Of Ancestors and Friends

by Shanta Gokhale

English 312 pages 1 edition

Shanta Gokhale, lifelong reader and bibliophile, looks back at her reading life and examines books and writers she has loved and re-read, returning to them time and again at different points in her life. In these personal essays, she analyses them with a discerning eye and through the prism of a modern Indian reader. Her critical descriptions of the works of Shri Na Pendse, Kiran Nagarkar, U.R. Ananthamurthy, Alka Saraogi, along with Jean Paul Sartre, Jane Austen, Naguib Mahfouz, Salman Rushdie, Kazuo Ishiguro, among many others, are rich with literary analysis. At the same time, she examines what it is to read these works as living texts, and draws inferences about life, society and the arts through them. Whether she is dissecting the translator’s role, or understanding how literature can be a tool to speak truth to power, each essay resonates with incisive observations and a lively curiosity. Shanta also recounts delightful anecdotes from her reading life—finding longed-for books in dusty bookstores, being intrigued by inscriptions in second-hand books, or wryly wondering if a true booklover is allowed to ‘borrow’ books without asking. Especially enjoyable are her descriptions of her encounters with writers and playwrights from her home state of Maharashtra. An unusual and rewarding memoir about a life spent loving books and living with them—and finding the meaning that classic works and authors hold in contemporary times— Of Ancestors and Friends sparkles with wit and intellect in every line.