Review of The Arithmetic of Breasts and other stories by Rochelle Potkar
About
Author:
Rochelle Potkar is a writer and poet.
Her stories have appeared in several Indian and international publications. She
lives in Mumbai. Her next book, Dreams of Déjà vu, is a speculative novel.
Writing
Style: 3.5/5
Every form
of literature has its own charm and way of presentation of life. Short story is
considered a slice from life of the character. In novels we get to know about
the character in detail directly from his birth or particular age till his
death or his achievement of goal of his life. It is little bit easy for writer
of novel to leave kind of impression about the character on mind of reader as
he has got enough room. For me, writer of short story has got much task to do
as in single incident of character’s life he has to present whole self of
character. And I must say Rochelle Potkar has done her best in presenting a
slice from characters’ life.
The
Arithmetic of Breasts and other stories is a collection of wonderful stories
depicting the hidden chambers and less discussed realms of human life. The
basic of human life is discussed in these stories. Humans sexual desires, his
curiosity for this forbidden fruit and the hidden self which comes on surface
rarely.
First story
The Arithmetic of Breasts is story
of Narain and Munika. It seems lust to reader at first is transformed in love.
Second
story The Room with a sea-view is an
intriguing story. As title suggests love is an ocean. Ocean which is
unmeasurable and unexplored. No one till this date has been able to get idea of
ocean completely or love can we say?
Sky park where we
get to know about Jackie who loves Nic.
Dr. Love is a story
of a lovelorn doctor who is cosmetic surgeon and how he tries to get back his
lost love in form of a patient.
The scent of a conscience is story of
two different person who have one common fact and its lust. Desire to get
completed. Feelings of characters are portrayed so beautifully in story.
A place they call scary is heart
wrenching and satiric story of Devdasi tradition.
Devi or human, woman is supposed to suffer in every form.
Our Lovers is a superb
story of what one craves and the other dreads the same.
The troll on page no. 16 is humorous
story describing our hidden curiosity for others’ personal problems.
What men want is story of
ever-changing mentality and desires of men.
All the
stories have scent of variance in it but one or two of them is less affecting.
Writing style has got a depth which lives impression on reader’s mind. Few of
them will leave you thoughtful. Loved Rochelle’s writing style and wish to read
many more works from her in future.
My overall
rating for this work is 3.5/5.
Genre:
Fiction
Paperback:
100 pages
Publisher:
20Notebooks Press.
Language:
English
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