Naveed Rehan

Jul 11, 2024 | thefridaytimes.com | Muhammad Toheed |Naveed Rehan |Farida Gul |Raza Rumi

DH Lawrence’s Studies in Classic American Literature is an extraordinary collection of essays on eight American writers—Franklin, Crèvecoeur, Cooper, Poe, Hawthorne, Dana, Melville and Whitman. The book is quite contentious; Lawrence himself referred to it as “this ten-barrelled pistol of essays of mine,” and described them to Amy Lowell as “very keen essays in criticism—cut your fingers if you don’t handle them carefully.” That is indeed the impression one gets after reading this book.

Jan 27, 2023 | thefridaytimes.com | Naveed Rehan

Athar Tahir’s new book is categorised as a novel, but it can be called other things besides. It can be called a memoir or an autobiographical novel, a travelogue, a confession (as in Rousseau and St. Augustine), a long personal essay, a book on art and culture, a religious meditation, and a philosophical and symbolic treatise. Certainly it contains all these elements and more. The book is intensely personal with the narrator presiding as the central character.