To Break and To Branch: Six essays on Gieve Patel by Ranjit Hoskote. Published in 2024 by Seagull Books Pvt Ltd, 36C, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Road, Calcutta 700025. Pp: xx+105. Price: Rs 699, USD 25, GBP 19.99. Website: www.seagull.org, email: info@seagullbooks.org.
In this exquisitely produced monograph on Gieve Patel (1940-2023) Ranjit Hoskote, a poet-critic with impeccable credentials, has created a charming tribute to a friend who was also a sometime mentor.
Since they first met within the austere chambers of the city’s unofficial poet laureate, Nissim Ezekiel, it would not be out of place to borrow a well-known line from the Ezekiel......