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Most of us read a lot more during the Covid-19 lockdowns than we did before. Had it not been for the pile of books I had bought but hadn’t got around to reading before the pandemic, I would have probably gone bat-shit crazy within a week of staying at home all day long. Getting lost in fictitious worlds was what kept many of us sane during such maddening times.

Though I read many good books during the lockdown, even tackling some that had been on my to-be-read list for years, there’s one I recently read that I wish I had gotten around to sooner: Emma Donoghue’s ‘The Pull of the Stars’.

This book, I believe, would have helped me make sense of the world I was suddenly thrust into and also given me some much-needed comfort. Although grim and heartbreaking, Donoghue’s 11th novel mimics present-day Covid crisis and makes you feel a little less alone and doomed.

The Pull of the Stars is a historical fiction based on the 1918 influenza-pandemic. Set in Dublin, at the beginning of the contagion, the story unfolds over three days in a Dublin hospital. It’s narrated by a nurse, Julia Powers, who is in charge of a maternity fever ward where expectant mothers who seem to have come down with an unfamiliar flu are quarantined together. Though the ward doesn’t get many patients, the women who do end up there are in the latter stages of their pregnancies. With hospital resources stretched thin and a deadly flu doing the rounds, Julia has to constantly deal with life-and-death situations.

There’s also Dr Kathleen Lynn and a young volunteer, Bridie Sweeney, who are fighting to save lives alongside Julia. The friendship that develops between these three women is also something Donoghue has chosen to focus on besides just how the world dealt with a crisis in those times. I especially loved that side of the story as it was a reminder of the fact that love blooms in the unlikeliest of places and that we are all trying to do the best we can.

I have read Donoghue’s internationally bestselling novel ‘Room’, inspired by the Josef Fritzl case where a girl was held captive and raped by her father for 24 years. It would be wrong to say I enjoyed it because the subject matter was so grotesque but Donoghue’s writing style is crisp and you completely fall for the story, hook, line, and sinker. In The Pull of the Stars too, Donoghue’s prose is visceral and you get the sense of urgency in the cramped, tiny ward where healthcare workers are fighting against all odds.

The story also shines light on how those who have been neglected by the society are often the ones who suffer the most, and that things are no different when there’s a health crisis.

There’s a section in the book where Dr Lynn criticizes the government for Dublin’s poverty and high infant mortality. Julia, however, says she doesn’t have time for politics to which Dr Lynn replies, “Oh, but everything’s politics, don’t you know?”

It is moments like these, and there are plenty of them, that make the book so relevant in today’s times.

I have recommended this book to friends only to be told they don’t want to read something that reminds them of a situation they are yet to get over. But The Pull of the Stars makes you realize what we are going through isn’t unique and thus makes it a little easier, in your head, to endure the rough times we are living through.

Fiction

The Pull of the Stars

Emma Donoghue

Published: 2020

Publisher: Picador

Language: English

Pages: 294, Paperback

Netflix’s algorithm works rather strangely, its ‘new releases’ section sometimes featuring films that have been released almost a year ago on the OTT. Also, I’m beginning to doubt the legitimacy of its ‘Trending now’ list which throws in random movies and series to get the audience to watch something they’d probably skip otherwise.

Anyway, Netflix recently threw a 2007 Indian film in my profile, a film I knew about but never watched as the name didn’t appeal to me. But when I finally did go through the film that had been on ‘my list’ for a few weeks “Manorama Six Feet Under” turned out to be the exact kind of movie for which I have Netflix installed.

Inspired by the controversial Roman Polanski 1974 neo-noir classic “Chinatown”, Manorama Six Feet Under is an Indian thriller co-written and directed by Navdeep Singh. Not a commercial success back then, the film turns out to have a cult following, with most critics giving it positive reviews. Released in 2007 when Bollywood was testing the waters for realistic films that broke industry stereotypes (“Swami,” “Khoya Khoya Chand”, “Dharm”), Manorama falls squarely in the list of experimental Bollywood productions that were ahead of their time and served to create benchmarks for the future.

Satyaveer Singh Randhawa (Abhay Deol) is an aspiring writer whose debut novel Manorama has failed miserably. Having been implicated and suspended on bribery charges, the desolate engineer is living a dull life in dry Lakhot in Rajasthan with his wife Nimmi (Gul Panag) and a young son.

Things change overnight when he gets a strange visitor at home—a middle-aged woman who identifies herself as Mrs. P. P. Rathore (Sarika), the wife of the local irrigation minister and former Maharaja P. P. Rathore (Kulbhushan Kharbanda). Mrs Rathore, who claims to be a fan of Satyaveer’s novel, requests him to spy on her husband, who she believes is having an affair.

Initially shocked at the strange request, Satyaveer reluctantly agrees to the woman’s plea in return for a decent sum of money. But in no time, the newly turned private detective finds himself in deep trouble. Satyaveer finds that the woman visiting him is not Mrs Rathore but Manorama, an activist who then suddenly dies by suicide, further complicating the plot for Satyaveer. Intrigued and intimidated at the same time, Satyaveer decides to find out the truth and gets in too deep in a series of mysteries.

Manorama is a slow burner. The events unfold at a grittily sluggish pace, but all that seems to be intentional. The writing and direction serve to divert audience attention from the fact that the film is based in a small and austere town in Rajasthan. The audience is too occupied following the central character of Satyaveer and his small successes and big failures.

This is where we also come to realize that Abhay Deol, as an actor, is criminally underrated in Bollywood. Maybe his belonging to Bollywood’s ‘macho men’ family created unwanted expectations that hindered his career. But he doesn’t lack talent and it is sad that the industry failed to make the best use of it. In Manorama, Deol is the driving force upon whom the whole film revolves. He plays Satyaveer with honesty and consistency throughout.

In a film that is evidently low-budget and doesn’t seem to invest much in creating appealing visuals, the cast, besides strong writing and direction, is the strength of Manorama. It also features the talented Vinay Pathak as Brijmohan, a cop and Satyaveer’s brother-in-law, and one of the early supporting roles played by the now famous Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Chhaila, a local goon.

Who should watch it?

If you haven’t watched Manorama Six Feet Under already, you have missed out on an important thriller movie. Even though the slow pace and length might not appeal to everyone, Manorama is not a film to missed by the lovers of suspense thrillers.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Genre: Crime, drama

Actors: Abhay Deol, Sarika, Vinay Pathak

Director: Navdeep Singh

Run time: 2h 17min

Historical fiction transports you to another time and place. But only a good writer will be able to evoke the senses so well that you feel like you are living in a different world. Jojo Moyes manages that with ‘The Giver of Stars’.

In the book’s acknowledgments section, Moyes says The Giver of Stars is a labor of love, and that writing it was an unusual joy. Reading it brought a kind of pure joy that I hadn’t felt since the first time I read ‘The Good Earth’ by Pearl S Buck.

Set in small-town 1930’s Kentucky, the book is based on the real-life Pack Horse Librarians of Kentucky, or the Horseback Librarian program as it was called then. The program delivered books as part of Eleanor Roosevelt’s traveling library and ran from 1935 to 1943, making books accessible to over 100,000 rural inhabitants.

Alice Wright, an Englishwoman, thinks marrying the handsome American Bennett Van Cleave will help her escape her suffocating life in England. She soon realizes that married life is not what she expected it to be. To make matters worse, there is her overpowering father-in-law interfering in everything. That’s when she comes across Roosevelt’s program to establish traveling libraries and volunteers for it.

Here, she meets the brave and independent Margery, who heads the initiative, and Beth, Izzy, Sophie and Kathleen, all headstrong women in their own rights. They each show Alice a side of life she has never seen. The women are all battling with their own issues and the program gives them a sense of purpose. It also helps them build better relationships with the townspeople as well as with each other, and to find some much-needed solace that way. Managing a library is also how they refuse to be brought down by men and how they think women need to be.

Despite the dangers of a challenging landscape and constant threats by men to stop prancing around in horses, the women are committed to delivering books to those who have never had books to read. By doing so, they manage to arm people with information they have never had. And that sometimes creates a lot of rift and tension that endangers the women’s lives as well.

I give this book five out of five stars. If I could, I would give it more. It has conflict, drama, purpose, friendship, and love; the story is tender, heartbreaking, funny, and reads like a thriller. Although a thick book, it will suck you right in and you will want to get to the end as quickly as possible.   

Fiction

The Giver of Stars

Jojo Moyes

Published: 2019

Publisher: Penguin Random House

Language: English

Pages: 437, Paperback

Most of our lives, we are defined by our relationship with others. We are children, lovers, spouse, parents, friends, etc. But what is left of us when those connections are lost? And do we value and nurture our relationships enough to ensure they withstand the test of time?

This is largely what Beth Morrey’s debut novel ‘Saving Missy’ forces us to confront. But it’s not a bleak book that is heavy on the heart. Saving Missy is actually a beautiful story about love, loss and how friendship can keep you afloat in the worst of times.

Missy Carmichael is 79, and life isn’t how she envisioned it would be at that age. She has no one to talk to in her large home and her footsteps echo and haunt her. The narrative jumps back and forth to when Missy was young. You read about her life with her husband, Leo, at different stages of their relationship. You also get to see the complicated relationship she shares with her son and daughter and how it got to that point.  

The book starts off slow and it takes a while for you to warm up to Missy and her new friends, Sylvie and Angela, and it all seems a little shallow initially. You can’t put a finger on what feels amiss but something does. Then it all clicks and picks up. You realize you have started caring for Missy and want Sylvie and Angela in your life too. Or, if you are lucky, you realize you already have a Sylvie or an Angela in your life.

Through Missy, you also get an insight into the lives of the elderly and how isolated and lonely they can get. It makes you want to spend a little more time with the elders in your family and not be in a rush to have a quick chat and leave.

One of my absolute favorite books is ‘A Man Called Ove’ by Swedish columnist, blogger, and writer Fredrik Backman. A story about a grumpy old man with uncompromising routines and rules, the book makes you laugh, makes you think, and, above all, makes you try and be a little more accepting of people and all their quirks. It is, for me, everything a good book should be and does everything fiction is supposed to. I feel it’s the most perfect book ever.

I was reminded of A Man Called Ove while reading Saving Missy. It might be unfair to compare the two because Backman and Morrey have completely different writing styles. But Missy feels like the female version of Ove. There are just so many similarities. They are both stubborn, lonely, and in denial about wanting love and affection. Both Ove and Missy are aging and feel like they are just meaninglessly passing time to get to life’s inevitable end someday.

I thought I fell in love Missy because I’ve always been in love with Ove. But when I finished and put the book down, I realized Missy took up considerable space of her own in my heart, for the person she is and the person she is willing to become for those she loves.

Fiction

Saving Missy

Beth Morrey

Published: 2020

Publisher: Harper Collins

Language: English

Pages: 372, Paperback