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shashi taroor's books, reviews

Discussion in 'Book Lovers' started by mssunitha2001, Apr 19, 2010.

  1. mssunitha2001

    mssunitha2001 IL Hall of Fame

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    Reasons of State (1982), a scholarly study of Indian foreign policy making

    The Great Indian Novel (1989), a political satire which interprets the Mahabharata as India's modern history

    The Five-Dollar Smile and Other Stories (1990), a collection of short stories

    Show Business (1992), a satire of the Bombay film industry which was subsequently adapted into the motion picture "Bollywood"

    India: From Midnight to the Millennium (1997), a historical commentary of India published on the 50th anniversary of India's independence.


    REVIEWS :
    =======
    The Great Indian Novel
    [​IMG][SIZE=+2]T[/SIZE]he Great Indian Novel uses the great Hindu epic, The Mahabharata, to retell the history of modern India. Characters and situations are thinly veiled caricatures of well known elements of myth and politics; Ved Vyas/Vyasa, Ganapathi/Ganesh, and Gangaji's Epic Mango March/Gandhi's Salt March (Goldman). Even the title The Great Indian Novel is a loose translation of the word "Mahabharata." In commenting on his own work, Tharoor writes that "... the concerns in the book emerged from years of indiscriminate reading and slightly more discriminate study of Indian history and politics... [The Mahabharata] had such a contemporary resonance that I instantly thought, here is a vehicle for the book that I want to write about the forces that have made (and nearly unmade) our country" (The Shashi Tharoor Chat).
    Tharoor affirms and enhances Indian cultural identity through his novel by reflecting on pluralism and openness in India's kaleidoscopic culture. He also aims to broaden the understanding of Indian culture and historical heritage. Tharoor writes that "the task of altering and shaping such resonant characters and situations to tell a contemporary story offered a rare opportunity to strike familiar chords while playing an unfamiliar tune" (HAPR). Thus this novel, by interpreting reality through myth and history, concludes that India has a vast heritage from which much can be learned.
    What the Critics Have to Say about The Great Indian Novel:
    "Tharoor astutely fastens fiction to politics, and myth to reality ultimately put forth a tale arisen from the depths of his soul and scope of his political career at the United Nations" (Rajay).
    "I found The Great Indian Novel an entertaining and occasionally moving book that will certainly repay the time of anyone interested in and moderately knowledgeable about two somewhat disparaging subjects, the Mahabharata and the history of modern India which are so cleverly and pointedly intertwined in this remarkable book" (Goldman)

    Show Business
    [​IMG][SIZE=+2]C[/SIZE]oncerning his novel Show Business, Tharoor writes that he was "looking for a new creative metaphor to explore aspects of the Indian condition" (HAPR). He considers film to be "the primary vehicle for the transmission of the fictional experience to the majority of Indians," and thus "particularly useful for such exploration"(HAPR).
    The novel, explores the Bombay movie industry. Tharoor explains the culture of this industry as "contemporary myths invented by popular Hindi cinema" (HAPR). He uses these myths to portray his perspectives of the diversity contained within India (HAPR). The Bombay movie industry thus becomes the context for this perspective.
    What the Critics Have to Say about Show Business:
    "Exuberant and clever...both affectionately and fiercely done... What makes Show Business particularly impressive and accomplished is its elaborate structure, [which] replicates the crazy razzle-dazzle of the Hindi film world" (What the Critics say about Show Business of "Bollywood").
    "A wacky, satirical tale of hits and misses in the worlds of politics and cinema...engagingly presented... Through a montage of shooting scripts, narrative and monologues, he invents a fictional world that is a metaphor for deeper concerns" (What the Critics say about Show Business of "Bollywood").


    The Author in His Own Words [​IMG]



    On his earning his Ph.D. at age 22:

    "I finished my Ph.D. at 22, but I had a powerful incentive: fear. I was terrified that my scholarship would run out while I was halfway though research and I would spend the rest of my life working too hard to find the time to write it. The day I got to the States on a scholarship I was earning more (after conversion to rupees) than my father earned in India to support a family of five in what most people would consider style" (The Shashi Tharoor Chat).

    On his call to write: "I have far more book ideas than books, or evenings and weekends to write them in. Basically I see myself as someone with a number of responses to the world, some through my work" (The Shashi Tharoor Chat).

    [​IMG]About his writing method: "I do it on the computer. I tend to write pretty fast (and no doubt unkind critics will say it shows)...with all of my books I have known bursts of frenzied writing on weekends when I've woken up and written pretty much straight from 7 am to midnight, pausing only for meals and tea. So you see that my working methods are not to be recommended to any sane writers out there" (The Shashi Tharoor Chat).

    On Indian subcontinental literature: "I think the general crop of Indian writers in English is amazingly good. I think they're doing some of the most exciting, innovative writing being done in English today, breathing new life, new concerns, and yes, new language into English literature" (The Shashi Tharoor Chat).

    On Indian expatriates: "...his [the expatriate's] nostalgia is based on the selectiveness of memory...his perspective is distorted by exile... his view of what used to be home is divorced from the experience of home. Expatriates are no longer an organic part of the culture, but severed digits that, in their yearning for the hand, can only twist themselves into a clenched fist" (in The Washington Post).

    On Indian nationalism: "Indian nationalism is a rare animal indeed. It is not based on language. . .geography. . . ethnicity. . . religion. Indian nationalism is the nationalism of an idea, the idea of an ever-ever land that is greater than the sum of its contradictions" (Tharoor The New York Times).

    On Indian diversity: "If America is a melting-pot, then to me India is a thali, a selection of sumptuous dishes in different bowls. Each tastes different, and does not necessarily mix with the next, but they belong together on the same plate, and they complement each other in making the meal a satisfying repast" (Srinivasan).

    On the United Nations: "I believe the UN is still the one indispensable world organization we have. Sure there are wars going on, but the UN can only stop those wars where it has a mandate to do so, which means the parties are willing (or persuadable) to stop...Within those limitations I think we have a pretty good track record" (The Shashi Tharoor Chat).
     
    Last edited: Apr 19, 2010
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  2. Gayathri47

    Gayathri47 Silver IL'ite

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    Thank you for putting up a review for us here.

    I will move it to the Book Reviews section
     
  3. vennilarani

    vennilarani New IL'ite

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    hi.. can i get a e copy of the great indian novel....regards
     
  4. mssunitha2001

    mssunitha2001 IL Hall of Fame

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    The Five Dollar Smile
    And Other Stories

    Shashi Tharoor

    Description
    This touching and funny collection of stories showcases Tharoor’s daunting literary acumen, as well as the keen sensitivity that informs his ability to write profoundly and entertainingly on themes ranging from family conflict to death.

    In the title story — written in a lonely hotel room in Geneva soon after the author began his work with the United Nations — a young Indian orphan is on his way to visit America for the first time, and his anguish and longings in the airplane seem hardly different from those of any American child. Tharoor’s admiration for P.G. Wodehouse makes “How Bobby Chatterjee Turned to Drink” a delightful act of homage, while “The Temple Thief,” “The Simple Man,” and “The Political Murder” bring to mind O’Henry and Maupassant. His three college stories, “Friends,” “The Pyre,” and “The Professor’s Daughter,” are full of youthful high jinks, naïve infatuations, and ingenious word play, and “The Solitude of the Short-Story Writer” explores a writer’s conflicted relationship with his psychiatrist and his work in the manner of Woody Allen. In the duet “The Village Girl” and “City Girl” the author provides an experiment in perspective: the twin stories begin exactly the same except for the gender of the protagonist and then evolve in a radically different way. Together, the fifteen stories gathered here show a major writer in the making.
     
  5. mssunitha2001

    mssunitha2001 IL Hall of Fame

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    Last edited: Apr 20, 2010

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