Customer Comments

Susmita Dubey has commented on (6) products.

Gods Without Men by Hari Kunzru

Susmita Dubey, March 26, 2012

Hari Kunzru's new novel is described on the book jacket as the saga of a young couple whose child goes missing on a trip to the desert. However, so much happens before and around that incident that it really doesn't capture the mood or the plot of this wide-ranging, fascinating read. Kunzru expertly veers from 18th century priests to early 20th century Native Americans to the late 1960s counterculture and finally to a modern-day young couple facing the challenge of raising an autistic child. This is the kind of book you want to read at a single sitting (or two), and you will find yourself immersed in the world(s) Kunzru has created.

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Just Kids by Patti Smith

Susmita Dubey, August 16, 2011

This is a beautiful story of a long and interesting relationship between Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe. Patti Smith writes like a poet and manages to be kind to everyone she mentions in her book. The depiction of the creative set in 1970s New York is captivating.

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City Boy by Edmund White

Susmita Dubey, January 24, 2011

Edmund White is a well-known novelist and critic, and here he has given us a first-hand view into the creative class in Manhattan in the 1960s and 70s. White describes the changing gay social scene before and after Stonewall, and also drops numerous influential names -- both gay and straight -- he encountered and who befriended him, including Howard Moss (then the poetry editor for The New Yorker), Peggy Guggenheim, and James Merrill. At times serious and at times funny, White describes love affairs and friendships, some fleeting and others lasting for decades.

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The Anthologist by Nicholson Baker

Susmita Dubey, January 19, 2011

If you know very little about poetry (as I do) and even if you find it difficult to read (as I do), you will still love Nicholas Baker's short novel about a poet compiling an anthology of rhyming poems while he struggles with his professional and personal life. Baker's protagonist explains his preference for rhyme over the more modern free verse, and his views on what iambic pentameter really is, referencing poets including Whitman, Pound, Millay, and Keats, as well as less well-known ones. At the same time, he is working on a long-overdue introduction to his anthology and trying to win back his long-time girlfriend. Baker has written a very funny and erudite book about a likeable "regular" guy who happens to make his living writing poetry.

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(3 of 4 readers found this comment helpful)

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Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham

Susmita Dubey, December 20, 2010

I read this because I liked "The Hours" so much, and was not disappointed. Specimen Days is in some ways similar to The Hours, in that the stories -- set in three different time periods -- are intertwined, but it is also very different in the style of the stories. The commonalities among the three parts of Specimen Days include Walt Whitman, whose poetry is quoted by several characters throughout the book, as well as the impact of machinery on human lives. A very good and thought-provoking read.

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(2 of 4 readers found this comment helpful)

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