http://timigurung.com/2015/10/08/book-review-the-gourd-seller-other-stories-by-abha-iyengar/
TITLE: THE GOURD SELLER & OTHER STORIES
AUTHOR: ABHA IYENGAR
GENRE: SHORT STORIES
PUBLISHED IN 2015
SIZE: 50 PAGES
AUTHOR: ABHA IYENGAR
GENRE: SHORT STORIES
PUBLISHED IN 2015
SIZE: 50 PAGES
THE GOURD SELLER & OTHER STORIES from ABHA IYENGAR is a small, interesting and nicely written book of short stories. It contains eight stories, THE GOURD SELLER is the first story, from which the name of the book is also derived, and all of the stories in the book are not only different but also relevant and meaningful as well. It deals with many pressing issues of our society, the language used to describe those issues is pithy and powerful, and they have been presented in a nice and proper way without even a trace of vulgarity. What makes the book even more special is that it was written through the meticulous and experienced eyes of a woman, who happened to be not only coming form the same society, dominated by the outdated patriarchal system where women are harshly marginalized, but also seen it through her own experiences, and it outweighs everything else as far as the authenticity of those stories is concerned. I read somewhere about writers from the western hemisphere lamenting about our writing, they allegedly said – eastern writers only write about the travails of our daily life and nothing more – but as long as I am concerned, our travails are not only our main inspiration of writing but also our main strength as well and they are as necessary and relevant today as they were before in our writing. And we should keep writing about it as long as it matters to us dearly, because it is our story and if we don’t write about it – Nobody will. We shouldn’t worry too much about what the others have to say.
I don’t know the writer personally, nor do I know about her other works, and I don’t have much to say in regards of her other works. However, I must say, she must be a seasoned and experienced writer of her own merit and it clearly shows on her writing. The writing is not only of a very high standard but also distinctly clear as well as very nicely executed. The subject matters of the stories are very powerful, the prose of the story is perfect, and the deliverance of the stories is nicely done. The writing flows smoothly as a cadence of untrammeled spring water, I didn’t even stop for once while reading this book and despite its seriousness on subject matter I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It is a brilliantly written book, if you care about our ongoing issues in our society, I highly recommend you to read this book. What’s more, it is not that big so you won’t need that much time to read it.
TIM I GURUNG/AUTHOR AT ISSLCARE – http://www.timigurung.com
