Sacred Games: A Novel (P.S.) by Vikram Chandra
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Book Reviews of Sacred Games: A Novel (P.S.)
Book Review: This book rocks.
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm not even finished with this book (170 pages left to go) but I feel compelled to write a review because this book is simply great. It's emotional, it's suspenseful, it's beautifully written... in short, it's everything you're looking for. It's one of those books where you don't want it to end, so it's actually fortunate it's so hefty. Don't read anymore about it - just order it. You won't regret it.Book Review: not a problem with the vender
Summary: 5 Stars
The book is fine - no problems. Unfortunately it was sent by UPS, and I never got it. I had to complain to Amazon, and they sent me (very promptly) a second copy. A week later, I got notice that the first copy was returned as "undeliverable". We were here the whole time. USPS, in our experience, is much more reliable.
Book Review: A thoroughly satisfying read
Summary: 5 Stars
I have been a big fan of Indian fiction for some time and found this book a great read on a par with the best (A Suitable Boy, MIdnight's Children, you name it).Book Review: Loved it
Summary: 5 Stars
Fabulous, thrilling book. I feel as if i know more about the real India than before.Book Review: Thriller and social study in one
Summary: 4 Stars
Vikram Chandra's Sacred Games combines the attractions of genre literature with a meticulous social portrayal of that most fascinating of countries: modern India.
The novel's chosen format is that of a detective story, with ex-playboy, philosophically inclined Sikh police inspector Sartaj Singh chasing the tail of Bombay's most notorious gangster boss. We are also given the gory and satisfyingly prurient tale of the gangster's rise to chiefdom. But it is best never to betray too much of a thriller's plot. Suffice it to mention that the storyline takes on nationally and even internationally threatening dimensions, as well as going through the Bombay mob and the police's more modest, everyday battles.
The pace never flags through the book's massive 900 pages. No doubt Chandra is a capital storyteller, but this also owes something to the author's evident knowledge of his subject and acquaintance with the travails of the Bombay police force; one can feel the author has sweated and put in the hours for his reader. And beyond this, whole swathes of Indian society are put under the microscope. This is no set-piece version of sacred, historical India. What we have is an equally brutal and endearing, and invariably contradictory picture of a country in full transformation. Sacred Games ranges from the Bollywood scene to Bengali slums, from Naxalite battlegrounds to new-rich condominiums and from the Singhs' family farm in Maharashtra to the corridors of power in Delhi. It even manages to make the inevitable expository piece about the partition tragedy realistic and appealing.
The writing is elegant without - surprisingly for such a tome - being wordy, granting a large place to dialogue. It contains a number of English Indian words, but while this leaves the non-native curious, it isn't detrimental to his or her comprehension or enjoyment. I was warming up to my own imagined ending, to be disappointed that the author chose another direction. On reflection, though, Chandra's moralistic but not moralising denouement is much better than mine.