It's good to be me
The title for this post is a line from a book that I recently read and loved. Its called The Flying Man.
He doesn't fly. Not in the aeronautical sense of the word atleast. He is a practical dreamer. One who hates and refuses to be chained.
And what are these chains? At first it was just the family in Pakistan. then it becomes his first wife Carine. She devotes herself to him and he can't stand it. He can't stand her. One day he just leaves her without any explanation and shifts to another country.
I am a person who loves funny and nonsensical things.This isn't a funny novel but I still think its top notch. It isn't serious either. It is not an adventure novel either but you want to know what happens next. What is he up to? Where is he going now? How will he react to this?There are so many layers to this story. I doubt I can do justice to each one.This is a quick read that keeps you thinking about the story long after you are done with it.
The Flying Man is about one man whose everything keeps changing-including his name. His name is Maqil. But he goes by many different names. They are usually a slight variation from his real name.He keeps changing it, depending on which country he is in or whose company he is in. He is known as Sonny to his parents (Pakistaani nicknames are just as bad as Indian ones). He is call Muhmet in Egypt,Miguel somewhere else,Mikhail in another place. It's hard to keep up with, really.
Reading after this line may lead to spoilers!
He likes gambling,in casinos and in life. He is the kind of person who will smile at your face while watching you sink. Not that he is evil , he just doesn't give a shit. People are like clothes to him. After a while,it stops fitting. He shrugs,throws them away and buys new ones. Even his kids don't get treated differently.He is a bit of an actor. Being fake is a way of life for him. As he goes through life like it was a stage, the shadow of a psychological disorder lurks in the corner.
The only person who he really seems to care about is his second wife Samira. She is a well educated woman from Kerela (I couldn't help but say "Mallu!" out loud when I read that) who is witty, well dressed and has Anorexia Nervosa. He falls in love with her,
They elope and get married. She has twins (Healthy ones, even though she smokes through her pregnancy)But they get seperated after a while.
The title from my blog post is a line where Samira tells Maqil "It must be good to be you"
Watch out for his third wife, Bernadette. I think she is a more interesting character than Samira. She has this Care Giver characteristic that dominates her personality. At first I thought that she was just a nice woman. Then I striked that out of my mind. I mean she is a nice woman, but thats not why she is the caregiving type. She is the kind who needs to give all their attention to one person and look after their well being. Then I refined this theory some more. She is a woman who picks the neediest one around. As in, first she was tsking care of her step mother. Then Maqil came into her life and he was her shiny new toy. Then it was Maqil's mom who had her undevoted attention while Maqil sat conffused as to where the care she had for him had vanished. Not that it made much of a difference to him. Then in the end she puts all her energy and care into raising her adopted child.
Some sentences are repeated over and over in the book. It drills in the idea into the brain and makes the idea more powerful. But sometimes it just gets annoying. I'm like "Okay, I've read that already.Can we move on now?"
I feel like I spelt out the whole book for you instead of actually reviewing it. In a way, I assassinated it for you. I did warn you. I wanted to give an idea about the character, get you intrigued and make you read it.
Roopa Farooki keeps us with Maqil from birth to death. We are delighted, exasperated,charmed,disgusted with the same man.
When I read this book, I remembered a concept that a friend had once told me about. It is called the Monomyth. It talks about how every story is a story of a man on a quest. That is the underlying structure of every story ever told. Whether its Ramayan or Harry Potter or The Flying Man.
And here is a treat video from one of my favorite shows in modern times- Psych.
Psych is a story revolving around Shawn,Gus,Shawn's Dad and the Santa Barbara Police Department.
Shawn pretends to be a psychic detective when in reality he is just hyper attentive and good at deducing things. Gus is the lovable assistant/partner/Magic Ball.
This is a video of all the nicknames that Shawn gives Gus.
Comments
Post a Comment