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racheladventure's review against another edition
3.0
This was the first book I read upon arriving in India. It was recommended to me by my friend, Jay, who said that this was a great representation of his first experience being in India, so I had it added to my directed readings course contract.
It is hard to sum up 500 pages worth of words, but I’ll try my best. This is about modern India, but a slightly dated version at that. While it is interesting (most of the time), thorough, and great at painting a sort of portrait for the reader of the complexity of this country, it is also very dark. It has a very negative tone to it and appears to be Naipaul’s trip to explore his own Indian heritage but at the same time note the “million mutinies” and overwhelming problems the country faces. I wonder sometimes if his commentary on Calcutta, about it being a dying city, and recognizing that because everyone is suffering is actually his opinion on the whole country (325). In general I would have liked to see if he had any positive experiences that were just not recorded here.
A question I would ask Naipaul is how he came up with enough notes to get these extremely detailed scenes. Every word and every line and every wall color is noted. Yet, towards the end of this book we get a confession that the first book he wrote about India he did without keeping any kind of field journal (367). Being on a field experience myself and trying to do some creative writing about India I cannot imagine not keeping a journal. For this book he says he also took no tape-recorder (14). It makes me seriously question how much of these stories he includes are fiction. How exactly did he get the “Ideas” and abstracts to “become books…clothed with people and narrative” (13). In general, as a field student, I would have liked to see more of what his experience was getting this informants and what the field work part of this traveling looked like. One thing is for sure though, as I am quickly starting to realize, “in order to write about India…you had to spend a lot of time in India” (297). Sometimes I wonder how I am going to be able to really write what I would like to write based on just over three months of experiences here.
I did enjoy his images, especially of the crowds. While my experience in India might not be as similar to my friend Jay’s, many of these scenes have played out before me. The traffic. The modern India, the one that has Gandhi’s face all over rupee notes but no more homespun cloth or trace of his seemingly archaic politics. It is just all very fascinating what has happened since India’s independence, and I appreciated Naipaul’s commentary. I would like to know more about where India is now, especially given the GPD that is supposed to pass China. It does not seem to be in such a negative position as this book would lend us to believe, though the country clearly faces serious problems in the near future—population, food, fuel, jobs, etc.
Would I recommend this book? Probably. But would I read it again? Definitely not. It was a great history lesson, but it was a difficult read.
It is hard to sum up 500 pages worth of words, but I’ll try my best. This is about modern India, but a slightly dated version at that. While it is interesting (most of the time), thorough, and great at painting a sort of portrait for the reader of the complexity of this country, it is also very dark. It has a very negative tone to it and appears to be Naipaul’s trip to explore his own Indian heritage but at the same time note the “million mutinies” and overwhelming problems the country faces. I wonder sometimes if his commentary on Calcutta, about it being a dying city, and recognizing that because everyone is suffering is actually his opinion on the whole country (325). In general I would have liked to see if he had any positive experiences that were just not recorded here.
A question I would ask Naipaul is how he came up with enough notes to get these extremely detailed scenes. Every word and every line and every wall color is noted. Yet, towards the end of this book we get a confession that the first book he wrote about India he did without keeping any kind of field journal (367). Being on a field experience myself and trying to do some creative writing about India I cannot imagine not keeping a journal. For this book he says he also took no tape-recorder (14). It makes me seriously question how much of these stories he includes are fiction. How exactly did he get the “Ideas” and abstracts to “become books…clothed with people and narrative” (13). In general, as a field student, I would have liked to see more of what his experience was getting this informants and what the field work part of this traveling looked like. One thing is for sure though, as I am quickly starting to realize, “in order to write about India…you had to spend a lot of time in India” (297). Sometimes I wonder how I am going to be able to really write what I would like to write based on just over three months of experiences here.
I did enjoy his images, especially of the crowds. While my experience in India might not be as similar to my friend Jay’s, many of these scenes have played out before me. The traffic. The modern India, the one that has Gandhi’s face all over rupee notes but no more homespun cloth or trace of his seemingly archaic politics. It is just all very fascinating what has happened since India’s independence, and I appreciated Naipaul’s commentary. I would like to know more about where India is now, especially given the GPD that is supposed to pass China. It does not seem to be in such a negative position as this book would lend us to believe, though the country clearly faces serious problems in the near future—population, food, fuel, jobs, etc.
Would I recommend this book? Probably. But would I read it again? Definitely not. It was a great history lesson, but it was a difficult read.
scottapeshot's review against another edition
5.0
Naipaul's trenchant and precise language is luxurious and intoxicating. He presents a variety of personalities and situations from across India, a rather casual sampling considering the vast population of the country. While he manages well to describe and give a feeling to the various regions, cities, desperations and exultations of the country, he does not quite manage to pull the picture together in any regard save the historical. And the historical insights he gives are extremely valuable, perhaps providing the only clue to the continued fate of the Indian people.
jonathanfs's review against another edition
5.0
Naipaul brought out details of his myriad interactions with incredibly diverse people in a way that made me feel like I was actually in the palaces and shanties witnessing his heartfelt conversations about the rapid changes and innumerable complexities of 20th century Indian life. I read and enjoyed Steinbeck's Travels with Charley a few months ago; Naipaul raised the genre to a new level.
indyreadrosa's review against another edition
5.0
Unsurprisingly given the author this was a delightful read. Imagine a really long New Yorker article that covers decades and most of a subcontinent. That is what it's like. Men, women from many types of life listen and interact with Naipaul as he shares his experience with us. Just fantastic and I want more.
spacestationtrustfund's review against another edition
3.0
Read for research for ethnographic distribution paper
rkapil7's review against another edition
4.0
Done with the chapter on Mumbai - And it is truest of the true portrait of different personalities we encounter only in this city- There are Shiv Sena leaders, underworld dons, screenplay writer from bollywood & Dalit poet who talk about what can be called as an insider view of Mumbai & politics within politics, set in the Mumbai landscapes - whether chawls of Dadar or slums of Dharavi. Magnificent! Such portrait i had only encountered in Marathi literature in India.
Done with whole book and if you could skim through unimportant information (of too much personal information of the people interviewed) and if you want to know about human face of -
Shiv Sena in Mumbai
Periyar in Chennai
Communists in Kolkata
Nawabs in Lucknow
Bhindarwales in Punjab
and changing socio-economic structures making caste structure redundant
then this book is for you!
Done with whole book and if you could skim through unimportant information (of too much personal information of the people interviewed) and if you want to know about human face of -
Shiv Sena in Mumbai
Periyar in Chennai
Communists in Kolkata
Nawabs in Lucknow
Bhindarwales in Punjab
and changing socio-economic structures making caste structure redundant
then this book is for you!
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