Comments on: Review: Gifted, by Nikita Lalwani

By: Jadu

Jadu — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 02:48:28 +0000

I am irritated by books like these.
Books about the gifted, written by authors who are obviously not gifted themselves.

By: sandy

sandy — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 07:03:23 +0000

KG: Yeah, I think it would be a good idea for you to mark it under New Reviews, it tends to get lost otherwise. I didn’t see too many reviews of Gifted on the net, and was pleasantly surprised to see yours.
So, yeah, it would help if you make a different category for it, if you are planning to review some more new releases in the near future.
Fortunately, I get to read a lot of new books because I do book reviews for the newspaper I work for…but sometimes I do end up writing about relatively old ones too.
Do lemme know what you are planning to review in the coming days, will watch out for it…

By: K.G. Schneider

K.G. Schneider — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 13:01:13 +0000

Will do! I wonder if we should be tagging these reviews as LibraryThing Early Reviews or something like that?

By: sandy

sandy — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 05:10:58 +0000

Hey KG,
Now that I know you are the writer of this piece, I’d like to once again thank you for such a wonderful review.

I’ve tried my hand at writing about Gifted too on my blog, sandyi.blogspot.com. Certainly not as analytical or articulate as yours but nevertheless, it’s there.
Will appreciate if you visit it and provide your comments.
Will add your blog as a link, so that I can correspond regularly, Thanks.

By: K.G. Schneider

K.G. Schneider — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 10:54:00 +0000

Hi, Sandy, I just realized that with a minor redesign this blog no longer is clear about who I am! Thank you for helping me with that not-so-small issue. I did write this review; I’m K.G. Schneider, a librarian and writer, and this is my blog.

I like your point about the ending. All in all, it’s still very good writing — a good use of my time.

By: sandy

sandy — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 07:09:09 +0000

kgs: I’m kinda lost into this blog but have you written this review? And can I ask your full name?

I just completed this book and was moved by this horror that eventually unfolds. In many ways, i thought the author has been successful in bringing out the utter despair and helplessness and anger than Rumi goes through…and everything from her cumin seeds addiction to her desperation to ‘express herself physically’ …all point out to her desperate state of being, where her every move is judged.

I agree that the climax is a bit incomplete, in the sense that I never once felt that Rumi was close to her mother. In a peculiar way, I felt the author successfully established a strange love-hate relationship between the father and daughter, which ultimately of course spirals downwards. But I thought her mother Shrene was quite a pathetic character by all means, so having her at the end was a bad choice according to me.

By: kgs

kgs — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 10:19:52 +0000

Sandy, thanks! I think it’s unusually readable for a Booker, actually

By: sandy

sandy — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 06:00:30 +0000

Nice, useful review. I am reading this book right now, and enjoying it so far. The fact that the book has got a Booker nomination this year stoked my interest further.

Will be writing the review too on my own blog, \