Location: Home » Wine Glasses » Chandra, Vikram » Red Earth and Pouring Rain (Faber Fiction Classics)

The Oenophile Network Blog & Forum Links

Wine Blog
Wine Forum

Red Earth and Pouring Rain (Faber Fiction Classics)

enlarge

Author: Vikram Chandra
Publisher: Faber & Faber Ltd
Category: Book

Buy New: $9.04

New (3) Used (4) from $2.47

Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars

43 reviews
Sales Rank: 168181

Media: Paperback
Pages: 617
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 6.9 x 4.3 x 1.4

ISBN: 0571203086
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780571203086
ASIN: 0571203086

Publication Date: March 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: New book from Germany delivered in 10-14 days. Please check the language indicated in the product description.

Similar Items:

•	Sacred Games: A Novel (P.S.)
•	Love and Longing in Bombay: Stories
•	The White Tiger: A Novel (Man Booker Prize)
•	Unaccustomed Earth
•	A Fine Balance (Oprah's Book Club)

Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
A tale of 19th-century India: of Sanjay, a poet, and Sikander, a warrior; of great wars and love affairs and a city gone "mad with poetry". Woven into this tapestry of stories is a second, modern narrative - the adventures of a young Indian criss-crossing America in a car with his friends.

Customer Reviews: Read 38 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

grandeur and desolation and a glass shaped like a heart August 30, 2008
How do you bring the worldview of a hundred and fifty years ago into the grammar of a people caught in the cusp of modernity, and tell it through an adopted language? You make a monkey tell the story of a man, himself.

A monkey is shot by an irritated teenager back home in Delhi for a vacation from college in the US. The gods begin a tussle for the monkey's soul, and a wager is made: the monkey will live as long as he can tell a story. A typewriter is produced, and the neighbourhood assembles to hear the monkey recall his past life as a scholar-warrior-poet during and after the Great Mutiny of 1857. What follows is much more than a history lesson...

Red Earth and Pouring Rain is not a book with a point or purpose, or at least the kind of point and purpose you might expect from a book about stories and storytellers (the closest parallel I can think of is Umberto Eco's "Baudolino") - or maybe it is a book about life and all of its points and purposes. The canvas is vast, and takes time to paint, and Vikram Chandra does so with skill and fluidity - the words are English, but the language itself is utterly Indian. Westerners who think the English language and literary style still belong to the West will find this book hard to understand.

This is not a book about the English occupation of India, nor is it a fantasy about wilful gods. It is not a book for the impatient: stories take to womb within stories, and the utterly impossible mingles comfortably with the utterly mundane. It is not a book for the cultural voyeur, either - you will get no great insight into Indian "culture" by wading through this epic - the 'exotic' in this book is exotic for modern Indians as well.

What it is, however, is a story of a people divided between the eternal and the now, and their struggle to come to grips with themselves (reformists and optimists, take note). It is a story of rebirths and becomings, of contradictions and impossibilities, and unbearable cruelty and love. Behold, and be enchanted. Above all, surrender.

5 out of 5 stars

Rich reading July 23, 2008
This was a very enjoyable books that takes it's time to tell it's tale and get to the end just like the classics Mahabarata and Ramayana. If you can't stand digressions and stories within stories this book is not for you. The author is very talented and has a tremendous vision.

3 out of 5 stars

Half-way house June 26, 2008
Red Earth and Pouring Rain reads like the first shot of a great writer still finding his voice.

Chandra loosely intertwines two stories: one, set in India, an adventure tale in the style of old epics, and the other a modern American road story. The problem is that one infects the reading of the other; as in the mating of the mare with the donkey, the result is sterile. The earnestness of the fantastic old tale is lost. The Indian gods' appearance in a modern setting feels too much like Rushdie without the philosophy, the American road story like diaspora writing without a motive.

Perhaps Chandra didn't dare write only the epic, where one feels his real interest lay. Maybe his first submission wouldn't have been accepted by publishers without the homage to all that Indian-in-exile-on-a-US-campus stuff. And the book contains interesting writing on Anglo-Indian relations. But if, like me, you enjoyed Sacred Games and are looking for something else to read by the same author, you are better off waiting for his next novel.

4 out of 5 stars

Story of Stories November 7, 2007
In this debut, Chandra seems to have bared all from his bag of tricks of creative writing, as if to put his stake in the ground and claim territory. This also reflects the many years spent by the young author in creating this novel. Although brilliantly original, it is hard not to notice the similarities with Borges and Rushdie. The basic structure of the book positions it as heresy and has international characters within a local context, ala Borges. The basic content of the book positions it as magic realism and is interwoven with characters and stories of India in the 17-19th century, ala Rushdie. However, in a direct comparison, the book lacks the brevity and lucidity of Borges' and the believability and intensity of Rushdie.

Red Earth and Pouring Rain is the story of an 18th century hero (Sanjay), now in the body of a typewriter-friendly monkey, narrating stories of several characters in his life. The story of Sanjay is knit together as heresy by these characters within the overarching story being told by the monkey. If you follow what's going on so far, you are just about prepared to pick up this book, because there are up to 4 levels of insets within the novel, versus a 2-level inset described above.

This book dwindles between a 2-star and a 5-star. The trick is to persevere through the spotty parts in order to be satiated by the brilliant ones. For an ambitious debut such as this, Chandra deserves some slack be cut. The contrast in quality is unusual and I know multiple people who dropped the novel after book 2 or 3. Those who went back to it thanked heavens that they did.

The book stores gems of wisdom such as the surly sphincter theory, the battle between immortals, Sanjay eating his own words, and Janvi preserving her honor. Stay with the book till the end and it will certainly leave a mark on you for years to come.

5 out of 5 stars

I never read books twice...until now. October 1, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful

Seems like a lot of readers don't get the references that this book offers, which is too bad for them. They might try reading something other than Western literature for a change.

This book is pure poetry, a ravishing ride from beginning to beginning :)
If you can open your mind and step off the Freudian train, you're in for one hell of a hike.

Powered by Associate-O-Matic

Customer Service

Contact Customer Service
Ordering
Tracking Your Package
Shipping Information
Domestic Shipping Rates
International Shipping Rates
Returns
Gifts & Gift Certificates
Privacy & Security

Subcategories

•	Mass Market
•	Trade

Untitled Document Disclaimer: This is an Amazon storefront - the products referenced on this site are manufactured and sold by parties other than the Oenophile Network. The Oenophile Network makes no representations regarding either the products or any information vendors offer about their products. Any questions, complaints, or claims regarding the products must be directed to the appropriate manufacturer or vendor, or to Amazon.com.