C. E. Matthews on Vitasta Raina's Writer's Block

This is a relatively short piece of work and deceptively easy to read, but there is a lot going on here. It brings the reader from intimate conversations to mass civilian casualties, with a wry but not over bearing commentary on it all. "The rest, as they say, is history mixed with smoke and sobs." Reading it, I was left with the impression of being a telepathic riding around in a taxi and picking flashes of the life of a city on the edge. For all that it is short, it is dense with details which you glimpse as you pass, and it is packed with witty observations: "See, most human beings, in my opinion, are playing the lead role in a movie called Their Life." It even manages to squeeze in a modernist version of Rapunzel. The writing moves seamlessly between the real and the lyrical, in a way which convincingly evokes the strange beauty of cities. "It is peculiar, very peculiar, but show me one city, any city that is not made up of various assorted peculiars."

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