nearly complete, she said, there will be no more delays.

The project was started in 2009 and aims to bring 170 million liters of water a day into the parched valley. APEX BUREAU

King Gyanendra Shah appears concerned about the status of monarchy in the country, as he summoned the second tier leaders of the three parties that the Ras­triya Prajatantra Party (RPP) has split into for a discussion on the topic. The discussion took place at the Himalaya Tea Gar­den in the southeastern town of Damak. (All the three RPPs have as their majority the leaders who were backers of the monarch’s direct rule before the 1990 democratic change.) Taking part in the discussion on March 18 were Buddhiman Tamang, Bhaskar Bhadra and Prahlad Shah from the Kamal Thapa-led RPP; Rajaram Shrestha, Sagun Lawati and Suresh Acharya from the Pashupa­ti Shumsher Rana-led RPP (Democratic); and Taranath Luitel, Dr Sharada Acharya and Keshab Shrestha from the Prakash Chandra Lohani-led United RPP (Nationalist).

A participant informed that the ex-king expressed concern about how the par­ty’s split had undermined the issue of monarchy and repeatedly stressed unifica­tion. According to the partici­pant, the former king argued that the split not only under­mined the issues of monarchy and Hindu nation but also jeopardized the very exis­tence of RPP.

The discussion began with the former king inquiring about contemporary politics and election results. He asked why the party, which had performed relatively well in the second Constituent Assembly elections, had fared badly in last year’s polls. All the participants attributed the party’s poor performance to the split. They also blamed lack of resources and deviation among top leaders from core party principles—and they unanimously argued for party unification.

“Don’t delay unification,” the source quoted Shah as say­ing. “I will help find resources.” The former king remarked that citizens were disillusioned with the current state of politics in the country and that addressing the disillusion­ment would require leaders to go to the public with the twin agenda of monarchy and Hindu nation.

 NON-FICTION

The Perils of Being Moderately Famous

Soha Ali Khan

Published: December 12, 2017

Publisher: Penguin India

Pages : 256 (paperback)

It seems every Bollywood actor, at one point of time, sees the need to come out with a book—on their spectacular flashbulb-lit lives, how they beat the odds for a comeback, or even a diet book, if nothing else. But Soha Ali Khan’s debut book ‘The Perils of Being Moderately Famous’, a collection of personal essays, doesn’t feel like an actor, one who belongs to such an illustrious family for that matter, boasting and bragging about life and its luxuries. Instead, as she recounts what it was like growing up as the daughter of Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi and Sharmila Tagore, and being Saif Ali Khan’s sister, and Kareena Kapoor’s sister-in-law, Soha, with her wit and self-deprecating humor, narrates things so refreshingly that it makes her relatable, despite her star status. The book feels like a one- on-one conversation with the writer.

As a part of some notable and some forgettable films, Soha is what you could call ‘moderately famous’. But as Asian Age rightly noted, “Star­dom may have gone to the brother but grace seems to be a legacy received by Soha”, and it’s the grace with which she has penned her book that makes it such a delightful read. This is one memoir that’s not in your face, heavy with ‘brutal honesty’ and ‘frankness’ that feel forced.

She’s not trying to get you to like her or think well about her through her writing. She’s simply telling you her story. The ease with which she talks about those one off date nights and serious affairs and then her college life and foray into acting makes you wish the chapters were a bit longer. Life could definitely use a little bit more of her wit and insight.

And while she makes you laugh time and again, there are also moments in the book that are stir­ring and get you thinking. Bits where she talks about her father and her relationship with him as well as the pain of losing a parent whom she loves and respects in equal measure make you take a moment to remem­ber all the people and things you hold dear in your life.

What’s also remarkable about the book is that nothing feels over the top and there have been no attempts to sensationalize things. That is not Soha’s style. She is all about keeping it simple, humorous, and classy as she shares her personal expe­riences with warmth and a lot of integrity while offering some nev­er-seen-before images of her family, childhood, and her daughter Inaaya. Reading ‘The Perils of Being Moder­ately Famous’ affirms the fact that experiences are universal and that you don’t have to be famous, even moderately so, to enjoy the little things in life and be grateful for what you have.

The world of advice is a crowded space. Everyone has an opinion about everything and every­body seems to know what’s best for you. And a quick look down the self-help aisle at your local bookstore proves that for every problem you have many people out there have ‘just the right’ solution. But if there is one person you would enjoy lis­tening to, then it’s probably Mark Manson. He doesn’t just tell you how to live a good life by identifying what’s important and what’s not, but is so brutally honest about his own problems that being able to relate takes away half your worries.Now, while not giving a fuck may seem simple on the surface, it’s a whole new bag of burritos under the hood. I don’t even know what that sen­tence means, but I don’t give a fuck. A bag of burritos sounds awesome, so let’s just go with it.

This is just an example of the kind of lines Manson’s not-so-subtle book on letting go of everything that’s not important in your life is filled with. And that’s what makes reading the book such a delightful experience. But despite the profanity, The Sub­tle Art of Not Giving a F*ck is actu­ally incredibly inspiring and deeply philosophical. Add to that the fact that Manson has a wicked sense of humor and you have a self-help book that feels like a heart-to-heart conversation with a friend where you are forced to reexamine what you really care about in life.

Manson argues that life is essen­tially an endless series of problems and the solution to one problem is merely the creation of another. He says life sucks for those who con­stantly try to get away from prob­lems. So, he suggests, instead of trying to find out how you can get rid of your problems, you just have to find problems that excite you, and those for which you are willing to make some sacrifices.

The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck could very well be the reality check you needed about confront­ing your problems, fears, and expec­tations, and learning when not to give a f*ck about them. Because, if Manson is to be believed, caring less about things is the only way to lead a good life. APEX BUREAU