Category: Bookworm Speaks

The Unseen Bridegroom!

March 3, 2025 / / 0 Comments

As I was busy surfing for new books to add to my e-library, I came across The Unseen Bridegroom, an ancient novel by Canadian writer,  May Agnes Fleming, I decided to give it a try. The title was interesting and intriguing at first glance.

Let’s just dive into the review.

Novel : The Unseen Bridegroom

Author: May Agnes Fleming

Published in: 1912!

Read on: March 1st 2025!

 

As I mentioned earlier, the title was interesting enough for me to download it, but it had an alternative title too, Wedded for a Week! If I had seen this other title of the same novel, I would’ve guessed it to be a story about some hot headed couple, marrying and divorcing in a jiffy and would have skipped reading it!

Anyway, the story starts with a millionaire heir, Carl Walraven, returning home to his widowed mother, after 20 long years! He ran away from home at the age of 19 years. I sympathise with the mother, who had to stay strong all along. While Carl Walraven is busy flirting with Blanche Oleander, to get himself a wife, there enters Miriam Dane, a gypsy looking servant lady wearing worn out rags. She threatens to expose Carl Walraven and his deeds, if he doesn’t adopt Mollie Dane, daughter of Mary Dane.

So, off he goes and brings home the 16 year old, golden blonde haired beauty, a stage actress, Mollie Dane. Everyone suspects that she’s Carl Walraven’s illegitimate child and still love her dearly. Carl then marries Blanche inspite of opposition from both his mom and Mollie Dane. (Turns out they were correct about Blanche, women’s intuition indeed!)

As a debutante in the high society,  Mollie captures the hearts of most eligible bachelors around her. Mollie is a loving and down-to-earth person,  but her only folly is, her flirty nature. She has Hugh Ingelow, Dr.Oleander and Sardonyx competing each other for her affection. She rejects all the three of them brutally, infront of a septuagenarian Baronet, Sir Roger Trajenna, whom she agrees to marry! She is in love with his title, money, social standing and old age too!

On the day of her wedding, she is kidnapped and held captive by a male in black mask, who agrees to free her, if she gets married to him! Within two days of captivity, she agrees to marry him. She is married off by a reverend (who was also forcefully kidnapped) and sent home within a week.

Once home, Mollie decides to find out who her husband is. She is ready to forgive her kidnapper, if he turns out to be Hugh Ingelow! (She comes to the realisation that she is in love with him during her captivity), but if the kidnapper were Dr. Oleander, she plans to kill him off, with Strychnine no less, since she hates and loathes him.

I am not going into details, but Mollie is kidnapped a second time, trying to find her masked husband and held captive again, the kidnapper being Dr.Oleander.  She is finally rescued by Hugh Ingelow.

The truth about birth of Mollie Dane is also revealed here, which is a little unexpected.

All is well that ends well and Mollie ends up marrying Hugh Ingelow.

What I liked:

1. The easy language and editing.  I didn’t have to skip any boring paragraphs or pages!

2. It tells us about the people in the olden days, their thinking and life before any major technical advances in America.

3. The 17 year old protagonist,  Mollie gets a redemption arc. She changes from flirty minx to a matured adult by the end. ( To make her change, the author put her through suffering!)

What I didn’t like:

1. The female lead is kidnapped twice, as if it’s normal! Was the period around 1912 not safe for women in America?

2. Mollie is forced to marry, which is regressive.

3. The description of the lead pair or the other supporting characters is not particularly good. I only know Mollie had golden blonde hair which was curly and that she is beautiful and that the male lead is handsome! With such description it is difficult to picture them while reading the novel.

When I read the Harry Potter series, I could imagine what everyone looked like and felt I was in their world, which is saying something about the author, because there were hundreds of characters in all the books combined!

P.S:

1. Just because I have listed some cons in this novel doesn’t mean it is a bad one. It only shows the evolution of English literature.

Jane Austen books are so big, with flowery language, that it gets boring to read and needs full concentration. But, her books are popular even now because of their ability to explain the people of that era in minute detail! ( Her observations are accurate and clever) Every writer has their strengths and weaknesses.

2. I have few more books of May Agnes Fleming and I can give better insight about her writing style, only after reading the other works.

3. Do you know about Stockholm Syndrome? It is the psychological state of mind, where the victim of crime such as kidnapping or abuse etc begins to sympathise with their kidnapper or abuser! It really does happen! In this novel, Mollie almost forgives the kidnapper, hoping it was Hugh Ingelow!

I have started watching a Chinese limited series and let’s see how this goes.

Till the next post, bubye.

The Namesake

January 25, 2025 / / 0 Comments

As my loyal readers know of our brief life in the US of A, Mr.Bee would go to his office at 11 a.m. and I would pack my canvas tote with my black vertical striped apron and my wallet, booking an Uber to go to the Monroe Road studio of Clayworks, where the potter’s wheel was all I could see, as far as my passion was concerned.

Some days, when I felt low, even the pots and cups I made would turn out bad and I would leave the studio early (artists would understand!) On such afternoons, I would make a snack for myself and sit in the Ashley’s chocolate brown couch in our living room, with a parrot green woollen throw blanket and watch movies.

By chance, I had come across The Namesake,  by Mira Nair, starring Irrfan Khan and the talented Tabu and decided it was worth a watch. It was a revelation. I liked Irrfan Khan too (It was the first time I watched his movie). It was a memorable movie, but this post is about The Namesake, the Pulitzer prize winning novel.

This is the first time I watched a movie first and read the novel on which the movie is based on, later. I have been to the recent book exhibition,  the yearly ritual of my maternal family.  I got myself a copy of The Namesake and interestingly, the lone thing I remember is Irrfan Khan and Tabu, in the awkward photo from the movie. It’s been more than 9 years since I watched the movie and it tells a great deal about the actors’ and their performances. (I couldn’t find the photo online). No wonder the lead pair is known for their talent.

The Gangulis

The Names

It is about a Bengali couple Ashoke Ganguli and Ashima, in an arranged marriage,  whose life as immigrants is at once relatable. It starts with the marriage of Ashima and Ashoke Ganguli and progresses at steady pace to the births of their children Gogol and Sonia. The focus shifts to Gogol and that’s where the novel gets it’s name.

Gogol goes from a phase where his name is just a nickname to, where he loves to be called Gogol , to a phase where he hates it so much , he changes it to Nikhil, gets to know the real reason behind his name and finally regretting the change of his name.

Gogol doesn’t like that all his parents’ friends are desi families. He doesn’t like Indian food and the time it takes to cook. He struggles, as they say, ABCD – American Born Confused/Conflicted  Desi. He sees the contrast between his parents and the lives of his American girlfriend and her parents. Gogol hates being told what to do by his parents,(most Asian parents do that) but ironically, ends up always submitting to his girlfriends and his wife. He performs fairly well in studies but since he takes decisions based on his rebellion against his parents,  he falls flat. Like choosing a college to stay away from his family and not because it is better! He gives up studying at MIT, it is exasperating!

Ashoke Ganguli, in his own way had adjusted to the life in America. Interestingly, Ashoke ‘s friends had predicted accurately, that Sonia is a true American,  right after she was born. But Ashima never feels at home, neither in Calcutta where she lived before marriage nor America,  where she stayed for more than three decades. Neither here nor there.

The Ganguli family dynamics changes with the sudden death of Ashoke. Sonia, the daughter who had stayed away for studies reaches out to her mother during her mourning and shows us subtle glimpses of her character.  (She hardly get 2 pages worth of space in the whole book)

After two failed relationships and 1 death in the family, Gogol a.k.a Nikhil meets Moushimee Majumder. Both have emotional baggage of their own and that leads to a disaster in waiting,  which is their marriage.  I didn’t like her at all. Nor did I like Gogol. He was a good man but he had his weaknesses and drawbacks.

The book ends with the hint of Sonia’s upcoming marriage to Ben,  Ashima’s plan of moving back to India and well, Gogol, still coming to terms about the journey of life!

Overall,  the Namesake is a slow paced story and at the end I did feel sad for Gogol and Ashima (both the troubled souls). It is worth a read, if you are not an avid reader, I suggest you to watch the movie for first class acting,

P.S:

1. Coming to the author Jhumpa Lahiri, her writing is easy to read and understand but at places it gets overly descriptive and lengthy. I found myself skipping paragraphs! I need to read more of her works to comment better.

2. Although we know little about Sonia, I liked her!

3. I went on to watch Irrfan Khan in Piku, Talwar , Jurassic World and Life Of Pi.

4.  I will be back with a Sookshmadarshini review soon. Ciao!

The Magic of the Lost Temple

February 6, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Although I am a self confessed book worm, I have read very little books by Indian authors.  That being said, the only children’s books I have ever read were comics like Tin Tin, Aesop Fables, Hans Andersen’s stories, later progressing to Nancy Drew mysteries, Hardy Boys and my all time favourites the Famous Five series by Enid Blyton (which made my childhood worthwhile!). Then I jumped right into the world of murder mysteries and never looked back. (Its either mysteries or biographies for me. I know it is a weird combination!)

Years later, when I wanted to introduce GBee to some good books, I began my survey and came across Ruskin Bond. (GBee is still  5 year old, so getting him to sit at a place is something on its own, making him read will be a mountain of a challenge, for now).

I decided to pique his interest in books through puzzles and meanwhile, I stumbled upon books by Sudha Murty(who needs no introduction), during a recent car trip to the temple town of Yadagirigutta, a 2-hour drive from Hyderabad.

The title of the book forced me to buy it and I wanted to know her writing style.

Here goes the review, after an apparently lengthy intro.

Book :  The Magic of the Lost Temple

Author : Sudha Murty

Published in :2015

QB Bought in : 2023

Genre : Children’s book

The story is about Nooni, (short for Anoushka), a city born only child to her Doctor father and bank officer mother.  Her life is filled up with school, studies, summer camps , swimming classes and yearly trips to Coorg. (Did I say, she is from Bangalore?)

Anyway,this city born kiddo is sent to Somanahalli, for her summer, because of her mother’s training in Delhi. She lands in paternal grandparents house and this is the turning point of her life.

She gets to learn many things first hand, about almost everthing. I couldn’t help but draw parallels to my own childhood.

Sleeping under the stars and counting them, admiring the Moon (which generally plays hide and seek with us, from our city apartments), the types of plants and medicinal trees in Indian village houses, similar to the garden my ammamma (maternal grandmother) had in our village. Aaji giving hair massages to Nooni and washing it with home grown Shikakai with a bucket of hot water (so unlike the showers we take in cities) reminded me of my mamma(paternal grandmother) doing the same for me, in Laxmi Nagaram.

Nooni never knew sweets were made at home during festivals and marriages. She only knows buying the sweets over the counter at Haldirams!

As the story progresses, Aaji tells the story of Somanahalli step-well, which mesmerizes Nooni. The step-well might have been a fiction, but Nooni discovers the said step-well! (here the story reminded me of Famous Five series by Enid Blyton, because of the adventure involved).

A Step well looks like this

What I liked:

The values. It reminds of the good old days, where the families helped each other during any function. They were there, whether it is a celebration or a death, to give us a helping hand. (Today we find very little of that)

The rules. The elders before us, often made rules for a reason. If they say, don’t open a temple during an Amavasya, it had a valid reason. There is a reason the elders dictated that one should enter a temple only after cleaning themselves. That was proved beyond a doubt during the time of COVID pandemic. We began to understand how important cleanliness is.

The style of writing is as simple as that of Ruskin Bond. Let me tell you a little secret. It is very difficult to write in simple prose. So if you find a writer who specializes in simple prose, BINGO, it means the writer is a gem!

P.S:

  1. I loved the back story behind the idea for the story. Goes to show a small incident is enough to create beautiful stories, if you are a creative person.
  2. Hans Andersen is the Dutch writer, who wrote the most famous stories of The Mermaid, The Emperor’s new clothes, Thumbelina, The Ugly Duckling and more. He is a legend as far as children’s books are concerned. If you have not read any of those, go ahead and read them. If you have forgotten them, read them to refresh your memory. I just wonder what must it have been like to be a famous author during those times!

© 2025

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑