January 29 2008 , Tuesday

I have a lot of work to do, but I think I’ll have to write first. Its not that I have something really interesting to tell but it’s a way of relaxing and beginning afresh..
Anyways I tried seriously very hard to read the book ‘My Little Boat’ but sorry to say I am not up to such a bold narrative attempt. This is for the writer Mariam Karim. Few drawbacks in your book…


1. You haven’t etched out the characters in your book neatly. The writer is neither writing fiction nor is it non-fiction. I think she tries to discover herself in nasreen and mehzabeen(the two main characters of the novel…). I personally feel the writer is a person trapped somewhere in between these two characters…...the prose is simply wonderful but the story line is weak. A brave and probably a successful attempt but it is something that fails to allure a reader like me because either we are not used to such things or we are too naïve to comprehend what she tries to tell us.

2. I have read three fourth of the book hoping to be gripped by the story but it fails here again.

3. Its way beyond confusing… I wont put it as "a brave narrative attempt "as writer says but honestly speaking Mariam was so confused while writing the book that she reached no where. At times the story and characters are so strong that they lead the writer to the climax… writer has to follow the flow and the end product becomes a novel for both writers and readers… for even the writer only partly knows about the fate of the characters when they started with the novel….. A strong story line and carefully carved out characters define the novel... Both of them truly missing in this case.

4. The only good things about the book are the prose, title (very inviting I must say…) and the cover page…

5. I hope the writer matures to a sophisticated and long accepted / appreciated way of story telling by her next novel…. Good luck for that….:-)


And ya let me start with my work…… lots to do... bye. Catch you later…