On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean VuongMy Rating: 5 of 5 Stars Memory. A twig to hang our old ages on, a current to charge our failed youth from; a blanket to hush our demons from the black, a spring to nourish our wounded dreams underneath. A whole. A hollow. And everything suspended in between is … More Book Review: On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong (2019)
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
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)
An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine My Rating: 5 of 5 Stars Was it necessary to read ‘An Unnecessary Woman’? About a woman in the twilight of her life, a product of rusted times? A woman from a foreign land, and of foreign blood? A woman who offered pursed whimpers amid teeth that reeked soupy yellow? One … More Book Review: An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine (2014)
Autumn by Ali Smith My Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars [Originally appeared here.] She has done it in the past; and she does it again here. Ali Smith’s fixation on, and a visible mastery of, story-telling across timeline, in no particular order, shines in this experimental, breezy novel as well. Centred around the 30-something Elisabeth … More Book Review: Autumn by Ali Smith (2016)
Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age by Bohumil Hrabal My Rating: 4 of 5 stars This little novella can, at once, be discarded as a long, never-ending chapter on corporeal pursuits from the life book of a mindless rambler, a libidinous exhorter, a senile raconteur. And for some part, one might be right in … More Book Review: Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age by Bohumil Hrabal (1964)
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 Stranger by Albert Camus My rating: 4 of 5 stars What happens when we bump into a hive of sticky words that seem delectable on the surface but grasping them blurs the lines etched in our minds? How does it feel when some kind of hurricane is unleashed on our notions that were, until … More Book Review: The Stranger by Albert Camus (1942)
Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal My rating: 5 of 5 stars Existence. Tearing Existence. Endearing Existence. Suppressed Existence. Spirited Existence. Delusional Existence. Resuscitating Existence. Multiple Existence. Solitary Existence. Existence. Overriding all the comprehensible and perplexing spaces enjoining the various uneven points of existence in the larger lattice of congruent existence, I have pushed … More Book Review: Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal (1983)
SEEMITA DAS 