Book Of Shadows by Namita GokhaleMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
The book starts with a seismic bang, but then meanders along in a maudlin fashion before exploding in a series of volcanic eruptions. These eruptions are the result of the actions of individuals damaged physically, mentally, and spiritually who come to inhabit the house central to the story. They are a bunch of eccentric, cruel, perverted, lecherous and sadistic persons over succeeding generations.
I picked up this mystical and literary book both for the nostalgia for my childhood spent in Nainital and Ranikhet, as well as for my partial Kumaoni ancestry. The author’s style of writing is very evocative – I could hear the cacophony of cicadas, smell the chir and deodar trees, taste the tart wild strawberries, tangy kaphal and syrupy pulpy hisaaloo and visualize the sylvan slopes. I could even hear the distant flute amidst the clanging cow-bells:
It’s cloying, it’s creepy, it’s crawly, it’s crepuscular.The end is rather abrupt and unsatisfying, hence the three stars.
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