- News>
- Newspapers
A smashing DEB-ut from Shillong: Hindustan Times
Shillong, Mar 25: Yet another Indian literary star has appeared on the horizon. And from where else but the Calcutta school of Indo-Anglian writing which I always held as most promising, considering that it is rooted in the vibrant high-brow Bengali culture. And also because the Bengalis are more talented than the rest of India`s literary cognoscenti. It does not matter that in this case the writer was born and brought up in Assam, but well, the ethos is Bengali.
Shillong, Mar 25: Yet another Indian literary star has appeared on the horizon. And from where else but the Calcutta school of Indo-Anglian writing which I always held as most promising, considering that it is rooted in the vibrant high-brow Bengali culture. And also because the Bengalis are more talented than the rest of India's literary cognoscenti. It does not matter that in this case the writer was born and brought up in Assam, but well, the ethos is Bengali.
Siddharta Deb's Point of Return has just been published by Harper Collins International in the United States. The New York Times has used the adjectives "precious and uplifting", even while finding fault with some parts of the novel set in Shillong. And predictably, reviewer Suzanna Ruta evokes a bit of RK Narayan's sedate old-world charm to help the American reader link with the context of the novel. Otherwise the average American reader might not figure out where the Scotland of the East is. The first chapter of the novel is enough to let us know that it is indeed the Narayanesque world of irony and pathos that Deb invokes in his Shillong novel. The protagonist, a returned veterinary surgeon, cursed not just by his funny-sounding name, Dr Dam, but by destiny as well, lives in a world of his ideals but reality turns out to be too bitter for him. Dr Dam seems to be character out of Malgudi, beaten by the system, yet dragging along life's rubble-strewn path by the strength of his own beliefs.
Deb, who is now settled in the US, looks at first sight to be a valuable addition to the growing number of superb Indian storytellers. It is through such writers that a forgotten, unheard India will in the future be broadcast to the larger world. It is a worthy DEB-ut, no doubt.
Bureau Report
Siddharta Deb's Point of Return has just been published by Harper Collins International in the United States. The New York Times has used the adjectives "precious and uplifting", even while finding fault with some parts of the novel set in Shillong. And predictably, reviewer Suzanna Ruta evokes a bit of RK Narayan's sedate old-world charm to help the American reader link with the context of the novel. Otherwise the average American reader might not figure out where the Scotland of the East is. The first chapter of the novel is enough to let us know that it is indeed the Narayanesque world of irony and pathos that Deb invokes in his Shillong novel. The protagonist, a returned veterinary surgeon, cursed not just by his funny-sounding name, Dr Dam, but by destiny as well, lives in a world of his ideals but reality turns out to be too bitter for him. Dr Dam seems to be character out of Malgudi, beaten by the system, yet dragging along life's rubble-strewn path by the strength of his own beliefs.
Deb, who is now settled in the US, looks at first sight to be a valuable addition to the growing number of superb Indian storytellers. It is through such writers that a forgotten, unheard India will in the future be broadcast to the larger world. It is a worthy DEB-ut, no doubt.
Bureau Report