Book Review Of 'All The Bright Places'

Book- All The Bright Places

Author- Jennifer Niven

Pages- 392

*Trigger- The story of a girl who learns to live from a boy who wants to die.

The story starts at the Bell Tower of the high school Finch was studying in. Finch, full name Theodore Finch starts his day thinking Is it a good day to die? Every morning he wakes up, this is the first thing he thinks.

Standing as high as a narrow ledge of six stories above the ground, he was thinking if it’s the time for him. He opens his eyes and the ground is still there, hard and permanent. Standing on the ledge of about four inches wide, he saw a girl on the bell tower when the guy from the ground turned his head from Finch towards another direction. That’s all it took for him to change his mind. She was Violet Markey

Mr. Embry was the counselor of Finch. He called him Embryo, (not loud enough that it can be heard but yes, in his mind). At the beginning, Finch needed to go once a week to Mr. Embry but later on that turned into twice a week. Monday and Friday.

Mrs. Marion Kresney, school counselor of Bartlett High was the one to whom Violet needed to go every Friday. Although she used to go there, the things she spoke there was a complete lie.

In school, the news of Violet, who by then became the hero for saving the life of Finch spread like a wildfire. Although it was the other way round, but it became a sensational issue among the students and also the teachers who took it as the truth and no one corrected them.

Mr. Black teaches U.S. Geography and it was then he was taking about the ‘Wander Indiana’  section Finch raised his hand and suggested for something-A field trip to see the wondrous sights of Indiana. Mr. Black thought it was appropriate and gave the class a project wherein they have to make a report on at least two, preferable  three wonders of Indiana. And, they were supposed to work in teams. A team of two. When Mr. Black just finished his sentence, Finch raised his hand again and asked if they can choose their partners. The answer was ‘Yes’. And the next thing he said was I choose Violet Markey.

Finch tries to find Violet on Facebook. He went to Amanda Monk’s page first thinking he might be able to get Violet’s profile from there. And he pulls up her friend list, typing in ‘Violet’. Desperate to know more about her, he Google searched Who is Violet Markey. Instead of knowing more about her, what he pulls from the Google search is EleanorandViolet.com which lists Violet as cocreator/editor/writer. The next thing he pulls up from the search is a news article-

Eleanor Markey, 18, a senior Bartlett High School and member of the student congress, lost control of her car on A Street Bridge at approximately 12:45 am. April 5. Icy conditions and speed may have caused the crash. Eleanor was killed on impact. Her 16-year-old sister, Violet, a passenger in the vehicle, sustained only minor injuries.

After reading the news article, he sign up for Facebook just so that he can send he a friend request. When at night he logged in to Facebook, there was a notification. Violet Markey accepted your friend request. From that night onward they started chatting over the project they were into. The Indiana wanders.

Through the course of the Indiana wander project, Finch and Violet catched up often to decide the places they would like to make a visit for their report. And it was during that time they bonded well with each other. After the death of Eleanor, Violet was left broken. She thought it was her fault, the entire thing that happened with Eleanor. When Finch asked her to tell him about the accident, Violet told that, that night, Eleanor and Eli Cross had a fight after which they left the party. It was her who told Eleanor to take the A Street Bridge and then once they were on that road, Eleanor told that she can’t hold on and that was how it happened.

After they started with the project, Finch took Violet to places she had never been before. They went to a place where a giant chalkboard in which people wrote what they wanted to do before they die. Finch picked up the chalk and wrote ‘before I die I want to play guitar like Jimmy Page. Come up with a song that will change the world. Find the Great Manifesto. Count for something. Be the person I’m meant to be and have that be enough. Know what it’s like to have a best friend. Matter.’ After sometime, Violet placed her hand on the chalkboard and wrote ‘Stop being afraid. Stop thinking too much. Fill the holes left behind. Drive again. Write. Breathe.’ Violet used to write about the places they have visited in a notebook  and keep a note of the place they have wandered. All the places and along with it all the memories with Finch too.  

Finch was the guy who helped Violet to get into a car and then let her drive a car all by herself (because she left getting inside one after Eleanor died). Finch helped Violet to get a life of her own. Finch gave Violet a hope that life doesn’t ends when people do. Finch was a motivation for Violet that made her live her life. But what about Finch? Was it the same for him? The guy who wanted to die every day (the guy whose first thought used to be if today was the day for him to die), will he be able to survive the conditions of his life?

For me, Finch as a character was cool, crazy and always-there-for-you kind of guy who made me belief that Jovian-Plutonian gravitational effect actually exists but then later on confessed that it was an April fool’s joke. I liked his sense of humor.

Finch’s parents were divorced a year back and Finch sees him once a week.  And the worst thing is his father is married to a lady who is half his age, Rosemarrie, and has a son who is so small that he doesn’t look like he is the child of his father. For him the time spent at his father’s new home where he lives with his new wife and his small son is the worst time for him.

If you note the thing in the book you will notice that Finch was depressed from the beginning of the story although the ingress of Violet in his life made him momentary happy, Violet on the other hand was depressed too, but Finch helped him to get out of that. Eleanor’s accident thing.

The saddest part in the book is the death of Finch. I wish I could have saved him.

The project of Indiana wanders remained incomplete when he died but Violet decided to finish the wanders and went on alone with the car of her mom.  When Violet completed all the places she needed to travel, in the last wanders, she got an envelope where her name was written on it ‘Ultraviolet Remarkey-able’. She pulled the envelope and took out three sheets of thick staff paper, one covered in musical notes, the other two covered in words that look like lyrics.

You make me happy,

Whenever you’re around I’m safe inside your smile,

You make me handsome,

Whenever I feel my nose just seems a bit too round,

You make me special, and God knows I’ve longed to be

That kind of guy to have around,

You make me love you,

And that could be the greatest thing my heart was ever fit to do…

You make me lovely, and it’s so lovely to be lovely

To the one love…

You make me happy…

You make me special…

You make me lovely…

At the end of the story, you will get to know that before Violet visited the places that were left by both of them to travel together, to make a report on, it was not the quest that was completed by Violet alone. Before Finch died,  he visited all the places they were to visit and left something behind so that Violet would get to know that he was once there.

 This book isn’t about just the story of Finch and Violet. It is a story of many of us.  It somehow teaches us that we are broken. We all are. At some point or other in life. We are shattered. We lose hope. But that’s life and that’s how we have to make our self strong  and moving.

P.S.- Thank you Angaihi for letting me read this book J

P.S.S- It is a great book but again, it depends on the taste of your books . (Don’t read it if you are depressed, instead of feeling good, you will feel more low reading the life of Violet and Finch)

Overall rating- 3.8/5

Book Review of 'Chokher Bali'

Book- Chokher Bali

Author- Rabindranath Tagore

Translated by Radha Chakravarty

Pages- 384

‘Chokher Bali’ as the title suggests means ‘grain of sand in the eye’. Being a Bengali novel, the title is quite captivating. In the story while Binodini and Asha became friend,  Binodini asked Asha what name she wanted to keep for their friendship. Asha named Ganga water, Bakul blossoms and several other auspicious items. But Binodini considered them as outdated and less affectionate. That was when she suggested ‘Chokher Bali’, a constant irritant as to name their friendship. Though it felt abusive to hear, Asha accepted this abusive term of endearment for the sake of their friendship

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The story starts with Binodini’s mother appealing Mahendra’s mother to consider a match between their children. Both of their mother were once childhood playmates in the same village. After plenty of pleads by Mahendra’s mother when Mahendra’s refused the subject of marriage his mother became gloomy. To please his mother he decided to see the girl once and then refused himself from seeing saying what’s the use when he is going to marry her only to please his mother.  With a carefree mind, Mahendra’s mother fixed the date of their marriage and as the days approached, Mahendra became more and more anxious and just a few days before the marriage he declared that he can’t go through with it (he refused to marry).

Written more than a century ago I wonder how amazing a writer Tagore was. Going through his work for the first time I grew more and more drawn towards this book.

Bihari was Mahendra’s close friend. And as there was no alternative, Mahendra’s mother asked him to fulfill this duty of marrying the girl. But, joining his hands in supplication, Bihari told that’s the one thing he can’t do. Bihari considered Rajalakshmi (Mahendra’s mother) his mother and addressed her as Ma.

Finally, Binodini got married to a fellow villager from her birthplace (which was suggested by Mahendra’s mother). But not long after, the girl became widow.  

Three years later, Mahendra’s mother told him that, it’s her, people blame for not letting Mahendra to get married for the fear of losing him to the bride.  Mahendra laughed off the topic but he continued saying to his mother after a pause that a wife takes over a man’s whole life upon arrival and then the mother who has lavished so much care and affection on her son is forced to step aside.  He didn’t wanted to marry for the fear that his wife will supersede his mother.

Mahendra’s Kaki and his mother often had fights on small-small issues and the fact that Mahendra’s kaki had no one by her side she weeps her sorrows alone. Mahendra inwardly gets hurt when his mother taunts her and makes her feel ashamed.

Mahendra’s Kaki had an orphaned niece, whom she hoped to wed to Mahim (Mahendra) just with a thought that she would be able to keep her own sister’s daughter close to herself and see her happy. Looking at his Kaki’s face who was sitting by the open window of her room, her head resting against the iron grill, Mahendra’s heart was filled with pity. After the meal, he went to his Kaki to ask her if she would allow him to see her niece once. Annapurna (Mahendra’s Kaki) was amazed and asked Mahendra if he is inclined towards marriage but he said he has persuaded Bihari for the marriage.

Later, the two friends went to see the girl. Ashalata (Asha)was barely twelve or thirteen years old.

Mahendra who went with Bihari to see the match for his friend, liked the girl and persuaded Bihari to let him marry the girl. Bihari though, departed without raising any objections himself liked the girl and found no reason not to marry.

Later the unfulfilled desire in Kakima’s heart was fulfilled when Mahendra got married to Asha and she came as a bride of Mahedra in the house. Although Mahendra’s mother raised an objection saying that if he married the girl he will have no prospect of enjoying a relationship with the in-laws (since Asha was an orphan). But Mahendra resolved it by saying the he won’t regret the lack of social interaction with his in-laws but he really desires to marry the girl.

After marriage, Asha was found not to be well versed in domestic skills and thus her mother in law drained her energy in learning the daily chores of the house. Mahendra saw his wife everyday drained out after the heavy works of the day. Sometime he used to quarrel with his mother for letting his wife do such works. Mahendra took out time and made his wife learn how to read and write. Mahendra failed in his medical exam that year.

After the long span of verbal abusing by Mahendra to his mother, his mother decided to go to her birthplace for sometime where  Bihari accompanied her throughout her journey and stay. She arrived Barasat her birthplace where Binodini, the widowed girl came to mitigate and serve Mahendra’s mother (her Pishima). When it was sometime of her stay there, Mahendra’s mother decided to go back to Kolkata. Binodini who found her solace in serving her Pishima had an outburst of emotion since she had no one to serve and live with. Later while they were returning to Kolkata (Mahendra’s mother and Bihari) they took Binodini with them to live along with them.

Binodini was a well versed lady in all kind of domestic skills. Mastery came naturally and easily to her and she had no qualms about setting the domestic staff to work, rebuking them or ordering them about. She likes doing things herself without any help or assistance freely. At first Asha was jealous of the way Binodini used to manage all the work alone but later they became good friends.

As days went by, Mahendra began to get attracted towards Binodini while Binodini started having a huge respect towards Bihari. And Asha without any notice about the changes in the attitude of Mahindra kept on going with the daily chores of work.

Later Mahendra’s Kakima leaves for Kashi leaving the worldly attachment.

Binodini creates a gap in the pure relationship between Mahendra and Asha through the letters she had written to Mahendra during Asha’s absence (when Asha went to Kashi to meet her Mashima for some days)

The story contains many untold revelations which you can discover yourself after reading the book.

The advice given to Asha by her Mashima when she was leaving for Kashi was one of the realistic advice I would like to share, which is - If you wish to be happy don’t cling to all your memories. The pain dwelling on the wrongs done to us by other people far exceeds the little bit of pleasure we derive from condemning others for their guilt.

If you can’t forget you will keep alive the memories of other people too. Even if you can’t accomplish this of your free own will, take it as an order.

The story depicts the pureness of a bond and along with it the acceptance of the orders laid by the elders. Marriage is a bond which not only is sacred by the vows taken during the seven pheras of the fire but also a bond of trust and respect throughout the journey of the married life.

P.S.- This book is written more than a century ago and thus the virtue and the way the book is written is different from the modern day.

Overall rating- 4/5