Customer Reviews

Bombay Ice

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Leslie Forbes's talents of narrative and description and her desire to go far beyond the limits of the usual murder mystery make this reader anxious to read her second novel. This novel, however, is her first novel, and here her reach results in a lack of focus and confusion about the main character's motivation. Is the heroine's mission to find out who, if anyone, killed her brother-in-law's first wife, in order to save her sister from the same fate? Is it to solve the mystery of who is killing the hijras and why? Is it to uncover an art forgery and smuggling operation? Is it to reveal the slimy underside of contemporary politics? Is it to find out who she really is?

Here it seems to be all the above. With a half Scottish, half Indian heroine who is also an illegitimate child, in addition to eunuchs, transvestites, movie stars and directors, art collectors and forgers, politicians, and killers, the reader has a lot of characters to try to keep in focus. To this melange the author adds deliberate parallels between this action in Bombay monsoon season, Shakespeare's The Tempest, and not one, but two, different Indian film versions of it. Embellished also with detailed research into the history of weather prediction, the lost wax method of casting, gilding techniques, the chemical use of poisons, and land reclamation processes, this book is a real cornucopia which would have benefitted from judicious editing to highlight the author's considerable talents and broad vision.

I picked up Bombay Ice after reading the John Irving Book "A son of the Circus", also set in India. Clearly Ms. Forbes has a knowledge and love of the country. Unfortunataly, the book tries to do too many things. Mystery, thriller, meditation on the complexity of Indian society, memoir of a young woman's relationship with her parents and sister, critique of the Indian caste system (both formal and informal), mood piece...it's just too much.

Which is too bad. The Author has a very good ear for language and despite the density of the content, her prose refrains from being overly weighty.

The books dustcover notes make a game effort at positioning the piece as carrying themes of Chaos (that is 'Chaos', the popular scientific and philosophical notion having to do with patterns in nature, not 'chaos', which is just messy), but I have to believe that that description was an afterthought--a kind of publisher's punt.

I hope that Ms. Forbes writes more books. If she does so, she would be well-advised to tightly frame her subject before layering on her talented prose. This book definitely illustrates the famous line "kill your babies"; with more discipline it could very well have been a nice, absorbing mystery story, perhaps even with a dose of character study thrown in. As it stands, the reader is left pretty much in the same state as the protagonist throughout the story--battered by a monsoon of ideas, words, characters, and cultural ideas, rather than gripped, as he might have.

Adam Caper

In her debut novel, Leslie Forbes' reach exceeds her grasp. Fortunately for the reader, in failing to achieve perfection, she has still surpassed the bulk of the new fiction on the market. "Bombay Ice" is a dizzying, sultry foray into the dark underside of Indian culture.

The reader is pushed and pulled through a host of mind-bending circumstances and events as the heroine searches for her sister's murderer. In gritty detail, the reader is exposed to Bombay, and to a lesser degree, the rest of India through the eyes of someone who both loves and loathes the country.

The downside with this novel is that Forbes tries to tackle too much in one book. "Bombay Ice" is alternately a look at the sociology of modern India, an examination of mental illness, and of course, ultimately, a murder mystery. All of these elements are executed well, to a point; but there is simply not enough time to flesh them out completely and keep the novel moving along. Ironically, this mish-mash of angles confuses the plot and ends up having the positive effect of masking the conclusion.

Forbes is a writer of prodigous talent, and with a little polishing, she will undoubtably win raves in the future. In the meantime, "Bombay Ice" is a very strong effort, and a thoroughly enjoyable novel.

Disliking this book is one thing, who cares, but to criticize it as being erroneous and then proffer a John Irving novel as a more accurate look at India is utterly ridiculous. A great friend of mine grew up in Bombay, there are misspellings of certain places (Sonavla is Lonavla), and wrong names (she names the Bhaja and Karla caves something else entirely) and incorrect descriptions (said caves). However, her portraiture of Bombay slums is dead on, in any event much more so than anything by the quasi-intellectual John Irving. There can be no one all-encompassing book on India, no novel can encapsulate an entire country. What is in fact potentially more insulting than British attempts to understand India (a. agreed b. Forbes is Canadian c.they never really did get past Kipling, did they?) is American attempts to digest whole other cultures by reading two or three books.

I couldn't wait to get into this book, touted as good as "An Instance of the Fingerpost," but about India and the Monsoon--favorite subjects of mine. While I did actually finish the book, it was a huge disappointment. Characterization was one of the biggest problems--I didn't care about any of them, most especially the main character, Rosalind Benegal. The way she was portrayed actually CHANGED halfway through the book (where was the editor of this book?). The plot was impossible; and with thin characterization, this "thriller" was the complete opposite: boring. I can't believe I actually finished it.

While I completely understand the reviews below criticizing its often schizophrenic nature, I found this book fascinating. I know very little about contemporary India so I admit the novelty was quite alluring; still, her plotting is fresh and vibrant and while her digressions may often be somewhat poedantic, they're easily forgiven due to the taut, deceptively fluid nature of her prose. But I do bet her next works are far better (I hope!).

I gave it four stars due to its trite and rather melodramatic conclusion, but it is a refreshing break from all these quasi-intellectual, pseudo- literary "stories of love, betrayal, and the loss of innocence" that publishers are mass-producing these days.

I also think Smilla could beat Roz up but that Roz would probably win a hotly contested game of scrabble.

The opening chapter of the book resulted in my being determind to battle through Ms Forbes confusing and exhausting attempts to cover a range of subjects which demand that the reader expends as much energy on following the plot as the heroine does in her pursuit of the truth. At times the temptation to admit defeat loomed large but the need to know where the book would end was greater. Frustration is not always an emotion which leads one to complete a task but in the case of Bombay Ice it is worth overcoming. Hopefully the next novel from the author will focus less on attempts of literary majesty and more on the telling of the story.

Well, I picked up this book on a whim at the bookstore. I had never heard about Leslie Forbes and bought the book because it sounded interesting. I am glad that I did. The book was fresh and innovative, with a solid storyline and real, interesting characters.

Forbes seems to have the knack at making you feel as though you are in her world. The colours and griity feel of India are brought to life in this good, solid thriller. I am looking forward to her next offering.

This is one gritty book! Gritty contents, gritty heroine. It makes one wonder what the author herself is like. The basic story is about a freelance investigative crime reporter who doggedly does her thing in Bombay, focusing on "Bollywood," the Indian movie industry, and on a series of deaths among the city's "hijra"-- surgically altered male to female prostitutes. Various characters--many are brutally tortured--die, and Roz, our heroine, pursues the truth relentlessly, all the while musing about her own screwed up family background, about chaos theory, about meteorology and any number of other esoteric subjects. I found the plot confusing, but the picture of Bombay, and the importance of the monsoon to the city, fascinating and it's what kept me going. I'll look forward to another novel by Leslie Forbes and hope she smooths out her plotting in that one.

I stuck with Bombay Ice to the halfway mark, but after yet another new character expounding yet another arcane area of expertise mixed with Shakespeaean references, meteorologic hints, oblique alchemical echoes etc etc, I gave up. Also, hard to like or sympathize with heroine Roz who relentlessly pursues a possible murder through torturous sexual encounters in plot permutations amounting to a maze like the city of Bombay. All credit to readers who persevered.