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3.87 AVERAGE
3.87 AVERAGE
I really enjoyed the book as it was very atmospheric and compelling. It was also great to read something set in Burma, India and Malaya.
However, I found that the story was uneven with too much time spent on matters that were relatively immaterial while other sections were too brief.
However, I found that the story was uneven with too much time spent on matters that were relatively immaterial while other sections were too brief.
I love the way he takes the time to let the story and characters develop. And I always like to read about places I haven't been yet.
Wanted to like it more than I did - clearly well-researched historical knowledge, a series of moving moments, but these were stuck between moments of tedium with characters either too static or too dynamic. Essentially I loved the history but some but not most of the narrative. Hard to star.
I wanted to like this book. I just couldn’t for the vast majority of it.
I thank Ghosh for introducing me to the character and history of this region, something I was sorely unfamiliar with. However, history is mostly what this book is and character is what it lacks. It feels like a textbook for much of the read, which made it difficult and mostly unenjoyable as a novel.
There are so many characters spanning so many decades that I found it hard to keep them all straight. It also didn’t help that I took a break from the book for several weeks — it was that boring. I was most struck by how often Ghosh painstakingly detailed airplanes and automobiles, as if he were trying to prove his extensive knowledge and research.
It saved itself from a two-star review in the last 150ish pages.
I thank Ghosh for introducing me to the character and history of this region, something I was sorely unfamiliar with. However, history is mostly what this book is and character is what it lacks. It feels like a textbook for much of the read, which made it difficult and mostly unenjoyable as a novel.
There are so many characters spanning so many decades that I found it hard to keep them all straight. It also didn’t help that I took a break from the book for several weeks — it was that boring. I was most struck by how often Ghosh painstakingly detailed airplanes and automobiles, as if he were trying to prove his extensive knowledge and research.
It saved itself from a two-star review in the last 150ish pages.
I cried at least three times while reading this book. I wasn't expecting to. I don't usually go in for the sprawling historical epics like this one. But somehow, it really moved me, just when I was rolling my eyes at another historical reference. The thing of it is, I also learned a LOT about history and culture, too. I had no idea how much Asia was hit by the World Wars. The prose felt a little clumsy here and there - but then suddenly would be shockingly beautiful. I suddenly thought "Hey, maybe I should become an editor since I can't believe that sentence got past one!" but then, also - just gorgeous gorgeous passages would flash by.
It's also extremely timely, this book. The issues of imperialism, race, world politics. . .there are lessons to be learned here. And tears to shed. Romeo and Juliet type tears.
It's also extremely timely, this book. The issues of imperialism, race, world politics. . .there are lessons to be learned here. And tears to shed. Romeo and Juliet type tears.
Salah satu buku yang datang dalam kehidupan saya di saat yang tepat.
Buku terbitan tahun 2008 ini sudah saya miliki awal Oktober, setelah membelinya dari kotak obralan Mizan di Indonesia Book Fair, namun masih terbungkus plastik rapi. Hingga tanggal 9 lalu, saya di kamar kos bengong nggak punya bacaan baru. Walhasil, bungkus plastik buku ini pun terobek, dan isinya terbaca sedikit demi sedikit. Dan saya sempat terpana sesaat (ga lama2, kalo kelamaan jadi ketiduran).
Pas banget. November ini materi pelajaran IPS kelas IX adalah tentang Perang Dunia II dan (terutama) pendudukan Jepang di Indonesia. Begitu penulis buku ini mengajak kita menelusuri sungai2 India, istana kaca Mandalay, lansekap hutan2 Burma, gajah2 di areal penebangan, hingga keterlibatan pemuda2 India sebagai serdadu Imperium Inggris yang berjuang saat kedatangan Jepang, yaaah... jelaslah buat saya bahwa buku ini sudah dapat bintang 3.5.
Apalagi, sebanyak apa yang sebelumnya kita tahu tentang Burma alias Myanmar sekarang ini? Nyaris hanya berita tentang pendudukan junta militer dan penahanan para aktivis prodemokrasi yang biasanya muncul di koran2 kita. Namun lewat buku ini saya jadi tahu tentang riwayat raja dan ratu terakhir Burma, pengasingan mereka di India, dan seperti apa masyarakat di dalam negeri yang sekarang bisa dibilang tertutup itu.
Dan akhirnya buku ini saya beri bintang 4, karena saat saya hampir menyelesaikannya, datang berita baru dari Myanmar: pembebasan Aung San Suu Kyi dari penahanannya oleh penguasa militer. Dan Suu Kyi ini, adalah salah satu tokoh (sampiran) di buku ini.
(maunya masih bersambung)
Buku terbitan tahun 2008 ini sudah saya miliki awal Oktober, setelah membelinya dari kotak obralan Mizan di Indonesia Book Fair, namun masih terbungkus plastik rapi. Hingga tanggal 9 lalu, saya di kamar kos bengong nggak punya bacaan baru. Walhasil, bungkus plastik buku ini pun terobek, dan isinya terbaca sedikit demi sedikit. Dan saya sempat terpana sesaat (ga lama2, kalo kelamaan jadi ketiduran).
Pas banget. November ini materi pelajaran IPS kelas IX adalah tentang Perang Dunia II dan (terutama) pendudukan Jepang di Indonesia. Begitu penulis buku ini mengajak kita menelusuri sungai2 India, istana kaca Mandalay, lansekap hutan2 Burma, gajah2 di areal penebangan, hingga keterlibatan pemuda2 India sebagai serdadu Imperium Inggris yang berjuang saat kedatangan Jepang, yaaah... jelaslah buat saya bahwa buku ini sudah dapat bintang 3.5.
Apalagi, sebanyak apa yang sebelumnya kita tahu tentang Burma alias Myanmar sekarang ini? Nyaris hanya berita tentang pendudukan junta militer dan penahanan para aktivis prodemokrasi yang biasanya muncul di koran2 kita. Namun lewat buku ini saya jadi tahu tentang riwayat raja dan ratu terakhir Burma, pengasingan mereka di India, dan seperti apa masyarakat di dalam negeri yang sekarang bisa dibilang tertutup itu.
Dan akhirnya buku ini saya beri bintang 4, karena saat saya hampir menyelesaikannya, datang berita baru dari Myanmar: pembebasan Aung San Suu Kyi dari penahanannya oleh penguasa militer. Dan Suu Kyi ini, adalah salah satu tokoh (sampiran) di buku ini.
(maunya masih bersambung)
This book was just stunning. I've just finished it and I'm still digesting the atmosphere, the story, the characters, the history... and just the immense sadness and tragedy caused by war, military dictatorships. This is a massive epic and a wonderful book. My first book by Ghosh but I will certainly be reading more by this fantastic writer.
This epic covers three generations of two intertwined families, starting off in the late 1800s, and essentially catching up with us today, or rather around the time when this book was published, in 2000. The action covers India, Burma and Malaysia, although I feel as though Burma was the main focus of this book somehow. It starts out back in the times of the British empire, with the Brits coming to take the king of Burma off his throne. And it's Burma that this story keeps coming back to, and Burma where it ends. Our three main characters who form the two families that we'll follow, are Rajkumar, an Indian orphan working on boats who finds himself needing a job when the boat he's working on gets stuck at Mandalay for repairs of several weeks. There's Dolly, a burmese girl and lady-child in waiting at the Burmese court, who goes with the royal family when they are banished from the country and sent to India to live out the rest of their days, essentially under house arrest. As as Dolly grows up in India, she gets to know an Indian woman, Uma, married to 'the collector' (basically administrator in charge of the town and the royal family). And from these families and subsequent generations, we get this gorgeous sweeping history of the region, seeing the teak industry of Burma, the rubber of Malaysia, the coming of the second world war and the suffering it brought, the Indian section of the British army and the awakening of their need for independence for India, the plight of the refugees and the Japanese occupation and then Burma under its military rule after the war. It's been a bit of a history education for me.
There is so much going on in this book, depicted through the lives of some full bodied, wonderful characters. Just too much for me to begin to even summarise, and really, this book just needs to be read.
This epic covers three generations of two intertwined families, starting off in the late 1800s, and essentially catching up with us today, or rather around the time when this book was published, in 2000. The action covers India, Burma and Malaysia, although I feel as though Burma was the main focus of this book somehow. It starts out back in the times of the British empire, with the Brits coming to take the king of Burma off his throne. And it's Burma that this story keeps coming back to, and Burma where it ends. Our three main characters who form the two families that we'll follow, are Rajkumar, an Indian orphan working on boats who finds himself needing a job when the boat he's working on gets stuck at Mandalay for repairs of several weeks. There's Dolly, a burmese girl and lady-child in waiting at the Burmese court, who goes with the royal family when they are banished from the country and sent to India to live out the rest of their days, essentially under house arrest. As as Dolly grows up in India, she gets to know an Indian woman, Uma, married to 'the collector' (basically administrator in charge of the town and the royal family). And from these families and subsequent generations, we get this gorgeous sweeping history of the region, seeing the teak industry of Burma, the rubber of Malaysia, the coming of the second world war and the suffering it brought, the Indian section of the British army and the awakening of their need for independence for India, the plight of the refugees and the Japanese occupation and then Burma under its military rule after the war. It's been a bit of a history education for me.
There is so much going on in this book, depicted through the lives of some full bodied, wonderful characters. Just too much for me to begin to even summarise, and really, this book just needs to be read.
This book was lovely. A bit like reading Salman Rushdie (who everyone knows is one of my favourites) but without magical realism - same decades-spanning family saga, same attention to physical detail, same interweaving of genuine history into the fiction. My first real lesson in 20th-century Indian history came Midnight's Children; this was my first real lesson in Burmese and Malaysian history. Made me want to learn more. Oh and just to warn anyone who's thinking of picking it up, the ending totally made me cry.