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)
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)
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)
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)
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi My Rating: 5 of 5 Stars [Originally appeared here (with edits)] It has been a few days since I turned the last page of this book. But the numbness reappears the instant I allow the pages to unfold in my memory. The silence which suddenly parts to let … More Book Review: When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi (2016)
Ghachar Ghochar by Vivek Shanbhag My Rating: 5 of 5 stars At my touch, the striking cover of this book leapt up and stood suspended at my eye-level. As if to escape this loggerhead-state, I bored through its skin amid a question – what does this image wish to convey? Unity? Mess? Greed? Asymmetry? Power? … More Book Review: Ghachar Ghochar by Vivek Shanbhag (2015)
Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry My rating: 5 of 5 stars The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of. Flipping through the pages, my heart leaped many times; those waves bearing the ring of countenance were from still stream but the ones with ripples of accusation roared thunder. Accusation? Accusation hurled towards whom? … More Book Review: Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry (2001)
English, August: An Indian Story by Upamanyu Chatterjee My rating: 4 of 5 stars Indecision will be your epitaph. As the statement rung in my ear for more minutes than I cared to count, I stared at the mouth that just uttered it. No, it was not Agastya, the hero of this story but his … More Book Review: English, August: An Indian Story by Upamanyu Chatterjee (1988)
SEEMITA DAS 