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A review by thisotherbookaccount
The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh
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.