by Anita Desai (1984)
The book 'In Custody" , shortlisted for booker prize, is contemplated with various concerning issues of the World specifically India. These themes are status of Urdu Language in India, psychological and sociological elements of Indians and their traditions, the Scheming World , etc. Deven Sharma , a lecturer in a college, is the hero without heroism in the book. Murad and Mr.Jain are specifically the examples of a scheming World. Imtiaz Begum as a new woman, a genuine example of growing Feminism.
David Lodge
English professors are on the loose. In this second installment in the delightful trilogy of academic satires, the sun has not quite set on the sexual revolution, while political correctness has not yet reared its humorless head.
William Gaddis
With the publication of the Recognitions in 1955, William Gaddis was hailed as the American heir to James Joyce. His two subsequent novels, J R (winner of the National Book Award) and Carpenter's Gothic, have secured his position among America's foremost contemporary writers. Now A Frolic of His Own, his long-anticipated fourth novel, adds more luster to his reputation, as he takes on life in our litigious times. "Justice? - You get justice in the next world, in this world you have the law." So begins this mercilessly funny, devastatingly accurate tale of lives caught up in the toils of the law. Oscar Crease, middle-aged college instructor, savant, and playwright, is suing a Hollywood producer for pirating his play Once at Antietam, based on his grandfather's experiences in the Civil War, and turning it into a gory blockbuster called The Blood in the Red White and Blue.^ Oscar's suit, and a host of others - which involve a dog trapped in an outdoor sculpture, wrongful death during a river baptism, a church versus a soft drink company, and even Oscar himself after he is run over by his own car - engulf all who surround him, from his freewheeling girlfriend to his well-to-do stepsister and her ill-fated husband (a partner in the white-shoe firm of Swyne & Dour), to his draconian, nonagenarian father, Federal Judge Thomas Crease, who has just wielded the long arm of the law to expel God (and Satan) from his courtroom. And down the tortuous path of depositions and decrees, suits and countersuits, the most lofty ideas of our culture - questions about the value of art, literature, and originality - will be wrung dry in the meticulous, often surreal logic and language of the law, leaving no party unscathed. Gaddis has created a whirlwind of a novel, which brilliantly reproduces the Tower of Babel in which we conduct our lives.^ In A Frolic of His Own we hear voices as they speak at and around one another: lawyers, family members, judges, rogues, hucksters, and desperate men (and women) looking for a buck. Above all these is Oscar's voice - the outraged cry of the new anachronism, the self-proclaimed "last civilized man" rendered frail before the behemoth of the law, the servant and warrior of the soul of our century: money.
Harper Lee
One of the best-loved stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than 40 languages, sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, served as the basis for an enormously popular motion picture, and voted one of the best novels of the 20th century by librarians across the United States. A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inequities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father -- a crusading local lawyer -- risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime. Lawyer Atticus Finch defends Tom Robinson -- a black man charged with the rape of a white girl. Writing through the young eyes of Finch's children Scout and Jem, Harper Lee explores with rich humor and unswerving honesty the irrationality of adult attitudes toward race and class in small-town Alabama during the mid-1930s Depression years. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence, and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina and quiet heroism of one man's struggle for justice. But the weight of history will only tolerate so much. ---------- Also contained in: - Best Sellers from Reader's Digest Condensed Books
William Faulkner
Novels, 1942-1954 is a celebrated work by William Faulkner (Nobel Laureate, Double Pulitzer Prize Winner), recognized for masterclass storytelling and lasting literary resonance.