Review by Kamakshi Balasubramanian 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 major narrative strands in the book: …
Continue reading Taken at the Flood—A Memoir of a Political Life: Vasanth Kannabiran
Translated from Russian by Anthony Briggs Such a joy to have read Tolstoy's absolute, unparalleled, masterpiece now, without the spectre of deadlines and exams. This time around, I wonder what, if anything, I even got out of this work of extraordinary simplicity and power in my earlier readings, when I was a student of literature. …
Give me Herman Wouk any day. Now I definitely want to reread "Winds of War" and "War and Remembrance". --Kamakshi
Review by Kamakshi Balasubramaniam Terse and lyrical, Galloway’s novel about the siege of Sarajevo shows with deep poignancy how war shortens lives but expands to the point of unbearable pain each moment lived in anticipation of tragedy. A man’s life consists of fetching drinking water daily for his family and a neighbor. He must avoid …
This is a useful excerpt from the article you can access via the link below. New ground is better than common ground: not “I haven’t read that yet—let’s discuss something else” but rather “I may never read that, so tell me about it, it sounds interesting.” http://quarterlyconversation.com/we-have-never-been-well-read-franco-morettis-pact-with-the-devil Having now read Andrew Seal's (high-brow and apt to …
Continue reading We Have Never Been Well-Read: Franco Moretti’s Pact with the Devil
Margaret Laurence At this time, I am in the process of gathering my thoughts to write about teaching Margaret Laurence's The Stone Angel. I have an ongoing blog, one section of which is dedicated to books and authors I taught in the IB (International Baccalaureate) program (http://englishaba.blogspot.in/2013/05/the-butler-did-it.html). I am going to try and keep my …
Talking About Books 