I liked this book, and I read it rapidly. I did think that Manil Suri’s review in the NYT was unfair. Roy did not leave as many loose ends in…
World Literature
A Gentleman in Moscow
May 14, 2021Initially, I thought: how could a book about a man confined to a hotel for life have enough plot or character development for 450 pages? Yet this turned out to…
Au Bonheur des Dames
January 11, 2018While I enjoyed this novel, in part for its detailed descriptions (Zola’s realism is exquisite), it also felt like it took me forever to read it. For a while I…
Ghachar Ghochar
November 6, 2017According to Suketu Mehta’s blurb on the front of the novel, “Vivek Shanbhag is an Indian Chekhov.” This is pretty accurate. Ghachar Ghochar is short, subtle, and totally compelling. The ending…
The Yacoubian Building
October 9, 2017I’m mentoring a senior capstone project on this novel, so I figured I’d better read it. For me, it started too slowly. Plot did not “thicken” until around page 80,…