Short review of Corrections Corrections is this highly acclaimed book which came out 3-4 years back. I have been wanting to pick it up and finally got a used hardbound book in great condition for around Rs100. Now after reading I am thinking of selling it back, probably in weight!! Corrections is about a dysfunctional family in Suburban U.S. That one line describes the book quite neatly. You practically know who the characters are going to be – elderly parents in St.James (Kansas) with the old man suffering from Parkinson’s, and the old lady living out delusions of her own; elderly son who is financially well off and living in New York and is bordering on depression encouraged by a wife who doesn’t like his hobbies or his parents; second son who teaches literature at college and has lost tenure after seducing a young student and then escapes to Lithuania to help in defrauding Western investors; daughter, an upmarket chef marries an older guy followed by a break up, has a lesb...

Review of Fever Pitch - Nick Hornby, 1992, 242 p. Fever Pitch was voted the best sports book of all time by Guardian-Observer in a survey a couple of years back (beating out books like Beyond a Boundary). It surprised me that I had not heard about the book till I came upon this list. I picked up the book with some trepidation as I am not a great football fan, though I do catch the occasional EPL or Champions League matches. However one thing which enthused me was that the book was about an Arsenal fan and whatever little I have followed of the EPL, I have always been an Arsenal follower. Fever Pitch is an autobiography – a growing up story of the author set against the backdrop of the the author’s love and later obsessive interest in the Arsenal football club and how the key moments of his life, professional and personally, intertwine with the (mis)fortunes of the club. The book is structured innovatively with memories broken down into specific match days which is in fact re...

Review of Babel I have seen two of Alexando Gonzalez Inarritu’s earlier movies – Amores Perros and 21 Grams (both with the writer Guillermo Arriaga). I liked both of them immensely, especially 21 Grams for its structural complexity, for its top rate acting, for its moral clarity. Inarritu has reached a kind of auteur status after his two movies – for his structural innovativeness, his micro-cosmic moral world view and the great work he extracts from his photographer and editor who have as much a role to play in his success. Babel covers similar issues though not the same terrain as some of his earlier movies. It has 4 interconnected stories – some connections stronger than the other. · One story has a Moroccan villager who buys a rifle to guard his flock of sheep and gives it to his kids who playfully shoot at a tourist bus while practising with the rifle. · The second story involves an American couple (Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett) who ar...