Etchings of the first quarter of 2020 by Sabarna Roy
Rating: 3/5
Sometimes a book is not about a story, it is about an idea. And that is exactly the process behind this book. ‘Etchings from the first quarter of 2020’ is a collection of letters and conversations between a step-father and a step-daughter.
Mind you, I only read the prose part of it and not the poetry, with the exception of the poetry piece that was in one of the letters.
The book begins with a letter from the step-father to the step-daughter, which is an introduction of what is coming. That is, two intellectual minds discussing duality and the many forms in which it arises. From Marxism, to schizophrenia, to love, the duo talks about a lot. This book is a short one, so there isn’t a lot of explanation behind their thoughts, so yes, reading this book does require research on the reader’s part.
There is also another letter where the author has talked about his thoughts over the book ‘Lolita’. Which, not questioning his thoughts here, is still problematic to me because it literally laid out the full plot of the book, with details, and spoiled it for someone, like myself, who hasn’t read it. In one of the conversations presented in the book, the same has been done for the book ‘Anna Karenina’ by Leo Tolstoy. No spoiler warnings were given prior to the book.
Other than that, it is a fine one-time read. I did not find any specific takeaway from this book. It just turned out to be a relaxing afternoon read for me, with the exception of unsolicited spoilers of two books.
Reviewed by Muskan Rajani
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