Reviews

Mark Stephen Levy has been a regular tourist to India and he has written a novel in the past as well. However, his latest novel, American Maharajah, comes with a surprise element and a beautiful story – an American man visits India (though he is already a native Indian) and discovers strange facts about his identical – Amar, a person who has already been dead. His second visit to India to rediscover things about his birth makes thing so complicated before the ultimate truth is dug out – he remains in India – over! However, this novel isn’t as simple as I have narrated the story here. Once you start reading and get into the context of the text, you will be elated, for sure. Let’s slip into the intellectual review of American Maharajah now. Read more

Little Maryam is the debut novel by an emerging novelist based in New Delhi, Hamid Baig. The novel was launched on 26 January 2018 and since the launch, it has been, for a long time, on the list of Amazon bestsellers and has sold many copies. Today, I will be writing a review of this novel for the regular readers of this platform, Intellectual Reader. As our common practice is, we don’t get into the details of the story or the content of the book we review. We just try to get the essential things out from the piece of literature we review and present it to the readers with pros and cons (if there and significant enough to be told). So, here is my review of Little Maryam by Hamid Baig. Read more

The Hungry Tide is a literary fiction written by a contemporary great in Indian English Literature, Amitav Ghosh and the novel was published in the year 2004 when 21st century was still learning how to walk properly and how to talk well. This novel, since its publication, has been near the centre of the academic debates and discussions and also the curriculum designs. The Hungry Tide is liked by the readers who read it and appreciated by the readers who never read it but want to read it. However, by the readers who have read other contemporary novels along with The Hungry Tide, this novel is used as a benchmark to judge Indian English fiction by the writers contemporary in the 21st century. And guess what? You will be surprised to know that the standards of fiction set by Ghosh is never touched by most of the commercial authors today. Read more

Anita Krishan’s novel Despite Stolen Dreams is a fiction which finds its base on the menace of terrorism and the refuge of affection – two contrary abstract ideas are put against each other and the readers end their reading with a hope that yes, even terrorism can be defeated with love and people can be back to the original form – just being human beings! Garnering praises all over the country, Anita’s novel has two stories to tell the readers. One story is about the person who is hiding from terrorists – Wali Khan, and another story is about the person who is a terrorist – Shakeel. We have two worlds in front of us and we see clearly that the world which has love and harmony and peace provides Wali with a shelter where he can forget all the fears and worries he has and also the tragedies that he had suffered in his homeland of Kashmir. And another world of terrorism has everything but gross, violence, murder, hatred and a senseless sensation around a misguided religious predicament. Read more