In Search of the Lambs and Other Stories - Divyank J. - ★★.½

AUTHOR: Divyank J.

GENRE: Short Story Collection

RATING: 2.45 stars.

In a Nutshell: A collection of slice-of-life stories set in India. As with most story collections, some stories worked, some didn’t. The reader in me found it decent. The Indian in me is a bit disappointed.

This collection has ten stories set mostly in contemporary India, though not necessarily in urban India. There is no specified or apparent theme to the tales, but one thing they have in common is that they all feature a protagonist living through a major life-altering event: sometimes positive, mostly negative.

The ten stories are disparate from each other in setting, characters, and plot. Many stories are set during the covid-19 pandemic, and the helplessness and melancholia of those days seeps into the plot. The protagonists are also varied. Thus the tales don’t feel repetitive at least in terms of content. These are more on the lines of slice-of-life narratives. The endings aren’t exactly abrupt, but they didn’t leave me satisfied as they left too much to the imagination.

This collection has stories set in India but is to be released in the US. As such, I wanted it to present a picture of India that is not commonly seen in the Western literary world. The collection meets this expectation to a certain extent. The stories span people from varying societal levels, ranging from the migrant worker to the upper class. However, while we get to see the people, we don’t really get to see the place in most of the stories. Nothing in the writing helped me to picture the location for most of the stories. And this is when I am from India, and know many of the indicated locations. How exactly is a Westerner supposed to visualise the setting without the atmosphere being brought to life by the text?

I was also puzzled by the lack of data-based references in many stories. One story is a partial retelling of a mythological battle. The names of the mythological characters aren’t explained. If I hadn’t known the original epic, I wouldn’t have even realised that it was a retelling. Another story has one of India’s greatest rivers – the Ganga – at the heart of the plot. But the story doesn’t mention its name even once. For most of the stories, the location isn’t specified, thereby potentially setting them anywhere within the country, which isn’t really practical for a country with such a vast range of everything!

The writing style is simple, a bit too straightforward at times. At times, the dialogues seem artificial, like people might talk in soap operas but not in realistic fiction. There are a few Indian words, but there’s no glossary. (Not that I needed one, but the target audience will.)

As always, I rated the stories individually. And the result was pretty much a mixed bag. The range of ratings went from 1 star to 4 stars, making it a very uneven read for me. These were my favourites:

🌷 The Pigeons: An unexpected bond forms between a young office employee and an old man during the lockdown. - 🌟🌟🌟🌟

🌷 In Search of the Lambs: The first person narrative of a soldier in Kashmir, and his encounter with a man who is searching for his lambs amid the curfew. - 🌟🌟🌟🌟

All in all, this is not a bad collection, but I suppose I expected much more of it. The stories would work well for readers who enjoy slice-of-life narratives without definite or happy endings.

2.45 stars, based on the average of my rating for each story.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through the Library Thing Early Reviewers Program. This review is voluntary and contains an honest opinion about my reading experience.