Anita Desai Books

If you've ever read and loved any of the novels of E. M. Forster, be sure to read this one too. Forster chose not to finish it, but it works brilliantly as a self-contained novella, telling the story of two men who represent different ideals and whose paths cross in surprising ways. Swift, intense, insightful, classic.

If you don't know Anita Desai, the Indian-German writer and author, you should get to know her. She might be the next Nobel Prize winner in literature. This compilation of short stories was picked up by me at a drugstore for only a dollar. The short stories include in this selection are Royalty, Winterscape about an Canadian Indian man and his unusual parentage, Diamond Dust which is truly a tragedy about a beloved animal, Underground about a British couple traveling abroad, The Man Who Saw Himself Drown is an unusual but entertaining story, The Artist's Life, Five Hours to Simla or Faisla, Tepozlan Tomorrow, and The Rooftop Dwellers. Desai's writing style is packed with details and information about the characters, the setting, and the story involved. Desai's writing style is easy to read but you have to read closely to really appreciate her style and language use. I loved Winterscape the best so far, broke my heart in Diamond Dust, was amused by a man who saw himself drown and lived to tell about it, and I'm working through the rest but I bet she doesn't disappoint her readers.

Beautifully written, rich stories that take place in India.

Indian writers are hot right now, but no one comes close to Desai's fine blend of realism and romance. A child of a German and an Indian, Desai probably is able to synthesize a cultural viewpoint all her own. Her unique (often satirical, always witty) eye sees much, and her writing is a bafflingly brilliant mix of poetry and economy.

Not a bad story in the batch... you'll want to read them again and again!

This is a stunning novel that cannot be summed up by the back of the book. Everyone can relate to it despite it's specific and foreign subject matter. Read it!

Baumgartner fed the cats on restaurant leftovers. Under the circumstances he had to patronize the cafes. It was believed that in India Hugo Baumgartner could begin a new life and thus his family had arranged for him to go there. It was felt that India would be safe because it was a colony of their neighbor, Britain. He departed for for the East from Venice. His mother could not be compelled to go with him.

It had seemed like bedlam when he walked on what he assumed was British soil. He told Lotte years later that on his first day he ate curry. In Calcutta he stayed in a hotel on Middleton Row. He found he had to build a new language to suit the conditions.

News from Europe became rapidly more alarming. During the war he was taken to an improvised camp at Fort William. Baumgartner was labeled a German and a hostile. He remained in captivity for six years. In the final camp he saw the Himalayas. He carried with him the habits of an only child and an isolated youth.

In the present Baumgartner had a visitor, a blond-haired boy. After the war he had found a room off of Free Street in Calcutta. The city had been bombed. He was advised to go to Bombay. The boy Kurt laughed to have traveled so far to meet H. Baumgartner. When Hugo died, Lotte appeared to say that Hugo should be mourned and that his belongings should be respected.

Baumgartner, a German Jew, gets to India as a teenager, "escaping" the Holocaust. He makes a living there until his Indian patron dies, then retires at an early age into poverty. He never gets over the death of his mother, who refused to emigrate. He is a totally passive personality whose one joy is caring for stray cats in his small apartment. Not only is he a dull protagonist, but Desai withholds the few interesting parts of his life until toward the end. Is Desai investigating bigger themes, by looking at the world and Indian society through the eyes of such a character? Is she trying to prove that even such a person is worth exploring? More likely the former, since this is not really an in depth character study. The events pallidly reflected are interesting, Desai is a good writer, Baumgartner arouses some feelings of empathy, so book is readable.

I read this book on a long plane ride. Well, it was okay...not special, though intermittently interesting. I guess my main problem was that I could not quite empathize with the main character Hugo Baumgartner. As another review says - he is a passive character caught up in terrible events. Yeah, it sucks to be him - but he didn't seem to put in much effort into making his life more worth living! The parts involving his interaction with the cafeteria owner Farookh are amusing. The parts describing his childhood back in Germany are cute. The other parts (the camp, Calcutta etc.) are just okay.
Another problem I had was that India has been potrayed by the author in excessively poor light. I know that over population, poverty, squalor etc. are major problems all Indian cities are faced with - but seriously, is that all Anita Desai knows about India? Being an Indian, it is a shame that she has nothing positive to say about a diverse and fascinating country with a rich culture.
Well I guess 3/5 sounds about right for this book.

Mrs Desai's novel opens with a lady called Lotte fleeing the scene of a murder. She's just lost a close friend, Hugo Baumgartner. When she gets back home, all that is left of Baumgartner's life are a few postcards sent by his mother during the Second World War. The German text on these postcards is always cryptic: "Meine kleine Maus," "Mein Haschen" "Liebchen..." "Do not worry, my rabbit, I am well. Are you well?" "Keep well, my mouse, and do not worry" "I am well..." and they're signed "Mama", "Mutti" or "M".
And so the reader begins to follow Hugo Baumgartner's life, starting with his childhood in Berlin. At the age of about eight, his father, a Jewish furniture retailer, soon loses his business, his store is ransacked by the Nazis and he is taken to a concentration camp. Baumgartner and his mother are forced to leave their beautifully furnished apartment and hide in the former office of the shop. At school, Baumgartner's situation becomes unbearable: his classmates chant to him: "Baumgartner, Baum, hat eine Nase wie ein Daum" (Baumgartner's dumb, has a nose like a thumb.) Eventually, his survival in Germany becoming a matter of days, his mother agrees to Herr Pfuehl's idea to send his son to India, since he has a few connections there in the furniture production business.
There are many moving scenes as the reader discovers, along with Hugo, the sights, sounds and smells of Calcutta and Bombay. And moving too, the life of this pathetic and insignificant man Baumgartner who simply does not belong. Neither to Hitler's Germany nor to India's society, where he is a perpetual "firanghi", foreigner, a wounded survivor.
This novel is the achievement of a superior writer with a sharp perception about human nature, loss, solitude.

The book takes a look at the society of her times and provides a witty, inciteful look at it

Were it not for the inevitable dampening effect of translation from Urdu to English, this book deserves at least 5 stars. Ismat Chugtai was a brilliant writer, expressing her views with candor, vivid imagery, and a wickedly sarcastic sense of humor. She dares to address and expose seriously taboo topics at a time when the role of women in society was so suppressed and inhibited it makes the present day seem utopian. Like a true iconoclast, she probes questionable societal norms that most followed blindly, and still do. The only disappointment in this book is that it reads like someone's paraphrasing of Chugtai's stories; the translation, although mostly accurate, erodes the true flavor of her writing and really misses the mark sometimes.

Rushdie employs magical realism to unveil the soul of India. An incredible fiction that tells the true story of India's birth as a nation. I read the book years ago, and then felt it come to life as I spent 6 months wandering around India. A work of art, and one of my favorite books ever.

This book left me with no respect for the author or for the Booker prize.One of the 100 best books to read....REALLY?????????? Are we talking about the same book????? The most disgusting and unconvincing book I have ever read.

If this book was described by 1001 readers, I think you'd get 10,001 different views of what they experienced. Some knowledge of the history of India & Pakistan before and after independence and the partition will be helpful. Perhaps some "-ism" (magical real(ism), coming-of-age(ism); post-modern(ism); stream of .....) reading would prepare you for this. But neither is required to enjoy it. Having read many of the less than stellar reviews, it seems that many had preconceived notions that weren't met or they tried to make it a fast read.

This is not a "page turner" suspense novel; nor is it Joycean (or any other author's). It is Rushdie. This is what he writes and how he writes. Read it for its own style rather than trying to compare it with someone else.

I think too much effort is made by publishers and reviewers to put authors into groups. I'm sure the publishers do it to capture buyers with "if you like A, then you'll like B". Reviewers too often do it to show how many authors they have read rather than making valid comparisons.

Base your judgment of Rushdie (or any of his books) on what you like or dislike about his work rather than by "someone says he is like Marquez and he isn't, so I didn't like it".

Dipping into controversial and expansive review of India's nouveau independence, Rushdie's autobiographical recitation (in fiction) of protagonist nasal-telepathic Saleem Sinai bestows lessons and conjures imagination.

Some novelists have received acclaim for making allegory through adventure - Coello for "The Alchemist" or Kosinski for "The Painted Bird." As great as those novels are, neither has the depth of review that this novel has. And, much to Rushdie's credit, this adventure intertwines with real events of the recent histories of India and Pakistan - thereby making it more relevant to those who lived or have heard about the many historical references contained throughout this book.

Being an American usually means reading little about the history or culture of India. We are ignorant of their struggles - and this book enlivens us to a certain degree - such that the reader can conclude from reading this book that this country has struggled as greatly since its independence from Britain, than it did under British rule. Forster's portrait of British degradation of India in "A Passage to India" made westerners believe that Gandhi's plight was both necessary and inevitable. This book tells us that freedom from British rule did not necessarily deliver better karma or even sounder ruling. The "Emergency" of Indira Gandhi delivers an appalling caricature of Indians being cruel to Indians - as Saleem must be emasculated by the ruling party's dictate - for reasons no more discernable than the German holocaust or any other genocide.

This book travels chronologically from Saleem's grandparents' romance to his 31st birthday. Saleem lives an incredible life -worthy of this book's size. His life - or really his son's life - is encapsulated in one sentence: "He was the child of a father who was not his father; but also the child of a time which damaged reality so badly that no one managed to put it together again; He was the true great-grandson of his great-grandfather. . ." It makes nonsense until you read the book - then this statement is both valid and true.

Amid this adventure we meet snake charmers, a succubus wet nurse, a witch, a 512-year old prostitute - as well as typical western literature characters, e.g. a man who shoots his wife and her lover, a corrupt general, and a son who kills his father out of pure hatred.

This is a thoroughly drawn portrait of a literary character. Amassing 445 pages in my hardback edition - each page having approximately 550 words - it is a long read. And, Rushdie's swirling writing style, where he touches upon a topic and a few paragraphs or pages later descends upon that same topic with more resonance or more detail, can leave readers feeling half empty at times as the complete description will not come to light until a later time. This is not a quick read. This is not easy reading. But, this is worthwhile reading.

Rushdie writes with great literary style. Full of metaphors and complete with magical insight, this book is understandably incorporated by many universities' English departments

I wanted to read a Rushdie book and I've heard this book being called the "Booker of the Bookers" (referring to the prize). Rusdie's writing may be poetic and beautiful, but it is hard to trudge through this fairly long book. Furthermore, Midnight's Children is not particularly educational as far as Indian history and culture. The author may deserve his great reputation for his writing style but don't expect to be entertained.

Reading this book made me feel like I was back in highschool and reading a required book for English class. My apologies to literature lovers who may consider me a philistine.

If your reading this for the historical context, I can understand why you might give this book a higher rating. If your going to read it for the story itself you might be disappointed... the book goes nowhere slowly...very slowly. Its almost as if the author is trying to prove her obvious mastery of descriptive language at the expense of the story itself.

I think Ms. Desai would capture the heart of any woman of Indian origin. The book does start of very slowly but nevertheless beckons your patience. Bimla, Tara, Raj and Mira Masi are not the most admirable characters, yet they touch you so. Despite the underlying depression, I could not help but smile!

Let me start out by being fair - if you know a lot about Indian history/culture this book MAY interest you even if the first 50 pgs. are excruciatingly slow. Otherwise, you will have a hard time understanding the value behind what the characters do. The whole plot revolves around the woman's place in Indian society & more specifically, Bimla's conflict with her brother, Raja. The conflict seems to begin resolving itself in the last 15 pgs, but the author does not take the time to write out the final scene between sister & brother. Very difficult book to enjoy with no satisfactory conclusion.

The partition of the Indian subcontinent into two nations has held sway over the Indian imagination for more than three decades. In fiction and in films, the troubles figure as watershed and as metaphor, having as much force for Indians today as the Civil War had for Americans at the turn of the last century, although with the important difference that the War Between the States left this country united rather than divided.

The shadow of partition falls heavily on the characters in this novel by the distinguished Bombay storyteller Anita Desai. In place of neo-Marxist realism or Kiplingesque romanticism, two favorite Indian modes, "Clear Light of Day" is a hauntingly beautiful story of a bourgeois family's struggle against the forces of disintegration. Two sisters, long separated by distance and life-style, take stock of their family's lives and their own. Tara, beautiful and worldly, has returned from living abroad as the wife of a diplomat. Bim, conventional and competent, has never left Old Delhi where she cares for their younger brother Baba. Their older brother, whose childhood ambition was to be a hero, has married a Moslem and become a successful businessman.

"Clear Light of Day" is an ironic title for a novel so preoccupied with the shadowy border between illusion and reality. Memory forever shields most events from the clear light of day. We who conduct our lives without apparent reference to the momentous times we inhabit will discover new ways of seeing ourselves as we wander in the dying gardens of this thoughtful, imaginative and expressively written book.

This is a very warming, touching book about family interactions, moments of happiness and moments of sadness all intertwined together to become what life is, a series of events, sometimes good, sometimes bad, what comes, comes. What is gone is gone just like the snail mentioned in the book that was found by the characters at times but only to lose the pearl again where the cycle repeats itself. This is a story that informs us about the ups and downs in life and how everyone faces it differently. To do so, the author cleverly uses true realistic characters to portray this

Each member of the Das family is distinctly unique. It is a touching story about how distinctly different each individual is and how each has their own separate lives, keeping them apart from each other. Bimla is independent and intelligent and is able to survive on her own without the help of others but unfortunately she is very dissatisfied with life. Tara, unlike her elder sister, is not ambitious and is very dependent. All she wanted is to find a life where she will not have to take responsibility and have no need to worry about her life which she succeeded in finding an ambassador as her husband. Lastly Raja, the elder brother, who is ambitious and has always dreamt of being the hero ended up as a successful, well-off man. With each leading a different life, each has a different view of things and this leads to many conflicts between the siblings.

However no matter how different they are, they grew up together, shared many precious moments together, creating a bond that can never be broken, love. Love is what connected them to each other. Love teaches the characters how to forgive and forget, how to compromise with one another with compassion, how to move on and how to stand side by side with each other to face the world together. Especially to Bimla who had melted her anger and learn to love the world again for what it is with the help of her loving sister, Tara. Love will overcome all differences and difficulties and is the exact recipe to help us get through the ups and downs of life.

This is a truly, amazing book that I greatly enjoyed. It stays true to how family relationships are like. Being a member of a three child family, I can understand how each characters is feeling and is amazed at how it greatly relate to how I feel for my siblings at times. I both hated and love my siblings at the same time. Sometimes it may get so frustrating that I vow never to talk to them ever again but it is always love that turns out to be the winner for I always forgive the wrongs they did at times and is able to embrace the frustrating side of my siblings for I love them and love them just the way they are just like the characters Anita Desai portrayed in this book.

The beautiful and easily accessible language makes it a very enjoyable book to read. The language is filled with so much emotions and passion, that it sometimes feel like I am reading a prose with some poetic element in it. Anita Desai has also skillfully put in many insightful views to what life is and helps us to be both expectant of the bad sides of the world and yet be optimistic to the good sides of the world.
However at times, the plot seems to be developing at a slow rate with no great climax in the story, in fact it is a book that is presented almost in a monotone that makes readers to hope for more movements in the story. However I like it just the way it is, for life does not always consist of shocking, exciting events like the made up stories from fictions, in fact life is rather dull, boring at times and most of the time is spent on waiting for something to happen just like the events and the tone of the book.

This is a passionately, beautifully written domestic drama that is definitely a must to read. Get it now!

Village By The Sea Is A Touching Story Of A Poor Indian Family, Living In Bombay India. The Main Characters are the 2 oldest Children Lila and Hari, and how they raise the whole family and live through the hard times. At times you really feel Indian climate. One of my favorite parts is Desai's description of butterflys. It's beautiful.

This is a story of a poor Indian family who are being torn apart by illness and alcohol. The children of the family work and fight to keep there family together. On the way they have to deal with change and tragedy. This book had a typical ending which is very easy to predict, and had no real surprises. However the characters in the book where strong and determined, they keep the reader reading by the way they got through life on so little. The book shows that if you want something bad enough it is possible to get it.

This is a novel about everything in Indian culture. The author succesfully blended Indian's traditions, environment, politics and bunch more problems that sorrounded the poor Indian family. This is Anita Desai's best novel for me and touches my heart everytime. This is especially true when the bird lover said "Adapt! Adapt!". That part alone may surpass the power of moving and changing that featured in 'Who Moved My Cheese"

Anita Desai's wonderful novel tells the story of a family living in the small fishing village of Thul, 14 kilometres from Bombay, India. It is more precisely the story of two young people, Hari, a boy of 14, and Lila, a girl of 13, with a will to survive. Their task is not easy. Lila has to look after their mother who is very ill with fever and requires constant care. She is also in charge of all the household chores and has to look after their two younger sisters, Bela and Kamal. Hari on the other hand has to work in the fields, selling whatever he can at the market to feed the family. Indeed, their father has long ceased to be a fisherman, his sole occupation being to get drunk on toddy every night along with his chums in the village.
Fortunately, next to their hut is a large country house called Mon Repos which is owned by the de Silvas from Bombay and whenever they come on holiday to Thul, Lila and Hari can earn some extra money by helping with the household or doing work in the garden. But there is a rumour in the village saying that soon the rice fields and the coconut groves will be replaced by a large fertiliser factory. The location of Thul was chosen by the Government for its closeness to the port of Rewas. So new highways and railway lines are to be build and the villagers are worried about their future. Are they skilled enough to get a job at the factory? What will become of their traditional way of life? Will the air and the sea be polluted by chemicals? When a delegation is sent to Bombay to express their worries to the Minister Sahib, Hari decides to join the party. Before leaving, he decides that Bombay may offer him a better life opportunity than his frightened sisters, his sad house, his ill mother and his drunken father. And it is indeed in Bombay where this delicate boy, who

It is only once in a while that one comes across a book which is so very genuine in presentation and content. The story of Hari and Lila, two village kids aged 12 and 13 respectively and their struggles with an ailing mother and drunkard father, while supporting a family is poignant and refreshing at the same time.
Why and how Hari in the face of abject poverty and destitution runs away to Bombay and how Lila manages to pull through the months when he's not there makes a very pleasing reading. In a country as India, where poverty abounds and personal despair can never be desparate enough, it shows how circumstances can make men out of boys and ditto for girls. There is no loss greater than the loss if human spirit and this is the message from this book. Coping with change is the most basic of human instincts yet we often struggle to maintain status quo.
Apart from this, the style is very pleasant and smooth. Having visited both Bombay and the villages near Alibagh, I can vouch for the fact that justice has been rendered to those environs. The ace in the stroy is the inclusion of Dr Sayyed Ali, India's noted orinthologist, to bring out a very important aspect. Overall the use is symbolism is profound and the conclusions heart warming. A definite read.

It's been a while since I've read it, but am inspired to write about it since this book is far superior to the one I'm reading now by the same author (Journey to Ithaca). I loved this book. I feel that Desai truly captured the feeling of a bygone time (which was bygone already in the story). The frustration the poor lecturer felt at his failed attempts to record the great Urdu Ghazal master, which led to one disaster after another...poor loser, is felt by the reader. If you've ever been to India, you can just imagine the setting, the streets, the buildings, the city where the lecturer goes to make his recordings. The underhandedness of the Master's mistress, and the drunken stupidity of the "chumchas" is so typical, as is the nagging wife of the lecturer who just doesn't understand his artistic pursuits. Desai gave this book a wonderful ending too. Despite all that went wrong, the Master still saw through his drunken haze the sincerity of the lecturer and left him "In Custody," of his compositions. A masterful, bitter sweet ending.

I haven't seen the film, and I'm not a student of Urdu poetry, but I really enjoyed this book. In fact, it's the only truly delightful, light-handed academic satire I've ever read. You'll find none of the hit-'em-over-the-head-in-case-they-miss-the-point nonsense of Jane Smiley's Moo and none of the archness and linguistic density of Alexander Theroux's D'Arconville's Cat. Desai employs a gentle, kind humor and simple, but totally controlled, style to create two memorable characters who will long outlive more fervid attempts to show the sometimes ridiculous lengths to which academics must go to achieve their goals and the goals thrust upon them.

Touching and wonderfully funny. "In Custody" is woven around the yearnings and calamities of Deven, a small-town scholar from Mirpore in the north of India. An improvised college lecturer, Deven sees a way to escape from the meanness of his daily life when he is asked to interview India's greatest Urdu poet, Nur. But every attempt will only end up in desaster.
A beautiful book, mingling melancholy, disappointment and lots of humour. I recommend it most warmly.

I always feel like I've read something good if I'm still trying to interpret it weeks after I've finished it. Such is the case with "In Custody." On one hand, it's a very entertaining, almost slapstick account of a poor chump who serves badly at a less-than-stellar academic institution. After finishing it, though, I've been doing a lot of thinking about new versus old theme in particular... [There] are very valid questions today, which makes this a timely read.

...you are familiar with Urdu and the nuances of life in the Indian sub-continent. Am not at all surprised by some of the negative reviews; it is almost impossible to understand this book if you cannot attempt to relate to an unfamiliar culture and are looking for fairy-tale character transformations. Though the main theme of the book (decadence of something that was once majestic) is universal, the means of exploring it is decidedly ethnic.

This book will give you a fascinating glimpse into the life of a minor celebrity and other commoners in small-town India. Having grown-up in India, I can swear I met a few of the characters in the book, so real they seem. Be prepared for a serious read for Anita Desai's style is that of a strict and no-nonsense school teacher. You feel some power in her sentences and any humor is unintentional; this is her lament for the (probable) extinction of Urdu. But the flow is straight-forward and the book is completely accessible and so you can finish it fairly quickly.

And while you are at it, watch the movie as well. Directed by Ismail Merchant, it captures the spirit of the book and holds its own as a mini-classic with stellar performances and mellifluous music.

It was heartening to see C Sengoopta take on David Foley with some uncharacteristic vim - despite the fanciful spelling of his surname I presume he is a Bengali. We have let the world malign our fair city for too long - we are meek and we are reluctant/afraid to challenge the west. Ashutosh Chatterji says falteringly 'perhaps unwittingly' the perpetrators have heaped insult on Calcutta. He knows as well as I do it was Mother Teresa and her extra-ordinary propaganda machinery that caused Calcutta to have become a metaphor for extreme degradation and squalor. It is the likes of David Foley that seek only poverty in Calcutta who are dispppointed to find a book which talks about a different aspect of the city. Shock, Horror! If this book gets to be known what would the Foleys of this world do? What would happen to the billion dollar Catholic charity industry which feeds like vultures on other people's misery - real and supposed?

David Foley's response is typical of the self-important, know-it-all Westerner. Tell any amount of lies about Calcutta to these people (as the charity industry does all the time) and they'll believe it. Some of them will send money to Mother Teresa with tears flowing from their eyes; a few might even pack their bags and go out to save the poor heathens from themselves. (As Foley seems to have done.) But say one good thing about Calcutta and the Foleys of the world will condemn you for being 'nationalistic' or worse. Judge Krishna Dutta's book on its merits, not on the basis of what some self-appointed Western pundit thinks.

The book starts off with a short but very enjoyable foreward by Anita Desai. And then Ms. Dutta takes over. It is obvious Ms. Dutta, does not live in Calcutta any more (she is a resident of London). For she has that detached enjoyment given to those who look back and decide what is enjoyable while the unpleasant parts fade into memory.
She has done extensive research and the results are gratifying. Her writing is erudite as well as down to earth. That is not surprising, as we read when Macaulay introduced English as the official language, it was embraced the City's intelligentsia. Calcutta also produced some of the most virulent opposition to the British Raj as spirit of Independence took hold of the country. Of course the City is famous for its Literary figures and of the Performance Artistes. The author gives us a good review of those. A book worthy of being read by Indians and non-Indians but it will be specially cherished by Bengalis. For them, I would make it a must read.

One of the best aspects of this book, in my opinion, is that it is definitely not a celebration of the city and its ways. In fact, at times, Dutta is blatantly unsympathetic towards what has been - but by and large, it is an unbiased work, grand in its scope, addresses intangibles like culture, and threads together events, perhaps inconsequential in terms of political history, but definitely meaningful in making the city a little bit more than the sum of its history and people.

The book is well organized, and the text is lucid. The book spans the history of the city since it was a small village to Satyajit Ray - the Oscar winning film maker from the city. And though, throughout, the book is about people and events that shaped the city into what it is today, the author never losses sight of the fact that the book is not about any of them in particular, but what they meant to the city they lived in.

It is also a book of strife and struggle, of fascination with a foreign culture, of assimilation, of unlikely but not untimely great men. It is a book of nuances, of idiosyncrasies and of little forgotten by lanes in a big city. It is a book, too, of cowardice and indifference, and of hatred.

The details that the book captures can definitely be captured about any other place in any other part of of the world. However, the particular combination and degree to which these commonalities apply in the context of a place make that place a differentiated, not necessarily special - for that requires a personal identification - place, & this book, in my opinion, captures the 'flavour' of the city.

And, just by the way, I do not like the city myself so much, fascinated as I was by its cultural and literary history.

S!

Unfortunately, this book, and the review of it offered by Ashutosh Chatterji, is more about defending Calcutta from the western view of it than it is about the "cultural and literary history" that is the title of the book. I bought this book in Calcutta so that I might have a more in-depth history of the place I was visiting. Instead, I got a book full of opinions and one-sided propaganda. This is definitely an Indian's nationalistic view of the city of Calcutta and not an objective history lesson, as the book's title advertises. Whereas Krishna Dutta is indeed a gifter writer, she, or her publishing company, should have come up with a less-misleading title. Next time, pick up the "History of the Republican Party" by Rush Limbaugh or "The Cultural History of Russia" by Josef Stalin - just kidding of course.