"Arzee The Dwarf" by Chandrahas Choudhury. ****

• Summer Sub Club with Beth
• East Indian author
• Debut novel, Short list for Commonwealth First Novel award
• Originally published in 2009
• Vocabulary:
• Setting:  Bombay
• Characters:
•        Arzee (29 year old dwarf, projectionist at the Noor movie theater, loves Monique)
•       Deepak (gangster enforcer who befriends Arzee
•       Phiroz (older projectionist)
•       Dashrath (taxi driver/philosopher)
•       Rajneesh Sharma (reclusive owner of the Noor)

• Quotes:
•      p.1..."Each day in the world was a battle against the might and will of myriad forces,  so then why shouldn't he change track and direction as it suited him?  A man couldn't just be as he was,  as he felt he should be--this world wasn't a place for feelings! "
•      p.39...."I'll receive only with one hand and keep the other just for giving. "
•      p.52...."They said that one day the sun would blow itself out,  and all life on earth would end instantly.  The day the great beam was blown out,  he knew,  would be sucha world ending day."  (When the Noor cclosed)
•      p.54...."When trouble came calling,  he knew from experience,  it was never the pistol-shot, the hot instant,  of disaster itself that menaced a man's self-possession,  but the way the mind went the same thing over and over again,  crackling,  smoldering,  like a body on a pyre till it collapsed into ashes."
•      p.55....."It's a miserable, nasty,  cruel world!   It respects your position:  if you've got a square foot to stand on,  it won't come rushing in.  But lose your position,  and you lose yourself. !"
•      p.56...."What was on her mind one moment was on her tongue the next. "......sounds like me
•      p.58....."Never pass a friend by on the street without a word, for there may come a day when he too shall do the same. "....Dashrath
•      p.61..."All these months I wasn't really living in the present.   I was already living in the days to come.   I wasn't the me that I was!  I was gradually becoming the me that I thought I was going to be. "..........Arzee to Dashrath
•      p.61...."What I'm thinking is,  do we live the life that's given to us,  or,......do we really live a kind of dream life?   We are to be found in the present,  yes--walking,  sleeping,  working.   But  all the while,  aren't we really living in the past and the future?"
•      p.64....."A light mist, like that seen when sugar is poured into jars. ?..."........interesting metaphor
•      p.95....."If you open your heart to a person who is different from you,  you grow bigger, not smaller. "......Arzee's father
•      p.97......"The rose of peace can never bloom in the soil of unrest. ".....Arzee tells Dashrath to make peace with his parents
•      p.168...."He was two beings within one,  two names, three religions,  four parents--he was a piece of patchwork made with the craziest needle! ......news of adoption
•     p.172...."He saw that his life was to be a journey,  and that there was no home for him anywhere except in the hut of his own crooked self. "
• Notes:
•      p.42.....wonderful description of the mood after Arzee's boss says he has something to tell him....
•      Dashrath had seven children,  all born in January......because he only went home once a year for three weeks......LOL
•      P.113....the freedom of being behind a mask....being a bottle
• Review:  What a wonderful novel! Welcome to a world full of characters worthy of Dickens, a story which has the reader gasping, cringing, and laughing out loud, and a whole lot to think about regarding the role of imagination in the choices we make and the dreams we allow ourselves to chase.  Set in Mumbai,  where life can deal one difficult reality after another, we meet Arzee the dwarf, whose disappointments,  dreams, and adventures will keep the reader glued to the tale to the end.