Hag-Seed by Margaret AtwoodMy Rating: 4 of 5 Stars [Originally appeared here: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/li…] The Shakespearean scent is high in the air in his 400th anniversary year and a handful of reputed authors are capturing it to present it anew in the Hogarth Shakespeareseries. A task so stimulating, so enchanting that it is bound to throw aromas of … More Book Review: Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood (2016)
Less by Andrew Sean Greer My Rating: 4 of 5 Stars How long can you walk in another person’s shoes without feeling the pinch of it? A few minutes? Some hours perhaps? Or a couple of days? Now, what if I tell you it doesn’t hurt to walk in those shoes? Will you choose to … More Book Review: Less by Andrew Sean Greer (2018)
My Grandmother Sends Her Regards and Apologises by Fredrik Backman My Rating: 4 of 5 Stars [Originally appeared here (with edits): http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/li…] Ah! What have I read here? A delightful take on life? A sensitive take on grief? A wise take on relationships? Perhaps all of it. And more. At the centre of this book, is … More Book Review: My Grandmother Sends Her Regards and Apologises by Fredrik Backman (2013)
Commonwealth by Ann Patchett My Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars [Originally appeared here (with edits)] How does a car-ride feel across a long, stretched road? Bumpy? Restless? Exhilarating? Tiresome? While a whole bunch of elements might prompt us to arrive at one or many words, there is, perhaps, a single word that can bring … More Book Review: Commonwealth by Ann Patchett (2016)
Nutshell by Ian McEwan My Rating: 4 of 5 Stars [Originally appeared here (with edits): http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/li…] Pessimism is too easy, even delicious, the badge and plume of intellectuals everywhere. It absolves the thinking classes of solutions. This wonderfully sapient insight springs somewhere in the middle of this book and almost gives away the rationale behind McEwan’s … More Book Review: Nutshell by Ian McEwan (2016)
Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie My Rating: 5 of 5 Stars [Originally appeared here (with edits): http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/li…] Feminism – A rather commonly used terms these days, with interpretations far and wide, but not necessarily, coherent. If among contemporary writers there is one who imparts veritable meaning and clarity to … More Book Review: Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2017)
Swing Time by Zadie Smith My Rating: 3 of 5 Stars [Originally appeared here: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/li…] There is something about every life: ripe with memories, rife with punctures, crowded yet distinct, deceptively omniscient but a puzzle to its only custodian. Zadie Smith’s narrator in ‘Swing Time’ attempts to hold this fleeting, substantial thing in her hand and poke it … More Book Review: Swing Time by Zadie Smith (2016)
The Golden House by Salman Rushdie My Rating: 5 of 5 Stars [Originally appeared here.] The world has turned a cacophony of unrelenting voices, where people in high offices as well as pedestrian consorts battle every day to be one up. The lines have blurred as issues have bulldozed their way, against most conventions, right … More Book Review: The Golden House by Salman Rushdie (2017)
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead My Rating: 4 of 5 Stars [Originally appeared here: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/books/reviews/review-the-underground-railroad/articleshow/56417934.cms?] Shaping a work around the theme of slavery and its many tentacles is a bit like shaping a lump of rigid clay into something cohesive and stable. On one hand, excessive pressure on misery squashes the vein of the narrative … More Book Review: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (2016)
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy My Rating: 3 of 5 Stars [Originally appeared here: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/li…%5D How does a lament sound? Like a distorted sonorous wave? Hitting the crest with a shrill cry and falling to quietude with mangled whimpers? Or like a prolonged stream of soiled garble, comprehensible only to its beholder? … More Book Review: The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy (2017)
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