Rating: 
Summary: As obligatory a book as Salinger and Joyce
Review: Beach Boy bounds onto the literary world like a mature novel, nudging a place somewhere between Jame Joyce's "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" and J.D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye". Quirky, unique in writing style, extemporaneous in feel, this first novel has all we wish for in a new generation of story tellers. Tender, humorous, sad, poignant - Ardashir Vakil has created another Everyman, and one hopes he has more to say about this delectable Cyrus Readymoney. Using another language unfamiliar to his readers only enhances the atmosphere of Bombay. I found myself so hungry for everything Indian that a trip to a local Indian restaurant was the only successful seduction away from absorbing this little gem of a novel. Parent Alert! Share this with your teenagers. This is a wondrous way to open the doors of the world outside.
Rating:
Summary: As obligatory a book as Salinger and Joyce
Review: Beach Boy bounds onto the literary world like a mature novel, nudging a place somewhere between Jame Joyce's "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" and J.D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye". Quirky, unique in writing style, extemporaneous in feel, this first novel has all we wish for in a new generation of story tellers. Tender, humorous, sad, poignant - Ardashir Vakil has created another Everyman, and one hopes he has more to say about this delectable Cyrus Readymoney. Using another language unfamiliar to his readers only enhances the atmosphere of Bombay. I found myself so hungry for everything Indian that a trip to a local Indian restaurant was the only successful seduction away from absorbing this little gem of a novel. Parent Alert! Share this with your teenagers. This is a wondrous way to open the doors of the world outside.
Rating: 
Summary: Listless and without direction
Review: Beach Boy is a book about a young boy who likes to eat in other people's houses and mind other people's business. He is a student of tennis, who does not work to use his potential. Throughout this novel Ardashir Vakil introduces us to interesting characters, but the plot goes no place. It begins and it ends and the reader wonders, where have I been? This is Vakil's first published novel and he shows a talent for describing characters. But he does not seem to have a direction other than to write a group of vignettes. So what does happen to Cyrus?
Rating:
Summary: Listless and without direction
Review: Beach Boy is a book about a young boy who likes to eat in other people's houses and mind other people's business. He is a student of tennis, who does not work to use his potential. Throughout this novel Ardashir Vakil introduces us to interesting characters, but the plot goes no place. It begins and it ends and the reader wonders, where have I been? This is Vakil's first published novel and he shows a talent for describing characters. But he does not seem to have a direction other than to write a group of vignettes. So what does happen to Cyrus?
Rating: 
Summary: Colorful characters
Review: Beach Boy is not as much a focused story as a year in the life of Cyrus Readymoney, an affluent Parsi kid who prefers the life of a vagabond. Cyrus spends much of his time roaming the streets of Mumbai and inviting himself into the homes and lifes of his neighbors. Cyrus is perceptive and bright but a thorough hedonist. His passions are food, Hindi films, and fantasizing about sex. He lives in the moment and for the pleasures the day brings his way.What makes the novel special are the colorful (and most often adult) characters Vakil creates -- all vividly presented through the eyes of Cyrus. We learn a great deal about their appearances and quirky personalities but little about their motivations. Read this if you'd like to get a feel for the very varied people who inhabit Mumbai, but don't expect a book that offers meaningful insights and thoughful commentary in the vein of Rohinton Mistry (a fellow Parsi writer).
Rating: 
Summary: Coming-of-age in an exotic milieu
Review: I read this book a year ago and it really didn't impress me all that much. However, a year later I'm still thinking about it, so it is obviously better than I thought. In some ways it's like an Indian CATCHER IN THE RYE, but (and this is a big "but"), I really never believed that the narrator of the book was a child. That, to me, is the book's major flaw. Otherwise, it's quite an entertaining story set in the milieu of upper class India. I was fascinated by Vakil's keenly observed descriptions of that milieu, with its aping of Western culture and games of one-upmanship. Like Holden Caulfield, protagonist Cyrus Readymoney is a privileged child who is lonely. The book maps Cyrus' attempts to both please his parents and find his own identity. Along the way are trips to the movies (with some hilarious descriptions of Bollywood films), tennis competitions (with his domineering mother's insistent exhortations that he win), and hanging out with friends he has very little in common with. I found this bittersweet coming-of-age story to be enjoyable light reading that has some emotional resonance as well. Those who have an interest in contemporary Indian fiction will enjoy reading about a different level of Indian society than is usually depicted.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I read this book to get a look at Indian society at the time in Bombay but finished with barely a glimpse. The narrator is intelligent but incredibly precocious for his age--especially sexually--and very focused on films and food to the exclusion of everything else. It's hard to figure out what his parents are up to, other than pursuing the same pleasurable activities as their son. Individual passages shone--the trip to the country, the funeral, the description of the teacher--but I came away without conclusion.
Rating:
Summary: Mumbai's Parsee community and teenage life vividly portayed
Review: I thought of reading Beach Boy after I had already been thoroughly fascinated by Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye". Vakil's "Beach Boy" is some what on the same lines, describing the adolescense of a Parsee boy in Mumbai; his likes & dislikes, naughty doings, premature information about sex et al. But more than anything, what the novel has done is that, it has very beautifully brought to life the mid 70's Parsee community of 'Bombay'. The kids relationhsips with his parents and grand parents and especially their family structure has actually delved deep into the Real Parsee. Vakil's text is lucid, imaginative, anecdotal and indeed very well composed. But where it actually lacks the touch-of-class is the abrupt winding up. It seems that Vakil was somewhat in a hurry to give it to the publisher as fast as possible. However, the overall presentation is indeed commendable and it has very aptly won the Betty Trask Award. Overall an entertaining read for the youth, may be, over a long train journey!
Rating:
Summary: Fun and bright
Review: I'll come out and say it. You will enjoy "Beach Boy" if you know anything about life in Bombay, or 1970's Hindi cinema, or have been eight years old. Ardarshir Vakil's first novel is energetic and filled with brilliant observations. Vakil captures the visual aspects of the Bombay and its people. The story is told from the point of view of Cyrus Readymoney, an eight-year-old Parsi boy, wiser than his years. He is street savvy with vendors, and holds his own with his neighbor, the Maharani of Bharatnagar. Cyrus' home life is unstable and his parents have their own issues, so outside relationships are a vital to Cyrus. His mother is cajoled into packing young Cyrus to Kerala with the Krishnans and she doesn't mind him shuffling to the movies with the Vermas. However, dare Cyrus lose a tennis match, beware of her wrath. Vakil should be commended on snatching the true flavor of the Bombay dialect, in dialogues like this when the boys rally about the snack vendor: I asked Raju once, "But why does the bhaiya come all the way from UP to sell bhelpuri in Bombay?" "Arre, what are you talking? They are specialists, no. They know all the secret ways to make the chutney and cut the kanda and all" Though he depicts Bombayisms, they are not always adequate translations. A reader unfamiliar with Hindi may discern the meaning from context, but the full essence of the dialogue is missed. Another characteristic for Vakil is his nostalgia of Hindi films and escaping into a cinema. Movies were Cyrus' haven from reality and he steps into his fantasy by propagating a misunderstanding that he is Junior Mehmood, a child star. While Cyrus may be precocious, there are moments too unbelievable, even for Cyrus. Vakil needed to examine the character again. The boy is fascinated by his buxom neighbor, Meera, and attempts to flirt and make advances. This and the extraordinary freedom he receives would be credible in a boy of twelve, not an eight-year-old. Otherwise, it's a light step into time and India.
Rating:
Summary: It is a nice companion to Rushdie's "Mid Night's Children"
Review: If you like the story, "The Happy Prince" by Oscar Wilde you will like "Rocking Horse Winner" by DH Lawrence. Comparison is inevitable, and I started reading this book only beacause Salman Rushdie commends it. It reminds one of Mid Night's Children all along. However narrative of Vakil is as simple as Somerset Maugham and you dont have to deal with all the magical realism of Rushdie, (though I like it). It certainly touches everyone who like me has been to a high school as a teenager in the 60s and 70s in India. We all have our personal fantasies around popular film stars and trysts with tyrannical teachers and stories of spoilt brat friends with rich and indulgent parents. For me it was a nostalgia pill as well as a good read. Hope we get a sequel of Cyrus grappling with adulthood as I felt the book ended rather as abruptly as a coitus interruptus.
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