A story about this — 3 years ago
Well. You certainly have to hand it to him for his ambition, and the sweep of the story. I read most of it in about 36 hours and finished a few minutes ago, so am still reeling from it. But it is amateurish, not a real novel with a wholeness. It was disjointed, badly written in parts, lots of loose ends, and the exoticisation is jarring. But on the whole, I enjoyed it a lot more than the usual pretentious shit we get to read.
However, it is way too big to be Worth Consuming. Should certianly have been pared down.
Comments
chhavi
Mumbai
agreed
did you like Love & Longing in Bombay?
Oct 11, 01:19PM
Oct 11, 01:19PM
Shivmeet Deol
Well, I read Love and Longing ages ago, and I do remember liking it. Not in the way I loved more recent books like Shantaram or Maximum City, but certainly liked it, especially the Sartaj Singh story. The problem with Red Earth is that I don’t think this fantastic historical stuff is Chandra’s cup of tea. I found him the most assured in the road trip bits, almost as if he was taking a break from writing the rest of his monumental MFA thesis or whatever Red Earth started out as. The relatively fluid style, the surer tone of these bits presages Love and Longing, which is so much maturer – though not necessarily more fun.
Also, Love and Longing is lot less ambitious, and therefore a lot less pretentious. It more or less does what it sets out to do, unlike his debut, which betrays the relief he must’ve felt when he finally finished it.
So, yes, I did somewhat like Love and Longing :)