The Last Laugh

Written in a lucid style, the remarkable quality of the collection are the plots. The Last Laugh is Kottary’s second collection of short stories where women take center-stage. It is inspired by the ‘twist-in-the-tail’ style of Roald Dahl, though the tales are not as macabre.They are a delightful mix. A new bride’s fantasy, the existential frustrations of a crusader’s wife, the dilemma of a chic MBA in publicly recognizing her homespun parents, an aware-winning journalist who finds her campaign gone awry, a danseuse realizing that a Guru must do more than merely teach.. These are some of the experiences encountered by the protagonists in these stories. There is also a Rashomon-like tale of two women comparing husbands. Plus stories of loveless marriages, noisy neighbors, the sane insane, indecisiveness and also on what could go wrong in a sex-change operation. Written in a lucid style, the remarkable quality of the collection are the plots. As also the writing; in the seamless fusion of thoughts, self-doubts and recollections of the characters with their dilemmas. While sketching a portrait of existence in contemporary urban India, these stories showcase some of the foibles of women and delight the reader with their quaint unpredictability.Two of the stories in this collection are soon to be made into films.