Short read on long reads

Last week, I finished Cuckold. It's Kiran Nagarkar's best book. Or so I’m told. I haven't read his other books. His other books are on interesting subjects. But I doubt they'll be as engaging as Cuckold. I'm afraid I might be disappointed. But that's life, I tell myself. The fear of disappointment mustn't prevent you from trying things. I will give one more of his other books a shot. Maybe the one about Bollywood. The one set in Mumbai. I am partial to books set in Mumbai. So partial, I will push myself to the finish. Even if they are not so well-written.

Cuckold is not a light read. By that I mean it's a big book. It's less than half as big as A Suitable Boy. But it's still big enough to fall in the category of big books. A Suitable Boy is a big book. It is a book big enough to define big books. But big doesn't begin with A Suitable Boy. Cuckold, in my book, is around when books become big. In my book any book over 600 pages is a big book. How I arrived at this number baffles me. For a 12 year old, 100 pages may be humongous. For an illiterate, even a page is a big book.

It's hard to nail what a big book is. What I do find them is most intriguing. Far more than I find smaller books. In a blind choice test, I'd go for the thicker book. Always. 400 pages or 500, which one do I wish to read? The latter is what I’ll plump for. Of course, the whole thing changes with more information. Sacred Games was a quicker read than Franny and Zooey. A Suitable trumped Old man and the Sea. Cuckold beats Heart of Darkness. That said, I have a soft spot for the novella.

The first novella I read was The Little Prince. I found it enchanting. It helped that I adore most things French. Novella is a French word. I was instantly attracted to it. The Little Prince is widely loved. It is by a legendary french writer. It had the makings of a read in one sitting. The possibility of reading something in one sitting entices me. I did it with The Little Prince. It is an achievement I wear with pride. (It is a rare occurrence, you see.) A great novella is doubly intoxicating. For one, it’s a demonstration of perfectly precise storytelling. And two, it offers you the high of a read in one sitting. It is a high only voracious readers will understand. Appreciate. And crave. It is the reason I haven't dived into Solar Bones.

Solar Bones is not a novella. (No, let's not get into how small is novella-small.) Solar Bones is, like novellas, an experiment in storytelling. It is a novel in one sentence. Yes, one very very very long sentence. Very unlike the sentences I rattle out. A novel that's one very long sentence deserves special treatment. It begs an attempt to polish off in one sitting. But it's not a novella-length book. It's typical book length offering. It will take some doing to do in one sitting. I think I'll read Infinite Jest first. Or maybe Ponniyan Selvan. I read tomes faster. Go figure.