Red Earth and Pouring Rain (Faber Essentials)
by Vikram Chandra
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Book Summary Information
Author: Vikram ChandraEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2001-03
ISBN: 0571203086
Number of pages: 624
Publisher: Faber & Faber Ltd
Book Reviews of Red Earth and Pouring Rain (Faber Essentials)
Book Review: Monkey Business
Summary: 4 Stars
Vikram Chandra is a facile, exuberant storyteller with a loose, headlong prose style that keeps a reader eagerly turning pages. Like Tolstoy, he fits his words so smoothly over the skin of reality than you mistake them for reality itself.
In this, his first novel, he juggles two stories. The most compelling recounts the adventures of Sanjay, a 19th century Indian poet, and his soldier friend Sikander. The other story follows Abhay, an Indian student trying to find his footing in 1980s America. The novel's theme is cultural penetration. Sanjay spends his life trying to reconcile the myths and magic of his native country with the cold, blue-eyed stare of British rationality. Abhay, shaken up in the global pop blender, struggles to understand who he really is. Sanjay and Abhay end up in a cultural no man's land: they're drawn to the fecund inner world of India, but repulsed by the chaos that ensues from this way of looking at reality; they're attracted to the scientific rationalism of the west, but can't live comfortably in such a stark, arid place.
The storytelling is rollicking and robust, and the penetration is literal: swords, bullets, arrows, flames pierce human flesh and there are many cross cultural couplings. There's a mystical element as well. Sanjay's story is told by a reincarnated version of himself, a monkey with access to his human consciousness. He types his tale, and it's read out loud by Abhay's family to a crowd gathered outside. Among the listeners are the Indian gods Yama, Ganesha and Hanuman. If the story fails to enthrall the listeners, Yama, god of death, will end this particular life cycle of Sanjay's.
Fortunately for Sanjay and us, the story does enthrall. As he did in his subsequent novel, Sacred Games, Chandra takes big narrative risks by trying to meld two essentially unrelated tales. It works better here because both stories grapple with the same cultural conundrum, thus enriching each other. In Red Earth, Chandra has put a specific Indian twist on the human dilemma. Our reason is an imperfect tool for penetrating the mysteries of existence, and has been a poor tool for organizing the human community, too often used to subjugate, enslave or exterminate peoples. But plunging headlong into the world of feelings, emotions and intuition too often cuts us off from material and cultural progress. Like India, Sanjay and Abhay struggle to integrate political freedom, western rationality and the eastern mysterium tremendum. The effort frequently leaves them exhausted and off-balance.
Chandra has a big vision, huge ambition and immense talent. If he keeps at it, some day he just might be India's Tolstoy.
Summary of Red Earth and Pouring Rain (Faber Essentials)
A tale of 19th-century India: of Sanjay, a poet, and Sikander, a warrior; of great wars and love affairs and a city gone "mad with poetry". Woven into this tapestry of stories is a second, modern narrative - the adventures of a young Indian criss-crossing America in a car with his friends.Literature & Fiction Books
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