Thursday, October 15, 2009

Diary of a Djinn - Gini Alhadeff

Diary of a Djinn is a story of a woman, leading a wandering life as though directed by a djinn. The narrator ( alter ego of the author ?) was born in Egypt and grew up in Japan and Florence( where she did the schooling). She worked for a design house in Milan before moving to US.

In a rather disjointed narrative, she recollects her early ages, the school days, the life in Milan and New York. In Newyork, where meets Hare, already married, staying aloof. His mother, referred as princess, is suffering from cancer, is undergoing treatment. Befriending her and taking care of her during the course of her treatment, takes up the larger part of her narrative.

I did not see any connection in the overall story and everything sounded isolated. May be that is the intention. I have also failed to connect to the story and needless to say, did not enjoy this read. The book had been praised by many , including Susan Sontag, which prompted me to buy this.
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Diary of a Djinn
Gini Alhadeff
Pantheon Books, NewYork
214 Pages
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Further Read : NYTimes

1 comment:

Vidya said...

Hmm.. interesting... May be the Djinn finds it difficult to deal with Bangalore Traffic and direct you appropriately through the narrative...