The Man Booker 2014 Readalong discussion

Let us know if this is on your TBR!

Absolutely - I have just ordered it

I am definitely planning on reading this one.

Ordered, waiting for this one, looks great.

I just received this book from Neel Mukherjee and his publicist. I'm currently reading this book.

Here's the link to my review of The Lives of Others by Neel Mukherjee.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Please do check it out and Thank You :)

I have to admit that I struggled with this book. I can see that it is well written and deals with big ideas and is cleverly constructed. But I really didn't enjoy reading it. I think the main problem was that I didn't like any of the people in it (with one exception) which made it hard for me to get drawn into it. So, I agree it is probably a great book, but it just didn't work for me.

Neil wrote: "I have to admit that I struggled with this book. I can see that it is well written and deals with big ideas and is cleverly constructed. But I really didn't enjoy reading it. I think the main probl..."

Yes, I can understand your opinion and problem, actually, I can relate to every other character in the book, since I'm born and brought up and currently reside in Calcutta (Kolkata), the city on which Neel Mukherjee's book is based.

Yes - as I was reading it, I found myself very aware of not really understanding the culture behind the book and I felt several times that I was probably missing out on things because of that and drawing false conclusions. I can completely see that if you know the culture the book might seem very different. If what was written was a good representation of how things were at the time, it was a real eye-opener for me as one who knows nothing about that period of Indian history. As with most books, I am happy to be persuaded I have misjudged its greatness!

Neil wrote: "Yes - as I was reading it, I found myself very aware of not really understanding the culture behind the book and I felt several times that I was probably missing out on things because of that and d..."

Yes, I totally agree with you on the fact that, if you don't belong from the Bengali culture, then things will be little difficult to understand. But then again, if you ignore those things, then the story was quite well-developed and the characters justified with the plot, especially, Supratik, yeah some characters were unnecessary, like the second most elder son's daughter Baishaki, third most elder brother's daughter, Arunima,and some characters like them. Since, he was portraying a joint family, in Calcutta, so it naturally became necessary to involve details and back-ground about almost all the characters consisting of a big-joint family.

Wow, the book is selected for the short-list!! Yipee!! I'm really rooting for this book!! :) Many best wishes to the author!