'The best story of magic, love, sex, revenge and suspense to have come this way since Philip Pullman.' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY The author successfully vivisects the mind of a writer who transfers everything from his life-loves, relationships, encounters-to his kiss-and-tell prose.ACROSS THE NIGHTINGALE FLOOR is Book 1 in the five-part Tales of the Otori series. The story The Solitude of the Short-Story Writer-it was first published in London's New Review-is an accomplished piece of writing. In The Village Girl, Tharoor shows his sensitivity in the encounter between the 'sophisticated' Delhi-Keralite on his obligatory vacation in his village and the wide-eyed girl whose world is circumscribed by the village and hide-bound convention. It's also a perceptive, ironic look at the world of charity and humanitarian organisations. The story, as the author states in his preface to the story-each story has such introductions-is about emotional and geographical dislocation. The title story cleverly juxtaposes the air journey of the orphan Joseph to meet his 'foster parents' in the United States.

But do not a good book make.Īs for the stories themselves, among the more interesting are The Solitude of the Short-Story Writer written while the author was well out of his teens, the title story The Five Dollar Smile and the Village Girl. One-liners and verbal smashes are alright in party talk. Coffee house punning should remain where it originates-in the coffee house. But they do not do justice to the author's later work or potential, riddled as they are with collegiate punning and straining for cleverness. The stories-many of them set in Delhi University or villages in his native Kerala-are certainly lively and perceptive.

He's even endowed with that rare quality of humour which is in scarce supply in Indian writing. Tharoor, who is 34 and works with the United Nations, is clever, even brilliant. The Mahabharata in modern dress-or drag-is quite an achievement. It revealed that he is obviously quite a gymnast with words and difficult concepts. The only novel he has written is The Great Indian Novel. But Shashi Tharoor's collection of short stories, most of which were published when he was a teenager working in magazines like JS and The Illustrated Weekly of India, serve no such purpose.

Tales of the otori review