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The dreaded
C-word
Reviewed by Ratna Raman
The Emperor of Maladies: A
Biography of Cancer
By Siddhartha Mukherjee. Fourth Estate, London. Pages 571. Rs 499.
THIS
is not the first book written by an oncologist on cancer. It is,
however, the definitive book on cancer for our times and could not have
been written any earlier. Siddhartha Mukherjee, an Indian doctor in New
York, breathes life into records that trace the long march of cancer,
the karkinos which has evaded capture and control by its potential to
move stealthily.
Identity
matters
Reviewed by Nirbhai
Singh
Indian Identity Narratives and the Politics of Security
By Gitika Commuri. Sage. Pages 336. Rs 795.
GITIKACommuri
juxtaposes Indian identity and the Other with a view to retaining
India’s fractured national identity in the context of international
politics. Being alien to Indian culture, she based her arguments on the
Indian narratives or literature of the "political elite" whose
experiences of the living realities are alienated from the grassroots of
the subaltern and tribal marginalised masses.
Definite
page-turner
Reviewed by Lieut-Gen (retd)
Baljit Singh
The Children’s Book
By A. S. Byatt. Vintage Books. Pages 617. Rs 399.
THERE
is always that certain magnetism in an imaginatively designed book cover
which instantly wins over even the most, discriminating fiction reader.
Just one look at The Children’s Book on the latest arrivals
display-shelf in the bookshop and the next movement it will be inside
the shopping bag of the reader. Now, the excitement mounts to get home
fast, drop on the cushioned reading chair and turn the pages. But then,
there are book jackets so charming that the reader fears to turn pages
lest the spell be broken!
Racy
murder mystery
Reviewed by Laxmi Kant Verma
Hickory Dickory Shock! The Tale
of Techies
By Sundip Gorai. Rupa. Pages 288. Rs 195.
FILLED
with suspense, romance and humour, this mystery thriller is based around
the Indian IT industry. The author is closely associated with the
corporate world and gives an in-depth account of the Indian IT industry.
Here the reader is introduced to techies who are drawn into a strange
world of nerve-racking suspense. This is a corporate drama which
includes a big accounting fraud.
The legacy of Punjabi
poet Shiv Batalvi, whose death anniversary falls on May 7, lives on but
more needs to be done to widen its reach
Being Batalvi
S.D. Sharma
This
couplet voicing the anguish of legendary Punjabi poet Shiv Kumar Batalvi,
following a premonition of his death, which later proved to be his
requiem, was scripted much earlier than his untimely demise in the wee
hours of May 7, 1973.
Unconventional
traditionalist
Nonika Singh
She
is one remarkable woman, one of her kind. No wonder, Prathibha Prahlad,
one of India’s leading Bharatanatyam exponents, who delights you as
much with her consummate mastery over dance as with her no-holds-barred
approach to life, has no hesitation in saying "I like being
me."
Short
Takes
Crime and spirituality
Randeep Wadehra
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