Tag: Writing the Book Review

The Kite Runner – Book Review

Author – Khaled Hosseini

Language – English

Publisher – Riverhead Books

Publication Date – May 29, 2003

Country – United States

ISBN – 1-57322-245-3

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is a historical fiction which is set in Afghanistan and America at the times of the Soviet Afghan War. It is one of the most loved books by readers across the world. The Times describe the book as “Heart breaking”. It was a number one New York Times bestseller for over two years, with over seven million copies sold in the United States. It has also been made into a motion picture after being a bestselling novel.

The book is a beautiful and endearing tale of two friends, Amir and Hassan who grew up together in ”a peaceful but prejudiced Kabul”. They share a beautiful bond of friendship but the surrounding social prejudice intervenes in it. During their childhood years, they spend their days flying kites along the streets of Wazir Akbar Khan district. Amir occupies a special place in Hassan’s heart and he expresses his love for Amir in a few words, ”for you, a thousand times over”. These words happen to be the book’s most iconic lines. Hassan who was the servant’s son was a Hazara and suffered tremendous social and cultural discrimination for that. During a kite flying event, an incident changes their relationship forever. Eventually Hassan and his father move out of their house.

Their lives change dramatically when the Taliban arrives in Kabul and the Soviet Afghan War changes the entire atmosphere of the country. After 5 years, Amir and his father escape the country and move to America to start a new life. Amir continues to suffer with guilt for the past. It is after he grows up to be a successful writer that he receives a call from a familiar voice of the past and goes back to Kabul. The story takes a different turn at the end when Amir discovers the truth that his relationship with Hassan was deeper than he realised.

Born in Kabul, the author draws inspiration from his own life as well but the plot and characters of the book however are fictional. The characters of the book are beautifully woven and the story is unforgettable. Several conflicts within the plot makes the readers fall in love with the characters. The book created some controversy within Afghan readers as it portrayed Pashtuns as prejudiced towards Hazara people. The racial and religious extremism is deeply saddening and the violence is frightening. The kite has been portrayed as an important symbol which represents Amir’s guilt for his betrayal towards Hassan and thus he does not fly a kite after that incident until the very end.

The book encourages its readers to look at the world in a new way and provides a different perspective for a country which has long been stigmatized. The message conveyed by the book towards the ending offers some hope for its characters and also for war torn Afghanistan as well. The book is highly recommended and it is sure to make a lasting impression on readers.

Drive My Car: A Short Story

In this short story collection, all of the seven men are immensely curious and on the basis of their curiosity, each story moves forward. In the first short story, ‘Drive My Car’ the protagonist is a veteran actor who lost his wife to advanced uterian cancer. Kafuku, the curious widower has been living his days seeking for answers for his dead wife’s infidelity. He has been in love with her for twenty long years to the extent where he knowingly ignored the four affairs his wife had been in, after they both lost their three days old child at the hospital. He finds solace in the company of the female driver whom he hires, even though he had always been doubtful of women drivers. He loses his beautiful wife but he can’t lose the thought of she making love with her colleague. He ends up meeting her last partner, after her death. Kafuku befriends him in order to find a fatal flaw which he would use against him as a way to punish him for sleeping with his wife. Only he couldn’t. He couldn’t punish the other man. He lets the other man go. But, curiosity doesn’t leave Kafuku.

Haruki Murakami is one of the most popular bestseller authors across the globe. All of his works are his masterpieces, his words keep the readers hooked to the story until the very last. He got immense popularity with his novel, The Norwegian Wood, a gem of a book. He is not only a bestseller in his native place but also a bestseller all around the world. He has done an excellent work with his novel, Men Without Women. He has completely hypnotized the readers with his magic words and beautiful minute details. The book has seven tales of seven different characters, bound together only on one point – the lack of one woman in their lives. All the protagonists are male, and their lives are halved and they are left lonely without women.

The entire plot of the short story revolves around curiosity. Murakami, through his narration, brought out the nature of every character present in the story. You definitely should read the story, to understand the depths of human mind. Their are many intricacies in human mind, and Murakami miraculously excels every single time with his extraordinary words, and a sense of getting deep inside the reader’s thoughts. He brings out the rhythms to the heart’s music, and plays it, according to his convenience. We read, what he writes for us, in a way that our desires get fulfilled. It is extremely hard to put down any work of Haruki Murakami, before finishing. But, the most beautiful part of reading Murakami’s works are, you can read them as many times you want, but every time you open the page to the same old story, trust me, the words would speak differently to you.

In my opinion, the universe would become a sad but happy place, if you read the short story, ‘Drive My Car.’ It is one of a kind, which provides you with a sense of calm, yet holds your attention until the very last, and even then, you would wish the story to continue, you would wish to know more about the characters, and you stay oddly unsatisfied yet satisfied with the story.

Bama’s Karukku: A Book Review

One of the most popular Dalit woman writers, Bama Faustina Soosairaj is a teacher by profession. Many of her works got translated into English, German, French, Telugu, and Malayalam. Karukku is based on her own life, which focuses on caste structures in the Catholic Community. In her autobiography, Bama pens down her struggles with the oppression of the society, and how she comes out stronger and mightier than ever.

Karukku became a turning point in Bama’s life. She received immense applause and support for bringing up the pain she had experienced in her life. The autobiography spoke to the Dalit community in a way, no other book did. It was read by innumerable numbers of people and it paved the way to a new genre in Tamil Literature. Karukku was first published in the Tamil language by Mini Krishnan, who was then the editor of Macmillan India. After the publication of Karukku in Tamil, it was translated by Lakshmi Holmström into English. The autobiography has won the Crossword Award, which brought the book into the limelight. Now, it has been read by several numbers of students worldwide. Karukku has been translated into languages other than English and Tamil. It is published in Kannada, Telugu, and Malayalam. It has gone on to become a part of the University curriculum for many disciplines likes Feminist Literature, Dalit Literature, Subaltern Literature, and others. After the success of Karukku, many Dalit woman writers came out of their cocoons and published excellent pieces of literature.

Karukku has proved to be a timeless autobiographical novel. It has worked as medicine for all those victims who have suffered due to caste discrimination, oppression, poverty, and such. Karukku brings out not only the real struggles of the Dalit community but also, the pain that every Dalit women go through in their lives. It has provided strength to the readers to speak up, protest, fight back, and not remain as the oppressed class of the society. Bama’s honest words have healed many wounds that were left unnoticed for years. Karukku becomes the pathway to the movement of the oppressed classes.

Karukku is a tale of the brave-hearted, of the courageous soul and has been very open and direct from the very first line of the book. The book shows not only the struggles of a Tamil Dalit Christian woman, but also how she fights back, how she survives, and how she rises from the ashes. Bama has asked innumerable questions which have shaken the pillars of the society. She questions the oppression and the pain she has faced in her life. She questions about the caste oppression she has faced all her life, and the struggles she had to go through just because she was born a Dalit. She questions her identity as a woman, as a Christian and as a Dalit.

Bama focuses on the experiences she has faced because of being a Catholic. She brings to light the rules and regulations that the Catholic community has to follow, as ordered by the Church. She talks about her day to day life of being both a Catholic and a Dalit. She brings forth the workings of the Catholic Church and how her days were dictated by the Church. From the very beginning of her life, she has faced the oppression of the Catholic Church. Her entire childhood was directed by the orders of the Church. There was no escape for her, as she was born in the Catholic community and her struggle for equality, for love, for justice has been emphasized throughout the autobiography. Karukku tells about the pain she has faced in her daily life, even after she becomes a nun. She wanted to work for the people of her oppressed community, to bring equality, to bring justice for the people who have struggled all their lives. But, only she couldn’t. She was not supported by the Church and also, the convent she was a part of. She couldn’t fulfill her wish to liberate her community from the clutches of oppression. She couldn’t liberate her soul from the pain of daily oppression.

Karukku is the struggle between her self and the community she belongs from. It is the constant struggle of escaping the Catholic community, to free herself from oppression. It is the constant struggle of being a part of the Dalit community, only. It is the struggle to leave her life of oppression and pain behind, to achieve her freedom, to achieve her identity. The use of language, used by Bama, is simple and it is written for the people of Dalit community to understand and feel her pain, to be a part of her struggle. Her use of language is not at all complex, and that’s why it has spoken on deeper levels to the readers across the world.

To conclude, Bama has written her heart and soul into her autobiography. She has successfully shown the true colors of the Catholic community and how she has struggled to come out of the oppression. To read Karukku, you have to open up your mind and feel the pain that Bama has experienced. You have to wear her shoes and be a witness to her life, to her quest to find the self free of oppression, to her protest to not be a part of the community she was born into. Karukku opens up the bitter truth of the experiences and lives of the people of the Catholic community. It is a must-read, and it has the potentiality to change your perception towards the political scenario of their lives. The novel would urge you to consider the importance of equality, love, and respect for each other. It doesn’t matter if you belong to another community or caste. It doesn’t matter where you are born. The only thing that matters is one’s own identity, one’s own aspirations, and every individual has the right to live free of oppression. Every individual has the right to act the way they want to act.

Tips for Writing the Book Review

Once you have made your observations and assessments of the work under review, carefully survey your notes and attempt to unify your impressions into a statement that will describe the purpose or thesis of your review. Check out our handout on thesis statements. Then, outline the arguments that support your thesis.

Your arguments should develop the thesis in a logical manner. That logic, unlike more standard academic writing, may initially emphasize the author’s argument while you develop your own in the course of the review. The relative emphasis depends on the nature of the review: if readers may be more interested in the work itself, you may want to make the work and the author more prominent; if you want the review to be about your perspective and opinions, then you may structure the review to privilege your observations over (but never separate from) those of the work under review. What follows is just one of many ways to organize a review.

Introduction

Since most reviews are brief, many writers begin with a catchy quip or anecdote that succinctly delivers their argument. But you can introduce your review differently depending on the argument and audience. The Writing Center’s handout on introductions can help you find an approach that works. In general, you should include:

  • The name of the author and the book title and the main theme.
  • Relevant details about who the author is and where he/she stands in the genre or field of inquiry. You could also link the title to the subject to show how the title explains the subject matter.
  • The context of the book and/or your review. Placing your review in a framework that makes sense to your audience alerts readers to your “take” on the book. Perhaps you want to situate a book about the Cuban revolution in the context of Cold War rivalries between the United States and the Soviet Union. Another reviewer might want to consider the book in the framework of Latin American social movements. Your choice of context informs your argument.
  • The thesis of the book. If you are reviewing fiction, this may be difficult since novels, plays, and short stories rarely have explicit arguments. But identifying the book’s particular novelty, angle, or originality allows you to show what specific contribution the piece is trying to make.
  • Your thesis about the book.

Summary of content

This should be brief, as analysis takes priority. In the course of making your assessment, you’ll hopefully be backing up your assertions with concrete evidence from the book, so some summary will be dispersed throughout other parts of the review.

The necessary amount of summary also depends on your audience. Graduate students, beware! If you are writing book reviews for colleagues—to prepare for comprehensive exams, for example—you may want to devote more attention to summarizing the book’s contents. If, on the other hand, your audience has already read the book—such as a class assignment on the same work—you may have more liberty to explore more subtle points and to emphasize your own argument. See our handout on summary for more tips.

Analysis and evaluation of the book

Your analysis and evaluation should be organized into paragraphs that deal with single aspects of your argument. This arrangement can be challenging when your purpose is to consider the book as a whole, but it can help you differentiate elements of your criticism and pair assertions with evidence more clearly. You do not necessarily need to work chronologically through the book as you discuss it. Given the argument you want to make, you can organize your paragraphs more usefully by themes, methods, or other elements of the book. If you find it useful to include comparisons to other books, keep them brief so that the book under review remains in the spotlight. Avoid excessive quotation and give a specific page reference in parentheses when you do quote. Remember that you can state many of the author’s points in your own words.

Conclusion

Sum up or restate your thesis or make the final judgment regarding the book. You should not introduce new evidence for your argument in the conclusion. You can, however, introduce new ideas that go beyond the book if they extend the logic of your own thesis. This paragraph needs to balance the book’s strengths and weaknesses in order to unify your evaluation.

Any suggestions will be welcome.