October 19th 2010

Beginnings...in italics are the opening paragraphs of two recently read books.

Alan Furst - The Polish Officer

In Poland on the night of 11 September 1939, Wehrmacht scout and commando units - elements of Kuechler's Third Army Corps - moved silently around the defences of Novy Dvor, crossed the Vistula over the partly demolished Jablonka Bridge, and attempted to capture the Warsaw Telephone Exchane at the northern edge of the city. Meeting unexpected and stubborn, resistance, they retreated along Sowacki Street....

This is then followed by an introduction to the main character, action etc..

Kiren Desai - The inheritance of loss

A clever novel describing the effects of colonisation but in my opinion none of the characters are adults - although this may be deliberate. None of the characters seem to emotionally behave as adults with most stuck as children- having simple feelings which they have to act on. Also interestingly there is no central protagonist but an array of interacting characters. For me there was some synchronicity with the novel being set in Kalimpong where I have been trying to arrange electives for medical students from Auckland.

KanchenjungaAll day, the colours had been those of dusk, mist moving like a water creature across the great flanks of mountains possessed of ocean shadows and dreams. Briefly visible above the vapour, Kanchenjunga was a far peak whitled out of ice, gathering the last of the light, a plume of snow brown high by the winds at its summit.

This starts the book with loss - loss of the day but with something large in the background.