I am half-way through The Education of Yuri by Jerry Pinto and I like it for the overthinker character Yuri is. I used to be one. It is written well, the kind of well I write, not the kind of well I aspire to write. The sentences lack the lyrical quality that could be found in Arundhati Roy or Romesh Gunesekera. Also, the sexual banter of college students described in the book is distasteful on occasions, not sure if it was intended to be authentic. I'd mostly blame it on Pinto's male gaze rather. I also don't like the italicisation of Hindi words. Miss Rushdie's nonchalance there! I also finished Norwegian Wood by Murakami on Audible and found I like him for the immense depth of conversation (such great insights on teaching & learning, on reading & writing), but I find his women characters very unreal. They all start flirting with the main character or revealing about their sex life with such immediacy that it feels odd that the character is not a Casanova but a shy and a shaky one.

I think I have had enough of reading male authors. I am starting Rachel Cusk's The Second Place after Murakami. I read Transit by her and its sensitive prose felt like a balm of words.

- हर्ष स्नेहांशु