Wednesday, May 27, 2009

GIN - Great Indian Novel ..................

Shashi Tharoor is a good writer of contemporary politics .....
The fact that he was considered for the position of the UN Secretary General is enough to establish his political credentials.......Becoming a minister of state in his very first outing in the Lok Sabha is an icing in the cake for Tharoor ........

This book is one of the very best I have read in recent times.... The book marries Indian mythology with the freedom struggle and recent politics ....... Filled with humor and sarcasm, the author tells both stories very successfully and also chips in with his subtle observations (especially about independence and after) ......

The vast array of characters in the epic, along with numerous sub-plots embedded into the main plot, make for an absorbing narrative..... Tharoor has brilliantly mapped these mythological characters and events to the freedom fighters, politicians, bureaucrats and the evolution of the modern state of India .........

Every chapter reveals an unexpected parallelism between past and present or a breathtakingly startling point of view ........ No Indian who has lived through the Emergency will again think of its chief protagonist without recalling the fictionalised scene of her portentous birth ..........

The end result after reading this book is an account that offers food for thought in a mildly palatable way !!!

12 comments:

Rakesh Vanamali said...

Hmmmm, interesting! Will buy it on my next trip to Crossword!

Anonymous said...

will check it out.. though politics and indian history is not my favorite topic..

AJEYA RAO said...

Got to check this out

A.prem said...

Politics has always been the most difficult thing for me to get through!
Will hit the crossword and try reading it there! :|

Seema said...

Will read it soon :)

Anjana R said...

loved the last line :)

Luscious Sealed Lips said...

I was a Tharoor fan when he turned into a Columnist right after his nomination as the UN Secretary General, but soon his repetitiveness bored me.

Is this one something similar? If yes, I may skip it.

Kisses.

Rahul Viswanath said...

@Lips : Its pretty different !!! I would recommend you to read it ....

The Seeker said...

Yeah read a few posts of yours, liked your views and also me too a great fan of shashi tharoor.

And try his Bookless in Baghdad, his growing up days with books

and dtw I'm blogrolling you

Dutta said...

Tharoor seems to be going places ... thanks for recommending the book .. :)

Sandeep said...

Can you lend me sometime ?

Preeti said...

sounds interesting ....i first thought it as GIN ... on rocks with a hint of lime ..:-))