The Unknown Errors of Our Lives

By Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

This is a book of short stories spun around the topic of living in a different culture (America) to where you come from (India). It reminded me of why I do not like short stories very much. Once you get to know the characters and start enjoying the story, it is already over. I think this book could have been so much better had it been nine separate novels instead of nine short stories, because all the stories are so beautiful and interesting.

* Mrs Dutta Writes a Letter. The widowed Mrs. Dutta moves from India to the US to stay with her son's family. She tries to adapt to the new country and culture as best she can, but sometimes it is not only cultural differences that can cause problems in a family.

* The Intelligence of Wild Things. A story of a brother and sister who live in different parts of the US. The brother did not at first want to leave India to study in the US, but when their mother takes ill he does not want to return to India to see her.

* The Lives of Strangers. American born Leela goes back to her parents' roots in India where she goes on a pilgrimage. Here she meets a woman who makes a great impression on her.

* The Love of a Good Man. Mona has a hard time forgiving her father but after her mother dies her husband persuades her to let him visit. However, the wounds of the past heal slowly.

* What The Body Knows. The birth of her first child nearly kills Aparna. It takes a young doctor to bring her back to life.

* The Forgotten Children. Two young children dream of a life with more money and a non-abusive father.

* The Blooming Season for Cacti. Mira wants to be independent and leaves her brother and his family to settle in California. She meets a woman with a sad past, who wants to be more than her friend.

* The Unknown Errors of Our Lives. Ruchira used to write down all her mistakes in a notebook. Now that she is about to get married she sees that the biggest mistakes are the ones we do not even know we are making.

* The Names of Stars in Bengali. A young mother goes back to India to visit her mother, bringing along her two sons. Everything is not what it used to be in her village and her boys see things differently than herself. She also gets a shock when her youngest son falls ill and her husband arrives from the US.

Where or When

By Anita Shreve

This book seemed to be just a mediocre version of another Anita Shreve novel, The Last Time They Met. The stories have so many similarities right down to the two main female characters having spent time in the Peace Corps in Africa. But this story never reaches the heights of The Last Time They Met.

Siân Roberts and Charles Callahan meet for the first time as teenagers at summer camp, where they spend a week together. They are each other’s first love. Thirty years later Charles, now a middle-aged insurance broker, spots a photograph of Siân while leafing through his newspaper's literary supplement. Although married with three daughters Charles writes to Siân, who by now is a published poet, also married and mother of two children. Siân writes back, their correspondence develops into intimacy and they agree to meet again at the scene of their summer camp, now an inn, situated midway between her Pennsylvania onion farm and his Rhode Island seaside town.

Charles chooses to tell his wife about his affair with Siân on Christmas Eve, not the best of times to make that kind of confession. It also turns out that Charles and his family are about to loose their home because of overdue mortgage payments.

Meanwhile tragedy is also lurking for Siân's family. When her husband, who has suspected something is going on, finds a man's shirt in his wife's cupboard he goes to the barn and tries to shoot himself.

This is basically the plot of the story. It totally lacks drive in any direction and all the reader is left with is two people in their mid-40s going back and forth contemplating whether or not they should be together while hurting everyone around them. The ending is also somewhat disappointing. Rather straightforward and boring, and very overly dramatised.

Night Chills

By Dean Koontz

The plot is very straightforward. A group of three scientists have come up with a devious, horrible experiment for them to take control of the world. They have discovered a way to brainwash people and to open their minds using subliminal ads, and then programme them to do whatever they like. Their experiment is going to take place in the secluded town of Black River, before they move on in order to take over the subconscious minds of every person in the world.

The idea is to introduce subliminal messages in television programmes. It is really quite a frightening thought. You cannot help but wonder if there is something to it. In the book they use it in commercials and ads, and if that is true, well, then I cannot look at another ad for the rest of my life...

So, a drug is placed in the town’s water supply, which is supposed to help make people ‘riper’ for the subliminal messages. Because of this drug many people in the town are plagued by night chills and vomiting. However, obstacles arise for the three scientists when a handful of people do not respond to the drug. Shop owner, Sam, and daughter, Jenny, together with the out-of-towners, Paul (dad), Rya and Mark (daughter and son), are not affected. After a tragic event that unfortunately kills Paul's son Mark, they are able to find out what is going on and set out to save the town of Black River.

Not the best book I have ever read but it definitely makes you look at any kind of media (magazines, television, radio and the Internet) in a different way. Chilling.

The Last Time They Met

By Anita Shreve

This is the story about Linda and Thomas, who have a lifelong passion for each other even though they only meet three times in their lives, when they are 52, 26 and 17. It is about moments of no return and about missed and retrieved opportunities, time and memory.

The story is told in retrospect starting with the two main characters, Linda and Thomas, meeting at a writer's convention in Toronto when they are 52. They have been in love their entire lives but why they could not have each other is only revealed towards the end of the novel. The novel itself is divided into three parts. Part one and three are told from Linda's standpoint, and part two from Thomas' standpoint.

The character of Thomas is actually not new to this novel. He was also in one of Anita Shreve's other novels, The Weight of Water. It is not essential for this story to have read The Weight of Water beforehand although, if possible, I think I would recommend that you do.

In the second part of the book (the story told from Thomas' viewpoint) Linda and Thomas meet again in Kenya. By now they are both 26 and married, but once they meet again they cannot let go, so they end up spending as much time together as possible, until fate again separates them.

The last, and third, part of the book is the story of how they met. Linda comes from a difficult background and seeks comfort and attention in the arms of Thomas, who is a much more confident and secure person. It turns into love, and a love that is going to be with them for the rest of their lives.

The ending is really surprising because it is not one to be expected. I can understand why some people said they felt cheated by this ending but on the other hand, it can also be seen as giving a whole new perspective to the story. A book a really enjoyed reading.