21 Lessons for the 21st Century, Yuval Noah Harari, 2018

Rating: 3/5

This is Harari’s third book — Sapiens looked at the past, Homo Deus explored the future and 21 Lessons discusses the present. My ranking of these three books is also in the same order.

This book is a collection of 21 essays divided in 5 sections with all of them neatly fitting into a cohesive narrative, perhaps fitting too neatly in some cases —the conclusion of each essay segues into the beginning of the next and that sometimes seems forced. What also seems forced are some of the essays which either hold no lessons for the reader or the lessons sound too glib — perhaps they were included to enable the alliterative title of the book!

In essence, Harari is a libertarian but still explores the current shortcomings of liberal democracy so that it can be improved and made more sustainable. Harari explores quite a few interesting ideas through the book. For example, in Work, he sees the need for combining a universal basic income with meaningful pursuits for humankind if AI makes most jobs redundant. He underscores the difference between intelligence and consciousness in Liberty. He explores the concept of the rich becoming a superhuman race, due to biotechnology, in the chapter on Equality. In Nationalism, he bemoans the fact that even as the increasing nuclear, ecological, and technology challenges need to be solved by a concerted global attempt, nationalism is on the rise. He explores racism versus culturism in Immigration. In Education, he makes the point that in 1018, we knew that the world would look the same in 1050 and could prepare for it. Today, we don’t know what the world will be like in 2050. The essay on Secularism was my favourite. With great clarity, Harari explains why it is not a simple negation of religion. 

There is absolutely no doubt about the fact that Harari is a fantastic thinker with insightful views on multiple topics, and a 3/5 rating perhaps seems a bit unfair. But besides some essays being force-fitted, I found some of his arguments specious, such as the one about the irrelevance of a majority of humankind —in the new world fuelled by technology, this majority will ultimately be consumers (of advertising for example in the case of Google) or suppliers (of data). Another example is his underestimation of the power of revolutions if inequality widens. This may be of a different kind from earlier ones in the history of humankind but there will likely be one nevertheless. Harari also uses several examples to make each point. While that can be interesting at times, it also sometimes makes this book a tedious read.

Pros: Insightful views on varied topics

Cons: Some essays seem force-fitted, a bit tedious

Various Hercule Poirot mysteries, Agatha Christie, 1920 to 1933

Rating: 5/5

It had been a while since I had read an Agatha Christie and with some trepidation (often, I've had bad experiences while revisiting things that I had enjoyed when much younger), I picked up the first of the Hercule Poirot (for me, Agatha Christie equates to Hercule Poirot) books, The Mysterious Affair at Styles. To my great surprise, I found that the joy of reading a Christie remains unabated -- I still find her books well-written, the plots well-fleshed out, Hercule Poirot still as clever as ever and overall, her books remain page-turners. I ended up reading three more of Poirot's early mysteries -- The Murder on the Links (#2), Peril at End House (#8), and Lord Edgware Dies (#9), all within a span of 12 days.

If I had to rank these four books in order, it would be Styles, Edgware, Links and End House. I have a fondness for Styles for it introduces Poirot. In this, he investigates the murder of an old, rich, and autocratic woman, who recently married a man 20 years her junior. In Edgware, a beautiful actress wants to get rid of her husband so that she can marry another, and sure enough, he is found dead. Links has the usual elements of a Poirot story -- a dead millionaire and several suspects including his wife, son and a mistress. An added bonus is that Hastings (the Watson to Poirot's Holmes) meets his future wife in this book. End House is slightly different in the sense that Poirot is trying to prevent the murder of a young girl who has had some close shaves in the recent path. For me, this was the most predictable of the four books.

An element of the Poirot books that I really love is the end denouement in which Poirot gathers all the characters of the story and reveals the identity of the murderer, after detailing out his thought process. Not all his books have this, and I prefer those that do. This style of denoument was actually an act of serendipity. In Styles, Christie had initially written a different climatic scene where Poirot reveals the murderer's identity in a courtroom. Her publisher protested that such an event was implausible, forcing Christie to rewrite the end. The legions of Poirot fans should be grateful to this publisher! As a bonus in the Styles edition that I read, the original courtroom climax is included as an appendix. Besides this aspect, all the Poirot books are cleverly plotted, have multiple suspects, enough red herrings and directs the reader's suspicions from one character to another through the book.   

The only complaint, if any, is that Christie keeps some important plot elements from the reader and only Hercule Poirot is aware of those. But then I am okay with this -- when I read the books, I enjoy the flow of the plot and do not necessarily attempt to play detective.

Pros: Cleverly plotted, page-turner, the usual denouement and of course, the inimitable Hercule Poirot

Cons: Some important plot elements are kept from the reader

Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami, 2002

 

Rating: 4/5

Kafka on the Shore is your typical Murakami book -- it is surreal and has magical or supernatural elements strewn about the book, has hidden messages not all of which is clear even at the end, but is extremely interesting overall.

The book is centred around two main characters -- Kafka Tamura who runs away from home to escape a prophecy and searches for his mother and sister, and Nakata, an old simple man who had a life-altering experience when young. and can now speak to cats. During their journey, we come across an imaginary person who is Kafka's advisor, fish that rain from the skies, a man who kills cats and stores their hearts in his refrigerator, a middle-aged rich woman who evokes Kafka's Oedipal complex, a transgendered gay man, alien abduction, soldiers lost in a forest who never get old, and several similar elements. The title itself refers to a painting and a song besides referencing the lead protagonist.

The book explores the fine line between imagination and reality through the book, and the distinction often blurs for the reader. The explanations for many of the occurrences in the story are never completely clear and Murakami allows the reader to make her own interpretations. As he himself puts it, the book contains several riddles, but there aren't any solutions provided. The form the solutions take will be different for each reader. It's one of the books where the journey is infinitely more interesting than the destination and plenty of wonderful thought-provoking quotes enhance that enjoyment.

Murakami is not for everyone, however. Some readers may be put off by the large extent of surrealism and even for those that enjoy it, parts of the story are left unexplained which can be somewhat unsatisfactory. However, most of his books are page-turners, delightful to read and provides the reader ample opportunity to contemplate the hidden meanings and nuances and Kafka on the Shore is no different. And that's what makes this a wonderful book to read!

Pros: Extremely interesting and page-turning, thought-provoking

Cons: Some readers may find this too surreal, no clear explanation for some aspects of the story