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The Color of Noon
WINNER OF THE 2024 WALTER CUMMINS SHORT FICTION AWARD
The Color of Noon is Eugene Datta's debut collection of stories. His poetry collection Water & Wave was published by Redhawk in 2024. Datta has worked as a newspaper journalist, a book reviewer, and an editor. His fiction and poetry have appeared in publications such as Common Ground Review, The Dalhousie Review, Mantis, Hamilton Stone Review, The Bangalore Review, and elsewhere. A recipient of the Stiftung Laurenz-Haus fellowship, he has held residencies at Ledig House International Writers’ Colony, and Fundación Valparaíso. Born and raised in India, he lives in Aachen, Germany.
The Color of Noon is Eugene Datta's debut collection of stories. His poetry collection Water & Wave was published by Redhawk in 2024. Datta has worked as a newspaper journalist, a book reviewer, and an editor. His fiction and poetry have appeared in publications such as Common Ground Review, The Dalhousie Review, Mantis, Hamilton Stone Review, The Bangalore Review, and elsewhere. A recipient of the Stiftung Laurenz-Haus fellowship, he has held residencies at Ledig House International Writers’ Colony, and Fundación Valparaíso. Born and raised in India, he lives in Aachen, Germany.
- GenresShort Stories
166 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 30, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 2, 2025
This is my first review on Goodreads, an indication of what a pleasure it was to read these quietly compelling stories, in which a memorable, vividly drawn cast of characters struggle to find their places on the outskirts of Calcutta, Indian culture, and the world at large. The author has a painter's eye for detail, but never gives you more than you need to appreciate the physical settings or the poignancy of his people's quiet, life-altering crises.
This isn't a book in which extraordinary things happen, and therein lies its beauty. Datta calls up a collection of hugely sympathetic, identifiable characters experiencing recognizable life events that change how they see themselves and the world around them, whether they (or we) fully understand these changes or not. Each story is a small gem that made me eager to read the next, and I look forward to his next collection.
This isn't a book in which extraordinary things happen, and therein lies its beauty. Datta calls up a collection of hugely sympathetic, identifiable characters experiencing recognizable life events that change how they see themselves and the world around them, whether they (or we) fully understand these changes or not. Each story is a small gem that made me eager to read the next, and I look forward to his next collection.
March 27, 2025
The stories in Eugene Datta’s remarkable debut collection, The Color of Noon, are visually striking. With a painter’s eye for detail and a poet’s sensibilities, Datta summons all the senses to create the atmosphere in which his characters exist. In the story, “Rain,” the protagonist sees “scarves of rain wrapping and unwrapping themselves around a streetlamp.” In another story, “Movie Star,” Datta evokes an entire neighborhood market, where “gossip hummed like flies on the piles of mango and papaya.” In the title story, “sunlight on the window ledge is the color of noon.” Synesthetic details abound in these ten stories set in Calcutta, where characters seek relief from unrelenting noon heat in monsoon rains and darkness.
These and other images accumulate in the collection, unifying stories about characters who often live on the fringes of the city. Free of cultural norms and religious traditions, their souls are exiled and conflicted to varying degrees, their humanity exposed so the reader may see more clearly their light and dark urges. In “Hammer and Sickle,” a young female schoolteacher arranges a romantic rendezvous with an elderly Communist insurrectionist in an abandoned mental asylum. In “Movie Star,” a god-like film idol returns home to take over his father’s furniture store, becoming lusterless yet more humane as time passes. In the breathtakingly beautiful and moving story, “A Minute’s Silence,” an ailing filmmaker scripts his own dying so his son won’t be bogged down with the practical details that follow a loved one’s death. Whether they are attempting a great kindness, or suffering the effects of crime, alienation, or betrayal, Eugene Datta’s complex characters, like his images, are quietly developed. These stories seem understated at first, but upon second reading they simmer and burst with color, light, taste, and sound.
These and other images accumulate in the collection, unifying stories about characters who often live on the fringes of the city. Free of cultural norms and religious traditions, their souls are exiled and conflicted to varying degrees, their humanity exposed so the reader may see more clearly their light and dark urges. In “Hammer and Sickle,” a young female schoolteacher arranges a romantic rendezvous with an elderly Communist insurrectionist in an abandoned mental asylum. In “Movie Star,” a god-like film idol returns home to take over his father’s furniture store, becoming lusterless yet more humane as time passes. In the breathtakingly beautiful and moving story, “A Minute’s Silence,” an ailing filmmaker scripts his own dying so his son won’t be bogged down with the practical details that follow a loved one’s death. Whether they are attempting a great kindness, or suffering the effects of crime, alienation, or betrayal, Eugene Datta’s complex characters, like his images, are quietly developed. These stories seem understated at first, but upon second reading they simmer and burst with color, light, taste, and sound.
December 16, 2024
The Color of Noon is one of those short fiction collections that just takes you right off your feet. Eugene Datta's use of language is a meditative journey that both excites and relaxes the reader and pulls them into the worlds he has constructed. Datta makes you feel like you're right there in the scene with the characters feeling every movement, every emotion.
It's hard to imagine that this is only Datta's first story collection, and he's just getting started. His previous book is a moving collection of poems, also worth the purchase along with this collection. The two books go hand in hand as a nice comparison of the author in both forms. The poetics of Eugene Datta shines through in Color of Noon this time taking the reader deeper into the descriptive journey and culture that these stories provide. I can't wait to see what comes next, but for now I'm going to enjoy this collection over and over. This is a collection you will reread too, by one of the rising contemporary greats.
It's hard to imagine that this is only Datta's first story collection, and he's just getting started. His previous book is a moving collection of poems, also worth the purchase along with this collection. The two books go hand in hand as a nice comparison of the author in both forms. The poetics of Eugene Datta shines through in Color of Noon this time taking the reader deeper into the descriptive journey and culture that these stories provide. I can't wait to see what comes next, but for now I'm going to enjoy this collection over and over. This is a collection you will reread too, by one of the rising contemporary greats.
March 18, 2025
This debut collection of short stories immediately captured me. It is masterfully crafted and rich in details. A quiet, calming sense of characters losing and finding their way. Datta has a marvelous way of pulling the reader into the story. Atmospheric, along with striking images, I found myself caught up in the emotional undercurrent that runs throughout his stories. At moments, his sense of place was so vivid that I felt I was there. I'm looking forward to more stories from this author.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews