What do you think?
Rate this book
The Bloodstone Papers
Switching seamlessly between the chaos and bloodshed of 1940s India and the multicultural mélange of twenty-first-century Britain, Glen Duncan's sublime new novel finds love in both.
Ross Monroe is a boxing railwayman with a weakness for get-rich-quick schemes. Kate Lyle is a headstrong young woman desperate to escape a sexually predatory household. Both are Anglo-Indians, members of a race that helped turn the wheels of Empire for years. But Empire days are numbered, and as India sheds its colonial skin, the young lovers must face their own tryst with destiny.
In twenty-first-century England, Owen Monroe is writing this story of his parents' lives in an effort to avoid the problems in his own: lost love, relentless libido, dreams of death, and a world full of headlines he can't understand and doesn't want to. But keeping past and present apart isn't as easy as it seems, and before long Owen is deep in the one story he never wanted to tell....
Epic in its scope yet never losing sight of the telling, gorgeous detail, The Bloodstone Papers is an extraordinarily rich and beautiful read that manages to ask the big questions without fuss and to accept that the big answers aren't always what we want to hear.
Ross Monroe is a boxing railwayman with a weakness for get-rich-quick schemes. Kate Lyle is a headstrong young woman desperate to escape a sexually predatory household. Both are Anglo-Indians, members of a race that helped turn the wheels of Empire for years. But Empire days are numbered, and as India sheds its colonial skin, the young lovers must face their own tryst with destiny.
In twenty-first-century England, Owen Monroe is writing this story of his parents' lives in an effort to avoid the problems in his own: lost love, relentless libido, dreams of death, and a world full of headlines he can't understand and doesn't want to. But keeping past and present apart isn't as easy as it seems, and before long Owen is deep in the one story he never wanted to tell....
Epic in its scope yet never losing sight of the telling, gorgeous detail, The Bloodstone Papers is an extraordinarily rich and beautiful read that manages to ask the big questions without fuss and to accept that the big answers aren't always what we want to hear.
416 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
15 people are currently reading
330 people want to read
About the author
Glen Duncan
25 books888 followersAka Saul Black.
Glen Duncan is a British author born in 1965 in Bolton, Lancashire, England to an Anglo-Indian family. He studied philosophy and literature at the universities of Lancaster and Exeter. In 1990 Duncan moved to London, where he worked as a bookseller for four years, writing in his spare time. In 1994 he visited India with his father (part roots odyssey, part research for a later work, The Bloodstone Papers) before continuing on to the United States, where he spent several months travelling the country by Amtrak train, writing much of what would become his first novel, Hope, published to critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic in 1997. Duncan lives in London. Recently, his 2002 novel I, Lucifer has had the film rights purchased, with actors such as Ewan Mcgregor, Jason Brescia, Jude Law, Vin Diesel, and Daniel Craig all being considered for roles in the forthcoming movie.
(from Wikipedia)
Glen Duncan is a British author born in 1965 in Bolton, Lancashire, England to an Anglo-Indian family. He studied philosophy and literature at the universities of Lancaster and Exeter. In 1990 Duncan moved to London, where he worked as a bookseller for four years, writing in his spare time. In 1994 he visited India with his father (part roots odyssey, part research for a later work, The Bloodstone Papers) before continuing on to the United States, where he spent several months travelling the country by Amtrak train, writing much of what would become his first novel, Hope, published to critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic in 1997. Duncan lives in London. Recently, his 2002 novel I, Lucifer has had the film rights purchased, with actors such as Ewan Mcgregor, Jason Brescia, Jude Law, Vin Diesel, and Daniel Craig all being considered for roles in the forthcoming movie.
(from Wikipedia)
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
February 18, 2018
"The older we get, the sadder we look on the toilet."
Glen Duncan is a mastercrafter of pithy, amusing phrases like this one. His mind is a forge of artisan subtlety, turning out many-layered paragraphs of shining clarity and scintillating sharpness that sparkle with the light of hidden truths.
If you've only read Duncan's hilarious I, Lucifer and The Last Werewolf you would think him primarily to be a comedic writer, albeit one with some pretty solid writing chops. That's how I had pegged him, but The Bloodstone Papers shows him to be a whole lot more versatile than I expected and as expert in wielding pathos as he is comedy.
This a skilfully told story of two generations in a an Anglo-Indian family, from before partition in India to England of the early 2000s.
Owen Monroe, the main character, is the Anglo-Indian son of Anglo-Indian parents, part of an ethnic group near forgotten by history.
Owen is an odd man. Lonely, unambitious, still torn up over a long past break up and tied up in a never-to-be-completed book about his family history, and that of Anglo-Indians in general. He works part-time as a teacher, serves drinks in a bar one night a week to break up his boredom and pens purple romance novels under the pseudonym Emily Millicent.
His parents play an unusually prominent role in his empty life and it is their history that brings action to both the novel and to Owen's meandering.
Decades ago in India his father Ross, a possible Olympic contender in the boxing ring, was scammed by a charming Englishman named Skinner, a man whose cons cost him dearly. Ever since he has wanted to find him and confront him, and Owen has been covertly helping him track Skinner down.
As the novel progresses we see two narratives develop in tandem.
In India we follow Owen's father as he comes of age in India, becomes a promising fighter, meets Owen's mother and witnesses the horror of Partition. Overlaid on this scenario is the growing fear of a caste of people privileged by the British who begin to realise that upon the end of the Raj their special treatment will soon come to an end.
In our time we watch Owen live his life of quiet sadness, trying to track Skinner down while pining for (and comparing every woman he meets to) Scarlet; the love of his life.
I highlighted many sections in this book, impressed at the clarity and perceptiveness of Duncan's insights. French author Michel Houllebecq has cornered the market in stories of middle aged futility and sexual disappointment, but in this novel Duncan reaches his level, his beaten down protagonist a mouthpiece for numerous Houllebecqian reflections that speak to the truth of modern life.
This is a story with a interesting sense of self-exploration to it (Glen Duncan is himself Anglo Indian) and Duncan really delves into loneliness, family and race relations, both in India and the UK, topics that I suspect he is well acquainted with (a memorable line from Owen is when he realizes that 'Eurasian' is really just 'you're Asian'). The sections of the book that take place in India are particularly good - they glow with the color, vibrancy and sometimes terrible sectarianism of the place - and I found myself hanging out for each chapter set there.
While the plot doesn't resolve in a particularly satisfying way the journey to get there is special. Duncan knows his craft, and this novel is a real page turner.
Some reviewers feel that some of Duncan's other work, particularly I, Lucifer was over-written and over-stylised. If that was your perspective I urge you to give The Bloodstone Papers a read. This is a far more restrained work (although it too contains some very funny moments) and it's a genuinely rewarding read.
Glen Duncan is a mastercrafter of pithy, amusing phrases like this one. His mind is a forge of artisan subtlety, turning out many-layered paragraphs of shining clarity and scintillating sharpness that sparkle with the light of hidden truths.
If you've only read Duncan's hilarious I, Lucifer and The Last Werewolf you would think him primarily to be a comedic writer, albeit one with some pretty solid writing chops. That's how I had pegged him, but The Bloodstone Papers shows him to be a whole lot more versatile than I expected and as expert in wielding pathos as he is comedy.
This a skilfully told story of two generations in a an Anglo-Indian family, from before partition in India to England of the early 2000s.
Owen Monroe, the main character, is the Anglo-Indian son of Anglo-Indian parents, part of an ethnic group near forgotten by history.
Owen is an odd man. Lonely, unambitious, still torn up over a long past break up and tied up in a never-to-be-completed book about his family history, and that of Anglo-Indians in general. He works part-time as a teacher, serves drinks in a bar one night a week to break up his boredom and pens purple romance novels under the pseudonym Emily Millicent.
His parents play an unusually prominent role in his empty life and it is their history that brings action to both the novel and to Owen's meandering.
Decades ago in India his father Ross, a possible Olympic contender in the boxing ring, was scammed by a charming Englishman named Skinner, a man whose cons cost him dearly. Ever since he has wanted to find him and confront him, and Owen has been covertly helping him track Skinner down.
As the novel progresses we see two narratives develop in tandem.
In India we follow Owen's father as he comes of age in India, becomes a promising fighter, meets Owen's mother and witnesses the horror of Partition. Overlaid on this scenario is the growing fear of a caste of people privileged by the British who begin to realise that upon the end of the Raj their special treatment will soon come to an end.
In our time we watch Owen live his life of quiet sadness, trying to track Skinner down while pining for (and comparing every woman he meets to) Scarlet; the love of his life.
I highlighted many sections in this book, impressed at the clarity and perceptiveness of Duncan's insights. French author Michel Houllebecq has cornered the market in stories of middle aged futility and sexual disappointment, but in this novel Duncan reaches his level, his beaten down protagonist a mouthpiece for numerous Houllebecqian reflections that speak to the truth of modern life.
This is a story with a interesting sense of self-exploration to it (Glen Duncan is himself Anglo Indian) and Duncan really delves into loneliness, family and race relations, both in India and the UK, topics that I suspect he is well acquainted with (a memorable line from Owen is when he realizes that 'Eurasian' is really just 'you're Asian'). The sections of the book that take place in India are particularly good - they glow with the color, vibrancy and sometimes terrible sectarianism of the place - and I found myself hanging out for each chapter set there.
While the plot doesn't resolve in a particularly satisfying way the journey to get there is special. Duncan knows his craft, and this novel is a real page turner.
Some reviewers feel that some of Duncan's other work, particularly I, Lucifer was over-written and over-stylised. If that was your perspective I urge you to give The Bloodstone Papers a read. This is a far more restrained work (although it too contains some very funny moments) and it's a genuinely rewarding read.
December 4, 2013
This is one of the books that I picked up from the library in a long overdue session of browsing through the shelves and picking up what looks interesting. And to a certain extent it was interesting, but overall I feel pretty ho-hum about it. Knowing the risk I'm taking by sounding once again like a bit of a prude (if you've read my reviews of The Game of Thrones series) but this author is waaaaaay too obsessed with sex. I understand that sexuality and eroticism is an important and integral part of adult life, but when it gets to the point where it's distracting and you feel like you're a paragraph away from a porn novel, I get fed up. I mean, how important to the story is it that they did this move or he had this dirty thought or it reminded him of the time when he did this to himself, etc. etc.? In this novel in particular, it was way too much. That and taking into consideration the length of the book, it was more about the main character's various sexual experiences rather than the story of his parents living life in India as Anglo-Indians during the rebellious and life-changing times of the 1940s (the part that I was more interested in). I was however really engaged in the story of Kate Monroe and how she survived a terrible family life with ingenuity and bravery. It's too bad that the rest of the novel wasn't written with the same type of focus and literary congeniality, or I think I would have enjoyed it more.
May 25, 2011
This book was a slow burner that gradually sucked me in. Glen Duncan is at his strongest when he writes about people; his characterisations are exquisite and his observations on human behaviours, feelings and interactions are as good as you'll find by anybody writing anywhere on the planet.
I am surprised that he's not more widely known.
I am surprised that he's not more widely known.
August 10, 2014
Loved this book. The India story gripped...the ever present feeling that the characters were one bad decision away from doom. And I liked the characters, so this was tough! The contemporary characters ...the son....less loveable, true. But redeemed by his willingness to 'humour' his parent, and by his final recognition that he should stop living for the past and embrace the present...including his unlikely love interest ( if she can forgive him his transgression). Aren't we all sometimes guilty of overlooking the loveliness of what is .....because we are harking back to what was, or comparing to an unrealistic image of perfection?
Other reviewers have objected to Duncan's sex writing. I thought it was very well done. ( and if you have had the misfortune to have read the 50 Shades of Grey waste of paper, you will immediately appreciate Duncan's realistic, honest, descriptions). Let's face it, candy floss has no place in the bedroom!!
Other reviewers have objected to Duncan's sex writing. I thought it was very well done. ( and if you have had the misfortune to have read the 50 Shades of Grey waste of paper, you will immediately appreciate Duncan's realistic, honest, descriptions). Let's face it, candy floss has no place in the bedroom!!
July 7, 2010
I need to digest all the things that made me love this book, which, incidentally, are all the things that make Glen Duncan my favorite modern writer.
March 2, 2013
I know several people for whom a novel is just a story -- something to be distilled to its barest essentials and then ingested summarily. To me, though, a novel is much more than the sum of all its parts -- the plot, the characters, the language, the ambience. A novel is something that you need to savor at leisure, rolling the words around in your tongue until you get all the last nuances of the prose, while still enjoying the storyline and empathizing with the characters.
Glen Duncan's The Bloodstone Papers offers all of the above.
The novel is written in the first person and we hear the voice of the protagonist, a lecturer moonlighting as a porn novel writer and a bartender, in his late thirties who makes incisive observations on everything about life, including death. The Bloodstone Papers follows the story of two main characters, Owen, an Anglo-Indian in contemporary London who struggles with his identity, his one true love and his search for a direction in life and his father whose beginnings trace back to pre-independence and newly independent India/Pakistan. The novel switches back and forth between Owen and his novel about his father as it tracks the loneliness of Owen and the bloodstone ring that his father lost to a con-artist in India. The contemporary part of the novel is the most resonating as that is where the author is in his elements. Witness his commentary on aging and the tortured relationship that some children have with this fact about their parents
I shoulder my bag and begin to walk away, carrying the guilt of every grown-up son from the beginning of time, the guilt of knowing it's my world, now, not theirs. If they'd been younger when they had me, there would have been a period - me in my twenties, say, them in their mid-forties -- when the world was ours, together.
He distinguishes the voices of the past from the voices in the present with a single entity - God. While everything the principal characters in the past do is in some way related to their intense relationship with God, everything that the principal characters in the present do is influenced by their ambivalence towards, or denial of the existence of God.
Although there is the underlying plot of finding the bloodstone ring and confronting the con-artist, the novel is much more than a whodunit. It is about the fragmented lives of the protagonist and his family and friends. It lingers on their feelings as much as it lingers on their actions. Identity is a big issue across the generations in The Bloodstone Papers. Ross Monroe in India is often cautioned by Anglo-Indians as well as some Englishmen that once the English up and leave, they (Anglo-Indians) will be in grave danger. Owen in contemporary London denies ever wanting to be tagged as an Anglo-Indian
I don't know what it means to be Anglo-Indian. I don't care what it means to be an Anglo-Indian.
He insists. But he does care. He cares that they are too small a race to matter. He cares that no one will believe them. He cares enough to mention it as part of his personal ad in the Guardian.
Of all the identities that Owen Monroe takes on, his role as a porn writer seems to have the most influence on the entire narrative. For this reason, the book may not be for everyone. However, there is something about his prose that makes even the more hard-to-take parts of the novel less repulsive.
If there is anything that strikes a discordant note in the work it is that Glen Duncan's pre-independence India simply does not ring true. It is rife with western generalizations about India, and anachronistically, it is rife with contemporary western generalizations about India. This is a bit of a let down, especially when you consider the level of understanding of, and empathy for, the human condition that you get to see throughout the book. That said, it does not detract significantly from the experience that is this book. India after all is not easy, even sometimes for Indians.
The Bloodstone Papers is definitely something I would recommend -- for the prose, for its compassion towards people who are not exactly society's idea of success and for, strangely, its sadness! However, this is probably not a book for the easily offended.
Glen Duncan's The Bloodstone Papers offers all of the above.
The novel is written in the first person and we hear the voice of the protagonist, a lecturer moonlighting as a porn novel writer and a bartender, in his late thirties who makes incisive observations on everything about life, including death. The Bloodstone Papers follows the story of two main characters, Owen, an Anglo-Indian in contemporary London who struggles with his identity, his one true love and his search for a direction in life and his father whose beginnings trace back to pre-independence and newly independent India/Pakistan. The novel switches back and forth between Owen and his novel about his father as it tracks the loneliness of Owen and the bloodstone ring that his father lost to a con-artist in India. The contemporary part of the novel is the most resonating as that is where the author is in his elements. Witness his commentary on aging and the tortured relationship that some children have with this fact about their parents
I shoulder my bag and begin to walk away, carrying the guilt of every grown-up son from the beginning of time, the guilt of knowing it's my world, now, not theirs. If they'd been younger when they had me, there would have been a period - me in my twenties, say, them in their mid-forties -- when the world was ours, together.
He distinguishes the voices of the past from the voices in the present with a single entity - God. While everything the principal characters in the past do is in some way related to their intense relationship with God, everything that the principal characters in the present do is influenced by their ambivalence towards, or denial of the existence of God.
Although there is the underlying plot of finding the bloodstone ring and confronting the con-artist, the novel is much more than a whodunit. It is about the fragmented lives of the protagonist and his family and friends. It lingers on their feelings as much as it lingers on their actions. Identity is a big issue across the generations in The Bloodstone Papers. Ross Monroe in India is often cautioned by Anglo-Indians as well as some Englishmen that once the English up and leave, they (Anglo-Indians) will be in grave danger. Owen in contemporary London denies ever wanting to be tagged as an Anglo-Indian
I don't know what it means to be Anglo-Indian. I don't care what it means to be an Anglo-Indian.
He insists. But he does care. He cares that they are too small a race to matter. He cares that no one will believe them. He cares enough to mention it as part of his personal ad in the Guardian.
Of all the identities that Owen Monroe takes on, his role as a porn writer seems to have the most influence on the entire narrative. For this reason, the book may not be for everyone. However, there is something about his prose that makes even the more hard-to-take parts of the novel less repulsive.
If there is anything that strikes a discordant note in the work it is that Glen Duncan's pre-independence India simply does not ring true. It is rife with western generalizations about India, and anachronistically, it is rife with contemporary western generalizations about India. This is a bit of a let down, especially when you consider the level of understanding of, and empathy for, the human condition that you get to see throughout the book. That said, it does not detract significantly from the experience that is this book. India after all is not easy, even sometimes for Indians.
The Bloodstone Papers is definitely something I would recommend -- for the prose, for its compassion towards people who are not exactly society's idea of success and for, strangely, its sadness! However, this is probably not a book for the easily offended.
February 18, 2008
I picked out this book on the recommendation of the librarian when I asked for something "different." I'm really not sure whether or not I liked this author's style or not. He uses a lot of parentheticals and very long sentences, and it is sometimes difficult to keep track of what is going on. But he does write very ... intelligently, so it's an interesting read.
The story is two-fold, of the alternating chapters variety. The narrator is Owen, an "Anglo-Indian" (half English, half Indian.. from India) living in London. He is barely scraping by, writing pornographic novels under a pseudonym and teaching high school English to survive while working on his book, "The Cheechee Papers". His sections tell his story, that of love and lust, times spent with his promisciously homosexual roommate, his depression over losing the love of his life, and helping his father in the quest to find the man Skinner who screwed him over many, many years ago.
"The Cheechee Papers" (Cheechee, it is explained, is a negative term for the Anglo-Indians used back in India) makes up the remaining chapters, and is the story of his father and mother growing up in India, his father's boxing career that was supposed to get them out of India when he went to the Olympics, and the tale of the aforementioned Skinner and how he screwed over the father. It is the tale of his mother's abuse by her uncle and her secret plot to murder him. It is the tale of how destiny brought his parents together in the strangest of circumstances, and the tale of how Skinner kept coming back and why the father kept believing him.
The two tales intertwine at the end of the novel, when Owen finds the long-lost Skinner, and deceives his daughter into allowing him to meet the old man. He brings his father to the meeting, and the two old men talk about India and what happened, and... well, obviously I'm not telling you the rest. But, at the end, even the reader is left unsure as to what really happened. Very tricky interesting ending.
What did I think of it? Not entirely sure - as I said, I haven't decided about whether or not I liked the author's style. The story itself was interesting, I really felt like I got to know the characters, especially the father and son. I certainly learned about India, and the era when they gained Independence from England in the 1940s. I knew nothing about the country or the things that happened there, or the problems encountered by those people who were half-English. It was interesting, but... I dunno. As you can see by my rating, it was certainly not the best book I ever read.
The story is two-fold, of the alternating chapters variety. The narrator is Owen, an "Anglo-Indian" (half English, half Indian.. from India) living in London. He is barely scraping by, writing pornographic novels under a pseudonym and teaching high school English to survive while working on his book, "The Cheechee Papers". His sections tell his story, that of love and lust, times spent with his promisciously homosexual roommate, his depression over losing the love of his life, and helping his father in the quest to find the man Skinner who screwed him over many, many years ago.
"The Cheechee Papers" (Cheechee, it is explained, is a negative term for the Anglo-Indians used back in India) makes up the remaining chapters, and is the story of his father and mother growing up in India, his father's boxing career that was supposed to get them out of India when he went to the Olympics, and the tale of the aforementioned Skinner and how he screwed over the father. It is the tale of his mother's abuse by her uncle and her secret plot to murder him. It is the tale of how destiny brought his parents together in the strangest of circumstances, and the tale of how Skinner kept coming back and why the father kept believing him.
The two tales intertwine at the end of the novel, when Owen finds the long-lost Skinner, and deceives his daughter into allowing him to meet the old man. He brings his father to the meeting, and the two old men talk about India and what happened, and... well, obviously I'm not telling you the rest. But, at the end, even the reader is left unsure as to what really happened. Very tricky interesting ending.
What did I think of it? Not entirely sure - as I said, I haven't decided about whether or not I liked the author's style. The story itself was interesting, I really felt like I got to know the characters, especially the father and son. I certainly learned about India, and the era when they gained Independence from England in the 1940s. I knew nothing about the country or the things that happened there, or the problems encountered by those people who were half-English. It was interesting, but... I dunno. As you can see by my rating, it was certainly not the best book I ever read.
August 21, 2018
The Bloodstone Papers is an intriguing story that tells the tale of a group of Anglo-Indians. The novel explores issues in India and England and this amazing group of people who descend from both cultures. For me, this was not only an interesting read, but also rather educational. Furthermore, it introduced me to a writer with whom I was unfamiliar, Glen Duncan.
February 26, 2009
Picked this one up again (total x 3)and never could get past Chapter 4--I just got confused. So it also goes off to paperbackswap.com where it already has someone waitig for it.
January 22, 2020
This was a thrift store buy. Sometimes I'm just lucky. This is a beautifully written book. The characters are described in such perfect detail it is as though the author inhibited the souls of them. Pasha, the boxer father who sincerely wished to do what was right by himself, his wife, Kate and his children, but who fell for schemes perpetrated by the ever appealing English gentleman, Skinner. Pasha and Kate's son, Owen has been tasked with finding this man, Skinner, more than 40 years after he and Owen's father had first met. Owen, however, is nearly overwhelmed by his lack of meaningful career, and his wobbly love life.
The narrative moves seamlessly back and forth from India in the time of Pasha (1940s) and Owen (early 2000s).
I will seek out more books by this author. He's a gem.
The narrative moves seamlessly back and forth from India in the time of Pasha (1940s) and Owen (early 2000s).
I will seek out more books by this author. He's a gem.
January 13, 2018
Anglo Indian family - it focuses on their story in partition years interspersed with 21st c London. At times good at times tedious. Disappointing.
September 20, 2007
I can't really figure out how much I liked this book, nor am I sure if it's worth recommending. I typically enjoy literature with a post-colonial slant, so that is initially why I picked this up at the bookstore. I thought that the concept/story in its entirety was interesting enough, and certainly unique, but at many points I found that the execution was tiring or cumbersome.
Basically, the plot flips back and forth between the central character, who lives in current-time London, and the story of his father and mother, who lived in (what is now) Pakistan and India pre-independence. His parents in the present time also live in England, so they mix into the plot in that time frame as well. At the final resolution, all of this disjointed chronology resolves itself, but it was a little disappointing to have to keep reading through 400 pages to get to an eventual "shocker" that you knew would be coming from the very beginning, more or less.
In addition, one of the central aspects of the India narrative was boxing, which struggled to hold my interest. I found myself almost scanning through the "olden days" sections of the novel to get back to the more interesting, current story arc. Duncan's ability to create deep and likeable characters was pretty much the only reason I kept going, and I wish he had devoted less space to plot, and more to the cast.
Overall, I don't feel like this was a total waste (time spent reading it was mostly at airports or while sitting on the beach), but I cannot say that I will be racing to read another one of his novels any time soon.
Basically, the plot flips back and forth between the central character, who lives in current-time London, and the story of his father and mother, who lived in (what is now) Pakistan and India pre-independence. His parents in the present time also live in England, so they mix into the plot in that time frame as well. At the final resolution, all of this disjointed chronology resolves itself, but it was a little disappointing to have to keep reading through 400 pages to get to an eventual "shocker" that you knew would be coming from the very beginning, more or less.
In addition, one of the central aspects of the India narrative was boxing, which struggled to hold my interest. I found myself almost scanning through the "olden days" sections of the novel to get back to the more interesting, current story arc. Duncan's ability to create deep and likeable characters was pretty much the only reason I kept going, and I wish he had devoted less space to plot, and more to the cast.
Overall, I don't feel like this was a total waste (time spent reading it was mostly at airports or while sitting on the beach), but I cannot say that I will be racing to read another one of his novels any time soon.
January 4, 2017
In an attempt to diversify the books I read, I started the habit of trying to read more books set in Asia or written by Asian authors. It was in part, also a way to encourage myself to write as there are many good Asian writers out there. Going to BBW also made buying books almost solely based on their blurb, reviews and covers. As with all experimentation, there will hits and misses.
This book was pleasant enough. The language was good, interesting and well written. It wasn't enough though, to hold my interest, especially having to continuously shift from the present to the past between the son's story and his father's. Neither character or story strong enough for me to get invested in.
The Sunday Telegraph wrote "...a story so vivid that one wouldn't care if nothing actually happened to them..." and I beg to differ. I care.
This book was pleasant enough. The language was good, interesting and well written. It wasn't enough though, to hold my interest, especially having to continuously shift from the present to the past between the son's story and his father's. Neither character or story strong enough for me to get invested in.
The Sunday Telegraph wrote "...a story so vivid that one wouldn't care if nothing actually happened to them..." and I beg to differ. I care.
July 4, 2013
A novel which explores the largely unexplored world of the Anglo-Indians after the Raj. The main character is a young Anglo-Indian, living in Britain, who is trying to write a book about his father's life in India. The story moves back and forth from the present to the past, from modern day England to India in the forties as the Empire crumbled. A novel of memory, identity and creativity which ultimately depicts the impossibility of completely understanding another generation, another culture or another time.
February 20, 2016
It's good when a book seizes you before you have got even halfway down the first page; when on page 2 you shout out loud in delighted laughter, at a description you know you'll never forget (even while knowing that from now on Korma might never be so enjoyable), when you gasp at the way language is used, at the near-brutally honest observations of others, then you have to award five stars.
And the whole of the book deserves it. Dual-stranded, vivid, honestly alive, the story pulses with the energy of its telling.
And the whole of the book deserves it. Dual-stranded, vivid, honestly alive, the story pulses with the energy of its telling.
September 2, 2008
This book was engaging and a pretty good vacation book. His other books are better though, so, I would read Love Remains, Death of an Ordinary Man, or I, Lucifer before this one, all of which I think are pretty fantastic.
June 3, 2010
I would have given this a 4 or 5 but I was very disappointed in the ending. There was plenty of forewarning that there really wouldn't be an ending but still found it hard to not know if the bloodstone ring was really his grandmother's ring or another one, whether all had been a scam or not, or even whether Scarlett would ever come back or if he would get together with Janet.
Read
November 30, 2024Well.. This book had sat on my shelves for 18 years before I finally got round to reading it
And..?
Well.. I am not convinced that it was worth the wait.
It's strength lies in how it is written and not what it writes about. The characters are comprehensively and subtly drawn to the point where you feel as though you know them.
But the story.. Ah well.
Next!
And..?
Well.. I am not convinced that it was worth the wait.
It's strength lies in how it is written and not what it writes about. The characters are comprehensively and subtly drawn to the point where you feel as though you know them.
But the story.. Ah well.
Next!
April 18, 2010
I really enjoyed this book. I love reading about England and about India, and this book had both--the story of an Anglo-Indian family that switched from present-day England to India at the time of independence. I loved the way it all came together at the end.
March 11, 2014
I really enjoyed the story that takes place in 1940s - 1950s India. The story that takes place in Modern England was considerably less interesting. Until the very end when they kind of intersect. The ending is really nice.
It's a good book, you should read it.
It's a good book, you should read it.
September 9, 2008
Just extremely, extremely well-written.
July 7, 2009
Well written- fairly enjoyable
November 17, 2009
Just couldn't get into it. The way it's written was difficult to read.
May 16, 2011
Anglo English in India during the 40s and 50s and also in England during the present time.
November 18, 2012
This is probably the last good Glen Duncan book I will ever read.
October 13, 2014
So spectacular! Epic and intimate at the same time.
April 22, 2013
15.4A Birthstone
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews