| "Nothing [can] prepare us for the breathtaking quality
of its brilliance.... [R]everberates with wit and the author's
obvious delight in writing it.... Shashi Tharoor has indeed
written the Great Indian Novel." |
|
- Sunday Mid-Day, Bombay
|
"At long last I have come across a novel written by an
Indian which justifies its title. Although its author starts
with a disclaimer that his work may not be regarded as great,
Indian or even a novel, it is all these. The Great Indian
Novel puts Shashi Tharoor... in the front rank of contemporary
Indian writers." |
|
- Khushwant Singh, Sunday, Calcutta
|
To call it brilliant, engaging, impressive or vastly enjoyable...
would still seem to underestimate the novel's achievement....A
magnificent Indian novel." |
|
- India Abroad, New York
|
"It is amazing how well [the author] succeeds.... When
a book threatens to penetrate one's veneer of complacency and
idea-rigidity, it is proper to gently genuflect to it....This
novel is an astonishing achievement, deserving unreserved kudos." |
|
-P.Lal, The Telegraph, Calcutta
|
"An outrageous feast, spilling over with myths, rhymes,
tales of ancient treachery and wisdom, and tales of modern foolishness
and heroism... An ambitious and often eloquent retelling of
India's recent history... [with] modern and ancient drama woven
into this wildly original extravaganza.... Combining creativity
with scholarship, the author... uses his skill as a stylist...
to humanize both historical and mythological figures. We need
no special knowledge of India to find Tharoor's book fascinating....
The period of British rule is for him a fitting target for both
hilarious lampoons and impassioned frontal assaults.... This
feast of a book... will appeal to many diverse tastes.... The
prodigious scope of [Tharoor's] knowledge matches his formidable
stylistic talent." |
|
- Edward Hower, The Chicago Tribune
|
"Shashi Tharoor's brilliantly written book... merits to
be called a classic." |
|
-The Hindu, Madras
|
"The young Indian writer Shashi Tharoor's ambitious first
novel is at once a parody of the Mahabharata and an act of homage
that retells it in terms of 20th century Indian history....
Mr Tharoor's attitude is best captured by the self-deprecating
playfulness of his title.... He's undertaken as well a parody
of British writing about India.... Nearly all of this is ingenious
and some of it is inspired." |
|
- Michael Gorra, The New York Times Book
Review
|
"[A] publishing event....There are few recent publications
which one will enjoy reading as much as Shashi Tharoor's The
Great Indian Novel.... The book's historical and philosophical
perspective places it well above, though not outside, the category
of a 'good read'.... A brilliant concept, well executed and
[with] something in it for everyone." |
|
-The Book Review, New Delhi
|
"Shashi Tharoor's first novel ranks him with political
satirists such as Skvorecky, Aksyonov, Burgess, Voinovich, Fuentes
and our own Coover. This is a hot-minded, century-striding tale
of modern Indian shenanigans. It reads fast and randy, like
a miniseries that won't quit.... It should entertain everyone." |
|
- John Calvin Batchelor, The Washington
Post Book World
|
"Shashi Tharoor's masterful work does indeed live up to
its name. Like its source of inspiration, it is a human history
of extraordinary depth and insight, powerfully and wisely told.
It is also raucously funny, a satire that roller-coasters along
with an energetic and irreverent wit. The structure of the novel
is ambitious, but succeeds beautifully.... Tharoor smoothly
and believably fashions the links between real-life people and
characters from the epic, then goes further to form them as
engaging characters in their own right.... The Great Indian
Novel is brilliantly written, comic, poignant and sometimes
tragic. Tharoor is one of the finest Indian writers to have
emerged in recent years, and his book is no less than a great
modern novel." |
|
- Uma Kukathas, The Albuquerque Journal,
USA
|
"Lush, hilarious and wildly ambitious." |
|
- The Review, Seattle
|
"The Great Indian Novel is enormously successful,
because it manages to be at the same time strikingly original
and faithful to its source... but it stands splendidly on its
own. The characters may bear the names of their predecessors
in the original epic, but they are entirely convincing in and
of themselves - and utterly fascinating to boot. Even better,
they are frequently very funny.... [Characters are] treated
with the most appealing blend of respect and irony.... Tharoor's
style is worthy of the content.... His descriptions are vivid,
the suspense is often dramatic, his characterizations are convincing
and his title is fully justified: This is, indeed, a great Indian
novel." |
|
- Olivier Bernier, Newsday, New York
|
"[E]very sane Indian should buy a copy of this book." |
|
-Indian Express, New Delhi
|
"[S]killed and humane entertainment... [An] enjoyable tour
de force... [A] fascinating pot-pourri of contemporary Indian
lore....well-written and intelligent...." |
|
-The Sunday Times, London
|
"[C]ertainly a great Indian novel.... Apart from
an almost reckless sense of humour, mixed with considerable
wisdom, Tharoor's gift is for pithy analysis." |
|
-Poona Herald
|
"*** [highest rating]. The novel comes very close to living
up to its name. It is a diverse combination of actual events,
dreams, verse and myth written with verve, insouciance and a
bit of lampoonery.... One does not have to be more than faintly
aware of India's checkered history to enjoy Tharoor's wit and
lively perceptions.... Tharoor gets our attention and holds
it." |
|
- Barbara Holliday, The Detroit Free Press
|
"A great Indian novel, one that mythifies the recent past
... and shows that, despite their current state of affairs,
the Indian people and their democracy deserve a thousand cheers....
Tharoor treats history and politics with both care and hilarity....
An exhilarating experience." |
|
- Christine Schwartz, The Village Voice,
New York
|
"The Indo-Anglian novel has finally come of age.... [In
addition to being] readable, clever, witty,... it is the depth
of the novelist's perception which the reader remembers, remarks
that are profound and leave a deep impression." |
|
- Financial Express, New Delhi
|
"A massive, smart, exciting, mock-heroic rendering of twentieth-century
Indian history (and histrionics)." |
|
- The Observer, London
|
"[D]elicious irreverence... the insights into both current
politics and the epic are reward enough.... A touch of genius..." |
|
- India Today
|
"Tharoor weaves together myth and history, re-interpreting
history through myth... with remarkable ease and apparent effortlessness....
The range of Tharoor's allusions shows a mind which grasps things
like a sponge and then recreates them according to the needs
of his imagination....[The Great Indian Novel] will earn
him a lasting place among contemporary writers of fiction...." |
|
- The Hindustan Times, New Delhi
|
"Tharoor very skilfully blends events of the Mahabharata
with those of the fight for freedom.... [H]e has produced a
novel that is sometimes searing, often sympathetic but almost
always amusing about the state of the nation.... The Great
Indian Novel might upset a few people, but more than that
it will entertain and amuse." |
|
- Bombay
|
"Tharoor's spirited retelling of the story of modern India
from the Raj downwards borrows techniques and fantastical interludes
from [the Mahabharata] and snips cheekily at other literary
incursions into the sub-continent.... A splendid yarn well-spun." |
|
- Time Out, London
|
"Tharoor's novel is a true mirror of [the] contemporary
Indian polity." |
|
- Deccan Herald, Hyderabad
|
"The brilliance of the parallels drawn between a current
political situation and its 'equivalent' from the epic stun
you at several levels..., often leaving you breathless with
the closeness of comparison.... Shashi Tharoor's erudition,
his deliberate punning, his effortless rendering of the most
comnplex situations as a parody of earlier events, leave you
[convinced] that India's best is not behind her, but is constantly
being updated. Tharoor's novel is a landmark." |
|
- Seminar, New Delhi
|
"In Tharoor's hands [the story of modern India] is transformed
into Mahabharata magic.... Endlessly inventive, irreverent,
wise, ingenious,... it takes on at one level or another the
entire panorama of modern India....Energetic and eventful." |
|
- M. G. Vassanji, The Globe & Mail,
Toronto
|
"Inspired satire... laden with delicious irony." |
|
- The Melbourne Age, Australia
|
"The Indian novel in English has come of age.... The capacity
to laugh at oneself is the test of the coming of age. Shashi
Tharoor's novel falls in this category.... For once, the blurb
of the book depicts the essence of the novel." |
|
- Onlooker, Bombay
|
"[The Great Indian Novel] is fictional bhojan
- a tasty meal first blessed by the gods. This blessing lifts
the offering above the realm of ordinary gastronomic consumption.
There is something for the soul in Shashi Tharoor's The Great
Indian Novel.... Tharoor takes a light touch in deftly making
accessible the variegated complexity of modern India in an ancient
context.... Shashi Tharoor has looked to the distant past to
help us understand the present and perhaps see the future. [The
reviewer] often wonders which India is his, ancient or modern.
The Great Indian Novel helps to reconcile the two as
one." |
|
- India Currents, San Francisco
|
"A brilliant blend.... Many of the novel's accounts are
compellingly realistic.... The excesses of the Raj are mocked
masterfully." |
|
- The Whig-Standard, Kingston, Canada
|
"Shashi Tharoor's staggering first novel... is bound to
make some other ambitious novelists break into a bout of envy....
[C]leverly constructed.... eminently readable." |
|
- Debonair, Bombay
|
"Succeeds on several levels." |
|
- The Canberra Times, Australia
|
"The delightfully suspect and satirical tone of Tharoor's
title informs and enlivens his monumental tale.... Tharoor skillfully
interweaves elements of traditional Eastern and Western literature....He
animates history with the imagination of an artist and the philosophy
of a sage.... A subtle but potent reversal of the traditional
tide of cultural colonialism." |
|
- Publishers Weekly
|
"Tharoor's first novel - while more realistic, less magical
(despite its allegorical roots) and more politically engaged
than [Salman] Rushdie - is a readable, often witty, and frequently
wise story of 20th century India.... Tharoor's novel is infused
with a concern for India, that "highly developed country
in an advanced state of decay." More Trollope than Rushdie,
Tharoor offers a poignant saga of that great subcontinent." |
|
- Kirkus Reviews
|
"Tharoor coalesces myth, dreams, folklore, religion and
legend in this first person, near-death life narration.... Intermittently
humorous, satiric and fantastic, with word-play and recurrent
verse." |
|
- Library Journal
|
"Tharoor's novel, like Swift's Gulliver's Travels,
succeeds on several levels. At face value, [it] is an amusing
bit of fantasy. On a general political plane, it pokes fun at
the ambitions and foibles of presumably fictitious politicians.
But... the analogies are devastating." |
|
- Earleen Fisher, The Times-Picayune,
New Orleans
|
"Shashi Tharoor obviously knows his politics and his delight
in the drama of India's battle for independence is contagious....
Spectacular." |
|
- The Toronto Star, Canada
|
"The novel's parallel of the epic strife ... is very cleverly
managed.... The Great Indian Novel showcases Tharoor's
wit and ambition." |
|
- Bharati Mukherjee, The Philadelphia
Inquirer
|
"Tharoor's novel so effectively echoes the rambunctious
humor and epic sweep of Rushdie's novels that comparisons are
inevitable. However,... [he] has added yet another dimension
to the linguistic acrobatics Rushdie developed. More important,
he brings to the Western literary landscape a new dimension
of mythological archetypes and thus enlarges our literary vocabulary....
He has a talent and a propensity for neat turns of phrase and
of humor.... Tharoor is more politically engaged than any of
his contemporaries. [This] yields a richer return.... [His]
lasting accomplishment is that he has reminded Indians of the
continuing significance of their ancient scripture and has persuasively
drawn many Westerners into it for the first time." |
|
- Uma Parameswaran, The World & I
|
"Child prodigies seldom live up to the promise of their
youth as convincingly as Shashi Tharoor has." |
|
- Gentleman, Bombay
|
