From goodreads.com:
In a crumbling, isolated house at the foot of Mount Kanchenjunga in the Himalayas lives an embittered judge who wants only to retire in peace, when his orphaned granddaughter, Sai, arrives on his doorstep. The judge’s cook watches over her distractedly, for his thoughts are often on his son, Biju, who is hopscotching from one gritty New York restaurant to another. Kiran Desai’s brilliant novel, published to huge acclaim, is a story of joy and despair. Her characters face numerous choices that majestically illuminate the consequences of colonialism as it collides with the modern world.
In a crumbling, isolated house at the foot of Mount Kanchenjunga in the Himalayas lives an embittered judge who wants only to retire in peace, when his orphaned granddaughter, Sai, arrives on his doorstep. The judge’s cook watches over her distractedly, for his thoughts are often on his son, Biju, who is hopscotching from one gritty New York restaurant to another. Kiran Desai’s brilliant novel, published to huge acclaim, is a story of joy and despair. Her characters face numerous choices that majestically illuminate the consequences of colonialism as it collides with the modern world.
I had difficulty getting this good even read, and to me anything difficult to read is ultimately a bit difficult to like. To me nothing really HAPPENED besides that I grew to dislike every single character more and more as the book progressed. Their total lack of growth may be what turned me off to this book.
2.
/ YA / **
This is the third book in the GONE series (preceded by GONE and HUNGER). This series started with the premise that nuclear radiation had started to cause unusual "talents" in several of the children in the area, which of course the parents are not aware of. One of the more powerful children in a fit of anger unknowingly caused all the adults to simply disappear. I was interested in this story to see how society would re-establish itself without the presence of adults. This story line is what still keeps me reading this series. But the stories have each gotten more and more odd with each novel. A whole story line of good versus evil was introduced with the evil being some type of thing that lives deep in the earth and manipulating the children to achieve it's means. This story line is incongruent with the whole Lord of the Flies feel of the original story. And even though it is a sci-fi type novel it is getting a little "strange". It is almost like this is a bed time story made up by the author and each night his children choose another odd tangent to add to extend the story.
3.
This story alternates between telling the struggle of a young boy sent to a wizarding school where each student either learns their lessons or starves, and back in time to the lives of the founders of the school as they struggle to find the magic that has been suppressed by the ruling class in order to control the people. The first half of the book started a little slow to me and felt a little "off", but by the end the kinks were worked out and I want to find out what happened to get the story from the past to where it is now. I hope the library has the next story.
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