![]() THE LINE READER: A COLLECTION OF SHORT STORIESSanjana Srikumar THE LINE READER: A COLLECTION OF SHORT STORIES By Agni Tripathi Year 2015, pp. 124, Rs. 170.00 VOLUME XL NUMBER 11 November 2016 There are few things as mysterious
as the idea of Fate. In
his collection of short stories,
The Line Reader, Agni Tripathi appears
to pay tribute to this idea. The stories
are steeped in irony and present characters
from different walks of life and
their unique relationship with fate—
we have those who try to predict it,
those who could have prevented it, and
those who couldn’t. They bring us a
series of ‘what if ’s and ‘if only’s.
The stories bring forth the idea of
unpredictability by introducing unexpected
endings. Where this device
works, the effect is often chilling. I particularly enjoyed ‘Killing’, a
conversation between police officers investigating a serial killer. However,
the flaw with this device is that one comes to expect the ‘twist
endings’ and they grow tiresome as one gets through the collection.
An example of this is ‘The Meeting’, a tale of one person’s reaction to
a phone call informing him of the death of a relative. The title story,
too, falls within this mould—the fraudster line reader who couldn’t
understand his own fate. In fact, a lot of the endings appear to be
written only for the shock value.
Another theme that runs through the collection is introduced
by another fraudster pretending to predict the future. The astrologer
in ‘My Friend Jyoti’ observes that the key to predicting the
future is in reading people. Compared to the ‘twist endings’ that
grow increasingly tiresome as the collection progresses, this theme
introduces some of the most heartwarming stories in the book. These
stories seem to introduce the idea that a lot of our course of actions is
shaped by our (mis)reading of people. In talking of the custom of
never asking someone for their ticket out of respect in ‘My Gentleman’
shows us leaps of faith based on our perception of people. Similarly,
‘The Other Couple’ depicts a young couple admiring an older
couple who still seemed like they were in love and realizing that
nothing is as it seems.
Unfortunately, despite the best intentions, most stories lose out
in simply trying too hard. Tripathi’s writing style lacks the maturity
to carry most of his ideas. The writing is wrought with grammatical
errors; the language and poor dialogue distract from the beauty of
the story ideas in their raw form. However, in some cases, what the
stories lack ... Table of Contents >> |