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Passion Flower : Seven Stories of Derangement
Award-winning author Cyrus Mistry’s first collection of short stories is dark, mysterious and inhabited by characters that walk a thin line between fantasy and reality.
A serendipitous discovery on the floor of a local bus transforms the melancholic life of Percy, who meets a ghost in the washroom of a public library; a new mother struggling with depression and the urge to end her newborn’s life opens the door to a stranger; stalked by mysterious men, Jacintha believes her enemies are out to eliminate her because she knows too much; on New Year’s Eve, an aged couple clashes, replaying an annual ritual that shrouds the unacknowledged secret buried between them twenty-three years ago; two childhood friends, now co-workers at an advertising agency, indulge in a never-ending display of one-upmanship, false camaraderie and intense, unspoken resentment; Bokha tries to counter the powerful black magic of his wicked old mother in order to shield his helpless lover; and Mahendroo, full of himself, is consumed by his obsessive search for an elusive species of Passiflora.
Original and disturbing, Passion Flower is another triumph from one of the country’s most gifted storytellers
A serendipitous discovery on the floor of a local bus transforms the melancholic life of Percy, who meets a ghost in the washroom of a public library; a new mother struggling with depression and the urge to end her newborn’s life opens the door to a stranger; stalked by mysterious men, Jacintha believes her enemies are out to eliminate her because she knows too much; on New Year’s Eve, an aged couple clashes, replaying an annual ritual that shrouds the unacknowledged secret buried between them twenty-three years ago; two childhood friends, now co-workers at an advertising agency, indulge in a never-ending display of one-upmanship, false camaraderie and intense, unspoken resentment; Bokha tries to counter the powerful black magic of his wicked old mother in order to shield his helpless lover; and Mahendroo, full of himself, is consumed by his obsessive search for an elusive species of Passiflora.
Original and disturbing, Passion Flower is another triumph from one of the country’s most gifted storytellers
- GenresShort Stories
208 pages, Hardcover
First published July 1, 2014
1 person is currently reading
75 people want to read
About the author
Cyrus Mistry
7 books57 followersCyrus Mistry is an Indian author and playwright. He won the 2014 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature for Chronicle of a Corpse Bearer. He is the brother of author Rohinton Mistry.
He is from Mumbai. He began writing at a young age as a playwright, but has also worked as a journalist and short-story writer. His first short was published in 1979. He has also written short film scripts and several documentaries.
He has recently been awarded the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature for his novel 'Chronicle of a Corpse-Bearer'.
He is from Mumbai. He began writing at a young age as a playwright, but has also worked as a journalist and short-story writer. His first short was published in 1979. He has also written short film scripts and several documentaries.
He has recently been awarded the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature for his novel 'Chronicle of a Corpse-Bearer'.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 25, 2015
Cyrus Mistry had already impressed me with his tour-de-force 'Chronicles of a Corpse bearer', so I knew I had to read this one. Passion Flower is a collection of 7 short stories, many of them previously published in numerous publications and a couple of new ones.
The collection has a good mix of stories set in Parsi as well as non-Parsi surroundings. Without doubt, the ones set in the Parsi milleau are the ones that have stuck with me.
'Percy', 'Bokha' and 'Late for Dinner' are the ones I liked the most. Melancholia is the leitmotif in all the stories, but these three in particular get you by the gut. The stories start off like a regular drama, but the derangement slowly starts to creep in and lingers for sometime after you've finished reading the stories.
Mistry's attention to detail is outstanding. 'Passion Flower' for instance has a lot of technicalities about a particular species of flower, and Mistry hasn't just brushed over it to maintain brevity, but gone a notch deeper. The metaphorical touch in this particular story is striking.
Relationship issues, depression, sociological disorders, camaraderie, obsessions are some of the themes that are wonderfully explored via each of the stories.
Pick up this book, only if you want to really enjoy melancholic stories. Some stories can get a bit dark, and some don't even have a glimmer of hope in them. If you love works by Rohinton Mistry, then Cyrus Mistry (who also happens to be Rohinton's sibling) is one author you must try out.
The collection has a good mix of stories set in Parsi as well as non-Parsi surroundings. Without doubt, the ones set in the Parsi milleau are the ones that have stuck with me.
'Percy', 'Bokha' and 'Late for Dinner' are the ones I liked the most. Melancholia is the leitmotif in all the stories, but these three in particular get you by the gut. The stories start off like a regular drama, but the derangement slowly starts to creep in and lingers for sometime after you've finished reading the stories.
Mistry's attention to detail is outstanding. 'Passion Flower' for instance has a lot of technicalities about a particular species of flower, and Mistry hasn't just brushed over it to maintain brevity, but gone a notch deeper. The metaphorical touch in this particular story is striking.
Relationship issues, depression, sociological disorders, camaraderie, obsessions are some of the themes that are wonderfully explored via each of the stories.
Pick up this book, only if you want to really enjoy melancholic stories. Some stories can get a bit dark, and some don't even have a glimmer of hope in them. If you love works by Rohinton Mistry, then Cyrus Mistry (who also happens to be Rohinton's sibling) is one author you must try out.
February 4, 2016
Such peculiar tales, where literary fiction meets magic realism in the many cities of India. Most of these tales have an old world feel to them, coupled with a pervading feeling of sadness, or something not being exactly right in the lives of these characters...of something strange.
Derangement is indeed the right word for these tales and the emotion projected by the characters. Interesting stories with a veneer of the unusual lurking beneath the humdrum of everyday normality, this is a book best read on a cold, winter's night under the warm glow of lanterns, when the world is ready to fall into a deep slumber, but not quite asleep yet.
Derangement is indeed the right word for these tales and the emotion projected by the characters. Interesting stories with a veneer of the unusual lurking beneath the humdrum of everyday normality, this is a book best read on a cold, winter's night under the warm glow of lanterns, when the world is ready to fall into a deep slumber, but not quite asleep yet.
February 28, 2021
Vignettes from the lives of ‘ordinary’ people, not just Parsees for a change – although the Parsee stories are the juiciest – but a reflection of the wide spectrum of Indian society. These ‘ordinary’ souls and their humdrum lives turn out to be veritable psychiatric case files. There are cases of post-partum depression, paranoid delusions, psychotics, sociopaths, people dabbling in the black arts, eccentrics and the plain cussed.
Some stories have a rather inconclusive ending, hence the four stars.
Some stories have a rather inconclusive ending, hence the four stars.
September 18, 2018
Very engrossing book. Each story a gem.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews