Give me Herman Wouk any day. Now I definitely want to reread "Winds of War" and "War and Remembrance". --Kamakshi
Category: Fiction
The Casual Vacancy: J.K. Rowlings
Published by Little, Brown, 2012, 512 pages. This is about as far as you can get from the magical world of Harry Potter. There are no Dumbledores or Hagrids here, much less any wizardry. The book takes you to a small unmagical town (Pagford), with small self-absorbed people who lack empathy or wisdom. Depite this, …
The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
Review by Kamakshi BalasubramaniamPublished by Atlantic Books, 2008, 304 pages. 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 …
Desultory reading
The Story of Beautiful Girl: Rachel Simon Review by Usha RamanPublished by Random House, 2011, 252 pages. One of the things about travel is that it affords the opportunity to read—especially when one is on a plane without a personal video screen and movies on demand! A couple of weeks ago on one such flight …
Various Pets Alive and Dead: Marina Lewycka
Review by Joannah CabornPublished by Penguin, 2012, 367 pages One of the best things about this book are the dedications. The first one:“To quietly flowing Don”. The second is a Gogol quote, from Dead Souls (1842):“We live in new times – the age of the hero is past – now is the time of the …
Continue reading Various Pets Alive and Dead: Marina Lewycka
The Black Sheep: Honoré de Balzac
Review by Kamakshi Balasubramanian Translated from the French by Donald AdamsonPublished by Penguin, this edition published in 1976, 202 pages. Original version published in 1842. More than forty-five years have passed between my first acquaintance with Balzac and this renewal. Of that first work I read (Pere Goriot) I carry a strong impression, mainly of the …
With no shadows, Noon: Aatish Taseer
Review by Imran Ali Khan Published by Faber & Faber / Harper Colllins India, 2011, 297 pages. At 7am when your eyes are still adjusting unwillingly to the sun, and you have just stood in a queue to have your bags scanned and your person felt up at the Pune airport, to find the shutters …
Snake Ropes: Jess Richards
Published by Sceptre, 2012 This is a strange and beautifully written tale told by two young women, Mary and Morgan. Mary lives in a community on an island where the islanders trade with the “tall men” who come from the mainland. Boys on the island start to disappear, and Mary suspects the tall men. One …
Atwood, again and again
Review by Usha Raman Publishing details: The Handmaid's Tale, published by Everyman / Virago, 1985, 392 pages. The Robber Bride, published by DoubleDay / Virago, 1993, 576 pages. Wilderness Tips, published by Nan A. Talese / Virago, 288 pages. Moral Disorder, published by Bloomsbury Publishing / Virago, 2006, 272 pages. I encountered Margaret Atwood first …
Ultimatum: Matthew Glass
Published by Atlantic Books, 2009, 448 pages. This is in response to Lulu’s review of The Twelfth Imam, which she said was her first political thriller and seems to have been quite disappointing. Try this one. The book is set in the near future. Because global warming has made sea levels rise, several countries are …
Talking About Books 