Happy Monday, readers! Sorry for the radio silence this weekend; real life catches up to us all eventually, and my Master program’s writing forum started last week. A lot of reading, a lot of writing. This week—today in particular—marks the one-year anniversary of The Writer’s Scrap Bin, and I have a couple things to show my loyal readers. First, let’s start this busy week with another review. This time, the book is a collection of eight short stories set in Mumbai during the 90s and early 2000s. The subject of this review is Mumbai Matinee by Ajay Kaul.
Ajay—the protagonist and narrator of Mumbai Matinee—has fallen in love, but not with a woman. He has fallen in love with the city of Mumbai. A great contrast from his home city of Dehli, Mumbai is not just a city of hustle-and-bustle; it’s a city of gossip, drama, compassion, and community. Mumbai Matinee follows Ajay’s journey to creating his own home and identity within this captivating community, from interfaith love and nosy paanwalas to tragic death and terrorist attacks. Readers will find themselves devouring page after page, if only to learn what sort of excitement our seemingly-mundane protagonist will encounter next.
Image retrieved from Amazon
I found this book to be compelling and entertaining. Kaul’s simplistic writing style is as impactful as Hemingway’s—just detailed enough to give readers a clear picture of the setting, but plain enough that an element of intrigue is left and most readers can follow along. Kaul also maintains a light-hearted tone even in times of tragedy, which made the sadder parts of the stories simultaneously more palatable and more heart-breaking. This effect sounds contradictory, but the simplistic prose combined with the light-hearted approach to the characters’ lives made any deaths and other troubles hit me that much more powerfully without the extreme drain of detailed death scenes or violence.
The collection is comprised of eight short stories: “The Capitalist”, “The Mole”, “Actress Extraordinaire”, “Fraternity, Liberty, and Equality”, “The Selfless Visionary”, “A Code of Ethics”, “The Lucky Batsman”, and “The Supercop”. Each one explores a different aspect of the protagonist’s life in Mumbai and depicts his evolution from newbie intern to integrated Mumbaikar. There is no plot thread connecting the stories, although elements from earlier stories find their way into later ones. Rather, Kaul strings these stories together through setting, themes, and, of course, Ajay as the main character. I can see these sections as individual stories, and yet I also feel that they work best together, not quite a novel and yet dependent on each other for the greatest impact.
My favorite story would have to be “Fraternity, Liberty, and Equality”, in which Ajay meets an interfaith couple struggling to stay together. Kaul captivated me with the idea of love transcending all boundaries, and I appreciated the insight into the prejudices which Muslims and Hindus hold against each other in India. It is a romance much more inspiring and justified than Romeo & Juliet and a great way to learn about the intricacies of another culture.
The whole book, in fact, has helped to strengthen my understanding of Indian culture. I am not afraid to admit that I know very little about India. All that I have learned has been gleamed from writers such as Jhumpa Lahiri. Kaul immerses the reader entirely in the culture of not just India in general but Mumbai specifically. I had to look up some terms and customs as a result of this immersion, but that’s to be expected—in fact, if I didn’t have to, I would seriously doubt the quality of Kaul’s writing. For readers familiar with India, you should feel right at home in these stories; for those who are not, you are sure to leave this book with a better understanding of this country and its people.
This collection, as with most writing, is not perfect. I noticed perhaps one minor proofreading error throughout the entire book, which is not unusual even for the best-known published works. That aside, I had issues with some of the transitions between scenes. In particular, the transition following Ajay and some coworkers going to Roha in “The Selfless Visionary” jarred me, made me feel as though I were missing something. This later proved to be on purpose, but I still think that’s the sloppiest moment in Kaul’s writing.
I also wish that we could have gotten to know some of the characters more. I can understand Kaul trying to mimic reality. In real life, we get close to people only to have them flutter out of our lives in an instant. It’s sad but true. However, I felt that that happened far too often for my taste in Mumbai Matinee. I suppose it’s a result of the “chapters” actually being short stories and the book being a collection rather than a novel. Still, some characters—Patil, Sawant, Rajat, Roohi, and Sahib, among others—were so unique and fascinating that I wanted to know more about them. It’s no wonder that Ajay took to them and decided to pry into their lives!
Overall, Mumbai Matinee by Ajay Kaul is a great book. For quite a few stories I forgot that these were short stories rather than novel chapters, they fit together so smoothly. Kaul’s humor really compelled me to continue reading, especially some of the “ah, geez!” moments when misunderstandings are corrected. The characters are not just unique; they’re individuals. They’re true human beings, and that is what makes the driving force of this collection—the exploration of humanity and community—work so well. If you don’t mind having to look up some cultural terms and references, I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to discover a new city and its people.
You can buy Mumbai Matinee by Ajay Kaul as an eBook or in print on Amazon.
Do you know of a book I should read? E-mail me at thewritersscrapbin@gmail.com and let me know!
Designed by Stephanie Hoogstad circa 2011