Neel Mukherjee - A State Of Freedom (Penguin, 2017) **

There is a lot of interesting and great literature coming from India, but this book is not part of it, despite the general acclaim. It's a book with five 'sections' or stories, talking about the challenges of life in rural villages and cities in India.

One of Mukherjee's stories is about the world of difference between the "americanised" young Indian visiting his parents in Mumbai and the servants working in the same house, one about a father visiting India with his six-year old son who was born in the US, one about a man training a bear to earn a living, despite the new law that forbids this kind of animal exploitation.

I read halfway through the book, then stopped because it's a waste of time. The writing is average, the stories not really gripping, the tensions between the worlds do not come to life, and since the book did not show any evidence of improving, my decision was made.