Nagasravika's Book Reviews Blog

Candide  by Voltaire  Rating : 4/5  Genres : Satire, Classics, Novella  This is a really short book. But it covers huge ground - i mean literally! The main character in the story, Candide, walks/treads all over multiple continents and lands facing mishap after mishap with a singular pursuit in mind - to reach and unite with his lover. It is a satire on the philosophy that says 'everything happens for the best'. The narrative is outright hilarious at places - even when one is supposed to be moved by  compassion and empathy at the bad luck that strikes the main characters in the play. It goes on in a totally un-serious vein where we see people dead in earlier chapters springing back to life in the later ones. 🤣🤣 Candide gets thrown out of his kingdom because he has fallen in love with the king's daughter. He had a teacher who drilled into him the philosophy that everything that happens is for the best and as life takes him through different twists an...

All the light we cannot see  By Anthony Doerr  Rating :4/5  Genres : Historical Fiction, World War 2, Germany, France. Its a beautiful story. Although it has some sad and deeply troubling aspects to it, the overall detached tone the narrator takes makes it bearable and informative. The plot alternates between the years 1940 where preparations for an upcoming war are going on and 1944 when the war is taking place in full force in Saint Malo, France. There are three main characters in the plot - one is a blind girl Marie LaRue whose childhood is shaped and nurtured by her loving father, the second is a mathematical and physics genius Werner who works for the German army but years for his sister and home where things are less violent, third is an old gem collector for the German army/museum and is suffering from a malignant tumor. Their paths evolve separately but there are subtle links occasionally before they get together under one roof battling the same war an...

The Promise  By Damon Galgut  Rating : 5/5  Genres : Hilarity, Fiction, Africa  A White family and a black servant. The matron before death promises land to the servant which takes over three decades to attain fulfillment. Times have changed, people have changed but one thing remains the same. The promise made.  I dont know what i like the most in this book..the humor? - yes, it is damm witty and spilling with sarcasm at every turn. Or the seriousness and death, loss that is sprinkled under the light weight detached humor? - there is a natural death,a  murder, an accident and a suicide..he has covered all means of death possible and heaped them onto the heads of members of one family. One ungrateful family .. that clung to its property instead of honoring a promise its dame made to her servant on her death bed. Until the very end..when the only survivor of the family, an unusual woman/girl sacrifices all her ownings to appease a long serving and...

An Orchestra of Minorities  By Chigozie Obioma  Rating : 5/5  Genres : Nigeria, Obsessive love, Igbo Cosmology, Murder, Vengeance, Victimization, Fiction  My God! What a book! I have never read one where the soul of the main character is so exposed! His every action and thought process is explained with theoretical and psychological intent behind it by his Chi - a spirit that guards the human from birth to death by twining in his body as per Igbo Cosmology theory  - I am not sure how valid/accurate/real this is in application but makes sense on why sometimes there are conflicting thoughts within the mind of a person - one his conscience, other his Chi and third his own mind. Well, real or imaginary, I loved the concept of this Chi protecting or trying to protect its host from damaging himself/others. :) And how it calls on ancient fathers/gods each time it cannot fathom something or is shocked out of itself by something. :D The book is called Orchest...