Fiction, Short Stories
Verdict: Read it
After a long pause in our trips to the book store down town, we made the effort and went to buy school books. As you might guess reader, our purchases of course wasn't restricted to school books. It was glorious.
Anyhow. Ahem. I had picked up Volume 4 of this series out of curiosity. Of course the staff are always more than happy to make recommendations at Book Worm too, but this one I found. On another trip to get some photos printed out, we stopped at the library. Yes. I love both book stores and the library. Sigh. I found Volume 2, and since I have a huge mushy soft spot for short fiction cultural stories, picked it up to read too.
I wasn't even aware of the Katha prize before picking up these books, but figured they must be some kind of good. I was not disappointed. The stories are complex, varied, and from a variety of locations and languages through India. The editor has taken some care to ensure that if a word should be translated it is, but mostly the reader is left without many clues to sift through the stories and try to decifer the culturally significant markers in each story. It's wonderful to sort through.
I think that an understanding of Indian culture in general, and local cultures. languages, and stories/legends are almost a must to truly enjoy and understand this collection. That isn't to say that one who doesn't have this knowlege won't enjoy the stories. They may but probably not to the fullest.
My suggestion on this is to read it. Enriching yourself and expanding your cultural boundaries is always a useful direction to grow.
~Becky~
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