The Book of Chocolate Saints by Jeet Thayil My Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars Aut insanit homo, aut versus facit. – The man is either mad or he is composing verses. But what verses, would you say, emanate from the bosom of passion that borders on delirium? What timbre of voice floats in the smoked air … More Book Review: The Book of Chocolate Saints by Jeet Thayil (2017)
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)
Turtles All The Way Down by John Green My Rating: 3 of 5 Stars The best paragraph of this book comes in the last chapter when Davis tells Aza why he chose to disclose a truth when hiding it seemed far more profitable for the stakeholders (including himself), and Aza accepts it without demur as … More Book Review: Turtles All The Way Down by John Green (2017)
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid My Rating: 4 of 5 Stars Wounds must not be pitted against each other since it is not their severity but the victim’s reception of them that defines their impact on the body (and soul). So, I must not put together displacement and immigration next to each other for I … More Book Review: Exit West by Mohsin Hamid (2017)
An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine My Rating: 5 of 5 Stars Was it necessary to read ‘An Unnecessary Woman’? About a woman in the twilight of her life, a product of rusted times? A woman from a foreign land, and of foreign blood? A woman who offered pursed whimpers amid teeth that reeked soupy yellow? One … More Book Review: An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine (2014)
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)
Three Thousand Stitches: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives by Sudha Murty My Rating: 3 of 5 Stars The book, ‘Three Thousand Stitches’ is much like its title – a couple of events of the same canvas (read Sudha Murty’s life), each adding some value to the canvas that it has helped weave and in the end, giving a … More Book Review: Three Thousand Stitches: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives by Sudha Murty (2017)
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)
Centre Court by Sriram Subramanian My Rating: 4.5 of 5 stars This is that time of the year when the lush green grass just doesn’t spring to hallowed life but turns sentinels to the unparalleled spectacle of crowning glory in the pantheon of sports – it is time of Wimbledon. It is, arguably, the mecca … More Book Review: Centre Court by Sriram Subramanian (2017)
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