Customer Reviews

One Night at the Call Center: A Novel

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This quick, engaging story about the problems in the lives of six call center workers in India, portrays the plight of young Indians who in their desire to move up the socioeconomic ladder, ironically find themselves exploited by a distant and uncaring American corporation and restricted by outdated cultural traditions.

I enjoyed the story and the writing style, although I thought the "phone call from God" plot twist toward the end was rendered with all the subtlety of a self-help book (I'm surprised God didn't number the "valuable life lessons" for our convenience).

Forgiving that, my main gripe with this book is that neither the characters nor the author seemed to quite grasp the aforementioned "valuable life lessons".

The reason I say this is that in the story, Americans are portrayed individually (as callers into the call center) as fearful, lazy, stupid, warmongers who unfairly enjoy a better lifestyle than Indians - and collectively (in the form of corporations) as the personification of evil, unfairness and oppression. And so, the characters' economic problems are blamed on the selfish, stupid Americans who oppress them. Fair enough - every story needs a bad guy.

But yet, even after God shows up on the scene and dispenses the aforementioned "valuable life lessons" (take responsibility for your own lives, stop blaming others, stop making excuses) Americans (and the boss, as a stand-in for the Americans) are still the scapegoat, and the characters use their newfound self-confidence and perspective on life to exact REVENGE!!!

Now, to me, vindictiveness (even coupled with the loftier goal of saving the call center) seems incongruent with psychological well being and a tip-off that maybe someone doesn't fully understand those "valuable life lessons". And so I actually considered at length that perhaps the author's true intention was to convey the self-defeating nature of blaming, complaining and not taking responsibility, by showing the characters' hypocrisy - how they suffered from an inferiority complex and psychologically projected their self-loathing onto America, their perceived oppressor. (After all, the very name of the protagonist with the most wounded inner child - "Vroom" - could be a symbolic reference to his materialistic nature and the conflicted way in which he simultaneously condemns and worships western culture).

But ... strangely enough I was left with the bizarre impression that the author himself was blind to the disconnect between the lessons the book extolls and its underlying whinyness and racism, which raises the disturbing question of whether the attitudes in the book were meant as those of the characters or of Indian youth - or worse, whether they are in fact the attitudes of the writer himself (I hope not).

So overall, I enjoyed the book for it's portrayal of the youth culture in India, but even more for the bizarre, psychological conflicts which it represents and which I'm still puzzling over.

... and as a final note, one last thing that I found disconcerting was that the setup for the story (While travelling I met someone who told me this story and it was so compelling that I had to meet the characters and turn it into my next novel)is an obvious copy of the setup in "Life of Pi" - which I imagine the author must have read, since it was a huge bestseller having to do with India.

and finally...

DISCLAIMER: If in fact the author's intention was to point out the hypocrisy of claiming to take responsibility for one's life while simultaneously plotting revenge against one's imagined oppressors, then TOUCHE'! - because with this book, he is then not blind to his own predjudices or merely pandering to the attitudes of the disaffected Indian youth market, but rather is holding a mirror to their face and challenging them to recognize how their own attitudes and predjudices may play a part in holding them back while and letting them know that by healing their own collective psyche they will be able to rise above whatever systemic conditions conspire to oppress them.

This novel is nothing special, has a mediocre storyline, a couple of interesting characters and was a quick, light diversion.

I have several problems with it, though. First, it's pretty juvenile. The author fulfills his personal fantasies by having the main character get revenge on his boss and get the girl in the end. Second, the dialogue is unrealistic and the phone call from God is completely out of place. It's 5 seconds of fantasy in a novel that's supposed to be a slice of reality. Third, is that this novel is unapologetically racist. The author spends quite a few lines in several places in the book declaring Americans to be fat, stupid, lazy, paranoid war-mongers. Not nice. Fourth, the book cover claims that the book is funny. Nope. Not even a little.

All in all, I wouldn't recommend this book.

This novel does give a glimpse of call center life. That is a new lifestyle in which mostly young Indian workers go to work in the night with 2 AM meetings; plush with money, exposed to opposite gender at night, indulge in amorous activities; are stressed out and angry at Americans who gave them the job in the first place. I don't know how much of that is true, but it is quite depressing.

The author's language attracts reader with its simplicity and contemporary nature. He does grip you for first 100 pages. After that it becomes boring. There is a dramatic event which brings a twist. But in my opinion, the author couldn't complete the novel in a realistic manner. Don't want to reveal what happens, but whatever happens is unrealistic and lame.

The attitude shown towards American is disheartening. The author portrays them as dumb and arrogant, which exposes his (and call center employees') lack of understanding about Americans. It is true that some people treat call center workers with disdain. It is also true that some people are clueless. But duh ... if someone is not cluless and happy with service why would one call a call center? "Gee I totally know how to operate my washing machine but I still want to spend time to talk to a call center agent".

Overall I love Chetan's style. It is easy reading and to some extent entertaining. I absolutely loved his first novel. So there is a good potential for him.

Other reviewers have already gotten this right. Bad writing, America-bashing, bad storylines, nonsensical ending, and moderately interesting characters. For those familiar with Bollywood, this is what I would call "Time-Pass."

Chetan's second book..One Night At the Call Center...is a mediocre piece of work. The narrative is very similar to his first book..Five Point Something. Chetan should stick to what he knows best and what he has experienced first hand. This book about call center lives is very superficial. The only thing you know is that the characters have call center jobs. But the rest of the story is about their personal problems and personal crisis..even that is so mundane. I was expecting something more in-depth about call center jobs.

The comments on Americans were lame and totally uncalled for. It's very juvenile and not expected from someone of Chetan's education and exposure. I am an Indian and have lived in the US for 13 years and recently moved back. I have seen more Indians since my coming back, to be rude, insensitive and disrespectful. They way some of them treat the maids and low paid workers is utterly shameful.

We are by far the most discriminatory society than any other. Which other nation discriminates among it's own people on the basis of religion, caste, state, language, dialect, sect and subsect, color of skin and gender? Why do obssess over a light skinned and light eyed female celebrity?

The book has taken a very flippant attitude towards the west. Calling them "fat, loud, thick and divorce all the time" was a demeaning dig at Americans. And that too in front of God. And God seems to be in agreement to those adjectives.

Chetan must be living in a make believe Indian world...in Hong Kong. It's time he saw a Bollywood movie or soap serial or a reality show or even listen to the news and find out how loud and unclear we are about everything.


Good luck with your next book.

I read this book with great curiosity because I'd heard about this novel for a long time (while it was unavailable in the USA) and I thought it would be interesting to read the perspective of some call center workers in India. I wasn't disappointed.

Their awareness of their low salaries (as compared to their American counterparts), the social differences between their culture and the USA, and the often-poor treatment they received from many of their customers (and their manager) was no surprise. Their day-to-day work issues were not unlike may others: fear of layoffs, incompetent managers taking credit for their work, pressure to increase their productivity, and technology breakdowns. And their struggles with some old-culture traditions -- like arranged marriages -- made the story more interesting.

I could have done without the intro and the ending to this novel -- which is an additional storyline that takes place in a conversation between the author and a female passenger. In my opinion, these intro and outro parts added nothing to the story and even made it a bit cheesy at the end.

All in all, I recommend it...it's a fast and entertaining read.

Chetan Bhagat disappointed me with this book. I had high expectations after reading his first book "Five Point Something". The writing is poor. Avoid it if you can.

This is pulp fiction. Not Dickens, not Hemingway, not Faulkner - just a quick page turner, and at the same time an insightful look at Indian culture and family dynamics.

I think this book would make fantastic plane reading, i.e. it would keep you engaged when you're bored and a little tired. Again, it's not a substitute for reading the classics, but do you really want to read _War and Peace_ when it's 4am at ORD?

If you're American, then, yeah, the constant digs against white Americans might get a little tiresome. The book was clearly written for an Indian-in-India audience. Indeed, the author's books have sold more than a million copies in India, so if you want to know what Indians are reading and thinking ... this could be a great place to start. Maybe that's its greatest value.

I am not sure why this book receieved some of the crticism it has, to me it was a work of fiction and the statements, to the extent they are racist on their face, were not intended to be racist as oppossed to working in the context of the story (at least the way I read the book.)

The book starts off with the author on a train when he meets a woman who has a story to tell, with the caveat that if she tells the storry the author must write it. During this time he makes it clear in many ways that he is parodying himself at the same time to the extent that she was not in awe off his prior success of his first book and how he sets that up. To me that set the tone for what followed.

We then get into each of the charactors and personalities. What they want to eat or wear, or whether it is worthile to carpool on a given day. Some of it is mundane, and perhaps the charactors are not fully developed, but each of them have their place in their personalities.

As to the issue regarding how Americans appear, it is not that far from what people should expect. Not saying that all Americans are warmongering lazy people, but once again in context - this is a call center to answer questions and address problems. Needless to say people calling in will often be rude or short because they are having issues and problems. They are frustrated.

And people on the receiving end will then develop impressions based on that. It seemed to convey to me in fact the charactors were limited by theeir preconceptions and devloping predjudice. How they react to the message given to them by God also is telling in the context of everything else that had gone on up to the point.

The book is a quick and easy read and good general fiction with some good funny lines. I guess it depends on how you approach the book. I do not think the author was trying to write something as a political statement, instead he was juxtaposing things in the context of fiction and often the actions taken by the charactors to not mesh up with their words. Which seemed to be the point of it all.

Of course if the author is in fact anti-American and was just trying to make an anti-American humor writing, then in that case I am giving him too much credit.

4-5 stars, and I think 5 is worthwhile based on what I thought the book was trying to accomplish.

This is a very nice first or second piece of fiction. I get a chuckle out of people throwing around the word "novel". Mr. Bhagat really stretches the sense of term "novel" by referring to this short non-fiction volume as a novel on the cover page. Novel? Perhaps in the sense that no one in my recollection has written a story centered around an Indian call center. But, a novel? Please. Doesn't novel imply a work of art or a serious attempt at art? This is not art.

Of course, if you can get by the "Americans are fat stupid idiots" pabulum sprinkled throughout the volume what you get is a very well told story about some young Indian kids striving to get ahead. The narrative and dialog, while not exactly riveting, is certainly entertaining and worth a read. I'm not expert on Indian culture, but I went to school and have worked with many Indian experts and have grown to respect the work ethic and general willingness to "get along" with people. I've always wanted to visit India and this book has done nothing to dissuade me.

I was hoping for more information or anecdotes about the inner workings of call centers. Often new "novelists" do so much homework on their subject that you actually feel like you're reading history or some other non-fiction type of work covering the subject.

Again, a nice summer read. Good job Mr. Bhagat and best of luck with future work.

And, hey, call center work sounds like a grueling, repetitive, frustrating job. So, I can forgive the anti-American stuff. If I were working a call center in Chicago (who knows) covering India I'd be cursing about customers after a while too.