The Sensualist
Rating: 4.2/5
Author: Ruskin Bond
Publisher: Penguin India
Publishing Date: 20 July 2009
Language: English
Genre: Contemporary fiction
ISBN-10: 0143441027
ISBN-13: 978-0143441021
Format: Paperback
Pages: 120
Cost: Rs. 79 (Paperback), Rs. 80(Kindle)
Description:
The Sensualist is the story of a man enslaved by his libido and spiralling towards self-destruction. Gripping, erotic, even brutal, the book explores the demons that its protagonist must grapple with before he is able to come to terms with himself.
In this fascinating account of the pleasures and perils that attend a young man's coming of age, Ruskin Bond displays his felicity in exploring the dark aspects of the human psyche. Bold and powerful, The Sensualist is a compelling read..
Review:
This book was a welcome change from the typical ‘Bond fiction’. The Sensualist caused quite some unpleasant stir with its plot which had boldly wandered from the acceptable norms in literature in the then Indian society. The book explores the sexual escapades of a coming-of-age boy through his experiences as a grown-up man and someone who loses his appetite after becoming sexually involved with a certain someone who took charge of his sexual desires and left him feeling drained with nothing more to experience or offer.
This is a life account of a sex-addict. Although it’s not Bond’s usual style, but his style and simplicity along with his unique choice of vocabulary takes the readers to an unknown territory but with a familiar guiding voice.
This book is a fresh look into the mind of one of the most admired writers of India who dared to experiment by going into ‘unacceptable’ realms of erotica .
About the Author:
Ruskin Bond's first novel, The Room on the Roof, written when he was seventeen, received the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize in 1957. Since then he has written a number of novellas, essays, poems and children's books, many of which have been published by Penguin. He has also written over 500 short stories and articles that have appeared in magazines and anthologies. He received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1993, the Padma Shri in 1999 and the Padma Bhushan in 2014.
Ruskin Bond was born in Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh and grew up in Jamnagar, Dehradun, New Delhi and Shimla. As a young man, he spent four years in the Channel Islands and London. He returned to India in 1955. He now lives in Landour, Mussoorie, with his adopted family.