Sacred Games: A Novel (P.S.) by Vikram Chandra
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Book Reviews of Sacred Games: A Novel (P.S.)
Book Review: Good book but disappointed a bit after reading Shantaram
Summary: 3 Stars
I liked this book but wish I had not read Shantaram before. If you liked this, Shantaram is a 100 times even better. Now that's a book about Bombay street life, slums, police etc and it's based on true events (by Gregory David Roberts). It will be one of the best books you will have ever read. Everything else seems bland next to that so I wish I had not read it until a few years from now .Book Review: Superficial, overrated and ultimately a waste of time
Summary: 2 Stars
I was pretty disappointed with this novel, mainly because of Chandra's writing style. I've read a fair amount of contemporary South Asian lit., and Chandra falls well below writers such as Rushdie or Ghose. I've been to Bombay, and somewhat familiar with the city and language, and Chandra does a fair job of creating local verisimilitude. But his writing style is facile, in the best and worst sense of the word. He has a great ease with language, and he lets it get away from him because of this ease. His use of adjectives, for example, seems to be the same for almost all people and things. In a very typical Post Modern way he is always stressing shimmering surfaces, superficial aspects, and the "interconnectedness_ of things. He is a typical PoMo author in that he is always stressing the playfulness of things - while attempting to write a crime novel. His register just isn't suitable for the topic at hand - he renders his own subject trite.
The inserts are a waste of time, and again, critiquing his register, all the characters sound approximately the same. There are some good passages, but there are some very badly written ones. I got the feeling after 200 pages or so that he had a number of hopppers, like the ones used for Powerball, Lotto, whatever state you're in (I'm in Kathmandu Nepal), and gave 'em a twirl whenever he needed to described something, and then just plucked out adjectives. Like Vikram Seth, Chandra is a talented writer. Unlike Seth, he seems to have little to say. So he likes telling stories. He could use a good editor. I have nothing against long novels - I've waded through Proust's tome twice now, and read Joyce, Tolstoy, Rushdie, many long novels. This one is just beach reading.
If you want a good book on Bombay, pick up Sukhetu Mehta's non-fiction work "Bombaby Maximum City." And give this one a pass.
Book Review: Not worth the time!
Summary: 2 Stars
A weak story of the intertwined lives of movie stars, underworld dons, shady police inspectors in the ever-evolving city of Mumbai. The characters are weak and events seem to be taken from newspaper clippings related to Dawood Ibrahim or even an infamous movie of Ram Gopal Verma.
The constant cussing and local slang is the only taste of Mumbai that the author cares to provide and nothing of the vitality that makes Mumbai ever comes on the surface.
Narrative skills are worthy of being compared to the skills of Jackie Collins!
Book Review: A Dreadful Time In India.
Summary: 1 Stars
I had high hopes for this novel, as I thought we had another Khaled Hosseini in our midst. However, it was unfortunately not to be. This paperweight of a book is quite a bore. The main character is as mundane as sheet rock. I could not finish this tome. The author seemed to have a dreadful lack of self-confidence in his literary acumen. So much so that he went overboard trying to make up for his shortcomings. The proses continue listlessly ad infinitum. He seemingly writes just to fill the page.