Rajat Narula's Blog, page 15
February 3, 2018
The Jasmine Bloom: A lovely review by ‘Outlandish’ book blog
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“Rajat’s effortless writing and narrative style leave you astonished as he sums up the story with a shocking end.” – Outlandish book blog.
For the full review, click below: http://sheena-sh.blogspot.in/search/label/Reviews
Exit West: Mohsin Hamid
[image error]Life is full of wonders. One of them is Mohsin Hamid’s ‘Exit West’ being short-listed for Booker 2017. It’s a badly written book that didn’t make much sense to me. Sayeed and Nadia meet, in their country that is soon to be engulfed in a conflict. They fall in love, well sort of, and then escape the country to the west, when living in their country becomes untenable. The first half of the book is reasonably good – the sexual tension between the lovers, and the worsening situation in the city of their birth come out well. My only complaint about the first half was what I thought was a bit of a lazy writing – Hamid won’t tell us where they are – and when is this all happening. It could be Iraq, Syria, Yemen, but we don’t get to know. I didn’t appreciate the abstraction. But the novel nose-dives big time in the 2nd half, when Sayeed and Nadia make their way to Mykonos, London and then San Francisco. The abstraction touches a new and a completely understandable level. I don’t even know what Hamid was trying there. Was he going for some magic-realism ala Marquez and Rushdie. If he was, he sure didn’t succeed, with his light and dark Londons. The story floundered. The arc of Sayeed-Nadia relationship didn’t make any sense either. It was repetitive, unengaging and seemed to go in a circle.
Don’t bother.
January 30, 2018
Little Fires Everywhere: Celeste Ng
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Celeste Ng, follows up her last inter-cultural masterpiece, ‘Everything I Never Told You’ with a book that traces the class and cultural differences in US. The story is so compelling that you turn pages instantly, and the writing so good, that you regret only so much is left. The characters, particularly the teenagers – Lexi, Chip, Moody, Izzy, and Pearl are drawn really sharply, and distinctively. The only drawback is the excessive back stories of the adults – Mrs. Richardson and Mia – that slow down the pace of the book. An interesting lesson there – sometimes the writers feel compelled to tell us the back stories of some of the main characters , to tell us how they came to be what they are, and sometimes the readers only want to get on with the story and don’t really care. Overall, a brilliant book.
A must read.
January 26, 2018
‘The Jasmine Bloom’ – A book of strong emotions
Thank you for a great review, Sohinee Dey!
The Jasmine Bloom” written by Author Rajat Narula is up on my blog #PoesyInChrysalis. Check out the link to read the full review 
January 19, 2018
My first book club meeting on ‘The Jasmine Bloom’
A fun evening, discussing the storyline, the process of writing and characters finding their own voices! Vienna, Fairfax, Virginia. Many thanks to the book club members.
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January 15, 2018
January 13, 2018
Lilac Girls: Martha Hall Kelly
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Another WWII story, Lilac Girls, traces the lives of three very different women affected by the war. Kasia, a Polish young woman, spends the best years of her life in a Nazi concentration camp. Caroline, an American philanthropist falls in love with a French Actor and tracks him down in Paris only to lose him again. Herta, a German doctor of humble origins, carried out horrific acts on the prisoners, without as much as a prick of conscience. The horrors of the Nazi concentration camps: the indiscriminate killings, the medical experiments on prisoners, and the inhuman living conditions of the inmates are captured in their ugly nakedness. I believe I have read too much of WWII to be shocked any longer, but the story still touches you nonetheless. What I thought would be the strength of the book – the narrative continuing after the end of the war, including the Russian occupation of Poland – turned out to be the weak link. The characters, particularly Kasia’s – gets a bit mixed-up and irrational. The writing is not very attractive but the starkness of the story reigns supreme.
Read, if you are not saturated by WWII books.
January 6, 2018
The Four Agreements: Don Miguel Ruiz
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Ancient Toltec wisdom for the modern age. Four simple agreements that you make with yourself to live a joyous life. The agreements are not extraordinary; they follow simple, common-sense rules like being true to one’s word, not taking anything personally and so on.
Read, if you are looking for some wisdom.
January 5, 2018
My first author interview with Debdatta
Author interview with Debdatta.
Full interview at http://www.ddsreviews.in/search/label/Author%20Interview
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January 1, 2018
Love & Pain… in verses!: Syeda F.R.
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Rupi Kaur’s contribution to the world of books today: Poetry is back in vogue. Syeda’s ‘Love and Pain’ is a compilation of some intense, well-written, and mature poems. Most of the poems are beautiful in how they sound and what they paint. For me, the book scores on three counts: one, there is a lyrical, sing-song quality to the poems that is easy on the ears; second, many of the poems are deeply sensuous, without ever crossing the line into vulgar. It is interesting how the poet captures the sexual tension between a man and woman without using any overt sexual imagery. Third, the poems are very visual, they paint a very vivid picture. The only thing that didn’t work for me was that I didn’t find a flow in the order of poems, a sort of phasing from love to pain that the title and the foreword promised. Also, there was some repetition of ideas. However, overall, a beautiful, and mature compilation, that is a pleasant read indeed.
Read.
