Bombay Hangovers: Reviews

Bombay Hangovers: Reviews
Author: Rochelle Potkar
Publisher: Rochelle Potkar
Total Pages: 29
Release: 2022-05-29
Genre: Fiction
ISBN:

Reviews of the short story collection Bombay Hangovers by author Rochelle Potkar, by various critics.

Bombay Hangovers

Bombay Hangovers
Author: Rochelle Potkar
Publisher: Vishwakarma Publications
Total Pages: 46
Release: 2021-02-21
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 8195012639

These are 16 immersive, entertaining short stories about characters across caste, class, and religion in Bombay. Some of the stories have been nominated for prizes: Fundação Oriente Short Story Competition, 2015 (shortlist); Open Road Review 2016 (winner); DNA-Out of Print Contest 2017 (longlist), and DISQUIET International Literary prize, Lisbon 2019 (notable entry). * * * These stories are laced with the grit, sleaze and dynamism of Bombay. They explore the nerve centre of a great metropolis with caustic wit and uncompromising realism. From the red-light corner of Kamathipura and the race course of Mahalaxmi, from South Bombay where a perfume maker works on exotic fragrances to the throbbing epicentre of Thana and the township of Kalyan, from Bandra to Andheri, the city is brought alive through memorable characters, piquant situations and no holds barred language. With the occasional foray into Goa, the poet Rochelle Potkar makes an impressive debut in short fiction, a genre unfairly neglected by most publishers in India. --Manohar Shetty

Woman by the Door

Woman by the Door
Author: Kashiana Singh
Publisher: Loyola College/Apprentice House
Total Pages: 100
Release: 2022-02
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 9781627204040

Woman by the Door is a collection of poems that crystallized over the last 9 years, starting to take shape when Kashiana moved from India to the US in 2013. These poems are born of necessity and travel in and out of that doorway into many spaces before and after that point in time. Serving as a problem-solving tool, poetry continually helps Kashiana focus and refocus towards a center of gravity. Coming together in this knitted collage are poems rooted in lived experiences and saturated with the poet's varied sensibilities and influences. The poems flow through three sections - Aperture explores poems of memory and family, Portal opens the door to transition and growth, Detours holds our hand through loss and ache. The woman herself is an intersection, always kneeling by the door - coming, going, waiting, leaning in. Witnessing. Relentlessly she receives and offers lifetimes. Woman by the Door is ultimately preoccupied with paying tribute to that woman.

Meet Me in Bombay

Meet Me in Bombay
Author: Jenny Ashcroft
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2021-01-19
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1250270278

All he needs is to find her. First, he must remember who she is. Jenny Ashcroft's "Meet Me in Bombay is a powerful, poignant and deeply emotional tale of love, mystery, loss and joy." –Kate Furnivall, New York Times bestselling author It's New Year's Eve in Bombay, 1913, and Madeline Bright, new to the sweltering heat of colonial India, is yearning for all she has left behind in England. Then, at the stroke of midnight, Maddy meets Luke Devereaux, and as the year changes so do both their lives. Bold and charismatic, Luke opens her eyes to the wonders of Bombay, while Maddy's beauty and vivacity captures his heart. Only her mother disapproves, preferring the devoted Guy Bowen as a match for her daughter. But while Maddy and Luke are falling in love, the world is falling apart. World War I is on the horizon, and Luke will be given no choice but to fight. They will be continents apart, separated by danger and devastating loss, but bound by Luke's promise that they will meet again in Bombay.

Em and the Big Hoom

Em and the Big Hoom
Author: Jerry Pinto
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2014-06-24
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1101637854

The devastatingly original debut novel from a winner of the Windham-Campbell Prize for Fiction. “Profoundly moving . . . I cannot remember when I last read something as touching as this.” —Amitav Ghosh, author of The Glass Palace First published by a small press in India, Jerry Pinto’s debut novel has already taken the literary world by storm. Suffused with compassion, humor, and hard-won wisdom, Em and the Big Hoom is a modern masterpiece, and its American publication is certain to be one of the major literary events of the season. Meet Imelda and Augustine, or—as our young narrator calls his unusual parents—Em and the Big Hoom. Most of the time, Em smokes endless beedis and sings her way through life. She is the sun around which everyone else orbits. But as enchanting and high-spirited as she can be, when Em’s bipolar disorder seizes her she becomes monstrous, sometimes with calamitous consequences for herself and others. This accomplished debut is graceful and urgent, with a one-of-a-kind voice that will stay with readers long after the last page.

Sacred Games

Sacred Games
Author: Vikram Chandra
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Total Pages: 1203
Release: 2011-03-03
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0571267149

An enormously satisfying, exciting and enriching book, Vikram Chandra's novel draws the reader deep into the lives of detective Sartaj Singh and Ganesh Gaitonde, the most wanted gangster in India. Sartaj, the only Sikh inspector in the whole of Mumbai, is used to being identified by his turban, beard and the sharp cut of his trousers. But 'the silky Sikh' is now past forty, his marriage is over and his career prospects are on the slide. When Sartaj gets an anonymous tip off as to the secret hideout of the legendary boss of the G-company, he's determined that he'll be the one to collect the prize. This is a sprawling, epic novel of friendships and betrayals, of terrible violence, of an astonishing modern city and its underworld. Drawing on the best of Victorian fiction, mystery novels, Bollywood movies and Vikram Chandra's years of first hand research on the streets of Mumbai, this novel reads like a potboiling page-turner but resonates with the intelligence and emotional depth of the best of literature.

After I Was Raped: The Untold Lives of Five Rape Survivors

After I Was Raped: The Untold Lives of Five Rape Survivors
Author: Urmi Bhattacheryya
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Total Pages: 172
Release: 2021-04-22
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9389109981

What happens after rape? In After I Was Raped, we meet five individuals: a four-year-old girl, two Dalit women, an eight-month-old infant and a young professional. Through extensive interviews with them and their families and communities at large, Urmi Bhattacheryya reveals the stories of these survivors of sexual violence, as they recount how their lives and relationships have changed in the aftermath of assault. Shamed, ostracized and weighed down by guilt and depression, they continue to brave the most challenging realities. At a time when only high-profile, sensationalized cases of sexual violence provoke a public reaction and many stories go unheard, Bhattacheryya’s sensitive portrayal of the lives of these little-known survivors raises difficult but important questions about our convenient collective amnesia.

Amsterdam Stories

Amsterdam Stories
Author: Nescio
Publisher: New York Review of Books
Total Pages: 177
Release: 2012-03-20
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1590175077

No one has written more feelingly and more beautifully than Nescio about the madness and sadness, courage and vulnerability of youth: its big plans and vague longings, not to mention the binges, crashes, and marathon walks and talks. No one, for that matter, has written with such pristine clarity about the radiating canals of Amsterdam and the cloud-swept landscape of the Netherlands. Who was Nescio? Nescio—Latin for “I don’t know”—was the pen name of J.H.F. Grönloh, the highly successful director of the Holland–Bombay Trading Company and a father of four—someone who knew more than enough about respectable maturity. Only in his spare time and under the cover of a pseudonym, as if commemorating a lost self, did he let himself go, producing over the course of his lifetime a handful of utterly original stories that contain some of the most luminous pages in modern literature. This is the first English translation of Nescio’s stories.

Happy Hours

Happy Hours
Author: Bhaichand Patel
Publisher: Penguin UK
Total Pages: 509
Release: 2009-10-19
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 8184751621

Happy Hours: The Penguin Book of Cocktails is a first of its kind and all that you will need to set up your very own bar and make it the most talked-about one in town. It will show you how to master basic techniques and impress your guests: keep your glasses sparkling clean, create decorative ice cubes and use a cocktail shaker with panache. It will tell you about the origins, production and classification of different types of liquor, and provide smart tips on preserving and serving them. It will treat you to a splendid selection of over 650 recipes—from classics such as the Tom Collins and Daiquiri to unique concoctions like the Maheshwar Margarita (a feni–Cointreau–lemon juice mix) and Mango Bellini to inventive punches, mocktails and heady mixtures guaranteed to cure hangovers—complete with meticulous instructions on measurements, suggested glassware and garnishes, as well as a few tricks to reinvent popular mixes. Along the way, you’ll also pick up ♦ Up-to-date information on premier liquor brands and their availability in India ♦ Entertaining asides on sundry topics of interest, from the most expensive whisky in the world to the status of alcohol in ancient Indian society ♦ Crucial advice on how to recover from a night of hectic partying ♦ A comprehensive glossary that provides clear definitions of otherwise unfamiliar terms Whether you’re a professional bartender or a generous host, planning a lavish party or simply looking to add zing to an evening drink, this stylish, sumptuous book is the ultimate companion for your bar.

The Wet and the Dry

The Wet and the Dry
Author: Lawrence Osborne
Publisher: Crown
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2013-07-23
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 0770436897

Selected as a Top Ten Book of the Year by Dwight Garner, New York Times A “fearlessly honest account” (Financial Times) of man’s love of drink, and an insightful meditation on the meaning of alcohol consumption across cultures worldwide Drinking alcohol: a beloved tradition, a dangerous addiction, even “a sickness of the soul” (as once described by a group of young Muslim men in Bali). In his wide-ranging travels, Lawrence Osborne—a veritable connoisseur himself—has witnessed opposing views of alcohol across cultures worldwide, compelling him to wonder: is drinking alcohol a sign of civilization and sanity, or the very reverse? Where do societies fall on the spectrum between indulgence and restraint? An immersing, controversial, and often irreverent travel narrative, The Wet and the Dry offers provocative, sometimes unsettling insights into the deeply embedded conflicts between East and West, and the surprising influence of drinking on the contemporary world today. Now with an excerpt from Lawrence Osborne's latest novel, The Ballad of a Small Player.