Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for death/He kindly stopped for me-“keeps resonating the reader’s mind when one goes through Amit Shankar’s Cafe latte.An anthology of only “Eighteen Unsual Short Stories”is poignant enough to give you a severe chill down your spine. Amit plunges into the deep human psyche to travel much into the abyss of the subconscious to bring out the most inextricable aspect of life-Death. The colloquial language and characters drawn from day to day life is easily relateable to, which indeed plays a pivotal role in making this anthology appeal much to the readers.
The journey through these stories is a journey through the complexities of human everyday life, the mysteries and the challenges that one has to deal with everyday and of course the latent subverted desire to succumb to the evil. The very first story with which the anthology opens, Temple of the king, is itself like the “dewy window pane” which is instrumental and equally evocative enough to set the reader’s grey cells ticking. The Jazz Player in the Jazz Player is drawn towards his own death by the lure of his exquisite blue silk. Let Me Help You Die portrays a man whose sole preoccupation is death; he romanticises death and attempts several times of committing suicide however when death actually comes and knocks on his threshold he is afraid. This conjures up in our mind what Francis Bacon thought of Death in the Sixteenth Century in Of Death. The Other Side is the author’s bold attempt to depict the plight of a woman suffering from nymphomania.
The stories are in no way repetitive in spirit or in mood. Nor are they the same in their narrative techniques or plot construction. This is indeed one of the most unique aspect of the anthology. The Black Widow with its subtle touch of supernaturalism casted in a modern day love story is sure to give goosebumps to the reader, A Highway Called Life is a testimony to live life on optimistic fervour disregarding the physical disabilities;26 Down Express surely makes us aware of the pangs of separation; Writer’s Block reinstates our believes in talent and chances. Cafe latte although centrally based on the cardinal issue of death, it celebrates all the emotions and feelings associated with the same. This reminds us of a National Award winning movie Chotuskon by Srijit Mukherjee where the treatment of death was in a similar vein but in a different context.
On a dark, gloomy afternoon just let yourself loose on your couch with a chilled bottle of beer and keep turning the pages, the journey will be much more enthralling than any other travella.
Book Details:-
| Author: | Amit Shankar | ||
| Publisher: | Vitasta Publishing | Year of Publication: | 2014 |
| ISBN-13: | 9789382711445 | ISBN-10: | 9382711449 |
| Cover: | Paperback | No. of Pages: | 208 |
| MRP: | Rs. 150 | Buy From: | Flipkart.com Amazon.in  |
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