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Jump to navigationJump to searchWitness the Night by Kishwar Desai (view source)
Revision as of 12:01, 24 June 2010
, 12:01, 24 June 2010no edit summary
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|name=Robert Wilson
|verb= said
|comment=Like your reviewer, I too wish that Kishwar Desai had written the book as a non-fiction account rather than in novel form.
Your reviewer's final paragraph encapsulates a key problem that the author had and which she did not solve: for the typical reader, there was so much background information that had to be imparted and some sections of the book are heavily didactic, with the writing almost in conference-paper form. At these points, the novel (as a novel) grinds to a halt for a while.
Kishwar Desai came to Aberdeen recently, by invitation, and spoke not about her novel as a novel but about the issues to which her book relates. She spoke extremely well, not only in her presentation but also in her handling of questions from the floor. She convinced me that she has the attributes to write a non-fictional account that would be extremely powerful. Whether anyone would publish it, of course, is another matter. At least this version of what she wants to bring to the world's attention has been published.
She told us that some folk are encouraging her to put her fictional social worker sleuth onto another case, and another issue. Like your reviewer, I wish she would continue publicising the issues raised by her novel, but in a very different format.
Robert Wilson
Aberdeen
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