Reviews

The Lives of Others by Neel Mukherjee

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ruhru38sb's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Content Warnings

urvishah's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

richaudayana's review against another edition

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4.0

I'm not surprised that this won the Booker; it has all the signs of a winner -- the convulated, non-linear narrative, achingly real descriptions of hurt, loss, pride and penury, twisted relationships, the whole gig.
But that doesn't go to say that this story isn't deserving. Mukherjea has woven a rich, intricate tale that does justice to the entire substantial length of the book. At no point in this tragic drama, set alternately within the Ghosh mansion and the forests of post-independence Bengal and Bihar, bore the reader or lull them into thinking that it will have an ordinary (or pleasant) ending.
The plot is masterful, comparable in my mind to Kalyan Ray's 'Two countries'.
Despite the sad, almost morbid fate of the Ghosh family, this is a book I'd pick up again someday. Just not any time soon.

boxcar's review

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dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Very good. Brutal look into a hierarchical, unjust world. An examination of counterrevolutions and their terror: does the initial terror justify it? (justify, probably. does it lead to change, or a perpetuation of the cycle of pain and suffering?) The focus on the family was interesting, acting as a sort of microcosm for society at large, and then it zooms out (in?) to one of the family members trying to fix that “at large”. Can one truly remove themselves from their upbringing?

The thread of the budding math prodigy was a headscratcher. I suppose his success amidst the abject failure and disaster of his family and surroundings is due to his reluctance to interact with the concrete, with the tangible. By living for the abstract, the theoretical, he was able to escape the pain and cyclical suffocation of the family, of the world.

okay not much of a headscratcher. This book has multiple narratives which all paint a corner or a portion of the canvas.

Very well written, but unfortunately parts felt like a slog. A slog that I never doubted was worth it, mind you.

Did I enjoy it? not really, no.
Is it a book made to be enjoyed? I don’t think so.
Did it make me think? Did it open the chest of humanity and show me the heart? probably.

good essay writin material.

maketeaa's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

this was, at times, extremely difficult to read. i found myself skipping lines that were too visceral, too gruesome to look at head-on, which is interesting to have experienced in a story whose main actors are a middle class bengali family and the complex dynamics between them. the lives of an others is, in a complicated, tangled way, about exactly what it says on the tin -- the way our lives interact with the lives of others, the way they are constantly spurned, evaluated, compared with the lives of others, but most importantly, how every impression that the lives of others truly matter to us is an illusion for the truth: that, at the end of the day, the lives of others we give importance to only matter insofar they revolve around our own. we see characters such as chhaya, who clings possessively to her older brother as a source of ownership, of a sense of belonging disguised as love, and how her snide remarks and manipulative behaviour are crafted to keep her at the centre of power in her own consciousness. we see charubala, the mother in law of the house, who carefully maintains outward appearances of the ghosh family and sweeps under the rug all that could malign them. and, separated from the main household, we see supratik, a revolutionary, committing terrorist attacks against his class enemies and opposing the middle-class culture he had come from. but the bleak ending serves to show that underlying such attachments to the lives of others, whether good or bad, is the desire to affirm our own, and that loyalty, to ideologies or people alike, only sustain as long as they serve our own deep rooted interests.

Content Warnings

pujadev's review against another edition

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2.0

I did like this book, but is has no structured story line, it has too many half developed characters, and we as readers are left hanging about the fate of pretty much all of them. So frustrating!I hate books with no sense of closure, don't get me wrong, I enjoy books that allow the reader to imagine the ending and all the possibilities, but this book doesn't provide the tools required for that leap of imagination.

Neel Mukherjee is definitely a great writer, maybe he should have chosen one of the plots in the book and stuck with it.

kyrajade's review against another edition

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3.0

For the plot I want to rate this 4-5 stars, but the execution is what let this book down for me and took me nearly a year to finish it. It is just way too long and fulled with unnecessary details drummed down your throat at every moment. Being so intensely biographical I felt no connection to any of the characters, nor felt any emotion toward their situations (aside from Purba, but only at the most shocking moments). I have a large hardback version of this book and the very fact that some of the chapters are 30 pages (15 doubles) made me not want to pick up this book. In comparison, the chapters I was enjoying about Supratik's beliefs and training were much shorter and were cut short about 100 pages before the end. The epilogues were also unnecessary and boring, the last chapter felt meaningless. To be perfectly honest I would have enjoyed an ending where we see the Ghoshes reeling after the raid, the murder of Supratik and the innocence of Madan coming to light, along with Supratik's complicity in the crime, whilst their financial situation continually worsens. Instead, the ending was a smorgasbord of related incidents at different parts in time, one of which was thrown in there just to throw in Supratik's name.

The concept though? 10/10 and in moments where we got really into the gritty elements of the present day plot I was enjoying it.

krobart's review

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4.0

See my review here:

https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2015/10/22/day-793-the-lives-of-others/

sumedh's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

zedwards's review against another edition

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challenging reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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