Top Reads in March

I am still busy with my 11 in 11 Challenge on Librarything, so was pleased to slot all my books into categories there.  All four of my top reads were 1001 Books, all from the 1001-Library.  All were very different.  One Spanish classic about a donkey, a modern reality from Pakistan, India in the 1970s and 80s and an Irish book based on a real crime.

The first top read was Platero and I, another book received through the 1001-Library.  This is a Spanish classic, indeed it is still read today by high school students in Spain. 
The musings of a man in Andalucia directed towards his donkey, Platero.  Platero becomes more than a donkey, he is a companion who recognises that he is different to other donkeys, and shows very human emotions.  I loved the chapter when he joins in a race with the children, he so wants to be part of the family, more than just a pet.  It is clear that he was, from the author's tone and the final chapters, and chapter XXXV. The Leech, where it is Platero who is afflicted by this pest.
The book follows the seasons, from spring to winter, and also the life of Platero.  Jimenez gives us snapshots of Andalusian life, from the flora and fauna to the different people, from his own memories to traditions. 
The style is very simple, a conversational tone, but blink and you might miss the accuracy of his description of life at the time.  There is also social commentary, as in chapter XXIV. Don José, the Curate, a man who is rather ungodly in the field, but assumes his religious role with his "work clothes".  Another example is the sad chapter XLVI. The Consumptive Girl.
As I have said, this is a simply written book, but one of many layers.  This would appeal to those wanting to know more about Spain, to those who like a poetic narrative style, and anyone who has ever known a donkey.  The drawings are also beautiful.

The second was The Reluctant Fundamentalist.  I bumped this up my list when I saw it on World Book Night's list of 25 books, and I'm glad I did.
An American in Lahore is offered assistance by a local. A well-spoken, obviously well-educated, and despite his appearance (in traditional Pakistani clothes and with a beard), an America-phile.
What follows is the stoy if how he went to the States and reutned. His story is not so unusual, a gifted students wins a scholarship to the prestigious university of Princeton, gets a good job on graduation, but somehow it all goes wrong and he returns to his native Pakistan. He tells his personal history, of a love affari with Erica, his job, as well as of life as a Pakistani living in a Pre and Post- 9/11 New York.
He narrates this to his rather silent comparison, indeed the only response we hear are from the other man is the narrator commentating on his interjections. From these comments, Hashid shares with us the tradition of taking tea, the experience of sitting at a streetside cafe, taking in the sights, sounds and smells of Lahore. The technique is very well-used, and the narrator's descriptions are vivid, making it wasy for the reader to picture the scene in their mind's eye. The first person narrative also helps to build the underlying tension of the novel, a growing sense of disquiet.
Through this book, I was reminded of how life changed on that fateful day in 2001. Forever our lives would be split into two periods, Pre 9/11 and Post 9/11. It also underlined how the attacks had, indeed have, far reaching consequences - from the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, to the 7/7 bombings in London, from extra security checks at airports and borders to the suspicion of a darker skinned man sitting opposite you on the tube with a rucksack on his knee.
Life IS complicated, what makes The Reluctant Fundamentalist so readable, so good, is that the narrator is not the caricature of a religious fanatic or an insular man. No, he is an educated man from an educated family, not who you would expect to turn their back on the West. You may ask, however, who turned their back first? Unfortunately our Post 9/11 world deals in absolutes, if you are not 100% with us, then you must be against us.
The book was on the 2008 1001 List, but removed in 2010, what a pity.  This would be a great book group read, as there are so many things to discuss. I am passing on this copy, but will get my own to reread in the future.

The third was A Fine Balance.  Have I really had this for 3 years? Eek!  I've had this for a while, it has been staring at me reproachfully as I picked up its slimmer neighbours to read. At Christmas, I had a reshuffle of my shelves, putting all the 1001 books to the front, and decided to bring this to Spain to read.
Mistry gives us a portrait of India in the time of a nationally declared State Emergency, although he does move back and forward in time to complete the story. He does this through the eyes of four main characters, four strangers brought together by fate.
Maneck is a young student from a mountain hill town, unhappy away from his home, where he would help his parents in their shop, he wants to move out of the halls of accommodation. He takes a room in Dina Dalal's house, Auntie Dina was one his mother's classmates at school. On the train, as he goes for his first meeting with Dina, he meets two tailors (Ishvar and Om), coincidentally also heading for the same address for a job interview.
Mistry moves around in time to tell their stories, we start with their meeting, then we got back one by one to see how the character made it to that point. Dina is a widow, struggling to make ends meet, trying to keep herself without resorting to her brother's charity. Her promising start was derailed with the death of her parents, leaving her in the cars of her older brother who doesn't understand his headstrong sister and punishes her dissent. A glimmer of hope came in the form of her husband, but he too was taken away. Through another classmate, she receives Maneck as a lodger and hires the two tailors to sew for her. She is kind at heart, but so conscious about how people will perceive her actions, often making her misunderstood. She is also rather naive, unable to see the problems of the others.
Ishvar and Om are two tailors who have come to the city to make money, as their trade is slowly being killed off by the lower standard readymade clothes. They are very close, having gone through many trials together, especially those caused by throwing off the shackles of their caste, which cured leather and is considered as very low, and training to be tailors, the legacy of Ishvar's father.
Maneck is the glue that binds this strange group, young like Om, from the same social class as Dina, he tries to bring them closer. He hopes to recreate a happy home life, like the one he feels he was sent away from.
The action moves in time and space, very different locations, which help to flesh out the narrative. Maneck comes from an idyllic mountain town, one which is being ravaged by modernity, the tailors from a village still in the grip of a feudal society, one where their familiy's attempt to step out of their alloted place proves fatal. The tailors are apprenticed to Muslim tailor in a town, but again modernity strikes, and the ready made garments render them out of work. Most of the action takes place in the city, Bombay as it was, in the city, on the streets and also in the precarious shanty towns roundabout.
Mistry brings together many aspects of life at that time, the most prevalent being that of the poor. Ishvar and Om are punished many times for their situation, as if it were of their own making. The police harrass them, pick them up to fill quotas for yet another government scheme or even to pad out rallies in support of the Prime Minister herself.
Another theme is corruption - the landlords, the lawyers, the police, even the PM. Connections are what matter, and what connections to the poor have? Well, here we have the Beggar Master, a man who watches over his grotesque band. He is an example of the ambiguity of life in India, for, while the Beggar Master does look after his charges, it is clear that some owe their disabilities to him. In their move to the city, the tailors end up as friends of some of these beggars, who help them on the street.
What makes the book so tragic is that everytime you think the four will make it, they are dragged back down. I'd recommend this to people who have read Q & A and what a deeper, more realistic read, as well as people interested in India. Don't be put off its size, and don't let it sit on your shelf for years like me!  
The last, also a 1001 Book, was In the Forest . Last year I read another of O'Brien's books, August is a Wicked Month, and was happy to get my hands on more of her books.
The author takes real events from the '90s and weaves her own narrative. The result is a compelling, yet unnerving book.
O'Kane is a disturbed young man, in and out of state institutions and recently released from prison in England. His return to his native Ireland sparks a seemingly inevitable downaward spiral of fear and violence. As a young boy, he committed a murder and is sent to a brutal, priest-run institution where he is abused by both the other boys and priests.
Newcomers Elie and her son Maddie unwittingly put themselves in his path by moving into a house in the woods which O'Kane had previously occupied. Elie is viewed with some suspicion, an outsider, unmarried mother, an affair with a younger man, a Buddhist.
It is easy to think of O'Kane as a monster, the Kinderschreck as he is named by a man early in the bok, but as his own brother says, he is a monster made. Can a child born of violence avoid being violent? Even towards those who try and help him? I don't think O'Brien is to gain sympathy for her own devil, but it does explain the fear and shame of the villagers in their dealings with him. It is this fear and shame which prevents them from shopping the situation from escalating.
This was one of those books that you want to read, but yet, I kept putting it down, just for a few minutes, ever hopeful to see some light at the end of the long dark tunnel. The book is compelling, sucking you are in. The switch of narrators helps to keep up the tension and also reveal the plot slowly. Highly recommended.