Book Review: A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

Well well well well well... Nachinat...droogies this is one horrorshow book. Splattered all over with red red kruvvy and oozhassny acts like oobivating baboochka, sodding little devotchkas and tolchoking starry lewdies, with a smirk of radosty and a malenky bit of sarky soviet for society, o my brothers.

Thats Nadsat for you - the language of youth in Anthony Burgess's classic, A Clockwork Orange. It was first published in 1962 and since then it has become a cult book among the literary class. When I picked up the book and started reading it, I was only able to read 10-15 pages in few hours, that was because Burgess has invented a new language, Nadsat. Most of the words in Nadsat are derived from Russian and if you don't know Russian it will be very difficult for you to pick up the language. After reading the first 10-15 pages I knew that I needed a dictionary which has the entire vocabulary of Nadsat. I googled and found one on the internet - http://soomka.com/Nadsat.html. It turned out to be a very useful link and after that language was fluid and I finished the book in matter of hours. Its a very well written book and the language is so catchy and cool that after you finish the book, you can not stop yourself from speaking in Nadsat for a while.

The story revolves around Alex, who is also the humble narrator. He is the devil incarnate, he goes around with his gang of friends assaulting, raping and robbing people without any guilt and with all the joy, and thats his nature. He is a teenager who is wild and without direction or control. Society wants otherwise and they want to turn him into a good, mannered boy, but at what cost. Its an individual who has the right to choose between good or bad, its his conscience. It should not be imposed upon him, because doing so may take away his true character. And this true character and unrestrained will, differentiates human life. The writer has brought out this question very well and makes you think about it. The question is - individuals make society or society makes an individual.

The book is also sometimes compared to other dystopian novels like 1984 and brave new world. In my opinion, 1984 by George Orwell is a much deeper book. Orwell has created a much stronger story, his world is also hypothetical and nearly inhuman, but he has touched the subtle emotional aspects in a very humane manner, which I think is lacking in A Clockwork Orange.

A lot of credit for the publicity of the book should go to Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of the book in his 1972 movie by the same name. The movie hits you as much as the book. It is very well directed and visualized. But I guess the story is better told in the book and you can not concentrate on the language if you just watch the movie. Nadsat is the best part and you enjoy it much more while reading. So my brothers, first read the book and then see Alex come alive in Kubrick's - A Clockwork Orange.

Book Review: Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

Have you seen the TV series - No Reservations. The guy who hosts that series is Anthony Bourdain. "No Reservations" is a travel show in which Bourdain moves around different cities/continents in search for an original culinary experience. What impresses me is that this guy is just not afraid. He is not prejudiced and is ready to try any food in the world given that it is adventures and authentic. You can see him killing a pig with a spear in Malaysia, consume a soup prepared from private parts of a mule in Indonesia, stand in icy cold water stream wearing just a thin robe in Japan, learning trapeze in New York City, getting twisted and turned all over in a traditional bathing house in Uzbekistan while savoring cuisines every where. Once he also got trapped in the middle east crisis while visiting Beirut, but they didn't stop and made an episode out of that as well. He has travelled across Europe, Russia, China, India, Malaysia, Vietnam, Korea, Japan, North America, South America and Africa. Anyone who respects good food will accept that it can come from any part of the world. Good food, if prepared properly will taste good and it happens only occasionally that you don't appreciate a well prepared meal. I guess that's the philosophy behind the show.

Well well, he has not always been a celebrity traveling first class around the world, enjoying five star life and tasting good food prepared especially for him. He was not picked up randomly. He has made it so far in the restaurant business right from the very bottom. He has washed dishes, shredded vegetables, sweat all day at the saute station, burnt his hands and cut his fingers for nearly 30 years and he has loved it. "Kitchen Confidential" is Anthony Bourdain's story. He tells you about his experience in the restaurant business and as he has seen a lot, he has a lot to tell. He has worked in numerous restaurants throughout New York City with both the big and the small and probably performed all the roles in the kitchen.

When I bought the book, I thought it will be more about cuisines and love of food etc. but this guy surprised me. The book should be rated R or rather NC-17 for its sexual content, drugs, violence and foul language. Well whatever the rating, its an original way of telling the story and that's what you like. He talks more about running of a restaurant, different people in the kitchen and their roles. He talks about his life and how he got into cooking and how he got inspired at various stages of life and moved forward. He has inserted a chapter on his trip to Tokyo, where he got influenced by the eastern culture and life. I guess many people who love food and know a celebrity chef like Bourdain would like to read this book. Bourdain will tell you exactly what kind of people will fail in the restaurant business. Its not just about love of food but also a lot about logistics, people management, making right decisions and probably love of food will come last in the list. I would say, if you ever wished to open a restaurant or wanted to know what goes on behind the scenes in a restaurant then pick up this book and read. Probably it wont stop you from eating out but it will surely change the way you look at waiters, chefs and the food that you order. 

So go ahead, read and enjoy the meal.

Book Review: The Dragons of Eden by Carl Sagan

I just completed reading a book called The Dragons of Eden by an eminent scientific writer Carl Sagan. I picked up this book randomly from a book store. I have read Carl Sagan before, Cosmos - the book which opens up windows to scientific thinking, mathematics and of course astronomy, was very exciting and i would say my first scientific novel. I have also seen the movie Contact, which is based on a book by the same name, and its good.
So Dragons of Eden also promised a lot. Many times i have had discussions with my friends on topics like the difference between creativity and the clockwork attitude, comparison of artificial intelligence (computers) with human brain, evolution of human beings, what are dreams, why do we need to sleep, reproduction and many others. All these topics deal with biology and the way we perceive things around us. You can come up with so many different hypothesis to explain the above mentioned questions. What Carl Sagan does in this book is that he comes up with various scientific experiments that have been conducted and based on these he has discussed various hypothesis. These experiments seem to fit right in and corroborate these hypothesis.
The book is well written and is easy to understand. The reader can ignore the technical terms and look at the underlying logic or may be understand some terms from the appendix given at the end of the book.
This book was written some time around 1975 and i was amazed by the level of knowledge that Carl Sagan was able to extract at that time. A lot of new experiments have been conducted after 1975, but still the content of this book is very refreshing and by no means out dated. Carl Sagan prophecies that in future the level of understanding of human brain will be much greater and hence can provide answers to some ethical questions facing mankind like the definition of death, the legal issues of abortion, understanding of various cultures - including extra terrestrial life forms and animals. He also discusses computer gaming (imagine in 1975) and the way it can help spread an interest in science.
The price of the book in India is Rs. 250 and the book is published by The Ballantine Publishing Group.
Recommendation: Don't miss it if you have scientific bend of mind - it may answer a lot of questions.