At last, on Sunday, The Hindu brought with it the much awaited ‘Literary Review.’ As I expected, there was Arvind Adiga on the front page. Amitava Kumar wrote a scathing (?) article about the Booker winning title calling it ‘inauthentic’ and lot more. His argument and reasoning seemed valid but unless I read the book I cannot tell. One can expect a lot more of such fireworks in the future. Below, was an article on the Nobel prize winner, Le Clezio by Shelley Walia.
Inside, there was an interview of C.K. Meena whose latest books ‘Dreams for the Dying’ is out. I haven’t heard of her and haven’t come across her books anywhere. Also, there was an item on the Kollam Literary Festival held sometime back at Kollam/Kovalam. If ever I decide to attend any Literary Festival it will be the one at Kollam, which, the article says is going to be a regular feature. Kerala is one Southern state I haven’t traveled to. Maybe next year I might be in a position to say 'Kerala, here I come.'
The first Sunday of every month is one that makes me happy because it is filled with books all day. The Literary Review with several interesting articles, interviews and reviews makes for enjoyable reading but I still feel something is missing. I wish they could carry something about writing. There could be a column wherein famous writers could discuss their technique, talk about they came about to write their books, and stuff like that which could be of interest to aspiring writers. Among the millions of readers who read The Hindu could be several people who aspire to write. Such a feature could be of great help to them.
Later in the evening I watched ‘Just Books’ hosted by Sunil Sethi on NDTV Profit. A regular feature on this program is the one where celebrities talk about the books on their bookshelves. This week it was the playwright Mahesh Dattani and incidentally, he was recommending CK Meena’s book I had read in ‘Literary Review’ in the morning. It was an odd coincidence.
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