Customer Reviews

The Silver Castle

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This was my first Clive James book. I loved it. I've not yet been to Bombay, or any part of India, but having read the book, I feel like it's a place that I must (but not necessarily want to) visit.

It's a sad story about the life a young boy growing up in poverty in Bombay. It is tragic, but it is told with such objectiveness that you cannot cast judgment upon any of the characters involved.

This is a brilliant display of James' talent of telling things how they are, without imposing a moralistice slant. You'll even laugh a lot.

This book is definitely worth reading.

The sad and moving story of a young life lost. Told with wit and grit, the tale at first engenders the reader's sympathy for the young, precocious Sanjay growing up under deplorable conditions. And then by some curious trick, James allows the reader to distance himself/herself from Sanjay just enough to accept the "return to roots" ending without tears. Perhaps the trick is that you never really know what is in Sanjay's heart. Perhaps he doesn't have one: he is simply an opportunist who climbs the shakey ladder of success by any means possible. And perhaps the saddest indictment of all is that this may be the only hope for the bright sparks among India's poorest people. A thought-provoking, highly-readable novel written with insight and style. Recommended.

I was amazed to find his knowledge of India, the film industry and the politics of the streets so authentic. The story is like an off-line movie story while hovering around the film industry itself. I've read Clive James's other books but none touched me so much as this. Read it!

Forget Patrick White; Clive James is the best writer to ever emerge from our post-colonial back woods. Like Joseph Heller who has never been able to match his stunning debut Catch 22 (possibly the greatest novel of the century) it appeared as though Clive James would have trouble living up to the genius of his autobiographical trilogy, Unreliable Memoirs, Falling Towards England, and May Week was in June. If Brrrmmmm Brrrmmmm, The Remake, and Brilliant Creatures however saw the emergence of a talented novelist, then The Silver Castle has seen the birth of a great one. Clive James sent us a Postcard from Bombay and stayed around long enough to really capture the taste, smell and feel of the place. He gives us a sense of this wonderfully vibrant yet equally appalling city from the dirt up - you can literally feel the grit between your teeth. From the poorest slums where having a deformity is a career, to the glass sparkle of the ludicrous Bollywood, The Silver Castle is an absolute gem of a novel.

Clive James' best novel is probably the third book of his autobiographical trilogy. If you want to laugh out loud, I'd recommend "Brilliant Creatures". "The Silver Castle" is funny, but I feel that Clive should stick to writing about Australia or the UK. When I read the book, I was left with the impression that he doesn't know India that well.