Past Reviews

From reviews of First Proof 3 (Penguin India)

Somehow, the fiction section of such anthologies is always less rewarding. The stories, though competently told, rarely open up new territory. One exception is Mridula Koshy’s story about an impoverished Kerala family in the US, “When the Child was a Child”. For a change, Indians have problems relating to each other, instead of relating to American society. I wasn’t surprised to read that the author, who lives in New Delhi, was once a Union and Community Organiser in the US. Her work is certainly the most accomplished in this section.
— Eunice de Souza, Time Out Mumbai, Issue 16 April 4, 2008
http://www.timeoutmumbai.net/books/book_review_details.asp?code=229; reg. required


Among the fiction writers, Mridula Koshy, Temsula Ao and Noureen Sarna leave an indelible impression. Despair and fortitude fight an unequal battle in “When the Child Was a Child”, Koshy’s haunting portrait of an impoverished U.S.-based Malayali family coming apart at the seams as it struggles to survive in a squalid tenement building reverberating with “the quiet misery of spoons moving in plates”.
— Mita Ghose, The Hindu Literary Review, Sunday, February 3, 2003
http://www.hindu.com/lr/2008/02/03/stories/2008020350080300.htm


From reviews of 21 Under 40 (Zubaan)

“Mridula Koshy’s ‘The Large Girl’ and Diane Romany’s ‘Ferris Wheel’ are bold, evocative.—Brinda Bose, IndiaToday, April 30, 2007

How much more real, and empathetic is the lesbian in Mridula Koshy’s “The Large Girl”, so delicately drawn down to the last, grief-ridden sentence: “Do you miss me? A thousand and one chances will come and go in this small city, in this small world. I will never see you again.” There is sexual imagery in this story, too, but it’s bred into the waft and weave of the tale.
—Sheba Thayil, The Hindu Literary, Review, July 1, 2007
http://www.hindu.com/lr/2007/07/01/stories/2007070150020100.htm


“…do feminist love stories exist? On what terms? And how does one wash that cloying taste away? Perhaps the answer lies in Mridula Koshy’s “The Large Girl,” the story of the ‘extramarital’ relationship between onetime classmates: romance threaded into the mundane of shared cigarettes on a terrace, recurrent (and impotent) quarrels and partings, comparisons to other lovers, imperfection (“Mostly I am thinking, ‘Why do I like her? She is so vulgar’ ”). But something rings disturbingly true: mostly love is messy, frustrating, imperfect.”
—Disha Mullick Bose, Biblio, May/June, 2007

“The Large Girl” by Mridula Koshy is about an extramarital lesbian fling, and honestly, the lesbian angle is not what makes the story sensational, it’s got a lot more going for it.
—Rupa Gulab, DNA Sunday April 22, 2007