Reviews... reviews, reviews
Some comments on a recently-published essay, part of Jerry Pinto's Reflected in Water: Writings on Goa (Penguin Books): "Teotonia R. de Souza's profile of the little-known ‘opium smuggler who tried to liberate Goa' is as captivating as Frederick Noronha's portrait of Abbé Faria, eighteenth-century priest, mesmerist and revolutionary, and one of the region's most famous sons." And, Karishma Attari's review in The Hindustan Times titled Furious and funny in Goa: "Every anthology has its strong leaders and its stragglers. Not every piece in this compilation is a winner. Adil Jussawalla’s delicious diary entry is at odds with the dispassionate, somewhat boring account of Noronha’s hypnotist-priest...." Finally, Peter Nazareth's comment on the NewDiaspora mailing list which says this: "The book looks like a personal exploration of Goa by Jerry Pinto from Bombay (Mumbai), and he has a two-page "intuitive" introduction -- not surprising since he is a poet. So the review was wrong to underrate it: and speaking of the review being wrong, I found Fred Noronha's search for Abbe Faria to be fascinating, not boring--it is one of the best things I have read by Fred." So... take your pick!