As a teenager from Sri Lanka, Sunny liked to play cricket but none of his new friends in Manila were remotely interested. That is until the gorgeous Tina arrived, with her impeccable timing: the year was 1971, a year for an extraordinary match. |
Three decades on, Sunny is now settled in London with a teenage son of his own. But despite the quiet comfort of his life, he feels unmoored. Trying to reconnect with his past, he goes to watch the visiting Sri Lankan team play at the Oval. |
Gunesekera is the acclaimed author of The Reef (shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1994) and Heaven's Edge, and The Match is a funny, heartwarming story about cricket, growing up and falling in love. |
KANCHENJUNGA Col Narinder Kumar Brijbasi Art Press 156 pages Rs 1500 |
This is a fascinating account by the expedition leader of the first ascent of Kanchenjunga, the Himalayan giant, from its most difficult side. Kanchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world, had been climbed only once by the British from the Northwest in 1955. The Northeast Spur route, however, had thwarted previous brave attempts. |
In the spring of 1977, Col Kumar led a team of 16 Indian Army climbers to attempt Kanchenjunga. From the start they met with unusual odds. The choice of the pre-monsoon season for the expedition gave them an inflexible and extremely short period. |
The weather turned foul and the porters deserted. An expeditioner died even before the team had reached camp III. But the team undauntedly fought on against the almost impossible odds and, after nearly a hundred days of endeavour, made the summit. |
This book, lavishly splashed with photographs, tells the story of the triumphs and failures, and of the superb mountaineering skills and courageous leadership that went into the expedition's success. |
CONVERSATIONS WITH JOHN SCHLESINGER Ian Buruma Random House 177 pages $11.99 |
Schlesinger, the British director who made such films as Billy Liar, Darling, Midnight Cowboy, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Marathon Man and The Day of the Locust, is one of those artists it's difficult to have a strong opinion on. |
He had a solid body of work and there are certain things he was undeniably good at (directing actors, for instance, or working with writers to augment an existing script), but he can't be regarded as an auteur "" as the sort of director who controlled all (or most) aspects of a production, who imposed his own unique vision on a film. |
At the same time, you can't call his movies workmanlike "" there's more to them than that. |
This book is a collection of conversations between Schlesinger and his nephew, the writer Ian Buruma, and if you've seen any of Schlesinger's films you'll undoubtedly find parts of it interesting. |
Specific points of interest are the director's recollections of his experience as a gay man in 1940s and 1950s England, and his musings on the differences between American and British acting styles (courtesy an extended discussion about the well-chronicled friction between Dustin Hoffman and Laurence Olivier on the sets of Marathon Man). But if you're looking for an indepth understanding of the director's work, you might be disappointed. |