Saturday, January 24, 2009

Q and A - Book Review


As a way of trying to save some money so I can visit India in September this year, a friend loaned me a pile of books. I was then faced with the challenge of which book to start on, so I started with reading the back covers. I think this was the third one I picked up in the pile, but I couldn't put it down. This was a page turner for me, from the back cover on...

I enjoyed the authors story telling of the many different aspects of life in India. How Indians love their film industry, their heritage, their Taj Mahal, through to the implications of being a colonial country and the side by side life of a Muslim and Hindi boy. I enjoyed the depiction of an Australian family in India, and the aussisms the boy learnt. I think most of all I found the book captured many of the deep and culturally twisted aspects of an 'incredible' India, yet has a fictional fantasy of the young orphan boy becoming a billionare - very film like. For more of a review see Farmlanebooks for her great review.

I'm looking forward to the movie slumdog Millionare - the shorts I've seen so far show a colourful and intense India I've grown to love.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks for linking to me! Yes, I agree, this is a really good book. It's funny, a bit unlikely, but a real page turner. I can't wait to see the film either!

Karen said...

Hi There - we went and saw the film last night - it was wonderful! It's been a while since I have read the book so I am not sure how faithful to the book the movie actually is but I loved it all the same.

Frances said...

Knew little about the book or film until recently, and now can't wait to get to both. Need to read a little outside of my comfort zone. I'm beginning to bore myself. :)