Rating: 
Summary: really expansive story with characters that capture you
Review: this was a great read.. finished it in a couple of days as i couldnt put it down once i started..
the complex characters and the emotional journey they go through in the backdrop of colonial burma and india make you care for them as though they were people you have known all your life..
amitav ghosh is an excellant writer and his style of juxtaposing social issues and historical changes with the twists and turns that his characters go through is extremely interesting..
Rating:
Summary: Ghosh does it again....
Review: Like his previous book, In an Antique Land, The Glass Palace is about Indians living in other countries. It starts with the British invasion of Burma in the 1880's and follows a young Indian boy, Rajkumar and his rise from poverty to wealth. Set in Malaysia, Burma and India, the first part of the book concentrates on a small set of characters over a relatively short period of time. The second half of the book moves faster, across most of the 20th century, and moves the novel from an adventure story to thoughts on imperialism, nationalism and family. I've traveled in both India and Burma, and once more, Ghosh vividly brings these countries to life. Some sections recall The Jewel in the Crown, with the important difference that this story concentrates on the views of the Indians and Burmese, with few British characters, and no named Japanese ones. The book is not without its set pieces, though, and the section on elephant teak logging is fascinating on its own. A great book, well written, hard to put down.
Rating: 
Summary: Caveat Emptor: Dr. Zhivago this is Not
Review: I have to concur with the two dissenting reviewers so far: the book jacket compares this novel to "Dr. Zhivago," yet rarely has a comparison been so misleading. Yes, the canvas is vast in both volumes, but that's where any similarity ends. "Zhivago" is passionately concerned with how history impacts a few, wonderfully three-dimensional characters, whereas "The Glass Palace" uses characters merely in order to move them through world history. I find Grace Paley's comments indicating that she will "never forget" Dolly and certain other characters and aspects of the novel inexplicable -- indeed, astonishing: I never felt as though any of the characters was anything other than a chess piece. Primarily, this is due to Mr. Ghosh's seeming refusal ever to indicate what any of his characters is thinking or feeling, which makes them seem robotic, and distances us from any personal involvement in the events whatsoever. And while I found the descriptions of the teak logging industry interesting, sadly, that's about the only thing I found so. This is a vast, sweeping epic in event only, and contains none of the emotion or profundity such a comparison usually entails.
Rating: 
Summary: From Queen Supayalat to Aung San Suu Kyi
Review: The history of Burma or Myanmar is romantic and interesting. Author Ghosh blends the Indian experience in Burma with the history of Supayalat and the fate of Burmese royalty up to the rising opposition party of Aung San Suu Kyi. Against this backdrop, Ghosh creates some interesting characters, notably a young Indian orphan who rises to become a teak tycoon. Rajkumar's story is the centerpoint of the book, against which the end of the British Raj and the tragedy of the Japanese invasion of World War II are played out.If you like Michener, you will like the scope and character of this novel.
Rating:
Summary: Worth the read!
Review: As I am planning a trip to Myanmar soon, this book caught my eye in the bookstore. Ghosh intermingles real historical events with a group of fascinating characters that spans 3 generations. Very easy to get into, and hard to put down. Many characters touched me, and I was sad to see them go. I can only imagine that reading this will enrich the experience I have in Myanmar.
Rating:
Summary: one of the finest works by the finest
Review: a book that streches 3 generations through the british colonial history and invasion of Burma till the Japanese occupation in asia. excellent account of happenings and a great insight into burma. hard to put down definitely worth a read.
Rating:
Summary: What's all the fuss about??
Review: OK - I was suckered by this one. The UK version had a great cover, it was advertised all over the Underground system, the reviews were good, and the subject matter appeared to be fascinating. Indeed, the blurb on the cover said it was "A Dr Zhivago for the Far East". Pasternak must be spinning in his grave. What I got instead was a novel resting somewhere between James A Michener and Jilly Cooper. It resembles Michener in its vast sweep of history - from the British invasion of Burma to modern times - and it resembles Cooper (or indeed a bad soap opera) in the totally wooden dialogue and utter lack of character development. Ghosh's canvas is just too vast. He ends up taking short cuts with the story and sacrifices insight for scale. At frequent points years, indeed decades, are skipped, and the reader is expected to pick up the characters as if nothing had happened in between. What was even more frustrating were the opportunities that were missed. For example, one of the female characters, Uma, goes on a trip to Europe. This is dealt with in a few pages, and nothing is said of her impressions of London - this, after all, was the imperial capital - surely the author could have let her have some reaction to it. To dismiss such an event is bad enough, but what was unforgivable bearing in mind the setting of the novel was the author's failure to either describe directly, or let the character recount to others, Uma's visit to Ghandi. How on earth could this chance have been passed up? What the reader is left with is a supposedly intelligent woman at one point advocating armed resistance to the British, then she sees a newspaper article about the brutal way the British dealt with a rebellion in Burma, decides Ghandi is right after all, goes to see Ghandi, returns from having seen Ghandi and spends the rest of the novel spouting Ghandi's views like a robot. Sorry, but this is poor stuff, and the novel is full of similar examples. Indeed, the author was much more keen on describing vintage motor cars than developing his characters. I hope I've learned my lesson about never judging a book by its cover. I felt so disappointed because the story had so much potential. But this novel does little justice to its subject matter. Having said that, it should sell well, as its been well-marketed (but it really is pulp fiction masquerading as literature). I will donate my copy to the local charity shop: hopefully someone can be suckered into buying this from them - as a result, it may have some positive effect after all.
Rating: 
Summary: Exciting and unusual escape reading.
Review: Full of the colors, scents, and sounds of exotic Burma in the 1860's, this novel comes to life within the Glass Palace of the royal family and in the streets of Mandalay, sometimes the "home" of its ordinary citizens, in the final days before Britain's voracious, imperialist juggernaut shoots its way up the Irrawaddy River. Giving life to the Burmese point of view, Rajkumar and Dolly, orphaned children working as servants when the novel begins, eventually become the founders of a family whose members, in succeeding generations, reflect the economic and the political realities in Burma, Malaya, and India over the 150 years from the British raj to the present day. Working as suppliers of teak, petroleum, and rubber, members of this family and of two other families with whom they have close ties, also work as soldiers supporting Britain during World Wars I and II, with the independence movement in Burma and India, and eventually as anti-communist intellectuals in the present state of Myanmar. By having these families participate in the important historical events which occurred in this part of the world, Ghosh does a remarkable job of personalizing these events and making them memorable for readers (especially if they, like me, have little knowledge about these countries). The action, especially during the World War II invasion of Malaya by the Japanese, is vivid and very exciting, as people try to flee the shooting in Malaya but find roads closed to Burma and Siam. The extent to which Indian and Burmese troops, fighting for Britain, accelerated the collapse of the British Empire following World War II--and led to the (sometimes temporary) independence of India, Malaysia and Burma, now Myanmar--is presented clearly and unambiguously, and the reader is jolted by the extent to which whole cultures were lost through British zeal to colonize. While this is not War and Peace, The Glass Palace is a fascinating look into the history and cultures of a region which has had little exposure in western novels.
Rating:
Summary: History was never made so beautiful
Review: Writing a semi-fiction, rather, a piece of literature whose many characters and incidences are by no means fictitious, is an arduous task, but Ghosh manages to accomplish it with a rare aplomb. Technically Ghosh is superb, painting a vivid picture of the period and the different cultures (Burmese and Bengali in particular) and their evolution. He maintains a delicate balance between the evolution of the historical, 'non-fictitious', characters and events and those which are the produce of his imaginations. I can't help admiring Ghosh for his ability to create characters who seem so so real that makes me feel as if I have personal acquintance with them, and this feat he manages to achieve in all his books, The Circle of Reasons, The Shadow Lines (my eternal favourite) and also Calcutta Chromosomes. I had picked up this book with apprehension that he won't be able to live up to the promise that he has created himself through his previous works, but by the time I reached halfway I realised that my apprehensions were grossly misplaced. Each character is subtly crafted out in detail and their evolution couldn't be more natural. It's definitely a very good read.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Novel
Review: This is the first time in ten years that I've enjoyed a work of fiction. Not only are the plot, historical portraits and writing style fluid and gripping, the authorial sensibility infusing the book is attractive. One has the sense of an empathetic and understanding spirit writing the book, never being intrusively judgmental but instead gently suggesting a moral perspective through the characters in the story. After a long time in which I've been able to read only spiritual books, I found this book satisfying my intellect, spirit and humanity.
|
