The Review of Contemporary Fiction

Streets that Smell of Dying Roses, by Prakash Kona
reviewed by Michelle Reale

Prakash Kona. Streets that Smell of Dying Roses. Fugue State, 2003. 246 pp. Paper: $14.00

“Joy is finite, but grief infinite.” So goes the unofficial premise of this hauntingly beautiful and meditative treatise on the aura of the streets, in particular those of Hyderabad, India, not only the birthplace of the author but a place where tradition, modernity, fear, loathing, joy, and oppression live simultaneously. But while Kona’s eye seems never to waver from the deprivations and animal instincts inherent in the underbelly of street life, joy and exaltation are found here, too, often in unexpected places. Kona’s style is at times hallucinatory, ethereal, gritty, and poetic. It is a meandering narrative, a rough guide of sorts to living in one’s surroundings, wherever that may be, with eyes and heart wide open. Kona’s narrative is sensory in the extreme sense: one can feel the oppressive heat, smell the rotting and decay, and at once feel empathy for the lacking and be moved by the innocence of their situation. Preoccupation for social equality is paramount here, and poverty is both feared and despised, though recognized with a steely determination to present things as they truly are. With clarity and vision, though begging more questions than providing answers, Kona stimulates the social and moral conscience. When Kona writes, “I never thought a street could be more real than the streets of Hyderabad,” we believe him because by the end of the narrative, satisfyingly, we feel exactly the same way.