Incendiary Circumstances: A Chronicle of the Turmoil of our Times [Paperback]

Amitav Ghosh (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 23, 2007

Incendiary Circumstances stands as a compelling chronicle of the turmoil of our times -- environmental, political, and cultural. In these seventeen absorbing pieces, Amitav Ghosh delivers extraordinary firsthand accounts of pivotal world events. He visits the Andaman and Nicobar Islands just days after the devastating 2005 tsunami, experiences the chaos in New York City on September 11, travels to an icy mountaintop on the contested border between India and Pakistan, interviews Pol Pot’s sister-in-law in Cambodia, shares the elation of Egyptians when Naguib Mahfouz wins the Nobel Prize, and reports on the riots following Indira Gandhi's assassination. Taken together, Ghosh's essays offer a clear view of our turbulent world and serve as a powerful call to action.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. This absorbing collection of essays by novelist, journalist and travel writer Ghosh (The Hungry Tide) covers some two decades of catastrophe and upheaval, from sectarian violence in his native India during the 1980s through the September 11 attacks (which he watched from his home in Brooklyn) to the recent Indian Ocean tsunami. With an eye for evocative detail, he illuminates the human dramas behind the headlines: the plight of tsunami refugees trying to rebuild their lives and finances after every bank record and piece of ID is lost to the waves; the courage of ordinary Indians protecting their Sikh neighbors from rampaging Hindu mobs. Ghosh also includes trenchant essays about the ideologies that fuel the developing world's turbulent politics, arguing in one, for example, that religious fundamentalism is "not a repudiation of but a means of laying claim to the modern world." He is equally engaging when he turns from current affairs to literary essays on, say, the international culture of novel reading or Kashmiri poet Agha Shahid Ali. The volume also includes a number of travel pieces, among them a sprightly look at America's Four Corners tourist trap. Written in luminous prose with unusual understanding, these essays offer an insightful look at a chaotic world. (Jan. 10)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Written in luminous prose with unusual understanding, these essays offer an insightful look at a chaotic world.
Publishers Weekly, Starred

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (April 23, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618872213
• ISBN-13: 978-0618872213
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,046,800 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Amitav Ghosh was born in Calcutta in 1956 and raised and educated in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Iran, Egypt, India, and the United Kingdom, where he received his Ph.D. in social anthropology from Oxford. Acclaimed for fiction, travel writing, and journalism, his books include The Circle of Reason, The Shadow Lines, In an Antique Land, and Dancing in Cambodia. His previous novel, The Glass Palace, was an international bestseller that sold more than a half-million copies in Britain. Recently published there, The Hungry Tide has been sold for translation in twelve foreign countries and is also a bestseller abroad. Ghosh has won France's Prix Medici Etranger, India's prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and the Pushcart Prize. He now divides his time between Harvard University, where he is a visiting professor, and his homes in India and Brooklyn, New York.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Some excellent writing, October 12, 2006

By 

Sevile (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Incendiary Circumstances: A Chronicle of the Turmoil of Our Times (Hardcover)

This book is a collection of essays, written from a variety of locations around the world for various magazines, over the past fifteen years or so, by the Indian journalist Amitav Ghosh. To my taste they were uneven in quality. The first piece in the book, covering the effects of the 2004 Tsunami on the Indian inhabitants of some islands to the southeast of the Indian mainland, is beautifully written, engrossing and stands out as a masterpiece. It was very worthwhile reading a piece about life in India by a gifted Indian writer.

I learned a good deal from a number of the other pieces as well. However the quality of the pieces seems to go down in relation to the distance Ghosh is removed from what he knows best (India and Indians), he has a habit of trying a little too hard to have profound insights, and seems a little preachy at times. On the other hand, as someone from a different background, I found the book quite useful for improving my knowledge of Indian viewpoints on topics dealing with politics and society.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good piece, January 13, 2007

By 

Farseem Mohammedy (Hamilton, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Incendiary Circumstances: A Chronicle of the Turmoil of Our Times (Hardcover)

A collection of articulate essays written at different times and on different places and about different experiences. Though the piece on 9/11 was disappointing. It lacks depths of the other essays. The reader gets a glimpse of different places, different people, different politics, and of course how the "incendiary circumstances" have changed/affected/moulded peoples lives across borders. A superb pastime reading indeed !