India in Fiction

[chesilbeach]

There's been a bit of discussion on the book activity thread today about fiction set in India. It's not the first time I've written about my fondness for these books, so I thought I'd set up a thread to start a dedicated discussion.

 

My favourite all time book set in India, is still the first one I read. A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth is a mammoth 1500 pages long, and the saga of a four families in India after it has declared independence from the British Empire. A fantastically immersive tale that completely captivated me, and sits on the shelf directly in front of me taunting me to read again.

 

Another of my other favourite authors is Rohinton Mistry. My favourite Mistry book is A Fine Balance, an evocative tale from 1970s India, following the story of a widow who sets up a business manufacturing clothes, and the two tailors she hires to work for her. Harrowing at times, but a wonderful, wonderful story.

 

Here are some of the other books I can remember reading and have stuck in my mind:

Eclipse of the Sun by Phil Whitaker

A Backward Place by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

Esmond in India by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

Beach Boy by Ardashir Vakil

The Marriage Bureau for Rich People by Farahad Zama

East of the Sun by Julia Gregson (although unfortunately for all the wrong reasons - poor romance, lacked sense of place or history)

 

I full intend to read more Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and Rohinton Mistry, and I've still got Sister of My Heart by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni on my TBR shelf as well.

 

Any one else got any India books they'd like to tell us about or recommend?

[Kell]

Q&A by Vikas Swarup is excellent and SO much better than the film they made loosely based on it (Slumdog Millionaire).

[frankie]

This is an excellent idea for a thread, thanks chesilbeach! I have A Suitable Boy in my TBR pile but so far the length of the novel has put me off reading it. I did read a couple of pages when I picked it up in a charityshop and it was really good, I immediately thought Jane Austen meets India, in another time. After I discovered the book I got this idea that I would really like to read more books about India, and searched for titles and came up with this page on goodreads. It's in the listopia section where you can vote for your favorites in different themes, genres etc, and this one is India related fiction, obviously.

 

This one summer we were supposed to have an India lit course in uni but it got cancelled because the professor became seriously ill. However, we'd already been given the reading material and it's still somewhere in my cupboards. When I get home in a week or two I'll look it up and see if I can add to this thread's list

[shirleyz]

I have Q&A and Two Lives by Vikram Seth and Rohinton Mistry's Family Matters on my TBR pile... I look forward to sharing my thoughts about these and possibly adding some more interesting books to my ever-growing pile

Edited April 16, 2011 by shirleyz

[Kidsmum]

I enjoyed The Peacock Spring by Rumer Godden, her biography by Anne Chisholm is also very interesting.

[chaliepud]

I really enjoyed Tiger Hills by Sarita Mandannna, was a little slow to get into but I found it very moving...

[vodkafan]

Hi Chesilbeach, you and me both!!

I agree A Suitable Boy is superb.

 

I also like Ruth Prawar Jhabvalla's writing style, although have only read one of hers so far; must redress that.

 

Here are a couple of corkers for you:

 

The Death Of Vishnu by Manil Suri

 

The God Of Small Things by Arundati Roy

[poppy]

A Passage to India by E.M.Forster is considered a classic.

 

The Far Pavillions by M.M.Kaye is another, although I haven't read it, so can't give a recommendation. What I have read by her are her autobiographical books

• Part 1: The Sun In The Morning 1990
• Part 2: Golden Afternoon 1997
• Part 3: Enchanted Evening 1999

These tell of her childhood and marriage in India during the early 1900's. I found these a fascinating account of the British lifestyle in India during this time.

 

Another author is Helen Forrester. She married an Indian doctor and for a time lived in India. This provided the background for two of her novels

Thursday's Child (1985)

The Moneylenders of Shahpur (1987)

 

Edited April 17, 2011 by poppy

[Hyzenthlay]

The white tiger - Aravind Adiga

 

Only India-book I've read, I think. Apart from this book on mythology.

 

Either way, it's really good. Kind of focuses on corruption, blurs the lines a little. I enjoyed it a lot.

[chesilbeach]

That's an interesting list on goodreads, frankie. Interesting to see Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni with quite a few books listed. As I've already mentioned, I have one of her books on my TBR shelf, so if I enjoy that one, I can see a few more creeping onto my wishlist! Interesting that The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh is listed, as it's set in Burma, which is why I'd not included it in my list (it was an excellent book!) but I guess from the history of the country, I can see why it is included.

 

A whole course on India literature would have been fantastic! Imagine having to read all those books for study and discussion - what a shame the course had to be cancelled.

 

I'm setting up a new wishlist for my Kindle for books on India, so thanks to the recommendations here, I have added:

Q&A by Vikas Swarup

Tiger Hills by Sarita Mandanna

 

Although I haven't read Sister of My Heart by Chitra Banerjee Divakurani yet, there are a few of her books available for Kindle, so I've also added these in the hope that I enjoy the first one:

The Palace of Illusions

The Mistress of Spice

Arranged Marriage

 

Unfortunately, none of the others were out in a Kindle version, but I can at least now refer back to this thread to keep an eye out for them as they do become available. We already have a paperback copy of A Passage To India so I'll add that to my TBR shelf as well, as I don't think I've actually read it, despite being a huge fan of E. M. Forster's other books.

 

There's just something about Indian stories that captivate me. I think it's to do with the contrast of the vibrancy of colour, the heat of the climate and the scent of the spices that the best authors evoke, compared with the ordinariness of the daily lives of the people, and how poverty butts up against privilege, and all the while the influence of religion is everywhere.

[kurtz]

I read very exciting novel which is allegedly based on true story about guy who escapes from Australian prison and goes to India where he works for gangster and opens clinic in slums. It is called Shantaram or something like that, but I cannot remember author's name.

[Habeebi]

I read very exciting novel which is allegedly based on true story about guy who escapes from Australian prison and goes to India where he works for gangster and opens clinic in slums. It is called Shantaram or something like that, but I cannot remember author's name.

 

I have read Shantaram it is by Gregory David Roberts - He apparantly wrote it in prison and had to re-write it three times. I did quite enjoy it although I got half way through and started reading something else as it was just dragging on a bit but then it picked up towards the end. The things that spoiled it for me though was the fact that I'd read it wasn't a true account and some of it was fabricated for the sake of entertainment. Not sure how true this is but still a decent read.

[Lucybird]

Only one I can think of off the top of my head is Q&A, I actually love the film, the book is very different, almost incomparable but very much worth the read.

 

I started A Suitable Boy back when I was at uni but I never finished it, it is still sitting on my bookshelf in the hop that on day I will finish it. I know lots of people have loved it, and I really enjoyed An Equal Music which is also by Vickrem Seth so I was hoping it isn't a one off

 

Edit: Oh I just thought how could I forget Midnight's Children- Salman Rushdie absolutly fantastic book, you must look it up

Edited April 17, 2011 by Lucybird

[Books do furnish a room]

As well as all of the above; there is R K Narayan (a nobel laureate). I have just read The Guide and that was excellent.

[angelofboox]

Ooh, ooh! I'm indian (by ethnicity, not nationality) and we have an entire shelf or two devoted to indian books, because my mother reads them a lot. I read A Suitable Boy when I was 15 and it was great, but I haven't read it since (maybe I should, I think the politics went a bit over my head a the time). It certainly wasn't the first I've read, and there are a lot we own that I still haven't read, including The White Tiger, The Glass Palace, Brick Lane (does that count?), Six Suspects...etc etc.

 

A few I really like are The Inscrutable Americans (really funny - I recommend if you want some comedy!), God of Small Things, Family Matters....

[kurtz]

My favorite book about India is first book I ever read, which was The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling.

[poppyshake]

I was going to say 'The God of Small Things' by Arundhati Roy too .. beautiful mesmeric writing.

[Habeebi]

I am going to keep my eye out for some of these books at the book fair today....cycling there though so will be limited in what I will carry!

 

A suitable boy arrived in the post for me last week - wow its a big book! Can't wait to get stuck in though

[frankie]

A whole course on India literature would have been fantastic! Imagine having to read all those books for study and discussion - what a shame the course had to be cancelled.

 

Now that this thread has come up again, I remembered that I needed to take a look at the reading material. The course is named 'Model Minority? Asian Indian Literature in the United States" (so not really a 'pure' Indian literature course as I'd remembered ) and the material includes excerpts from

 

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (wiki says it's "a book collection of nine short stories by Indian American author Jhumpa Lahiri published in 1999. It won the Pulitzer Prize...")

- Mrs. Sen's

Living in America - Poetry and Fiction by South Asian American Writers, edited by Roshni Rustomji-Kerns from which we samples:

- Tahira Naqvi: All Is Not Lost

- Javaid Qazi: The Laid-off Man

- Sarita Sarvate: The Law of Averages

The Picador Book of Modern Indian Literature, edited by Amit Chaudhuri:

- Salman Rushie: Midnight's Children

- Amitav Ghosh: Tibetan Dinner

Edited May 3, 2011 by frankie

[bethany725]

I have Forbidden Daughter by Shobhan Bantwal on my shelf, but haven't read it as of yet. My MIL read it and really liked it, so hopefully I'll get around to it at some point.

[chesilbeach]

I love reading books set in India, and after a little discussion on the Your 2011 Book Awards thread about A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, I thought I'd look up an old thread I remember starting about India in fiction, but it's nowhere to be found so I'm starting again!

 

I've had a search through some of the other threads where I've posted about my favourites, and I've found my own recommendations plus some from other members:

Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

A Backward Place by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

Fire On The Mountain by Anita Desai

Sister of My Heart by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth (my absolute favourite!)

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry

Eclipse of the Sun by Phil Whitaker

 

From recommendations I picked up in the old thread, I also have these books on my India wishlist:

Q & A by Vikas Swarup

Tiger Hills by Sarita Mandanna

The Mistress Of Spices by Chitra Divakaruni

[julie]

Hi Chesil

Thanks for posting a new thread about fiction set in India. I just returned from the library and found :

Sea of Poppies

River of Smoke ( both by Amitav Ghosh (-parts 1 & 2 )

The Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri

Midnight's Children -Salman Rushdie

 

Then in their used books for sale I found :

Out of India --Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

 

They typed out a few more authors to try next time that supposedly also wrote fiction set in India. Author list below :

 

Tarun Teipal

Anita Desai

Thrity Umrigar

Edited December 7, 2011 by julie

[pontalba]

I read Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts, I think last year, and enjoyed it. I know reviews have been varied, but in spite of it's flaws, it proved interesting, and I think, informative.

[Kell]

The Mistress Of Spices by Chitra Divakaruni

This one isn't actually set in India, but America However, it is very good. It focuses more on the idea of being transplanted to a different country and culture...

[paun]

First book for big people I ever read was in India and is jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling and I still love this book and wish to read again.