RaveThe Hindu (IND)Tishani Doshi’s stunning new poetry collection, A God at the Door, performs the difficult task of locating the body within the broader politics of state power and gender. Through it all, her voice remains clear as a bell, her hold over craft unwavering ... Disparate though they may be in terms of theme, tone and approach, the poems nevertheless sit brilliantly together, the effect achieved akin to that of a single long narrative. Doshi doesn’t given in to the temptation of taking shortcuts, of saying the trite, politically correct thing. Everything is held up to the light so that we arrive slowly, by gradual steps, at a way of looking at the world ... Doshi has an eye for the incongruent—it is on this that the poems rest ... Another equally striking aspect of Doshi’s work is her pitch-perfect awareness of a poem’s performative life ... Doshi can be deadly serious and funny at the same time ... The world is a mess and there is no way to square it all. But Doshi’s poems help us sit with all that is incongruent and awry.
