Spectacles

by Shome Dasgupta

Shome Dasgupta is the author of i am here And You Are Gone (Winner Of The 2010 OW Press Contest), The Seagull And The Urn (HarperCollins India), Anklet And Other Stories (Golden Antelope Press), Pretend I Am Someone You Like (Livingston Press), Mute (Tolsun Books), Spectacles (Word West), and a poetry collection, Iron Oxide (Assure Press).

88 pages, Paperback

Published September 7, 2021

About the author

Shome Dasgupta is the author of The Seagull And The Urn (HarperCollins India), Cajun South Brown Folk (Belle Point Press), Tentacles Numbing (Thirty West Publishing House), Histories Of Memories (Belle Point Press), Atchafalaya Darling: Stories (Belle Point Press), The Muu-Antiques (Malarkey Books), Cirrus Stratus (Spuyten Duyvil), Anklet And Other Stories (Golden Antelope Press), Pretend I Am Someone You Like (Livingston Press), Spectacles (Word West Press), Mute (Tolsun Books), i am here And You Are Gone which won the 2010 OW Press Contest, and Iron Oxide (Assure Press).

Shome received an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University-Los Angeles. His fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction have appeared in McSweeney's Internet Tendency, American Book Review, New Orleans Review, Arkansas Review, New Delta Review, Necessary Fiction, Louisiana Literature, Jabberwock Review, Parentheses Journal, Magma Poetry, and elsewhere. His fiction and poetry have been anthologized in Best Small Fictions 2019 (Sonder Press), Best Small Fictions 2021 (Sonder Press), Best Small Fictions 2023 (Alternating Current Press), The &Now Awards 2: The Best Innovative Writing (&Now Books), and Poetic Voices Without Borders 2 (Gival Press). His work has been featured as a storySouth Million Writers Award Notable Story, and his stories and poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best Small Fictions, Best Of The Net, Best Microfiction, and the Orison Anthology.

He served as the series editor of the Wigleaf Top 50 from 2019 to 2025. He took part in the Innovative Fiction panel, as a featured author, at the Louisiana Book Festival. He lives in Lafayette, LA and can be found at ww.shomedome.com.

Reviews

[Sara Dobbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I reached the end of "Spectacles," I immediately went back to the beginning to read it again. This is truly a book like no other. The innovative format and brutally honest revelations compel us as readers to face the worst thing of all, ourselves. With raw and secret thoughts on display, Dasgupta's words beg the question, when you look at your reflection, do you like what you see? If our loved ones could read our minds, and our darkest thoughts were revealed, would they still love us? And would we love ourselves? The private shame and self-loathing that defines in some part what it is to be human teaches us that real love is many things, least of all perfect. There is a wisdom and an acceptance of a darker side running through the undercurrent of Dasgupta's prose, which makes us realize that we cannot be good unless we grapple with our demons. Stunning!

[Gabriel Olivier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Upon first glance, Spectacles has an interesting allure in that it requires a mirror to have any hope of reading the words inscribed in small circles on each page. When I received the book, I was worried this was a cheap gimmick meant too sell copies based on shock value, but (once I procured a reasonably sized mirror), I quickly found that the mirrored words served an important, central role in the story. I have been an avid reader all of my life, and the feel of a book in my hands or the act of reading feel as natural as taking a drink of water. There is no thought behind it as I flip the pages, my eyes knowing where to go to look for the next words. However, reading Spectacles I found myself consciously thinking about how each page should be turned and where I should begin and end reading on each page. These actions that were once so comfortable and familiar become foreign and clumsy as I tried to do them in mirror. It makes the act of reading feel vulnerable, something I have not felt in a long time. This vulnerability is only underscored by the fact that you are forced to look at yourself as you read. You are forced to understand your interaction with the text and it quickly draws you into the experience of the characters. You are a part of the plot, setting, and resolution without being mentioned on a single page. I do not want to spoil any of the content of the book (as it is beautiful poetry and should not be muddied by a review read beforehand), but Shome Dasgupta's Spectacles is about struggling with the confusion, anguish, and beauty of life and emotion, perfectly reflected by Dasguptas's decision to have the book written in a mirrored manner. An impressive work of experimental fiction that works incredibly well.

[Josh Dale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Truly a spectacle of a book, it must be read in a mirror. Surprisingly, an intimate experience with a writer with vision, compassion, and intellect. Dasgupta does it again.

[Shareen Murayama · Rating 4 out of 5]

Be careful of what you wish for. I often thought I wanted to be a fly on the wall overhearing a conversation between a couple. Except with Shome Dasgupta's poetry collection, SPECTACLE, you are there. I mean, I needed to hold the book up to my mirror to read the lines. I mean, I'm there in the speaker's intimate conversations, and I'm squinting to look at myself, looking at the words. Am I saying the words to myself? "The one night when I punched a hole in the wall, you didn't even say anything. It was like your silence was harder than something you should have said" (78). And my bathroom or my head echoes with memories I've survived, standing there, holding the book in the mirror, holding my head up.

It is a bit challenging to read the book and read yourself at the same time, but it is an experience of existential and personal contemplation, which, isn't that what some of us hope for when we pick up a book? To be moved, to suspend reality, to find a space to think as we slip along the river.

[Joey Hedger · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great read by an exceptional writer! Definitely worth getting. The book is written/formatted in a way that skews the way you not only look at the text, but also the world, yourself, etc. Each poem appears on the page backwards (and wrapped in "spectacles"), making it nearly impossible to read without standing in front of a mirror, which sounds like it'll be inconvenient and slightly uncomfortable (and it is), but that's a particular skill of Dasgupta in writing this book--he forces you to look at everything backwards, and also forces you to watch yourself as you're reading it, seeing yourself in it and responding to it. It plays out remarkably well for a book that's inherently about perspectives.