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3.87 AVERAGE
3.87 AVERAGE
Devoured this over 4 days. My favourite sort of multi-generational family epic.
Learnt a bit about Burma in the wartime, always good to learn something from fiction
Coming into The Glass Palace, I was up in the air about Amitav Ghosh. Even though his Sea of Poppies was one of my favourite books of 2019, its follow up, River of Smoke, turned out to be one of the worst from earlier this year. Characters and plots carefully developed in the first book were tossed out of the window in the second, favouring instead of less-than-developed secondary characters, paper-thin new characters and historical events completed detached from everything set up in the first book. I, however, made excuses for Ghosh. I figured, perhaps he is better at writing one-off books rather than trilogies. And since The Glass Castle is a standalone book that also happens to be his most popular (judging by the number of Goodreads ratings), I decided to take a shot.
Unfortunately, The Glass Palace is a major disappointment.
Don't get me wrong, the premise and setting are fantastic. The story begins with a young Indian boy living in Myanmar who witnesses the fall of the Burmese empire by the hands of the British. The synopsis on the back of the book even promises an epic journey of how this Indian boy becomes a wealthy teak trader, just so that he can travel to India to look for his long-lost love. I mean, even though I have been to Myanmar, I don't know very many stories set there, and I certainly know next to nothing about the last Burmese king and his family, who was unceremoniously exiled to India. With his flair for language and his ability to craft intriguing characters, I thought I was going to be treated to yet another epic adventure.
The problem with The Glass Palace becomes painfully clear after the first 30% of the book. Once the family is in exile, you quickly realise that Ghosh is no longer interested in his characters. Instead, he turns on his historian mode plugs his characters into historical events happening in and around South and Southeast Asia at the time. Instead of slowly learning the ways of the trade and becoming a wealthy businessman in his own right, our young protagonist goes from dirt poor to filthy rich within a matter of three pages. Another character goes from losing her husband, becoming a widow, going to stay with her relatives, receiving a letter of invitation from Myanmar, then travelling to Myanmar to meet our protagonist within a single paragraph — a single fucking paragraph. And I suspect Ghosh does this because he has a list of important historical events he requires his characters to be there for, such as the Japanese invasion of Myanmar during World War II. I mean, if a tree falls and no one is there to hear it, right?
This is just fucking lazy writing. Everything about this book feels like an excuse for Ghosh to tell a narrative historical account of Myanmar. If done well, perhaps this could have sold a book or three, but the execution here is shocking poor for someone with such an ability to write. Characters also make snap decisions for no damn reason as well. When our protagonist finally travels to India to meet the love of his life (whom, by the way, he only saw glimpses of when he was a fucking child), this woman understandably rejects him and say, er, no, this is weird, I don't even know who you are. He tries again to court her and offers up a marriage proposal. Again, she rejects his advancements, saying that she'd much rather remain in India. Feeling dejected, our protagonist then leaves town on a ship, only to have the woman leap off the jetty to chase after him because, oh wow! She's changed her fucking mind! All of this happens within A SINGLE PAGE.
If you like good stories and good characters, skip this book. If you want to read more about Myanmar and its exiled monarchs, also skip this book. This book offers nothing to anybody.
Unfortunately, The Glass Palace is a major disappointment.
Don't get me wrong, the premise and setting are fantastic. The story begins with a young Indian boy living in Myanmar who witnesses the fall of the Burmese empire by the hands of the British. The synopsis on the back of the book even promises an epic journey of how this Indian boy becomes a wealthy teak trader, just so that he can travel to India to look for his long-lost love. I mean, even though I have been to Myanmar, I don't know very many stories set there, and I certainly know next to nothing about the last Burmese king and his family, who was unceremoniously exiled to India. With his flair for language and his ability to craft intriguing characters, I thought I was going to be treated to yet another epic adventure.
The problem with The Glass Palace becomes painfully clear after the first 30% of the book. Once the family is in exile, you quickly realise that Ghosh is no longer interested in his characters. Instead, he turns on his historian mode plugs his characters into historical events happening in and around South and Southeast Asia at the time. Instead of slowly learning the ways of the trade and becoming a wealthy businessman in his own right, our young protagonist goes from dirt poor to filthy rich within a matter of three pages. Another character goes from losing her husband, becoming a widow, going to stay with her relatives, receiving a letter of invitation from Myanmar, then travelling to Myanmar to meet our protagonist within a single paragraph — a single fucking paragraph. And I suspect Ghosh does this because he has a list of important historical events he requires his characters to be there for, such as the Japanese invasion of Myanmar during World War II. I mean, if a tree falls and no one is there to hear it, right?
This is just fucking lazy writing. Everything about this book feels like an excuse for Ghosh to tell a narrative historical account of Myanmar. If done well, perhaps this could have sold a book or three, but the execution here is shocking poor for someone with such an ability to write. Characters also make snap decisions for no damn reason as well. When our protagonist finally travels to India to meet the love of his life (whom, by the way, he only saw glimpses of when he was a fucking child), this woman understandably rejects him and say, er, no, this is weird, I don't even know who you are. He tries again to court her and offers up a marriage proposal. Again, she rejects his advancements, saying that she'd much rather remain in India. Feeling dejected, our protagonist then leaves town on a ship, only to have the woman leap off the jetty to chase after him because, oh wow! She's changed her fucking mind! All of this happens within A SINGLE PAGE.
If you like good stories and good characters, skip this book. If you want to read more about Myanmar and its exiled monarchs, also skip this book. This book offers nothing to anybody.
good and readable. it has similar pacing inconsistency as circle of reason, another ghosh book. comparatively, i was more into the characters from circle of reason, but this was still enjoyable. makes me want to read more history.
I found this to be a stunning and personal tale of empire and revolution in India and Burma. Highly recommended.
This was a very interesting book about a piece of the world and it's history I know almost nothing about. Ghosh tries for a sweeping saga about 3 generations (although mostly the first two) bouncing back and forth between India, Burma, and Malaya. It's the kind of thing I usually love, and I can't put my finger on why this one didn't work for me. I read it, and I enjoyed it, but I never really got into it.
There are very few books which wholly encompass and carry the reader so swiftly and dramatically as this book. Never once did I struggle to remember who was who despite the vast number of characters. Rather, each character is so believable and unique that they become like family. Loved it.
I found The Glass Palace difficult to engage with, and ultimately, quite boring. Perhaps listening to it as an audiobook had something to do with it, but I consistently found my mind drifting and struggled to focus on the story. The writing style didn’t capture my attention or create a connection to the characters, making it hard to care about their journeys or the book’s direction. While I understand the historical significance and themes the book explores, they weren’t presented in a way that held my interest. Overall, this just wasn’t the right book for me.
challenging
emotional
hopeful
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:
Complicated
This a long book full of history and the family saga becomes somewhat strained and contrived at the end. But it's a literary scholarly book not genre fiction ( I read both happily but I don't review them the same way).
My dad uses to work upcountry in Burma near some of the sites in this book. I' ve always been at a loss to describe to others the tragedy of how this rich land was reduced to such poverty. I understood much of the history, but Ghosh fleshes it out and adds the dimension of a post colonial sensibility so beautifully that I cannot recommend it enough.
My dad uses to work upcountry in Burma near some of the sites in this book. I' ve always been at a loss to describe to others the tragedy of how this rich land was reduced to such poverty. I understood much of the history, but Ghosh fleshes it out and adds the dimension of a post colonial sensibility so beautifully that I cannot recommend it enough.