Review by Mohan RajPublished by Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2019, 224 pages. A longer version of this review was originally published in The Book Review, Vol XLIV, No. 2-3, Feb-Mar 2020. Reproduced with the permission of The Book Review Literary Trust. Displacement──within and across countries──of large numbers of people, owing to political instability or civil strife, is …
Month: September 2020
Oscar and Lucinda: Peter Carey
Published by Everyman / Faber & Faber, 1998, 544 pages. A glassworks factory bought on a whim, and a trip to the other end of the world made on the toss of a coin: chance is the driver of most of the major events in this book. Oscar and Lucinda is a strange love story …
Taken at the Flood—A Memoir of a Political Life: Vasanth Kannabiran
Review by Kamakshi BalasubramanianPublished by Women Unlimited, 2019, 250 pages. Originally published in The Book Review, Vol. XLIV, No. 8, August 2020. Reprinted with permission from The Book Review Literary Trust. Vasanth Kannabiran’s latest book, described in this edition’s back cover as "a feminist memoir", is a great deal more. There are at least three …
Continue reading Taken at the Flood—A Memoir of a Political Life: Vasanth Kannabiran
Alexander Hamilton: Ron Chernow
Published by Penguin / Apollo, 2004, 832 pages. “Let me tell you what I wish I’d known / When I was young and dreamed of glory / You have no control: / Who lives, who dies, who tells your story.” These lines are from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical, Hamilton, which was inspired by this biography. The …
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