P M Biswas

Five interlinked academic essays about four writers of the Indian Diaspora. The first chapter gives introductory context, both of the writers to be showcased, and the lens that Biswas is using to interrogate these stories.

Chapters two and three focus on one book by one author; Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children and Shashi Tharoor's The Great Indian Novel. Both essays are interesting reading but neither inspires me to want to read the books.

Chapter four focuses on the body of work of Suniti Namjoshi, who is referenced as the lesbian writer of their era of the Indian Diaspora. I think because this chapter talks more about themes in the work, and less about details, I was significantly more interested. I found this the most interesting chapter of the work.

Chapter five returns to the one book/one author approach, this time a slightly younger writer - Vikram Chandra, and their novel Red Earth and Pouring Rain. Here, I found the description of the book more interested than the first two, but possibly it was the framing of the themes and ideas.

Overall, a very interesting glimpse into a canon I know very little about.… (mehr)