Scream and other Urbane Legends

by Koshy Ampat Varghese

Koshy AV's first collection of exciting short stories. Also contains the novella Anamika.

177 pages, Paperback

First published January 10, 2017

Reviews

[Bhuvaneshwari Shankar]

Scream and other Urban Legends- a collection of short stories by Dr AV Koshy, offers a landscape that is highly different and is inhabited by characters that one does not come across often in one's reading. In his writing, poetry and prose come together so often that the differences begin to blur and every story becomes a study in poetic prose and prosaic poetry.
The stories offer staggering insights into human nature and the sheer beauty of the narration is a testament to the writer's sensitivity and deep understanding of psychological processes.
Some of my personal favourites are 'The Poor Poet' 'Written on the Body,' 'Sandhya' (which is a sensitive portrayal of life in the Gulf Region) 'Lalitha' and the novella Anamika.

[Rahul Ahuja]

Dr. Koshy AV is an author, critic, poet and academician. His book Scream and other Urbane Legends is a doorway to classic literature. While reading, one can realize that how aptly he has taken references from classic literature to stitch up the seducing stories or one can see a heavy reliance on allusions and intertextuality. In the words of the author, “A study of classic literature has helped me tremendously. Everywhere the reader will find a heavy reliance on allusions and intertextuality used consciously, including many classics and great writers in its sweep, and these add a rich dimension to my writing for those who get the significance and referentiality in its full measure.” Very few authors are able to do this and that too successfully.

The author has made a successful attempt in carefully penning down short stories that are poetic in nature.

As already mentioned above, every story shall take you back in time in the realm of classic literature and even classic music. So one can say that every story is like a time machine that takes your brain train into the stations of legendary writers, artists, musicians and much more and which keeps you utterly engrossed in Koshy’s creativeness and wittiness. Every story has been written with great dedication and it shows the boundless wisdom that the author possesses.

The author is successful in creating twists and turns in few stories that leaves an indelible effect upon the minds and hearts of the readers.

For example, in the story ‘Aouda: The Confluence’, one transcends from the road to the industrial city to a mesmerizing and mysterious world etched down by the author’s splendid imagery and as one reaches the climax he/she is astonished as to ‘What the hell just happened. Did I just wake up from a dream?’

The story, ‘The Junction’ reminds me of a quote from the classic novel One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez. “Things have a life of their own. It's simply a matter of waking up their souls.” The author has portrayed the junction as an observer who silently beholds the happenings of a day that arrives and departs in front of its vision and when the night emerges how it ponders upon the untold stories that lie deep down its memory lane.

Creation Myths on Poetry: A Trialogue is a masterpiece where the author has beautifully crafted the essence of pure poetry in the first two myths and in the third one he criticizes as to how that essence has been lost by providing an example of plagiarism.

Apart from the above mentioned stories, the following ones left an incredible impact on me namely ‘The Sculptor’, ‘The Gran’dad and the Little Boy who wanted to be a Poet – a tribute to Isaac Babel’, ‘The Poor Poet’, ‘The Writer Who Lost it at the Edge of the World’, ‘The Last Scarecrow’, ‘The Tenth Muse’, ‘Not Dark… Yet’ (after Beckett), ‘Written on the Body’, ‘Scream’ ‘Lady Nina’ (Impressed as to how the author has forged a short story out of a song. Commendable work.), ‘Sandhya’, ‘Lalita’ and Raktha Rakshas’.

Quoting from Anamika –
“When love and hate collide. Poems explode. In the interim of the internecine interstice where the interface lies.”

The novella, Anamika deals with the sufferings through which a poet goes through in love and hate. With some brilliant references from classic literature the author has worked wonders in scripting this story. The poems within the story are excellent.

Thus, if I have to sum it up, Scream and other Urbane Legends is a classic book itself that shall seduce your introspection leaving you intoxicated with beauty and creativity that the author has successfully applied.

[Rakhi]

When a poet writes a short story, the sentences will be brimful of poetic musings. The plot will have a music of its own. Scream and other urbane legends is a collection of short stories by a poet, which in turn are poetic.


All the stories have a shade of melancholy. A peep to the classic literature is a perk to the readers. Sandhya, 'Naseema and the bloodstone' and 'Yakshi who lived by the Periyar' were my favorite. The language is literary bliss for the readers.

The stories are mystical. The imagery is the icing on the cake. Being a Malayali myself, it is an endearing experiece to read stories with Kerala and Malayali culture and folk tales in the background. After a point, the deliberate attempt to squeeze in the poetry in prose seems tiresome. Some of the stories were mere fillers and did not fit in.

The book ends with a novella or micro novel to be precise and a brief poem. The novella had a shade of erotica, romance, and contemporary fiction. The poem is perfect and author has kept the best for the last.

This review is in return of a free book from the publisher

[Ampat]

A fantastic book given four stars only because my standards are too high.

Available at amazon.in

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