{"id":3711,"date":"2017-10-16T17:11:11","date_gmt":"2017-10-16T11:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fableandi.com\/?p=3711"},"modified":"2020-03-10T21:01:39","modified_gmt":"2020-03-10T15:31:39","slug":"miss-laila-armed-and-dangerous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebooksatchel.com\/miss-laila-armed-and-dangerous\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Miss. Laila, Armed and Dangerous’ Offends Everyone. Yet You Can’t Ignore the Book."},"content":{"rendered":"
Manu Joseph’s latest novel is wicked, sarcastic and garnished with wit. In the backdrop of the present political scenario of the country, he brings out the hypocrite in all of us. Just like the quote below, one is left with a baffled expression on finishing the novel. <\/p>\n When I received a copy of Man Joseph\u2019s latest novel in my hands, my heart sank a bit. It is only over 200 pages, much shorter than his previous two novels, The Illicit Happiness of Other People<\/em> and Serious Men <\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n A man trapped in the debris of a collapsed building is mumbling something about a terrorist attack. The police who are rescuing survivors from the collapsed building are on alert and want to extract more information from him so that they can prevent the attack. In the other storyline we have Laila, \u2018who has six pairs of shoes. She is a bit hip that way<\/em>.\u2019 Laila supports a large family with her earnings and is on a journey by car with her married boss even though her mother finds it inappropriate. Both the story lines are fantastic and when they merged I was taken aback by how effortlessly they blended together. This blending of parallel storylines deserves applause. We also have the stories of the \u2018Patriarch\u2019 and Miss. Iyer (who plays pranks on liberals and exposes them) which give us a fresh perspective into the plot.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\n“There are faces that only an Indian can make. Like that baffled face when he is shocked by the most logical outcome of his actions. He crosses the road like a cow, and he is startled by a truck. A vehicle on the road? How? He walks across the railway track, and he finds a train hurtling towards him. A train on a railway track? He is stunned.”<\/em><\/p>\nReview<\/h3>\n
Two storylines<\/h3>\n