In an exotic land

Book review: Return to Mandalay by Rosanna Ley

Rosanna Ley is an author who any travel-loving reader like me will adore - because of her remarkable ability to bring the sights, sounds, people and cuisine of a place alive through her descriptions. Be it an English cliff-side town in West Dorset (in several of her novels), the spice-scented by-lanes of Morocco (The Saffron Trail), the white-sand beach of Fuerteventura in Canary Islands (Bay of Secrets), or a beautiful seaside village in Sicily (The Villa), her vivid prose has enabled me to virtually travel to these countries and places. Add to this a past-present mystery and a dash of romance and I'm sold! Small wonder that I picked up her "Return to Mandalay" after realising that it is set in Burma or Myanmar, as it is now known, a land I've never before encountered in fiction or in reality, even though the country borders mine.

"Return to Mandalay"revolves around Eva Gatsby who is an antique dealer in an emporium in England. She has always been fascinated by Burma, after hearing innumerable tales of the golden land from her grandfather, Lawrence. Lawrence had spent his youth in Burma in the late 1930s and early 1940s while it was still under British rule. Even though after the end of WWII, he came back to England, never to return, Burma and its people seem to have left an indelible impression on him. So when Eva's boss asks her to go on a business trip to Mandalay to explore some antiques, she jumps at the chance.

On hearing that she is going to Myanmar, her grandfather gives Eva a "chinthe" or a small statue of a lion-like creature which is supposed to guard Burmese holy temples. Chinthes always come in pairs and it seems that a Burmese lady who Lawrence had loved gifted him this chinthe as a protection against evil. Lawrence now wants it to be returned to its rightful owner and be reunited with its twin.

Pair of Burmese chinthes; Source: pininterest.com

Before she leaves for Myanmar, Lawrence tells Eva about Maya and how he had met and fallen in love with her back in the 1930s, just as the Second World War was about to break out. Maya realises that Lawrence has never forgotten or stopped loving Maya, even though he later married Helen, Eva's grandmother (now deceased). Eva is determined to uncover the whereabouts of the mysterious Maya so that Lawrence can get some sort of closure to his story. So begins Eva's adventure in Mandalay on the banks of the Irrawaddy river in Myanmar.

Mandalay; Source: pandaw.com

Eva does manage to locate Maya and her half-English grandson, Ramon, and discovers secrets that even her grandfather does not know. The chinthe too is not what it seems and has an interesting back-story intertwined with the period when the last king and queen of Burma, King Thibaw and Queen Supayalat, were deposed by the British. As Eva tries to find out more about the past, she gets involved in a quest to find a missing chinthe and even embroiled in an international smuggling ring. Her passion for the past, especially antique furniture, draws her closer to the mysterious Ramon who may or may not be involved in the smuggling trade himself.

The story alternates between past and present here, with the past providing a glimpse of the deep and abiding love between Lawrence and Maya and the forces that drive them apart. In the present, parallel to Eva's unfolding quest in Myanmar, there is a side story of Eva's mother, Rosemary, in Dorset, England. Rosemary has never been able to move on in life after the death of her first husband and Eva's father, Nick. Consequently, she has alienated herself from her father Lawrence and her daughter. As Lawrence's health deteriorates and Rosemary nurses him through it, she comes to terms with her relationship with her father, daughter and second husband.

In the present, as Ramon shows Eva around Mandalay, the reader is allowed a leisurely sensory exploration of Myanmar. I felt instantly transported to the roads filled with the aroma of cooking, men and women in colourful "longyis" and clean shaven young Buddhist monks in saffron robes, the lush green gardens of teak and tropical orchids, the traditional houses smelling of coconut oil and sandalwood, and the moonlit nights fragrant with jasmine and fangipani. I too wanted to stand on the U Bein bridge in Amarapura, the oldest and longest teakwood bridge in the world, and watch as dusk descended on the lake.

U Bein bridge; Source: natav2.com

I found myself more involved in the present-day adventure that Eva goes through than the doomed love story in the past. Ramon comes across as mysterious yet strangely enticing, just like the intoxicating land to which he belongs. Maya is serene and accepting of her destiny, strong in spite of her outward fragility. Lawrence and Rosemary are perhaps the weakest characters, who too find redemption at the end.

I loved the hours that I spent immersed in the textures of this exotic country of teakwood, gold and Mogok rubies - a land of forgotten riches which still retains its deep spirituality. For me, it was a memorable read - one that is meant to be savoured and not breezed through.

All things gothic!

Book review: Valley of Nightmares by Jane Godman

Imagine my delight when I found that this book contained all the elements a true gothic romance should have! Young governess. Tick. Frightened child. Tick. Brooding, enigmatic employer (who may be the hero or the villain). Tick. Crumbling, old house in the middle of nowhere. Tick. Nightmares filled with a sense of impending doom. Tick. Creepy noises and eerie howling at night. Tick. Celtic legends. Tick. Mysterious dancing lights on the mountain. Tick. It was my lucky day indeed when I found this book on Goodreads! 

It is 1938, the eve of the Second World War, and Lilly Divine is earning a living as a burlesque dancer in a London nightclub. She starts having recurring nightmares of being chased by a sinister figure and in these dreams, she always sees a small girl who is being pursued by the same hunter.One day, her best friend and colleague, Ricky, is found dead - an incident which leaves her sad and determined to leave her ignominious career behind. Her chance comes unexpectedly in the form of Gethin Taran, a patron of the club who is looking for a governess for his eight-year-old niece, Ceri. Apparently, Taran House is a bit remote, on the foothills of Mount Taran, and not many young women are willing to venture out there in the wilderness. 

When Lilly arrives in Taran House, she is drawn to its sad, neglected aura - as if the house has been waiting for something or someone to awaken it. There is a crumbling clock tower at the top of the old house, which somehow fills Lilly with a sense of foreboding. But what shocks her most is Ceri, her charge - Ceri is the same girl Lilly has been seeing in her nightmares! Lilly feels an instant connection to Ceri and it seems Ceri recognizes her too. As Lilly starts settling in, she hears strange noises at night from the clock tower room above her bedroom, sees swirling, dancing lights on Mount Taran and hears eerie howling of hounds at night. She soon learns of the local Celtic legends which say that Mount Taran is a mystic place where the devil and his undead huntsmen ride through every night, along with their hounds of death. 

Things start getting dangerous as several attempts are made on Ceri's life and Lilly's bedroom is ransacked. A mysterious big, black dog appears one day, befriends Ceri and seems to protect both of them. A young man who is staying in the village nearby starts showing an interest in Lilly. In the midst of all this, Lilly develops a strong and unwelcome fascination for her mysterious employer, Gethin, in the true tradition of gothic novels :) There are supernatural elements thrown in, along with a bit of WWII intrigue - a missing top-secret letter, a dead evil twin, a jilted fiancee, a lake which drowns those of unpure heart, gypsy caravans and last but not the least, the house which may or may not be evil.

What I liked was the author's descriptive prose which brought out both the beauty of the surroundings and the pervasive sense of doom. Lilly is a refreshing take on the Gothic heroine, she is neither shy nor a dewy-eyed innocent; she tackles things head-on and speaks her mind. Her interactions with Gethin and her internal monologue are sometimes funny, and they nicely balance the eerie atmosphere of the rest of the book.

All in all, a nice, suspenseful, creepy, supernatural read - perfect for curling up with on a lazy evening, accompanied by a cup of steaming tea :)

Where felines rule!

After some heavy topics, I thought today I would add a dash of humour to my blog post!

Do you know which poem first got me interested in writing poetry as a child? One of my school textbooks had a poem called "Macavity: The Mystery Cat" by T.S.Eliot which I completely adored. It is a portrait of a feline felon, albeit written in a humuorous way. Every line of this poem is a wonder - the poet gives the cat all the traits of a criminal mastermind, yet manages to retain Macavity's cat-like characteristics - his unbelievable powers of levitation, his enigmatic attitude, and his ability to mysteriously disappear from the scene of crime (which is what all cats do!). You do not have to be an animal lover to appreciate this poem, though it helps if you are :)

Macavity: The Mystery Cat

Macavity's a Mystery Cat: he's called the Hidden Paw—
For he's the master criminal who can defy the Law.
He's the bafflement of Scotland Yard, the Flying Squad's despair:
For when they reach the scene of crime—Macavity's not there!

Macavity, Macavity, there's no one like Macavity,
He's broken every human law, he breaks the law of gravity.
His powers of levitation would make a fakir stare,
And when you reach the scene of crime—Macavity's not there!
You may seek him in the basement, you may look up in the air—
But I tell you once and once again, Macavity's not there!

Macavity's a ginger cat, he's very tall and thin;
You would know him if you saw him, for his eyes are sunken in.
His brow is deeply lined with thought, his head is highly domed;
His coat is dusty from neglect, his whiskers are uncombed.
He sways his head from side to side, with movements like a snake;
And when you think he's half asleep, he's always wide awake.

Macavity, Macavity, there's no one like Macavity,
For he's a fiend in feline shape, a monster of depravity.
You may meet him in a by-street, you may see him in the square—
But when a crime's discovered, then Macavity's not there!

He's outwardly respectable. (They say he cheats at cards.)
And his footprints are not found in any file of Scotland Yard's
And when the larder's looted, or the jewel-case is rifled,
Or when the milk is missing, or another Peke's been stifled,
Or the greenhouse glass is broken, and the trellis past repair
Ay, there's the wonder of the thing! Macavity's not there!

And when the Foreign Office find a Treaty's gone astray,
Or the Admiralty lose some plans and drawings by the way,
There may be a scrap of paper in the hall or on the stair—
But it's useless to investigate—Macavity's not there!
And when the loss has been disclosed, the Secret Service say:
It must have been Macavity!'—but he's a mile away.
You'll be sure to find him resting, or a-licking of his thumb;
Or engaged in doing complicated long division sums.

Macavity, Macavity, there's no one like Macavity,
There never was a Cat of such deceitfulness and suavity.
He always has an alibi, and one or two to spare:
At whatever time the deed took place—MACAVITY WASN'T THERE !
And they say that all the Cats whose wicked deeds are widely known
(I might mention Mungojerrie, I might mention Griddlebone)
Are nothing more than agents for the Cat who all the time
Just controls their operations: the Napoleon of Crime!

I was so influenced by this poem that I wrote my own version of a cat poem. I had, at that time, watched Michael Jackson dancing in one of the Grammy Award ceremonies and my fertile imagination conjured up the poem reproduced below :)

Merrybingo!

The world is full of many a singer
Some are old and some are new,
But wherever you go, you're sure to hear
Merrybingo's renowned mew!

Merrybingo's the most revered of them all,
His voice has a fame so much
That even kittens who can't crawl
Will lick the ground his paws touch!

His purrs are the generation's craze,
(They say even Michael Jackson imitates a few!)
And when he gracefully bows on the stage,
His feline looks make females swoon!

Merrybingo's a unique Siamese,
His albums are all super-hits,
And everybody dances to the tune of his
"I saw you over a bowl of fish!"

His voice causes waves of cat hysteria,
His songs can even cure diphtheria,
For never before did the world know
A singer as great as Merrybingo!

I wrote this when I was 15 years old and it was my second published work. It was published in the Children's section of  The Statesman, Kolkata edition. Granted, it can't be compared to the maturity of my later poems but it will always hold a special, warm place in my heart :)

Ghosts of memories

Book review: Haunted Ground by Irina Shapiro

Imagine having a strange fascination for a country you have never visited, imagine feeling a pull towards a house you don't even know exists, imagine feeling a certainty that you belong to a particular place more than anywhere else in the world. That is how Alexandra Maxwell (or Lexi as she prefers to be called) has always felt - that she somehow belongs to England, to a place steeped in history. 

Her dreams of visiting England have always been ignored by her American parents, but they become a reality when her father passes away, leaving her the family business. She promptly sells off the business and flies to England to buy a house which she can convert into her own Bed & Breakfast.

That is how she lands up in a small, remote village in Lincolnshire not even on the map and discovers the house that she has always unconsciously searched for:

The house loomed in front of me. tall and gray; the stone walls bleached by decades of sunshine and rain and buffeted by wind, the south side dressed in a thick coat of ivy that crept almost as far as the gabled roof. The half-lowered blinds in the upstairs windows gave the impression of hooded eyes, wearily watching me as I stood there on the lawn, my whole being flooded with joy and a sudden sense of deja vu. 
This was it; this was the house I'd been looking for. I didn't know where I would find it, but I knew exactly what it would be like, and how I would feel when I finally saw it.

Lexi discovers a faded sign announcing that the house is up for sale and immediately contacts the estate agent to buy it. The agent, Paula, is overjoyed to have sold off the property which had apparently been on the market for a long time. She tells Lexi that the property had belonged to an old lady named Mrs. Hughes whose ancestors had lived in the house since its construction in the seventeenth century. The house is bordered by trees and an old creek, beside which Lexi spots a mysterious ruin. It seems the ruin is part of the property and the old owner even left a stipulation in her will that the ruin is not to be demolished. The ruin obviously is an older structure than the house but no one seems to know for what purpose it was built or who it originally belonged to.

From here, the novel starts alternating between the past (1650) and present, with two different story lines - the seventeenth century plot about a soldier named Brendan Carr in Oliver Cromwell's army, and the present-day story about Lexi's first days in the house. In the past, Brendan is disillusioned with Oliver Cromwell's cruel battles against the Scottish and deserts the army. He returns home, only to find that his father is dead, his younger brother has usurped his property and his fiancee, his beloved sister Meg is widowed and his mother is on the deathbed. His scheming brother, Jasper, throws him out of the house and  sends men to murder him on the highway. Brendan is able to kill the assassins but is severely wounded in the process. He somehow manages to reach his uncle Caleb's house in Lincolnshire, where an old priest gives him shelter and a young girl called Rowan nurses him back to health. Even as a tender relationship starts growing between Brendan and the mute Rowan, they are surrounded by enemies and traitors - Jasper, Rowan's betrothed Stephen and spies sent by Cromwell to capture Rowan.

Oliver Cromwell

In the present, Lexi hires a contracting agency owned by a handsome Scot, Aidan Mackay, to restore and redesign the house. As Aidan and his workers dispose off the old furniture, Lexi slowly starts settling down in the house. She notices a man who emerges from the ruin every evening to pray in front of an old tree and then goes back dejectedly inside the ruin. One night, she wakes up to see a faint candle burning on the second floor of the ruin and a man, similar to the one she had seen earlier, reading a book. But in the morning, when she and Aidan go into the ruin, they find that the second floor and stairs no longer exist and even the roof has caved in; no living person could have actually climbed up to the second floor. So who is the man Lexi had seen? Why does Lexi keep seeing the same sad man every day at twilight? If he is a ghost, is he in some way tied to the ruin? Why does he seem to repent in front of the tree endlessly? One day, while digging up an old wall in the basement of the house, Aidan's workers find a locked room which it seems hasn't been opened in centuries. They break down the door to find a coffin with a skeleton inside. The name 'Brendan Carr' is engraved on the coffin, but no one in the village or vicinity seems to know who Brendan Carr or his descendants were. 

To add to the mystery of the past, there seems to be a mystery in the present too about Lexi's background. Some old residents of the village seem to recognize Lexi and express happiness that she has finally found her way back to where she belongs. Lexi is confused by what they mean but no one wants to explain their strange comment. She comes to know purely by chance that a murder had taken place in her house some twenty years back - when Mrs. Hughes' daughter Kelly was murdered by her husband. She is driven to know more about how she is connected to the house. Who is Lexi really? What secrets are people hiding from her? Who can lead her to the truth?

As skeletons in the closet are revealed, both literally and figuratively, Lexi realizes that she needs to find the answers to the questions plaguing her past and present, so that she can move on. She gets support from Aidan in this and there is a nice little romance between the two, but this is largely overshadowed by the poignant and doomed love story of Brendan and Rowan in the seventeenth century. How are the two story lines tied together? How are the ruin and the house connected? What eventually happens to Brendan and Rowan? Are the ghosts of the past and the present laid to rest at last by Lexi? To find out, you have to read "Haunted Ground" yourself :) I liked the book and would recommend it to lovers of paranormal or past-present mysteries.