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1A_musing
I’m setting up the thread now for the November theme so we have more time to look for books from India. Now, the idea of "India" can be quite expansive, and we're also talking about one of the world's great civilizations historically, so this is a month when we may want to try to keep the reading a bit more narrowly focused to books that are both written by native Indians and about or set in the country. For us English language readers, there are both books written in English and translated, and there are books that are both contemporary and that go all the way to the earliest days of civilization.
I’d like to keep only one thread for this theme, so please post your recommendations, comments, questions, reviews, discussion here.
My next post will very briefly talk about the idea and history of India, and the one after that will include some thoughts I have about books I've particularly enjoyed. I'm not going to try to list a whole bunch of books I haven't read, but will leave it to others to flesh out recommendations.
I’d like to keep only one thread for this theme, so please post your recommendations, comments, questions, reviews, discussion here.
My next post will very briefly talk about the idea and history of India, and the one after that will include some thoughts I have about books I've particularly enjoyed. I'm not going to try to list a whole bunch of books I haven't read, but will leave it to others to flesh out recommendations.
2rebeccanyc
Some books taking place in India that I particularly recommend, in no particular order, except for the first.
A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth, one of my favorite books of all time. The story of a wonderful extended family, post-Independence. Lengthy as it is, I didn't want this book to end or to leave the characters behind.
The Siege of Krishnapur by J. G. Farrell, written in the 20th century about 19th century colonial India, as part of the author's "empire trilogy" - both critical and satirical.
Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra, an ambitious attempt to capture all the chaos and complexity of contemporary Mumbai through the lens of a major gangster; not entirely successful, but a fascinating book nonetheless.
Climbing the Mango Tree: A Memoir of a Childhood in India by Madhur Jaffrey, a charming memoir by the cookbook writer and actress
The Raj Quartet by Paul Scott, very perceptive about both the British and the Indians towards the end of the colonial period (and a great BBC series, too)
A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth, one of my favorite books of all time. The story of a wonderful extended family, post-Independence. Lengthy as it is, I didn't want this book to end or to leave the characters behind.
The Siege of Krishnapur by J. G. Farrell, written in the 20th century about 19th century colonial India, as part of the author's "empire trilogy" - both critical and satirical.
Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra, an ambitious attempt to capture all the chaos and complexity of contemporary Mumbai through the lens of a major gangster; not entirely successful, but a fascinating book nonetheless.
Climbing the Mango Tree: A Memoir of a Childhood in India by Madhur Jaffrey, a charming memoir by the cookbook writer and actress
The Raj Quartet by Paul Scott, very perceptive about both the British and the Indians towards the end of the colonial period (and a great BBC series, too)
3Nickelini
For me the quintessential Indian novel is A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, although it was extremely disturbing. I'm not so great with disturbing, especially when it is done in such a realistic way, so I prefer the same author's Family Matters. It's only depressing, but that's Mistry's style (the exact same story could have been told as a comedy). If you're looking for something with less realism, I recommend the Booker of all Bookers, Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie.
4A_musing
Here's a quick historical description. My major historical source for the early period is Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300 by Romila Thapar, which I read in the last year.
In the geographic area of India today there are 27 official languages, many of which are written in radically different scripts; however, despite this diversity, there will also be a fair amount of literary unity, with many of the same stories forming the basis of the literary culture in each of those languages. Very broadly, setting aside individual languages, you can think of India as being divided into several geographical and cultural units:
The North: crossed and connected by the great rivers, particularly the Ganges and Yamuna rivers that flow down from the Himalayas east of New Delhi and drain into the Bay of Bengal and the Indus that flows mostly through what is now Pakistan. Outside invasion happened periodically from the north, coming through Afghanistan down into the region around Delhi and then spreading out. First the Aryans invaded, bringing with them Sanskirt and the traditional Vedic stories and religion of India (including the precursors of the caste system), then the Greeks, who maintained a number of kingdoms in the Northwest for several centuries, then the Arabs (many of whom were actually Persian); then the Mongols. This area has been a cultural heartland for traditional Sanskrit culture and has been a place where Persian, Arab, Greek, Chinese, Tibetan and other cultural influences came into India. The stories of the Mahabharata and Ramayana are placed in this area, though they are translated and spread throughout India. Buddhism and Jainism were also born in this area, though each spread heavily in the Deccan and south of India, where there was more resistance to Vedic ideas.
Gujarat and Bombay/Mumbai: this is the area on the Arabian Gulf where major trading cities have long formed; this area is somewhat distinct from the North because of it's proximity to the Sea and the trading cultures of the Arab and Persian lands to the West. This has also been a land of refugees: most notably the Parsis are ancient Zoroastrians who fled to the Gujarat when Persian was conquered by the Arabs, and they have long been a core part of the Bombay business community in particular.
The Deccan: A high, once heavily forested, plateau that stretches out to the south from the rivers down the middle of the "V" that extends from the sub-continent. The forest cultures had their own traditional stories, and many hermits found solace in these woods. I will tell you that I think of the Panchatantra tales together with the Deccan, but I don't really know if that's historically accurate.
The Western Ghats/Malabar Coast: On the Western side of the Deccan, mountains known as the Western Ghats provide some separation (pierced by rivers) between the Deccan and the Arabian Sea. In these are are Karnataka, Kerala, and Goa. This area was often a separate power center in India, benefitted by it's isolation, and was originally a Dravidian heartland. If you need to separate out major cultural strains in India, you're probably going to think of the Dravidians as one distinct linguistic and cultural branch, the Sanskrit based cultures as another, and the forest peoples as the third major one (and least literary of the three). The areas in Kerala, Karnataka and Goa have seen lots of influence from other areas while still retaining some disctiveness, and tend to be very politically and economically progressive and open. An interesting and still strong tradition here are the St. Thomas Christians, who converted to Christianity during first centuries following Christ, when there was great Greek influence here; these Christians still use Syriac for services.
The Dravidian South: Tamil Nadu, the separate nation of Sri Lanka, and the South Eastern coast of India tend to be a strong Dravidian culture area, one that also maintains more of the distinctiveness of Dravidian culture and mixes less well. I haven't had the pleasure of reading the great Dravidian epics, in part because I haven't been able to find a good English translation, but they are out there somewhere!
So, Indian history in a nutshell:
(1) Indus Period: contemporary with Babylon, and very mysterious, with undeciphered script used on surviving monuments; this was an early civilization based in Gujarat and the North
(2) Aryan Invasions: The Aryans were an Indo-European people closely related to the Persians and also related to the Greeks, all of whom moved out of Central Asia for unknown reasons; the Aryans were predominantly semi-nomadic herders, but settled in India and began building the civilization
(3) Early urban civilizations (from Babylonian times on to Alexander): In particular the Maurayan Empire which unified much of what we think of today as India and the Greek and Persian kingdoms of the Northwest that emerged after Alexander's invasion of the Indus Valley; these civilizations also are where Buddhism and Jainism are born
(4) Middle Kingdoms: through the centuries following and the various invasions, there were persistent centers of kingdoms in the North, in Gujarat, on the Malabar coast, and in the South, all of them cutting into and cutting up the Deccan depending on the balance of power.
(5) Arab Invasions: these would have a deep and lasting impression on India, though Islam didn't gain a truly deep hold on India until the Mughal Invasion; still, from the 8th or 9th century forward, Islamic sultanates tend to emerge in the NorthWest and down the Malabar coast
(6) Mughal Invasion: the incursion of Babur in the 16th century had an enormous impact on India; he was the founder of the Mughal dynasty that unified Northern India and that deeply etched Urdu and Islamic culture in Indian sensibility; the Mughal dynasty lasted into the 19th century. One very important facet of Mughal influence was on cooking, where cream and nut sauces from Persia (mmm, Korma!) were mixed with Indian spices, vegatables and cheeses and curds. Those of us in the states and the UK who head out for Indian food are usually sampling Mughal cuisine.
(7) Colonial Wars, Influence and Conquest: Beginning with the Portuguese in the 16th and 17th century, and continuing with the Dutch, the French and finally the English, the West began setting up trading colonies and ultimately taking total control of areas on the coasts in particular. Ultimately, the British Raj emerged, where the British ruled through the Mughal dynasty and other local kingdoms, and where the power was first held not by the British government but by the British East India Company
(9) Partition and Independence - after World War II, the Partition of the predominantly Hindu and predominantly Muslim parts of India had a huge impact on India; you'll find it's horrors reflected in many books set in contemporary India (e.g., A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry makes many references to it); the heroic struggle for Independence is probably the best known aspect of India's history in the West
In the geographic area of India today there are 27 official languages, many of which are written in radically different scripts; however, despite this diversity, there will also be a fair amount of literary unity, with many of the same stories forming the basis of the literary culture in each of those languages. Very broadly, setting aside individual languages, you can think of India as being divided into several geographical and cultural units:
The North: crossed and connected by the great rivers, particularly the Ganges and Yamuna rivers that flow down from the Himalayas east of New Delhi and drain into the Bay of Bengal and the Indus that flows mostly through what is now Pakistan. Outside invasion happened periodically from the north, coming through Afghanistan down into the region around Delhi and then spreading out. First the Aryans invaded, bringing with them Sanskirt and the traditional Vedic stories and religion of India (including the precursors of the caste system), then the Greeks, who maintained a number of kingdoms in the Northwest for several centuries, then the Arabs (many of whom were actually Persian); then the Mongols. This area has been a cultural heartland for traditional Sanskrit culture and has been a place where Persian, Arab, Greek, Chinese, Tibetan and other cultural influences came into India. The stories of the Mahabharata and Ramayana are placed in this area, though they are translated and spread throughout India. Buddhism and Jainism were also born in this area, though each spread heavily in the Deccan and south of India, where there was more resistance to Vedic ideas.
Gujarat and Bombay/Mumbai: this is the area on the Arabian Gulf where major trading cities have long formed; this area is somewhat distinct from the North because of it's proximity to the Sea and the trading cultures of the Arab and Persian lands to the West. This has also been a land of refugees: most notably the Parsis are ancient Zoroastrians who fled to the Gujarat when Persian was conquered by the Arabs, and they have long been a core part of the Bombay business community in particular.
The Deccan: A high, once heavily forested, plateau that stretches out to the south from the rivers down the middle of the "V" that extends from the sub-continent. The forest cultures had their own traditional stories, and many hermits found solace in these woods. I will tell you that I think of the Panchatantra tales together with the Deccan, but I don't really know if that's historically accurate.
The Western Ghats/Malabar Coast: On the Western side of the Deccan, mountains known as the Western Ghats provide some separation (pierced by rivers) between the Deccan and the Arabian Sea. In these are are Karnataka, Kerala, and Goa. This area was often a separate power center in India, benefitted by it's isolation, and was originally a Dravidian heartland. If you need to separate out major cultural strains in India, you're probably going to think of the Dravidians as one distinct linguistic and cultural branch, the Sanskrit based cultures as another, and the forest peoples as the third major one (and least literary of the three). The areas in Kerala, Karnataka and Goa have seen lots of influence from other areas while still retaining some disctiveness, and tend to be very politically and economically progressive and open. An interesting and still strong tradition here are the St. Thomas Christians, who converted to Christianity during first centuries following Christ, when there was great Greek influence here; these Christians still use Syriac for services.
The Dravidian South: Tamil Nadu, the separate nation of Sri Lanka, and the South Eastern coast of India tend to be a strong Dravidian culture area, one that also maintains more of the distinctiveness of Dravidian culture and mixes less well. I haven't had the pleasure of reading the great Dravidian epics, in part because I haven't been able to find a good English translation, but they are out there somewhere!
So, Indian history in a nutshell:
(1) Indus Period: contemporary with Babylon, and very mysterious, with undeciphered script used on surviving monuments; this was an early civilization based in Gujarat and the North
(2) Aryan Invasions: The Aryans were an Indo-European people closely related to the Persians and also related to the Greeks, all of whom moved out of Central Asia for unknown reasons; the Aryans were predominantly semi-nomadic herders, but settled in India and began building the civilization
(3) Early urban civilizations (from Babylonian times on to Alexander): In particular the Maurayan Empire which unified much of what we think of today as India and the Greek and Persian kingdoms of the Northwest that emerged after Alexander's invasion of the Indus Valley; these civilizations also are where Buddhism and Jainism are born
(4) Middle Kingdoms: through the centuries following and the various invasions, there were persistent centers of kingdoms in the North, in Gujarat, on the Malabar coast, and in the South, all of them cutting into and cutting up the Deccan depending on the balance of power.
(5) Arab Invasions: these would have a deep and lasting impression on India, though Islam didn't gain a truly deep hold on India until the Mughal Invasion; still, from the 8th or 9th century forward, Islamic sultanates tend to emerge in the NorthWest and down the Malabar coast
(6) Mughal Invasion: the incursion of Babur in the 16th century had an enormous impact on India; he was the founder of the Mughal dynasty that unified Northern India and that deeply etched Urdu and Islamic culture in Indian sensibility; the Mughal dynasty lasted into the 19th century. One very important facet of Mughal influence was on cooking, where cream and nut sauces from Persia (mmm, Korma!) were mixed with Indian spices, vegatables and cheeses and curds. Those of us in the states and the UK who head out for Indian food are usually sampling Mughal cuisine.
(7) Colonial Wars, Influence and Conquest: Beginning with the Portuguese in the 16th and 17th century, and continuing with the Dutch, the French and finally the English, the West began setting up trading colonies and ultimately taking total control of areas on the coasts in particular. Ultimately, the British Raj emerged, where the British ruled through the Mughal dynasty and other local kingdoms, and where the power was first held not by the British government but by the British East India Company
(9) Partition and Independence - after World War II, the Partition of the predominantly Hindu and predominantly Muslim parts of India had a huge impact on India; you'll find it's horrors reflected in many books set in contemporary India (e.g., A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry makes many references to it); the heroic struggle for Independence is probably the best known aspect of India's history in the West
5A_musing
Already some good ideas!
I also enjoyed A Fine Balance, and it's one of those books that really gives you a sense of the place and its recent history.
Probably my strongest personal recommendation is a classic: The Recognition of Sakuntala by Kalidasa. Kalidasa is to Sanskrit Theatre as Shakespeare is to English Theatre: both a critical founding voice and perhaps the greatest practioner of all time. He influenced Goethe, among many others. Penguin has a great copy out together with some of Kalidasa's poetry that includes some interesting annotations and history, and, after all, it's just a play so it's a pretty easy read. Kalidasa retells a story from the Mahabharata, but with a number of important twists.
There are plenty of books to pick and choose from that make up the Mahabharata, the gignormous epic that forms the grand foundation of Sanskrit literature. The best known is Bhagavad Gita, which is really a long philosophical discourse set in the middle of a battlefield between Krishna (an incarnation of one of the three major Gods of Hinduism) and Arjuna, a King reluctantly going into battle against other relations. If you want some insight into traditional Vedic religion, it's as good a place to start as any. But I'll push a different book instead, a neat little paperback volume put out by Oxford: the Sauptikaparvan: The Massacre at Night, which is a more dramatic setting full of betrayal, come-uppances, and tragedy.
I read the Baburnama last year, a Memoir of Babur's conquest of India, which is fun if you have a bent for history. Mir Amman's A Tale of Four Dervishes is an Urdu classic, also in Penguin paperback, that I much enjoyed, and that reads very well today. Someone fond of aesop might want to read The Panchatantra, a collection of ancient animal fables (and there is some overlap with Aesop, and it's not clear which begat which, given the Indian/Greek culture exchange of the period).
For something more contemporary, I really enjoyed Breathless in Bombay, a collection of short stories that I got via the Early Reviewer program here, and I think it's author, Murzban Shroff, is a very promising Indian author.
I also enjoyed A Fine Balance, and it's one of those books that really gives you a sense of the place and its recent history.
Probably my strongest personal recommendation is a classic: The Recognition of Sakuntala by Kalidasa. Kalidasa is to Sanskrit Theatre as Shakespeare is to English Theatre: both a critical founding voice and perhaps the greatest practioner of all time. He influenced Goethe, among many others. Penguin has a great copy out together with some of Kalidasa's poetry that includes some interesting annotations and history, and, after all, it's just a play so it's a pretty easy read. Kalidasa retells a story from the Mahabharata, but with a number of important twists.
There are plenty of books to pick and choose from that make up the Mahabharata, the gignormous epic that forms the grand foundation of Sanskrit literature. The best known is Bhagavad Gita, which is really a long philosophical discourse set in the middle of a battlefield between Krishna (an incarnation of one of the three major Gods of Hinduism) and Arjuna, a King reluctantly going into battle against other relations. If you want some insight into traditional Vedic religion, it's as good a place to start as any. But I'll push a different book instead, a neat little paperback volume put out by Oxford: the Sauptikaparvan: The Massacre at Night, which is a more dramatic setting full of betrayal, come-uppances, and tragedy.
I read the Baburnama last year, a Memoir of Babur's conquest of India, which is fun if you have a bent for history. Mir Amman's A Tale of Four Dervishes is an Urdu classic, also in Penguin paperback, that I much enjoyed, and that reads very well today. Someone fond of aesop might want to read The Panchatantra, a collection of ancient animal fables (and there is some overlap with Aesop, and it's not clear which begat which, given the Indian/Greek culture exchange of the period).
For something more contemporary, I really enjoyed Breathless in Bombay, a collection of short stories that I got via the Early Reviewer program here, and I think it's author, Murzban Shroff, is a very promising Indian author.
6A_musing
An interesting work on the fringes of what might qualify under this one is Indian Ink by Tom Stoppard. Stoppard was born in Czechoslavakia, but went to India in 1941 to avoid the Nazis and was raised there, and the play is about India and set (mostly) in India, and all about the relationship between the colonizers and the colonized.
There are a couple of volumes of short stories by Rabindranath Tagore, India's sole nobel laureate in literature (unless you count Kipling) that are very good: I have an old volume of The Hungry Stones which I've very much enjoyed and is out on Kindle, and I know Penguin has a collected volume. He also wrote a lot of poetry, some in English, some in Bengali, and a number of plays, and was a prolific artist.
There are a couple of volumes of short stories by Rabindranath Tagore, India's sole nobel laureate in literature (unless you count Kipling) that are very good: I have an old volume of The Hungry Stones which I've very much enjoyed and is out on Kindle, and I know Penguin has a collected volume. He also wrote a lot of poetry, some in English, some in Bengali, and a number of plays, and was a prolific artist.
7A_musing
If you want to order your books from India, try http://www.vedamsbooks.com/ , a site I came across on another post here (I haven't used them yet). There are many books there that are not easily available in the West.
8amckie
I really enjoyed The Toss of a Lemon, by Padma Viswanathan, about India. It follows a family through multiple generations, focusing mainly on one woman. It is a remarkable story. Viswanathan is Canadian, but of Indian descent and spent much time in India researching for this novel, which is based partly on family stories.
9Essa
- I recently read Mira Kamdar's Planet India: How the Fastest Growing Democracy Is Transforming America and the World, and enjoyed it very much.
- I found Edward Luce's In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India, which I read a year or two ago, to be quite interesting, as well.
- Gurcharan Das's India Unbound and The Elephant Paradigm are on my "to-read-at-some-point" list.
- Kamdar also wrote a family autobiography, Motiba's Tattoos: A Granddaughter's Journey into her Indian Family's Past, which touchstones incorrectly for some reason. I purchased it a couple of months ago but had not gotten around to reading it yet. Perhaps it would make an ideal read for November. :)
- There are also the numerous works of respected economist Amartya Sen; and the many works -- both fiction and non-fiction -- of Arundhati Roy.
- I've also hoped, at some point this year, to read Story-Wallah: Short Fiction from South Asian Writers. (It doesn't touchstone for some reason, but it's here on LT and can be found via a Search.)
Edited to add, if anyone's interested in ancient India, there's currently a thread in the Ancient History group, "Recommendations for Indus Valley civilization," which might contain valuable suggestions for reading in that area. :)
- I found Edward Luce's In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India, which I read a year or two ago, to be quite interesting, as well.
- Gurcharan Das's India Unbound and The Elephant Paradigm are on my "to-read-at-some-point" list.
- Kamdar also wrote a family autobiography, Motiba's Tattoos: A Granddaughter's Journey into her Indian Family's Past, which touchstones incorrectly for some reason. I purchased it a couple of months ago but had not gotten around to reading it yet. Perhaps it would make an ideal read for November. :)
- There are also the numerous works of respected economist Amartya Sen; and the many works -- both fiction and non-fiction -- of Arundhati Roy.
- I've also hoped, at some point this year, to read Story-Wallah: Short Fiction from South Asian Writers. (It doesn't touchstone for some reason, but it's here on LT and can be found via a Search.)
Edited to add, if anyone's interested in ancient India, there's currently a thread in the Ancient History group, "Recommendations for Indus Valley civilization," which might contain valuable suggestions for reading in that area. :)
10GeoffWyss
I really like Bombay: Maximum City by Suketu Mehta.
Also Russell Lucas's Evenings at Mongini's (short stories set in Bombay).
Ardashir Vakil's Beach Boy is a great look at underclass Bombay.
And I don't think you can read about Bombay without reading Rohinton Mistry, especially (as noted above) A Fine Balance and Swimming Lessons.
I also like Love in a Dead Language by Lee Siegel--a kind of rewriting of Lolita set in India.
Those were my favorites of the books I read in the years before I wrote my own Bombay novel, Tiny Clubs.
Oh, also Once Was Bombay by Pinki Virani.
Also Russell Lucas's Evenings at Mongini's (short stories set in Bombay).
Ardashir Vakil's Beach Boy is a great look at underclass Bombay.
And I don't think you can read about Bombay without reading Rohinton Mistry, especially (as noted above) A Fine Balance and Swimming Lessons.
I also like Love in a Dead Language by Lee Siegel--a kind of rewriting of Lolita set in India.
Those were my favorites of the books I read in the years before I wrote my own Bombay novel, Tiny Clubs.
Oh, also Once Was Bombay by Pinki Virani.
11defaults
Following up on #7, one impressive book dealer in India is http://www.bibliaimpex.com. They're able to supply things that don't reach big internet retailers.
Early Buddhist texts afford glimpses of historical India. James Legge's translation of the Chinese monk Faxian's travelogue from around 400 CE, Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms, is available on gutenberg.org (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2124). Xuanzang, travelling 200 years after him, wrote another more extensive account of his travels on the Indian subcontinent but I don't know of its availability.
Early Buddhist texts afford glimpses of historical India. James Legge's translation of the Chinese monk Faxian's travelogue from around 400 CE, Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms, is available on gutenberg.org (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2124). Xuanzang, travelling 200 years after him, wrote another more extensive account of his travels on the Indian subcontinent but I don't know of its availability.
12LisaCurcio
I recently found and joined this group, and have a fondness for literature and non-fiction about India, so thought I would jump in here.
Amitav Ghosh has written some wonderful novels set in India or about India. The Glass Palace is a particular favorite. Although much of it is set in Burma, it is about Indian people. I am midway through Sea of Poppies and it is measuring up to Ghosh's usual standards.
Don't overlook A Passage to India by E.M. Forster.
And, for non-fiction, Freedom at Midnight by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins is an excellent history/biography of Gandhi and his time.
I have recently ordered Discovery of India by Jawaharlal Nehru, so maybe I will read that in November!
Amitav Ghosh has written some wonderful novels set in India or about India. The Glass Palace is a particular favorite. Although much of it is set in Burma, it is about Indian people. I am midway through Sea of Poppies and it is measuring up to Ghosh's usual standards.
Don't overlook A Passage to India by E.M. Forster.
And, for non-fiction, Freedom at Midnight by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins is an excellent history/biography of Gandhi and his time.
I have recently ordered Discovery of India by Jawaharlal Nehru, so maybe I will read that in November!
13urania1
Most of the above
The Hero Walks by Anita Rau Badami
Breast Stories by Mahasweta Devi
India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy by Ramachandra Guha is an excellent history
Fabulous females and peerless Pirs : tales of mad adventure in old Bengal a collection of Begali folktales
A flowering tree and other oral tales from India by A. K. Ramanujan
Madhumālāti : an Indian Sufi romance
Meatless Days by Sara Suleri (memoir India/Pakistan)
The Hero Walks by Anita Rau Badami
Breast Stories by Mahasweta Devi
India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy by Ramachandra Guha is an excellent history
Fabulous females and peerless Pirs : tales of mad adventure in old Bengal a collection of Begali folktales
A flowering tree and other oral tales from India by A. K. Ramanujan
Madhumālāti : an Indian Sufi romance
Meatless Days by Sara Suleri (memoir India/Pakistan)
14urania1
Regarding The Hungry Stones, don't buy the Kindle edition. You can get it for free in mobi format, which the Kindle uses. You don't even have to send it off to Kindle for translation. Just down load the mobi file and pull into the documents folder on your Kindle. PG has lots of other Tagore as well.
15Nickelini
Urania -- Meatless Days! I absolutely detested that book. Had to read it for a class I took, and write about it (usually by the end of that process I end up liking anything). I actually read the book three times, and with each reading a grew to passionately dislike the author. I have no room in my life for such presumptuous, self-important phoney people. Funny thing about that book though--people either absolutely love it or they hate it. There's no middle ground on that one.
16urania1
>15 Nickelini: I agree. The writer is pompous and unlikeable; however, I would argue that the book has value because Suleri provides us with a picture of the class system and feelings of entitlement that accompany privilege.
17Nickelini
>16 urania1: -- Yes, that's very true. I hadn't looked at it that way. (and I think I meant pompous rather than presumptuous, now that I see that word. Thanks.)
18A_musing
>16 urania1:
One of the general observations I'd make about the contemporary Indian fiction geared toward Western markets that I've read is that there's a lot of focus on caste and class, and it generates a bit of a surplus of melodrama. If I see another review that compares an up-and-coming Indian writer to Dickens, I am going to go wander a narrow street without footways in a deaf and dumb city, the kind of place where common wretches are left to get out of their difficulties as best they can, and then I'm going to just barf! If you want a not too pompous and reasonably likable writer who explores some of the same issues, but keeps the melodrama in check (most of the time), I can recommend the Murzban Schoff short stories, Breathless in Bombay. But I'm a bit nervous about contemporary Indian fiction that has as it's main claim that it gives us "a picture of the class system and feelings of entitlement" - isn't that kind of like saying that a Romance Novel has "hot scenes"?
Please, disabuse me of my bias and tell me something else to recommend Meatless Days!
One of the general observations I'd make about the contemporary Indian fiction geared toward Western markets that I've read is that there's a lot of focus on caste and class, and it generates a bit of a surplus of melodrama. If I see another review that compares an up-and-coming Indian writer to Dickens, I am going to go wander a narrow street without footways in a deaf and dumb city, the kind of place where common wretches are left to get out of their difficulties as best they can, and then I'm going to just barf! If you want a not too pompous and reasonably likable writer who explores some of the same issues, but keeps the melodrama in check (most of the time), I can recommend the Murzban Schoff short stories, Breathless in Bombay. But I'm a bit nervous about contemporary Indian fiction that has as it's main claim that it gives us "a picture of the class system and feelings of entitlement" - isn't that kind of like saying that a Romance Novel has "hot scenes"?
Please, disabuse me of my bias and tell me something else to recommend Meatless Days!
19urania1
>18 A_musing: Well Meatless Days is a memoir set in an interesting period of India's history: the separation of Pakistan from India. It was also written much earlier (1987-89) than most of the novels popular at the moment.
And . . Suleri is unaware of her class bias.
And . . Suleri is unaware of her class bias.
20Nickelini
And . . . I don't remember her ever noticing that there was poverty outside the gilded gates of her home.
23janeajones
And urania, I know you will groan -- but give me Rushdie -- The Moor's Last Sigh and Midnight's Children are gorgeous. I've had The Ground Beneath Her Feet sitting on the TBR pile for awhile, and if I have time in November, I shall read that.
24urania1
jane,
I won't groan. Rushdie annoys me. I do, however, have Midnight's Children on my tbr list.
A_musing,
On the basis of your strong recommendation, I just purchased Breathless in Bombay. I have finished the first story. It is wonderful.
I won't groan. Rushdie annoys me. I do, however, have Midnight's Children on my tbr list.
A_musing,
On the basis of your strong recommendation, I just purchased Breathless in Bombay. I have finished the first story. It is wonderful.
25SqueakyChu
--> 12
Amitav Ghosh has written some wonderful novels set in India or about India.
I agree. One of my favorite novels is by this author. It's The Hungry Tide which is set in the Sundarbans (actually in Bangladesh). Ghosh is a marvelous writer, and I highly recommend this book. It's about a marine biologist who went to India to study dolphins.
I also liked Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri although I heard that his follow-up book was not as good. His book is about families in an apartment building in Bombay. Suri is a math professor at UMBC (University of Maryland, Baltimore County) where my daughter went to college.
If you've never read Arundhati Roy, you might like The God of Small Things. It's an odd story of a family relationship.
If you like short stories, don't miss Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri. I didn't quite like her novel as much as I did her short stories. She has a new book of short stories out now which I hear is equally as good as her first.
Amitav Ghosh has written some wonderful novels set in India or about India.
I agree. One of my favorite novels is by this author. It's The Hungry Tide which is set in the Sundarbans (actually in Bangladesh). Ghosh is a marvelous writer, and I highly recommend this book. It's about a marine biologist who went to India to study dolphins.
I also liked Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri although I heard that his follow-up book was not as good. His book is about families in an apartment building in Bombay. Suri is a math professor at UMBC (University of Maryland, Baltimore County) where my daughter went to college.
If you've never read Arundhati Roy, you might like The God of Small Things. It's an odd story of a family relationship.
If you like short stories, don't miss Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri. I didn't quite like her novel as much as I did her short stories. She has a new book of short stories out now which I hear is equally as good as her first.
26Existanai
20>And . . . I don't remember her ever noticing that there was poverty outside the gilded gates of her home.
Is this a prerequisite?
This is what the standard blurb for "a work of Post-Colonial literature from the Indian subcontinent" sounds like:
In hauntingly beautiful and pellucid prose, a story that spans several generations, set against the backdrop of a turbulent political climate, with all the stark contrasts of a country defined by its struggle for a modern identity while firmly rooted in tradition, seething with all the tensions of caste and colonization, a work that defies easy categorization, giving us a glimpse into the complex workings of a distant and foreign culture, terrifying yet beautiful, stretching back to a glorious past, forging towards an uncertain future, a story that takes us from the dusty heat of the plains to the spiritual heights of the tallest mountains in the world...
You will not typically find the tagline Now in Cinemascope attached, but you can tell they were itching to put it in there.
Is this a prerequisite?
This is what the standard blurb for "a work of Post-Colonial literature from the Indian subcontinent" sounds like:
In hauntingly beautiful and pellucid prose, a story that spans several generations, set against the backdrop of a turbulent political climate, with all the stark contrasts of a country defined by its struggle for a modern identity while firmly rooted in tradition, seething with all the tensions of caste and colonization, a work that defies easy categorization, giving us a glimpse into the complex workings of a distant and foreign culture, terrifying yet beautiful, stretching back to a glorious past, forging towards an uncertain future, a story that takes us from the dusty heat of the plains to the spiritual heights of the tallest mountains in the world...
You will not typically find the tagline Now in Cinemascope attached, but you can tell they were itching to put it in there.
27GeoffWyss
Lots of sharp discussion in this thread! I had almost given up on 'Reading Globally.'
It's been a few years since I read deeply in Indian lit, but this discussion is making me want to log on and buy books. . . .
It's been a few years since I read deeply in Indian lit, but this discussion is making me want to log on and buy books. . . .
28wandering_star
I'd like to recommend two books which show a different and arguably more modern side of India:
Bunker 13 by Aniruddha Bahal (who used to be a journalist on the Tehelka website which broke the famous scandal on kickbacks in the defence industry, if you remember that). Bunker 13 is basically an updated James Bond-type story set in modern India.
The Last Jet-Engine Laugh by Ruchir Joshi, which is a semi-science-fiction story set far in the future, when a war between India and Pakistan is being fought through virtual reality.
Both of them are very readable and interesting.
Bunker 13 by Aniruddha Bahal (who used to be a journalist on the Tehelka website which broke the famous scandal on kickbacks in the defence industry, if you remember that). Bunker 13 is basically an updated James Bond-type story set in modern India.
The Last Jet-Engine Laugh by Ruchir Joshi, which is a semi-science-fiction story set far in the future, when a war between India and Pakistan is being fought through virtual reality.
Both of them are very readable and interesting.
29A_musing
>24 urania1: - I was just looking at the review I did for Breathless in Bombay for the early reviewers program, and I was a real pain in the neck. I criticized a short story collection for being uneven - as if every short story collection ever published wasn't uneven! I've got to go revise that and bump it up half a star.
I have another contemporary India novel from Early Reviewers that I've been dilatory in reading and reviewing, which is Love Marriage by V. Ganeshanathan. That may also be worth having on the list here, and there are a bunch of reviews on the system.
I have another contemporary India novel from Early Reviewers that I've been dilatory in reading and reviewing, which is Love Marriage by V. Ganeshanathan. That may also be worth having on the list here, and there are a bunch of reviews on the system.
30urania1
>29 A_musing: - Regarding Breathless in Bombay, it is a breath of fresh air relative to most of the "Hindi-Bindi," "we are victims," cant. I do not wish to deny that the former two are parts of Indian culture. However, I am enjoying reading a book about ordinary people, often people we would describe as the exploited, the victims, who see themselves in a different light as people capable of acting on their own behalf. I realize there are many Indias. But this India is a completely different India than the ones I typically see in contemporary Indian fiction.
>26 Existanai: Lots of laughs.
>26 Existanai: Lots of laughs.
31polutropos
Paul Scott's Raj Quartet is excellent on Partition times.
And another two thumbs up to God of Small Things
And another two thumbs up to God of Small Things
32monarchi
Great discussion, and lots of new books I want to add to my shelves!
Just a quick comment about #29 – Love Marriage is in fact about Sri Lanka, not India... Not to discourage you from reading it, but it may not belong in this list/discussion exactly.
Just a quick comment about #29 – Love Marriage is in fact about Sri Lanka, not India... Not to discourage you from reading it, but it may not belong in this list/discussion exactly.
33Nickelini
Oh, Sri Lanka -- my favourite reading destination. Thanks for mentioning that, Monarchi.
34rebeccanyc
Although of course this is only my opinion, I am one of the few people who did not enjoy The God of Small Things and also one of the few who had extremely mixed feelings about The Hungry Tide. Lots of interesting ideas here, including lots I'd never heard of.
35GoofyOcean110
I think for India, I will try to get to Midnight's children or something else by Salman Rushdie (either, the ground beneath her feet or satanic verses) since I have never read anything by him before. For nonfiction, I will also try to get to india by Stanley Wolpert, since I already have a copy.
36AquariusNat
I think I'm going to choose A passage To India for my November read .
37GeoffWyss
Myself, I found Stanley Wolpert's India tough going--just not very engagingly written. Of the 12 or 15 non-fiction books I read about India, it was probably my least favorite.
38avaland
That's a great overview of history, A_Musing! thanks. I bought a big history of India (with pictures, yay!) when I was on an Indian reading jag. I have just now started Speaking for Myself: an Anthology of Asian Women's Writing and will save the entries for India for November. I will be reading this over the course of several months while I read other books.
39GoofyOcean110
>37 GeoffWyss:, Geoff, have suggestions? Will gladly take a look at them.
I think that one was a holdover from a class I took, and skimped on the readings at the time, meaning to get to it later... 6 years isn't too too long a 'later', is it?
I think that one was a holdover from a class I took, and skimped on the readings at the time, meaning to get to it later... 6 years isn't too too long a 'later', is it?
40KimB
Not sure if it's been mentioned as yet, but I'd recommend this years booker prize, White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, a dog-eat-dog take on modern India.
41Essa
I just saw this title at work and am thinking of giving it a try -- The Indian Renaissance: India's Rise After a Thousand Years of Decline, by Sanjeev Sanyal (no touchstones). It seems to be along the same lines as Kamdar's Planet India and Luce's In Spite of the Gods. (I tend to read mainly non-fiction, so my apologies if non-fiction books and ideas are off-topic or out of line.)
42GeoffWyss
bfertig:
I'm a little out of the game on India, but I would say generally that overall histories of India (too much to cover!) aren't as likely to be engaging as books that cut a narrower swath.
I liked Bombay: Maximum City by Mehta, Freedom at Midnight by Lapierre, May You Be the Mother of a Thousand Sons by Bumiller, and Show Business by Shashi Tharoor. There's also India: A Million Mutinies Now. I'm not sure what goal you're after, but these books are all a heck of a lot more fun than the Wolpert.
I'm a little out of the game on India, but I would say generally that overall histories of India (too much to cover!) aren't as likely to be engaging as books that cut a narrower swath.
I liked Bombay: Maximum City by Mehta, Freedom at Midnight by Lapierre, May You Be the Mother of a Thousand Sons by Bumiller, and Show Business by Shashi Tharoor. There's also India: A Million Mutinies Now. I'm not sure what goal you're after, but these books are all a heck of a lot more fun than the Wolpert.
43A_musing
For nonfiction, I'd strongly recommend anything by Amartya Sen, the nobel winning Indian economist. He is, by the way, quite literary as well.
44urania1
A_musing
I've found a book just for you. Two Families, Two Countries - a heart-warming story about a Swedish family that immigrates to India, and an Indian family that settles in Sweden. Experience the loss. Experience the joy. ;-)
I've found a book just for you. Two Families, Two Countries - a heart-warming story about a Swedish family that immigrates to India, and an Indian family that settles in Sweden. Experience the loss. Experience the joy. ;-)
45eairo
#35: If you're looking for an India setting, Satanic Verses does not have one; The Ground Beneath Her Feet is more so but not all the way. Which is true for most of Rushdie's work as far as I remember. He moves around.
46janeajones
#35 and #45 -- The Moor's Last Sigh is set mostly in India -- with a brief sojourn to Spain -- and it allegorizes the history of India's independence in the character of Moraes Zogoiby. I love this book. Also, oddly enough The Enchantress of Florence is about half set in India and half in Florence during the 15th-16th c. It bounces back and forth from the court of the Mughal Emperor Akbar in Sikri to the youth of Machiavelli and Vespucci. It's an easier read than Moor -- but not as rich or evocative.
47urania1
>29 A_musing: A_musing,
I think you were too hard on Breathless in Bombay. I would give it four stars. It completely blew me away. I felt like I was seeing the "real" Mumbai for the first time by a writer who wasn't writing to feed the voyeurism of a Western audience. In Shroff's book, one finds a cross-section of Mumbai society, whom Schroff describes with empathy but without saccharine sentimentality. I learned far more about Mumbai at least than I have learned from any other piece of fiction I have read.
I think you were too hard on Breathless in Bombay. I would give it four stars. It completely blew me away. I felt like I was seeing the "real" Mumbai for the first time by a writer who wasn't writing to feed the voyeurism of a Western audience. In Shroff's book, one finds a cross-section of Mumbai society, whom Schroff describes with empathy but without saccharine sentimentality. I learned far more about Mumbai at least than I have learned from any other piece of fiction I have read.
48A_musing
I did give it 3 1/2 stars - that's pretty good! There are plenty of Nobel winners I'd give 3 1/2 stars.
It is a great book, particularly in terms of giving a sense of place and people, and so ideal for this group, though I did think he did lean a bit in several places on the formulaic melodrama that sells in the West. Hey, Dickens did the same.
If I remember right, there was one story where he poked a bit of fun at Indian authors writing for the west; I may have to pull it out and look for it. I thought it was a wonderful little twist. But I am glad you enjoyed it. I'll try to refresh some of my recollection so we can talk about some of the stories.
It is a great book, particularly in terms of giving a sense of place and people, and so ideal for this group, though I did think he did lean a bit in several places on the formulaic melodrama that sells in the West. Hey, Dickens did the same.
If I remember right, there was one story where he poked a bit of fun at Indian authors writing for the west; I may have to pull it out and look for it. I thought it was a wonderful little twist. But I am glad you enjoyed it. I'll try to refresh some of my recollection so we can talk about some of the stories.
49A_musing
This thread seems to be getting pretty long, and it's three weeks until November! Maybe sometime the last week of November I'll start a discussion thread, and move the substantive discussion posts from here into a post there to get things going. BTW, some may be interested in the separate reading around India thread I set up last November - it does have a neat map! http://www.librarything.com/topic/50529
There is a lot to read for India!
There is a lot to read for India!
51whymaggiemay
I'm a huge fan of all books about India. I have six of those listed above on TBR, along with probably 20 more. However, I've promised another group that I would read A Suitable Boy in November, and will honor that promise. I'm hoping that somehow, though I belong to two other book groups which have chosen books not at all related to India, that I'll somehow be able to fit in a second book on India as well.
54markon
Hooray! My hold for The hungry tide arrived at the library today, so now I am ready for the November read.
Has anyone here read Petals of Blood? I've discovered a local book club that's reading it. I'm thinking about going to the discussion in a couple of weeks, but I'll have to buy the book since my library doesn't have it. I'm curious about what other people think about it.
Has anyone here read Petals of Blood? I've discovered a local book club that's reading it. I'm thinking about going to the discussion in a couple of weeks, but I'll have to buy the book since my library doesn't have it. I'm curious about what other people think about it.
55rebeccanyc
I am a Ngugi wa Thiong'o fan, and I thought Petals of Blood was one of the best books by him I've read. Scathingly political, with very dark humor, it depicts the period just after Kenyan independence; it landed the author in jail.
56rachbxl
I won't be able to take part in this group read but I do happen to be reading a suitable book for a Belletrista review which I can't recommend highly enough, although I realise it's getting a little late for recommendations. Separate Journeys ed. Geeta Dharmarajan is an anthology of contemporary short stories written by women from all over India, some written in English, others translated from over half a dozen different languages. I'm only halfway through but I don't think I've read anything from India that has done more to take me to an India I realise I know almost nothing about.
57wandering_star
I've just looked through my TBR piles and I have around 25 books which could fit this theme read! I don't have any other reading commitments at the moment, so I might just start now and keep going till Christmas - I quite like the idea of a focused period of reading on one subject.
58A_musing
Rachel, Separate Journeys sounds great! That may end up as my choice for the month - I've been debating almost all of the mentioned options that I haven't read. Stop by and chat a bit about separate journeys during the month - you can correct any wretched readings I might profess!
Why Maggie, what other group is reading A Suitable Boy? Some of them may want to come by here to chat, or we may want to go over there to peak in! That's one that is on my reading list (and bookshelf) as well.
Urania, I don't have a list of authors from different parts of India; my journey has been wholly accidental and unplanned to date.
Why Maggie, what other group is reading A Suitable Boy? Some of them may want to come by here to chat, or we may want to go over there to peak in! That's one that is on my reading list (and bookshelf) as well.
Urania, I don't have a list of authors from different parts of India; my journey has been wholly accidental and unplanned to date.
59urania1
A_musing,
Accidental????? I thought that you were also methodically eating your way through the various cuisines of India. Isn't there going to be food on this thread? If there's not, I'm going home ;-)
Accidental????? I thought that you were also methodically eating your way through the various cuisines of India. Isn't there going to be food on this thread? If there's not, I'm going home ;-)
60markon
55 rebeccanyc - Thanks for the recommendation. Think I'm going to have to scrounge the used books stores or rely on Aazon.com.
58/59 - I vote for food too! Curry: a tale of cooks and conquerors anyone?
58/59 - I vote for food too! Curry: a tale of cooks and conquerors anyone?
61polutropos
58, 59, 60
I love India and books about it but was not planning to take part in this discussion because I have too many other projects on the go. BUT a food book I could handle. And I DO love curry. Markon, have you actually seen this book? Is it dry? (I love a very saucy curry :-) ) How filled with delicious recipes is it?
I love India and books about it but was not planning to take part in this discussion because I have too many other projects on the go. BUT a food book I could handle. And I DO love curry. Markon, have you actually seen this book? Is it dry? (I love a very saucy curry :-) ) How filled with delicious recipes is it?
62A_musing
Ah, always something tempting!
Maybe we should make a point of discussing food as it appears in all the works we read. I do believe much Indian literature ruminates about food. Wikipedia actually has quite a few entries on different Indian cuisines - here's the overview: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_cuisine
How does this crowd split on the great Kheer v. Galub Jamun question? Which do you order with a Thali platter?
Maybe we should make a point of discussing food as it appears in all the works we read. I do believe much Indian literature ruminates about food. Wikipedia actually has quite a few entries on different Indian cuisines - here's the overview: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_cuisine
How does this crowd split on the great Kheer v. Galub Jamun question? Which do you order with a Thali platter?
63urania1
Lots of food in the book I have just finished. We'll have to have a special food section for our discussion of books.
64urania1
Baron von Kindle just presented me with a "delectable" and "seductive" copy of Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors. I shall peruse this book for my second Indian read (and all before November). I consider this fact to be a good reason why everyone should VOTE SWEDEN!
65polutropos
Urania,
I cannot do a Sveedish accent BUT
You can STOP stuffing the ballot box now. You WON, remember? We WILL be doing Sveeden. No more phony ballots needed. Your friends in Florida can relax now. They HAVE stolen the election successfully once again!
I cannot do a Sveedish accent BUT
You can STOP stuffing the ballot box now. You WON, remember? We WILL be doing Sveeden. No more phony ballots needed. Your friends in Florida can relax now. They HAVE stolen the election successfully once again!
66markon
61 Polutropos - It doesn't have a ton of recipes, but it does have some (some are historical, and some are more current) It did get a bit dry at times, but is a look at the development of curries historically from a British point of view. There is a review of it at a blog I read at http://www.tigersandstrawberries.com/2006/02/07/book-review-curry/.
And if you want lots of recipes, I recommend 660 Curries. This includes recipes for the spice mixes that you can make and store. Makes your spice cupboard smell wonderful!
And if you want lots of recipes, I recommend 660 Curries. This includes recipes for the spice mixes that you can make and store. Makes your spice cupboard smell wonderful!
67A_musing
I just realized I neglected to wish everyone on the board a happy and colorful Diwali!
Sweets for all!
Sweets for all!
68Nickelini
Okay, if we're recommending Indian cookery books, I have to pipe up with Vij's: Elegant and Inspired Indian Cuisine by Vikram Vij. He's a local restaurant owner/chef here in Vancouver. Aside from the recipes, he talks about how he went from a shack of a restaurant that seated like 3 people, to an award-winning sensation that is voted Vancouver's best over and over. Every recipe I've tried so far has been fabulous, and my neighbour has cooked a few others for me that were also fabulous. And so far, they've also been easy to make too. I also appreciate that he explains how to find out if the seafood you're buying meets Ocean Wise standards (safety and sustainability). And on top of it, it's just a beautiful book. You'd think I had a financial interest in this book, but really, I'm just a very satisfied customer.
69urania1
I am quite enjoying Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors. I have read two chapters thus far. No dryness noted, but perhaps that comes later with the great "Chicken Tikka Masala Debacle" as historians now call it. It involves one British foreign minister (Robin Cook - appropriate name), one dry serving of chicken tikka, and one questionable masala. Stay tuned for updates. I suspect the possibility of future world peace may depend on a successful resolution of this and other hideous gourmmet gaffes.
And . . . don't forget ladies and gents - Vooote Sweden!!!!! even though the Swedes do put dill in their curry. (I never claimed the Swedes were perfect.)
And . . . don't forget ladies and gents - Vooote Sweden!!!!! even though the Swedes do put dill in their curry. (I never claimed the Swedes were perfect.)
70deeyes
I'm surprised, no one mentioned Tagore! Was there a mention of RK Narayan ? Without these two master authors, there would be an unfillable void in the contemporary Indian literature.
Rabindranath Tagore, a Nobel laureate, poet, novelist, musician, and playwright offers a host of delightful novels / short stories / plays to choose from. He is one author you must explore if you want to pick a book on india.
If you want to learn about Indian people, the thinking, the rural life - RK Narayan is the author to explore. Most of his books are set in Malgudi, an imaginary town that he created. There is a whole TV series on Malgudi days (you can find that on youtube - but that is in Hindi, still worth a watch).
Rabindranath Tagore, a Nobel laureate, poet, novelist, musician, and playwright offers a host of delightful novels / short stories / plays to choose from. He is one author you must explore if you want to pick a book on india.
If you want to learn about Indian people, the thinking, the rural life - RK Narayan is the author to explore. Most of his books are set in Malgudi, an imaginary town that he created. There is a whole TV series on Malgudi days (you can find that on youtube - but that is in Hindi, still worth a watch).
71A_musing
>70 deeyes: - I'd recommended The Hungry Stones in post 6, but lots of other work by him should also be recommended. Bankim Chatterjee is another classic Indian author that should be on the list; he is a 19th century author writing in Bengal and he was an inspiration to Tagore, Gandhi and many of the other heroic Indian figures of the 20th century.
72wandering_star
I hope that no-one will mind if I start posting early. I started reading early after discovering that I had several months' worth of unread books which could fit into this challenge.
I have so far read three of them - very different books which present very different faces of India.
The first is Surface by Siddhartha Deb. Amrit is a washed-up Calcutta journalist who doesn't even have the energy to be cynical. He stumbles across a photograph and becomes intrigued by the story behind it - which he believes might give him his big break, a story he could sell to foreign newsmagazines. This leads to a trek up to "the region", which remains unnamed throughout the book, but is an insurgent-ridden area of Northeast India close to the Burmese border. As he gets closer to the story, the details become increasingly blurred and murky, and his task begins to seem futile.
The most striking thing about the book is the atmosphere - of corruption and compromise, failure and futility. The spirit of the story lives in the flickering light of a cheap, decaying hotel. The local administrative officer, far from his Keralan home, spends his evenings alone in his vast, dusty residence and travels to his chaotic office through streets which are deserted but for the soldiers who are there to put down the insurgency.
This contrasts with the bright-futured image of India that some of the book's characters live in, or at least aspire to. This is a small part of the book - but since the main theme is the power of the image over the reality, you have to wonder whether Deb is making a wider point about the country.
The thriller side of the story doesn't work so well - it's not entirely plausible, and it loses energy towards the end. But I would still highly recommend the book - and, since it was Deb's debut effort, I'll definitely try and get hold of his others.
I wouldn't say the image of India presented by this book was entirely new to me - I recognise the angry critique of modern India's political corruption from books like Bunker 13. But from the epigraph (the last 12 lines of Seamus Heaney's beautiful From the Republic of Conscience), it seems that Deb wants the book to bear witness to those parts of India which are edited out because they don't fit with the current shiny image.
I have so far read three of them - very different books which present very different faces of India.
The first is Surface by Siddhartha Deb. Amrit is a washed-up Calcutta journalist who doesn't even have the energy to be cynical. He stumbles across a photograph and becomes intrigued by the story behind it - which he believes might give him his big break, a story he could sell to foreign newsmagazines. This leads to a trek up to "the region", which remains unnamed throughout the book, but is an insurgent-ridden area of Northeast India close to the Burmese border. As he gets closer to the story, the details become increasingly blurred and murky, and his task begins to seem futile.
The most striking thing about the book is the atmosphere - of corruption and compromise, failure and futility. The spirit of the story lives in the flickering light of a cheap, decaying hotel. The local administrative officer, far from his Keralan home, spends his evenings alone in his vast, dusty residence and travels to his chaotic office through streets which are deserted but for the soldiers who are there to put down the insurgency.
This contrasts with the bright-futured image of India that some of the book's characters live in, or at least aspire to. This is a small part of the book - but since the main theme is the power of the image over the reality, you have to wonder whether Deb is making a wider point about the country.
The thriller side of the story doesn't work so well - it's not entirely plausible, and it loses energy towards the end. But I would still highly recommend the book - and, since it was Deb's debut effort, I'll definitely try and get hold of his others.
I wouldn't say the image of India presented by this book was entirely new to me - I recognise the angry critique of modern India's political corruption from books like Bunker 13. But from the epigraph (the last 12 lines of Seamus Heaney's beautiful From the Republic of Conscience), it seems that Deb wants the book to bear witness to those parts of India which are edited out because they don't fit with the current shiny image.
73wandering_star
The second book I read for this challenge was The Bus Stopped by Tabish Khair. Funny thing, I would have sworn that I got hold of this book because of a large number of rave reviews on LT. And yet I see from the book's homepage that in fact there aren't any...
The Bus Stopped is a light, warm read which gives us glimpses into the life stories of several people who are all taking the same bus journey in Bihar. Bihar, of course, is one of the poorest and least developed states in India, but the focus of this book is very much on the human stories - the different things that the passengers are running away from or hurrying to, and other stories from lives which touch theirs. We are shown daily life in a city block, childhood reminiscences of a boy from a wealthy family about the family cook, the tension between the lazy, sensual driver and his more upright conductor. All this is told in deceptively simple but moving prose.
One thing about reading this for this challenge, however: I enjoyed it a lot, and I don't think it is a cliched view of India exactly, but there is certainly nothing here which would confuse or challenge the most ignorant backpacker, in terms of the India that it presents.
The Bus Stopped is a light, warm read which gives us glimpses into the life stories of several people who are all taking the same bus journey in Bihar. Bihar, of course, is one of the poorest and least developed states in India, but the focus of this book is very much on the human stories - the different things that the passengers are running away from or hurrying to, and other stories from lives which touch theirs. We are shown daily life in a city block, childhood reminiscences of a boy from a wealthy family about the family cook, the tension between the lazy, sensual driver and his more upright conductor. All this is told in deceptively simple but moving prose.
One thing about reading this for this challenge, however: I enjoyed it a lot, and I don't think it is a cliched view of India exactly, but there is certainly nothing here which would confuse or challenge the most ignorant backpacker, in terms of the India that it presents.
75wandering_star
Finally (for the moment), Shashi Tharoor's The Great Indian Novel. This is a retelling of the Mahabharatha as a story of the modern history of India. It's an amazing book - combining wit, broad humour (including a collection of really horrendous puns), passion and polemic.
It's densely allusive: as my knowledge of both the Mahabharata and modern Indian history is little more than outline, I couldn't tell you how much twisting of each is necessary to make them fit together. But even from my position of ignorance, I picked up all sorts of little references - for example, every Westerner who's produced a famous portrayal of India lends his name to a bit-part player, from EM Forster to Richard Attenborough (director of the film "Gandhi"), and I also spotted throwaway references to both Rushdie and Vikram Seth. Even the title has two or three meanings packed into it: maha=great, bharata=India.
This should not, however, make the book seem like a chore to read. It was a delight - a fast-moving, epic tale, which is funny as well as moving.
In its broad sweep and linguistic creativity this is on the Rushdie end of the spectrum for Indian novels, but more accessible (and I say that as someone who really likes Salman Rushdie).
It's densely allusive: as my knowledge of both the Mahabharata and modern Indian history is little more than outline, I couldn't tell you how much twisting of each is necessary to make them fit together. But even from my position of ignorance, I picked up all sorts of little references - for example, every Westerner who's produced a famous portrayal of India lends his name to a bit-part player, from EM Forster to Richard Attenborough (director of the film "Gandhi"), and I also spotted throwaway references to both Rushdie and Vikram Seth. Even the title has two or three meanings packed into it: maha=great, bharata=India.
This should not, however, make the book seem like a chore to read. It was a delight - a fast-moving, epic tale, which is funny as well as moving.
In its broad sweep and linguistic creativity this is on the Rushdie end of the spectrum for Indian novels, but more accessible (and I say that as someone who really likes Salman Rushdie).
76wandering_star
Couple of thoughts from my last few days of reading. I was really struck by the fact that although these books are all hugely different from each other, in content and style, none of them present something completely new in terms of images of India. I suppose that is a sign of just how much Indian writing is available. All these books were written in English, though - it would be really interesting to see whether translated fiction from India is clearly different.
That said, I did think that we should play some sort of 'image bingo' with the books. The Ambassador car, for example, certainly cropped up in the latter two books and possibly in all three.
That said, I did think that we should play some sort of 'image bingo' with the books. The Ambassador car, for example, certainly cropped up in the latter two books and possibly in all three.
77avaland
I am also going to post early, as I am likely to forget if I don't.
While I intend to read the Indian portion of my ongoing contemporary Asian women writers anthology sometime in the near future, I did read Nectar in a Sieve by Kamala Markandaya yesterday.
A bestseller in 1954/55, Nectar in a Sieve is a short novel about the life of Rukmani, the 4th daughter of a village headman and was given in marriage at age 12 to a tenant farmer in rural southern India in the time just after India's independence from Britain. It is a nicely written, but heart-wrenching story of cyclical poverty, adaptation to change, courage, and a certain nobility of acceptance. Making periodic appearances in the story is a British doctor, Kenny, who provides a Western viewpoint as a counterpoint:
(Kenny)...'I have told you before, he said, I will repeat it again: you must cry out if you want help. It is no use whatsoever to suffer in silence. Who will succour the drowning man if he does not clamour for his life.'
(Rukmani) 'It is said—' I began
(Kenny) 'Never mind what is said of what you have been told. There is no grandeur in want—or in endurance.'
(Rukmani) 'Privately I thought, Well, and what if we have in to our troubles at every step! We would be pitiable creatures indeed to be so weak, for it not a man's spirit given to him to rise above his misfortunes? As for our wants, they are many and unfilled, for who is so rich or compassionate as to supply them? Want is our companion from birth to death, familiar as the seasons or the earth, varying only in degree. What profit to bewail that which has always been and cannot change?'
Despite the unrelenting poverty and disaster, the story of Rukmani's survival and resilience is compelling and moving. I could not help though but think that the story resembled the genre of American stories about the wisdom of rural simplicity... (which may have been why it was a bestseller) yet, it also reminded me a bit of Nigerian author Buchi Emecheta's work about women's lives caught in the transition between tradition and modernity.
About the author: Kamala Markandaya, (1924-2004) is the pseudonym of Kamala Purnaiya Taylor, who was an author and journalist. She married a fellow journalist, Bernard Taylor, and moved in 1948 to Britain after India's independence. She is the author of ten novels and is considered a literary "pioneer of the Indian diaspora". A nice 'homage' can be read HERE
While I intend to read the Indian portion of my ongoing contemporary Asian women writers anthology sometime in the near future, I did read Nectar in a Sieve by Kamala Markandaya yesterday.
A bestseller in 1954/55, Nectar in a Sieve is a short novel about the life of Rukmani, the 4th daughter of a village headman and was given in marriage at age 12 to a tenant farmer in rural southern India in the time just after India's independence from Britain. It is a nicely written, but heart-wrenching story of cyclical poverty, adaptation to change, courage, and a certain nobility of acceptance. Making periodic appearances in the story is a British doctor, Kenny, who provides a Western viewpoint as a counterpoint:
(Kenny)...'I have told you before, he said, I will repeat it again: you must cry out if you want help. It is no use whatsoever to suffer in silence. Who will succour the drowning man if he does not clamour for his life.'
(Rukmani) 'It is said—' I began
(Kenny) 'Never mind what is said of what you have been told. There is no grandeur in want—or in endurance.'
(Rukmani) 'Privately I thought, Well, and what if we have in to our troubles at every step! We would be pitiable creatures indeed to be so weak, for it not a man's spirit given to him to rise above his misfortunes? As for our wants, they are many and unfilled, for who is so rich or compassionate as to supply them? Want is our companion from birth to death, familiar as the seasons or the earth, varying only in degree. What profit to bewail that which has always been and cannot change?'
Despite the unrelenting poverty and disaster, the story of Rukmani's survival and resilience is compelling and moving. I could not help though but think that the story resembled the genre of American stories about the wisdom of rural simplicity... (which may have been why it was a bestseller) yet, it also reminded me a bit of Nigerian author Buchi Emecheta's work about women's lives caught in the transition between tradition and modernity.
About the author: Kamala Markandaya, (1924-2004) is the pseudonym of Kamala Purnaiya Taylor, who was an author and journalist. She married a fellow journalist, Bernard Taylor, and moved in 1948 to Britain after India's independence. She is the author of ten novels and is considered a literary "pioneer of the Indian diaspora". A nice 'homage' can be read HERE
78urania1
I have just finished R. K. Narayan's The Bachelor of Fine Arts and continue to read Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors. Of the former, I am still pondering why this book reminds me of a Jane Austen novel. Of the latter, my world has been turned upside down. Everything I thought I knew about Indian cuisine has gone out the window. I've been sobbing into my dal nightly. I am also learning a lot about Indian history along the way. I am preparing a Curry Quiz for this thread once I finish the book. I am also reading Was Hinduism Invented? by a former colleague of mine. I figure I might as well toss everything I thought I knew about India out the window while I'm at it.
India-wise, all was going well for me until I was distracted by Effie Briest, a German novel that has absolutely nothing to do with India. In fact, I had never heard of it until yesterday evening, when I found out (quite by accident) that Thomas Mann considered it one the six best German novels of all time. I immediately rushed to my beloved (but inconstant) Baron von Kindle. He had the book, and zuts, today I read Effie, milk the goats, and mulch the rose beds. Query: Why was I reading about Thomas Mann last night????
P.S. Curry Question of the Day: Why have none of urania's husbands liked curry?
India-wise, all was going well for me until I was distracted by Effie Briest, a German novel that has absolutely nothing to do with India. In fact, I had never heard of it until yesterday evening, when I found out (quite by accident) that Thomas Mann considered it one the six best German novels of all time. I immediately rushed to my beloved (but inconstant) Baron von Kindle. He had the book, and zuts, today I read Effie, milk the goats, and mulch the rose beds. Query: Why was I reading about Thomas Mann last night????
P.S. Curry Question of the Day: Why have none of urania's husbands liked curry?
79A_musing
Obviously, urania, they didn't like spice in their lives.
I assume that's why they married a demure and unassertive domesticant who spends her time (after the house is spic-and-span) reading away at Oprah-endorsed paperpacks, pausing only to debate whether to use cream or milk in the mashed potatos, because he likes cream but milk is better for him? Am I right?
My wife and I survived school splitting veggie thalie platters, so we are co-conspirators in curry.
I'm impressed at the head start everyone has on the enormity that is India! I like Wandering Star's "densely allusive" as a description of all of your descriptions. It sounds like some of this lit is changing perceptions of the civilization. Yes?
I've pushed it elsewhere before, but if you want a Thomas Mann recommendation relating to India, The Transposed Heads is one of my favorites... Not by someone from India, but, interestingly, a rarely told legend of India repopularized in India by Mann's book.
I assume that's why they married a demure and unassertive domesticant who spends her time (after the house is spic-and-span) reading away at Oprah-endorsed paperpacks, pausing only to debate whether to use cream or milk in the mashed potatos, because he likes cream but milk is better for him? Am I right?
My wife and I survived school splitting veggie thalie platters, so we are co-conspirators in curry.
I'm impressed at the head start everyone has on the enormity that is India! I like Wandering Star's "densely allusive" as a description of all of your descriptions. It sounds like some of this lit is changing perceptions of the civilization. Yes?
I've pushed it elsewhere before, but if you want a Thomas Mann recommendation relating to India, The Transposed Heads is one of my favorites... Not by someone from India, but, interestingly, a rarely told legend of India repopularized in India by Mann's book.
80markon
A_musing - yes, let's get a second thread going.
In addition to the hungry tide I'm also reading some stories from Story-Wallah: short fiction from South Asian writers (touchstone not working) edited by Shyam Selvadurai. This is a mix of contemporary authors, mainly from India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan (Canada, Trinidad, Sri Lanka . . .)
I'm reading just the authors from India to start with. So far my favorite is "The Courter" by Rushdie for the combination of humor and pathos, along with the evocation of the time using popular music. (The only other Rushdie I've read is Harouun and the sea of stories.)
In addition to the hungry tide I'm also reading some stories from Story-Wallah: short fiction from South Asian writers (touchstone not working) edited by Shyam Selvadurai. This is a mix of contemporary authors, mainly from India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan (Canada, Trinidad, Sri Lanka . . .)
I'm reading just the authors from India to start with. So far my favorite is "The Courter" by Rushdie for the combination of humor and pathos, along with the evocation of the time using popular music. (The only other Rushdie I've read is Harouun and the sea of stories.)
81urania1
>79 A_musing:
I am wroth!!!! "Demure and unassertive domesticant who spends her time (after the house is spic-and-span) reading away at Oprah-endorsed paperpacks!!!!!! How insulting. As for cream vs. milk? Why do you think we keep goats? The stuff sold in US grocery story is not milk. We drink the milk unseparated and unpasteurized.
I am wroth!!!! "Demure and unassertive domesticant who spends her time (after the house is spic-and-span) reading away at Oprah-endorsed paperpacks!!!!!! How insulting. As for cream vs. milk? Why do you think we keep goats? The stuff sold in US grocery story is not milk. We drink the milk unseparated and unpasteurized.
82A_musing
I thought that was only logical given their views on curry. My apologies if my logic overwhelmed my perception. I trust any future husbands will be gastronomically screened?
Markon, I was ready to give up on creating a separate thread since it looked like everyone was just posting here. I'll try to open one and move over the relevant posts later today.
Markon, I was ready to give up on creating a separate thread since it looked like everyone was just posting here. I'll try to open one and move over the relevant posts later today.
83vpfluke
I immensely enjoyed reading A River Sutra by Gita Mehta. These are connected stories narrated by a retired bureaucrat in a forest get-away, recording the people he meets. For me it had a spiritual component. Perhaps, I should read it again.
84urania1
>75 wandering_star: The Great Indian Novel has been on my wishlist for a long time.
>82 A_musing: A_musing, The Transposed Heads is sitting on height of Mt. TBR that I have yet to scale.
By the by, I really enjoyed Lee Siegel's City of Dreadful Night, which plays on Rudyard Kipling among others. A great vampire story by the way.
>82 A_musing: A_musing, The Transposed Heads is sitting on height of Mt. TBR that I have yet to scale.
By the by, I really enjoyed Lee Siegel's City of Dreadful Night, which plays on Rudyard Kipling among others. A great vampire story by the way.
85urania1
Uplifting news for curry lovers everywhere: Curry compound kills cancer cells, study shows.
86wandering_star
>84 urania1: - it had been sitting on my shelf for at least 5 years. I never felt like picking it up, until I was looking for India reads... but I'm very glad I did.
88A_musing
I did open a discussion thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/75816
89urania1
>88 A_musing: So??? ;-)
90rebeccanyc
I just received The Last Jet-Engine Laugh, which wandering_star recommended above (#28) and plan to read that, and possibly also Love and Longing in Bombay, a collection of stories by Vikram Chandra, the author of Sacred Games, which has been on my TBR for quite a while.
