Every once in a while, you come across a book so powerful that reading it feels like deep cleansing your soul. Sometimes this takes you by ...
Every once in a while, you come across a book so powerful that reading it feels like deep cleansing your soul. Sometimes this takes you by surprise because it’s not something you expect in that genre. As a rather eclectic reader, I’ve always thought that academics, literary critics and the makers of public opinion in general did a bit of disservice to humanity by disregarding the artistic value of the so-called pulp fiction genres, be it comics, detective fiction, science fiction or fantasy. Faced with works of undeniable philosophical or aesthetic depth, revisionism and denial kicked in.
Thus, purists insisted that Watchmen (Alan Moore; art by Dave Gibbons; colourist John Higgins) was a graphic novel even though Moore himself frequently rejected the term. Somewhere after leaving university, I’ve learned to ignore genre debates.
Which is a good thing in the context of Samit Basu’s recently published Chosen Spirits (available on Kindle right away and in hardback somewhere in the indefinite future), because here is a book that could be called genre-bending if one didn’t suspect the author doesn’t approve of labels. Instead of genre gimmicks, this book demands attention and intelligence from its reader, right from the opening line:
Sometimes Joey feels like her whole life is...
