Customer Reviews

Delhi: Adventures in a Megacity

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
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This was one of the most entertaining and interesting books I've read this year. I love traveling but have never been to India. This book, giving a literal cross-section of life in Delhi (actually a spiral view, as you'll learn when you read the book), has made it much more likely that I'll visit the megacity sooner rather than later. Miller's combination of hope, cynicism, and a flâneur's openness to random discoveries of the wonder (and sometimes the horror) of human existence kept me reading through the book almost without a break...a rarity for me. Unlike a previous reviewer here on Amazon, I wasn't bothered at all by the footnotes, but rather found them to be a fun and informative addition to the whole; and the many photos, spread throughout the book, were another aspect that set this book apart from the standard travel narrative. Now I'm trying to decide which friends on my holiday shopping list should receive this book...anyone with an interest in India, or travel, or the 21st-century city, should really enjoy it. Here's hoping that Miller will spiral through another great city someday and bring it to life for us.

Mr. Miller likes India, no he really likes India. He lives in Delhi, is married to an Indian and possesses the PIO (Person of Indian Origin) card --- a US Green Card equivalent --- even though he is, clearly, not of Indian origin. This book appears to be a labor of love for his adopted city, Delhi. While it is easy to compare this book to the inimitable City of Djinns by William Dalrymple, it would be doing Mr. Miller a disservice. His approach is different than Mr. Dalrymple's and consists of walking in a spiral through Delhi in 13 chapters; each chapter discusses his travails during that particular spiral. (He settles on a spiral as the best geometric figure to use while discovering a new city, although I had to wonder why he laboured so much to arrive at that conclusion. Cities such as Paris have their arrondissements arranged in a spiral pattern since at least 1860, with the center of the spiral being the center of the city and each outward curl of the spiral moves you away from the center, and therefore, away from the city.) In any case, each of the 13 chapters is well written and memorable. The city wreaks havoc on Mr. Miller: he appears to be spat on, defecated on, chased by killer pigs, about to be killed by butchers, and on more than one occasion, he trips on the uneven pavement and pops his knee. But these minor irritants are more than made up for by being dazzled by the Delhi Metro, being the object of flirtatious advances, learning the meaning of choledocholithotomy, and rediscovering Tintin. In the end, it all balances out in the great Indian heartland. I had fun reading the book. It shows Delhi alternatively as an old regal city and as a sore and ever-expanding chasm of humanity. But there is no doubt that Mr. Miller identifies strongly with Delhi and his love for the city shows through in the writing. (May 2011).

Most books describing Delhi, which I have read, dwell on its past or its present problems or solutions, but none describe Delhi as a living city and what it is now (that generalization could made for most books for most cities).
This unique travelogue gives a different insight into a city with myriad cultures, issues, successes, failures without being preachy or judgmental. Therein lies its true value where the reader can ascertain and enjoy the spirals which the author undertakes and form ones own opinions.
I have had the opportunity to walk with Sam in the Siri Fort area (described in the tenth intermission). I have been jogging regularly in the area for the past 5 years and occasionally for the past 15, and never noticed some of the the unique features, unique structures and signs which I did after walking 40 minutes with him.
Highly recommend the book, and a must read for people visiting India as it gives a snapshot perspective of the unique, diverse yet a vibrant democracy that is India with its own set of unique problems and solutions.

I have visited Delhi a few times as a tourist, just passing through on my way to other places but this book really helped introduce me to a much wider view of the city that I was totally unaware of.
The book was funny, thoughtful and full of insights and was entertaining and absorbing from start to finish. The photos are great as well.
I too love exploring cities on foot and think anyone who has enjoyed wandering around a city will enjoy this book, as will anyone who has been to Delhi and wants to understand it better.
By the way I thought the footnotes were great!

I have read many many books on India including most of Dalrymple's excellent works. Miller is also very entertaining and informative at the same time. Having read so many authors who honed their skills at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, I will read anything by anyone who has graduated from that school; I wish I were young and could enrol there myself... I go to Delhi and also have a love-hate relationship with that city. It is hard not to. Mr. Miller took along with him, on his spiral meanderings, the one item I always recommend that travellers to India should take: a very very large dose of humour. I am dying to get back to Delhi to follow in Miller's footsteps. I wish he would put together a sort of little guide for those of us who are a bit intrepid without having time to do all the research, a kind of resume of his book... How about it, Mr. Miller? "On the Steps of Miller and Dalrymple"
thank you for writing this wonderful book. I wish it success. btw I loved the footnotes !

The author takes you at ground view level on a walking tour of Delhi, spiraling out over the course of a year from the heart of the old city to the newest suburbs. There are back street histories of things you'd never otherwise learn about one of the world's most fascinating cities. I love Delhi but I'd never have the stamina to do this tour so I really appreciate the wit and insight Sam Miller brings to it.

Okay. I wanted to like this book very much. Miller is a witty, self deprecating, engaging guide. The book is almost an anti "City of Djinn" as he purposefully focuses on the ugly modernity of what is actually an incredibly green, beautiful city with stunning ruins pretty much everywhere.

But what makes the read increasingly tiresome are the endless, silly, unnecessarily pedantic notes on every page, sometimes taking up half a page!!! Why subject us to all that? I personally knew the content of about half or more of these notes. What gives? Clearly Miller is trying to be "helpful" to the presumably uninitiated foreign reader, but he only succeeds in being tiresome and patronizing, which I'm sure was not his intention.

For the opposite approach, you might find "Maximum City: Bombay lost and found" by Suketu Mehta interesting - Mehta is unapologetic about using Hindi and Marathi terms here and there, also expressions of measures, without inflicting turgid definitions on us - I guess he figures we can always look up these terms if we want to - more often than not we get the meaning from the context.

Too bad about "Delhi" - take away those silly notes, which would shrink the book by close to 40%, and you have a terrific, entertaining portrait of the modern capital, an ideal companion to Dalrymple's "City of Djinn". I would give THAT book 4 or 5 stars no problem.