The People Tree - Beetashok Chatterjee

Author: Beetashok Chatterjee

Genre: Anthology

Rating: 3.75 stars.

The People Tree (the name being an interesting wordplay on the ‘peepal” tree) is a collection of 14 stories on a variety of themes. The central point of these stories is, obviously, people. Relationships, emotions, connections, frailties… The set explores every aspect of “being human”. (No, Salman Khan hasn’t sponsored this promo. 😛)

Other than the ‘people’ factor, there is nothing in common to the stories. They span a range of places (Mumbai, Bangalore, New York, London,…), a variety of topics (1980s insurgency in Punjab, WWII, first loves, 9/11 attacks, rebelling against parents,…), and an array of protagonists (lovers, soldiers, hitmen, students, office employees,…) Some tales are quite casual episodes from regular life while some others are more esoteric in their scope. Many stories will allow you to guess the direction they are going in, but the writing style will still keep you reading. Some other stories aren’t so straightforward and deliver nice little surprises along their way. I was happy to see that some of the protagonists were women. Most male authors rarely write from the female perspective, and those who do hardly ever do justice to them. This was an exception.

Where the book surprised me was in its use of language. I don’t mean to be gender-biased, but the “sound” of the stories was quite masculine in its essence. There is a certain cockiness in the manner of the protagonists, an inexplicably casual, “I’m know I’m cool” kind of vibe that is tough to write but fun to read. There are no grammatical or usage errors, something I have come to appreciate even more nowadays. (Okay, there were a few bad words that I wasn't comfortable with. But this is more of a personal preference than a flaw of the book.) A couple of the stories were written in such a heartfelt and conversational way that I can't help feeling that they were based on true incidents.

Where the book could have worked better for me was in the ending of some of the tales. They were not abrupt but still left me wanting more.

My favourites from this collection were:

Course Correction - 🌟🌟🌟🌟 – Loved this unusual story of a man whose career keeps taking a “course correction”.

Ground Zero - 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 – Based on the 9/11 attacks. The writing style was such that I felt it was unfolding in front of my eyes. (I'd love to know if this was based on a true story. It seems so real!)

A Day at the Races - 🌟🌟🌟🌟 – Predictable but fun to read.

Two Close For Comfort - 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫 – Loved the main character in this one.

Up in the Air - 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫 – I hated it until almost the end. The end made me love it. You’ll need to read it to know why. 😃

The Holy Trinity - 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 – A beautiful and humorous story of an unexpected encounter among strangers in a London pub. I simply couldn’t guess the direction it took.

Heartbreak - 🌟🌟🌟🌟 – Loved the story, hated the end. Too sudden.

Thus, 7 stories reached or crossed the 4 star mark. However, the rest of the stories were all clustered between 3 to 3.5 stars. In other words, there was no story I hated.

3.75 stars, based on the average of my rating for all the stories. Definitely recommended if you want a well-written anthology by a contemporary Indian writer.

The book is available on KU India.