American Fiction is a trick. It sits, grinning, when you open the book and find it containing everything it is supposed to cover and yet, seems to be a misfit. You grimace, it grins. But you don’t mind. Because really, you would want it to wear the face of happy despite its struggles, right? It … More More American or More Fiction?
‘History is the consequence not only of people’s actions, but also of their forgetfulness.’ I couldn’t help but mull over this sentiment of the author in the light of the dastardly attack on him last year – an attack that, eventually, impacted his vision in one eye and movement of one arm. An attack for … More Two Centuries of Fable or Truth?
Books I love and the authors who wrote them – this was today’s primary theme for me! Shehan Karunatilaka, the Booker Prize Winner 2022, was every bit the person I have come to expect of him – eloquent, witty and empathetic. He spoke about his books, growing up years, socio-political climate in Sri Lanka of … More Jaipur Literature Festival 2023 Diaries – Day 3
At some point in the story, where something scandalous has already unfolded, this paragraph appears involving the two brothers, of which, one is a narrator – Sree didn’t say anything. I’d rather he turned mad. I wanted to both punch him and be punched by him. I felt that if we punched each other just … More Fun Outdoors, Riot Everywhere
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)
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)
Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski My Rating: 2 of 5 Stars Ham on Rye is flanked by sauces of happenstance and its delectability depends on the preferences of one’s reading tongue. Mine, for one, could not bear its sour, unsavoury ingredients. In this bildungsroman, which is semi-autobiographical too, the protagonist, Henry Chinaski loads his … More Book Review: Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski (1982)
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)
Nazi Literature in the Americas by Roberto Bolaño My Rating: 4 of 5 stars Somewhere in the midst of this book, Bolaño spells out in explicit words what I suspected to be the undercurrents from the word go: ….a novel about order and disorder, justice and injustice, God and the Void. So there I was … More Book Review: Nazi Literature in the Americas by Roberto Bolaño (1996)
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut My Rating: 4 of 5 stars Kurt Vonnegut. Four syllables, once pronounced, suspends in the air like a rock star swishing his name into the air for chanters to latch on and treble the echo. Slaughter-House Five, god knows how many syllables (depending on stress-points of your tongue), once sprinkled from … More Book Review: Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut (1969)
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