Maps For A Mortal Moon

by Adil Jussawalla, Jerry Pinto (Editor)

Poignant, witty, melancholic and intense, this is the best of four decades of prose from one of Indias masters of the written word. The worst thing about being a human being is being a human being. I wish I was bird, as the railway clerk in Nissim Ezekiels poem says. But if I were, the worst thing about being a bird would be being a bird. Welcome to the world of Adil Jussawalla, poet, columnist, critic. The essays and entertainments collected in this volume take in everything from language to poetry, from ethics to model aeroplanes, from death and addiction to travel and alienation. In these pages, you will meet poets, novelists, construction labourers, gamblers and most startlingly, Jussawalla himself as a boy who lost himself at the movies, as the acned adolescent on a ship watching a storm at sea, as the flaneur of South Mumbai.

These essays provide insightful commentary on the cultural shifts and political changes over the past forty years.
Written by one of the masters of the written word, Adil Jussawalla.

Selected and edited by award-winning author Jerry Pinto.

Genres: Nonfiction

360 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2014

About the author

Poet and critic Adil Jussawalla is an influential presence in Indian poetry in English. He has written two books of poetry, Land’s End (1962) and Missing Person (1976), edited a seminal anthology of new writing from India (1974) and co-edited an anthology of Indian prose in English (1977). He writes a complex poetry – ironic, fragmented, non-linear, formally strenuous – that evokes and indicts a dehumanised, spiritually sterile landscape, ravaged by contradiction, suspended in a perpetual state of catastrophe.

Jussawalla was born in Mumbai, and spent most of the years between 1957 and 1970 in England where he studied to be an architect, wrote plays, read English at Oxford and taught English at a language school. Returning to Mumbai, he taught English at St Xavier’s College between 1972 and 1975. An Honorary Fellow at the International Writing Program in Iowa in 1977, Jussawalla has participated in several international conferences and festivals.

Reviews

[Mohammad Sabbir Shaikh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Over the years I have come across certain literary circles - if I can call it that - like the Inkling (Tolkein, Lewis and others), the Lovecraftein Circle (Lovecraft, Howard and others), the Oulipians (Queneau, Calvino, Perec and others), etc. Reading about them has often made me wonder whether India too has (or had) any such writer's group. After reading Maps For A Mortal Moon, I finally have my answer. The Clearing House. It was founded by Adil Jussawalla, Gieve Patel, Arun Kolatkar and Arvind Krishnan Mehrotra. All poets, must-read Indian poets. This book, I must say, isn't just about that. It consists of essays that Adil Jussawalla wrote on various topics for various publications. I throughly enjoyed reading this book and wished it was longer. If you haven't read this book, please do. Do it now, right now.

[Ananta Pathak · Rating 4 out of 5]

a travel to the mind of one of India's best writer with deeply melanocholic voice.

[Parvathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Something so very old-worldly gentle about this book. Makes it poignant. The writing is impeccable and such a pleasure. Some of the pieces are exquisite - the ones on Ezekiel, on the sensuality of writing, on the sandstorm off the coast of Aden... But there were quite a few pieces I found dated and tedious - the reason for the lack of the fourth star. Worth a read if only for the sheer joy of the writing.

[Boshika Gupta · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am biased when it comes to Adil.

BUT this book is intelligent and a glimpse into his mind, memories and endless dreams. It's beautiful. The Bombay references, being away from India, the portrait of the lady, his witty comments, gems like:

"Hold me in the sky of your hands."

Just poignant in the best way possible. Bravo, Adil!

[Tisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adil is an old favourite and here is a set of reflections in prose, from a poet.