An Outline of the Republic: A Novel [Paperback]

Siddhartha Deb (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 14, 2006

Intrigued by a disturbing photograph of a woman, a young journalist in Calcutta embarks on a quest to learn the story behind the violent incident captured on film -- a strange odyssey that leads him to a volatile remote corner of India mired in civil strife and sustained by timber, drugs, and guns. Yet the truth he hopes to uncover is as uncertain as the mysterious woman he seeks, smoldering dangerously on the border between illusion and reality.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The pursuit of a mysterious story transforms an Indian reporter in Deb's ambitious second novel (after The Point of Return), vividly capturing the unrest and political infighting that underlies daily life in much of India. Amrit Singh is the bored, disillusioned Sikh protagonist who grinds through his days working for a Calcutta daily until he is jolted from his ennui by an assignment to cover the murder of a woman taken hostage and apparently shot and killed by an insurgent group. A photo of the woman haunts Amrit as he travels toward the Burmese border. At first she is identified as a porn star who was killed to set a moral example, but as Amrit makes his way through a labyrinth of politicos, military figures and shady allies, he learns that the woman, named Leela, was working with a prominent local leader on an optimistic renewal enterprise called the Prosperity Project. The climax is a mixed bag--the fate of Malik, the organizer of the Prosperity Project, who was temporarily able to do business with the insurgents, makes for an intriguing twist--but the final chapters outlining Amrit's efforts to interview Leela are a serious letdown. Still, Deb's intelligent writing and cool, observational tone distinguish this look at the curious mixture of danger, hope and boredom endemic to India's remote provinces.
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.

From Booklist

The border between India and Burma is the site of rampant violence, terrorism, and corruption as rival ethnic groups fight for territory. Amrit Singh, a Sikh without a turban and a Calcutta journalist without conviction, is sent there by the Sentinel, but he has his own assignment in mind. He is obsessed with a young woman in a photograph who is being held captive by two machine-gun-wielding insurgents; however, his search for her is stymied by army searches, insurgent actions, and a landslide. Strangers appear and tell him complicated stories, and nothing is what it seems in this atmospheric tale of fear and cynicism trumping good intentions. This is Graham Greene territory (Greene even appears in a curious flashback cameo), and Deb, whose first novel, The Point of Return (2003), met with much acclaim, writes as dramatically and astutely of the state of ambivalence as he does about his volatile homeland, which serves here as a microcosm for the world's many besieged places where, as Amrit muses, "illusions mask an unbearable reality." Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (March 14, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 006050157X
• ISBN-13: 978-0060501570
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,861,970 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good content, poor execution of plot, May 9, 2006

By 

bluwhisper (Lawrence, KS) - See all my reviews

This review is from: An Outline of the Republic : A Novel (Hardcover)

I actually struggled to finish Outline, and for a novel with such great potential, I was disappointed.

The premise seemed good. A journalist finds a mysterious picture of a porn star about to be executed by a paramilitary group and wagers his career to figure out the story behind it. As he travels through remote territory in northeast India, a picturesque region beset by spasms of violence, he discovers a web of corruption and lies. This story held my interest, and my desire to learn about the political situation in that region (albeit in a fictionalized way) were what kept me reading.

But I think Deb made a few mistakes. The first is his prose style. When he writes a vivid scene, he does well with it. However, most of the book is summary. Summary of conversations, scenery, bus rides, historical background. And it gets dull. Perhaps Deb's strength as a journalist is his weakness as a novelist. It's not that these sections are bad, it's simply that they could so easily be made better. The tone of his prose also seems very detached and reporterly, which quite frankly is unengaging. He also lacks a novelist's knack for memorable characterization, and as a result his characters blend together. Another problem is the protagonist, Amrit Singh, who is passive, detached, disillusioned, and depressed. He's just not that interesting of a guy, and the reason he's not interesting is because he doesn't care about anything very much. If the protagonist doesn't really care, why should the reader?

None of these are fatal flaws and could be forgiven if the plot were carried out as it should have been. But alas, Deb fails to make good on his plot's potential. I think the plot fails because Deb makes things too easy for Amrit. In this book, Amrit doesn't do anything to make readers root for him; our allegiance is assumed (and unearned). And even worse, for a journalist, Amrit doesn't seem that keen on or good at seeking out information on his own. In fact, most of the book consists of characters appearing out of nowhere to take Amrit into their confidence and voluntarily tell him lots and lots of the information he needs to know next. He doesn't have to work for it. He just sits by the phone and waits for people to call after they've arranged his travel plans, or wanders down into a strange neighborhood where he passes out and wakes up to see the person he's looking for. Nobody is actively trying to trick him or throw him off the trail; in fact, potential foils give him rides on his journey. It's both implausible and insipid. The novel would have been more entertaining if Amrit had to work for the pieces of the puzzle and had to put them together himself, instead of stumbling into people with an ever-increasing knowledge of the story he's investigating.

I do think Deb has an interesting perspective, and as far as content is concerned, his book is worthwhile as an expose of bureaucratic corruption in India, a discussion of the legacy of colonialism, and a critique of the way nations deal with the "edges" of their populations.

I would recommend this book if you're interested in the content of the book, particularly if you're looking for depictions of journalism in fiction, how authors in postimperial countries are rewriting The Heart of Darkness, or if you want to read a novel that explores the political situation in northeast India or the corruption of NGOs. Otherwise, it's a mediocre read.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars over the hills and far away, April 19, 2005

By 

Amitabha Bagchi - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: An Outline of the Republic: A Novel (Hardcover)

Deb captures the contingent nature of life in the Indian republic by taking us to it's very edge, the Northeast, where many lies come together to form the truth, or many truths coalesce into one big lie, depending on which way you look at it. The central quest in the novel is fragmented and uncertain, riddled with falsehoods, and is undertaken by an imperfect hero who needs to go further in so that he can get the hell out. In the end it the book is not just about a faraway place where no one needs to go, it's also about the flawed nature of democracy wherever you might live.

This book is important, worth reading, and totally different from most contemporary South Asian fiction.

2.0 out of 5 stars Well Written but Pointless Novel, March 16, 2008

By 

C. Baker "cbaker" (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: An Outline of the Republic: A Novel (Paperback)

Surface is a very well written but ultimately disappointing novel set in Northeast India that has had a history of insurgent violence that is both political but often borders on politics as justification for what amounts to organized criminal activity. The story centers on Amrit, a disaffected reporter for the Sentinel in Calcutta. After discovering and becoming captivated a photograph of a young woman who was possibly executed by an insurgent group for being in porn films, and having made contact with a supposed representative of a German magazine interested in a story on North East India, Amrit takes off to the region to uncover the story.

While the prose is wonderful the novel itself is a disappointment. The story meanders from one scene to the next as Amrit uncovers the mystery of the young woman and the conclusion is unsatisfying as the reader wonders why either Amrit or the reader made this journey to begin with.

Note: This novel is also published under the title Surface.