For anyone looking to immerse themself in the literary culture of Bangladesh, Professor Razia Khan Amin s name and presence are unavoidable. A poet, novelist, and literary critic (1936–2011) who taught some of the most prolific litterateurs of our time, her towering personality reaches the current generation through fascinating anecdotes. She was a truly colourful person… precocious but also ahead of her time in her ideas and ways , Professor Fakrul Alam wrote in
Once More into the Past (Daily Star Books, 2020), a collection of his essays earlier published in the Star Literature pages. She led the young women going out to face the world. Led them into sunshine and self-confident awareness [.] with wit and anecdote, with original insight and analytic criticism , Professor Rebecca Haque wrote of her in another
During the tumultuous period of 1971, there was quite a bit of gossip in Washington where all anyone heard about Bangladesh was the phrase "blood, butcher and kill." Archer K Blood was the American Consul General in Dhaka, Scott Butcher was his political officer, and Andy Killgore had left Dhaka just before the 1970 general elections and was working at the US State Department.
Once More into the Past (Daily Star Books, 2020)
This was a bad year in so many ways but it was a good year to catch up on reading. One book which bowled me over and which I realise I should have read a long time back is Akhteruzzaman Elias s masterpiece,
Khowabnama (Mawla Brothers, 1996). I believe it s being translated now; if it finds a good international publisher it will surely be on the shelves with the greatest novels of the last century and place Elias on the shelves with Hardy and Faulkner as a literary chronicler who made a whole region come alive at a certain moment of history. Another novel that overwhelmed me in the Covid-19 year but had been gathering dust in my shelves earlier is Jose Saramagao s