Review of Three loves and other stories
Posted: 16 Jun 2022, 08:01
[Following is a volunteer review of "Three loves and other stories" by Lata Gullapalli.]
Three loves and other stories by Lata Gullapalli contains eight short stories in which women are the main characters. The women have unique experiences yet face similar struggles in a culture embedded with male dominance. The stories cover rich themes examining the dynamics of societal relationships in the family, marriage, platonic friendships, and issues affecting the modern woman as she seeks release from the oppression of culture.
The first tale, namely “Three Loves,” which is the basis of the title, is about a young woman, Sia, who leaves the suppressed life at home to pursue her dreams despite the limitations placed on her by the family because she is female. She starts a new job and meets a man she falls deeply in love with, but the relationship threatens her well-being. Gullapalli writes in a way that seems like a moral lesson about emotional abuse, healthy relationships, and respect in marriage through Sia’s perspective.
The story I enjoyed the most was “Growing Up.” It is about a young lady called Raashi leaving home to pursue a university education. The storytelling is exciting because of the humor and elements of outstanding descriptive writing, creating vivid mental images befitting an award-winning story.
I appreciate the author’s boldness in exploring deep themes appertaining to gender roles and societal expectations that limit women professionally or in their marriages. I enjoyed the philosophical tone of the stories, whereby there is a point you can feel the author is directly speaking to you, similar to the fashion of oral tradition where the narrator addresses the audience and then continues with storytelling. This style gives the reader time to contemplate the message in each story.
The stories are entertaining, inspirational, and refreshing, but the editing is poor. It is disappointing to read a book containing avoidable punctuation mistakes and glaring grammatical errors.
I noticed many missing question marks, missing quotation marks, inconsistent and wrongful use of ellipses (sometimes comprising four dots, sometimes five dots), and double or triple exclamation marks that do not add value to the story. If the author applied the punctuation discrepancies intentionally, I could excuse them as literary liberties. However, some paragraphs are well-punctuated, and others are not. A proofreader can easily fix these errors. Therefore, my rating of Three loves and other stories is 2 out of 4 stars.
Although Gullapalli’s short story collection would resonate with women universally, it can enlighten readers of both genders. The male characters are also well-portrayed, balancing both the heroes and villains across all stories. I would not recommend the book to English learners since the language used would be misleading.
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Three loves and other stories
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Three loves and other stories by Lata Gullapalli contains eight short stories in which women are the main characters. The women have unique experiences yet face similar struggles in a culture embedded with male dominance. The stories cover rich themes examining the dynamics of societal relationships in the family, marriage, platonic friendships, and issues affecting the modern woman as she seeks release from the oppression of culture.
The first tale, namely “Three Loves,” which is the basis of the title, is about a young woman, Sia, who leaves the suppressed life at home to pursue her dreams despite the limitations placed on her by the family because she is female. She starts a new job and meets a man she falls deeply in love with, but the relationship threatens her well-being. Gullapalli writes in a way that seems like a moral lesson about emotional abuse, healthy relationships, and respect in marriage through Sia’s perspective.
The story I enjoyed the most was “Growing Up.” It is about a young lady called Raashi leaving home to pursue a university education. The storytelling is exciting because of the humor and elements of outstanding descriptive writing, creating vivid mental images befitting an award-winning story.
I appreciate the author’s boldness in exploring deep themes appertaining to gender roles and societal expectations that limit women professionally or in their marriages. I enjoyed the philosophical tone of the stories, whereby there is a point you can feel the author is directly speaking to you, similar to the fashion of oral tradition where the narrator addresses the audience and then continues with storytelling. This style gives the reader time to contemplate the message in each story.
The stories are entertaining, inspirational, and refreshing, but the editing is poor. It is disappointing to read a book containing avoidable punctuation mistakes and glaring grammatical errors.
I noticed many missing question marks, missing quotation marks, inconsistent and wrongful use of ellipses (sometimes comprising four dots, sometimes five dots), and double or triple exclamation marks that do not add value to the story. If the author applied the punctuation discrepancies intentionally, I could excuse them as literary liberties. However, some paragraphs are well-punctuated, and others are not. A proofreader can easily fix these errors. Therefore, my rating of Three loves and other stories is 2 out of 4 stars.
Although Gullapalli’s short story collection would resonate with women universally, it can enlighten readers of both genders. The male characters are also well-portrayed, balancing both the heroes and villains across all stories. I would not recommend the book to English learners since the language used would be misleading.
******
Three loves and other stories
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon