Books completed and in progress

WOLF HALL: Finished this latest Booker prize winner by Hilary Mantel last week. It is a historical novel set in the times of that controversial English King Henry VIII.

It dramatizes the real story of one Thomas Cromwell, the son of a blacksmith who at the peak of his career becomes the 1st advisor to the king- the most powerful man in court. This was highly unusual in those class society days. He, like others who ran the risk of being close to that king, was later tried and beheaded, although the book stops at the zenith of his career. Thomas was incidentally the great-great-great something of Oliver Cromwell, who ruled England several years later.

Although 650-odd pages long, the book is engaging enough for me to finish at a reasonably brisk pace. For instance, Thomas More (UTOPIA) is a character in the book, portrayed nicely as a ruthless and charismatic pursuer of his conservative Christian Utopia. The King is of course a fascinating central character as well.

Themes are: the struggle of Christianity to get back to simple Christian roots, power struggles between Church and King, between England and Rome, and an upsurge of commerce as a new power in the world.

The writing style is very good, eloquent in a non-obvious, sophisticated way.

GANDHI IN ANECDOTES: Gathered through conversations with people who have met with and interacted closely with Gandhiji, this book attempts to show the day-to-day Gandhi, not the politician-philosopher, but a practical everyman- except that he was not every man by any stretch.

More than anything, it gives a strong sense of his constant attempt at personal evolution- every situation is a test, with him as the examinee, examiner and teacher all in one. So he may fail the test, but he sure will learn a lesson from it.

Formatted as easy to read, 1-page stories, this book is a quick and enjoyable read.

NEXT IN LINE:

-Gandhi as a Writer
-Small is Beautiful (Anti-Keynesian economic classic by EF Schumacher)
-Pirate Latitudes (posthumous novel from M Crichton)
-The Diffculty of Being Good (highly recommended book by Gurucharan Das)
-Hanging by a Tail (Indian novel that received rave reviews from the Hindu)

Whew! Busy days for reading.