Read Carrying on by Stewart Tolnay, for no clear reason a posteriori! The story centres in a successful sociology senior professor in an imaginary university in Seattle (which also appears in the 1996 Sentinel), who finds himself arm-bent into becoming the new HoD and the subsequent difficulties he faces against some contrarian colleague. While this should obviously appeal to me, and despite the novel being written by a former faculty at Udub, the scenario quickly plummets down to unimaginable depths of boredom and suspension of belief. The main character is transparent, with a whining tendency and a personality as solid as a sodden marshmallow, and the other ones are almost uniformly caricatures as perfect representatives of minorities. Without getting into spoiling details, the main antagonist to this unlikely HoD conveniently accumulates all “qualities” a colleague should not possess, with an unrealistic ability to cross most of the department. More glaringly, research seems unimportant, except when applying for an NSF grant or when attending a conference where the future HoD behaves in a most unethical way imho. Add to this an endless accumulation of details about a new dog acquired by the HoD to recover from a divorce (!) and the collection of all the menus enjoyed by the HoD and his friend, and there is no compelling reason to carry on.
Also read Heart Lamp: Selected Stories, the Winner of the International Booker Prize 2025 jointly received by Banu Mushtaq, the author of the short stories in Kannada and Deepa Bhasthi, her translator into English. A beautiful, moving, profound book that builds on the everyday woes of Karnataka Muslim women to expose the wrongs of a deeply patriarchal society that denies freedom and autonomy to women. The writing style is deceptively set at a narrative level that could be found in mundane conversations, with a powerful translation, grounded in collaboration with the author, keeping some words from the original, that is prize-worthy by itself!, but may mean readers from other cultures missing some aspects of the book. In the postface, the translator Deepa Bhasthi exposes her difficulties and choices, pointing out at the differences in the Kannada versions both women speak. The Booker recognition is both definitely richly deserved for a unique piece of literature and for signaling the richness and diversity of Indian literature that Modi’s goons would like to replace by an Hindu monoculture.
