Once in a while you come across a book that you need to mull over, savour, read in instalments in order to derive maximum pleasure and benefit, go back and forth over, and let sink into your soul. This is one such book, a born classic. Normally one is told to write reviews of fiction in a tearing hurry, especially of good fiction for only such reviews can ensure the visibility of such books, make their shelf life longer than that of a bookworm. But Govardhan’s Travels does not need my review or any other; it just needs some intelligent readers to begin talking about it. It is the parent of all books, and the child of all, a book that will easily outlive most other contemporary fiction, even if it does not fly off the shelves immediately.
December 2007, volume 31, No 12