My First Hundred Years

Murray, Margaret. My First Hundred Years. London: William Kimber 1963. Print.

First Sentences:

I always think that an autobiography should begin with some account of the forebears and immediate family of the writer so that one can understand some of the early influences which have affected the writer and have helped to make him what he is. My ancestral tree is a very short one going back to only one set of great-great-grandparents, about two hundred. I have quite undistinguished lineage...

Description:

I sought out Margaret Murray's autobiography My First Hundred Years after reading The Dictionary People by Sarah Ogilivie, and discovered Murray was a contributor of more than 5,000 entries to the original Oxford English Dictionary. The words and definitions she sent to the editors (after the call went out to the general public for assistance in finding new items), focused on India where she was born and spent much of her life, as well as her field of Egyptology and also witchcraft. Better still, I found OED contributor Murray had written her autobiography at age 100, something I felt would be extremely interesting to peruse.

And she did not disappoint. Her memory is remarkable for a centenarian (or for anyone for that matter), and her writing style exquisite: free-flowing, descriptive, chatty, and full of interesting details of life as a woman archeologist in that very new field.

Born and raised in Calcutta, India, to wealthy parents, Murray was educated in London where she became interested in archeology, a class she only had taken on a whim. The professor, Sir William Petrie, a pioneer of the new field of Egyptology, took Murray under his wing. She edited and illustrated his writings, eventually accompanying Petrie to Egypt as a site nurse. There she absorbed his methods and discoveries at various sites and soon grew to be a qualified archeologist in her own right. She became a teacher of Egyptian linguists and translator of hieroglyphics at the University of London.

What I loved about her recollections was her attention to details and personal feelings. She related memories of the visit to India of the Prince of Wales, where attending Maharajahs competed to out-dazzle each other in their dress. For example, the Maharajah of Patiala wore a coat with "fronts, color, cuffs, and hem embroidered with gold thread and peals, [and] round his neck he wore at least four graduated rows of diamonds, the longest reaching nearly to his waist."

Her early home life included eating with small silver cutlery (larger ones were never adopted by her father) and, at the end of the meal, having the visiting servants of the invited diners carefully frisked for any valuable spoons they might have pocketed. Her mother encouraged a broad education without focus on a single subject, a technique that so limited Murray's brilliant sister Mary she never could focus on one skill and thus was unable to rise to her potential in piano, mathematics, or language. Murray also recalled tales of the horrific Indian Mutiny as related by her grandmother.

As an Egyptologist, Murray translated inscriptions found in tombs, uncovered a major temple to Osiris constructed by the Pharaoh Seti I, and was the first woman to unwrap an Egyptian mummy. 

Murray later became an ardent supporter of women rights and suffrage, including pushing for acceptance of women in academia and archeology. She expanded her on-going interest in folklore to include witchcraft, a topic on which she wrote many books as well as the entry for the Encyclopedia Britannica on that topic.

Hers was an amazing life, one that is now available to lucky readers to delve into the world of nineteenth century India and twentieth century (and centuries-earlier) Egypt. I was totally fascinated to "listen" to her recall story after story, detail after detail, of the worlds she knew and was eager to share. A lively, lovely story of an important woman's world and achievements. 

 

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:] 

  

Ogilivie, Sarah. The Dictionary People.    

Carefully details the lives of those people from the general public who contributed words, definitions, and sources for terms to be included in the original Oxford Dictionary. (previously reviewed here)

Happy reading.

Fred

 

Click here to browse over 465 more book recommendations by subject or title

(and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader).

A Rising Man

Mukherjee, Abir. A Rising Man. New York: Pegasus 2017. Print

First Sentences:

At least he was well dressed.

Black tie, tux, the works. If you're going to get yourself killed, you may as well look your best. 

Description:

I'm late to the party, I now add a critical evaluation factor to  determine the quality of a book. To my big three evaluation points ("Characters," "Plot," and "Writing Style"), I've now added  "Setting," the world where the characters live and plot occurs. Probably obvious to everyone else, but I've only recently begun to realize how much a role Setting has in my love for a specific book. 

The omnipresent setting sets the tone, drives the plot, defines the characters by their reactions to their world, and exemplifies the writing skill of the author challenged to realistically, compellingly describe an unique environment. Maybe it's a futuristic Sci Fi setting like in Ender's Game that pulls readers more deeply into the story. Or maybe the rawness of a maximum prison like My Life in Prison that grabs your attention. Or the dispassionate ocean in Life of Pi. Or the icy whiteness of Arctic Solitaire. Or the quiet isolation of a rural farm in Plainsong.  

This realization for me was brought about by Abir Mukherjee's wonderful detective novel, A Rising Man. The setting is Calcutta in 1919 colonial India. A Rising Mani details the daily life of both Indians and British as they exist in this environment, constantly interacting with each other, looking at their world from completely different perspectives.

First, there is the steamy hot environment of non-air conditioned post-War India where every minute the characters are aware of and must respond to the heat, the monsoon rains, dirt, poverty, stuffy rooms, and for some, the calm atmosphere and cool drinks beckoning from the Bengal Club.  

The stairwell smelled of respectability. In truth, it smelled of disinfectant, but in Calcutta that's pretty much the same thing.

Then there is the underlying tension between the 300 million Indians beginning to whisper about independence and the 150,000 British who tenuously keep order and rule over them. 

[There is an] insolence of natives for not being grateful for all the British had done and continue to do for them;

Captain Sam Wyndham, the newly-arrived Scotland Yard officer, has come to Calcutta to head up a special police force. He is also trying to escape his World War I memories, the loss of his family, and his opium addiction. But his first murder investigation, a back alley murder of an important city official, has undercurrents of Indian unrest with British rule that suggest challenges beyond the usual crime. 

Sounds pretty straightforward, huh? But it is the unsettling environment that breathes life and dimension into a simple investigation and challenges Wyndham each day. 

I sat on the bed and, not for the first time, questioned what I was doing out here, in this country where the natives despised you and the climate drove you mad and the water could kill you.  

A Rising Man brought back memories for me of my year in India. But for readers not familiar with the country, believe me, you will know and feel the realities of that country intimately from the first pages. The heat, the monsoon rains, the poverty, the class barriers, and the rising tide of anger against the British. 

A bonus is that author Mukherjee has written several more books about Wyndham and his life in British India. Can't wait to dive into them and re-enter the setting of colonial India. Very highly recommended.

Happy reading. 

Fred

Other book recommendations
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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Mukherjee, Abir. A Necessary Evil.   

Captain Wyndham and his Indian sargeant are riding in the car with an important prince when an assassin kills the prince with an ancient gun and later shoots himself. Religious fanatic? Political terrorist? Or someone with a completely different motive? Loved it. 

Brierley, Saroo.  A Long Way Home.   

True memoir of the author when, as a five-year-old boy is accidently left by his brother at an unknown train station in India. Not knowing the name of his hometown, where he is, or how he will survive drives this very engaging book. A great look inside India and its people as well. Highly recommended (previously reviewed here)

Q & A

Swarup, Vikas. Q & A. New York: Scribner. 2005. Print.

First Sentences:

I have been arrested. For winning a quiz show.

Description:

Vikas Swarup in his novel Q & A has created one of the most clever and compelling stories that I can imagine. It is one of my favorite books to recommend to any reader looking for something new, something full of twists and turns, something with great characters and atmosphere, and something completely unpredictable.

Maybe you've already seen the movie Slumdog Millionaire which was based on this book. Don't be fooled. Q & A is far superior to the movie (as are all books compared to their movies), a riveting page-turner that simply cannot be put down from page one to the final irony on the last pages.  

Ram Mohammed Thomas, (yes, there is a great story behind how he got that name), is a poor waiter in a small bar in Mumbai, India. Uneducated, he somehow gets to be a contestant on the TV game show Who Wants to be a Billionaire? where he miraculously begins to answers all the questions correctly, gaining more and more money as he goes. 

The show's producers are astonished at his success and feel this ignorant young man of the streets must have cheated somehow. They try to beat out of him the trick he used, in order to avoid giving him the winnings and bankrupt the show. Only when Ram is rescued by a lawyer interested in justice and has questions of her own does Ram get to explain his story. 

All this happens in the first few pages.

In each ensuing chapter Ram tells the lawyer about a different episode in his life which provides him a morsel of experience that happens to be the exact information needed to answer a specific question on the game show. His knowledge of minutia is seemingly inconceivable, especially since the show's producers have demonstrated Ram does not even know the currency of France, the first man on the moon, the president of the United States, or the location of the pyramids.

Each chapter reveals more of Ram's life which consists of simply his struggles to stay alive using his wits, and from the kindness of people who help him. Often he runs afoul of not-so-nice people, portrayed with the realism and dangers that make their threats and the world they exist in so alive that we wonder how Ram can ever escape. From movie stars to kindly priests to tourists at the Taj Mahal to a special prostitute, the people and events of Ram's life form his education and his chances to win the game show.

The intricacies of each story of Ram's life and the inter-weaving of separate plots all skillfully written by Swarup make Q & A the most delightful and compelling of reads. My highest recommendation for all readers.

Happy reading. 


Fred

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          (and an Intro to The First Sentence Reader)

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Swarup, Vikas. The Accidental Apprentice

The newest novel from Swarup has a salesgirl seeking to become the next CEO of a major company. All she has to do is believe this is a genuine offer and then pass seven test "from the textbook of life" as devised by the company's founder. 

A Long Way Home

Brierley, Saroo. A Long Way Home: A Memoir. New York: Putnam Sons. 2013. Print

First Sentences:

They're gone.

I've been thinking about this day for twenty-five years. Growing up half a world away, with a new name and a new family, wondering whether I would ever see my mother and brothers and sister again. And now here I am, standing at a door near the corner of a run-down building in a poor district of a small, dusty town in central India -- the place I grew up -- and no one lives here. It's empty.

The last time I stood on this ground, I was five years old.




Description:

Imagine yourself at age five, sitting patiently on a train platform waiting for your older brother. When he doesn't return, you think he already jumped a train home, so you hop into an empty rail car that unfortunately locks behind you and prevents you from exiting. When the train finally stops, you find yourself hundreds of miles away in one of the world's largest train stations in Calcutta, India, alone.

A Long Way Home: A Memoir is the true adventure of Saroo Brierley, a five-year-old boy who gets lost in a foreign city. Illiterate, not even sure of his own name or the name of his
hometown, he must live by his wits for several weeks in the train station and on the nearby streets, his pleas for help ignored by everyone. Each day he selects a train and rides it to the end of it run, hoping that the train might be the same one that brought him to Calcutta and might now return him home. Day after day he rides, never seeing any familiar station, nor conductor or adult who might question a solitary child in the car or station.

He is eventually picked up by police and taken to a shelter for homeless children, a very dangerous place with threats coming from both inside and outside its walls. Luckily, he is transferred to an orphanage and eventually adopted by a loving family in Australia.

But as he grows up, he still remember his Indian home with his older brother, his mother, and younger sister. Because he cannot remember the exact name of his tiny city, using Google Earth he begins to trace each of the hundreds of railroad lines flowing in and out of Calcutta and explore aerial views of the towns along those tracks, hoping to spot a landmark he remembers. It is the work of years, but (as Brierley reveals in the opening sentences) he eventually discovers what he thinks could be his family home.

But what of his mother? What happened that night when he and his brother were separated? Why was he not able to get off the train? How far had he actually come from his village? And what does all this mean to his new parents and life in Australia? Many questions remain that can only be resolved by visiting this tiny city, his possible familial home.

The fact that Brierley wrote about his return to his Indian home in his first lines makes the book not a "will he or won't he find his family" story, but rather one that focuses on the journey taken to get to that point. It is the day-by-day recollections of a myriad of experiences of a five-year-old and later college-age man, taking readers into his world of survival and searching, living on the streets, the people who befriend or threaten him, and the family that loves him in Australia.

Brierley is an extraordinary story-teller, clearly weaving his life experiences into a gripping, compelling tale that reveals both the vast anonymity and poverty of the Indian environment as well as intimate thoughts and actions of one little boy and later a man struggling to find his home and family. His story has become internationally famous and now there is even a movie possibility, quite a giant step for a lost, illiterate, and poverty-stricken five-year-old,

It is a riveting story of triumph, discovery, and personal drive to survive and reach for answers to questions despite impossible obstacles. Wonderful, inspiring, and eye-opening. 

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Robinson, Marilynne. Housekeeping: A Novel

Another look at the world of a child trying to cope in the confusing world of loneliness, quirkiness, and family. Not quite the same story as Saroo's in losing a parent, but the young girl here is raised by a uniquely odd aunt and describes her feelings of survival and coping honestly and touchingly. I just love this book, so wanted to recommend it even if it is not exactly like Long Way Home. So there. 

Franklin, Miles. My Brilliant Career

Written when only 19 years old, author Miles Franklin recalls at her life in Australia in the 1890s which she found wanting for a budding writer. Her family life goes from humble origins to enjoying a world with a wealthy grandmother to teaching and living on a squalid farm. Wonderfully poignant and well-written, a classic in every sense of the word.