Book #45 |
Book: Abscond: A Short Story | Author: Abraham Verghese | |
| Source: Free First Reads download Format: Kindle |
Pages: 38 | Duration: 06/15/25 – 06/15/25 (1 day) | |
| Rating: ★★★★★ | Genres: fiction, short stories, coming of age, relationships, family, death, Indian culture | ||
| 📕10-word summary: Fate challenges Ravi to find his place in the world. 🖌6-word review: Great author. Compelling characters. Tight story. |
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| 💭Favorite quote: “You want to know when I fucking see God, Connor? I see God when Sheryl McGilicutty comes to our pool in her bikini and I see the outline of her coochie. That’s God speaking right there.” | |||
| 🎓Some new-to-me words: sambar, idli, palaver | |||
| Description:* It’s a New Jersey summer in 1967, and thirteen-year-old Ravi Ramanathan has the makings of a tennis prodigy. His surgeon father encourages his ambition, while his mother dreams of their only child following his father’s path. Surrounded by his parents’ love, Ravi chafes a bit at their daily routines and little traditions. Then one unexpected day, everything changes. Realizing how much he took for granted, Ravi must grow up overnight and find a new role in the life of his family.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis. | |||
| Thoughts: This was a bonus free short story First Reads book for June 2025. I was curious to see what an author of often “heavy” and often long books would do with a short story — and what the heck, it was free! I read Abraham Verghese’s Cutting for Stone (560 pages, so intense!) 13 years ago as one of our Mostly Social Book Club‘s 2012 books, and I’ve had my eye on his The Covenant of Water (715 pages!) for a while now, but I’m not ready to commit to that yet. Not unexpectedly, the writing and tale told in this short story was excellent, and the subject matter, while grave, was less intense to me than Cutting for Stone. This is an author whose work I like, so I’m sure I’ll eventually get to The Covenant of Water. | |||
See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.