Comic Book Reads: The Complete Peanuts (1950 To 1952) by Charles M Schulz

For those who have enjoyed the wit, endearing artwork, humour, unexpected poignancy, wisdom and sheer joy of the Peanuts comic strip, this is a must buy. 

Canongate Books deserve applause for coming out with the complete, detailed collection of 25 books that cover the comic strip's entire 50-year illustrated history, tastefully done in hardcover. And of course, hats off to Charles M.Schulz, who lived and breathed the strip for most of his life. Incidentally, Schulz passed away a day before the last strip was to appear in newspapers all over the world.

This particular collection is special for it contains the complete first two years of the strip, right from the first one with the opening line - "Well! Here comes ol' Charlie Brown!". The characters looked a lot different than how they were drawn in the later years.These were early days for Schulz, we can see him still figuring out each character's look and behaviour.

As American author and radio host Garrison Keillor reveals in the introduction, Charlie Brown was a reflection of Schulz's tormented childhood. We  instantly connect with Brown, for like all of us, he has his growing up issues. He is troubled by his constant failure in managing his baseball team. His lack of self-esteem,  loneliness, inability to talk love to girls, all come to the fore.  The important thing is, despite the odds, Charlie Brown keeps trying.

Then there is Snoopy, who, like the Indian drama's 'vidushak', provides comic relief with straight-faced humour. Be it Snoopy's attempts at writing stories that all begin with the line - 'It was a dark and stormy night', his love for cookies, multiple disguises and witticisms, Snoopy is a comic-strip dog like no other.

Additional characters make Peanuts stand out, giving it an epic family feel. Take the forever sour Lucy, an embodiment of an elder sister. Catch her younger siblings Linus and Rerun cower; sometimes get back at her in their own cute, harmless way. Peppermint Patty,  a loyal friend to Linus, reminds us of school friends who stubbornly stuck to our side. Woodstock, a little whisk of a bird with his comma filled interactions with Snoopy provides cute festival decoration to the legendary strip.  

To conclude: No adult characters have ever been featured in a Peanuts strip, ever!

(Article by Snehith Kumbla)

Short Story Reads:The Verger by W Somerset Maugham

Just like the friends we make, certain writers have the knack of bonding with readers through their works. During my teens, I struck a friendship with the most unlikeliest of writers - a certain William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965). 

As it goes with two peaceful souls, our relationship has been harmonious.Neither has tried to communicate with the other yet, stuck as we are on either sides of the graveyard. Jokes apart, I read most of Maugham's works during my teen years, thanks to The British Library, Ahmedabad - from the forgotten short story collection The Casuarina Tree to his best novels - Cakes and Ale, Up at the Villa and The Moon and Sixpence. 

Rereading certain Maugham's works does tell us that they haven't stood the test of time and are not as relevant today. Yet, the writer's persisting legacy are his short stories.

My favourite Maugham short stories emanate universal truths, surprise, compassion and delight. An otherwise melancholic and serious writer is clearly enjoying himself in these tales. One such classic, cheeky story is The Verger. It is not the O Henry-like twist, but the absurd happy turn of circumstance that is celebrated here. A change of guard, discovery of illiteracy, unemployment and a business idea makes up this breezy tale. Read it here.    

(Article by Snehith Kumbla)

Short Story Reads: The Lighthouse Keeper Of Aspinwall by Henryk Sienkiewicz

I do not know what to say emphatically about the much-imposed love for the country. To love human beings, trees, rivers, mountains, waterfalls, or a gentle evening breeze is more fulfilling. 

In comparison, the whole idea of patriotism seems manufactured. The way armies man borders and war makes killing acceptable and dying heroic, only proves that human beings are still possessed by fierce territorial blindness.

All other creatures on the planet kill in sheer instinct for food and survival, and are otherwise in harmony, what does that make us then?   

These thoughts surge in the wake of a poignant story I just finished reading. 

It concerns an old man, his life of misfortune, his search for solitude, the sea's vastness, and the faraway aroma of the homeland.

The Lighthouse Keeper of Aspinwall (1881) is a story originally written in Polish and tells of another kind of longing, a desire associated with birthplace, geography, culture, people, and land. 

About the writer

Here's a lesson in Polish names and a pronunciation exercise combined in one. The full name of the writer of this luminous story, Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius Sienkiewicz (1846 - 1916).

Conferred the 1905 Nobel Prize in Literature, the strong vigour of patriotism in Sienkiewicz's works stems from his father's family, who played a major role in the fight for Polish independence. The writer was so loved in Poland that funds were successfully raised to buy his family's ancestral castle for him in 1900.    

Endnote 

Draped with the completeness and girth of a short story, an atmosphere that matches a novella for its fluid verbosity and reflection, here is the link to The Lighthouse Keeper of Aspinwall. 

Happy reading!

(Review by Snehith Kumbla)

Short Story Reads: The Mark of Vishnu: Stories by Khushwant Singh

This compact Penguin Evergreens edition (first published in 2011) contains ten of Khushwant Singh's short stories.

Singh's writing style is akin to an entertaining newspaper article, adorned with a layman's vocabulary and easy to comprehend. 

Cheekiness and biting satire stand out in this collection. The straight-faced effect of the words is the author mocking at mindless conventions, traditions and cruelties. 

On to the stories now. 

The Mark of Vishnu is an early Khushwant (1950). 

It conveys with a fatality, the foolishness of stubborn beliefs. The Mulberry Tree is an insightful story of how a middle-aged man's loneliness and brush with death leads him to disillusion. A Bride for the Sahib is a post-independence tale of an arranged marriage, cultural aloofness and its tragic implications.

The Bottom-pincher is a mischievous tale with its study of high-society perversion and hypocrisy. The Black Jasmine dwells on sexuality and old age. Death comes to Daulat Ram tells of the effect impending death has on us, has a surprising whisk of the supernatural, unusual in a Khushwant Singh story.

The Portrait of a Lady is the most endearing story of the collection. It tells of a grandmother - seen through her grandson's eyes, her stoop and wrinkles get through. The story winds up with an inevitable, poetic demise.The Riot brims in catharsis and violence and brings forth how humans can be more demonic than animals.

Two damning stories make up the book's fag end. The Voice of God tells of a electoral masquerade that could be happening anywhere in rural India. 

Much of the attention that Zora Singh draws is through its casual narration of how a sycophant becomes a Member of Parliament and is awarded the Bharat Ratna!

Underrated, misinterpreted

All through his writing career, Singh has had the habit of getting carried away while describing anything sexual, a characteristic the late writer attributed to senility, leading to crass, bordering on soft porn novels like The Company of Women (1999). But no such frivolities mark the stories collected here. 

The tales tell of Khushwant, the journalist and writer with a keen eye and curiousity for life - and the way people go about it. This collection features the writer at his restrained best. 

(Article by Snehith Kumbla)