Two Lives by Vikram Seth
Jun. 23rd, 2008 02:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smittenbyuI picked up this book sometime ago. I am not sure how I came across this book. I think it was one of the days at the library during a break. I was looking for something else to read that made me randomly search authors that ran across my mind. Alright not many authors came to mind at that moment. My head was filled with sciences and environment. So, I remembered A Suitable Boy. And from there I found this book, Two Lives.
It's an extensively written biography of two people he (the author) holds dear to his heart, a bit of auto-biography and memoir that spans the last century! It gives a great insight of how history impacted the many lives that crossed roads with the two main characters.
It was a bit longer than I could handle. Parts of it felt like he just pieced together many letters (well, he did) and didn't show his writing skills and got a bit dry. But overall made for good reading.
The book put the impact felt by people of what I learnt in high school history. It also gave me further insight into the formation of Israel and the birth of another conflict to add to the already sensitive area. I was surprised that in my history class we had spent so much time studying the second world war and the aftermath in Europe and Japan that we never touched on other places. That this book helped to fill in. I think this was a book I enjoyed not only because I learnt more about history but also how it affected human life.
Would I suggest this book? Definitely. It's for someone who has the patience to read a slow read and yet learn something new.
Now I am reading another history book. This time about India. It's a thicker book than Two Lives and it's not a story about one or two people but the billion people that make India today. India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy
It's an extensively written biography of two people he (the author) holds dear to his heart, a bit of auto-biography and memoir that spans the last century! It gives a great insight of how history impacted the many lives that crossed roads with the two main characters.
It was a bit longer than I could handle. Parts of it felt like he just pieced together many letters (well, he did) and didn't show his writing skills and got a bit dry. But overall made for good reading.
The book put the impact felt by people of what I learnt in high school history. It also gave me further insight into the formation of Israel and the birth of another conflict to add to the already sensitive area. I was surprised that in my history class we had spent so much time studying the second world war and the aftermath in Europe and Japan that we never touched on other places. That this book helped to fill in. I think this was a book I enjoyed not only because I learnt more about history but also how it affected human life.
Would I suggest this book? Definitely. It's for someone who has the patience to read a slow read and yet learn something new.
Now I am reading another history book. This time about India. It's a thicker book than Two Lives and it's not a story about one or two people but the billion people that make India today. India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy
