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A review by mrswythe89
River of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh
3.0
I liked this a lot, but I didn't LOVE it the way I loved Sea of Poppies. I don't think it's the contempt bred by familiarity, or that I'm a more discerning/judgmental reader than I was when I read Sea of Poppies. More likely it's that:
- There are not really any female POV characters (in the first book there were two IIRC -- Deeti and Pauline -- but this time Pauline doesn't stay a POV character for very long at all).
- I don't know Guangzhou well at all, but I am more familiar with it and that cultural milieu than with the setting of the first book, so maybe this book feels more exoticising for that reason? Plus the setting of the first book is more Ghosh's culture and this one isn't. Like, I thought the setting was richly realised and intensively researched as usual, and there were lots of neat things, but somehow it didn't feel as real as the setting in the first book.
- Sort of doubtful about the Robin Chinnery character and POV. (Also because of a couple of hints at the beginning I thought Robin was totally gonna betray Pauline re the camellia, and then he didn't? V. confusing. Or maybe he did and you only find out in the next book!)
- I can see why Ghosh quotes great chunks from period documents (letters from the Commissioner and from Charles King, etc.) but it really felt contrived. "Now a translator will read out bits of this guy's letter!" happened like five times. I think you can probably only use that device once before it gets old. And I was disappointed by the meeting with Napoleon and Zadig Bey and Seth Bahram Modi because there's all this buildup and you think they're gonna interact in interesting ways, and it turns out to be an excuse to exposition-dump about the historical circumstances that led to the Opium War!!
In general there was just too much moralising. I mean, I totally AGREE with Ghosh and can see why he needed to make it clear that these British traders wuz bastards, but it felt like the same argument was being repeated over and over and over. Once would have been enough IMO.
- I just dunno about the patois lah.
That all said, the book's very well written and I enjoyed reading it and Ghosh in the Ibis trilogy is pretty much the writer I aspire to be. Also, lots and lots of food descriptions! <3
- There are not really any female POV characters (in the first book there were two IIRC -- Deeti and Pauline -- but this time Pauline doesn't stay a POV character for very long at all).
- I don't know Guangzhou well at all, but I am more familiar with it and that cultural milieu than with the setting of the first book, so maybe this book feels more exoticising for that reason? Plus the setting of the first book is more Ghosh's culture and this one isn't. Like, I thought the setting was richly realised and intensively researched as usual, and there were lots of neat things, but somehow it didn't feel as real as the setting in the first book.
- Sort of doubtful about the Robin Chinnery character and POV. (Also because of a couple of hints at the beginning I thought Robin was totally gonna betray Pauline re the camellia, and then he didn't? V. confusing. Or maybe he did and you only find out in the next book!)
- I can see why Ghosh quotes great chunks from period documents (letters from the Commissioner and from Charles King, etc.) but it really felt contrived. "Now a translator will read out bits of this guy's letter!" happened like five times. I think you can probably only use that device once before it gets old. And I was disappointed by the meeting with Napoleon and Zadig Bey and Seth Bahram Modi because there's all this buildup and you think they're gonna interact in interesting ways, and it turns out to be an excuse to exposition-dump about the historical circumstances that led to the Opium War!!
In general there was just too much moralising. I mean, I totally AGREE with Ghosh and can see why he needed to make it clear that these British traders wuz bastards, but it felt like the same argument was being repeated over and over and over. Once would have been enough IMO.
- I just dunno about the patois lah.
That all said, the book's very well written and I enjoyed reading it and Ghosh in the Ibis trilogy is pretty much the writer I aspire to be. Also, lots and lots of food descriptions! <3