Customer Reviews

Bombay--London--New York (Routledge Studies in Health and Social Welfare)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
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What we get with this book is a sure-footed survey of indian writing in English that feels like a grand tour by a docent who also happens to be your close friend. Amitava Kumar is an emerging literary voice from the indian subcontinent. The intimate prose evokes feelings of alienation and displacement that serve as a recurrent theme in a manner common to many expatriate authors but what is special with this book is a poignant sociological component. The author is not content to rely on his own keen observations of the real world; he delves into the world of fiction that many writers of eminence have created. The academic and the writer of fiction come together in a way that left me feeling good about myself.

Several photographs adorning the book give an air of authencity to the prose. The book brings a sense of immediacy to the forgotten places in india in a way that was never done before.With this book he has created a portal to his brain much like the movie "Being John Malkovich".

Amitava Kumar in this work surveys Indian writing in English. He explores socio-geography of the Indian diaspora (some 20 million people living outside their home country), touching upon the common feeling of nostalgia and nationalism. His social view in not only limited to his own experience, but also draws from fictional worlds created by various exemplary authors like V S Naipaul and Hanif Kureishei.

This book is a curious mix of autobiography, literary commentary, stories from Bollywood movies and contemporary News!

Apart from its luminous prose, the book is adored with absorbing photos and poems. At places, photos do not fit well with the text. The poems are brief and simple. Quotations from various authors make this work an entertaining read. I highly recommened it to those interested in exploring Indian writings.

What we get with this book is a sure-footed survey of indian writing in English that feels like a grand tour by a docent who also happens to be your close friend. Amitava Kumar is an emerging literary voice from the indian subcontinent. The intimate prose evokes feelings of alienation and displacement that serve as a recurrent theme in a manner common to many expatriate authors but what is special with this book is a poignant sociological component. The author is not content to rely on his own keen observations of the real world; he delves into the world of fiction that many writers of eminence have created. The academic and the writer of fiction come together in a way that left me feeling good about myself.

Several photographs adorning the book give an air of authencity to the prose. The book brings a sense of immediacy to the forgotten places in india in a way that was never done before.With this book he has created a portal to his brain, reminding me of the movie "Being John Malkovich".