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 Burning by Megha MajumdarMy Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars Words. I know they are potent; they can bind and heal, rejuvenate and transform. But, I also know, in equal measure, they can kill. In ‘A Burning’, just a pale black string of words on a social media page makes a young Muslim girl, an … More Book Review: A Burning by Megha Majumdar (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)
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
Bartleby, The Scrivener by Herman Melville My Rating: 5 of 5 Stars I could ask you to look beyond your desk if you are at work or peep down your balcony if you are at home and spot a Bartleby. But I would prefer not to. I could urge you to frame that calamitous Bartleby … More Book Review: Bartleby, The Scrivener by Herman Melville (1853)
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)
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 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)
SEEMITA DAS 