Book Review -
Most book lovers need no introduction to the author Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, for her book - The Palace of Illusions has received rapturous applause from all quarters, readers world over. That is precisely what made me pick this book - the Unknown Errors of our Lives (stories, a set of nine of them), my first from the author's desk.
The lure of short stories coupled with an erratic reading schedule I had foreseen for this month made me prefer this book to a complete novel.
The prose beautifully lyrical, eloquent and mostly poignant is a clear strength of this book. Chitra evokes an emotion she wants in her reader in a manner as easy as eating a pie.
The book opens with Mrs. Dutta Writes a Letter, this reminded me a little of Jhumpa Lahiri; people torn between their mother land and the place they have immigrated to, changes that some fall in line with, some just cannot manage and won't. Even the concluding piece in the book - the Names of Stars in Bengali is centered around the change in scape, in lands/homes where one lives and in relationships therefore & thereafter.
The second story - the Intelligence of Wild Things strikes a harmonic resonance, but the sheen disappears thereafter, re appearing only vaguely in the 7th story in the collection - the Blooming Season for Cacti, even the titular story is not powerful as usually expected.
The Lives of Strangers is open ended, does allow a lot of thought to flow but the plot hangs loosely with no ends to safeguard it securely, this happens in few other stories too which creates a lull.
The most disappointing aspect for me is the way the author treats a short story. Taking cues from the preface of an earlier read/an anthology - a Clutch of Indian Masterpieces, the editor in there quotes a definition of a short story as one with a fully developed theme, significantly shorter and less elaborate than a novel. The THEME or an undercurrent is starkly amiss in three of nine stories in this package.
Going by the same preface, it is believed that there are many authors who like Chekhov treat a story just as a 'slice of life' , construct them on events and turning points in life; but even on that ground and being highly lenient in forming an opinion, 6 out of 9 stories in the collection failed to impress me.
'Go with the tide' is my advice, may be pick 'The Palace of Illusions' or even Before we Visit the Goddess as a first, for having picked this book turned out to be a minor (not Unknown) Error in my life.
