fiction - Comfortably Numb

Book review: The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy. Penguin Books. This take, rather than a full-fledged review, is in three parts. I Just started on the book a few days ago and find my lips quirking into small smiles every few paragraphs. Smiles of recognition of people, places, situations. Smiles of amusement at the weirdly…

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…

Feature: Andaleeb Wajid and Kite Strings

There is nothing overly sentimental about this girl’s life. This is the young writer Andaleeb Wajid’s first novel and after you read it, your predominant feeling is that Kite Strings deserves a better editor. Mistakes mark the book, ranging from small typos to glaring grammatical errors but here’s the thing: they…

Book review: Songs of the Cauvery by Kalyanaraman Durgadas

The flow of life By the banks of the Cauvery in Tamil Nadu, a set of people try to make sense of their life and times. As the nineteenth century draws to a close and the twentieth appears on the horizon, India`s freedom struggle is fast gaining traction. This story is set in the…

Book review: The Book of Shiva by Ravi Shankar Etteth

The Book of Shiva by Ravi Shankar Etteth. A Harper Element publication. This then is a spiritual travelogue. You can, if you wish, make comparisons to Phaedrus` journey in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Or, at a long stretch, Alex Garland`s revelations in The Beach. Be that as it may, here we have…

Book review: The Glass Bead Curtain by Lakshmi Kannan

Feminine Grace Under Fire October 15, 2016 Written by Sheila Kumar Lakshmi Kannan’s debut novel in English charts the life of two remarkable women, Kalyani, a child bride, and Vishalakshi, a young widow in pre-Independence Madras. Both the women display admirable grace under pressure and at some point, the story becomes a celebration of woman power. Kannan deftly…

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: 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: The Wildings by Nilanjana Roy

This is the briefest of takes –raves, rather — than a review. Just finished reading one of the most charming books that have come my way this year. Nilanjana Roy’s The Wildings. It’s a fable, there’s a moral or two in there somewhere and it’s very polished prose but ultimately, its the irresistible charm that…