Exploring literary minds

A Blue Notebook, by young author Tusar Talukder, is a nice work of prose writings. The book is written in English. It is a collection of essays and reviews. It comprises 12 reviews of literary books, 7 essays and one research-article.
The first essay titled 'Goodbye, Dream Seller!' is on Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the Colombian novelist, short story writer, screenwriter and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo throughout Latin America. Tusar has also translated Marquez's selected short stories from English to Bangla. "Before the publication of my book of translation --- Selected Short Stories, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, I was excited, wondering how a man could weave such brilliant stories around a lot of tiny issues," Tusar writes.
The author, a lecturer at the English Department of Central Women's College, writes on Pablo Neruda, and makes in-depth assessment of Safiuddin Ahmad (Safiuddin Ahmad's Analysis of Tagore: A Reflection), Syed Manzoorul Islam (Bela Obelar Galpo: Tales of the Conscious and Subconscious), Fakrul Alam (In Fakrul Alam's Literary World…), Humayun Ahmed (The Storytelling of Humayun Ahmed: A Reader's View), Mujtoba Ahmed Murshed (Wanderings through Tagore Territory), Kajal Bandyopaddhay (Faith in the Life of a Poet), Mashuk Chowdhury (Partly Nostalgia, Partly Agony…) Maleka Begum (As Winnie Saw Mandela), Surma Zahid (Violated in 1971: Tales of Heroism, Blood and Tears), Anisul Hoque (Anisul Hoque's Selai: A Tale too Tragic to Tell), Mohsin Habib (When the Homebound Turns Stranger), Abdul Hai Siddique (Abdul Hai Siddique: A Seer and a Discoverer), Obayed Akash (Poetry Packed in Sense and Sensibility) and Altaf Shahnewaz (A Never-ending Search…)
The young author has tried his best to bring a brilliant poet like Mashuk Chowdhury into the limelight. Tusar rightly points out the quintessence of Chowdhury's poetic self as reflected in his works (Nadir Nam Duhsomoy). In his short but compact review the author says, "If Wordsworth is right in defining poetry as a 'spontaneous overflow of feelings', is that Mashuk Chowdhury has rightly captured that feeling." Tusar makes a sharp observation of the self-effacing nature of the poet.
Apart from 'Goodbye, Dream Seller!' (Gabriel Garcia Marquez) in the first part, six essays on Pablo Neruda, Safiuddin Ahmed, Syed Manzoorul Islam, Fakrul Alam, Humayun Ahmed and Syed Badrul Ahsan (A biography and its biographer) are highly enjoyable and thought-provoking.
Journalist Syed Badrul Ahsan has edited the 96-page book. The author dedicated the collection to Professor Safiuddin Ahmad, Professor Syed Manzoorul Islam and Professor Fakrul Alam.

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A Blue Notebook
(A collection of prose writings)
By Tusar Talukder
Published by Ankur Prakashani
February 2015; Tk 180/-