Book Summary: Dangling Gandhi
Here is a set of short stories that artistically break the traditional rules of storytelling to bring about freshness, so Singaporean, India, and Asian. About 10 out of the 12 short stories ranging right from 1905 colonial period in Singapore, the period of the independence struggle in India to contemporary modern themes such as ‘my mother is a feminist’ is truly SingLit, aptly published when we celebrate our Bicentennial.
The collection has all the features like smooth readability, with an anthropological approach, interesting experiments both in content and form that any good collection would be expected to have.
These typically character-driven are sequenced to alternate, primarily to bring a better vibrant reading experience and also to give the young readers a wholesome feel of reading the past and the present.
Book Review: Dangling Gandhi
Dangling Gandhi by Jayanthi Sankar is a carefully crafted collection of short stories. But it’s more than that; a number of these stories are poignant and touching. Author Jayanthi Sankar‘s protagonists often reveal themselves as innocents and earn our admiration and respect, and her perceptions of the world they inhabit are acute.
Pretty much every story in this collection, Dangling Gandhi by Jayanthi Sankar, has as its theme an individual’s relationship with the natural world. And the natural world is always called upon to act – because Author Jayanthi Sankar, you suspect, has a profound, mysterious sense of the beauty of the universe. Drifting dangerously close to sentimentality at times, or plummeting headlong into it, Jayanthi Sankar’s writing is heart-touching.
I found the first story, “Did Churchill Know?” amazing about the many different ways we grieve. The title story, Dangling Gandhi, is one of the best in the collection. The stories in Dangling Gandhi and Other Short Stories may not leave you feeling all shiny and happy inside; but you will find yourself marvelling at author’s writing ability and how she captivates and compels you in just a few short pages. These are stories that look at the bleaker side of life, love, and relationships, but many pack a serious punch.
The stories in this collection hooked me pretty quickly, and left me thinking about them even as I went on to the next one. And even now, a few days after I’ve finished the collection, some of the stories—particularly the ones I’ve named above—have me wondering what happened to the characters when the stories ended.
All the twelve stories were on about the same level – enjoyable, well-written, well-crafted. If you’re a short story fan, pick up Dangling Gandhi and Other Short Stories. The stories themselves make you joyful, and author Jayanthi Sankar’s writing certainly will make you elated.
