Until August. Like a run towards a time of the year. Like in waiting of something. Something that can leave the person changed despite the alteration unfolding in the minutest of fibers that resides agile and hidden under layers of commonplace fibers of the human body and scarcely asserts its position in the quotidian existence. August … More The Last Night, in August
After the opening day frenzy, the second day left me with comfortable spaces between sessions I had shortlisted to attend, turning the Day 2, a buoyant but not busy day. Conversation with the Nobel Laureate, Abdulrazak Gurnah was a riveting one that spanned across his childhood and youth, his years as an academician, his process … More Jaipur Literature Festival 2023 Diaries – Day 2
A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes by Rodrigo GarciaMy Rating: 5 of 5 Stars ’It’s a dizzying sensation to know the destiny of a human being.’ I should know. But may not. Because no matter how well one prepares to say goodbye to a parent, seeing him/ her inching closer to that sunset with every … More Last Days of Gabo
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)
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)
Blindness by José Saramago My Rating: 5 of 5 stars Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. What an irony that a book which holds, loss, filth, loot, stomp, cruelty, disorientation, putrefaction, injustice, helplessness, murder, rape, misery, nakedness, abandonment, death and unimaginable suffering in its bosom, left me with a climactic emotion of … More Book Review: Blindness by José Saramago (1995)
Here by Wislawa Szymborska My Rating: 4 of 5 stars “She wants me to live only for her and with her. Ideally in a dark, locked room, but my plans still feature today’s sun, clouds in progress, ongoing roads.” With this singular clarity, Wislawa Szymborska views memory. By running a casual yet assertive hand, she … More Book Review: Here by Wislawa Szymborska (2009)
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway My Rating: 4 of 5 stars “He was full of resolution but he had little hope.” And often, like a seductive oasis, this little hope beguiles the heart to endure battles of gargantuan magnitude, letting seep every second the realization of the effort turning as much … More Book Review: The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (1952)
Honeymoon by Patrick Modiano My Rating: 2 of 5 stars I felt a vague twinge of remorse: has a reader the right to criticize certain details under the pretext that she considers them superfluous? Beginning my review by borrowing a line from the novel and infusing it with my words means two things: one, the … More Book Review: Honeymoon by Patrick Modiano (1990)
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck My Rating: 4 of 5 stars It takes courage to stand up and speak. It also takes courage to sit down and listen. These are the words on one of my most favorite posters. What always keeps me hooked to these lines is the validity of the trait, … More Book Review: Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (1937)
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