Dear Editors,
I chanced upon a review of my novel, Of Mothers and Other Perishables, in the May 2025 issue of The Book Review.
I feel compelled to write to you about the piece for several reasons, apart from the fact that it’s such a reductive and biased reading of the novel.
The reviewer Rohini Mokashi-Punekar begins by attacking the literary establishment at large, suggesting a lack of discernment, an inability to ‘tell the better writing from the more pedestrian and affected…’
She suggests ‘lobbies dedicated to appropriate social malfeasance’–an alarming claim, and one that swiftly diminishes her credibility as a book reviewer and literary critic (for instead of unpacking the text, she chooses to raise phantoms, and dwells on unverifiable figments of her imagination–is she also writing fiction?). I hope you’ll forgive the long parenthetical statement; the review is riddled with such cute asides, and I’m attempting, in my pedestrian way, to demonstrate her style.
I’m also attempting to draw your attention to her biases: