3 Review(s)

Above all else, Sushant Thapa’s Finding My Soul in Kathmandu is a book of wandering,a pilgrimage of the soul. The author also partakes in literal wanderings as he travelsthe country on planes and buses, strolls the streets of Kathmandu filled with waterand bread sellers, walks in his garden and embarks on a personal pilgrimage as inthe poem A New Day. Sushant Thapa’s writing is both reflectively philosophical andfilled with a sensual immediacy dominated by recurring flower motifs, the musicof Patti Smith and Lana Del Rey as well as jazz. Flowers and fragrance ooze out ofthe pages where the author notes “the color of devotion/Makes me open my eyes.In the poem I Am a Flower, Mr. Thapa puts forth the notion of living one’s life asan offered exultation to God where the author proclaims: “I make your sky morecolorful/I make your sunset more purple.” In other poems, flowers are used asbookmarks and their fragrance enjoyed, in others such as the poem Being a Teacher,the teacher sees his students as “Bright bulbs of brilliance” – instruments of growthand guidance. In fact, childhood experience is another prominent feature of thisbook whether it be the author’s own, that of his students, or that of his young nieceas in the poem Sketch of Myself. There is also an underlying tension in the book witha subtle backdrop of war, as well as a sometimes uneasy dependence or wrestlingof modernity with tradition, as in the title poem of the book where “The birth ofmodernity/Rests on the shoulders of enthralling/Traditions.” The writing itselfis very fluid, mirroring the constant presence of water throughout and one gets theidea that Sushant Thapa has not only found his soul in Kathmandu, but has takenyou along on his wonderfully vibrant journey of sensual longing.- Ryan Quinn Flanagan (Author of Kiss the Heathens)