Comfortably Numb

Book review: Red Sauce Brown Sauce by Felicity Cloake

RED SAUCE BROWN SAUCE by Felicity Cloake. Mudlark Books. The writer has us at the Pooh quote on breakfast right at the start of the book, and it`s a fun ride from there on. In 2019, Felicity Cloake released her One More Croissant for the Road, a delightful culinary travelogue of her tour de France,…

Column: Do You Still Call On People?

Do you still call on people? It was a quaint custom, one handed down to us via our colonial masters, one we faithfully, happily followed. It involved people getting dressed up, not necessarily to the nines, but quite definitely in their Sunday best. They then went around to other people`s places, rang the doorbell and…

Book review: Thorns in the Crown by Tanushree Podder

Three lives intersect in this sweeping saga.The trials and tribulations of those lives are mirrored in India’s struggle for independance. The main characters, Peter, Indraneel and Olivia are sharply drawn in this historical drama. They are very different people.Peter is an Anglo-Indian orphan.Escaping the terrible privations and abuse of a missionary school, his path crosses…

A Thousand Years of Good Prayers by Yiyun Li

A THOUSAND YEARS OF GOOD PRAYERS by Yiyun Li. Harper Perennial Books. Came across this gem of a book, a collection of short stories by Chinese author Yiyun Li, winner of the Guardian First Book Award in 2006. Eleven stories related in a reflective manner that throws an understanding, sympathetic light on life in contemporary…

Book review: After the Messiah by Aakar Patel

In the aftermath Aakar Patel`s first attempt at fiction is interesting to say the least. This political fiction is premised on the sudden demise of a strongman leader, the Big Man, and what happens in the vacuum left in his wake. This vacuum is primarily defined by utter confusion since the departed leader, who had…

Book review: Feeling Kerala, anthology edited by J Devika

Kerala Stories Contemporary really is the keyword here. The short stories in this anthology, translated by feminist historian and social researcher J Devika, deals with some of the issues that Kerala is grappling with today. In her foreword, Devika clarifies that neither were the writers for this collection picked from an exhaustive list nor does…

Cat People edited by Devapriya Roy

CAT PEOPLE, edited by Devapriya Roy. Simon & Schuster Books. Such a delightful book, allowing cat people a close look at felines and the humans they live with, allowing non-cat people a glimpse into just what living with a feline brings out in the human character. Like any anthology, it`s a mixed bag, with some…

Book review: Sugarbread by Balli Kaur Jaswal

My Wednesday Book Look is this little gem of a book, SUGARBREAD, by Balli Kaur Jaswal, a 2016 release, HarperCollins Books. Set in Singapore of the early 1990s, the narrator is a ten- year- old girl Pin, Parveen Kaur. In sharp, clear tones, Pin tells us the story of her life, her easygoing lottery-addicted father,…

Column: Let`s reset for the journey rather than the destination

Let`s reset for the journey rather than the destination This is my ode to the paths we take to reach someplace. Let`s face it, most times it`s all about reaching rather than relishing the journey. We stride on our paths, gathering speed, sidestep what we perceive to be obstacles, and are relieved when…

Book review: Yellowface by Rebecca F. Kuang

The perils of purloining This book quite lives up to the buzz it generated at release. It`s a brief, acute meditation on the agony and the ecstasy of writers, the insecurity that goes with the act of turning author, the imperatives of the publishing industry. All of this shelters under a zinger of a story:…