November 14, 2023

Book Review - After death comes water

Joy Goswami is one of the most prominent and finest of Indian poets from Bengal and a versatile crusader of modernism. His book "After death comes water"  translated from the Bengali by Sampurna Chattarji. 


Goswami’s poems are abundant in imagination, linguistic variety, cultural heterogeneity and mythical narratives, Sampurna Chattarji has brought the inimitable poet to readers of the English language. Joy is simply inimitable in his poetic flavour, vocabulary and text which captures the postmodern cycle of uncertainty, transformation and rediscovery, better perhaps than any contemporary poet. 


The Book  'After Death Comes Water'  is neither an intellectual exercise, nor an experiential one; we have simply to allow ourselves to be defamed, swept into a world of passion, love and conflict within our minds and souls with as much inventiveness as Joy’s world as our own. He travels several worlds through his poetic odysseys, his imagery is new and unrivalled, he is never repetitive, and wears his erudition very lightly on his sleeve.  His poetic energy and sensibilities are unmatched, he is truly unique in his superabundant imagination which never allows our interest to flag in his writings. 


Enjoyed the melancholic poetic world of Joy Goswami brought by Sampurna Chattarji. An amazing read indeed!


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