Book Review of The Arithmetic of Breasts And Other Stories

How often do you read some thing that challenge your thoughts? How often do you pick up a subject that isn’t common in the kind of society you live, at least it isn’t common to talk about it? Oh! Have you ever tried such a book?

I did. The book I completed reading today is The Arithmetic of Breasts And Other Stories by Rochelle Potkar. It is a collection of 7 and half short stories and deals with a subject that is usually kept under the covers, at least in India.

The book presents romantic-sexual facets of a number of characters, each from a different story. Let me take up each story one by one before I share my overall experience with this short and sweet book: The Arithmetic of Breasts And Other Stories by Rochelle Potkar. 

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The first story is the Arithmetic of Breasts which talks of Narain and Munika – two people of opposite sex who get attracted to each other. In the beginning of the book, I felt like it is nothing but a compilation of sexual fantasies. But after a couple of pages, I was hit by the deep turn the story took. And all I could do was praise the one who wrote the book.

The second story is the Room with a Sea-View. The story is about an old man named Jaganlal who looks for sexual favors from young women. Though I loved the way it was presented, I didn’t fall in love with the story like I did with the first one.

The third story is the Sky Park in which Jackie and Nic are two best friends and the story unfolds the untamed feelings Jackie has for Nic while Nic might have something else in her mind. The way this story was presented – I was like “Wow”. This is where my love for author’s writing became quite clear to me.

The fourth story is Dr. Love which is a story to remember and which would give you a deep lesson. This short story was amazing and I think it is one of the best ones in the book.

The fifth story is the Scent of a Conscience which is quite a good read but I felt like story was dragged a bit. A place they call scary is the next story which also had a very serious tone and emotions entwined in its words. The last three stories were very short but I really loved reading The Troll on page 16. It was funny!

One thing I couldn’t help but admire in the entire book, The Arithmetic of Breasts and Short Stories, was how beautifully the thoughts were presented in the book. I don’t read such kind of novels that much and my last experience with such a novel was disastrous. But this book made me realize that it all depends upon the way you express certain kinds of thoughts. They can be as beautiful or as cheap as you want. And in this case, they were nothing but beautiful.

Also, the stories were as if a deep thought has been put into framing the stories. I loved it. There were unexpected twists and excitement bound with each story. Although, after reading the book, I believe I don’t really want to read short stories for they disconnect you with those interesting characters but I would still call this book a must-read. For those of you who are short on time or who just can’t stay with the same kind of characters or story line for long, short stories are a blessing.

Overall these stories abound in 100 pages gave me a memorable experience. I know I admire writing much more than I did before. I admire the kind of thoughts writers put on explaining each thing or creating a simile. Awesome!

This book, The Arithmetic of Breasts and Short Stories, obviously contains adult content and must be read only by the audience suitable for it (adults) but I am sure you would thoroughly enjoy the book once you start reading it. It is superb!

My ratings: 3.5/5