The Blind Writer: Stories and a Novella (Intersections: Asian and Pacific American Transcultural Studies, 30) by Sameer Pandya

The Blind Writer: Stories and a Novella (Intersections: Asian and Pacific American Transcultural Studies, 30) Reviews

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  Cherie Kephart

  Reading is a gift. It is a special communion with something outside of us, and an intimate passageway into other people's lives. With insight and intriguing characters, Sameer Pandya's The Blind Writer delivers on these promises. In the first half of the book, Pandya presents five short stories that evoke a variety of emotions while generating a strong dose of introspection. But what captivated me most was his novella, The Blind Writer. Seeing is a gift. But not just seeing with our eyes, but with our intentions, our beliefs, and seeing ourselves for who we truly are and what we truly want. Pandya's brutally honest prose demonstrates these sentiments and kept me oscillating between reading faster to find out what happens and slowing down so I could savor every captivating message.
  
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  Phi Beta Kappa Authors

  Sameer Pandya
  ΦBK, University of California-Davis, 1995
  Author
  
  From the publisher: Together, the five stories and novella in this collection follow the lives of first- and second-generation Indian Americans living in contemporary California. The characters share a similar sensibility: a sense that immigration is a distant memory, yet an experience that continues to shape the decisions they make in subtle and surprising ways as they go about the complicated business of everyday living. The collection is anchored by the title novella about a love triangle between an aging, blind writer, his younger beautiful wife, and a young man desperate to start a writing life. Over several months, the three will get to know one another and move toward a moment that will change the lives of each of them forever.
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  Sheila

  I would not have chosen this type of book to read, especially short stories. I did like the short stories but I wished there was more to them, especially the Novella part of this book. It was an interesting story of someone wanting to become a writer and finding who he is. Even though it was a tragic ending, the remaining characters were able to move on and realize what they already have is all that they need.