The Dystopian Uncertainty Principle

The Shades of Dickens I got Painted Over I was introduced to ‘The Sparkler of Albion’ as Charles Dickens jokingly referred to himself by David Copperfield. No, I didn’t know the great illusionist, nor did both of us exist in this pulchritudinous world when Dickens was breathing. I am merely referring to his classic, ‘David Copperfield’ which was gifted to me when I was 9, as a substitute for the book I’d actually asked for, ‘101 Magic Tricks’. *Sensing a pattern here*. Well, moving on from what I was reading before that happened, ‘ Shikhari Sambhu ’^, ‘ Suppandi’^ and 101 Fairy Tales (*ewww*) , I was surprised that this whole book contained only one story and realized that the short/children story-reading time was over for me. I remember setting out to read it, in bits and pieces but right from the beginning. Obviously, it didn’t make sense as a complete story back then, but nothing better to do just kept me on it. I have always had that book, and Yes! It did make sense and t...

Very American. Very much New Yorky. Classic Salinger humour yet incredibly tedious and unending. Even though, the principle characters are young adults or are in their late teens, much of the book and story didn't feel relatable. Increasingly snobbish like Salinger's stories,  even more so than 'The Catcher in the Rye", the book feels like it is trying hard to sound intellectual and elite, with an out of the world air of superiority but fails to even scratch the surface. This struggle is quite evident to the reader. To cut short, a very boring read thankfully interjected by classic wit in between although sparsely, which made me laugh out loud in between the pages. This small book also took me around 60-70 odd days to complete and left me exhausted but finally with a sign of relief on completion. For comparison, I recently read Mohsin Hamid's brilliant 2nd Person narrative Novel with the facade of a self-help book, "How to get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia...

An excerpt-y, opinionated, reflective and other synonym-y book post. (Published in the Indian sub-continent as Riot- A Novel) Disclaimer: This is also a breakaway from the typical or not so typical book reviews or reading guides or the groups of words strung together that you’d find in this blog. This post is written in a bulleted-list kind-of-way, and you can jump to any part. The parts in italics and quotes are directly taken from the book and are © Arcade Publishing , Penguin India and the author . Paperback Cover; Source: Flipkart   // The first time I saw him I didn’t really like him. And I was soon happy I was stuck. There was something about his voice that reached out and drew me in, something that was both inviting and reassuring. I heard his voice, and the only thing I could care about was hearing that voice again.   // “I think it was Oscar Wilde who said that usefulness the last refuge of the unappealing. But even a man of...