Man and Boy

Man and Boy, a book by Tony Parsons, is great reading. With his usual engaging style, Parsons superbly describes how a foolish one night stand shatters a happy family, the spiral of events and emotions leading to rock bottom and the slow path to recovery. The rendering of the father-son relationship central to the novel is absolutely endearing. If only for this, I highly recommend it to all fathers.

Synopsis

A fabulously engaging and exciting novel about a man who has to learn about life and love the hard way. Harry Silver has it all. A successful job in TV, a gorgeous wife, a lovely child. And in one moment of madness, he chucks it all away. Man and Boy is the story of how he comes to terms with his life and achieves a degree of self-respect, bringing up his son alone and, gradually, learning what words like love and family really mean. It is very well written, pacy, funny, and heart-breakingly moving.

Mr. Norris Changes Trains

"Mr. Norris Changes Trains" is a fascinating story about the misdeeds of an eccentric English crook in pre-WWII Berlin. As I was reading it, I felt that it was "very Fassbinder" (the grotesque characters, the bleak settings, the sexual vices and homosexuality, the oppression) and indeed, I later found out, Fassbinder was admittedly and profoundly influenced by Christopher Isherwood's "Berlin Novels" (of which "Mr. Norris Changes Trains" is a part of). "Cabaret" was also inspired by the "Berlin Novels".
Christopher Isherwood's writing is in itself extremely enjoyable for its clear, simple and apparently effortless style (reminded me of Hemingway), but what is truly fascinating about this 1935 book is the insight on Germany and Berlin in between the two world wars. The near-civil war between communists and Nazis, the daily struggle of normal people to lead a normal life, the up-close glimpses of some of the events leading up to WWII, all of these make this book a must for anyone who appreciates good literature or is interested in the history of the 20th century.

Synopsis

This book portrays a series of encounters in Berlin in the early thirties between the narrator, William Bradshaw, and Mr.Norris.

The Bell Jar

I guess that The Bell Jar is probably a disturbing book for any healthy mind that has never known true depression (either first handedly or by coming into contact with it through someone else). It takes you by the hand and leads you through the paths a troubled mind travels on its way to breakdown. Perhaps "it grabs and drags you" is a more correct way of putting it, as the experience is not pleasant. It is a bit autobiographical: Sylvia Plath, who committed suicide when she was still a young mother of two small children, had a similar experience in her early adulthood. I read it when I was coming out of a major depression myself. Looking back on it, I realize that reading it made a difference: it marked one of the stages of my prolonged "snapping out of it" period.

Synopsis
A student from Boston wins a guest editorship on a national magazine, and finds a new world at her feet. Her New York life is crowded with possibilities, so the choice of future is overwhelming. She is faced with the perennial problems of morality, behaviour and identity.