Brown Gal in the Rain by Indrani Chowdhury - Book Review

Publication Date: 08th Apr 2024

Genre: Poetry 

4.2 Stars 

One Liner: Lyrical and lovely 

Indrani is a friend and a fellow poet I’ve met on social media. I’ve read many of her poems shared in writing groups and enjoy her style. So when she asked if I could read her latest release, I didn’t have to think twice. 

Brown Gal in the Rain (my brain is still autocorrecting it to Brown Girl in the Ring by Boney M) is a collection of around 82 poems neatly categorized into different themes/ topics. Each section has a varying number of poems (expected when we collect poems from everywhere and compile an anthology). 

The categorization is also beautiful (wish I could name my stories with such poetic titles): 

• Ballads of Heart 

• Hues of Life 

• Peekaboo

• Let There Be Light (poems around ‘women’) 

• Grazing the Meadows of Nature (my favorite section) 

• Lightweight Singles 

The poems are of varied length and some are written in different poetic styles. I like that the style is mentioned with the title even if we don’t get an explanation of it. Poets are likely to know some/ most of these, but other readers might have to do a bit of googling (or you can wing it). 

The writing is lyrical, alluring, soothing at times, melancholic the other times, and magical most of the time. The imagery is just as strong and appealing, be it moonlight nights, rainy afternoons, or fantasy lands. Great vocab too! 

Usually, there are two types of poets – one who writes personal poems and the other who writes poems for prompts. We belong to the latter group where personal poems are written if the prompt demands one. This book has a few personal poems, which were likely created the same way. 

My favorites are The Werewolf and the Princess (narrative poem ending in a cliffhanger), I Wish a Writer Loved Me, Dear Life, Paper Boats, Maa, Ode to Spring, Ode to Sparrow, What You Want to Be?.

To summarize, Brown Gal in the Rain is a beautiful collection of poems that invoke a plethora of emotions. Even if you feel nothing, you can enjoy the play of words and the poet’s command over her craft. 

My thanks to the author for an electronic copy of the book.