Way To Go

by Upamanyu Chatterjee

For not having loved one's dead father enough, could one make amends by loving one's child more?
Eighty-five and half paralysed, Shyamanand is on his deathbed when he goes missing. His apparent refusal to meet death in the expected way calm and accepting and lying down is a cause for great anguish to his son Jamun, who leads a life of quiet desperation, trying to balance feelings of despair and resignation since the suicide of his friend and neighbour Dr Mukherjee.

After their father disappears, Jamun and his brother Burfi reconnect in their old home that builder Lobhesh Monga has his eyes on. In their quest to find out what happened to Shyamanand, they find a path out of desolation, even as TV executive Kasturi, Jamun s former lover and mother of his only child, is busy recycling the more melodramatic moments of Jamun's life for the blockbuster Hindi soap Cheers Zindagi.

In powerful, austere prose shot through with black humour, Upamanyu Chatterjee has produced an intensely moving examination of family ties and the redemptive power of love, however imperfect, in the midst of death and degeneration.

Genres: Fiction, India, Death

368 pages, Hardcover

First published February 15, 2010

About the author

Upamanyu Chatterjee is an Indian author and administrator, noted for his works set in the Indian Administrative Service. He has been named Officier des Arts et des Lettres (Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters), by the French Government.

Reviews

[Kunal Sen · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is astonishing the way U.C. describes some simple, unremarkable passages like waiting in a queue or flicking a cigarette stub: they assume lyrical, almost metaphorical proportions but then you realize he's probably just screwing with us. But there's no way to tell.

His fascination with the great Indian dysfunctional family ('Weight Loss', 'The Last Burden') and also the media, as dystopian as he can perceive it to be, continues in this book as well.

Not even close to 'English August's' pedigree, this is certainly his next best book so far. A solid 3.5/5. I give it 4 rather than 3, because the writing though tedious occasionally, is so bloody beautiful!

[Shishir · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a trademark Upamanayu Chatterjee book, peppered with witty dialogue, absurdly funny ideas and generous amounts of black humour.

This one is about death (surprise!), loneliness, familial relations and degradation and indignity after death.

The book starts off well, is very funny, but becomes a little boring and dense midway. But worth reading through to the end for the way the story is wrapped up.

[Viju · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book will probably feature as the most difficult read among the books I have read in the past few months. The premise is a difficult and a dark one. It deals with old age, death and the journey with loved/hated ones. It also provides great closure to UC’s The Last Burden (this is a sequel to that). The language is quite bombastic (for lack of better word) in a few places and there is a lot of meandering around. But for those used to UC’s writing, this book will be a good read.

I so wish this book and The Last Burden were more popular. Both these books arrived in the market way ahead of their time I guess!

[Shivnarayan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book being a sequel to The Last Burden is a great improvement over it. To start with the narration is in the past tense unlike TLB's present. There are fewer instances of forced flamboyance and of unnecessary kink. Even fewer are the sentences that caught my attention for longer than what is necessary and none at all that made me stop or stare to savour the sense that they carried. Over all, it is just another read. I would recommend that one must read this if one has already read TLB. It will give the whole saga some little sense. TLB is sure to leave one disgusted and lost at the end; this book should serve as an antidote.

[Nikhil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just like life this book has no real meaning or purpose. Just like life this book is (sometimes) a ton of fun. Have been a great fan of Upamanyu Chatterjee's funny bizzare and quirky style of writing since English August. However this book which is a sequel to the last burden is more meandering than a fully baked stoner's trips. The language can be difficult, I had to consult the dictionary a few times. Not recommended for fans of Amish Tripathi who might squawk at the dense language. But what hideous fun this book was. The protagonist is called Jamun btw, extrapolate what you will from that.

[Akash Dey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tolstoy's "every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way" in novel-length. Upper middle class Bengali families have been living in a state of permanent psychic decline, probably since the twilight of the zamindari system. Upamanyu Chatterjee, expert purveyor of all things dead and decaying, dissects the inner lives of Shyamanand and his two sons, Jamun and Burfi, along with a supporting cast of no-gooders in a book where no sunlight cracks through. The pitch black humour is necessary respite but no less corrosive. Nothing much happens except for the annihilation of the soul.

[Veturi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Way To Go by Upamanyu Chatterjee is the most difficult book I have read and finished for I was not quite sure at once of the intended readers of this work - I for one am not one of them. At 359 pages this book is long in all aspects from the sentences it uses to the life of its characters and is definitely not an easy read being a tad profound to my sensibilities. I picked up this book going by its cover which has a certain obscurity attached to it that one can almost miss its title if one is not paying much attention. This book is a sequel to the writer’s earlier work ‘The Last Burden’ which I have no idea about in the first place and read it as any other book, but the book being a sequel does not ask too much of its readers to know of its predecessor and one can safely view this as a different entity altogether. Probably an acquaintance with its prequel may give an idea what to expect of its characters and the train of thoughts and speaking of the trains here, I’m not quite sure that I followed all these trains to their intended destinations.

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[Persephone Abbott · Rating 4 out of 5]

A total treat to read. The story line was basic, and fuzzy and kept rolling, and in the end I didn't care much what had happened because I enjoyed the writing so much. I immediately bought another Upamanyu Chatterjee book, and am delighted to soon continue my escape from dodgy cardboard reality, to another perspective where the backyard fence may look squarely at me, and line up the most important matters in life for the firing squad.

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm interested in the characters and the place and all but there's just something wrong with the sentences. Too many clauses or too many double negatives? Or not enough sleep? Sometimes I have to read a sentence three times to figure out which clause refers to which other - does it mean the thing or not the thing. I wonder if thats the way people in India speak English.

[Bhavani Nyanajegaran · Rating 3 out of 5]

What can I say? You either get Chatterjee, or you don't. He's such a powerfully convoluted writer, but he's undoubtedly the king of dark humor. It just gets tiring sometimes reading a six-line sentence with multiple commas and dashes. But if you persevere, it doesn't guarantee you get the plot either.

[Kritika · Rating 3 out of 5]

Difficult to follow, filled with dark humour & sarcasm.. Some quotes were really beautiful while others were too long to follow. Every part starts in the police station. The structuring of the story is beautiful but the final 2 chapters lack clarity. A different attempt - an one time slow read.

[Shagun Gupta · Rating 2 out of 5]

the topic is touching but the book meanders a little too much for my taste...

[Balavenise · Rating 1 out of 5]

depressing, gloomy.
sad.
writing is good, but reading is too black.