Rajat Narula's Blog
August 17, 2024
January 22, 2023
July 22, 2022
July 8, 2022
June 27, 2022
Another Book-signing event for Azalea Heights
A book-signing event coming up for next weekend at Trade Roots, Arlington, VA.
June 25, 2022
April 30, 2022
March 20, 2022
A Book-signing event for Azalea Heights
Another book signing event for Azalea Heights coming up next weekend. At Books and Other Found Things, Leesburg, VA on March 26, Saturday from 1-3 pm.
January 30, 2022
Shuggie Bain: Douglas Stewart
‘Shuggie Bain’ is a sad and touching mother-son story that is also about alcoholism and sexuality. Agnes Bain is a doomed woman – pretty, but ruined by men and drink. Her favorite child, Shuggie, loves her dearly and hopes, despite all signals to the contrary, that one day she will give up drinking. His being ‘different’ adds to his misery as he is bullied and harassed constantly. The book has a tragic ending. The shifting viewpoints – Agnes and Shuggie – work. The author succeeds in keeping the readers interested and engaged. Glasgow’s deserted coal mines, its unemployed miners, and their sorry lives are quite vivid and in-your-face. Was it the best book of 2020 and deserved the Booker? I am not sure. But it’s a book that draws you in.
Read.
January 23, 2022
Whereabouts: Jhumpa Lahiri
Jhumpa Lahiri comes back after a gap of ten years. It was a much-awaited book indeed. But it doesn’t work. It’s not really a novel – I think it’s unfair to the readers to call it one – it’s a collection of random vignettes. There is no story arc, no development of characters, no climax – no story really. The writing is there though. When I read Jhumpa Lahiri, it’s like she is speaking to me, that we are on the exact same wavelength. It’s poignant, subtle, and yet deeply-felt. But next time around, Ms. Lahiri, it will be great to have a story too.
Read, if you are a fan.
