Reviews for The Perishable Empire: Essays on Indian Writing in English

The average rating for The Perishable Empire: Essays on Indian Writing in English based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-11-11 00:00:00 Francis Trojanek a very resourceful book for the history of the emergence of novel in India.. Meenakshi Mukherjee is a must read critic to better understand INDIAN WRITING IN ENGLISH

Review # 2 was written on 2015-01-28 00:00:00 James Bowlin Jr I found this collection quite moving. Once again Xun's stories were compelling and focus on this theme of changing times, of shifts of regimes and of the difficulties that arise out of trying to be both modern and traditional at once, or of trying to be modern when surrounded by traditionalist or vice versa. However, unlike his previous collection "A Call to Arms", this collection seemed to be more personal. The stories almost always centered on a pseudo-scholar character and almost inevitably dealt with disappointment, failure and tragedy. Although the note of this collection is quite somber, its honesty with dealing with the demons of a whole society is delightful. Once again I cannot help but stress how valuable Xun's stories are for the "western" reader who wants to get to know what China, pre- and early post- Revolution was like.