In a Forest, a Deer by Ambai, was the fourth book in my South Asian Literature syllabus, and it has been the most challenging for my students. First, it's a collection of short stories, rather than a novel. It seems that most of them are novel readers, primarily, so a succession of unrelated stores are "hard for them to get into." ( Read more... )

         I'll keep this comment short, because I don't want my students just feeding me back my review. The latest South Asian novel I read for class is The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, and this goes straight onto my A-list.
         The previous two novels were depressing, and this one tends to be, as well. Didn't intend the course to ( Read more... )