I'm giving up! Sorry Mr. Chandra, I've given you 227 pages, and that's all the time I have to waste. This book has been on my list ever since I read Shantaram, but I thought I'd better have a break from epic Indian novels before I started this one. It is definitely epic, at 900 fairly dense pages.
My main objection is that the plot is just not interesting enough. The main story that follows Sartaj and Ganesh Gaitonde has some good moments, but even these are overpowered by the vast array of boring side stories. These are often lengthy chapters, and while I was reading them I had to fight the urge to flip pages to get back to the main plot.
There is a lot of untranslated Hindi mixed in with the text, but I didn't mind that at all. I thought the writing was reasonably good, but not enough to appreciate it on its own in the absence of a decent story.
If Chandra had a competent editor and re-told the same story in 500 pages would it be good? I doubt it. Shantaram is a far better book about the Mumbai underworld. I've also heard some good things about Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found by Suketu Mehta, so I might give that a go in the future.
1 star.
No comments:
Post a Comment