Book: Name Place Animal Thing
Author: Daribha Lyndem
Publisher: Zubaan Books
Pages: 208
How Long it Took Me To Read: 2 days
Read On: Kindle
Plot Summary: In this novella, Daribha Lyndem gently lifts the curtain on the coming of age of a young Khasi woman and the politically charged city of Shillong in which she lives. Like the beloved school game from which it takes its name, the book meanders through ages, lives and places. The interconnected stories build on each other to cover the breadth of a childhood, and move into the precarious awareness of adulthood.
A shining debut, Name Place Animal Thing is an elegant examination of the porous boundaries between the adult world and that of a child’s.
Review: This book had been on my radar since it first came out. For the longest time I was holding out for the hardback edition (very bookish issues) and then I decided to be good and just read it already. And I am so so so glad I finally found my way to this darling little book.
Some books take you places and some take you out of your head and some make me travel back in time to a place and world you love dearly. This book managed to do all that and then some. There was something so endearingly familiar of this world and this place in time. Of course, I didn't grow up in Shillong, hell I have been there only once when I was three and have no real memory of the place. But this book took me to Shillong and got me walk it roads and peep into it's home and heart. A book that manages to successfully and authentically give a voice and shape to a city is a success from the get go. But back to the familiar aspects of this book: there is something only those of us who grew up in the 90s will ever fully grasp. The lives we lived, the dreams we foolishly day dreamt about and the million little things we did and saw and experienced and lived through. Something that is captured so skilfully in this book. I honestly felt like I was back in school, walking to my tuition classes and laughing with my friends and trying to make sense of my world. And even though I grew up in Bombay, D growing up in Shillong felt like a girl I knew so well.
This was such a comfort read in so many ways, not to say it was always happy read. It was a comfort because these people and this world came alive and pulled you in, welcomed you in their sometimes messy and chaotic lives. These people, these homes and these lives are all you know and understand or you are willing to step in and understand. They weren't perfect, they were flawed, messy, cruel, privileged and set in their ways...like people you know...like you?
This is a simple book, simple but deep and moving and one that will stay with you long after you are done reading its 208 pages. It's an easy book to breeze through in one sitting. I almost did but then I made myself slow down and really savour it. I wanted to hang out with D and her friends and family for as long as I could. Even if parts of it broke my heart. Really really broke my heart, but in the best way possible.
I could go on but all I want to say it, read this. Especially if you grew up way back then. Before social media, cellphones attached to our very selves and before the world was this...big...this available?
Seriously treat yourself to this book.
Oh and the Kindle version is available for 99 bucks right now, so it's a great time to buy and read it.
You won't regret it.
Rating: 4.5/5
PS: I used to be bloody brilliant at Name Place Animal Thing!
God I miss it so much.
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