Book Reviews - Comfortably Numb

Comfortably Numb

Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

Book review: Chillies and Porridge, Writing Food, edited by Mita Kapur

Undercooked Fare Chillies and Porridge (Edited by Mita Kapur) has an interesting if rather crowded jacket picture. A line-up of accomplished writers. A winner of a topic for an anthology: food. Chillies and Porridge should have made for truly delicious reading. And some of it does, but only some. Janice Pariat`s reflective eulogy to a breakfast…

Book review: Upon An Old Wall, Dreaming by Ruskin Bond

A way of life long gone A set of hill stories from the prolific Bond that rues the passing of a gentler age. I will confess to it: late in life, I have become a full-fledged Bond girl. Oh, not the dashing 007, the other one, Ruskin. Therefore, reviewing this book was an activity filled…

Book review: Swimmer Among the Stars by Kanishk Tharoor

A wave of emotions An interesting debut from a promising new writer. Kanishk Tharoor`s intriguingly titled book is a slim volume consisting of a dozen short stories. These stories span continents, oceans, they go underwater at times, they swim among the stars at other times, and once, even descend into the hellish…

Book review: The Private Life of Mrs Sharma by Ratika Kapur

Storm in a teacup Once in a while, along comes a book written at the cusp of imagination and craft. This slim volume that released a few months ago, tells a compellingly ordinary story and tells it in style. The protagonist is a middle-aged housewife running to a little fat, going about her everyday life:…

Book excerpt: Idle Thoughts of An Idle Fellow by Jerome K Jerome

An excerpt: Women are terribly vain. So are children, particularly children. One of them, at this very moment, is hammering upon my legs. She wants to know what I think of her new shoes. Candidly, I don`t think much of them. They lack symmetry and curve, and possess an indescribable appearance of lumpiness (I believe…

Book review: Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift

Life in servitude It has to be said: this book has two immediate hooks. One is the gorgeous Modigliani nude sprawled on the cover, making for a sumptuous book jacket, one that instantly impels you to pick the book up. The other is the opening line, where it says “Once upon a time, before…

Book review: Alphabet Soup for Lovers by Anita Nair

As light as soufflé Anita Nair ventures back into feminine territory with a love story set in the hills. After venturing out to sea with the tale of a Somalian trader with a jewelled eye, as well as introducing us to the very interesting Inspector Gowda, Anita Nair goes back into what is essentially…

Book review: This Unquiet Land by Barkha Dutt

This Unquiet Land by Barkha Dutt (Aleph Books). The title line says `Stories from India’s fault lines,` and indeed this autobiography from arguably one of the country`s best TV news-journalists, is just that: a klieg light shone on the disquieting things we would rather not dwell too much upon. Dutt…

Book review: The Ever After of Ashwin Rao by Padma Viswanathan

Pain, at a remove A psychologist attempts to tackle the pain of loss through chronicling others` cope strategies. In Canada, almost two decades after the bombing of Air India Flight 182, the trial of the suspects have finally started. Ashwin Rao, a psychologist who trained in Canada, has come back, to attend the trials,…

Book review: Elephant Complex by John Gimlette

Elephant Complex by John Gimlette (Quercus Publishing). This book came out just a few months ago, in the winter of 2015, so I`m not too behind time with the review. However, even if I were, I`d still be writing about it because the book is such a rewarding read. This is travel writing that delves…