Book Review: Post-Mortem by Jurmi Chhowing

This is more of an after thought on the book and the author than a proper book review.

As the author puts it himself, 'Post-mortem' is a collection of essays on loving, loathing and limping so I am not going to go into detail about what one will find inside this gem of a book.

First of all I must say that the book is aptly named. The author truly dissects events of his life as they unfold and presents them to the reader in this unique style of writing that, I am sure most will agree to, is mostly associated with Mr. Jurmi Chhowing in Bhutan or even the whole world as a matter of fact. I have read quite a number of books and have come to love and enjoy a few authors but in all honesty it’s mostly because of the stories they tell. I know there are a lot of wonderful authors to discover but so far there have only been two people who have wowed me with their style of writing: Haruki Murakami and Jurmi Chhowing. This of course is my personal opinion and I am yet to read and discover more writers from the past, present and the future.

And the cherry on top of the book title and the amazing writing style is the typewriter font (I don’t know the name of the font and also did you know that typewriter is the longest word you can type using only the top row of the keyboard?). I am not saying that this book was typed out an old typewriter in one go but if someone came up to me and told me that it was, I wouldn’t have a hard time believing it because the author is that good. Of course, he mentions typing on his ‘lappy’ in one or two essays, and the book has been edited maybe a few times. I am just saying that I think Jurmi Chhowing can do it on a typewriter; without the need of a backspace or the internet to lookup things while writing.

While reading this book I was reminded me of a quote. I don’t remember the exact quote or where it’s from. It says that art is not supposed to be understood, it’s supposed to make you think and feel or something along this line. And feel and think I did. Even if I couldn’t connect to everything the author had to say and quite a few from the sixty-nine essays went over my head, the book made me think about my perspectives on things, things happening around me and the people, the systems, the cultures and the places and of course my life as a whole. I am not claiming that I am a changed person now after reading the book now but something in me has definitely changed.

One interesting thing that happened to me while reading this book was that I could hear the author saying the things I was reading. I have never met the guy. I have only heard his voice in an interview or two.

And lastly if you really want to improve your vocabulary, definitely read this book and his writings on his social media pages.

I'll leave you with this little excerpt from the essay titled "Talking heads and lying tails" from the book.