Reading Tagore’s short tales, one gets the feeling of being whisked away on an ethereal cloud above Bengal, floating above all life and peering down into the depths of human consciousness in all its mysterious, romantic irrationality.
While his moralities sometimes seem questionable, his wisdom and poetry permeates the experience. His endings are often ironic, ambiguous and/or bittersweet in ways that leave one truly pondering what one just read; digesting… If he can manage that every 3- to 12-page story in a medium print pocket book, I’d say he’s truly worth a read for just about anyone, particularly people curious about late 19th-/early 20th century Bengal and its greatest poet.