Coromandel [Paperback]

JOHN MASTERS. (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: PENGUIN (1960)
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0017GLEPQ
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well plotted adventure takes the English hero to India of the 1600's, September 14, 2008

By 

opinionated_reader "opinionated_reader" (USA) - See all my reviews

This novel is one of 7 that Masters set at different points in the history of British India. This is set the earliest, though it was not the first one he penned. Here's part of what's on the back of the jacket in my copy:

"Coromandel! ... Jason Savage, was a boy in Wiltshire when he first saw that name on a bloodstained map... That map and the aching visions it caused drove Jason from his father's farm to the roistering streets of London, by ship to India and Coromandel, through the jungles and across..."

This book has the most important ingredient of a novel: it draws you in with its plot and its characters. It does so, while giving one a little flavor of what India was like in the early days of the British East India Company. The reader will befriend Jason Savage, and the women he loves. There's enough "action" for most tastes; but the author does more: he takes us inside the mind of Jason and we see the drama of a young man building his own character, with the twists and turns involved.

The only reason I give it a 4-star, rather than a 5, is that the author is unable to articulate an ultimate goal for his adventurous hero. As a result, we are left a bit "hanging" at the end.