Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair by Pablo Neruda My Rating: 4 of 5 Stars Tempting as it may appear to wrap the poetic pearls from this collection of Neruda’s heartbeats into a warm shawl of erotic wool, do resist it and pause. These loquacious verses that assemble at the nape of a … More Book Review: Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair by Pablo Neruda (1924)
Ignorance by Milan Kundera My Rating: 4 of 5 Stars “The more vast the amount of time we’ve left behind us, the more irresistible is the voice calling us to return to it.” In this poignant recount of two people, forced to bid goodbye to their native country, in the diminished, yet flickering hope of … More Book Review: Ignorance by Milan Kundera (2000)
It’s not a belated birthday wish. It’s a continuing one. Breathing in the Proustian air is one of my most favorite stress-busters since the time I have been introduced to it. An air so rich yet so clear, it permeates into my lungs with its slight, caressing bend, filling me with a sense of beauty … More HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MARCEL PROUST!
Embers by Sándor Márai My Rating: 5 of 5 stars My fingers were interlocked around my Baba’s arm and my head was resting on his shoulders. I was stealing a glimpse of his face every now and then, convinced that the lines of exhaustion were going to creep upto his tongue any moment, tendering me … More Book Review: Embers by Sándor Márai (1942)
The Waste Land and Other Poems by T S Eliot My Rating: 4 of 5 stars Thomas Stearns Eliot. A lot is hidden between those three words. A whole world perhaps. A depth measured by many oceans, a mystery viewed from bewitching lenses, a song marrying numerous notes, a candle thriving on inexhaustible wax. During … More Book Review: The Waste Land and Other Poems by T S Eliot (1922)
Death in Venice by Thomas Mann My Rating: 5 of 5 stars As long as we breathe, we live. We do not possess the power to embrace death at will. So, we live. And for living, we cling to a purpose. The purpose may be clear or clouded, animate or inanimate, expressed or hidden, stable … More Book Review: Death in Venice by Thomas Mann (1912)
Satantango by László Krasznahorkai My Rating: 5 of 5 stars For a rainbow-chaser and flower-collector, satan-tango is not exactly the kind of event to spend an many evenings on. The brightness is pleasing odour and the not-so-brightness is forever under verdict. But there I stayed; lurking under the disturbing, frequently tingling, always jagging edges of … More Book Review: Satantango by László Krasznahorkai (1985)
The Complete Short Stories of Marcel Proust by Marcel Proust My Rating: 4 of 5 stars Mezzanine. That is where my soul lies right now. Elevated, with the soft avalanche of rippling visions, erupting from the nubile eyes of a young Proust, from a lowly level that seethed with diminished dignity and blackened clarity … More Book Review: The Complete Short Stories of Marcel Proust by Marcel Proust (2001)
Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke My Rating: 5 of 5 stars Dear Mr. Rilke, Assuming it to be a frequent phenomenon with you, I partake in pleasure and liberty of appointing you the receiver of yet another letter, from a besotted admirer of your wisdom and expression. You see I have … More Book Review: Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke (1929)
Love In The Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Márquez My Rating: 5 of 5 stars When glistening drops of dew swivelled across the leaves, When hazy films of sun lifted their candid veils; When morning spring walked the aisle of the autumn road, I saw a face whose reflection, since years, I have behold. In envious … More Book Review: Love In The Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1985)
SEEMITA DAS 