| |
Dysfunctional families and literature go hand in hand. It is almost as if they are made for each other. From Anna Karenina to Wuthering Heights, each is better (or worse) than the other. Everything happens in the blink of an eye in such stories and maybe that is why they are so gripping. “A Cool Dark Place” by Supriya Dravid is one such book.
The relationship between a grandfather and his granddaughter is explored very little in literature. There is not much written about it. “A Cool Dark Place” explores the harrowing relationship Zephyr has with her grandfather Don and how actions impact our past and future. There is like we said a lot happening in the book – a relationship with a loved one in the afterlife, memories stored in bags, and getting family ties altogether, give the book its brilliant shape and structure. Supriya Dravid doesn’t disappoint for sure, so much so that you cannot believe that this is a debut.
Description
The more I write, the more I revisit memory like this, putting pen to paper, ink to blood, the more the dots seem to connect and the silences speak.
Following her faux fathers suicide, Zephyrs life unravels into a shapeless tapestry woven in the ethanol-hand of her grandfather, Don an amoral, sensual, manipulative bastard whos too clever for heaven and too deranged for hell. An alcoholic extraordinaire for whom the clock always struck quarter past rum for whom it was always just about the libidinous moment, a man with imperial swagger and disco-ball eyes, the super king of a vast empire of solitude and permanent resident of his daughters wounded heart, Don`s actions shatter Zefs past into fragments of warring memories. Armed with only her blade of tears, she carves her way through a quagmire of dark, atavistic forces.
A mother daughter bond formed in the afterlife, memories stored in Ziploc bags and the horrific struggle to piece together a past that`s been through the shredder A Cool, Dark Place is all of these plus the unsettling realization that ones life was ghost-written by two drunks.ISBN - 9788184002034
|
| |
Pages : 256
|