Thursday, 22 August 2019

#BookReview : The Legacy of Nothing by Manoj Pandey



The Legacy of Nothing is a collection of stories culled from the ennui of modern living. These disjointed tales of dark, disparate, desperate lives entertain, provoke and challenge our empathy. Manoj Pandey’s poetic prose is an insider’s job — a unique exploration of the emptiness inside the eggshell of contemporary existence.

The Legacy of Nothing  is a collection of contemporary short stories written by Manoj Pandey & illustrated by Yuko Shimizu, published by Pan Macmillan India. The author is also an illustrator & is from New Delhi. His work has appeared in Huffington Post, Indian Express, etc. He has also edited a book of short fiction Tales on Tweet which was published in 2016. Yuko Shimizu is a Japanese illustrator based in New York & instructor at the School of Visual Arts.

The book is a collection of 10 short stories written in a poetry format. The stories cover a wide array of topics like that of the spirit of migrants trying to make a living in foreign soil away from their homeland or a struggling musician who is ready to do anything to be famous even if he has to use a rape incident to do so. Other stories indulge in stories like the journey of a man who changes his sex & what led to his decision, or of people who become friends via Facebook & what happens when they meet. Apart from these, there are six more stories all exploring different ideas. Get this book here,
At first look no one can guess that this book is a collection of short stories as it is extremely small & many of its pages have beautiful illustrations. This book has all the ingredients to be a super hit but unfortunately it didn’t worked for me. I understand that the stories being super short is it’s unique selling point but I believe at the same time the stories should engulf the readers into it’s world which didn’t happened for me. The stories lacked depth & sensitivity. The illustrations are to die for. A unique experiment which could’ve been executed a little better.   


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