Category: Fiction

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida won the Booker Prize in 2022, and it is a captivating read that will engross you in its world. The book explores various themes, such as the afterlife, the experiences of LGBTQ+ individuals, the importance of true friendship, and national and international politics. It also touches on the issue of deforestation, which leaves animals vulnerable and without a home.

What sets this book apart is its masterful storytelling. The author skillfully weaves various elements into a captivating narrative that includes all the abovementioned themes.

I was particularly impressed by the imaginative portrayal of the afterlife. The author brings together all the concepts we have heard about life after death and presents them in a free-flowing manner that captivates the reader.

The narration encompasses a range of human emotions, such as humor, happiness, ecstasy, anguish, fear, lust, anxiety, love, hatred, respect, devotion, and many more intangibles.

The story begins with Maali Almeida, a Sinhalese, in a crowded room with many other souls. They are all shouting and demanding answers from a few people in white robes behind a few counters. The individuals in white robes are enlightened souls who guide the dead to their respective floors based on their data. It’s a chaotic scene, and the deceased ones have not yet come to terms with their passing.

When it’s Maali Almeida’s turn, he learns that he has seven moons (seven nights) before he can enter the light.

But after death and before ‘the light’, there is an in-between inhabited by ghosts and ghosts who prevent the dead from entering light as they feed on the gloom and haplessness of the dead. Maali is a photographer, not the kind who clicks holiday pictures, but the kind who could bring down the government by exposing its savagery and carnage in 83 pogroms and 87 wars.

The book covers his journey of seven moons while building suspense around his death, which unravels only at the end. It prosaically covers the vagaries of the afterlife and how it’s crowded even there.

The afterlife also has good people (the ones who want you to go towards the light) and bad people (who tempt you into the vicious circle of finding your murderers and hence being stuck in the ‘in-between’ for a thousand moons and more).

The text describes a series of events in the author’s life. His childhood was difficult; his father left him and his mother, and he blamed his mother for it. He wasn’t interested in reading during his teenage years and found it bland. However, in adulthood, he discovered his passion for photography and realized that he found certain men beautiful and was not attracted to women at all.

The story revolves around Mali, Jaki (his female friend who loved him dearly), and DD (his friend and lover). The text also includes a gory description of the war between LTTE and SL and how countless innocent people died in the conflict.

The book ends with Maali entering the light (it’s not as easy, though; towards the end, the events lead you to believe he might remain stuck in the in-between).

I enjoyed reading this book. Even though it’s about the afterlife and ghosts, it wasn’t scary. The story is very well written, and every scene is described in a way that feels real and grounded. The way all the events are connected is impressive and unique.

I highly recommend this book!

Kurt Vonnegut’s short story Miss Temptation was first published in the 1950s by Saturday Evening Post. It also appeared later in an anthology called Welcome to the Monkey House. 

Miss Temptation by Vonnegut: Summary and Plot Analysis

Miss Temptation, if the name doesn’t give it away, revolves around a temptress, a young actress named Susanna, who lives in a small village one summer while performing in the nearby community theater. The beautiful woman is the object of villagers’ attention, most of whom are aware and look forward to her daily routine – which involves a barefoot sensual walk through the village. 

She is polite to everyone but rarely ever talks to anyone but Bearse Hinkley, an elderly pharmacist, who supplies her with the city newspapers.

One day while buying her newspapers at the drugstore, she is confronted by Corporal Norman Fuller, who has recently returned home from a tour in Korea. It was the first time he had seen her, and the experience was too overwhelming to digest. 

He criticizes her, calling her ‘a great American actress’, not realizing it was her actual occupation. Initially thinking this is a compliment, Susanna thanks him but soon realizes it was meant as a taunt. 

Fuller storms out not long after, making his disgust at her and for the tendency of women like her to make people like him feel ordinary and lonely. 

Shaken by this sudden, unexpected outburst, Susanna runs back home.

Later, the focus briefly shifts to Fuller’s life, where he is shown having dinner with his widow mother. Her mother tries to initiate a warm and light conversation with Fuller by talking about his friends and connections, but that makes Fuller sulk even more. 

Most of his friends, if not all, had married or moved on since he left, leaving him completely and utterly alone. The conversation dies soon after him mentioning his interest in divinity school and the earlier episode of belittling Susanna.

Fuller and Hinkley have a conversation later that night. Fuller goes on to explain his earlier stance with Susanna again, pinning his outburst on the way he had been treated by beautiful women growing up, including the ones from high school that seemed to think they were extra special. 

Hinkley sympathizes, having been on the receiving end of such treatment in his days of youth. He later reveals that Susanna had skipped her theater performance that night. Fuller is pleased to have had any impact on a woman like her.

The next day, as people wait for Susanna’s daily appearance and her walk, they are surprised to see a truck pulling up in front of the firehouse. 

Susanna seemed to be moving away with her things. 

When Norman begins her rant about Susanna again, Hinkley accuses him of being frightened of her. Fuller rejects the claim but reluctantly agrees when challenged to prove it by delivering Susanna’s papers that day.

Norman goes to Susanna’s and finds her dressed conservatively; her room which he expected to be fitting that of a seductress’ lair, was anything but. 

She confronts him about the outburst, demanding an explanation, at which he reveals he had no intention of chasing her away. His treatment at the hands of beautiful women like her had been a harrowing experience, which got the better of him. 

Susanna went on to explain how quick people had always been to judge her, given her beauty, ignoring the fact that she was a human being, too, with a beating heart.

They reconcile their differences eventually, and Fuller steps out for the village walk with Susanna on his arm.

Miss Temptation: Review, Quotes and My Thoughts

I went on reading the story with the preconceived notions in my head, assuming poignant sexuality as the only theme. While it was one of the more stark themes in the story, it offered way more than just that. 

Fuller, who stands in for the lonely, not looked at twice kind of a guy, doesn’t criticize Susanna just because she is pretty; he does that also because he thinks that his bitter experience of being ignored gives him the reason. 

At some level, it’s his deep insecurity not to be able to deserve the affection or even the attention of a beautiful young woman.

Look at the colorful phrases used by Vonnegut to describe the characters – 

Susanna, the golden girl of a thousand tortured daydreams

Fuller the lonely, Fuller the homely, Fuller the bleak.

I know it was not meant to be comedic, but my first instinct was to laugh when Susanna thanked Fuller for calling him a wonderful American actress. 

But I was soon overcome by guilt, feeling my heart warmed by her naivete. 

There is a gamut of emotions flying around. Fuller’s pent-up resentment against the beautiful kind, his biases apparent: 

You do everything you can to give lonely ordinary people like me indigestion and the heebie-jeebies, and you wouldn’t even hold hands with me to keep me from falling off a cliff.

Hinkley‘s life which was quite similar to Fuller’s in terms of the treatment meted out to him by the fair ladies, is now merely an exercise in reminiscence:

All my pleasures are looking at what used to be pleasures.

And then there is Susanna. Having suffered judgements of all kinds on account of her beauty.

All through high school, people like you would look at me as if they wished I’d drop dead. They’d never dance with me, they’d never talk to me, they’d never even smile back.

It is easy to focus on one side and completely forget the other! How mean is it to hold the biases dearer than a fellow being? How easy is it to judge and even easier to be a hypocrite?

Susanna would probably have been the last person I sympathized with, coming into her story. 

But that would be before my walk with Miss Temptation.

The Last Leaf is one of the most popular short stories penned by O.Henry. First published in the early 1900s, this was part of his short story collection, The Trimmed Lamp.

The Last Leaf by O Henry: Summary and Plot Analysis

The story, set in Greenwich village, revolves around the lives of two young female artists – Sue and Johnsy, who live together in a small flat on the third floor of an old house. 

Johnsy, suffering from pneumonia, is critically ill. She lies in her bed without moving, continually staring outside the window, worrying Sue. Her prognosis doesn’t look good, and the doctor expects her end to be near, given her complete lack of will to live, rendering the medicines ineffective.

Sue tries to make Johnsy a bit more interested in things around her, but to no avail. Sue begins to paint instead but is soon distracted by Johnsy counting backward, looking outside the window. Sue comes to know that Johnsy was counting the leaves left on the ivy creeper, visible from their window. Johnsy also proclaims that the moment of the last leaf from the creeper falling would be her last breath. 

Sue, worried sick at Johnsy’s statement, tries to show how absurd that thought was and to convince her not to think such things. 

Knowing that her efforts did little to convince Johnsy, Sue rushes to seek help from another painter downstairs – a 60-year-old man named Behrman. 

Behrman’s lifelong ambition was to paint a masterpiece, but so far, he hasn’t been able to paint it. 

Sue mentions her concerns about Johnsy’s lack of will to leave and her belief that she will sleep forever once the last leaf falls. Seeing no sense in such imaginings, Behrman laughs it off but agrees to honor Sue’s request to pose.

Johnsy was surprised to see the last leaf still clinging to the creeper the following day and the following evening despite the storm. 

Filled with remorse at her depression and lack of response to her friend Sue, Johnsy stops thinking of death and moves on. 

Sue is delighted to see her having soup and combing her hair – something she sees as a sign of the return of her desire to live. The visit by the doctor confirms that Johnsy is well on the path to recovery.

Once fully recovered, Sue lets Johnsy know of Behrman’s death from pneumonia, painting the last leaf which kept her alive.

The Last Leaf: Review and My Thoughts

This story brought back flashes of Gift of Magi; however, I surprise myself when I say that I find this one more saddening than the latter. 

The lonesomest thing in all the world is a soul when it is ready to go on its mysterious far journey. The fancy seemed to possess her more strongly as one by one the ties that bound her to friendship and to earth were loosed.

While somber at the core, there are a lot of other flavors in the story. Consider the unnamed physician, for example. There is a certain weird comic relief from the unnamed physician that visits Johnsy, 

I will do all that science, so far as it may filter through my efforts, can accomplish. But whenever my patient begins to count carriages in her funeral procession, I subtract 50 percent from the curative power of medicines. 

If you will get her to ask one question about the new winter styles in the cloak sleeves , I will promise you a one-in-five chance for her instead of a one-in-ten.

And then there is quite the strong emotion that Sue betrays, when asked if love with a man was what was root of Johnsy’s misery.

Has she anything on her mind worth thinking about twice – a man, for instance?

“A man?” said Sue, with a twang in her voice. Is a man worth – but no, doctor; there is nothing of the kind.

Not once is there a mention of the families of either Sue or Johnsy. And as far as I can recall, not of Behrman either.

The girls seem poor and young but devoted to each other and the craft. 

The old man downstairs: a drunk but soft-hearted; he is willing to go the distance for them. There is a certain purity in their emotion – otherworldly, seemingly embodying art itself.

O.Henry has painted for us quite the life of struggling artists. I marvel at how astute the painting is. Almost as good, if not better, than Behrman’s masterpiece.

This short story by O.Henry, published in the early 1900s, explores the theme of justice, compassion, and love.

A Dollar’s Worth: Summary and Plot Analysis

The story opens with a letter. The letter is a threat from one of the convicts to the judge Mr. Derwent, who had presided over the case leading to his conviction. 

The judge, used to such threats in his line of work over the years, brushes it aside, although he does make a note of the threat against the district attorney.

The district attorney, Mr. Littlefield, is engaged to be married to Nancy Derwent, the judge’s daughter.

The judge informs Littlefield of such a threat, who smiles with contempt, but is curious to know the writer, who, he soon learns, is a man nicknamed Mexico Sam.

The distraction didn’t last long, as the district attorney was soon called upon to judge the case of counterfeiting by Rafael Ortiz.

There were witnesses to him passing on the counterfeit coin to purchase a medicine bottle. According to the deputy that brought him in, this was the first time he was caught.

A woman named Joya Trevinas soon visits them and claims to be the one that made the counterfeit money and got Rafael to pass it along. It was her fault that he was in prison, and she would happily swap places with him.

Littlefield, having seen such occurrences commonly, denied offering to make any such accommodation. He would prosecute based on evidence and nothing else. Rafael would have to make his case in court.

Littlefield and Miss Derwent went off for plover shooting later that day. While busy enjoying the shooting and each other’s company, they soon see a man attempting to attack them. Littlefield tries to keep Miss Derwent out of harm’s way while struggling to defend himself against the attacker.

Littlefield gets minor injuries in a crossfire that ensues, while Mexico Sam, their attacker, dies.

The following day in the court, Littlefield requests the court to strike off the case and requests a pardon for Rafael Ortiz.

It is later revealed in the conversation between Littlefield and Kilpatrick that the fake lead counterfeit coin ended up saving their life. He also asked for the address of Ortiz’s girlfriend, Nancy Derwent, who had been meaning to meet her.

Who doesn’t like happy endings?

A Dollar’s Worth: Review and My Thoughts

The story brought back memories of a movie I watched years ago. A movie called The Judge starring Robert Duvall and Robert Downey Jr.

The story, like the movie, explores the themes of justice, compassion, revenge, love, and gratitude. 

A disgruntled convict, a fair judge, a clever deputy, and two young men, willing to do whatever it takes to shield their love from harm. The thing about the story is that it is authentic and believable. The evolution of the district attorney’s perspective is very organic and, as a result, heartwarming.

I can do nothing. The case comes up in the morning, and he will have to make his fight before the court.

Pity hasn’t a place in jurisprudence.

Can’t you go down the jacals and find where Joya Trevinas lives. Miss Derwent wants to know.

Not to say that the judge was any less fair after, but the incident with Mexico Sam, and seeing the mortal threat to the love of his life and his own, opened his eyes to the importance of compassion. At the end of the day, we are all humans.

Nancy Derwent was shown to be compassionate from the start. Her reaction to the Trevinas’s visit was very different from Littlefield’s.

Can’t you do anything for them, Bob? It’s such a little thing – one counterfeit dollar – to ruin the happiness of two lives! She was in danger of death and he did it to save her. Doesn’t the law know the feeling of pity?

I am an expert by no means (read I know nothing), and to me, this quote from Julian Baggini captured the essence of this short story:

A society needs both justice and compassion, a head and heart if it is to be civilized.