Book Review- River Of Smoke

Hardcover, 522 pages

Published June 1st 2011 by John Murray Publishers (first published January 1st 2010)

more details...                       ISBN- 0719568986 (ISBN13: 9780719568985)                

edition language- English

original title-River of Smoke

                                 series- Ibis Trilogy #2                                 

setting- Canton (China)
    Singapore
   Mauritius
literary awards- Man Asian Literary Prize Nominee (2011)

Synopsis-

In September 1838, a storm blows up on the Indian Ocean and the Ibis, a ship carrying a consignment of convicts and indentured laborers from Calcutta to Mauritius, is caught up in the whirlwind. River of Smoke follows its storm-tossed characters to the crowded harbors of China. There, despite efforts of the emperor to stop them, ships from Europe and India exchange their cargoes of opium for boxes tea, silk, porcelain and silver. Among them are Bahram Modi, a wealthy Parsi opium merchant out of Bombay, his estranged half-Chinese son Ah Fatt, the orphaned Paulette and a motley collection of others whose pursuit of romance, riches and a legendary rare flower have thrown together. All struggle to cope with their losses—and for some, unimaginable freedoms—in the alleys and crowded waterways of 19th-century Canton.

My Review-

 

So, where were we? The Ibis landed in the island of Mareech orMauritius right? In this installment of what will be called the Ibis trilogy, the voyage of the charecters continue. After quite a few lives lost, and some bloodshed the Ibis reaches it’s destination. Quite a few charecters are no more mentioned and some are new additions. In all the following charecters take the center stage.

• Bahram Modi - Parsi Merchant from Bombay and father of Ah Fat
• Chi Mei - A Cantonese Boat woman who is the lover of Bahram Modi
• Ah Fat - Son of Bahram Modi and Chi Mei
• Neel - Munshi of Bahram Modi
• Vico - Bahram Modi’s purser
• Zadig Bey - Armenian watch maker and friend of Bahram Modi
• Fitcher Penrose - A Scottish botanist on an expedition to collect rare plants in China
• Paulette Lambert - Daughter of a French botanist who accompanies Mr. Fitcher on his expedition.
• Robert Chinnery - Artist, Paulette’s friend and son of George Chinnery
• Commissioner Lin Zexu - The incorruptible Chinese mandarin who is appointed by the Emperor of China to put an end to opium trading.

Now that we know who’s who lets get back to the story. Neel Rattan and Ah Fatt have escaped the Ibis. Paulette has taken a step towards a fresh beginning to her life and Deeti is mentioned only in the start and briefly towards the end. The pace of the story is brisk in the start ( briskier than Sea Of Poppies, i.e.) and slows down after a while. After that every page is sheer disappointment. As I said, I wanted to hear more about Deeti. I wanted Zachary Reid to be there and see the love between him and Paulette bloom. I wanted more of Jodu too. I do not have problems with the language. I wanted a better story and the elimination of the charecters were unecessary too. The language has to be brilliant when Amitav Ghosh writes, but the storyline is the backbone. The second one in the Ibis trilogy is disappointment.

But hey, the start was brilliant and the author is brilliant too. The end I believe will be great too.He has to be back with a bang. I’m still looking forward to the third book.

About The Author-

Amitav Ghosh is one of India's best-known writers. His books include The Circle of Reason, The Shadow Lines, In An Antique Land, Dancing in Cambodia, The Calcutta Chromosome, The Glass Palace, Incendiary Circumstances, The Hungry Tide. His most recent novel, Sea of Poppies, is the first volume of the Ibis Trilogy.

Amitav Ghosh was born in Calcutta in 1956. He studied in Dehra Dun, New Delhi, Alexandria and Oxford and his first job was at the Indian Express newspaper in New Delhi. He earned a doctorate at Oxford before he wrote his first novel, which was published in 1986.

The Circle of Reason won the Prix Medicis Etranger, one of France's top literary awards, and The Shadow Lines won the Sahitya Akademi Award and the Ananda Puraskar. The Calcutta Chromosome won the Arthur C. Clarke Award for 1997 and The Glass Palace won the Grand Prize for Fiction at the Frankfurt International e-Book Awards in 2001. The Hungry Tide won the Hutch Crossword Book Prize in 2006. In 2007 Amitav Ghosh was awarded the Grinzane Cavour Prize in Turin, Italy. Amitav Ghosh has written for many publications, including the Hindu, The New Yorker and Granta, and he has served on the juries of several international film festivals, including Locarno and Venice. He has taught at many universities in India and the USA, including Delhi University, Columbia, the City University of New York and Harvard. He no longer teaches and is currently writing the next volume of the Ibis Trilogy.

He is married to the writer, Deborah Baker, and has two children, Lila and Nayan. He divides his time between Kolkata, Goa and Brooklyn.
 

Book Review- Sea Of Poppies

 

Published May 1st 2008 by John Murray Publisher (first published 2008)

more details...

ISBN- 071956896X (ISBN13: 9780719568961)                

edition language- English

original title- Sea of Poppies

url- http://www.amitavghosh.com/seapoppies.html                

series- Ibis Trilogy #1                                 

characters- Neel Rattan Halder, Zachary Reid, Paulette Lambert, Benjamin Burnham                

setting- India

literary awards- Man Booker Prize Nominee for Shortlist (2008), Vodafone Crossword Book Award for Fiction (2008), Indiaplaza Golden Quill Book Award for Best Novel / Popular Vote Award (2009)

 

 

 

Synopsis-

 

At the heart of this vibrant saga is a vast ship, the Ibis. Its destiny is a tumultuous voyage across the Indian Ocean; its purpose, to fight China’s vicious nineteenth-century Opium Wars. As for the crew, they are a motley array of sailors and stowaways, coolies and convicts.

In a time of colonial upheaval, fate has thrown together a diverse cast of Indians and Westerners, from a bankrupt raja to a widowed tribeswoman, from a mulatto American freedman to a free-spirited French orphan. As their old family ties are washed away, they, like their historical counterparts, come to view themselves as jahaj-bhais, or ship-brothers. An unlikely dynasty is born, which will span continents, races, and generations.

The vast sweep of this historical adventure spans the lush poppy fields of the Ganges, the rolling high seas, the exotic backstreets of China. But it is the panorama of characters, whose diaspora encapsulates the vexed colonial history of the East itself, that makes Sea of Poppies so breathtakingly alive—a masterpiece from one of the world’s finest novelists.

 

My Review-

 

History and literature are two of the most exotic subjects that exist on earth crust. Combining both of them beautifully into a story as beautiful and contemporary as this, is ‘Sea Of Poppies’. The first in the Ibis trilogy, this book encompasses the lives of a few charecters coming from different backgrounds and experiencing strife and bloodshed with their destinations unknown.

Deeti, the only female charecter is a simple woman. Her life turns upside down with her marriage to an infertile, worker from the Ghazipur Opium Factory. Furthermore, her mother-in-law drugs her on the night of her marriage when her brother-in-law impregnates her and Kabutri is born. His husband, dies and she is asked to sacrifice her life on his funeral pyre. She runs away with Kalua, an ox-man. To escape, they become servants on the Ibis.Others include, Neel Rattan Halder, Ah Fatt, Paulette and Zachary Reid. Neel Rattan Halder is a zamindar sufferring loses in opium trade with China. Selling off his lands to pay the debts is not an option for him and hence he gets tried to work as a labourer on the Ibis in Mauritius for seven years. His companion in the prison is Ah Fatt, a half-Chinese and half-Parsi opium addict. Zachary Reid is an American Sailor on the Ibis with Serang Ali being the second in the command. Paulette is a French Orphan living with Mr. And Mrs. Burnham (who is also responsible for Neel Rattan Halder’s trial). She meets Zachary Reid on a dinner and they are instantly drawn to each other. Hopeful of a better future, she boards the Ibis with Jodu and disguises herself as bengali woman, thanks to her years of close association with Jodu and her mother.

The highlights of an Amitav Ghosh novel, is always the plot. Being a bengali who has lived all over the country and travelled the world, he tends to come back to his roots and rediscover Bengal in his tales. The language is extravagant to be precise. The blend he makes out of those different cultures and dialects, it creates textures, imprints that last on your mind. Even though fictional, the story has an amazingly realistic feel to it, somewhat like it did happen to someone who lived back then, A commoner, perhaps. The story seems like a secret Ghosh’s ancestors passed on him and he conspicuously is letting the readers know of it.

 Paulette pleases me the most. She seeks inspiration from her great aunt and heads for Mauritius. She knows the aftermath of getting caught by her uncle. Yet she takes the risk. Brought up in an Indian environment has given her a whole new charecter than that she’d have had, had she been brought up in some other place. Her life being torturous and she still being hopeful is what inspires me and makes me simply adore her.

The idea of treating Ganga as the Nile and the Opium Wars dishevelling so many lives, is something that appeals me on the first place. The front cover with the pressed poppy flower on it and the back cover with the winds emanating the poppy seeds is very much in terms with the storyline. This book is defintely not a one time read. You’d read it time and again and find a competely different shade every time. I’m more than looking forward to reading it some other time and look at it in a different light. Rating Ghosh on Sea Of Poppies with five stars is a privilege.

About The Author-

 

Amitav Ghosh was born in Calcutta and grew up in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India. He studied at the universities of Delhi and Oxford, and has taught at a number of institutions. River of Smoke is the second in the Ibis trilogy, which was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize and The Hindu Literary Prize in 2011. The first of the trilogy, the bestselling Sea of Poppies, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2008. Ghosh’s other works include The Circle of Reason (Prix Médicis Étranger Award), The Shadow Lines (Sahitya Akademi Award), In an Antique Land, The Calcutta Chromosome (Arthur C. Clarke Award), Dancing in Cambodia and Other Essays, Countdown, The Glass Palace (Grand Prize for Fiction at the Frankfurt International e-books Awards), The Imam and the Indian and The Hungry Tide (Best Work in English Fiction, Hutch Crossword Book Award). In 2007 he was awarded the Grinzane Cavour Prize and in 2010 the Dan David Prize.

Amitav Ghosh currently divides his time between Calcutta, Goa and Brooklyn.