Persuasion is yet another romance novel by esteemed author. A classic slow burn romance.
That tension, unexpressed love Austen doesn’t believe in public declaration of love or rather public display of affection.. Her characters (rather main characters) are always in control of their emotions. They might be feeling lot of things But they don’t show.
You will find similarities in the characters with the characters of other books yet the writing style of this one of quiet different. If you have read Pride and Prejudice and Liked it and you think you gonna like this one too then think again. Coz it’s a lot different.
Also the story In P&P you see young girls seeking love but here It’s young women (age group of late 20s) looking for appropriate marriage. The Indian unmarried women from late 20s feel the same thing which these women from early 1800s felt . Yeah things have not changed for us much and which will make this book quite relatable.
Basically story is about A couple who had to break their engagement due to family pressure (or rather Family’s persuasion) Now after 8 years they mees again What will happen is to be seen.
As usual there are side characters who get married, some of which are not even compatible with each other .. Austen who loves Irony shows usΒ many interesting things for which you have to read this one
This novel deals with many themes most specifically 1. Social Status/ class distinction 2. Women problems / feminism in subtle way . Could have included Persuasion above but I think it is also found in her other books tooΒ but yea it’s prominent here And ofcourse “Marriage” is the important theme in this book too.. .
This novel is for :
1. Dedicated Austen Fan 2. Lovers of classic Romance (which are mostly slow burn) 3. Those who love to explore different writing styles
Beginners to Jane Austen kindly don’t start with this one. Probably you will be disappointed.. Beginners start with either sense and sensibility or Pride and prejudice. .
With lover , family or friends Unless we speak what we want to or hear what we want to we don’t get peace .
Then what happens when someone dies What if you wanted to say something Maybe sorry or maybe a thank you ..
What if we are not happy when we die What if we think our time on earth was useless What if our time is useless What if …..??
There are many what ifs That we think about, when we think about diying “Have I made any difference to the world ?” “Have I done anything significant?”
Sometimes or rather many times you have no idea how you have touched someone’s life
All these questions doubts about our achievements we take with us when we die And Then this book comes into picture
There was this girl who had lot of regrets in her life Many relationships left open Many things she thought she was supposed to do but couldn’t do it Many things she thought she did wrong There were many regrets
And when she goes to heaven she gets a chance to meet few of those people whose life she has touched.. Some of these people she doesn’t even know Some she has forgotten But She has helped lot of people
Same like you and me We have no idea how many lives we have touched Or how many people come here daily just to see your posts
So it doesn’t matter if you get only 50 likes today Atleast those 50 are genuine people who really like your post and feel inspired by it .
We are lucky to have few genuine followers instead of thousands of fake one ..
Keep doing what you love doing And you will get what you deserve π
So yes it’s a fiction with a message A feel good fiction Some of you don’t like this genre But those who do Will surely love this book just like it’s predecessor
In this one our protagonist meets lots of people whose life she has touched. As usual she doesn’t know all of them. She didn’t realise that she has in some way helped them and they in turn make her realise how important was her presence in their life. She leena to value herself and her life …I really feel this is a must read..
This is third book I read my Mitch Albom And I am going to read all his books π
Idk why I prefer darkness Never liked light much. It’s the sense of darkness which engulfs us everyday keeps us aware that darkness is part of life You cannot skip it You have to pass through it To reach that part where darkness doesn’t scare you anymore but makes you feel whole Makes you accept yourself as you are. There is darkness in everyone of us Be it a villain or hero If you embrace it you come out of it unscathed. If you let it absorb you, you become one. You are inseparable. And no one can find the distinction between both of you. There is no light and dark It’s just dark It seeps in you From everywhere Now you are drowning in it In darkness Can you find the shore Maybe If you actually want to Or you can keep floating there In darkness Waiting for someone who will let you out But there is a rule to darkness One can only come out of it alone You go in alone you come out alone No one can bring you out You are your own master . . .
We had this challenge going on in Bookstagram where we write story from the names of the books.
On Murakami’s Birthday which was on 12th Jan I decided to write a Story from the Titles of Murakami’s Books.
So here it is …
It can be messy but i wrote it so gonna share it π€
It was the year 1Q84 and it was AFTER DARK when near A BLIND WILLOW there was a SLEEPING WOMAN who woke up and decided that she wanted to DANCE DANCE DANCE and so she decided to go to a club called A STRANGE LIBRARY. . When she went inside she realised that it was really a club where a song was playing. (3 guesses which song π€.) Yes you are right it was NORWEGIAN WOOD. . While listening to which she remembered a place which was SOUTH OF BORDER & WEST OF SUN where she met A KAFKA ON THE SHORE who had written an article named WHAT I TALK WHEN I TALK ABOUT RUNNING . . With him she went on a WILD SHEEP CHASE Where they met a BIRTHDAY GIRL And with her they also travelled the lands of HARD-BOILED WONDERLAND which felt like THE END OF THE WORLD. . There they decided to HEAR THE WIND SING while playing the game of PINBALL. But in 1973 there was an earthquake and AFTER THE QUAKE they got seperated. . COLOURLESS TSUKURU TAZAKI rescued her and told her about HIS YEAR OF PILGRIMAGE. After listening to which she decided to go and find the SPUTNIK SWEETHEART. . Whom she found at a place where there were just MEN WITHOUT WOMEN and there she heard THE WIND-UP BIRD CHRONICLE, that’s when she woke up from a dream and realised she was on an UNDERGROUND which was under GAS ATTACK.
Thank you for Reading
Happiest Birthday to Murakami The person who is happy being lonely and who made us accept our loneliness but with that also taught us to always keep imagining and dreaming. May he Live longest and keep running to stay healthy and write many more books for us to read β€οΈ
πSpoiler Alertπ Spoilers of Gone Girl and The Silent Patient ahead.
Read ahead only if you have read both the above books. Or are ok with the spoilers..
Today I am going to talk about that Male character who did things less brutal than another Female Character from other book but still she is praised and looked upon, rather than being Hated.
The main theme of both the books is Vengeance Protagonist of both the books Were the victim of Infidelity And They both decided to take revenge
Only difference being Theo Decided to kill her on the spur of the moment And Amy decided to make him suffer by planning And when something in the plan went wrong she improvises and lies, cheats, steals, and kills to get back at him.
But the thing is she is considered daring, powerful woman who took matter in her own hands to take revenge no her husband …
On the other hand do we talk more about Theo ? Also when he came to talk to ‘the silent patient’ that If she talks he will also be found guilty still he came.. Theo felt responsible that he induced the trauma on Alicia which left her silent. Still, he wanted her to get better because he knew that she was also cheated on by her husband, just the way he was cheated by his wife.
Many Women look up to the Daring woman Amy for taking a stand and planning the revenge.. well, her revenge didn’t just affect her husband, she wasted lot of time of everyone involved in her search, her parents, the common people who came to help them and police too.
Just my comparison of two characters who faced similar things and did things differently π ..
Btw my rating for both these books were 3stars but I think The silent patient was better ..π (and maybe it deserves 4 stars but its relation with am old classic mystery makes me reduce 1 π)
First I gave 2 stars to Gone girl later on changed when I heard Amy’s Monologue in the movie. I really felt her when she said all those things. But still that can’t justify her acts.
And really liked this comparison thing Might do again of some other characters and some other books π ..
. I had written one post but I decided not to post it, as it had mainly complains how men’s day isn’t celebrated. It had a comparison between two books, one was about male and other about a female character from 2 different books. Both grey characters but still people admired the woman’s courage where the woman was not just grey character but was more villainous and the guy has just one negative streak and he was never talked about on our beloved bookstagram about how he was cheated and all.
But chuck that negative post . (Btw I did post about the comparison of two booksπ€ do check out my next post) And Instead let’s talk about The prominent Male characters from few of the books I have read..
While searching about these books I also realised that we read more books on female characters than male (of course we all know the reason ) well I am not complaining but maybe we have read more about Women as there are more books on women suffering and it is so coz they do suffer more
And its not about comparison of the sufferings of male and female. We all know women still don’t get equal opportunities everywhere be it big cities (lets not talk about villages)
The talk is about one day specially for men.
I read somewhere that “The aim of International Men’s Day is to celebrate positive male role models and to raise awareness of men’s issues. These include topics such as mental health, toxic masculinity and the prevalence of male suicide.” and it’s required
So many men complain about how they have to live upto the standards of Male Definition that we have created ..
So while keeping in mind the importance of the day. I decided to focus our attention on some of the well written male characters.. let’s have a look
All the above books have some well portrayed and intricately written male characters.. We might not like all of them (I know many people who don’t like Gatsby and Heathcliff) But There are Few characters whom we all love Like Mr. Darcy Or Nakata Or Hagrid (I know atleast one hater of rest of the male characters of HP Series π€) (If you hate Hagrid please don’t tell me) . Even Mr. Weasley I don’t know anyone who hates him And he was really great human being and hence the one to be remembered on this day.
Also I have seen people love many negative characters and feel pity for them. But they don’t like Heathcliff I don’t know how Heathcliff is different than other morally grey characters they love ..but let’s not talk about that ..most of us who love Heathcliff is coz of his love towards Cathy. And lets not forget Heathcliff’s determination to go from rags to riches..
Also there are many character in Harry Potter series who are mostly good and make some mistakes once in their life but still they are hated more than the actual grey characters of the series .. Somehow or other we do feel pity for Draco and sometimes for Tom Riddle too (ofcourse not for Voldemort). If Tom was raised well we wouldn’t have Voldemort. If Draco was Raised well we wouldn’t have anyone to bully Neville.
Oh and how did I forget..Is there anyone who Hates Neville …? The negative answer will be 1 in a million.. and Neville is an example that even if his parents were not with him in his growing years he turned out to be a Great Human being. Even Harry didn’t have his parents to pamper him while growing up, he turned out to be ok right ?
Many people give justification that Draco’s dad used to bully him and so that he poured it out on his fellow classmates but then Harry was bullied at home a lot and here in Hogwarts he was already famous and he could have easily bullied anyone. And he was the one who always saw bullying and bad behaviours from his elders for 10 years and still he turned out ok and helped people instead of bullying them. But yeah still there are people who love Draco. And not Harry .
And the Others from the Harry Potter series, sometimes we love them and sometimes we hate them but we can’t deny that we learnt something good from them, when we read the book, their quotes do help us . Be it Sirius, Dumbledore or Remus (well I think Remus also won’t have any haters) and Harry and Ron with whom we related without which it would have been difficult to go through the series.
Then there is Harry Clifton from Clifton chronicles by Jeffrey Archer (which I am sure most of you might not have read ) But if you guys would read it I am sure he will also be under the list of Most loved Male characters..and believe me I can’t find anything bad in him .. although he is similar to most of the characters of Jeffrey Archer’s books he has something about him that makes us say that “This was a Man”
Like Harry Potter series, in Percy Jackson series too people love other characters more than the protagonist π€..Be it faithful Grover or Chiron with his timely advice ..and dont forget Jason (whom we sometimes love more than Percy) or the funny one Leo and the lovable Frank..
And remember Monsieur Poirot who was always polite and considerate with women and who made us realise that Grey cells are more important when you have to solve any crime. Who told us to always keep our eyes and ears open π€. And never disrespected women even when they were the villain
Many might not have liked Kafka Tamura but still he was likable character who decided to take hold of his life at the young age of 15. The Lovable Nakata. The avid Reader and impeccable dresser Oshima. And how can we forget Helpful Hoshimo without whom Nakata’s journey would be incomplete.
I have seen many Hater of Gatsby but we can’t deny he had a Style. And the Love he depicts for which he decided to do anything, for which he become worthy of Daisy’s love. Nick doesn’t like him much but he himself calls him Great for his determination to turn his dream into reality. Also this list should include Nick a confidant for people with secrets and a brilliant Narrator.
Mikael Blomkvist an best example of Ethical Journalist. Despite his integrity he is not able to commit to relationships shows how everyone is not prefect.
Then comes the Gregor Samsa from Metamorphosis who was the main bread earner of the Family and how his life becomes after metamorphosis is the classic example of why we need Men’s Day. Like how his value decreased when the family came to know that he won’t be able to earn now.
Can we end it here without talking about Male characters of A Song of Ice and Fire …with so many Characters it would have been difficult to give different personalities to each of them but still it was done .. and we have huge list of them and each had something grey in them(except the Starks) but still we liked them, be it Littlefinger or Spider. Most favourite characters from the series would be Jon or Tyrion but we all have special place for Jamie..
And ofcourse there are many more Male characters who inspired us, taught us and raised our expectations for the real men π€ . People talk about Male Characters written by Women and how they raise the expectations of Women But In the above pic Except Wuthering Heights, Pride and Prejudice, Harry Potter and Hercule Poirot’s Christmas. All the books are Written by Men and we all love most of those characters Be it the Grey Characters from Game of Thrones or Other lovable characters.
“I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound or stab us. If the book we’re reading doesn’t wake us up with a blow to the head, what are we reading for? So that it will make us happy, as you write? Good Lord, we would be happy precisely if we had no books, and the kind of books that make us happy are the kind we could write ourselves if we had to. But we need books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us. That is my belief.” .
–Franz Kafka
Everything that Kafka writes is profound And has some deep impact on us .. It makes us think Why he wrote what he wrote Why he thought what he thought
Will we ever know Maybe or Maybe not Coz these are just our interpretations What he actually wanted to convey Is something that is lost forever
He asked his friend to destroy everything that he has ever written. But his friend published it It was indeed a great contribution to Literature But Was it fair to Kafka ? . Is it fair, dissecting every line he wrote And everything that he never wanted us to know ? . Maybe he would have liked If his work was published But i don’t think anyone likes people dissecting their work to know how the person is, in the name of Literature
Well If you had permission from the author to publish the book then we can say for sure they agreed for the dissection but when he hadn’t given his permission. When he wanted his world’s to be destroyed then what ?
Well just my thoughts What do you all think ? . P.S. : I am also a Literature students and I really like dissecting famous literary works.
To sit at the marine drive after office time was one of the best memory of those days.. I used to wish that I would sit there and read.. Hope those days comes back soon
The one thing any Mumbaikar would have missed in whole lockdown was definitely the sunsets at marine drive. Well geographically I am not a Mumbaikar, I live a bit away from Mumbai.. But college, office and all the time we spent out of house was in Mumbai itself.. The trains of Mumbai were my lifeline too .. Hence from heart I was always a Mumbaikar .. When I had to meet my school friends I never knew where to go in Kalyan.. All I knew was Mumbai .. I never knew the stories of Kalyan.. Slowly since last two years I came to know more about Kalyan..
I think I miss my office but truly it’s that daily journey from CST (now CSMT) to Nariman Point which I miss.. That sitting alone at Marine drive in the evening.. Having the Naturals Ice-creams.. eating that spicy food .. Laughing and clicking crazy pictures on the roadside.. Playing with the Dogs of people who came for walk .. Going to Marine drive in office break coz it was raining .. Eating Aram vadapav before catching the train.. Looking at those book stalls at fountain was early morning ritual..(and ofcourse buying them in evening) Now it seems that waiting in traffic for half an hour to reach office would have been better than sitting home for 24hrs..
Due to office I have also travelled in train at 5.30 am and also at 12 am and at both those times I found the train fully packed π.. Once I told one of my bookstagram friend (who stays outside Maharashtra) that I am going for walk, it was 8 pm ..she said be careful it’s late.. I didn’t tell her anything then but now I think she will understand after reading this..
I am not saying it’s the best city I am just saying it’s everything for people who lived here.. There are many cleaner city and city without slums in India as well as in Maharashtra and they are good too..
It’s like different people different tastes.. There are many people from Mumbai itself who love Pune more than Mumbai.. I know there are many people here on bookstagram who love the quiet and peaceful cities but Everyone knows that people from Mumbai find it difficult to live anywhere else.. According to me there is only one other city in the world than can quench the thirst of a person deprived of Mumbai ..π .
In first Half of the book I was like why am I reading this This is what I wrote as update on Goodreads when I was halfway through the book ο
“I am halfway and still nothing concrete has happend. Don’t know where the story is going. Like there is no Thrill. When murder happens in the middle of the book there are all the details leading to murder all clues and all in first half. It was there is last Mystery I read Death on the Nile (I forgot I can’t compare any book with Christie) Here in this book the Marriage part is like romcom it reminds me of my first and last romcom read (the worst best man which I read for ouu bookclub). It has some small weird things happening but it’s no where like Thriller, It’s just like ok people have some past but they are not able to get over it, infact not people just one person.”
After second half few things were happening in each chapter. Yet it was slow but fast then first half. Whole book is like 4-5 characters POV(which shows what happened before and during marriage ) and then one chapter into the present. That present part was a lot frustrating. Was hoping it would have some thrill. It was so slow like trying to delay the main thing.
The end was little satisfactory Yeah only little Like it has half satisfaction (for me) As for shock, nothing was shocking enough It was predictable Even the killer was predictable and their motive too
Thrill element was too less It was like nothing Actually I don’t know what should have been the genre too. (Maybe Drama with a murder) Also seems like Name has no relationship with the story. Only that there is marriage so guest list.
I also understood why this won the Goodreads choice awards for thriller It is for that small satisfaction I felt in the end. For that people voted for it. I am sure many people felt huge satisfaction.
A person whose favourite genre is thriller won’t like this one For someone new to thriller it’s fine like they can give 3-4 stars. For me 2.5 Stars
Also not scary Rather than scary it was creepy the things people did. Those things felt stupid
It’s my view, there are people who liked it. And I am not totally discarding it. I am contemplating reading “The hunting party” Second half improved my view little bit.
Spoiler Ahead (with what could have worked and what little things that I liked) (unfortunately things I liked could only come with spoilers)
Somewhere I think that Johnno should not be blamed for killing him. It doesn’t seem fair to him. Like he has already suffered so much now was his time period of penance should be over. This is the reason I felt little satisfaction. Killing will was definitely best thing to do and that was the satisfaction people would have felt. We have heard about so many people like him who got away and were never found. Here it was important to punish him to tell everyone that no one is spared. You always pay for your evil act and here many evil acts.
I also feel sorry for Jules. Just got married and the this happend. It’s like why was she punished like this ( like her sister and Hannah’s sister too and ofcourse Aoife’s Brother)
It was too sad a story. It could have been ok if one was wronged. There are many people wronged her. Too many triggers.
You know what I think could have worked better. All this siblings of the people who were wronged, they should have know about Will(that will did it all) and it would be everyone’s plan together to get back at him. If this would have been the twist I think it would have been unexpected
Somewhere I even hoped that it would have been better if it was all Jules plan. It would be so badass that she would kill him. You know the way she is shown in whole book self sufficient and work to get what she wants , it felt weird when we realised he fooled her.
I was really happy for how Aoife’s relationship with her husband was. and it was great to know she married her borther’s best bud. I am really so proud of her, her planning and doing it .
And ofcourse I wanted better first half in addition to above.
But again it’s my view, there are people who liked it. And I am not totally discarding it. I am contemplating reading “The hunting party”
A Therapist has personally recommend this book for the patients with first sign of Depression (DM me for name of the therapist) When I was searching whether anyone thought about the metaphor I found in the book I found that review of the therapist.
If you have lost hope in your life and are looking for redemption, revival … If you think you might have depression Then look no forward Just go for it.. A book which gives you advise about getting out of depression has to first explain the depression which is felt by the protagonist And that’s what is shown here in this book And Only after knowing the extent of depression we can go further and understand how to get over it.
But still Trigger warning : Depression, attempt to Suicide (in the beginning) . And recovering from it in later parts It has been expressed in wonderful manner with a brilliant metaphor ..
The metaphor is the library and books When the libraria says ” You are the library” This is the last place in the book where you would be sure about the metaphor … although it’s there since the beginning of the book . This midnight library is the metaphor for our real library the quotes like : “Between life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life. To see how things would be different if you had made other choices …would you have done anything different, if you has chance to undo your regrets..?” . So you think this is just for the books in the library. This is actually for the books in our world too..
In real life we have library in between us with unlimited shelves and unlimited books. With every book we read we live another life. We experience the other life which we had dreamt some day. She saw her other lives though her and we have that opportunity to look through others..
I think what he wants to say is When you feel depressed in this life go to the library and read a book and escape. You will see things differently and maybe even forgot the depression and come out with renewed energy to live your current life. That’s what happend with her right. We all already read lots of books but somewhere around we just read it as it is.. While reading about black people if we thought of us in their place then definitely we would see that our current life ia better and will definitely feel greateful for whatever limited challenges we have (as compared to BL) But most of us are still depressed It is coz we are not learning from the books, not understanding what we should from the books (Its same for everyone including me) And The Midnight Library is a metaphor to that . To make us understand that we can understand other lives through books and realize how our life is better .. . This book shows how to analyse your current life after each book you read. . The book is full of different metaphors for our life they way we should live…
Sci-Fi . You know when I started the book I didn’t know it was sci-fi. Till you reach half of the book it isn’t even mentioned. And when they explanation came I was so satisfied . It didn’t feel magical anymore. It felt real coz you know science is real. The hope that depressed person needs was all here. The explanation given here is my favourite part I have read it so many times and I love that part so much ..that just for it I thought of giving this book one more star So 6 stars our of 5 β€οΈβ€οΈ It’s well deserved Don’t tell me otherwise ο . (All above I wrote when I was halfway through the book)
After the end I would just like to add That end was brilliant and Satisfactory.. The end itself was what the author wanted to tell us. That was the message to be conveyed. many people said that end was ok or predictable but this is the best end we could have got. This is what a person with mental health needs to the understand.. The end was π
Spoiler Ahead (it’s just explanation to some reviews which said what they didn’t like in the book)
You might have thought ‘why is she still not happy in those lives even though she is so successful ?’
Then you forgot that she was taking anti-depressants. Which actually means she was not happy with her life and there were some kind of issues she was facing. In just few minutes or few hours you can’t say “everything is good” also anti-depressants were the sign that things weren’t so good in those lives. Those lives were definitely not good she was troubled there even after being successful. There was some or the other issues and that’s the reason he left those lives so soon.
You are also forgetting that those lives were not her life..
The first one was living in the Town and opening a bar was her ex-boyfriend’s dream.
Being a swimmer was her father’s dream.
Being in a band was her Brother’s dream.
You will ask why was she trying to live their dream. Coz she felt somewhere that she let them down by choosing her way. She thought her relationships with them would be better if she chooses their dream. So here by living them she realized that even if she followed their dreams she would not be happy and would be taking anti-depressants. And definitely her life didn’t get better
I saw many people say that this book is Magical Realism but it is not a magical realism. If after reading a book you couldn’t know that then atleast a small Google search would have made it clear.
It is clearly mentioned in the book that each of the possible life is available in this universe and you have to choose one. You will find a Parallel Universe here. Though parallel universe was not mentioned in detailed because the main theme of the the book was the Mental health awareness. And Parallel Universe is the answer to explain how she is able to see other lives.
In one review I read that they felt they were stereotyping things when they showed that she was happy with her life only when she got the family. According to them her nor being happy when she was gold medalist and being happy when she had family was stereotyping things. I don’t understand why is it wrong for a women to want family these days. And it wasn’t like she was just housewife infact she had her own life and she gave up that job to write her book what can be better than that. Telling people to go behind your dreams is the best thing. And along with it if she wanted a family the. What’s wrong with that.. can’t successful women want happy family. The important thing here was that she wasn’t taking anti-depressants. But in the end she was not happy here too when she realized that her wanting some other lives means she was spoiling someone else’s life..
I guess that’s all I want to say. Also here are few quotes from the book which are really brilliant
Quotes from The Midnight Library
If you aim to be something you are not, you will always fail. Aim to be you. Aim to look and act and think like you. Aim to be the truest version of you. Embrace that you-ness. Endorse it. Love it. Work hard at it. And don’t give a second thought when people mock it or ridicule it. Most gossip is envy in disguise.
The only way to learn is to live.
We only need to be one person.
We only need to feel one existence.
We don’t have to do everything in order to be everything, because we are already infinite. While we are alive we always contain a future of multifarious possibility
As Thoreau wrote, βItβs not what you look at that matters, itβs what you see.
There are many more such quotes I will suggest go and read the book and I’d you are someone who highlights your book then you will have almost whole book coloured π
Theredheadedbibliomaniac 