Review: Memories of Fire by Ashok Chopra

Memories of Fire by Ashok Chopra
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Memories of fire is a book about five friends in the 1950s who grow up witnessing or being affected by the political and economic changes in India and Pakistan. They meet not so frequently but have lot of letter exchanges and two of them are in habit of keeping a journal, through which we are told a major part of the story.

I have mixed feelings for this book. I think this book is more of a personal recollection of events and places mixed with a fictional story that is not linear at all. Even in flashbacks , there is not a clear flow. There are letters and paragraph that read like a wikipedia posts , so dry and to the point. While you may enjoy those nuggets at times as per your interest, area,  it takes away attention from the story. Some places I did not want to go back to the fictional part of the book at all , so good was the setting and details of the real events. I really could not add up the two in many chapters. The book appears to be inspired from true people and events from the author's life but the fictionalization is a little too sketchy.

It makes an okay read for people who do not like historical fiction at all.

View all my reviews

The Dormant State by Dibya Satpathy

The reason I was interested in this book was that this was based on/in Odisha. The political plot of the book made me think twice whether there be anything new to offter in the book, yet I decided to be surprised by the way this book engaged me. The book is a little esaay sort in the beginning. The narrative, if it had been in dialogues would have been better. The tone kind if makes one disaasociate with the plot but it stays only for first 30 pages and later when the author does the same, you know better to let the story flow.

The reason for which book was picked , was justified and fulfilled to a large extent. The book gave me a very good picture and understanding of the state , its problems, the society and culture too. The growth of each character is well nuanced and balanced. The story is almost a thriller with each player pulling strings in his own interest , resulting in multiple masks to decipher.

Anirudh is a guy with heart and mind dedicated to service of others. He is a natural leader and so his rise to be a CM is understandable. The challenges and the political tie ups that he manages make for a very interesting read. This story is well researched and the timeline is almost accurate.

My rating : 3.5/5