I've read a few shot story collections and its safe to say that The Japanese Wife and the lot in this book are easily the most complex and intricate set I've ever read. By the looks of it, each story has been meticulously researched, analysed and presented in a style that makes you wonder how the mind of the author works. It's quite phenomenal sometimes when you come across pieces of text that you understand little of but at the end of it internalize completely. And this is what many of the stories in this book have been able to do with me. Big words, bigger ideas. On the one hand, I think Basu has a great ability to evoke setting: all of the places and people he describes are ones I can recognize or imagine. The course of different character's lives are also familiar, in that they reflect the disapora of the current age - immigration, cross-cultural exchanges, journeys to discover oneself. They're good, small stories, anecdotes. On the other hand, the stories told are very transient and lack substance for me... reading this book is for me like looking at a well-taken photograph, where I recognize the place or the people and admire the composition, but it doesn't go beyond that. What's the larger picture? What am I to learn based on the outcomes of these characters? Literature, by my measure, strives to reveal something about the universal condition, but these stories are too specific for me to arrive at a greater understanding of human life.
What do You think about The Japanese Wife (2008)?
visually beautiful book. I met the Author in the Calcutta airport parking lot.
—Shwagner
short stories....mundane events and situations made interesting!
—Sammy
