Bombay-London-New York

Rating:
Summary: Being Amitava Malkovich
Review: What we get with this book is a sure-footed survey of indian writing in English that feels like a grand tour by a docent who also happens to be your close friend. Amitava Kumar is an emerging literary voice from the indian subcontinent. The intimate prose evokes feelings of alienation and displacement that serve as a recurrent theme in a manner common to many expatriate authors but what is special with this book is a poignant sociological component. The author is not content to rely on his own keen observations of the real world; he delves into the world of fiction that many writers of eminence have created. The academic and the writer of fiction come together in a way that left me feeling good about myself.

Several photographs adorning the book give an air of authencity to the prose. The book brings a sense of immediacy to the forgotten places in india in a way that was never done before.With this book he has created a portal to his brain, reminding me of the movie "Being John Malkovich".