Tag Archives: literary fiction

Title: Lazarus is Dead
Author: Richard Beard
Publisher: Europa Editions
ISBN: 9781609450809
Genre: Literary Fiction
Pages: 272
Source: Publisher
Rating: 5/5
“Lazarus is Dead” by Richard Beard is fantastically written – it recounts the story of Lazarus and his resurrection on three different levels and that is what makes the book so good – in terms of plot and the writing style. I had to say this as soon as I began the review because I loved the way Beard has made sense of the plot. It isn’t easy to…

Title: Silent House
Author: Orhan Pamuk
Publisher: Hamish Hamilton, Penguin
ISBN: 978-0-670-08559-0
Genre: Literary Fiction, Translation
Pages: 334
Source: Publisher
Rating: 5/5
Not everyone I have met who like reading, like Orhan Pamuk. They say they cannot get into his books. Of course. It is true. One needs a lot of patience and time on hand to be able to read and appreciate a Pamuk. The first time I started on was with, “My Name is Red” and it took me two rereads to be able to understand the intricacies…

Title: Ten Thousand Saints
Author: Eleanor Henderson
Publisher: Quercus Books
ISBN: 978-1780872179
Genre: Literary Fiction
Pages: 400
Source: Publisher
Rating: 4/5
It took me quite a lot of time to get into the skin of this book and enjoy it. “Ten Thousand Saints” by Eleanor Henderson wasn’t an easy read to begin with. Let me directly get to the plot.
The book begins on New Year’s Eve 1987 in a fictional college town Lintonburg, Vermont. Two teenagers, Teddy and Jude are out partying with their new friend Eliza from Manhattan.…

Title: The Illicit Happiness of Other People
Author: Manu Joseph
Publisher: Fourth Estate
ISBN: 978-9350293645
Genre: Literary Fiction
Pages: 352
Source: Publisher
Rating: 5/5
Manu Joseph is definitely the most promising writer on the Indian Literary scene as of now and well-deserved of that place in my opinion. Serious Men made a great impact in the literary world and rightly so. It was a sweeping novel of family, doubt, and loss in an emerging India, full of hopes, aspirations and the need to get somewhere. Manu Joseph writes with a…

Title: The Daylight Gate
Author: Jeanette Winterson
Publisher: Hammer Books
ISBN: 978-0-09-956185-9
Genre: Literary Fiction
Pages: 194
Source: Publisher
Rating: 4/5
I have always loved what Winterson writes. I have read everything that she has written, including her book for children and her non-fictional pieces as well. To me, she is everything a writer should be, but then again that is purely a personal opinion. I was overjoyed on receiving a copy of her latest, “The Daylight Gate” and could not stop reading it.
Here is something about the book:…

Title: The Forrests
Author: Emily Perkins
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
ISBN: 978-1608196777
Genre: Literary Fiction
Pages: 352
Source: Publisher
Rating: 3/5
Everyday living is not easy. It has its moments, throughout, but yes there is nothing grand about it. And yet it springs on you in the most unexpected way. In the form of families and what it means to be different from every family member.
“The Forrests” by Emily Perkins is a story of one such family. The plot may not be unique but I liked the way the book…

Title: The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns
Author: Margaret Dilloway
Publisher: Putnam Adult
ISBN: 978-0399157752
Genre: Literary Fiction
Pages: 368
Source: Publisher
Rating: 4/5
I have not been a fan of the regular run-of-the-mill women fiction. I somehow cannot relate to it and more so I do not feel for the characters. I try and avoid reading such books. I try and then I give up in some cases. But the one that I am about to review now was a different experience altogether.
“The Care and Handling…

Title: Lionel Asbo: State of England
Author: Martin Amis
Publisher: Jonathan Cape
ISBN: 978-0-224-09621-8
Genre: Literary Fiction
Pages: 288
Source: Publisher
Rating: 3/5
Martin Amis’s writing is weird and I say this with utmost respect. It is also intellectually appeasing and at the same time takes the road, not taken by many writers, that of experimentation in terms of plot and characters that are as anti as they can be.
His characters oscillate between wanting to do the right thing and tempted always to do the wrong thing and go…

Title: Sweet Tooth
Author: Ian McEwan
Publisher: Jonathan Cape
ISBN: 978-0224097376
Genre: Literary Fiction
Pages: 336
Source: Publisher
Rating: 5/5
I remember reading the first Ian McEwan when I was sixteen. I started with, “The Cement Garden” and the idea of a book where only young adults featured while the adults were on a vacation intrigued me and rightly so. The book did not disappoint a single bit and since then I have not stopped reading everything written by him.
Ian McEwan’s female characters have always been enigmatic and rather…

Title: Mrs. Bridge
Author: Evan S. Connell
Publisher: Penguin Modern Classics
ISBN: 978-0141198651
Genre: Literary Fiction
Pages: 208
Source: Publisher
Rating: 5/5
Mrs. Bridge by Evan S. Connell is a deceptively simple story. On the surface it might seem to be just another story of a woman, rather a portrait of a woman, and a housewife at that, told in over one hundred brief and discrete chapters.
Mrs. Bridge to a very large extent could very-well be any Indian housewife (without the household chores) – with her suppressed desires, yearnings…