David
Wonderful. Just wonderful.
I didn’t love this quite as much as I loved Troubles, which is one of my all-time favourite reads, but it’s still easily deserving of a five-star rating. Much of the first part of the book is scene-setting and there’s a lot of detail to take in. But by the time the action starts you’re deeply immersed in the world of the novel and the horror of the siege is brought vividly to life. It’s a very well paced book.
Overall, it’s not as outright funny as Troubles but the poetry reading scene early on is laugh-out-loud hilarious. Later comical episodes are much darker in tone, reminiscent of Evelyn Waugh’s bleaker moments. The siege setting brilliantly highlights the absurdities of the Victorian world view, as the inhabitants of the Residency continue to believe themselves superior to the Indians even while everything is falling apart around them. And JG Farrell’s writing is simply exquisite. He has a real eye for metaphor.
I saw a review elsewhere that complained we don’t get enough of the Indian perspective on events but that to me is missing the point of what this book is about - there are surely other non-fiction books that offer better purely historical accounts of the Indian mutiny, this is something altogether more profound, an insight into the psyche of the British people at the height of the Empire.
One thing that slowed my reading progress slightly was unfamiliarity with a lot of the Indian terminology and having to look up a number of words - but that’s not a complaint at all. It’s a truly rewarding experience to read such a well written book as this, and if you learn a few new words along the way, all the better.
Wonderful. Just wonderful.
I didn’t love this quite as much as I loved Troubles, which is one of my all-time favourite reads, but it’s still easily deserving of a five-star rating. Much of the first part of the book is scene-setting and there’s a lot of detail to take in. But by the time the action starts you’re deeply immersed in the world of the novel and the horror of the siege is brought vividly to life. It’s a very well paced book.
Overall, it’s not as outright funny as Troubles but the poetry reading scene early on is laugh-out-loud hilarious. Later comical episodes are much darker in tone, reminiscent of Evelyn Waugh’s bleaker moments. The siege setting brilliantly highlights the absurdities of the Victorian world view, as the inhabitants of the Residency continue to believe themselves superior to the Indians even while everything is falling apart around them. And JG Farrell’s writing is simply exquisite. He has a real eye for metaphor.
I saw a review elsewhere that complained we don’t get enough of the Indian perspective on events but that to me is missing the point of what this book is about - there are surely other non-fiction books that offer better purely historical accounts of the Indian mutiny, this is something altogether more profound, an insight into the psyche of the British people at the height of the Empire.
One thing that slowed my reading progress slightly was unfamiliarity with a lot of the Indian terminology and having to look up a number of words - but that’s not a complaint at all. It’s a truly rewarding experience to read such a well written book as this, and if you learn a few new words along the way, all the better.