Book Review: ‘Skid Marks of Logic’ by Divya Diana Dias
by Shibesh Mehrotra on Jun 17, 2012 • 3:54 PM No CommentsLanguage: English
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9789381576670
Pages: 208
Price: 175.0
Reading is as much a physical exercise as any other form you might prefer, but only if the author plays his, or in this case, her cards right. Wordsworth, through his poem Daffodils, takes over your mind completely and almost transports you into that field, standing beside him. Yes, I may have seemed to digress from my original ‘point’, but I assure you I haven’t, for this is the same technique that Divya tries to use through this book. Does it work? Read on.
‘Skid Marks of Logic‘ is a collection of three short stories; you might even call them novellas in a way, about three young women and their trysts with sex, or at least to the sensation of sensual touch, which, as our author rightly points out in the beginning of the book, is frowned upon in the Indian school of thought. Anyhow, Ms Dias takes it upon herself to assure that these girls do not succumb to society’s narrow view of the world. Payal, a shy, submissive, girl on the outside, teases and tries her man’s patience before actually revealing to him who she really is. Dani, an outspoken, tomboy-ish, girl who has never been kissed, types out her fantasies on her blog, which, by a stroke of luck, is read and appreciated by her best friend, Satya who makes her an offer everyone in their right minds would refuse. Janvi, a young and intelligent entrepreneur, finds it difficult fighting off the very man who saved her a good deal of trouble. All of our protagonists, if you notice, are the very definition of the modern woman, i.e. someone who not only knows her way around the world, but is unafraid of walking it either.
Dias puts essentially the same woman in three different economic backgrounds, lower middle class, middle class and the entrepreneurial elite, and very similar situations. She does this in a very believable manner, sprinkling in some instances of actual middle class life in Payal’s story or having a crisis break out in the middle of a meeting in Janvi’s narrative. The narrative is another part of this book that I would like to mention here, it’s all inside the character’s head. And it’s not like the guys are mere sex toys used to titillate readers either, as wrong as that might sound. Her male characters have enough reason behind what they do, with them taking over the narrative at some places. It has all been done very seamlessly, keeping alive the flow of the book.
Coming to the conclusion, yes, since this is a book that describes the sexual journeys of three young women, it does have its moments of rated ‘R’ conversations. But each and every word of those conversations have penned very well, this book is not cheap porn. Yes, it will tend to provide you with an out-of-the-body experience, like I described in the beginning but there is enough build up to balance it out. Should you buy it? Yes. Should you let your kids read it? Well, they’re going to find out one way or another anyway, so why the hell not.
Overall Rating: 6.5/10
If you find the book interesting, buy from Amazon or Flipkart here: