Thursday 7 January 2016

Book review - Kamayakshipuram, by Biju Vasudevan



If Kafka had written erotica it might have been a bit like this. The dreamlike quality of the narrative, the sense of powerlessness as the young man is drawn ever deeper into a nightmarish world of Tantric Gods and sinister devotees, reminded me quite strongly of The Castle.

I don't know very much about Tantric Buddhism, so could be wrong here, but it seemed to me that the overall structure of the book, with its blend of eroticism and spirituality, reflected the theme of that faith rather nicely.

The beautiful ending gives a hint of the author's philosophy of the unity of religion, which we first saw in The Molecular Slaves.

The two characters, Prakash and Padma, were eminently likable and engaging, and the dialogue between them was for me one of the high points of the book. The erotic content was not overdone, and this prudish reviewer was not disgusted by it, which indicates, to me at least, that it was handled with style, craft and restraint.

This writer's style is charmingly idiosyncratic, with that hint of foreignness that is often conveyed by slightly unusual word use. That said, there were places where I felt the English needed a bit of polishing, as might be expected when one writes in a second language.

All around a great read.

Kamayakshipuram is available from AMAZON in both kindle and paperback editions.

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