Gankhu Sumnyan reviews Paradise Isn't Artificial by Hoshang Merchant in the Sunflower Collective. 

/

 In many of the cantos, Merchant conjoins personal history with other histories and stories. This act of conjoining or the poet speaking of other histories and the events of his life in one breath leads to a sublimation of the poet’s own feelings. So, Dante’s attachment to Beatrice, Pound learning to love Pasolini, Shahid Ali rowing on Dal Lake is on the same ontological plane with Merchant grieving for his father, travelling with his sister, meeting his lovers. What that does is to elevate the poet’s feelings and thoughts and illuminate them with a sense of literary permanence. So, even if there is loss – loss because of love; loss of Beatrice for Dante – it is reworked into a gain. And the poet in the act of sublimation, in trying to understand the “quality of affection” that was shared, brings out a marvellous sense of poignancy and controlled feeling, which is one of the major achievements of the book. 

/

Read the complete review here. http://sunflowercollective.blogspot.com/2022/02/new-book-review-paradise-isnt.html

/

With special thanks to Abhimanyu Kumar.