About the Book
An explosive, funny, wildly original fiction debut: nine stories about the power of love and the love of power, two urgent human desires that inevitably, and sometimes calamitously, intertwine.
In "I Am an Executioner, " Rajesh Parameswaran introduces us to a cast of heroes--and antiheroes--who spring from his riotous, singular imagination. From the lovesick tiger who narrates the unforgettable opener, "The Infamous Bengal Ming" (he mauls his zookeeper out of affection), to the ex-CompUSA employee who masquerades as a doctor; from a railroad manager in a turn-of-the-century Indian village, to an elephant writing her autobiography; from a woman whose Thanksgiving preparations put her husband to eternal rest, to the newlywed executioner of the title, these characters inhabit a marvelous region between desire and death, playfulness and violence. At once glittering and savage, daring and elegant, here are wholly unforgettable tales where reality loops in Borgesian twists and shines with cinematic exuberance, by an author who promises to dazzle the universe of American fiction.
About the Author :
Rajesh Parameswaran's stories have appeared in "McSweeney's, Granta, Zoetrope: All-Story, "and "Fiction. ""The Strange Career of Dr. Raju Gopalarajan" was one of three stories for which "McSweeney's "earned a National Magazine Award in 2007, and it was reprinted in "The Best American Magazine Writing. "He lives in New York City.
Review :
"Delectable . . . Enchanting, engaging . . . Parameswaran's debut short story collection takes tried and true themes like identity and heritage and weaves them into a spectacular new tapestry. . . . No matter the subject, all are written with consistently smooth and elegant prose. [His] writing remains inviting and yet causally informative for anyone unfamiliar with minute details about Indian-American culture. Thankfully, the end result is not sappy, unnecessarily historical or frustratingly pedantic. The stories have the merit of keeping the reader's attention. . . . [A] worthy addition to your summer reading list [and] a book that cements Parameswaran's place as a writer to watch." --Ryan Strong, "New York Daily News"
"Bold and fiercely imaginative, captivating and surprising . . . Parameswaran has put together a selection of love stories that are anything but typical. His stories range from the thoughts of a fugitive tiger on an unintentional killing spree, to a geriatric love triangle played out in film, to interspecies relations on an alien planet where killing your mate is the norm. Each story speaks of love in its own way: violent, tender, thoughtless, fleeting, strong, empty, natural, romantic, enduring. How is love expressed? And what does that expression lead to? Love is ubiquitous, but it's also incredibly diverse, as the characters in" I Am an Executioner" show. . . . Each story draws you in and keeps you there, enthralled, to the end. ." . . "Dark and intense, quiet and strong, a fascinating study of love in all its forms."--Leah Sims, "Portland Book Review"
""I Am an Executioner" has the power to change your definition of love. Imaginative and rich in their prose, yet darkly humorous and at times stomach-turning, each story is unique in its concept and process. In fact, the title describes the author well--he is a superb executioner of short fiction. This powerful collection is not for the faint of heart." --Vivienne Finche, "Sacrame
"Dangerous, misunderstood creatures--a man-eating tiger, a wild elephant, and the title executioner, to name just a few--populate Parameswaran's debut collection of stories, [which] offers a fiercely creative vision of what it takes to stay alive. As the title suggests, where there is love, death is near, [but] these stories are more than well-executed variations on a theme. In some of these stories' finest moments, Parameswaran patiently teases out the most tender, human impulses of his characters--from the classified agent who struggles with her urge to simply to tell her husband about her day to the quack doctor [who] derives a real glimmer of joy from believing he has 'helped, not harmed' a fellow being. Death may be inescapable, but life is still a tender thing to be savored. . . . These stories are without fail brightly original, and despite his dark themes, there's a real levity in Parameswaran's writing. This is a world of many fools, but few villains--a world where tragedy and farce are plentiful but evil is debatable: for every death or disappearance in this collection, there's a wink." -- Mythili Rao, "The Daily Beast"
"A compulsive and infectious narrative restlessness marks Parameswaran's first collection. And although tagged with the subtitle 'Love Stories, ' Parameswaran's work demonstrates about the same relationship to traditional literary debuts as the insects in his strange and beautiful story 'On the Banks of Table River [Planet Lucina, Andromeda Galaxy, AD 2319]' do to the earthlings who have colonized their planet. His storytellers are wedded to a 21st-century experimentalism, continually uncaging themselves from realist fiction. From tigers and elephants [to] a man in a yellowing photograph [and] a fiercely committed spy, they form an unpredictable and often charming cavalcade, revealing both the particularity of what they perceive and the extent of what they misunderstand, or simply miss. Raptly attentive to their own narratives, the
"In spite of its title, death, not love, is the subject of Rajesh Parameswaran's debut collection. His tales play with mortality so frequently that doom and destruction merely become props in a series of dark, comedic circumstances. . . . The author expertly outfits each protagonist with a distinctive inner monologue that feels richly authentic. . . . Less a commentary on the desensitized nature of the modern world, Parameswaran is comparing the awkward, inescapable facets of everyday life--work, romance, familial exchanges--with the awkward, inescapable reality of death. "I Am an Executioner" won't be tossed around at tea parties, but it's a heck of a way for an author to make an entrance--if, admittedly, a bloody one. Four stars." --Josh Davis, "Time Out New York"
"["I Am an Executioner"] opens with 'The Infamous Bengal Ming, ' narrated by a tiger who expresses affection for his keeper in the only language available to him, a fatal combination of mauling and love-biting; he then escapes the zoo to commit other acts of mayhem, under which lies a misunderstood tenderness. This tour de force sets the tone and the stage for these dark, rollickingly imaginative stories in which the powers of love and savagery are loosed upon each other again and again. . . . Parameswaran is a dazzlingly versatile stylist and the conceits and voices here are varied and evocative. An inventive, impressive and witty book." --"Kirkus Reviews" (starred review)
"The nine stories that make up "I Am an Executioner" "Love Stories" are virtuosic, summoning some of the wildness of the tiger that graces the cover. . . . The stories aren't experimental so much as they are vibrantly, raucously creative. . . . Like a great poet working in rhyme, [Parameswaran] can employ established forms to startling effect. . . . fabulously inventive and heterogeneous." --Jacob Silverman, "Capital New York
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"Masterful.. . . abundantly inventive, deceptively cunning, and fearless. "I Am an E
"["I Am an Executioner"] opens with 'The Infamous Bengal Ming, ' narrated by a tiger who expresses affection for his keeper in the only language available to him, a fatal combination of mauling and love-biting; he then escapes the zoo to commit other acts of mayhem, under which lies a misunderstood tenderness. This tour de force sets the tone and the stage for these dark, rollickingly imaginative stories in which the powers of love and savagery are loosed upon each other again and again. . . . Parameswaran is a dazzlingly versatile stylist and the conceits and voices here are varied and evocative. An inventive, impressive and witty book." --"Kirkus Reviews" (starred review)
"The nine stories that make up "I Am an Executioner" "Love Stories" are virtuosic, summoning some of the wildness of the tiger that graces the cover. . . . The stories aren't experimental so much as they are vibrantly, raucously creative. . . . Like a great poet working in rhyme, [Parameswaran] can employ established forms to startling effect. . . . fabulously inventive and heterogeneous." --Jacob Silverman, "Capital New York
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"Masterful.. . . abundantly inventive, deceptively cunning, and fearless. "I Am an Executioner" marks the advent of a genuinely distinctive voice in American fiction. In this intriguing alternate universe, exotic aliens turn out to be surly, lovelorn teens, zoo animals fall murderously in love with their captors, and elephants engage in violent clan feuds worthy of Elizabethan drama. Parameswaran has the knack for mimicry and ventriloquism of a born outsider, guilelessly transporting the reader into a Swiftian upside-down-land where the rules of logic and of sense have been temporarily suspended. One character has 'the air of someone who had been dropped here from another planet, fascinated but flummoxed'; another observes that 'children are monsters, strange versions of ourselves.' All of these narrators--animal, human or alien--feel themselves to be stra
"To claim that an author has written inventive stories about love conjures up many possibilities, but none will compare to the fertile imaginings of Rajesh Parameswaran. His debut collection, "I Am an Executioner," is filled with the voices of astonishing characters--a misunderstood tiger, a strip mall con man who opens a medical clinic with only library texts to guide him, an executioner, a surveillance agent, a pompous railway manager, and more--whose pitch-perfect stories recalibrate the notion of love and power with dark humor and unbearable tenderness." --Walter Mosley
""I Am an Executioner" is intelligent and hilarious and wildly imaginative. Parameswaran explores with great delicacy that fraught line between provincial life and modern times. There are traces of Chekhov in his writing. These stories have the power to endure." --Said Sayrafiezadeh, author of "When Skateboards Will Be Free"
"Stories that are savagely funny, stories that haunt and sear and stun, stories so original they defy categorization--above all, stories generously laden with sheer reading pleasure: "I Am an Executioner" is a brilliant and spellbinding collection." --Manil Suri, author of "The Death of Vishnu"
"Brilliantly unnerving, wickedly funny, and deeply satisfying. These are ferocious stories about the power of love both to save and destroy, and what can happen to us when we succumb to our true animal natures. Rajesh Parameswaran writes with elegance and style and a fiendishly seductive wit that will take your breath away. An astonishingly original debut by a writer to reckon with." --Julie Otsuka, author of "The Buddha in the Attic "
"The characters in this first collection, including a frustrated Bengal tiger and a woman gamely managing Thanksgiving dinner with her husband sprawled dead on the floor, suggest an offbeat temperament at work. The venues where these stories have appeared--e.g., "McSweeney's," "Granta," and "Zoetrope"--suggest talent at wor
"Brilliantly unnerving, wickedly funny, and deeply satisfying. These are ferocious stories about the power of love both to save and destroy, and what can happen to us when we succumb to our true animal natures. Rajesh Parameswaran writes with elegance and style and a fiendishly seductive wit that will take your breath away. An astonishingly original debut by a writer to reckon with."
--Julie Otsuka, author of "The Buddha in the Attic "
"The characters in this first collection, including a frustrated Bengal tiger and a woman gamely managing Thanksgiving dinner with her husband sprawled dead on the floor, suggest an offbeat temperament at work. The venues where these stories have appeared--e.g., "McSweeney's," "Granta," and "Zoetrope"--suggest talent at work as well. Great expectations!"
--"Library Journal"
""I Am an Executioner" gets the pulse racing from word one. I love Rajesh because his last name is even more impossible than my own, and because he has redefin
