Rating: 
Summary: Now I want to read the Mahahbarata
Review: Being interested in India and having traveled there twice recently, I stalked up on all sorts of books dealing with the country. This is one of them. I started this one and immediately kept reading with great interest, as his story-line unfolded flawlessly.I feel ashamed to admit it, but I am not familiar with Indian mythology and specifically with the Mahabharata, so I cannot comment as others did on how well he melded that epic tale with the modern, historical figures. But even without knowing how that one aspect fell into play within the whole story, I thought the work was absolutely brilliant. His satire on characters from recent Indian history is hysterical. If you have any knowledge about who Ghandi or Indira were, you will obviously spot WHO he is talking about, even though the real names are never used. Finally, Tharoor's grasp and usage of English is awsome. I enjoyed the way he delivers passages full of sentiment and emotion, yet with witty, tongue-in-check narration. Plus, he wrote many, many inspiring passages that were so aptly phrased--simply the thoughts of a geneous--that I was inspired to highlight them with a neon pen. Truly excellent ideas put on paper! The reason I didn't give it 5 stars was because I felt it ended rather abruptly or hurried, and it needed, in my opinion, a little more historical/politcal plot to finally bring it all together without a sense of being rushed at the end. (Maybe it's only me who feels this way.) So, even if you don't know the Mahabharata or much of Indian history/politics, this book will keep your interest and whet your appetite to read even more on the fascinating country.
Rating:
Summary: Now I want to read the Mahahbarata
Review: Being interested in India and having traveled there twice recently, I stalked up on all sorts of books dealing with the country. This is one of them. I started this one and immediately kept reading with great interest, as his story-line unfolded flawlessly. I feel ashamed to admit it, but I am not familiar with Indian mythology and specifically with the Mahabharata, so I cannot comment as others did on how well he melded that epic tale with the modern, historical figures. But even without knowing how that one aspect fell into play within the whole story, I thought the work was absolutely brilliant. His satire on characters from recent Indian history is hysterical. If you have any knowledge about who Ghandi or Indira were, you will obviously spot WHO he is talking about, even though the real names are never used. Finally, Tharoor's grasp and usage of English is awsome. I enjoyed the way he delivers passages full of sentiment and emotion, yet with witty, tongue-in-check narration. Plus, he wrote many, many inspiring passages that were so aptly phrased--simply the thoughts of a geneous--that I was inspired to highlight them with a neon pen. Truly excellent ideas put on paper! The reason I didn't give it 5 stars was because I felt it ended rather abruptly or hurried, and it needed, in my opinion, a little more historical/politcal plot to finally bring it all together without a sense of being rushed at the end. (Maybe it's only me who feels this way.) So, even if you don't know the Mahabharata or much of Indian history/politics, this book will keep your interest and whet your appetite to read even more on the fascinating country.
Rating: 
Summary: Nothing new under the sun.
Review: For me, the book works in a number of ways: 1. Recasting the Mahabharata into modern India. Two bits struck me: the story of Karna, the driver's son, and Drona teaching the Panduva. The first because of the way personal brilliance can be discounted on the basis of family tree; the second for the retelling of aiming at the crow and Drona's promise to Arjuna. 2. The names. Apart from the characters from the Mahabharata, there's also whole new cast of characters who reflect the modern world. Two names stand out in my mind. "Gaga Shah" is the story's name for the Aga Kahn. Given the antics of the various Aga Kahns, "Crazy Emperor" is not a bad characterization. Then there's Zinna as Karna - "The Hacker Off" - hacking off Pakistan - "Karnistan" - for himself. 3. Showing the relevance of myth. Personally, I have a tendency to discount the mythos in favor of the logos, but mythos comes first, and recurs. Casting the Mahabharata onto modern history is a great way to show there's nothing fundamentally new under the sun. This book made for a great over-Christmas, by-the-fire-with-an-adult-beverage read.
Rating: 
Summary: Too Contrived
Review: I'm surprised that I'm the only person who actually did not like this book among the dozen or so reviewers here. The characterization was really contrived and the story is just a repetition of Mahabharatha desperately attached to Modern Indian history. Whats new with this book? I must have missed something here.......
Rating:
Summary: A perfect book title...
Review: if ever there was one. The Great Indian Novel gives the Mahabharata a spin that has never been done before...a funny one. Shashi Tharoor has created a work of pure humour and brilliance with this book. It is do-able enough to re-write epics like Ramayana (as Ashok Banker has) but it takes extraordinary imagination required to write something like The Great Indian Novel. Read this book if you're looking for something intelligently funny. I would warn you though, that if you're unfamiliar with various Indian glitterati and legends, you may not find this book very appealing. The humor would be lost.
There are few books I feel deserve 5 stars and I'm happy I came across one like this. This book is a mythological and historical lesson all rolled into one!
Rating:
Summary: The Great Underrated Novel
Review: In this seamlessly-crafted novel, Tharoor has woven the weft of ancient Indian myths with the warp of modern history with reverence for its heroes and healthy disrespect for its villains, past and present.
Every chapter unconceals an unexpected parallelism between past and present or a breathtakingly startling point of view. No Indian who has lived through the Emergency will again think of its chief protagonist without recalling the fictionalised scene of her portentous birth.
Rating:
Summary: Imaginative marriage of myth and reality
Review: It takes some nerve and imgaination to try and marry stories as disparate as the Mahabharata, the 2000 year old Hindu epic, and the Independence struggle/first 30 years of post-independence Indian history. Tharoor manages remarkably well, combining wit, a sense of history, deep sympathy and insight into the essence of what being Indian means. I think that not knowing either story to start with will take away very considerably from the reading experience. Having grown up hearing the Mahabharata like almost every other Indian child, I had a fixed idea about the character of each mythological actor, and I was struck by how easily the movers and shakers of this century in our country fit the mould of those characters. This century after all is just a blip in the ancient and endless story of India, and perhaps this says something for the essential continuity of our history. To all you Indians out there, please read it. For everyone else, it will be a wonderful insight into ancient and modern India.
Rating:
Summary: Celebration of India
Review: This book is witty, hilarious and engrossing. Reader with no knowledge of Indian history may not find any interest in this book. The book celebrates India in the true sense combining India's struggle of thirty five hundered years ago to the more recent cause of independence. I had never understood Mahabharata so profoundly as after reading this book. Whether the Mahabharata is an historical account or a mere story makes no difference in this issue. The existence of such a story (Mahabharata) factually or on a literary level proves the same thing-that the idea of the subcontinent of India as a cultural unit clearly existed before any of the modern nation-states had come into being. In this regard no nation, subcontinent or religion has an epic of such proportion or which reflects the integration of such a large region as India through the Mahabharata. In fact it compasses all the domains of knowledge and all the issues of human life and culture. It is not just a religious book but the document for an entire civilization. Shashi Tharoor has done an exceptional work in creating similarities between two different times. One can only enjoy this book!
Rating:
Summary: The Great Stories
Review: Whether it's the "Iliad," exploring the nature of the warrior, or the "Mahabarata"," explaining politics, the great stories are always with us and provide illumination to our seemingly modern lives. With "The Great Indian Novel," Shashi Tharoor shows us that "everything old is new again." "The Great Indian Novel," is a re-interpretation of the Mahabarata framed in India's struggle for independence, and the political aftermath of colonization. The famous make their appearances under altered names, and Mr. Tharoor manages to make the Mahabarata current while making modern Indian politics somewhat understandable. The book is also very funny. I don't know if this is a book for the casual reader, but if you're interested in India I think you'll find it quite fascinating.
Rating:
Summary: The Great Stories
Review: Whether it's the "Iliad," exploring the nature of the warrior, or the "Mahabarata"," explaining politics, the great stories are always with us and provide illumination to our seemingly modern lives. With "The Great Indian Novel," Shashi Tharoor shows us that "everything old is new again." "The Great Indian Novel," is a re-interpretation of the Mahabarata framed in India's struggle for independence, and the political aftermath of colonization. The famous make their appearances under altered names, and Mr. Tharoor manages to make the Mahabarata current while making modern Indian politics somewhat understandable. The book is also very funny. I don't know if this is a book for the casual reader, but if you're interested in India I think you'll find it quite fascinating.
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