Tag Archives: India
*** Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity is the raw and tender story of two families, living in a slum right beside the glittering Mumbai airport, a slum where only six of the 3,000 residents … Continue reading
Filed under Non fiction
** Last Man in Tower by Aravind Adiga
I had liked Aravind Adiga’s White Tiger, an edgy story about a driver turned entrepreneur in a Bangalore with rich and poor, and seemingly no one in the middle, and I liked Last Man in Tower, a tale of real … Continue reading
Filed under New fiction
** The Cat’s Table by Michael Ondaatje
Enticingly exotic, beautifully written, and masterfully constructed, The Cat’s Table just did not grab me the way I thought it might. The cat’s table of the title is the least desirable table of an ocean liner that transports the hero, … Continue reading
Filed under New fiction
** Miss New India by Bharati Mukherjee
I’m giving a generous two-star ratings to Miss New India because of the first half of the book, which tells of the heroine, an ambitious young Indian woman from a small town and without many prospects, to glittering Bangalore, hoping … Continue reading
Filed under New fiction
*** India Calling by Anand Giridharadas
India Calling reminded me of River Town and Factory Girls, two books about China but with a very similar feel of being able to penetrate into the daily lives of locals. Now this book is about India rather than China, … Continue reading
Filed under Non fiction
Between the Assasinations by Aravind Adiga
Having loved The White Tiger, I picked up Between the Assassinations with high expectations — and I was disappointed. Not that the stories of the sleepy Indian town of Kittur fail to show the caste conflicts and how they are … Continue reading
Filed under New fiction
Atlas of Unknowns by Tania James
Atlas of Unknowns tells the story of two Indian sisters, one who has a chance, not wholly deserved, to study in the US, while the other stays home and takes care of her father and grandmother. The tortuous visa application … Continue reading
Filed under New fiction
Leaving India by Minal Hajratwala
Leaving India tells the story of the Indian diaspora through the author’s extended family who, over the years, migrated from India to Fiji, South Africa, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, and the United States. That’s fascinating historical and personal material, but … Continue reading
Filed under True story
Q&A by Vikas Swarup
Q & A is the delightful novel that inspired the movie Slumdog Millionaire so the suspense was off since I’d seen the movie before reading the book (he wins and game show and he gets the girl!) — but I … Continue reading
Filed under New fiction
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Since I recently made fun of over-the-top Indian epics I must admit that Cutting for Stone features conjoined twins, political coups, a miraculously avoided plane crash, female circumcision, death by syphilis, death by typhoid, and that does not even include … Continue reading
Filed under New fiction
