Sunday, July 7, 2002		Books

The dirty side of American Revolution
Surjit Hans
The American Revolution: A People’s History
by Ray Raphael, Profile Books (UK), Pages 386. £ 20
DESPITE its constructed flamboyance, the American war of Independence was a miserable affair: "The American calls for restraint were unheeded, and the state legislature (South Carolina), unable to provide support for the troops, soon gave legal sanction to acts of plunder. Each side took its turn running over the terrain, destroying or consuming everything in sight."

Heavy-duty scholarship on imperialism
M.L.Raina
Empire
by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Mass), USA. Pages xvii+478. $36.95.
WHEN Stephen Dedalus asks him to respond to his haughty exposition of the Aristotlean aesthetic in Joyce’s Portrait, Cranly replies: "Yes, it has the scholarly stink". Empire too reeks of heavy-duty scholarship. Too many allusions hold us up; too many theorists bludgeon us into accepting their arcane pronouncements.

Dilip Kumar saw a psychoanalyst after acting as Devdas
Devinder Bir Kaur
The Thespian: Life and Films of Dilip Kumar
by Urmila Lanba, Vision Books, Pages 160, Rs 325.
DILIP Kumar has often been asked to write his autobiography. The gentleman that he is, he has always refused on the grounds that he would be hurting too many people (read heroines). But the present book on the thespian gives an insight into the life and works of Hindi cinema’s greatest actor.

Incisive account of Indo-Pak ties
Himmat Singh Gill
India-Pakistan In War & Peace
by J.N.Dixit; Books Today; Pages 501; Rs 595
THERE have been many from the Indian Foreign Service, including a dozen-odd former Foreign Secretaries, who have not written a word about their experiences and assessments while in service,and have in the process deprived readers of their share of an interesting slice of history.

Recipes for relaxation & enlightenment
Arun Gaur
Lunchtime Enlightenment
by Pragito Dove, Penguin, Pages 194 Price Rs 250
THE writer of this book was given the name "Pragito" (meaning "song" in Sanskrit) by Osho. She came to India from "a roomy Victorian house in Saint Albans, Hertfordshire, England" with her little son, when her marriage had ended and spent a year at Osho’s, learning the techniques of meditation developed by him.

OFF THE SHELF
‘Who possesses Berlin possesses Germany’
V. N. Datta
DURING 1870-1940, political developments in Germany were highly significant because they produced a profound impact on the history of Europe and international politics. Mostly wars occur due to miscalculation than calculation. That was precisely what happened in World War Iin 1914.

MEET THE AUTHOR
"Reading a book should be like seeing a good movie"
Chetna Banerjee
IT has been a long journey towards creativity—from handling and gathering news to making news himself. But having been a newsperson most of his adult life, being in the news himself was one thing Inderjit Bhadwar, whose debut novel sniffing papa is riding a wave of publicity, had not bargained for.

WRITE VIEW
A chalta hai attitude mars a perfect plot
Randeep Wadehra
A Twist in Destiny
by Sujata S. Sabnis, Roli Books, N. Delhi. Pages: 335. Price: Rs. 295.
HERE is a thriller that has all the ingredients of a bestseller----political intrigue, suspense, murder and a dash of star-crossed love. Erudite minds have speculated about the country’s destiny in case the well-kept secret of Jinnah’s fatal disease had been revealed before Partition.