Interesting, even compelling, but somehow not satisfying. It may have more resonance if I was more familiar with Indian literature. ( )

How do you bring the worldview of a hundred and fifty years ago into the grammar of a people caught in the cusp of modernity, and tell it through an adopted language? You make a monkey tell the story of a man, himself.

A monkey is shot by an irritated teenager back home in Delhi for a vacation from college in the US. The gods begin a tussle for the monkey's soul, and a wager is made: the monkey will live as long as he can tell a story. A typewriter is produced, and the neighbourhood assembles to hear the monkey recall his past life as a scholar-warrior-poet during and after the Great Mutiny of 1857. What follows is much more than a history lesson...

Red Earth and Pouring Rain is not a book with a point or purpose, or at least the kind of point and purpose you might expect from a book about stories and storytellers (the closest parallel I can think of is Umberto Eco's "Baudolino") - or maybe it is a book about life and all of its points and purposes. The canvas is vast, and takes time to paint, and Vikram Chandra does so with skill and fluidity - the words are English, but the language itself is utterly Indian. Westerners who think the English language and literary style still belong to the West will find this book hard to understand.

This is not a book about the English occupation of India, nor is it a fantasy about wilful gods. It is not a book for the impatient: stories take to womb within stories, and the utterly impossible mingles comfortably with the utterly mundane. It is not a book for the cultural voyeur, either - you will get no great insight into Indian "culture" by wading through this epic - the 'exotic' in this book is exotic for modern Indians as well.

What it is, however, is a story of a people divided between the eternal and the now, and their struggle to come to grips with themselves (reformists and optimists, take note). It is a story of rebirths and becomings, of contradictions and impossibilities, and unbearable cruelty and love. Behold, and be enchanted. Above all, surrender. ( )

Levendig geschrevn - goede sfeerschepping ( )

I read this book whilst travelling through Indonesia ten or so years back. It is one of my all time favourite books. Amazing story narrated by a monkey to hindu gods spanning India and america. ( )