Review of ‘The Untold Tales: Love & Other Demons' by Paras
“You are a nice guy
but in today’s world, kindness does not pay, try and be clever if you can…wake
up and see the modern world.”
-A burglar to protagonist, Joy, in
the story, ‘That Half Kindness’.
The above statement essentially sets the theme of the stories in the entire collection of ‘The Untold Tales’ by Paras. Subtitled ‘Love & Other Demons’, the allusion is to Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s 1994 novel by the same name. The title of the book, although evoking unattainable expectations, does appropriate Marquez’s title to suit the stories based in contemporary Indian spaces with some success.
It’s a collection of
short stories—with a difference, in that there is a sense of continuity with
the names of characters in multiple stories set in entirely different setup. The
stories in the collection are short and crisp, with often lurid endings. The
author uses a rather simple language, which, instead of adding to the coherence
of the narrative, often ends up falling short of doing justice to the scenes. The idea behind the stories is innovative,
artistically honest, and creates an intrigue around the author’s
thought-process. A reading of ‘The Untold Tales’ at best makes one crave for a
more structured and coherently narrated work from the author in the future.
You can order your
copy here.
