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For the sake of
the handkerchief: Vikas Swarup
Madhusree Chatterjee
HE
is no ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, and neither is he the street-smart
protagonist of this year’s favourite at the Golden Globes. Career
diplomat-author Vikas Swarup, whose book Q And A has been made
into Slumdog Millionaire, has his feet firmly planted on the
ground. He knows the popular ‘g-zone’ — how to make his readers
hold their breath till they reach the last page of his book.
Voices of anguish
Kanwalpreet
Crossing Over: Partition
Literature from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh
Eds Frank Stewart and Sukrita Paul Kumar.
Manoa.
Pages 254. Rs 295.
ON
26/11, India stood stupefied as it was taken hostage by a group of
terrorists who believed they were waging a war against ‘infidels’.
Irrespective of their belief, it was time to retrospect again the cause
of mindless violence for hasn’t the Indian subcontinent seen enough of
this violence during Partition?
Haute
cuisine masala
Aradhika Sharma
The Hundred-Foot Journey
by Richard C. Morais.
HarperCollins.
Rs 295. Pages 180.
THE
reviewer realises that this is a book that lacks in various ways, but
she is not going to be too critical of it simply because she had so much
fun reading it on a holiday! It’s an interesting, slick book with some
over-the-top characters, a protagonist whom we really do not get to know
really well even till the end of the book and details that at times do
not gel.
Perils
of casteism
R. L. Singal
Community Warriors: State
Peasant and Caste Armies in Bihar
by Ashwani Kumar.
Anthem Press.
Pages 229. Rs 450.
THE
book is an exposition of the ugly and bone-chilling reality of Bihar,
where everybody seems to be ranged against each other, and the state,
once materially opulent and culturally rich, is now a land of
weapon-wielding senas thirsting for the blood of their adversaries —
the landlords and the landless, the Rajputs, the Yadavas, the Bhoomihars
and the Kurmis and at the other end of the spectrum, several groups of
communist extremists have converted Bihar into a raging battle field.
An
economist’s view
Ambika Sharma
The Indian Renaissance:
India’s Rise after a Thousand Years of Decline
by Sanjeev Sanyal.
Penguin/Viking.
Pages 230. Rs 499.
THE
book studies the economic resurgence of India and dwells on the
significant changes which made it re-emerge as a power to reckon with in
the 21st century.
Nepal
sees red over White Tiger
Sudeshna Sarkar
INDIAN
author Aravind Adiga’s debut novel The White Tiger that went on
to win the prestigious Booker prize in 2008, has raised hackles in Nepal
over what is being regarded as the belittling stereotyping of Nepalis.
Nabokov’s
last take
Chris Green
IT
is one of literature’s most fiercely-guarded secrets, a great
author’s unfinished masterpiece that has lain deep within the vaults
of a Swiss bank for more than three decades.
Fake
manuscripts to go on display
Arifa Akbar
THE
Victoria and Albert Museum has acquired five "medieval"
miniatures worth £20,000, despite knowing that they were created by a
forger.
SHORT TAKES
Legacy of a patriot
Randeep Wadehra
Problems of Indian Nationalism
by Bhagwan S. Gyanee. Unistar.
Pages 140. Rs 295.
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