A More Extensive Book List Of Indian Reading?

Karma Queen

I'm new to indiamike.com, so this topic may have been done to death, but i wanted to ask:

What are your favourite novels about India? I love love love City Of Joy by Dominique LaPierre. Its really wonderful and offers a great insight into India's poverty. it's been made into a film with patrick swavze (sp?) but that's rubbish!

I'm reading Indian Summer by Will Randall at the moment. an entertaining read, about an english man who finds himself teaching in a pune slum.

velure

G'day Karma Queen,
Yeah Dominique Lapierre is pretty good - you should check out his other offering too, "Five Past Midnight in Bhopal" - pretty good read, albeit a bit depressing as it deals with the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal.. but a very good read. Another book I've read recently is "The Jadu House" by Laura Roychowdhury, whilst strictly not a novel it almost reads like one.. written as an autobiographics story by a western academic trying to understand anglo histories of India, it's a great read - draws the stories of the railways in bengal, anglo indian histories, indian bureaucracy etc all together very well. "God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy is pretty good too. "The Romantics" by Pankaj Mishra was also quite good, although I thought he could have done with less incidental characters and more description in it.

beach

Not a novel.

India Unbound by Gurcharan Das is a very interesting book with a blend of history,politics and ecconomics along with a great over view about the society.

ISBN:0670882658 , Penguin India , Rs500

coconut wireless

I have just started a very interesting book "Maximum City" Bombay Lost and Found by Suketu Mehta. the author is an NRI journalist who writes about the city he was born in.

Would love to hear from anyone else who has read the book and recommendations for other good books, similar.. have read a lot of books on India so this could be a challenge for you out in cyberspace.

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traveling with aloha
the coconut wireless

Curryholic

Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri and Fine Balance, Family Matters and Such a Long Journey by Rohinton Mistry are other great Bombay reads.

coconut wireless

Thanks the second book Being Indian: Inside the Real India by Pavan Varma sounds like one I'd be more interested in but couldn't find it on amazon. is it out yet. Can I buy it in India? probably -- I found he had another "Like That Only", which also sounds very interesting. the one I'm reading now is fascinating - would love to hear some comments if anyone out there is reading it or has read it.
aloha

shahashim

Not a huge fan of Bombay Max. I really like a few chapters, but I found the prostitute, gang, and beer bar bits--75% of the book--self-indulgent. Seems like he's just stroking some fetishes. Does he really need to leave New York to explore the motivation of hookers and thugs? When I lived in New York, I saw plenty of these folks--why not just talk to them?

Some sections are great, though. He really articulates the life of a Bombay outsider--from the ubiquitous response of "No, not possible" to not understanding how to find basic items like groceries. Also, I found his story about the Jain family riveting.

I would suggest cutting this book down from 600 pages to 150 by reading only reading the first chapter in Part 1, the first chapter in Part II, and all of Part III.

Fiction suggestions, the usual suspects: Rushdie, Naipaul, Mistry, Kipling, and Lahiri. Also, the Gita.

rangss

Just started to read River Dog by Mark Shand...

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coconut wireless

thanks for your suggestion

i am about half way through with Maximum City and I can't say I am too keen on it. The author left India in his teens for New York but after college wanted to go back to Mumbai to live but more importantly I think to write this book. He focuses on the dark side of the city (prostitution, mafia, corruption, etc.) and I find the book very negative. It has almost made me decide not to finish the book. I am not saying that there is no truth in what he is writing only that I would like to red something positive.
After he finishes the book he returns to New York where as a journalist the cover says he is based. Well, I think that tells you something right there.

traveling with aloha
the coconut wireless

mira4bai4

Here is a recommendation from my avid reader Vivien, "The Seduction of Silence", by Bem Le Hunte from Harper Collins ISBN 0-7322-6751-X

brightspark

One of my alltime favouries.. which I have not seen any of the recommendations is "The Great Indian Novel" by Shashi Tharoor.

It is a fictionalised account. .with personalities active around the independence and early post independence periods.. juxtaposed with the Mahabharata...

It is extremely well written and has a special homour and with.

Some years ago.. Bhasham's "A wonder that was India" was considered a good book to read.

For persons interested in the basic history or geography of the country explained in very simple terms.. would also find it useful to read.. middle school history / geography books.. I find this to be true about most countries.

Also for persons with interest in Indian mythology and history. (or rather mythological and historical personalities), they will find the Amar Chitra Katha... which are thin, inexpensive comic books written for children.. focus on a personality and events around that personality..they are also available in other languages besides English and Hindi, now.

Also if you are learning Hindi (or another Indian language), you may perhaps find it interesting, to buy copies of Amar Chitra Katha in Hindi.. with pictures etc.. even with a very basic knowledge of hindi... the general story line may not be difficult to understand... and this could be a good exercise in developing confidence in learning to read Hindi..

Try doing this almost as soon as you learn the alphabets and a few words.. perhaps you could buy an English version of the same title..

Bengal Tiger

the first book i would ask anyone to read about india, is "discovery of india" by jawaharlal nehru, especially a chapter by the same name (as the title)....

Xanadu

This is the first thread I've posted and I'm sure it must have been said before but anyway...'A Suitable Boy' by Vikram Seth is an absolutely fantastic novel. It's epic size (1400 pages plus) is quite intimidating but I became quickly engrossed in this interwoven tapestry of Indian family life. The author is absurdly knowledgeable and includes prose on aspects of Indian culture from poetry and music to history and law. The characters are intricately developed as he has so much space to do so and he captures the struggle between generational values perfectly. The title is a reference to a mother's quest to find her daughter a husband but of course that is no easy task since he must be from the right caste, family, wealth etc. It is an old theme but a base for a rich and complex novel.

The story of the Mehra family and those they are involved with is set to the backdrop of India in the infancy of it's independance. He uses this to highlight the ill's of religious conflict and the corruption of politicians. Real life characters are used as well such as Nehru and Mahesh Kapoor. The book is set in the fictional town of Brahmpur but the characters travel to real cities which gives Seth the vehicle to paint his picture of Indian life in different parts.

The book inspired me to plan my first trip to India (later this month) and to read more Indian literature.

rahulcal

A really brilliant book where scholarship does not overshadow readability !

GQwerty123

William Dalrymple- City of Djinns, Last Mogul, White Moguls

VS Naipul- India: A wounded civililzation, India: A million mutinies now (A personal favorite of mine)

Stanley Wolpert- India (Very academic and dense, but very informative)

Maximum City is a great book! I learned a whole lot about Bombay before arriving, and most of it came from this book as well as Million Mutinies Now by Naipul. It is a little fetishistic (is that even a word?), but still a great attempt to peel back the various layers that comprise this fascinating city.

Oh dear, many more I seem to be forgetting....

Salman Rushdie is overrated, in my opinion. I don't like him nor do I like his style of writing.



But for the most practical and useful information, good ole IndiaMike.com has been indespensible and completely amazing!!

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