Tales from Firozsha Baag

The stories in this collection were interesting and well-written and effective and even fun sometimes, but it was the last story, “Swimming Lessons,” that really kicked the whole book up a notch. I was sitting on Sunday night with yet another so-so book for this class – good but probably not something I would ever read again or think much about – but then half-way through the final story I realized what was going on: Kersi learns to swim in Canada while his parents back home in India read and appreciate the very book of stories in the reader's hands. The book changes from a collection of linked stories held together by place and characters and theme to a collection of stories by one of those characters whose growth is hidden within and between the stories themselves.

“Don't you see, said Father, that you are confusing fiction with facts, fiction does not create facts, fiction can come from facts, it can grow out of facts by compounding, transposing, augmenting, diminishing, or altering them in any way; but you must not confuse cause and effect, you must not confuse what really happened with what the story says happened, you must not loose your grasp on reality, that way madness lies.”