Confessions of a Mask by Yukio Mishima My Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Confession , as a word, has a strong connotation – prelude to its utterance is a hesitation, and that hesitation alone, is sufficient to engulf the confession-maker with an odour that reeks of both delay and guilt. But Mishima’s protagonist can take … More Book Review: Confessions of a Mask by Yukio Mishima (1958)
Ties by Domenico Starnone My Rating: 5 of 5 Stars Validation is a monster we carry within us – we seek it in abundance for the tiniest of things to the biggest of matters; and in the sordid event of its unavailability in external sources, we turn inwards and grab it nonetheless. We validate ourselves; … More Book Review – Ties by Domenico Starnone (2014)
The Preparation | Directed by Cho Young-joon | Starring Go Doo-shim, Kim Sung-kyun My Rating: 5 of 5 Stars The Preparation | Directed by Cho Young-joon | Starring Go Doo-shim, Kim Sung-kyun My Rating: 5 of 5 Stars Journeys are eventful – whether they cap a bout of tedium or open the vistas to serenity, … More Movie Review: The Preparation by Cho Young-joon (2017)
The Only Story by Julian Barnes My Rating: 3 of 5 Stars “Would you rather love the more, and suffer the more; or love the less, and suffer the less? That is, I think, finally, the only real question.” This sentence, which introduced this most recent book of Julian Barnes to his potential readers, … More Book Review: The Only Story by Julian Barnes (2018)
The Shape of Water | Directed by Guillermo del Toro | Starring Sally Hawkins, Octavia Spencer, Michael Shannon My Rating: 5 of 5 Stars The night has dropped by. I have said hello. She has settled on my window sill. The moon is invisible from my meagre window. But I am drunk. A little. … More Movie Review: The Shape of Water (2018) by Guillermo del Toro
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)
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)
In Custody by Anita Desai My Rating: 3 of 5 Stars ‘The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” It is befitting to quote Rumi to introduce the middle-aged protagonist of this book who sends swirls of a bruised dream into the air even while chugging along life with a rusted body. Deven, … More Book Review: In Custody by Anita Desai (2007)
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)
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