Recently, I happened to fulfill a long standing wish of mine, the wish to read The Shadow Lines of Amitav Ghosh. While I started reading the the book I was not completely free from the reservations about Amitav Ghosh that I had developed after reading The Glass Palace, especially the way he treats sex and at time
his method of plot construction which, I thought, was heavily dependent on chance and coincidence, notwithstanding his genius of story-telling and penchant for detailed researches about his subject. However, the former appeared to me as a so compact and well knit piece of literature that I had to rethink and blush over my earlier evaluation of Ghosh. In this novel Ghosh played almost all his cards to assert his mastery over the craft. He made it very clear that though he usually writes in a very simple style, he is equally conversant with the comparatively complex literary devices and could have outshined many self proclaimed Post Modernists, had he wished so. As I finished the book it once again made me recall the old saying that going to measure the masters with our small scales is not a wise option as there remain ample chances of being befooled.
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1 comment:
There is actually not much debate over Amitav Ghosh's literary skill. You perhaps under-estimated him for some peculiar reason. However, good to see that good sense has finally been restored in you. Your confession is of course praiseworthy for your honesty.
Ujwal Ghosh
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