OnlineBookClub.org

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Radical Politics of Indian Love" by Rachita Ramya.]

Radical Politics of Indian Love by Rachita Ramya Singh is a collection of short stories focused on love. These stories display the culture, traditions and political dynamics of India. While one might assume that this is a collection of romance stories, you will be surprised to find that that is not true. Singh explores platonic love, unrequited love and even the love of one’s country in her book and adds new twists to familiar stories.

‘Modern Indian Widow’, ‘The Writer, the Lover and the Doctor’ and ‘The Bollywood Hero’ are stories about romantic love. While ‘The Bollywood Hero’ was an enjoyable read with a good story and satisfying ending, I found the former two to be a bit lacking when it came to a plot. ‘The Writer, the Lover and the Doctor’ concluded without any conflict being resolved and left a lot of questions in my mind. This especially bothered me as I found it to have the potential to be quite intriguing had it been further developed.

‘Treesome’ was quite a unique story. While also about romantic love, it focused more on unrequited love and will really surprise the reader when they come to the twist in the story. This was one of my favourite reads of the book and I found myself smiling as I read the last few lines.

‘The Royal Bengal Tigress’ focused on the love of friendship and ‘No Man’s Refuge’ told the story of a girl who loves her country. Yet, both of these stories failed to captivate me. It was these two stories that brought my overall opinion of the book down, as they did not seem to have any plotline and ended too suddenly or without resolution.

I found the editing of this book to be of high quality and found no grammar or spelling mistakes. However, I did find one or two examples where the wrong words were used. I believe this might be due to the fact that the writer’s first language may not be English. These mistakes were small, and I could still easily understand what the writer was trying to say, so it did not drastically impact my opinion of the book.

While I did not enjoy all of the stories in this book, the good ones definitely made it worth the read. Because of this, I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys stories with a different look at love. Without any graphic content, it is suitable for readers of all ages and would especially interest anyone who enjoys looking into another culture.

I am giving this book 3 out of 4 stars. The two stories that I did not enjoy and the few mistakes in the book prevented me from giving it a higher rating, but I definitely believe it deserves a high rating.

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Radical Politics of Indian Love
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I enjoy short stories and this book seems to offer a glimpse into Indian culture as well, I consider it an all round win. I guess I can overlook the infinitesimal errors. Thanks for the recommendation.

I would enjoy learning more about India. This would be a great way to do it with short stories. It sounds pretty intriguing. Thanks for your thoughts.

Thanks for the review. I am not sure this is the type of book I would read since I don't really enjoy short stories. Based on your review, this book seems to shed some insight into the Indian culture. I am not sure if it would help to have a superficial understanding of the culture prior to reading.

I am interested in knowing how politics is related to love in these stories. The title seems catchy.

This sounds like a collection of short stories that I would enjoy. Thank you for your review.

There's something to be said about the role that love plays in our lives and society. That the book focuses on Indian society and the different kinds of love inherent to it (I do wonder if "Treesome" has one of the characters in love with a tree) is something I'm only just beginning to appreciate in various books. Sounds like this one was fun.