book review | Comfortably Numb

BOOK REVIEW: SUNDAY HERALD/RAAVAN by AMISH

Book Review: Raavan, Amish Sheila Kumar, Aug 25 2019 Insidious villain And now, the origin story for Raavan. Unlike in the lacklustre telling of Ram`s story in Ramachandra, Scion of Ishkvaku, and Sita`s tale which, apart from the big reveal, was a pretty straight affair, Amish gives his Raavan enough of an edgy personality so…

BOOK REVIEW/SUNDAY HERALD: THE COURTESAN, THE MAHATMA AND THE ITALIAN BRAHMIN by MANU S PILLAI

History in sixty takes An absorbing collation of historical tales from across India Manu S Pillai, our desi Dalrymple, gives us another round of Indian history, this time in a collection of essays touching upon one interesting character after another, some well-known, some not, one or two quite obscure. The book is a compilation…

LITERARY REVIEW: THE STRAWBERRY THIEF by JOANNE HARRIS

In her latest book, Joanne Harris brings back Lansquenet-sous-Tannes` friendly neighbourhood witch, Vianne Rocher. Vianne`s making and scrying with chocolate again; her elder daughter Anouk has stayed behind in Paris and the younger girl Rosette is now a silent sixteen. She believes that her Maman has made a sinister pact with the wind and let…

BOOK REVIEW: LITERARY REVIEW/AYESHA AT LAST by UZMA JALALUDDIN

The Bennett bibis of Toronto All the familiar drama with some desi spice Here comes the latest P & P tweak, in the wake of a multitude of literary and cinematic adaptations of that Jane Austen classic. In Uzma Jalaluddin’s ‘Ayesha at Last,’ the Bennet family`s trials and tribulations are given a culture tweak, and…

BOOK REVIEW: SUNDAY HERALD/A SECRET HISTORY OF COMPASSION by PAUL ZACHARIA

Sending up everything and everyone A scathing look at life The reader`s first reaction on reading A Secret History of Compassion is to muse over the probability that Paul Zacharia wrote up the story, then dipped it into a vat of caustic soda. Everything is grist for his mill, or rather pen, here: writers, writing,…

Brief Takes: Daughters of the Sun by Ira Mukhoty

Behind the zardosi drapes This wonderful book is a detailed riposte to the traditional image of harems as a place of hothouse sex, with special focus on the Mughal harems. In her foreword, the author states that accounts of the Oriental harem are usually a lurid and sometimes fantastical mix of bazaar gossip, stray gleanings…

BOOK REVIEW: SUNDAY HERALD/DOAB DIL by SARNATH BANERJEE

Of matters this and that A contemplative graphic novel filled to the brim with dil The cover of Sarnath Banerjee’s Doab Dil tells a story of its own, well before the reader reaches the part of the book that provides any context for it. The clouds, the woman on top of the rocks with her…

Brief Takes: A Bend in the River of Life by Marianne de Nazareth

A Bend in the River of Life by Marianne de Nazareth. Leadstart Books. Now here`s a dilemma. Can one label a book that deals with the onset and relentless progress of Parkinsonism in a set of parents, a happy read? Impactful, yes. Informative, very much so. Disturbing, well, that`s a given, dealing as it does…

BOOK REVIEW: SUNDAY HERALD/FORTUNE`S SOLDIER by ALEX RUTHERFORD

History as entertainment The story is as much about the two men as it is about the insidious way that the East India Company worked to eventually establish British rule in India. The friendship of two men, the fictional Nicholas Ballantyne and the actual historical figure of Robert Clive, forms the basis of the story…

BOOK REVIEW: SUNDAY HERALD/KILLING TIME IN DELHI by RAVI SHANKAR ETTETH

A capital send-up Tongue firmly lodged in side of cheek, the author spins a tale about the denizens of Delhi In this, Ravi Shankar Etteth`s seventh book, he has turned the spotlight mercilessly on the haut monde, the seriously wealthy and even more seriously powerful, the wheelers and dealers, the circles that trade in dope,…