book review - Comfortably Numb

Book review: Scene 75 by Rahi Masoom Raza

On the people who lurked at the edges of the Hindi film industry. Ali Amjad. Harish Rai. Alimullah Khan. Peter the cook who is actually Ramnath. Writers, directors, cooks-turned-scriptwriters — the cast of this novel is made up of eternal hopefuls who land up in the Bombay of the 1970s to live out…

Book review: Stuck Like Lint by Shefali Tripathi Mehta

This is more a brief take than a review of the book. Reading my friend Shefali Tripathi Mehta`s book, the evocatively titled Stuck Like Lint (Niyogi Books) was like taking a walk down a moss-hedged path in a secret garden. A contemplative walk, the surroundings lush and green, almost overwhelmingly so, and the branches…

Book review: The Golden House by Salman Rushdie

This is more a brief take than review of the book. The Golden House by Salman Rushdie. Penguin/Hamish Hamilton I don`t know what to make of this book, I really don`t. After Arundhati Roy offloaded her somewhat chaotic treasure chest on the unsuspecting reader a short while ago, Salman Rushdie follows in her footsteps, much…

Book review: The House of Oracles by Chandini Santosh

In Chandini Santosh’s novel The House Of Oracles, the Manikoth House of the title assumes the mantle of an important character. The ancestral house is a big brooding presence, casting a dark shadow on the people living there. The deaths that stalk them in various ways, is considered a legacy of the house, yet darkness…

Book review: The Small-town Sea by Anees Salim

This boy’s life An account of a young life lived on a cliff overlooking an ever-changeable sea. Anees Salim remarked in an interview that the success of each book was making it harder for him to write the next book. Well, it is also getting harder for the reviewer assigned to critique his…

Book review: Loyal Stalkers by Chhimi Tenduf-La

Observing the undertow These stories zoom in on what lurks just beneath; sometimes it`s sweet, sometimes it`s seedy. Chhimi Tenduf-La follows his well-received books, The Amazing Racist and Panther, with this collection of short stories that strap you into the carousel seat, then takes you on a rapid-paced ride through the suburbs of…

Book review: Baaz by Anuja Chauhan

Blue skies, eye candy Anuja Chauhan`s latest offering doesn’t stray too far from her template: feisty heroine, gorgeous hero, as much external conflict as internal (maybe more of the former here, given that the backdrop here is the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War), much toe-curling passion, a very interesting gaggle who make up the supporting cast…

Book review: Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinsborough

Sarah Pinborough’s Behind Her Eyes keeps you guessing, and even if you think you know where the story is going, you still want to go down that path,to get there at closure point. Throughout, you relish the mystery and the deliberate holding back of information because you know it’s building up to something big,…

Book review: Moonglow by Michael Chabon

Memory chaser Price 12.99 Pounds Sterling. Michael Chabon’s Moonglow is a feel-good story with darkness at its heart. Chabon, a novelist who has frequently moved between themes and genres, presents this as a family memoir. Then again, given the many literary flourishes contained within, the reader could be forgiven for thinking this…

Book review: Leaving Home with Half a Fridge

Life after divorce Part primer, part memoir, this book takes readers down the post-breakup road. Memoirs are tricky to write. Beyond a certain point, your memories might just not be the stuff of interest, leave alone inspiration to readers. What you reveal, what you veil, what you gloss over, what you decide to delve deep…