Customer Reviews

The Calcutta Chromosome

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This is one of the most fascinating books that I have read. Although the plot is sometimes abstruse, the story is almost always taut. There is a constant feel of suspense and mystery that surrounds the characters. The concept itself, that personalities can be transferred and, in effect, immortality gained through the malaria parasite is nothing short of spellbinding. When I finished the book, the first word that came to my mind was: wierd. But as I glossed over what I had just read and the emotions I had experienced while reading it, I realised that it was nothing short of a gem of modern science fiction. The story is vast in it's scope. Ghosh simultaneously handles three points in time, but keeps the reader equally engrossed in all three. The characters are real (one in fact is based on an Indian film maker) and totally believable. Having lived in Calcutta all my life, I can tell you that the situations depicted are absolutely authentic and real. Nothing is wasted in the book. Every syllable, every event, however insignificant it may seem, will come back later. The ending is incredible, dealing you a sledgehammer blow in the last couple of lines. All in all, a must read for SF fans, and indeed for fans of good, albeit populist, literature.

This appears to be a book you either love or hate. It has all the ingredients of a fine novel and a fun read--intriguing plot, exotic (to the Western eye) locales, some history, some mysticism, a little bit of science blended with some speculation--and a juicy conspiracy to tie it all together. Ghosh is a good writer, there's no doubt about that.

Nonetheless, I found this book difficult to like. It had its moments--the ghost train scene among them--but overall the plot was too opaque for me to follow consistently. The twists and turns were fun at the beginning, but by the second half of the book I was totally lost. This book has gotten great reviews, but I just didn't enjoy it.

I wanted to like this book, I really did. In the end I was left confused and frustrated. This had the makings of a classic, but ultimately it didn't coalesce in my feeble brain.

The book has its ups and downs, and ultimately sucks you in the last 100 pages, and cruelly leaves you staring face to face with a brick wall. A main character keeps on saying "Don't you see?" and "Can't you see it?" to another character. I felt like the author was patronizing me, because I could not make the connections. I went back and reread a bit, and it turns out that seemingly trivial information stated at the beginning of the book is key to understanding the end. I agree with other reviewers about the scene at the railway station...breathtaking. Rarely have I had such a vivid picture painted in my head while reading...but frustratingly, this act does not seem to tie in to the rest of the story at all...or does it? Maybe I'm just not smart enough to make the connections. I'm not the type to go back and read entire novels again just to understand what the heck the point of the book was. If you aren't either (and if you are any less than a genius), than you may want to skip this one.

There are plenty of nice things to take away from this book.

First off, its science fiction. I realised this pretty late.

Secondly, heres a book that stays with you well after you've turned the last page.

In summary, I liked the bold effort to fuse 3 timelines - past (Ross'), middle past (Murugan/Shonali/Urmila) and future (Antar/computer). The idea of re-incarnation is brought in towards the end - though not very convincingly.

This could have been dealt with better - the fact that the tantric woman gets re-incarnated and all that .. all in all, a thought provoking book that surprisingly hasn't been very popular.

The Calcutta Chromosome was fun, and I don't at all regret buying the book. I enjoyed the twisty, wandering, plot and its labyrinthine internal connections. I enjoyed the scenery, both the futuristic New York and its wonderful evocation of Calcutta. I liked many of the characters and enjoyed their encounters and dilemmas. I enjoyed the bits of medical history. I enjoyed much of the language. I REALLY enjoyed reading a book where, for once, I did not have to wince at words misused or misspelled.

However, for all the blurb evocations, this is no Borges, nor Pynchon. I see why the comparisons were drawn, but there are some major plot and even ... call them philosophical... flaws that drag The Calcutta Chromosome back from a really good book to a fun read on the 'plane.

Basically, there is a vast and bizarre conspiracy, which, while entertaining, is founded on mushy, ill thought-out motives. There is an attempt to evoke an east/west - mysticism/logic thing, but it collapses under its own inconsistencies to reveal a balding plot device wearing a toupee of picturesque Oriental mystics.

Finally, there is quite a bit of pseudo-scientific and technological hand waving. This will bother some more than others. The point that technology can be like magic is relevant, and in places I can forgive the more nonsensical bits as contributing to a good story. There are other incidents, particularly the absurdly retrieved e-mail, which could have been tied into other themes in the story but weren't. Instead, I was left with the impression that Ghosh wrote himself into a bit of a corner and couldn't be bothered to take some more plausible method of getting himself out.

Sit back, fit together the edge pieces of the jigsaw puzzle, admire the pretty picture, and try not to be disappointed if you find a few of the middle pieces missing.

Amitav Ghosh is a bright man, a very bright man. A bright man with a good imagination and a sure touch with plot development. On first reading I , like many of the other reviewers, said "Huh?" when I reached the end. Unlike many of the readers, I went back and read it again. And again, and again. And I realized that I just hadn't kept up with him the first time 'round. Like the reader from Calcutta mentioned, every word, every story, has a purpose. What seem like disparate threads come together in Ghosh's hands to form a sure knot. There are few "mysteries" that one can take pleasure in reading once the answer is known, but this is an exception, because each time I find one more clue when I reread the novel. Who is this Antar character, anyhow, and why does this information come to him--on this day, in this way? The entire novel pivots on this question, but it is one the reader never asks.

This is a novel worth reading twice.

I really wanted to like this book in which the writer bounces cleverly between different points in time and locations. There are nifty medical/genetic notions, and the descriptions of India were intriguing. It's written in a more literate style than I usually encounter in a sci-fi novel.

As I read on, however, I began to feel dragged under by too clever twists, and the strands of the plot eventually became hopelessly entangled in this confused reader's head. By the end, I wanted to grab the author and ask him "what was THAT about?"

Maybe if I reread it again slowly and patiently, a notepad at the ready, I would figure it all out. But then again, maybe there has been too much chromosone damage already.

Also, the book ends just like this.

Chromosome is a fairly intriguing story revolving around the history of malaria research with a little bit of soul transmigration (of a sort) thrown in for good measure. It has a very complex narrative that draws you in, but in totality it wasn't as well executed as I'd have liked. The author's tendency to abruptly switch back and forth between flashbacks was a little confusing and the ending felt incomplete and left me more than a little disappointed.

This whirling mix of science fiction, medical thriller, satire, historical fiction, and supernatural is both dazzling and ultimately disappointingly confusing. Indeed, it's one of the few books I've come across that essentially requires two readings to approach comprehension. Like myself, the average reader is likely to enjoy the compelling atmosphere and swerving plot Ghosh serves up-but not enough to go back a second time to decipher exactly what was going on throughout it all. Especially after an altogether infuriating ending that has one checking to make sure the last 20 pages didn't fall out of the book!

The story is so convoluted that summarizing it is tricky at best. We start in Manhattan of the not too distant future, where computers sort through endless data streams, requiring human attention only when something does not compute. Through a clue generated by his terminal, a computer technician gets immersed in the mysterious disappearance of an Indian colleague of his in Calcutta back in 1995. The Indian vanished while on trying to track down the truth behind Ronald Ross's discovery of the cure for malaria back in 1902. It seems the real-life Ross wasn't trained in medicine, yet his independent research led to a Nobel prize. Ghosh offers the explanation of shadowy cabal who seek to use the malaria virus in their schemes to transfer personality and thus gain immortality. It's a neat concept but becomes unnecessarily complicated and ultimately lost in the mishmash of subtexts on identity, empire, and culture-not to mention the labyrinthine structure of the telling. To Ghosh's credit, the descriptions of rundown future Manhattan, the teeming life of contemporary Calcutta, and turn of the century colonial India are all first rate. It's just a shame that the complicated narrative, with multiple time frames and flashbacks never manages to coalesce into a worthwhile payoff.

A book of total lost leads, great starts to intrigue, interesting ideas and insights, teasing insinuations, and no meat to be found. A very disappointing book.