Which One Is Different?
Do all Indians look alike? No. But those who write do. Or that is what Stephen Thompson believes. His review of Vikram Chandra’s Sacred Games begins with the following observation:
Here are certain books that are so similar to one another they almost beg to be grouped together. This is largely true of Indian novels. Look closely at the ones published in the past, say, 25 years, and you’ll see that they’re virtually identical, in theme if not in style and content. For me, Midnight’s Children is indivisible from A Fine Balance, which in turn cannot be separated from A Suitable Boy.
Thanks for the note, Maud, who got it from here.
For a better read on the novel, go to Jeet Thayil’s review in Outlook. Thayil, a poet of note, is full of praise for Chandra’s language:
And one of the delights, for this reader at least, is the Bambaiyya Hindi, presented without italics, explanation, or apology: the apradhis, khabaris and pocket-maars, the bhais and boys, the gullels and ghodas, the phataks and phachaks, the kutiyas, chaavvis and randis, the bibis and bhabhis, the chutiyas, maderchods and bhenchods, the bidhus, budhaus, bhadves and bhadvis, the mausambis and dudh-ki-tankis, the khaddas and golis, the langotiya yaars and bada dushmans, the dhandas and dandis, the thokos and ghochis, the gaandus, namoonas, haramis, saalis and saalas, the lauda lasoons and langda-lullas. These are words that occur so often in Bombay they can be plucked out of the city’s dirty air. But Chandra has done more. He uses them with such unerring gusto that they become celebratory, incantatory, not a code for insiders but something shared, like a song on the radio.
Thanks for the link to Thomson’s review. Though it is simplistic to bunch all the big books of IWE together, the way he does in the intro, Thomson’s is the first review that is not all going ra ra for the Sacred Games.
Apart from the appreciation, Thomson has also noted a few things in the review that are interesting (and could be debatable):
“Chandra spent a lot of time researching his book. He hung out with police officers as well as members of the criminal fraternity. But has all the hard work paid off? Not entirely. The novel excites and exasperates in equal measure. The problem for Chandra is that he wants to have his cake and eat it. He wants to write a crime caper and still be ‘literary’. Hence all the flowery language and endless digressions which do nothing but slow down what is otherwise a very engrossing story. The pace of the book is further hampered by an infuriating tendency to give potted histories to even the most minor characters. And then there’s the problem of the two protagonists. In the end, they just don’t ring true. Sartaj Singh must be the most self-aware policeman that ever drew breath, while Ganesh Gaitonde, a career criminal with no formal education, gives much too eloquent an account of his rise to power.”
And read this one: “All in all, this is a very patchy read. At the heart of the book is a very clever detective yarn which any crime writer would be proud of, but Chandra surrounds it with so much verbiage you could scream. Oh for a bit of judicious editing. At 900 pages, the book is too long. Chandra may have departed from the typical Indian novel in terms of subject matter, but when it comes to length, he reveals himself to be every bit the traditionalist. Sacred Games, alas, is the poorer because of this.”
Comment by Zafar — August 29, 2006 @ 11:36 pm
The intensity of the discussion surrounding Sacred Games might eclipse the novel itself. I suspect it will become one of those books about which people have an opinion whether or not they have read it.
I have some sympathy with the suggestion of a “literary” novelist slumming it by writing crime, but I also note with interest Jeet Thayil’s comments. Almost every commentator has singled out Chandra’s use of Bombay argot. As I have written on my blog, I look forward to it.
And now, to drop out of the discussion for a while and start reading the novel!
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Detectives Beyond Borders
“Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home”
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Comment by Peter — January 9, 2007 @ 4:34 pm