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A review by jainandsdiary
Life And Political Reality: Two Novellas by Shahidul Zahir
2.0
Book: Life and Political Reality: Two Novellas
Author: Shahidul Zahir
Translators: V. Ramaswamy and Shahroza Nahrin
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 204
Genre: Literary Fiction
Life and Political Reality: Two Novellas is a book originally written in Bengali and translated into English by V. Ramaswamy and Shahroza Nahrin. As the title suggests, this book consists of two novellas, first, Life And Political Reality, and second Abu Ibrahim's Death.
Life and Political Reality explores and examines the 1971 Bangladesh liberation war. Set in a local village in Bangladesh, the story explores the conflict between Abdul Mojid and Abul Khayer and how the decisions of the present are influenced by the past. On the other hand, Abu Ibrahim's Death makes us travel to the world of Abu Ibrahim, the life of a normal person. The story shows the problems and questions he faces and makes the readers dive deeper into it, as it makes the connection with today's scenario as well.
I have little high expectations from the book from the reason that this book is translated from Bengali, the language which gave me two of my favorite reads of this year, both being the translated books, Parineeta and Devdas, written by Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay. Although this book belongs to quite a different genre, timeline, plot, and location, I was intrigued to read it. I wanted to read books based in Bangladesh or written by any Bangladeshi author for a long time, so it looked perfect for me to try this. And knowing that Shahidul Zahir has "some of the most unique and powerful works of fiction to come out of the subcontinent", as mentioned in the book, excited me.
The book is unique in the way of storytelling with the tangled characters and story, giving it a distinct identity. But what I was left with overall with the book was a disappointment, specially with the novella Life And Political Reality. I did not feel connected with the plot, characters, and their development, and overall to the complete story throughout its course. It took me a lot of time to get into it, which you can understand from the fact that I have read the first 10-15 pages at least 6-7 times to finally move forward with it. The language, words, and sentences felt very abrupt and difficult to go through. The constant repetition of the names of the characters throughout the story was irritating and it did not work for me at all. While Abu Ibrahim's Death was a little better than the former, having a linear structure and representing the dilemma of the character with the decisions.
Being a reader who loves books that are character driven and shows character development with a focus on the minute detail on them, this book although character-driven, left me underwhelming. The book might have been better in the original version but since I haven’t read that, I can comment on it, but I felt a sense of constriction in the writing while reading the story.
I will recommend you read the first few pages of the book from the sample available on the kindle before going through this book so that you can decide whether the book holds your interest or not. If it does so, you can try it as this book is quite different from the one that we read on regular basis. I would give this book 2 out of 5 stars.
Author: Shahidul Zahir
Translators: V. Ramaswamy and Shahroza Nahrin
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 204
Genre: Literary Fiction
Life and Political Reality: Two Novellas is a book originally written in Bengali and translated into English by V. Ramaswamy and Shahroza Nahrin. As the title suggests, this book consists of two novellas, first, Life And Political Reality, and second Abu Ibrahim's Death.
Life and Political Reality explores and examines the 1971 Bangladesh liberation war. Set in a local village in Bangladesh, the story explores the conflict between Abdul Mojid and Abul Khayer and how the decisions of the present are influenced by the past. On the other hand, Abu Ibrahim's Death makes us travel to the world of Abu Ibrahim, the life of a normal person. The story shows the problems and questions he faces and makes the readers dive deeper into it, as it makes the connection with today's scenario as well.
I have little high expectations from the book from the reason that this book is translated from Bengali, the language which gave me two of my favorite reads of this year, both being the translated books, Parineeta and Devdas, written by Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay. Although this book belongs to quite a different genre, timeline, plot, and location, I was intrigued to read it. I wanted to read books based in Bangladesh or written by any Bangladeshi author for a long time, so it looked perfect for me to try this. And knowing that Shahidul Zahir has "some of the most unique and powerful works of fiction to come out of the subcontinent", as mentioned in the book, excited me.
The book is unique in the way of storytelling with the tangled characters and story, giving it a distinct identity. But what I was left with overall with the book was a disappointment, specially with the novella Life And Political Reality. I did not feel connected with the plot, characters, and their development, and overall to the complete story throughout its course. It took me a lot of time to get into it, which you can understand from the fact that I have read the first 10-15 pages at least 6-7 times to finally move forward with it. The language, words, and sentences felt very abrupt and difficult to go through. The constant repetition of the names of the characters throughout the story was irritating and it did not work for me at all. While Abu Ibrahim's Death was a little better than the former, having a linear structure and representing the dilemma of the character with the decisions.
Being a reader who loves books that are character driven and shows character development with a focus on the minute detail on them, this book although character-driven, left me underwhelming. The book might have been better in the original version but since I haven’t read that, I can comment on it, but I felt a sense of constriction in the writing while reading the story.
I will recommend you read the first few pages of the book from the sample available on the kindle before going through this book so that you can decide whether the book holds your interest or not. If it does so, you can try it as this book is quite different from the one that we read on regular basis. I would give this book 2 out of 5 stars.