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WILLIAM SUTCLIFFE |
| Are You Experienced
This book was a great read. I bought it at St. Pancras Stationin London and got so caught up in it I missed my train -- twice. It'slaugh-out-loud funny and a poke in the eye for all those backpackers wrapped up in their own self-importance as they venture from suburbia to the far-flung corners of the world to try and find themselves. As someone who has lived as a settler in Africa all my life, this book was a great satire on some of the objectionalble people from Europe and the States who believe they know everything about Africa because they have spent a couple of months there. Don't get me wrong some are very nice people -- others are certainly not -- but anyone who claims they understand Africa after a few months on the tourist trail (which they think is the real Africa because only backpackers go on it) is delusional. I have lived in Africa for 30 years and I do not understand it. Brilliant passage when the main character meets a Reuters journalist which goes right to the heart of Sutcliffe's message. A must read. Very funny and witty from the start. Personally, as someone who has travelled her fair share, this book made me laugh endlessly as it picks on the pretentious attitude of some travellers. The 'I'm travelling to find myself' spiel that they spout on about when you find yourself sharing a hostel room with one of them. I thought this book was to the point and should be shoved in the face of anyone who thinks they can just mosey on down to India and gorp at the locals! Good story, good laugh, well worth the read! |
| HEATHER WOOD |
Third Class Ticket Third Class Ticket details a journey around India by a group from a poor rural, and tradition-bound, village. Although a supposedly factual account, this book reads like a novel and the reader becomes emotionally involved with the characters as they discard old village prejudices and have their eyes opened by the diversity of their own country. Heather Wood tells the story with a wonderful combination of humility and compassion. For anyone with the slightest interest in India (or in people!), this book is required reading; its only drawback is that it doesn't go on for much longer than it does. |
WILLIAM DALRYMPYLE |
Age of Kali Dalrymple has written an incisive book on contemporary India. He also shows how the country is changing. Most westerners, particulalry Americans either don't know or don't care about India. Client states of the US are the preocupation of the government and ordinary people alike while deep seated prejudices are exhibited in everyday life. I hope that those who will have a chance to read Dalrymple will be better informed and will not be as prejudiced against the country and people from this country. Dalrymple's travels in India are masterfully recorded. He manages to meet and talk with major figures in India's fast-changing society, including a variety of notorious and violent characters. Dalrymple investigates the slow erosion of the caste system, the increased awareness of women's rights (and the fissure that the issue has opened between urban and rural populations), the corruption and the squalor, and India's newly emerged wealth and power in a way that is both direct and sympathetic. India has an increasingly powerful role to play in world affairs, and a growing middle class of technology-literate citizens. But if Dalrymple is right, it seems also to be collapsing under the weight of its own history. This book provides important insight into a culture that is otherwise too easy to ignore. For those planning to visit India in the near future (as I am), _The Age of Kali_ is an excellent introduction. For those simply interested in reading about a land of such baffling contradictory reports, this book is a lucid portrait of a land and people on the verge. Highly recommended. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1864501723/ref=pd_gw_cp_1/104-8636610-3947956 City of Djinns William Dalrymple has a great writing style and a deep apetite for understanding the historical and cultural context. He neither takes the clinical distant approach to his subjects neither does he use a patronizing attitude to India. If you have been to Delhi, the book will be a great reading; if are planning to go there, it should be required reading. You will enjoy your trip so much more. Even if you don't go to Delhi, it is just a wonderful reading. Dalrymple is fast becoming a superstar in travel writing. Read City of Djinns and you will understand why. His style is authorative, yet not pompous. His anecdotes are funny without being offensive to local sensitivities. Everything he writes will bring back images and feelings amongst those who have travelled around the old decaying Mughal city. What a beautiful place it must have been in its heyday some 300 years ago. He doesn't come at you from any pre-disposed angle. He just tells you what happened during the Moghul, British and then the India days from the view point of every day people. And unlike many a British writer, he doesn't shy away from taking the arrogant colonialists to task for their blatant mistreatment of one of history's richest cultures. The decline of the Moghul empire comes across as equally pathetic. The racial hatred that has followed partition is also laid bare in the most frightening detail - a sea of Muslims and Sikhs sent to inhabit each other's territory with no chance of ever going home. This is travel writing that is frustratingly good - and often very, very funny to those who grew up in either India or the UK. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/000215725X/qid=1013739875/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-8636610-3947956 HOME NEXT PREVIOUS indianbooks@indiatimes.com |
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