This pictorial auto-biographical book of the author has been named rightly, ‘The Impish Lass’. From the sweet childhood memories to the growing of age and reaching maturity, the author shares small anecdotes of her life as she grows up and confronts the real world. As said by the author, ‘The Impish Lass’ is an idea conceived by her and she believes that each one of us has an impish lad or lass within us.
The cover design is good. The glimpses of the author’s life enhance the reading experience of the book.
Description: Born in the small village, Pindaruch, in the heart of Mithila (the place where legendary Sita was born) and raised in the small town of Hazaribagh, Jharkhand, a peaceful place away from the hustle and bustle of the busy city life,‘The Impish Lass’ is a collection of some sweet and bitter anecdotes of author’s life. The poems and stories reveal her early life cherished in the lap of nature. Sharing her childhood memories, the author takes us on a soul-stirring journey of her life with each chapter being a lesson learned.
Editor’s Review: By the time I was in the second chapter, I knew this is a book I should read. The best thing about the book, it’s a tale of a common girl, of you and me, and not an autobiography of some famous personality.
Til, the impish lass, as the author describes, lives in all of us. As the author shares the sweet and bitter anecdotes of her life, we get the glimpses of the life in a small-town of India. It is the story of perhaps every Indian girl born and brought up in the post-colonial middle-class society of India from 70’s to early 90’s, when childhood meant playing in open fields with friends, entertainment meant listening to the radio, watching Amitabh Bachchan movies and ‘Chitrahaar’ in Doordarshan, when urgent news was sent through telegrams, when educating children in a convent was a big thing for the family and car was a luxury. Its an experience of an era that is gone. In the journey of her life from a simple small-town girl to an independent woman making it in a big city, we see how life is a passage of small memories.
The book is also a wonderful social commentary. With the fine use of wit and humor, the author, from the very first page, ridicules the social conventions and practices of her time. Be it absurd marriage rituals, irrational moral and religious practices, small-town gossips or Til’s bitter experience of sexuality, each chapter is an extended critical note. In Til’s childhood mischiefs, in her first love and heartbreak, in her making of her own individual identity in a big city lives the impish lass who is alive in our heart forever.
The only point about the book that I found a little out of place is the last chapter of the book, ‘The Impish Lass Contest’. The last chapter fits more like an epilogue than a chapter. Anyways, the last chapter in itself is also an enriching literary input as we get to read remarkably good poems of some of the wonderful poets.
I must say, after a long time I read a book that is a good addition to Indian English literature.
Overall, I will rate the book 4.8/5.
Product details
Format: Paperback
Reading Age: 13+
Author: Meena Mishra
Print Length: 100+ pages
Genre: Autobiography
Publisher: HBA Publications – 1st Ed. (2017) & The Impish Lass Publishing House 2nd Ed. (2018)
Sold by: Amazon Asia-Pacific Holdings Private Limited
Language: English
