Heart of Darkness and Other Tales – Joseph Conrad

Joseph Conrad’s writing has been one of the most difficult I have read to date. Though the imagery is beautiful, the language coupled with the intricacies of thought become a little too difficult to hold on to for a duration long enough that you can start relishing the tale. Most of his stories are a little too descriptive, with sparks of of brilliance at sporadic intervals, in so far what I was able to comprehend.

‘An Outpost of Progress’ is a beautiful tale and contained in it all characteristic elements of Conrad’s writings. In my opinion, it is a fitting welcome to Conrad’s world. ‘Karain – A Memory’ , though slightly long and initially slow, was quite a thriller in the second half. I did not enjoy ‘Youth’ as much and found it quite a drab tale. Most importantly, I was tempted to read Conrad because I had read that ‘Apocalypse Now’ was adapted from ‘the Heart of Darkness’, which, though a decent read, did not live up to the high expectations I had of the story.

There is not a shred of doubt that Conrad writes brilliantly, but I did not find his stories a gripping read. Not sure whether the fault lies in the writer narration or the reader’s comprehension.

Interpreter of Maladies – Jhumpa Lahiri

There are good short stories, there are excellent short stories and then there are short stories by Jhumpa Lahiri

The elderly lady in front of me looked pale and haggard. She must have been barely 5 feet tall. Staring down at the blades of grass that grew on the edge of the Front Lawns, she held onto a copy of “The Lowlands” pressed onto her chest with her arms wrapped around it. We were somewhere in the middle of an extremely long queue around the periphery of the 500 meter-square garden, patiently waiting to get our recently-bought books signed. Frankly speaking, I did not like the session too much but had been looking forward to exploring some of her works for quite some time. It was another twenty minutes before I got my turn.