Meeting of Literary Circle (26th August 2011, Berlin) with Priya
"When someone suggested that we should invite Priya Basil to take part in the meeting of our reading group on The Obscure Logic of the Heart, no one really expected that she would agree to come. All the greater was our delight when, by return of - electronic - post, she replied in the affirmative.
As to the session itself, it was, not surprisingly, one of the most interesting and illuminating that we can remember. We were given insights into Priya's motivation for writing the book - a desire, on the one hand, to understand the religious turn
of mind, and, on the other, to explore the complexities of the illegal traffic in armaments and its disastrous effects. In addition, several comments by members of the group resulted in interesting revelations on Priya's part. For example, when
two of us mentioned that they had a niggling suspicion that Merc might be a closet homosexual, she disclosed that she had thought of making him gay but had given up the idea. Similarly, when one of us pointed out the parallels to Romeo and
Juliet, Priya told us that she had in fact read the play several times in the course of writing her novel.
To top everything, Priya claimed that the session was as interesting for her as it was for us and that she had profited from it at least as much as we had, and she even said that she would like to attend future meetings of our group!
Thanks again for everything, Priya."
John Wilkinson
"When someone suggested that we should invite Priya Basil to take part in the meeting of our reading group on The Obscure Logic of the Heart, no one really expected that she would agree to come. All the greater was our delight when, by return of - electronic - post, she replied in the affirmative.
As to the session itself, it was, not surprisingly, one of the most interesting and illuminating that we can remember. We were given insights into Priya's motivation for writing the book - a desire, on the one hand, to understand the religious turn
of mind, and, on the other, to explore the complexities of the illegal traffic in armaments and its disastrous effects. In addition, several comments by members of the group resulted in interesting revelations on Priya's part. For example, when
two of us mentioned that they had a niggling suspicion that Merc might be a closet homosexual, she disclosed that she had thought of making him gay but had given up the idea. Similarly, when one of us pointed out the parallels to Romeo and
Juliet, Priya told us that she had in fact read the play several times in the course of writing her novel.
To top everything, Priya claimed that the session was as interesting for her as it was for us and that she had profited from it at least as much as we had, and she even said that she would like to attend future meetings of our group!
Thanks again for everything, Priya."
John Wilkinson
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Priya Basil @ the Asian Book Club in London (July 30 2011)
"The Asian Book Club was delighted to have Priya Basil attend one of our book club meetings. At this meeting the group was discussing her recent book – “The Obscure Logic of the Heart”.
The Asian Book Club is a London based interest group set-up to provide a forum to discuss Asian culture and way of life, using fiction as a prop to generate discussion and explore the different aspects of Asian literature and culture. It covers a variety of books, including books by Authors of Asian origin as well as other Authors writing about Asia. From time to time the group invites authors to participate in the discussions to get first-hand reactions to their books, directly from the readers, and give their perspective on the themes and topics explored in their books.
Priya Basil Book , “The Obscure Logic of the heart” was an ideal book for the book group as it explored the issues with the relationship between a Muslim girl from a traditional Muslim family and a Sikh boy. A theme that a large numbers of book-club members could relate to as they are faced with similar dilemma’s in their daily lives. The book provided excellent fodder for an entertaining and lively debate on the issues of relationships, class boundaries, relation and Asian communities and their values. Most of the bookclub members found the book to be gripping which led to a passionate debate about the personalities, rights and wrongs of the attitudes of the various characters of the book.
The book received a thumbs-up from a majority of the members of the club, with comments such as; “perfectly paced story, which pulls the right emotional strings to keep you engrossed in the book”, “An excellent job of exploring people, cultures and life across different continents”, “Well written book, with an engaging story”. Some members thought that some of the plot lines were perhaps a little unrealistic, however Priya defended her novel brilliantly by giving us view on the connections and logic behind each part of the story.
Priya has a very pleasing personality; she is friendly, engaging and was genuinely interested in the views of her readers. She took all the feedback, including the criticism in her stride and gave the book club members an insight into the process of creating the novel and the effort that goes into producing a piece of work that will appeal to a large Audience.
The Asian Book Club was also privileged to have Priya’s mother present at this meeting, who was able to share anecdotes from her daughter’s life which gave a further perspective on the person behind the words.
This book club meeting was an unqualified success and we hope to invite Priya again to the book-club to discuss her next book."
Vineet Vijh