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ablotial's review against another edition
3.0
I picked out this book on the recommendation of the librarian when I asked for something "different." I'm really not sure whether or not I liked this author's style or not. He uses a lot of parentheticals and very long sentences, and it is sometimes difficult to keep track of what is going on. But he does write very ... intelligently, so it's an interesting read.
The story is two-fold, of the alternating chapters variety. The narrator is Owen, an "Anglo-Indian" (half English, half Indian.. from India) living in London. He is barely scraping by, writing pornographic novels under a pseudonym and teaching high school English to survive while working on his book, "The Cheechee Papers". His sections tell his story, that of love and lust, times spent with his promisciously homosexual roommate, his depression over losing the love of his life, and helping his father in the quest to find the man Skinner who screwed him over many, many years ago.
"The Cheechee Papers" (Cheechee, it is explained, is a negative term for the Anglo-Indians used back in India) makes up the remaining chapters, and is the story of his father and mother growing up in India, his father's boxing career that was supposed to get them out of India when he went to the Olympics, and the tale of the aforementioned Skinner and how he screwed over the father. It is the tale of his mother's abuse by her uncle and her secret plot to murder him. It is the tale of how destiny brought his parents together in the strangest of circumstances, and the tale of how Skinner kept coming back and why the father kept believing him.
The two tales intertwine at the end of the novel, when Owen finds the long-lost Skinner, and deceives his daughter into allowing him to meet the old man. He brings his father to the meeting, and the two old men talk about India and what happened, and... well, obviously I'm not telling you the rest. But, at the end, even the reader is left unsure as to what really happened. Very tricky interesting ending.
What did I think of it? Not entirely sure - as I said, I haven't decided about whether or not I liked the author's style. The story itself was interesting, I really felt like I got to know the characters, especially the father and son. I certainly learned about India, and the era when they gained Independence from England in the 1940s. I knew nothing about the country or the things that happened there, or the problems encountered by those people who were half-English. It was interesting, but... I dunno. As you can see by my rating, it was certainly not the best book I ever read.
The story is two-fold, of the alternating chapters variety. The narrator is Owen, an "Anglo-Indian" (half English, half Indian.. from India) living in London. He is barely scraping by, writing pornographic novels under a pseudonym and teaching high school English to survive while working on his book, "The Cheechee Papers". His sections tell his story, that of love and lust, times spent with his promisciously homosexual roommate, his depression over losing the love of his life, and helping his father in the quest to find the man Skinner who screwed him over many, many years ago.
"The Cheechee Papers" (Cheechee, it is explained, is a negative term for the Anglo-Indians used back in India) makes up the remaining chapters, and is the story of his father and mother growing up in India, his father's boxing career that was supposed to get them out of India when he went to the Olympics, and the tale of the aforementioned Skinner and how he screwed over the father. It is the tale of his mother's abuse by her uncle and her secret plot to murder him. It is the tale of how destiny brought his parents together in the strangest of circumstances, and the tale of how Skinner kept coming back and why the father kept believing him.
The two tales intertwine at the end of the novel, when Owen finds the long-lost Skinner, and deceives his daughter into allowing him to meet the old man. He brings his father to the meeting, and the two old men talk about India and what happened, and... well, obviously I'm not telling you the rest. But, at the end, even the reader is left unsure as to what really happened. Very tricky interesting ending.
What did I think of it? Not entirely sure - as I said, I haven't decided about whether or not I liked the author's style. The story itself was interesting, I really felt like I got to know the characters, especially the father and son. I certainly learned about India, and the era when they gained Independence from England in the 1940s. I knew nothing about the country or the things that happened there, or the problems encountered by those people who were half-English. It was interesting, but... I dunno. As you can see by my rating, it was certainly not the best book I ever read.
gotossmycausticsalad's review against another edition
4.0
Look, it's a Glen Duncan book, it's going to be horny and he's going to bring up anal. I do think he could have gone for one of the less off-putting words for the arsehole than 'anus' - something too medical about it I think - but there we go.
He writes beautifully, the story is interesting and the horniness isn't as off-putting in this one as it can be.
I'd forgotten, one of my favourite quotes comes from this book; "It's in the nature of diaries to be found and read,' Vince said. 'That's why mine's full of lies.'"
He writes beautifully, the story is interesting and the horniness isn't as off-putting in this one as it can be.
I'd forgotten, one of my favourite quotes comes from this book; "It's in the nature of diaries to be found and read,' Vince said. 'That's why mine's full of lies.'"
linneak's review against another edition
2.0
This is one of the books that I picked up from the library in a long overdue session of browsing through the shelves and picking up what looks interesting. And to a certain extent it was interesting, but overall I feel pretty ho-hum about it. Knowing the risk I'm taking by sounding once again like a bit of a prude (if you've read my reviews of The Game of Thrones series) but this author is waaaaaay too obsessed with sex. I understand that sexuality and eroticism is an important and integral part of adult life, but when it gets to the point where it's distracting and you feel like you're a paragraph away from a porn novel, I get fed up. I mean, how important to the story is it that they did this move or he had this dirty thought or it reminded him of the time when he did this to himself, etc. etc.? In this novel in particular, it was way too much. That and taking into consideration the length of the book, it was more about the main character's various sexual experiences rather than the story of his parents living life in India as Anglo-Indians during the rebellious and life-changing times of the 1940s (the part that I was more interested in). I was however really engaged in the story of Kate Monroe and how she survived a terrible family life with ingenuity and bravery. It's too bad that the rest of the novel wasn't written with the same type of focus and literary congeniality, or I think I would have enjoyed it more.
manwithanagenda's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
'The Bloodstone Papers' is the first book by Glen Duncan that I've read without the extra draw of the supernatural, but it was no less compelling once I'd given it a chance. A teacher approaching middle age making ends meet with bar-tending and writing cheap romances, nurses a broken-heart and is trying to write the book, the story of his parents' courtship and life in India just before and after its independence. Their story is told in alternating chapters, covering how they grew up and giving an important picture of India under the British Empire. 'Burmese Days' and 'A Passage to India' don't give much attention to those permanent products of 'the Raj': the Anglo-Indians.
Duncan's writing can be densely descriptive, and, frankly, a bit much, but he's so honest and willing to dig into the uncomfortable, uncertain facts and emotions head-on - it didn't take me long to get pulled into the story even if some of the surface elements: sadsack failure of one protagonist, boxer for another, etc. didn't seem like my cup of tea. But I got involved, because Duncan is a sophisticated storyteller. Duncan uses his author-protagonist to consciously draw parallels between himself and his father and on the importance of storytelling and the idea of destiny. This is a great piece of modern fiction.
Duncan's writing can be densely descriptive, and, frankly, a bit much, but he's so honest and willing to dig into the uncomfortable, uncertain facts and emotions head-on - it didn't take me long to get pulled into the story even if some of the surface elements: sadsack failure of one protagonist, boxer for another, etc. didn't seem like my cup of tea. But I got involved, because Duncan is a sophisticated storyteller. Duncan uses his author-protagonist to consciously draw parallels between himself and his father and on the importance of storytelling and the idea of destiny. This is a great piece of modern fiction.
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