Fifty Shades Twisted

It is useless to deny the effect of the Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy on women all over the world. It is the fastest selling adult novel in our time and sold faster than J.K Rowling's Harry Potter, both vie e-books and physical copies, clearly showing that sex sells. I wake up one morning and my girl friends are raving about this new found guilty pleasure and I had to see for myself. The trilogy features three novels Fifty Shades of Grey, Fifty shades Darker and Fifty shades Freed, by E.L. James . I was completely blind sided and found myself reading something that one does not expect to see in a mainstream NY TImes Best-selling novel. It was clearly compelling when I first began, trying to see just how far the heroine would go to please her man. The book follows the lives of 21 year old, naive and in-love Anastasia Grey and the mysterious and enigmatic Christian Grey. There is also a sub plot on the side dealing with the romantic lives of Ana's friends Kate and Ethan and Grey's siblings, Mia and Elliot. Its all very hunky dory really, that everyone manges to find everyone else and they live happily ever after. Set like a typical romance novel it starts off explaining the might, power and rare beauty of both characters (which of course the characters themselves are unaware of!), leading me to believe it was a typical case of "the peasant falling in love with the prince" fairytale. Early on we find out that the prince is more twisted than kind and that his pet peeve is forcing corporal punishment on women he is involved with and an exaggerated inability to love. The author is quick to point out that it is all consensual so we don't think him too much a monster. We find out, later on, that he is the way he is due to the trauma he faced as a neglected child of a crack whore. E.L James admits to have started off as a fan fiction writer to popular young-adult series, Twilight. Though many (including Stephanie Meyer) have relinquished any connection with the Twilight series and acknowledged that it is clearly a different style of writing, there is no denying the similarity in the characteristics of the main characters.

The writing is clumsy, the monologues of the heroine, irritating. The characteristics of the hero are just down right unbelievable. The most difficult part about the book to read, for me, were the long un-wanted conversations Ana has with her inner self (her inner goddess and her subconscious). The connections between the three books and the transitions are loose at best. The phrases are repetitive. The plots, predictable, and the adult contents mostly unnecessary, and seemingly added at a much later date just to add to the spice. Anastasia Steels comes off as whiny and shallow and Christian Grey is far from the ultimate fiction hero (Think Rhett Butler in Gone with the wind). The character of Kate is obnoxious, and Mia is an exact replica of Alice from twilight. Ana's friend Jose is not well written and appears and disappears throughout the series.

I found it hard to believe that so many women all over world are so enthralled with the series because of the way it was written, but I could relate to the idea that every woman's ultimate fantasy is to find a wayward man and make him fall in love with you and then change him to become everything you want him to be. (Wouldn't you agree ladies?). Fifty Shades is just that. Anastasia Steel is a plain Jane walking around with all the insecurities a normal woman walks around with and she meets Christian Grey who thinks of her as the most special woman he has ever laid eyes on. Simply put the character of Ana Steele is like a pair of free size gym pants that any of us can slip into and relate feel comfortable with and Christian Grey's love is what we all desire. (Sounds and awful lot like Bella and Edward in Twilight doesn't it ?).

Another point to note is the reaction that the series has received from feminists all over the world. The Indian Journalist Barkha Dutt in her famous Twitter feed proclaimed "As a feminist horrified at d cult following 'Fifty Shades of Grey' has acquired.I refuse to read it on principle". Followers of the famous journalist reacted in kind with comments about they could note believe this aberration was available in the free market. Now now ladies, I understand its certainly not vanilla and usual but you need to hold your horses. This is not a book justifying domestic abuse or anything of the like. Its simply a fantasy novel with some very adult content and intends no harm to woman anywhere. This what happens when people read summaries of books and react instead of just going and seeing what its about and coming to terms with the fact that its just another trend that will blow over.

The high point of the book would have to be at the end of Fifty Shades Freed when the books turns around and shows us the story from Christian Grey's perspective. Similar to the feeling one gets after reading Stephanie Meyer;s "Midnight Sun" (Edward's version of Twilight), it leaves the reader feeling warm and fuzzy. It is this observer's opinion that the book will certainly appeal to you any day of the year if you are a woman unlucky in love of just looking for something that will make you feel good about the possibility of love in the horizon, and certainly not for the practical minded and the faint hearted. This however seems to be the dawn of a new era where being twisted, and somewhat sinister will be considered attractive. After all that is what happened with the Vampire trend right? Fifty shades is rumored to being soon cast as a major motion picture, starring Ian Somerhalder (Damon from the Vampire Diaries) as Christian Grey. Perhaps this will be something to look forward to for all the lonely women out there.

The Good Muslim by Tahmima Anam - One woman's struggle for independence

Recently I read "The Good Muslim" by Tahmima Anam, an unforgettable story about the consequences of peace after the shadow of war.. The book outlines the minimal triumphs and the continuous struggle in the life of the much loved fictional character of Maya Haque. It is a story about love, loss, faith, politics and family conflict. The story is set in Dhaka and talks about Maya, a young doctor (mid-wife and surgeon), during and after their struggle for independence. Maya and her mother survie the war to welcome home Sohail (Maya's brother). As is typical with war vetrans from their time, he suffers trauma and manic depression from the unspeakable he did and witnessed during the war. Maya is estatic her brother returns home. Sohail, troubled by something he did during the war beings to recend into a cucoon of silence and turns to religion , specifically Islam, after some direction from his mother. The act itself is not shared until much later in the plot. The book then goes on to explain all they went through when the lost their father and were forced to move to Pakistan when they were 10, and then follows Sohail in his tumultuous journey into religions fanatism. He loses touch of reality, turns his back of family, love and education. Maya unable to handle it much longer leaves Dhaka, and becomes a village doctor for 10 years only to be influential in the life of a pregnant village girl who delivers a baby with down syndrome. The village folk take it as a curse and whip the mother as punishment and Maya is forced to, abadon her friend return to Dhaka where Sohail just lost his wife. Sohail's son is a fast favourite of Maya's and we that at the age of five,  is an illiterate street urchin, all in the name of religion. Sohail goes on to become a religious leader, leading people into a world of illiteracy and darkness. The book also goes into a description about the unsung heroes of war - the women. The one;s that are left behind and await eagerly for news about the fate of their loved ones and the ones that are left unprotected un enemy territory. Maya Haque helps these women who were abused and taken advantage of by foreign armies after the community turns their backs on them. The leads to further conflict between Maya and Sohail. Maya also meets a man, Joy, towards the middle of the novel, who shares her principles and strengthens the readers idea that all will end well for her. However, we are drawn into the climax that follow Maya into troubled waters where she finds herself after she goes out to rescue her beloved nephew. To stop myself from giving away too much about the book I shall not go into the details but its enough to say that it is heart wrenching.

What made it hard to accept were Maya's revolutionary ideals and courage, so atypical in a woman from her time and background.  Perhaps that is what qualifies to make her the heroine of a book, but one cant help wonder if this Bangladeshi writer, born into an affluent family and educated abroad, truly understand the quality of of life that people lead or still lead in a south asian country like Bangladesh.  Otherwise the book is well written, the plots- complete and the characters become dear to the reader's heart. As the winner of the Commonwealth Writers prize and shortlisted for the the Man Booker award it is an easy sell and definitely a must read for dreamers and idealists alike.