square haunting

  • Faint Promise in Richard Sennet’s ‘The Uses of Disorder’

    “The fruit of this conflict— a paradox which is the essence of this book— is that in extricating the city from pre-planned control, man will become more in control of themselves and more aware of each other. That is the promise, and the justification, of disorder.” Richard Sennet’s ‘The Uses of Disorder: Personal Identity and…

    Barathi Nakkeeran

  • Cities in Books

    This is a sample of the city-related books I have read this year. While I have reviewed Amita Baviskar’s Uncivity City in detail for the LSE Review of Books (link here), regarding the others, I have only been able to write about in snatches. With the exception of Shanta Gokhale’s Shivaji Nagar, however, I have…

    Barathi Nakkeeran

  • Constantly moving: a review of Toni Morrison’s “Sula”

    There, in the center of that silence was not eternity but the death of time and a loneliness so profound the word itself had no meaning. For loneliness assumed the absence of other people, and the solitude she found in that desperate terrain had never admitted the possibility of other people. She wept then. Tears…

    Barathi Nakkeeran

  • Thinking of story as a method: on Félix Fénéon’s “Novels in Three Lines”

    I read “Novels in Three Lines” by Félix Fénéon (translated by Luc Sante for NYRB) earlier this year and though I found the experience uneven – – some pieces are brusque and many others are little marvels – I am still certain I am going to be thinking of his technique, his precision, his reckless…

    Barathi Nakkeeran

  • Book Review: “The Corpse Washer” by Sinan Antoon

    History is a struggle of statues and monuments, Father. I will not have a share in all of this, because I have yet to sculpt anything important. Even Saddam’s huge statue in Firdaws Square was brought down right after your death. I thought I would be happy since I detested him so much, but I…

    Barathi Nakkeeran

  • Book Review: “Sabrina” by Nick Drnaso

    “Sabrina” was my first encounter with graphic novels and to be fair to the reader of this caption I have to say that for the first forty pages or so I felt misplaced — as if I’d purchased tickets to the wrong show. If I were to describe the book, I would have to call…

    Barathi Nakkeeran

  • Book Review: “Schoolgirl” by Osamu Dazai (trans. Allison Markin Powell)

    Osamu Dazai’s “Schoolgirl” has an iridescence to it, at an angle it’s a deep-dive into the psychological state of the beginnings of grief and at another, it is about living in an authoritarian society. The latter, however, is buried text, it appears but in snatches.  The first time I read “Schoolgirl” I naturally chose to…

    Barathi Nakkeeran

  • Book Review: “A Meal in Winter” by Hubert Mingarelli (trans. Sam Taylor)

    A review on GoodReads describes “A Meal in Winter” as a book that tests the “limits of fiction” —- is it easier to carry on with our lives and continue “loathing them and everything they stood for?” Why imagine? Why put ourselves in the shoes of three German soldiers who have been ordered to “capture”…

    Barathi Nakkeeran

  • Book Review: “Untold Night and Day” by Bae Suah (trans. Deborah Smith)

    First published in Korea in 2013 and recently translated into English by Deborah Smith, “Untold Night and Day” (translated by Deborah Smith) is Bae Suah’s phantasmagoric dream-like novel.  From the moment you step into “Untold Night and Day” you are sequestered into a kind of strangeness, one where reality is splintered and particulate. “Un-told” is…

    Barathi Nakkeeran

  • Book Review: “Sleepless Nights” by Elizabeth Hardwick

    A vivid image I have is of holding a bioscope; a crude device made of plastic — at least mine was — with tiny pictures inside. If you held the device tight enough you could deceive your eight year old brain that it was a real camera, and the pictures in it reflected real images…

    Barathi Nakkeeran
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