Equinox
by
Madhuri Maitra
The Blurb
My Review
When Indus Publishers announces a short story competition, it affects the lives of the ensemble cast in unexpected ways. A jaded journalist, a bored housewife, a starry-eyed ambitious girl, an army colonel, an impoverished divorcee-all enter the competition for pressing reasons of their own. They emerge with only slightly deeper pockets than they had but far richer in experience. Social issues are explored in an engaging manner, entwined in the lives of the characters-this is indeed the way of life. The novel also promises an enchanting look at the diversity in India; the characters belong to different Indian states and embody the peculiarities of the people of that region. Equinox and its checkered characters step to music of their own; many readers will find that it resonates with their own inner music.
My Review
It would be wrong to call ‘Equinox’, a novel. It is not ‘a’
novel; it is several novellas, cleverly entwined and bound together by the
author.
In fact, I can easily relate ‘Equinox’, to a Matryoshka doll,
or may be a pack of nested boxes. Once you start reading the book, you’ll find
yourself facing up a layer. Start peeling it off, and you’ll be looking at
another layer underneath it, followed by another and yet another.
This book is
a great example of how a collection of several flash fictions, can be welded
together to form a gripping, full-fledged novel.
‘Equinox’ is about the lives of six people, coming from
different walks of life, different parts of the country, belonging to varied
age brackets and demographics; and how they end up sharing the same goal of
winning the RS2,00,000 prize money, announced by Indus Publishers for a short story
competition.
The author has not only been successful in taking her
readers to a peek-a-boo journey, through the lives of the characters; she has
also shown us beautiful glimpses of several parts of the country, right from
Allepy in the South to Mussorie and Dehradun in the North.
The only two things that could have been better are: 1) I
found the editing and proofreading lagging at a few places, and 2) More
dialogues and less narration would have tightened it a little bit more.
Overall, I loved reading ‘Equinox’, and recommend it to
everyone who’s looking for a good, interesting read. Congratulations, Madhuri Maitra! You've nailed it! :)
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Meet the Author
Always an avid reader, dreaming of delighting her own readers someday, Madhuri published her first two books in 2014. Haiku and other Micropoetry is a collection of short verse on nature and on life; while Equinox is a novel dealing with urban realities. While the former is pithy and thought-provoking, the latter is a simple reflection of modern lives.
Madhuri lives and teaches in Pune. Films are as close to her heart as books are; she teaches Film Appreciation in addition to Creative Writing. She enjoys bringing her favourite authors and films
to young minds. She also conducts workshops for children and adults. She has also written and published papers on films and on writing. Visit her website http://of-prose-and-poetry.com/#/otherpublications for details.
She is currently enjoying the monsoon, immersing herself in her personal library and nurturing
ideas for her third book.
Madhuri lives and teaches in Pune. Films are as close to her heart as books are; she teaches Film Appreciation in addition to Creative Writing. She enjoys bringing her favourite authors and films
to young minds. She also conducts workshops for children and adults. She has also written and published papers on films and on writing. Visit her website http://of-prose-and-poetry.com/#/otherpublications for details.
She is currently enjoying the monsoon, immersing herself in her personal library and nurturing
ideas for her third book.
You can stalk her @
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