Book Review

This week’s blog features reviews of two books, neither of which are published by Selfishgenie Publishing. Both are by the same author, Rohini Sunderam. The reviews are submitted by one of our authors, Robert Cubitt.

All book reviews posted on the Selfishgenie Publishing blog page are the opinions of the reviewers, not those of the Selfishgenie management.

Rohini Sunderam was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia but now lives in Bahrain. She describes herself as a “semi-retired advertising copywriter”. She is very active in writing groups in Bahrain and was shortlisted for the Atlantis Short Story Contest in 2013. She was also longlisted for the WOW Women on Writing CNF Essay contest for Q4 2020.

A Little Gem For The Romantics.

When it comes to the genres I read, I have to admit that romance and love stories aren’t the first shelf I go to in the library, but I do occasionally dip my toe into those waters and in the case of “12 Roses For Love”, by Rohini Sunderam, I’m glad I did.
 
This collection of short stories is a real gem. Firstly, while their theme is love and romance, they are far from traditional in their approach. If I tell you that one of the stories has an armchair as its central character, you can probably understand what I’m getting at.
 
The stories are set in different time periods and involve different characters (except for two of them), but they all have love at their core though, as already mentioned, the nature of that love is sometimes unconventional.

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"The stories are beautifully told"

The stories are beautifully told, with great use of language. There is a kind of poetry behind them. The book isn’t long, only 61 pages, but that is long enough to tell the 12 short stories that gives the book its title.
 
Why 4 stars rather than 5? I felt that one or two of the stories were a fraction short of being complete. They left unanswered questions which, on a personal level, I found frustrating. But that may be the author’s intention, to leave an air of mystery for the reader to enjoy and other readers might feel that the stories ended in just the right place.
 
I certainly have no hesitation in recommending this to lovers of both romantic fiction and short stories.
 
You can find out more about “12 Roses For Love” by Rohini Sunderam here.

Must Read Poetry For The Corporate  Masses

It was so lovely to finally find a book of poetry that didn’t make me groan with despair. There’s nothing wrong with poetry as an art form of course, but so much of it, particularly contemporary poetry, is just bad, bad, bad. But not Corpoetry by Rohini Sunderam. This is a delight.
 
Perhaps it was the way I was taught poetry at school. Endless boring epics from poets that may, or may not, have been high on drugs. I can’t listen to a verse of the Rhyme Of The Ancient Mariner without suffering flashbacks of my own, and I assure you those aren’t drugs related. They are Samuel Taylor Coleridge related.
 
When I was asked to review this book it didn’t fill me with joy, but I love a challenge and I thought it might be challenging to have to find something positive to say about yet more poetry, but I needn’t have worried. There’s plenty of positive things to say about this collection and I’m more than happy to say them.
 
The theme of the collection is the Corporation. This means that there is something in this collection for most people. We have met the people Rohini writes about. We may even be the people she is writing about. In fact I’d place a bet that any reader will be able to pick themselves out in at least one of the poems. To quote from a poem entitled 'Alpha Me', who hasn’t heard something like this?

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“Modern and millennium smart
Totally, utterly state of the art
That’s me,
Alpha me
Perfectly, ideally
Suited and Booted.”

The poems are short, use nice simple metaphors and analogies, but get to the very heart of the subject like a scalpel cutting into flesh. There is a sharp wittiness coupled to just a tiny touch of cynicism behind Rohini’s writings. That air of worldly weariness, that ‘been there, done that, got the tee-shirt’ feeling.

"I laughed out loud"

I have to say that I laughed out loud at some of these poems, but some of them also made me stop and think about the way people are managed and treated in the corporate workplace.

This isn’t a Pam Ayers world of fluffy but comedic bunny rabbits living in hutches, or regret at poor dental habits. This is sharp and satirical stuff. Even if you don’t work in the corporate world a lot of what you will read is about people and situations you will recognise from pretty much any place of employment.
 
The following poem I reproduce in full, because it is so up to date and captures a mood. It’s called 'Big Cheeses'.

Can someone please explain to me
A small insignificant nonentity
What is it that the top guys do
To merit all that ballyhoo?
Six and seven figure salaries
Numbers like leaves on trees
In stratospheres so rarefied
To get there I am terrified.
 
But, even so, I’d like to know
What it is they do so
Fantastically, uniquely great
That plunged us into this state?
If I screwed up my little job
They would have me on the hop.
My permanent part-time state
Would be reduced to hourly rate.
 
But when they screw up really big time
Mega, giga, hugely big time,
Enough to shut down whole departments
(some poor mid-levels lost apartments).
But those guys at the very top
(it’s enough to make my heart stop)
Would you believe that they
With gazillions walked away?
 
Were they fired? So I’m told.
And if I may be so bold,
You see I really need to understand
I can’t grasp this notion and
Quite get my head around it
They lost our money, every bit,
That we had all worked so hard to get.
They made some really big mistakes
Yet they received golden handshakes.

I never thought I would ever write this about a book of poetry, but if you want to read something unique, original and amusing please give this book a try.
 
I can’t imagine it being too long before we start seeing extracts of Rohini’s poems adorning mouse mats, mugs, calendars and posters. I’ll be the first into Rymans.
 
You can find out more about “Corpoetry” by Rohini Sunderam here.

Submitting books for review.

Having read the above reviews, you may be considering submitting your own work for us to feature. You are welcome to do so, but we have to issue a word of warning.

First, our authors are very busy people who have very tall "to be read" piles. They will probably get to your book eventually, but the time taken to do so may exceed the radioactive half-life of Bismuth-209 (approximately 2.9 x 10 to the power 19 years).

Secondly, our authors are very honest in their reviews. If they think your book is only worth 1 star (or even no stars) they will say so and they will provide reasons why. So, if you are not prepared to risk that, it is better not to send your book in. But look on the positive side - they will also award 5 stars if they think your book merits that. And it's only their opinion anyway.

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