Sea of Poppies (2008)

A great story, but even more, a great linguistic adventure. Ghosh plays with the idea of the many English languages that must have been heard and spoken, and the many misunderstandings that would arise in a time where ocean trade and travel were still hazardous and unpredictable. ( )

A large cast of characters populates this novel of India, China and the British opium traders. It took me awhile to get into the story. This was partly due to the heavy use of a sort of maritime patois which was both colorful and difficult to understand, partly due to a little trouble keeping track of whose story was being told at the moment. I eventually got the thread of the story and enjoyed it very much. Bringing the wide array of characters together on a ship was a clever way to show the clash of culture, religion and class on a personal level. ( )

Well, its a bit of a penny dreadful isnt it? The book it reminds me most of is Barry Unsworth's Sacred Hunger - its very much written to the same formula. Find a vanished aspect of colonialism, in Unsworth's case the slave trade, for Ghosh its the opium trade, and you can construct a narrative thread that brings together a motley cast of mutlicultural characters. Even better if you can grasp the patois of the time - and Ghosh's use of maritime patois based on a mix of Malay, Hindi, Portugese and goodness knows what else, is the best thing about the book. The language feels right and helps you get into the characters' skins.

But the plot is predictable; people you think will fall in love, do so. People's who's fall is predicted, duly fall (finding humility in the process). Blaggards get their come uppance. True love overcomes obstacles. To the author's credit the plot rattles along and mostly sweeps you with it. But the author also has an irritating need to tie up all possible loose ends - characters who leave the narrative on p60 duly reappear on p400 - and how likely is it that you will find someone from your home village in central India on a ship from Calcutta to Mauritius for the sake of tying up a loose plot line? I find that sort of thing irritating

So overall entertaining in its way, but literary fiction its not ( )

I'm not quite sure what to make of this sprawling book. Sometimes it's filled with too many details and lists, and sometimes it's so full of pidgin as to be incomprehensible (the glossary is of little help). Yet, this tale of people from disparate backgrounds all setting sail for a new life with new stories is a lot of fun.

Major themes include racism, classism, gender roles, and plain old everyday greed. The British take over India to make money. In Sea of Poppies, it's the opium trade with China. Money is being made hand over fist until the Chinese decide to ban opium, which causes the usual uproar over open markets, for which the English want to go to war.

The ship Ibis was once a slave ship and is pressed into service for transport of people to the Mauritius Islands to work the sugar cane fields on British owned plantations. Mr. Burnham, one of the opium traders, stands to make a great deal of money from the labor of the migrants in the hold of his ship and the sale of opium to the Chinese.

It is on his ship, our large cast of characters meet. And, while their backgrounds and stories have been told before setting sail, it is on the Ibis that the meaning of those stories, and the clashing of them, begins to show fruit.

Sea of Poppies is a complex, sprawling story with an anti-climactic ending. Not meant to be read as a stand-alone, this first book in a trilogy is merely the opening salvo in what could be a rip-roaring tale. ( )

A marvelous, joyous explosion of language, of beautiful prose mixed with an inventive mix of the distinctive English/Indian mix spoken in Calcutta in 1800s. A vast Dickensian scope, loads of fascinating characters, and a whole slice of history based on opium. A vast new world for the reader to sink into. Not for everyone, but highly recommended for lovers of classic novels. ( )