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fishingbooksproceed's review
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.5
neeki's review
4.0
Satyajit Ray is undoubtedly a master storyteller. This book is a collection of 49 wonderful stories written by Satyajit Ray. The versatility of the stories throughout this book left me amazed with a lot of mystery, a pinch of humor, a bit of supernatural, and sci-fi. It was a delight to read each story with its own twists and turns, I loved the quirky humor in the stories. Some stories were so good, they compelled me to think about human behaviour, why we do what we do...overall it was a fantastic reading experience. Some of my favourites from this collection are 'The Pterodactyl's Egg', 'Patol Babu, Film Star', 'Barin Bhowmick's Ailment', and 'Fotikchand'.
peanotsilent's review against another edition
4.0
Satyajit Ray was a clever writer- his twists are fun, his plots crisp with nary a sentence wasted, and it is not surprising he and Dahl were contemporaries. However, much more than his cleverness, he was a kind writer. He doled justice, pity, charity, humour, friendships, and comfort like a kindly god, marvelling at the eccentricity of the world, but always fair.
I take away one star because apparently there is no space for a story featuring a woman. The prevailing societal norms might not have allowed women free-wheeling adventures around a lush Bengal countryside (Satyajit Ray continues to slyly use his literature to highlight the lesser-known delights of Bengal tourism), but it is hard to believe no woman ever faced a spook or missed an old friend or had an interesting enough experience for her to feature in this collection. Other than that, this is a rather delightful collection of stories and cannot be more highly recommended.
I take away one star because apparently there is no space for a story featuring a woman. The prevailing societal norms might not have allowed women free-wheeling adventures around a lush Bengal countryside (Satyajit Ray continues to slyly use his literature to highlight the lesser-known delights of Bengal tourism), but it is hard to believe no woman ever faced a spook or missed an old friend or had an interesting enough experience for her to feature in this collection. Other than that, this is a rather delightful collection of stories and cannot be more highly recommended.
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