Homo Irrealis by André AcimanMy Rating: 5 of 5 Stars I am the gap between what I am and what I am not. Even before the essays – beautiful, wise, full yet strangely wistful – begin to sing, this quote of the maverick Fernando Pessoa finds place. And that rounds up the mood of the … More Life, as you don’t see it
The Midnight Library by Matt HaigMy Rating: 4 of 5 Stars This book. Especially in these times. This book. Like a little cocoon of warmth in the stormy evening. Akin to a genuine hug amid the phoney social circles. A love story with self. A cascade of calm. The Midnight Library, at its core, is … More Book Review: The Midnight Library (2020)
So at Mudita Book Club, of which I am a member, we decided to read all the 10 longlisted titles for the prestigious JCB Prize for Literature 2020. We had a book allotted to each one of us which we had to read and write a short review of. It was to be followed by … More #JCBwithMudita
A perfect tequila shot. An apt teaser. A pitch perfect click. That’s just how the new short story from the Murakami land feels like. Capturing our attention, upping the stakes, leaving us thinking, never closing the possibilities. The short story is about a chance encounter of a traveller (who is also a writer) with a … More Short Story Review: Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey by Haruki Murakami (2020)
Quichotte by Salman Rushdie My Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars Stories beget stories. And amid nauseating realities, they are probably our only vehicle to a meaningful sail. There are people who need to impose a shape upon the shapelessness of life. And so, a Quichotte upon a Sam DuChamp, a Sancho over a Marcel DuChamp, … More Book Review: Quichotte by Salman Rushdie (2019)
Autumn Light by Pico IyerMy Rating: 4 of 5 Stars It is good to meet life sometimes; not by seeing it in the eye but by interlocking fingers and walking by its side. In this book, Pico Iyer finds himself undertaking such a walk, under the light-heavy shadows of autumn. Twenty-five years after he first … More Book Review: Autumn Light by Pico Iyer (2019)
Days of My China Dragon by Chandrahas Choudhury My Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars Universally, very few things bind people the way food does. And endorsing this view emphatically, Jigar Pala opens a Chinese restaurant in Prabha Devi, Mumbai, taking a detour from his family’s legacy of well-established Udipi restaurant. Enter the ‘China Dragon’. He … More Book Review: Days of My China Dragon by Chandrahas Choudhury (2019)
The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan My Rating: 5 of 5 Stars When I turned the final page, I was relieved and sad at the same instant; relieved to have finally let the fates of POWs take wings to better skies and sad to not be living an alternate life, altogether. … More Book Review: The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan
Exiles by James JoyceMy Rating: 3 of 5 Stars The Heart flutters. Fill it to brim with love and it still flutters at the corners for freedom. Dump in a handful of greed and it continues to flutter in the remaining space for ablution. Allow peace to be its sole tenant and it still flutters … More Book Review: Exiles by James Joyce (1915)
Art Matters by Neil Gaiman, Illustrated by Chris RiddellMy Rating: 5 of 5 Stars When I walk down a street I take often, I don’t need telling where the hump is or where the manhole splays. But even so, on days the street light doesn’t work, I feel a pinch; as if the little streak … More Book Review: Art Matters by Neil Gaiman, Illustrated by Chris Riddell (2018)
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