Understanding the alluring nature of the beast

Love Stories # 1 to 14 by Annie Zaidi is an exercise in sensitivity and subtlety. Top scores for this book, voiced from a woman’s perspective. And Zaidi can look into a woman’s mind very, very deeply. She is a much published author who writes poetry, essays, fiction, and scripts for the stage and the screen.

It is best we give you the opportunity to savour the excerpts.

Love Story # 10: The loneliness was intense. She grew frightened of the silence. Sounds filtering in from the neighbours’ flat – children, music, television, pressure cooker whistles – made her own silent house a blunt thing of menace. The last straw was her neighbours’ new dog.

Love Story # 3: The wife rose from the table and came to his side. Dozens of thoughts ran through his head all at the same time. She needs me, he thought, like a current account. A minimum-risk investment bouquet. Like insurance-linked mutual funds…Why did it hurt so much? Many women are like that. Because she’s not going to stay if it is all gone – the money, the career.

Love Story # 5: The One That Went Up In Smoke: Nor had she forbidden him anything. Not even his quirks, like wanting to kiss her nose before he kissed her lips. She didn’t really like it, but she understood it: affection before lust... But silence clung to them like lice. They kept their distance from each other.

Love Story # 11: She must have felt the teardrops slide from my eyes onto her neck…I felt her face move into the contours of a smile.

Love Stories # 1 to 14
by Annie Zaidi
HarperCollins
Publishers
Rs.350