These Circuses that Sweep Through the Landscape - Book Review

These Circuses That Sweep  Through the Landscape is a collection of stories by Teajswini Apte-Rahim. The author must be given full marks for the variety of topics around which she weaves her stories. Human conflict, both external as well as internal, is a predominant theme all the stories in this collection.

Homo Coleoptera is a story about an aging man and his wife who refuses to age. This makes the man insecure. The story ends with his tragic death.

Thank God for Star Trek tells the story of a troubled mother and her young daughter, from the daughter's perspective. The story shows how TV diffuses tensions at least for some time.

The Mall works very well as an experimental story. It depicts the depression, insecurities and feeling of being lost among a urban-goer very well.

The protagonist of the story Cotton is the cotton itself. In the story Drinks at Seven the issue of how suspicion as to infidelity crops up in a marriage is dealt with. Sandalwood is the story of a woman who after almost two decades of marriage is thrown out of the house because her husband wants to live with another man. Her existence is only for cooking the food which her children like.

These Circuses that Sweep Through the Landscape shows insecurities, rivarly and idiosyncrasies of aging men.

Having praised the author for dealing with a variety of topics and bringing the conflict very well, I must warn the readers that these stories are too prosiac and are difficult to comprehend. I was unable to understand the end of most of the stories. I feel the stories or for that matter any literary work must be perspicuous  that the readers are able to understand it. The author utterly fails to make the meaning clear. Also a veil of gloom covers all the stories. You feel disturbed after reading these stories. This may be termed as success of the author, but it wont appeal to most of the readers.

'I received a copy from Writersmelon in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.'