Amazon reviews

Every now and then a reviewer totally ‘gets’ it. This is evidenced, not by a five star review or a thumbs up from the cheering section populated by friends and family, but by a deep and thoughtful analysis from an individual who is knowledgeable about the genre in which you write. When you write literary fiction, these reviewers are like pearls and their words validate your stubborn conviction to write what you believe in.

I was honored to get one such thoughtful review by Leila Smith from The Kindle Book Review (Top 1000 Reviewer) on Amazon US and UK and at her blog, www.literaryleila.wordpress.com.

If you have read A Deconstructed Heart and agree with her, please like her review on Amazon. If you haven’t read the book… well, what are you waiting for? I know I could not come up with a better argument to persuade you.

A beneficial dialogue. Return of the Bee (Photo credit: MightyBoyBrian)

…well, figuratively speaking, at least, and in keeping with all things British for this UK book review site. I was interviewed by one of my favorite reviewers about The Purana Qila Stories and it was nice to be made to think deeply about my writing. So often, what we do as writers is to tell our stories and sit back and wait for people’s reactions in the form of stars and 25 word reviews on Amazon. Those reviews, while helpful, don’t often add to the conversations that I think every writer would love to have about their writing: what worked or did not work and why. What themes we deliberately constructed, and what is the sub-text that we ourselves may have missed? What rings true in someone else’s experience and where we may need to make a course correction. As a literature major, I loved sitting in a professor’s snug office and pulling out the thematic threads of a novel or play; it is an honor to have a reader take the time and care to give the same consideration to your own work.

The author-reader relationship is symbiotic. Someone who knows me and read A Deconstructed Heart is a psychology major, and she said she could not help reading my book, wondering what part of me or my psyche was woven into the story. I could have asked her too, what part of her was integral to her reading of the story. Perhaps I still will; I think we could both learn a lot about ourselves in the process.