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The Last Laugh is Gajra Kottarys second collection of short stories about women. It is inspired by twist-in-the tail style of Roald Dahl, though the tales are not as macabre!
They are a delightful mix. A new brides fantasy, the existential frustrations of a crusaders wife, the dilemma of chic MBA in publicly recognising her homespun parents, an award-winning journalists who finds her campaigne gone awry, a danseuse realising that guru must do more than just merely teach... these are some of the experiences encountered by the protagonists in these stories. There is also a rashomon- like tale of two women comparing husbands. Plus stories of loveless marriages, noisy neighbours, the sane insane, indecisiveness and also on what could go wrong in a sex-change operation.
Written in a lucid style, the remarkable quality of the collection are the plots. As also the writing; in the seamless fusion of thoughts, self-doubts and recollections of the characters with their dilemmas. While sketching a portrait of existence in contemporary urban India, these stories showcase some of the foibles of women and delight the reader withtheir quaint unpredictability.
Two of the stories in this collection are soon to be made into films. ISBN 81-7992-125-5
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Pages : 192
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