Bhawana Somaaya

A few months ago I met a friend for coffee and she suggested that we gather like minded people and start a book club. It was not difficult, we spoke to our friends and within no time we had put together a group of enthusiasts. We would decide a book that all of us would read and agreed to meet for discussion the following month over a weekend. We take turns in playing the hostess and in reviewing the book. The evening begins with snacks and small talks after which we get down to serious business. Every body gets a chance to speak their mind on the plot and the characters. Some of us sometimes hate the book and some of us sometimes hate the characters still we adhere to our commitment and seriously read and make notes.

We started with The Last Lecture, a lot of us found it too heavy and dragging in parts, then Zoya Factor-I felt it was too flighty and disapproved of the excess use of Hinglish even though it is an accepted form of language today. I had problems with the message of the book because however inadvertently it supports superstition. It was an ordeal to complete the book and I seriously suggested that members consider reading separate books and share the experiences at the meeting.

Everybody disagreed and confirmed Disgrace for the next meeting and I was assigned the task of the review. I first watched the film, then read the book and finally researched details of the author background. Presenting all three:

Disgrace the film
Like most books turned into films this one too pales in comparison but still manages to capture the stillness and the sadness of the prevailing circumstances. To be fair the husband-wife team of director Steve Jacobs and screenwriter Anna-Maria Monticelli are faithful to the narrative. John Malcovich portrays David as a character who is not merely the sacrificial white lamb of black revenge. Haines as Lucy incarnates the spirit of white reconciliation in the new South Africa.

If the writer scores with his intricate descriptions in the book, the cinematographer more than makes up with his picturesque frames of the city and the countryside. The book is more layered and comprehensive, the film leaves a lot unsaid but is still an impelling watch of a South Africa in transition and the shift of power.

Book Review
Disgrace is Nobel Laureate Coetzee’s first book to deal explicitly with post-apartheid South Africa.

What makes the book interesting is the contrast between the urban life of an older-generation white male in Cape Town and the rural life where suffering, death and brutality are daily occurrences. The book epitomizes South Africa today and comments on gender and racial discrimination.

It tells the story of an English professor David Lurie, who seduces a confused interracial student. On the surface it seems like a story about his relationships with women, but in fact Disgrace is a story about what these relationships reveal about the man.

The opening sentence of the book describes Lurie as 52, divorced and somebody who has solved the problem of sex rather well. Lurie obtains satisfaction from weekly visits to the same prostitute, a woman he knows as Soraya, but it’s an arrangement that soon falls apart. Just another whore will not do for him, so he seduces a reluctant student, Melanie Isaacs. It is an awkward relationship as Melanie appears unsure of what she wants. She is unequipped to deal with the professor’s advances and not entirely adverse to the flattering attention but she is a reluctant participant, as was Soraya.

Lurie fails to judge the parameters of the permissible in a relationship probably because all he only knows to ask rather demand sex, even though what he really craves from the relationships is compassion. He is a man of extreme logic and confidence and when charged with sexual harassment chooses not to defend himself. He pleads guilty but expresses no remorse. Lurie forces them to impose the harshest punishment on him and, leaves the university in utter disgrace.

Lurie visits his daughter Lucy, who has a plot of land in the countryside and lives by selling flowers at a local market and boarding dogs. Like Lurie she has not been successful in relationships. Her lover Helen has moved out, leaving her all alone. She has a turbulent relationship with her father but the two come closer when three hoodlums attack their home and rape Lucy. The violation is not about sex but subjection and subjugation. She chooses not to admit to the police that she was raped for she has little faith in the system as she explains to Lurie, “What happened to me is a purely private matter. In another time, in another place it might be held to be a public matter. But in this place, at this time, it is not. It is my business, mine alone.”
Disgrace is a book about South Africa, the race, history and politics. Lurie and his daughter are white, their attackers black. The situation becomes complex because Lucy has a black hand, Petrus, who asserts his independence. Power shifts throughout the novel, steadily from Lucy to Petrus when we discover that the oppressor is a relative of his, a disturbed boy who later moves in as Lucy’s neighbour.

The book reflects little patience or respect for authorities or procedures. The police inform they have located Lurie’s stolen truck, so Lurie drives to the Vehicle Theft Unit and is shown a car that’s obviously not his. To add injury to insult, the culprits caught with the stolen vehicle are released on bail. When Lurie returns to Cape Town, he discovers his home ransacked but he doesn’t bother calling the police for he knows it is futile.

All the characters live in a world uncomfortably in transition. Aging Lurie, who can now expect no better than to bed the woman who puts animals to sleep feels sorry for himself when he says, “Let me not forget this day…After the sweet young flesh of Melanie Isaacs, this is what I have come to. This is what I will have to get used to, this and even less’

Lucy’s situation becomes more precarious, but she won’t accept Lurie’s offers of escape. He’s willing to send her to Holland, but she’s not ready to abandon her small piece of land and what life she has here, despite the compromises she will have to make. She has not gotten over the rape, but is determined to become a good mother and a good person.

David Lurie who has been a failure in love all his life chooses to for once support a woman in his life, his daughter. It is evident that he is changing too. On the last page of the book, David helps a dog into nothingness. The blankness ascribed by the colonial regimes to the land and cultures of Africa is now inverted, absorbed by an individual who is an ancestor of those regimes. It is a profoundly moving ending, and its emotional power is all the more impressive for being attached to a protagonist who has, until that point, seldom evoked empathy from the reader.

The father and daughter are strong-willed but misguided, unwilling to do the obvious or simple. When Lurie in search of peace, submits his dog to the boarder and confirms “Yes, I am giving him up” we are allowed a catharsis—a catharsis of the protagonist and his disgrace, a catharsis that signals a difficult future, but an end to suffering and oppression. We are left with no illusion that the rest of David’s life will be comfortable or easy, but we are given a way to envision a dignity within it.

Coetzee’s writing is powerful and compelling though not always a productive read. The voices (there is a lot of dialogue) and descriptions sharp and true. The book moves forward somewhat uncertainly, but this mirrors the hero’s current mind frame. The author does not impose an easy resolution, and the uncertainty is a part of the attraction. Disgrace is a troubling work, of troubled people in troubled times that are ill-equipped and unwilling to face the new realities of post-apartheid South Africa.

The Booker Prize
Coetzee won the 1999 Booker Prize for this novel, a chronicle of one man’s passion and abuse. The book offers no solutions for post-apartheid South African white men who build security fences or for solitary women who are brutalized. It is the story of David Lurie who falls from grace time and again. It is a story of self-redemption and optimism that if David who represents the upper educated class of old South Africa—can find meaning in life again, then perhaps, the disgrace of apartheid can evolve into something better as well.

About the author
JMCoetzee was born in Cape Town, South Africa on 9 February 1940 to Afrikener parents. His father was an occasional lawyer, government employee and a sheep farmer, and his mother a schoolteacher. The family spoke English at home, but Coetzee spoke Afrikaans with other relatives. The family was descended from early Dutch settlers dating to the 17th century.
Coetzee spent most of his early life in Cape Town as recounted in his fictionalized memoir, Boyhood (1997). The family moved to Worcester when Coetzee was eight after his father lost his government job due to disagreements over the state’s apartheid policy. He attended St. Joseph’s College, a Catholic school in the Cape Town and later studied mathematics and English at the University of Cape Town, receiving his Bachelor of Arts with Honours in English in 1960 and his Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Mathematics in 1961.

He is known as reclusive and avoids publicity to an extent that he did not collect either of his two Booker Prizes in person. Author Rian Malan has remarked Coetzee is a man of monkish discipline and dedication. He does not drink, smoke or eat meat and cycles long distance daily to keep fit. He spends an hour at his writing-desk every morning, seven days a week. A colleague who has worked with him for more than a decade claims to have seen him laugh just once. An acquaintance has attended several dinner parties where Coetzee has not uttered a single word all through the evening.

He migrated to Australia unable to accept the lawlessness in his land of birth and is now a bonafide citizen of it.

Bhawana Somaaya
www.bhawanasomaaya.com

Hindi cinema is going through a wonderful phase. In the same month we have a costume drama- Veer, a rural raunchy love story- Ishqiya, a patriotic Road to Sangam, a historical – Raja Harishchandra chi Factory and Rann – an expose on the media. While Veer has attracted the single screens, Ishqiya and Rann have favoured the multiplexes. Road to Sangam has traveled all the festivals and Harishchandra… is on Dadasaheb Phalke and India’s entry to the Oscars this year.

Some of these got into controversies. Ram Gopal Varma particularly has a penchant for courting trouble. Ten days before the release of Rann, a freelance journalist dragged the filmmaker to the Bombay High Court alleging that the film was based on her script Break Ke Baad. Instead of jeopardizing the release the producers saw wisdom in settling the copyright infringement dispute but Verma is not happy with the decision. He feels that these days, writers think it is fashionable to defame filmmakers to popularize their books.

After Chetan Bhagat fighting over his credit for 3 Idiots this is another case of a writer suing a filmmaker. Anil Sharma, director of Veer, agrees with Verma because he along with producer Vijay Galani and actor-writer Salman Khan have been sued for a dialogue apparently borrowed from a book by a Gurgaon-based writer. Pavan Chaudhary has filed a case in Delhi High Court claiming that a line in the film describing India is lifted from his book Safalta ki Triveni: Chanakya ka Rajnitik Gyan. If Chetan Bhagat was paid Rs 10 lakhs as bonus for the success of 3 Idiots and Sonal Mehta has been paid a hefty sum to keep her mouth shut by producer of Rann, Chaudhary has claimed Rs 20 lakh in damages from the producer of Veer. Anjum Rajabali who has been crusading writers battles with filmmakers states that it is time to define transparency in contracts.

Sometimes technology is a curse and director Sudhir Mishra realised this recently. His forthcoming film Tera Kya Hoga Johnny is yet to be released but a rough cut of the movie has been leaked on video sharing website You Tube. The film starring Neil Nitin Mukesh & Soha Ali Khan was premiered at the London International Film Festival in October last year and slated to release mid 2010. Manu Kumaran, CEO Medient Corp has filed a complaint with the cyber crime cell and also at Juhu police station.

Some how tempers have been rising all over particularly in Jodhpur. The Bishnoi community and wildlife activists are agitated over the Padma Shri conferred on actor Saif Ali Khan, an accused, along with Salman Khan, in the killing of a black buck. Terming it as an insult to the award, activists of Community for Wildlife and Rural Development and Bishnoi Tiger Vanyajeev Evam Paryavaran Sansthan said they would protest to the President and the PM against the decision.

History has a way of repeating itself. A few years ago three filmmakers were working on Bhagat Singh and this time the greatest hero of the Chittagong Uprising, Surjya Sen better known as Masterda, is the subject of two forthcoming films. Ashutosh Gowariker is making Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey with Abhishek Bachchan and Shonali Bose has signed Manoj Bajpai to essay the role of the revolutionary. While Gowariker is shooting in Goa, Bose is shooting in Northern West Bengal. Let us hope that unlike Bhagat Singh’s Surjya Sen’s do not get into media battles and controversies.

South star Khushboo must have never imagined that an interview on pre-marital sex and virginity given to a magazine would turn into her worst nightmare. It is four years since she made the over publicized comment that “No educated people will insist that their bride be a virgin” but the statement continues to hound her. She came under adverse light in the Supreme Court when the translated version of the interview in a Tamil newspaper created furore and 23 cases were filed against the actress all over the country. Every time the old files open up, the festered wounds resurface. Grapevine has it that Khushboo’s husband plans to make a film on the episode and reveal their side of the story.

Most of the time, films imitate reality but sometimes reality imitates films as well. In Chak de, a charismatic mentor helps the Indian female hockey players to overcome the adversities and accomplish the World Championship. In a case of real life imitating reel and without the presence of a Shah Rukh – female hockey players have come together to make their case public. The women players have decided to openly fight the gender prejudices against the association and opened a joint bank account in Bhopal seeking monetary contributions from the public to help players in distress. Shah Rukh Khan are you reading this? If you are, then you should be sending the first cheque.

Bhawana Somaaya
blog.bhawanasomaaya.com

This week’s post is dedicated to two books. The first I enjoyed reading and the second for I can never say no to a debut author.

Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende is the tale of a young Chilean woman’s search for love during California’s Gold Rush days. Like other stories set in a time and place peopled by the likes of Mark Twain, the adventures of Eliza Sommers sometimes veer toward the tall tale. The writer makes us believe that even the most outlandish coincidences and crossing of paths might really be possible. The story is told by a narrator who knows how things are going to turn out and tantalizingly hints at events to come.

Following the pattern of the women in her family who “were always deranged by their first love,” Eliza, at 16, is pregnant by a secret lover who has gone to California to strike it rich. Fearful of the fate that awaits her if she reveals her conditions to Rose and Jeremy, she stows away on a ship for San Francisco, vowing to find her beloved. True to its billing as a historical novel the book provides readers not only with romance but also a good many facts about a place where “gold had attracted a quarter of a million immigrants in four years’ time.

There are plenty of surprises. In addition to the question of what has become of Eliza’s lover, there’s the puzzle of Eliza’s parentage and the mystery of Rose’s shadowy past and her source of money. After finishing the book, readers might like to believe in spirits.
Many of Allende’s books are noted for their feminine perspective, dramatic qualities of romance and struggles, and the magic realism genre often found in Latin American literature. Her female characters survive hardships—imprisonments, starvation, the loss of loved ones—but never lose their spirit or ability to love others.

In 1998, at the age of 45, she met her current husband, American lawyer William Gordon, in Northern California. Despite the happiness of a love-filled marriage, Allende again faced tragedy in 1992 when her daughter, Paula, died from complications from a rare genetic condition called porphyry. Her heartache inspired her to entwine her daughter’s story with her own in a work of non-fiction, Paula, published in 1994. In 1996 she started the Isabel Allende Foundation in her daughter’s memory, to encourage women’s empowerment on a local and global scale.

Allende has gone on to publish a total of 15 books, including Daughter of Fortune, Portrait in Sepia, and her most recent, Zorro (2005). Her works have been translated into 27 languages and adapted into films, operas, and ballets.

Varsha Dixit author of Right Fit Wrong Shoe wrote me a mail and introduced her book. She calls herself a feel good junkie. Varsha started out to write a thriller but realised that she could not kill even on paper and therefore wrote what she is best at, romance. Currently living in USA with her husband and daughter it is strange that she chooses to tell a love story set in Kanpur on the lines of the ‘Mills and Boon’ romance.

Nandini and Aditya are attracted to each other but don’t know it as yet. Their parents are best friends and neighbours. Aditya comes back after finishing his studies to help his father in the family business and hates Nandini on first sight. Slowly the relationship changes and Aditya discovers his attraction for Nandini when he is away on a business expedition.

Like all love stories complications follow confessions and the lovers go separate ways. Narrated in flashback the book begins where all love stories end. If you are a die hard romantic and if you love happy endings the book is for you. It is a refreshing take on love and relationships but predictable and mushy. Perhaps this is just a rehearsal for the author and it will be her second book to watch out for. Dixit dedicates the book to the spunkiest person she has known, her mother.

Bhawana Somaaya
blog.bhawanasomaaya.com