It's a clean and transparent plot - Ayyan Mani works in the institute of Theory and Research in Mumbai as a personal assistant to the director Arvind Acharya. While the latter boasts of a stellar career in research and a zealous search for the ultimate truth, the former lives in a chawl and has only one aim - to make the lives of his wife and son a bit better and more out-of-the-ordinary than it actually is. Acharya's arch rival in the Institute is his friend from schooldays Nambudri and his gang of radio astronomers. Portrayed as "lesser" scientists this gang is more easily led by fashionable research than the Director Acharya and this often creates friction between them in matters of funding and space. Into this equilibrating stream arrives turbulence in the form of the beautiful Oparna Goshmaulik, who comes to collaborate with Acharya on his pet project - looking for microbes from outer space.
(Well naturally when I describe Oparna as turbulence I am only stating the way she is projected in the novel and this has no inputs from me personally)
The mesh of interactions between Ayyan, Acharya and Oparna form the basis of the story of Serious Men.
The novel is extremely well written, excellently easy to read and flows fast and has a clarity of writing that many a writer would envy. There are also some points where I tend to feel more sensitivity would have made it a work of art instead of a commodity. Since the novel's already a big hit there's no danger in me stating reasons for saying that here -
Ayyan Mani's portrayal as a Dalit and Oparna's fatal attraction to Acharya have a plastic and forced quality about them - they are seen plainly to be the devices that were put in to make the plot work. Similarly, the shallowness of the experiment that Acharya is all so fired up about strikes a discordant chord. This too appears too deliberate - why microbes, why not neutrinos? It's very fishy.
Manu Joseph's defence for writing about a dalit in negative terms is that he has broken a barrier, an elitist mindset towards viewing the Dalit with compassion... buried into this defence itself is a monolithic image of Dalits that I really object to. Besides all this, making him a cunning man who eavesdrops on his bosses calls (he goes to ingenious lengths to do so, which is where the science fiction really works) and steals quiz papers and does all kinds of underhand things in the novel...Not to mention the way he speaks of women in general and brahmin women in particular.
There's much more one can say, about the absence of anyone except Tamils Bengalis and Malayalees in the institute etc but it's better to read the novel and decide for yourself...
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
14 September 2011
12 July 2011
Some more aspects of River of Smoke - Part II
I completed the volume today. It must be marked out as a special day for it has been long since I spent as much time on a long novel on a per day basis. What was so special... As Ghosh said at the Chennai launch of the book - Creative writers often tell you to write what you know, my idea was to turn that around and write about the new things - he has really achieved that in River of Smoke. There are many many things that you come across for the first time, including words! In the "fanqui town" where the foreigners camp to do their business with Canton, words are being invented all the time to bridge the communication gaps between the varied nationalities of people who are interacting.
LIfe at Canton is new, mention of all the plants and flowers and how they made their way into Europe from Canton is a fascinating story. The life of seafarers in the eighteenth century is new, These are all reasons to read the novel in all its detail.
As mentioned in my previous blog on Amitav Ghosh and the same book, This is a story of various people coming to canton for business, in the main, Bahram Modi the parsi Gujarathi who is in the opium trade, Neel Ratan, who works under a false identity for Bahram in order to escape imprisonment, and Robin Chinnery the gay painter who is there to look for a certain species of plant - the golden camellia. While the others eventually turn into supporting actors, the main character here is Bahram Modi who is in the thick of controversy for smuggling opium into China against the growing opposition from the mandarins. He is destined to confront his own actions and face the consequences. His character has been brilliantly sketched and one can almost visualise the scenes when he is forced to look inward and later look at the other Brits involved in the trade.
Robin Chinnery adds colour to the narrative and his innocent adventures lighten the situation somewhat.Neel's character has been well carved out - his learned bookish frame of mind a pleasant contrast to the burlesque extroverted and strangely inspiring-of-loyalty personality of his boss - Barham.
Events come to a pass at the end and each person has to reap the consequences of their decisions - Not a disappointing read at all. In fact a Must Read one can say.
I felt it was a novel about the elites so perhaps the omission of differentiation of society was deliberate, yet it could have been avoided. Another aspect that was a bit jarring was the repetition of Barham's opium dreams. The author need not have used the word Pariah or having used it, he could have created a better context for it...after all it was such a minor incident where it came about, having avoided so many other things he could have avoided this too, but well! Worth reading for every other reason.
LIfe at Canton is new, mention of all the plants and flowers and how they made their way into Europe from Canton is a fascinating story. The life of seafarers in the eighteenth century is new, These are all reasons to read the novel in all its detail.
As mentioned in my previous blog on Amitav Ghosh and the same book, This is a story of various people coming to canton for business, in the main, Bahram Modi the parsi Gujarathi who is in the opium trade, Neel Ratan, who works under a false identity for Bahram in order to escape imprisonment, and Robin Chinnery the gay painter who is there to look for a certain species of plant - the golden camellia. While the others eventually turn into supporting actors, the main character here is Bahram Modi who is in the thick of controversy for smuggling opium into China against the growing opposition from the mandarins. He is destined to confront his own actions and face the consequences. His character has been brilliantly sketched and one can almost visualise the scenes when he is forced to look inward and later look at the other Brits involved in the trade.
Robin Chinnery adds colour to the narrative and his innocent adventures lighten the situation somewhat.Neel's character has been well carved out - his learned bookish frame of mind a pleasant contrast to the burlesque extroverted and strangely inspiring-of-loyalty personality of his boss - Barham.
Events come to a pass at the end and each person has to reap the consequences of their decisions - Not a disappointing read at all. In fact a Must Read one can say.
I felt it was a novel about the elites so perhaps the omission of differentiation of society was deliberate, yet it could have been avoided. Another aspect that was a bit jarring was the repetition of Barham's opium dreams. The author need not have used the word Pariah or having used it, he could have created a better context for it...after all it was such a minor incident where it came about, having avoided so many other things he could have avoided this too, but well! Worth reading for every other reason.
01 July 2011
Book Review - River of Smoke
River of Smoke traces the stories of three sets of people on their journeys across the sea to Southern China where they are headed for different reasons. Bahram Modi, the Gujarati Parsi Opium Merchant and his friend the watchmaker Zadig are bound to Canton for their respective businesses. Modi's son with his lover, a chinese boat woman, Ah Fatt and his acquaintance, Neel Ratan, a raja who is now in hiding for having escaped from jail for forgery, join Modi in his trip to the Cantonese factories for employment. Paulette, an amateur botanist and her Mentor Firth are seeking a rare variety of camellia - the golden camellia which is supposed to have amazing properties of rejuenating a person, also make they way to the gardens of Canton and their search brings Paulette once again in contact with her childhood friend and artist, Robin Chinnery.
The Pearl River winds the stories of these people together to form a rich tapestry of different cultural landscapes. The story of Opium Trade in China and the attempts of the government to put an end to it makes for interesting reading and the story of Robin and Paulette lends colour and excitement to the narrative.
Robin's character - an ebullient Bengali youth - is reminiscent of a character from one of Ghosh's earlier Books - Tridib in Shadow Lines - One wonders whether they were inspired by the same character.
There are real-life characters that we recognise immediately, for example Napolean Bonaparte... there are also others whom we suspect were based on real characters - for example the single honest American merchant among the scores of others who are bent on trading opium without a principle or care on how it would affect the people and whether it is an ethical practice. Also the Character of John Slade, editor of a news paper and a starkly sketched picture of opinionated journalist seems to have existed in reality.
I have still not finished reading the book and it seems there will be more incidents to marvel at. What everyone will notice at first instance is the lingo... as someone at the launch pointed out, there are so many languages that Ghosh touches on in this book - lascar pidgin; the kreole of people in mauritius, gujarati parisi, chinese-english etc etc... all tied to his own mother tongue bengali somehow, just as he manages to tie the Pearl River to his own Hoogly....
The Pearl River winds the stories of these people together to form a rich tapestry of different cultural landscapes. The story of Opium Trade in China and the attempts of the government to put an end to it makes for interesting reading and the story of Robin and Paulette lends colour and excitement to the narrative.
Robin's character - an ebullient Bengali youth - is reminiscent of a character from one of Ghosh's earlier Books - Tridib in Shadow Lines - One wonders whether they were inspired by the same character.
There are real-life characters that we recognise immediately, for example Napolean Bonaparte... there are also others whom we suspect were based on real characters - for example the single honest American merchant among the scores of others who are bent on trading opium without a principle or care on how it would affect the people and whether it is an ethical practice. Also the Character of John Slade, editor of a news paper and a starkly sketched picture of opinionated journalist seems to have existed in reality.
I have still not finished reading the book and it seems there will be more incidents to marvel at. What everyone will notice at first instance is the lingo... as someone at the launch pointed out, there are so many languages that Ghosh touches on in this book - lascar pidgin; the kreole of people in mauritius, gujarati parisi, chinese-english etc etc... all tied to his own mother tongue bengali somehow, just as he manages to tie the Pearl River to his own Hoogly....
30 June 2011
Book launch - River of Smoke - part II
Penguin formally released copies of River of Smoke here today. Presiding over the function was Mr Gopal Krishna Gandhi, who is himself a writer and a formidable speaker. Mr Amitav Ghosh was there to answer questions on his book and sign copies for the audience who had gathered in enthusiastic numbers.
After a short introduction and without much ado Gandhi held aloft a copy of the book and then there was a short speech by Ghosh, most of which was about his admiration for Mr Gandhi who had changed the course of governance in West Bengal, where he has been governor in the past. He emphasized on this especially because Gandhi during his speech quipped at the totally dispensable role he would be playing as "releaser of the book". Now that is totally unwarranted because his excellence and calibre are really well known among book lovers who have seen him in action at several book launches.
Gandhi's reference to the "gatecrashing freesnackers" to whom his presence would be especially irritating was perhaps a bit too uncharitable for someone in his position. Still you can;t have a perfect evening always!
The questions posed to Ghosh were skilful and the author opened out to them with aplomb. When asked how much he enjoyed the fame and the taj coromandel book launches, he replied that it had not come easily and explained how he had remained in relative obscurity for years when he worked with Ravi Dayal a much smaller publisher and his books were read by a few intellectuals only. He recalled with warmth his earlier publisher. A member of the audience asked him how he had worked with lascar pidgin, and whether there was a dictionary he had on this. He said that he had tried to learn sailing when embarking on this book and had realised that the ship hands would have been speakers of various languages, and so there should be a dictionary somewhere. Quite surprisingly, he had chanced upon one such dictionary in Harvard, not failing to add that the publisher had been a Bengali.
Mr Gandhi's perceptive question 'how did you differentiate between Parsi Gujarati and plain Gujarati?' was much appreciated by the author. He laughingly admitted there was too a dictionary of Parsi Gujarati available...
So leaving us all in an admiring trance, the evening surged forth, with a bunch of people wafting towards the author for signing their copies of the book, and some others on whom the edict 'gatecrashing free snackers' had bounced off lightly, went on their way to the bar.
After a short introduction and without much ado Gandhi held aloft a copy of the book and then there was a short speech by Ghosh, most of which was about his admiration for Mr Gandhi who had changed the course of governance in West Bengal, where he has been governor in the past. He emphasized on this especially because Gandhi during his speech quipped at the totally dispensable role he would be playing as "releaser of the book". Now that is totally unwarranted because his excellence and calibre are really well known among book lovers who have seen him in action at several book launches.
Gandhi's reference to the "gatecrashing freesnackers" to whom his presence would be especially irritating was perhaps a bit too uncharitable for someone in his position. Still you can;t have a perfect evening always!
The questions posed to Ghosh were skilful and the author opened out to them with aplomb. When asked how much he enjoyed the fame and the taj coromandel book launches, he replied that it had not come easily and explained how he had remained in relative obscurity for years when he worked with Ravi Dayal a much smaller publisher and his books were read by a few intellectuals only. He recalled with warmth his earlier publisher. A member of the audience asked him how he had worked with lascar pidgin, and whether there was a dictionary he had on this. He said that he had tried to learn sailing when embarking on this book and had realised that the ship hands would have been speakers of various languages, and so there should be a dictionary somewhere. Quite surprisingly, he had chanced upon one such dictionary in Harvard, not failing to add that the publisher had been a Bengali.
Mr Gandhi's perceptive question 'how did you differentiate between Parsi Gujarati and plain Gujarati?' was much appreciated by the author. He laughingly admitted there was too a dictionary of Parsi Gujarati available...
So leaving us all in an admiring trance, the evening surged forth, with a bunch of people wafting towards the author for signing their copies of the book, and some others on whom the edict 'gatecrashing free snackers' had bounced off lightly, went on their way to the bar.
Book launch - River of Smoke
Now I am a little more than halfway through the book. It will be such a thrill today to meet the author. Amitav Ghosh is here in Chennai and he will be launching this book at Taj Coromandel today.
I have a couple of questions to ask him about the book. I wonder if I'll have a chance to ask...
I have a couple of questions to ask him about the book. I wonder if I'll have a chance to ask...
19 June 2011
The bashful book reviewer's dilemma
I have very mixed feelings when someone asks me about the work of reviewing books. The more I meditate on the experience the more they get mixed. On the one hand it is a great pleasure to read a new book and to comment on it. It is an invitation to be analytical and judge the book, you'll be thinking. And so it is, in principle!
In reality it is a work that has an aftermath. Just like any kind of original writing, if your review is anything but boringly bland and supportive of the writing You will make enemies. And how!
Now what would you do if the book you were given had typos all over the place? You cant very well go around declaring that the author has asserted an artistic license on can you?
And reviewers are very conscious that what they say will be read by the author and publisher's faculty but even if the whole world is up in arms you cannot gloss over it when there are logical blunders, errors in organizing the text and even in dates - mind you I am not referring to the disputed ones, just factual slip ups.
I have written many book reviews and it is a beastly task one has on one's hands. Sometimes the book reviews are not published - it is at the discretion of the editor. Even during my short stint as book reviewer, I have collected one story to narrate. Someone who was friends with me for a long time refused to speak with me for long and during one chance conversation when we met, the person says, ' but you give such good reviews for big publishers, it's only with the smaller ones that you take off.'
Does this person know of how many reviews I wrote were rejected? Sometimes those of books printed by big publishers got rejected too. Do you know what a pain it is to read a boring book diligently and to write a review and then to see it being rejected. No!
The book reviewer's job is many times unenviable and a thankless one and I would gladly relinquish it for some other more interesting position of writer. In fact I am definitely being given a rest with respect to book reviewing and though I try, I can't just say it was fun while it lasted.
In reality it is a work that has an aftermath. Just like any kind of original writing, if your review is anything but boringly bland and supportive of the writing You will make enemies. And how!
Now what would you do if the book you were given had typos all over the place? You cant very well go around declaring that the author has asserted an artistic license on can you?
And reviewers are very conscious that what they say will be read by the author and publisher's faculty but even if the whole world is up in arms you cannot gloss over it when there are logical blunders, errors in organizing the text and even in dates - mind you I am not referring to the disputed ones, just factual slip ups.
I have written many book reviews and it is a beastly task one has on one's hands. Sometimes the book reviews are not published - it is at the discretion of the editor. Even during my short stint as book reviewer, I have collected one story to narrate. Someone who was friends with me for a long time refused to speak with me for long and during one chance conversation when we met, the person says, ' but you give such good reviews for big publishers, it's only with the smaller ones that you take off.'
Does this person know of how many reviews I wrote were rejected? Sometimes those of books printed by big publishers got rejected too. Do you know what a pain it is to read a boring book diligently and to write a review and then to see it being rejected. No!
The book reviewer's job is many times unenviable and a thankless one and I would gladly relinquish it for some other more interesting position of writer. In fact I am definitely being given a rest with respect to book reviewing and though I try, I can't just say it was fun while it lasted.
16 June 2011
Amitav Ghosh's River of Smoke
The second volume in Amitav ghosh's Ibis trilogy is here now. 560 pages of hardbound prose...
It promises to hold your interest through and through... watch this space for a review within the week...
It promises to hold your interest through and through... watch this space for a review within the week...
08 December 2010
Some Interesting Books
There is a collection of essays about Amitav Ghosh (Amitav Ghosh - a critical companion) which has been edited by Tabish Khair. After a long gap, I am back in touch with Ghosh's work.
The book promises to be a good read which will throw insights into this writer's novels and essays which are born of this curious mix of history, anthropology and fiction. It is fascinating to see experts analyse various theories of anthropology that underlie the construction of the author's major novels.
Analyses of works of fiction always indicate that story-telling is a very conscious art. It only appears spontaneous and is most often carefully thought out and scientifically (in this case) carved out. But there must have been a stage when the story just came out and wrote itself. Are those not the truest stories that need to be told and listened to?
A wonderful addition to this set of critical essays is Ghosh's own piece on Satyajit Ray, his idol of Bengali cinema. A poignant note is struck when Ghosh discloses that despite his obvious near-devotional admiration of Ray, he never actually met the latter and only had extended phone conversations with him... Still it sets a tone of seriousness and sentiment for the book.
I look forward to reading more of this book.
The book promises to be a good read which will throw insights into this writer's novels and essays which are born of this curious mix of history, anthropology and fiction. It is fascinating to see experts analyse various theories of anthropology that underlie the construction of the author's major novels.
Analyses of works of fiction always indicate that story-telling is a very conscious art. It only appears spontaneous and is most often carefully thought out and scientifically (in this case) carved out. But there must have been a stage when the story just came out and wrote itself. Are those not the truest stories that need to be told and listened to?
A wonderful addition to this set of critical essays is Ghosh's own piece on Satyajit Ray, his idol of Bengali cinema. A poignant note is struck when Ghosh discloses that despite his obvious near-devotional admiration of Ray, he never actually met the latter and only had extended phone conversations with him... Still it sets a tone of seriousness and sentiment for the book.
I look forward to reading more of this book.
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