Point Regarding Books English, August: An Indian Story
| Title | : | English, August: An Indian Story |
| Author | : | Upamanyu Chatterjee |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 326 pages |
| Published | : | 2006 by New York Review of Books (first published 1988) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Cultural. India. Asian Literature. Indian Literature |
Upamanyu Chatterjee
Paperback | Pages: 326 pages Rating: 3.77 | 5185 Users | 386 Reviews
Narrative In Favor Of Books English, August: An Indian Story
Agastya Sen, known to friends by the English name August, is a child of the Indian elite. His friends go to Yale and Harvard. August himself has just landed a prize government job. The job takes him to Madna, “the hottest town in India,” deep in the sticks. There he finds himself surrounded by incompetents and cranks, time wasters, bureaucrats, and crazies. What to do? Get stoned, shirk work, collapse in the heat, stare at the ceiling. Dealing with the locals turns out to be a lot easier for August than living with himself. English, August is a comic masterpiece from contemporary India. Like A Confederacy of Dunces and The Catcher in the Rye, it is both an inspired and hilarious satire and a timeless story of self-discovery.Declare Books Supposing English, August: An Indian Story
| Original Title: | English, August: An Indian Story |
| ISBN: | 1590171799 (ISBN13: 9781590171790) |
| Edition Language: | English |
Rating Regarding Books English, August: An Indian Story
Ratings: 3.77 From 5185 Users | 386 ReviewsCriticism Regarding Books English, August: An Indian Story
while possibly the most brilliant book I've encountered about bureaucracy, this novel crashes and burns around page 100, sadly dragging out it's swan song for another 200 pages.Don't get me wrong: I truly appreciated the humorous story of a young Bengali man who, after enlisting in the Indian Administrative Service, finds his life directed to a small depressing dusty town 500 km from nowhere. How better to construct a backdrop for Sen's long hot days of locking himself in his stifling room,Not my cup of chai.
Upmanyu Chatterjee's English, August is a witty (but in no way pithy!) commentary on the mammoth apparatus of the Indian bureaucracy with its inefficient babus (officials) and their untrained lackeys (minions, urchins, whatever!) and their lives as seen through the eyes of a young Indian civil servant, Agastya Sen. Though the story has been written some twenty years ago, it is still relevant today as gives a snapshot of that reality which countless millions live in this country every day because
'How old are you, sir?''Twenty-eight.'Agastya was twenty-four, but he was in a lying mood. He also disliked their faces.'Are you married, sir?' Again that demand that he classify himself. Ahmed leaned forward for each question, neck tensed and head angled with politeness.'Yes.' He wondered for a second whether he should add 'twice'.'And your Mrs, sir?' Agarwal's voice dropped at 'Mrs'; in all those months all references to wives were in hushed, almost embarrassed, tones. Agastya never knew why,
a classic modern indian novel of a young man starting his career in the IAS indian admin service. many funny and cynical jokings of country folk and bureaucrats, our protag august is in training in madna, a hot, dusty, very out-of-the-way town where he learns the ropes of running the biggest free country in the world. cynical in that his heart really isn't in it and bides his time smoking doobies and jacking off, while drinking and cadging suppers off his bosses and friends. after this stellar
I liked the way he wrote the book. Writing random thoughts in presentable way is much more difficult than writing a story. The book is just like flowing thoughts. Can't compare it with "Catcher in the Rye" but it is on the same path. Beautiful picturization of India accommodating western civilization. The background of the book seems old and slightly unfamiliar to me, but It is mainly because I didn't have read more about India just after Independence and it's also missing from our social
0 Comments