Warlight by Michael Ondaatje My Rating: 4 of 5 Stars When the weapon inflicting a wound is done with its work, it hops onto to its next victim with a repugnant nonchalance. It doesn’t look back, it has barely any emotion. But it does not do the disappearing act before leaving behind the story of … More Book Review: Warlight by Michael Ondaatje (2018)
Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman My Rating: 5 of 5 Stars I finished reading the book late last night. As Elio bid a final goodbye to Oliver, I stood by him. The mist in his eyes and heart was in mine too. And I hovered my glance on his name and let … More Book Review: Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman (2007)
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss My Rating: 5 of 5 Stars Words. This book is all about words – words written, words unwritten, words spoken, words unspoken, words imagined, words deleted, words carried, words discarded, words believed, words treasured. And why wouldn’t it be? At the heart of this book, is the book … More Book Review: The History of Love by Nicole Krauss (2005)
Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil My Rating: 4 of 5 Stars Forgetfulness was a gift, a talent to be nurtured. In the war of remembering and forgetting, what side do we choose? Or do we choose at all? Isn’t life that, which happens when we are busy planning it? In the seductively opiated heavens of narrow-alleyed … More Book Review: Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil (2012)
It was a rainy evening about seven years ago when I entered a book store. It was the perfect refuge – warm lights, thin crowd, a tea bar and loads of books. I marched to the tea bar, ordered a ginger- mint tea, placed my bag on a chair in the seating area and hopped … More What I Talk About When I Talk About Murakami
The Fox Was Ever The Hunter by Herta Müller My Rating: 4 of 5 Stars Imagine your heart is a sheet of paper and Müller’s words, the needle – and then, let the typewriter go berserk. Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang. The words hit you, one after another, and her ink doesn’t run dry. … More Book Review: The Fox Was Ever The Hunter by Herta Müller (1992)
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)
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)
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)
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