In The Zigzag Way, the critically acclaimed novelist Anita Desai offers a gorgeously nuanced story of expatriates and travelers adrift in an unfami...
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reviews
Nov 20, 2011
Andy
rated it: 
At university, with the incomparable Geoffrey Eathorne as our professor for our Commonwealth Literature course at Trent University in Canada, I read Anita Desai's Clear Light of Day. It was a stand out. I don't remember it perfectly but that it had beautiful writing and I enjoyed the story.
Two decades letter, I haven't read anything by her since and saw 'The Zigzag way' on the shelf of a favourite used bookstore. The story is set in Mexico, a young academic, aimless, looking for his pa More...
Two decades letter, I haven't read anything by her since and saw 'The Zigzag way' on the shelf of a favourite used bookstore. The story is set in Mexico, a young academic, aimless, looking for his pa More...
Oct 10, 2010
Al
rated it: 
Eric and Emily, he calls her Em' for short, live in a cozy Boston apartment, cozily pursuing their postgraduate work. Emily is a scientist. Eric is working on a dissertation on immigration patterns in the US. But Eric is not fulfilled by his research. He would rather sit and drink coffee and watch the world pass him by. He is tempted to throw his dissertation away.
Emily is not particularly pleased with Eric's growing lassitude. It contrasts sharply with her immersion in her subject. More...
Emily is not particularly pleased with Eric's growing lassitude. It contrasts sharply with her immersion in her subject. More...
Jan 04, 2010
Vikas
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The Zigzag Way- After reading I am assured the author literally wrote a zigzag fiction.
This book is really insightful if you wana know about Mexican history mainly revolving around silver mines during the time of revolution. Some books make me Google once I finish the book; this definitely made me read more on Mexican history especially the Huichols and their traditions. (The last book of this kind I read was “A long long way" by Sebastian Barry which even made me watch the movie “The More...
This book is really insightful if you wana know about Mexican history mainly revolving around silver mines during the time of revolution. Some books make me Google once I finish the book; this definitely made me read more on Mexican history especially the Huichols and their traditions. (The last book of this kind I read was “A long long way" by Sebastian Barry which even made me watch the movie “The More...
Feb 05, 2009
Desai invokes her renowned lush, and occasionally dense, prose to portray Eric's sensory overload here. She obviously speaks with intimate knowledge of the land, and this, combined with the wealth of historical detail, prompt several critics to sing her praises. More importantly, as The New York Times notes, The Zigzag Way is "not just a condensed course in 20th-century Mexican history but a meditation on the futility of our efforts to outrun the past." In other words, Desai does her j
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May 31, 2010
Meenakshi
rated it:
I think Anita Desai is not my type.Picking up Anita Desai had been a very big mistake.I somehow cannot relate to her characters which seem phoney and superficial to me.
The last Anita Desai's book (Fire in the mountain)that I read was also a huge dissapointment and this one was no less.I think it will be unfair to compare Fire in the Mountain and The Zigzag way as they both have been a terrible experience but still if I have to choose between the two it will be this one which seems less bor More...
The last Anita Desai's book (Fire in the mountain)that I read was also a huge dissapointment and this one was no less.I think it will be unfair to compare Fire in the Mountain and The Zigzag way as they both have been a terrible experience but still if I have to choose between the two it will be this one which seems less bor More...
Jan 14, 2012
Nicole
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For some reason getting through this was a real slog, and I only started getting into this right near the end. A very slim novel, at about 180 pages, took me 10 days! I suspect it's more to do with my current knackered-ness, than the actual book, as it's beautifully written.
Even with the slogging, I managed to glean a couple of things out of the novel, but am left feeling like I've missed the point. Or maybe that is the point?
<spoiler>With Eric searching for something More...
Even with the slogging, I managed to glean a couple of things out of the novel, but am left feeling like I've missed the point. Or maybe that is the point?
<spoiler>With Eric searching for something More...
Sep 26, 2007
Sierra
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This feels more like a novella to me. The themes are overt: grad student stalled on his thesis about immigration patterns follows his driven scientist girlfriend on her field work, where he ends up trying to trace his own English family's migration from Cornwall to Mexico to work in the silver mines that boomed before the Mexican Revolution, and comes to a place where his perspective may be radically altered. However, Desai's writing is gorgeous, and her thinking about the themes she makes obv
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Apr 17, 2010
Emily
rated it:
Good book, but I may be biased. I typed the manuscript for the paperback edition when I was an intern at Penguin, so the author kindly signed a copy of the book for me. It was a very intimate way to read the story--literally letter to word to sentence to paragraph. I find myself wondering now if my experience of the book would be different if read as a whole rather than by the small parts of a whole.
Dec 04, 2011
Jillian
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Although the writing is beautifully crafted in a way one rarely finds in romantic novels today, I found it hard to connect to the characters. There was no one character that drew me in; it felt more like a review through a filter of nostalgia. I hoped to learn more about the indigineous people and the Cornish miners and the Spanish, but their characters remained elusive and vague.
Nov 24, 2008
Lena
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I picked up this book because I love Mexico and thought Desai's Fasting, Feasting was pretty good. Although she wove some interesting history and social commentary into the story, both the plot and the writing were weak and unfocused.
Jul 01, 2010
Stephen
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This book was conceptually very interesting, but I didn't feel compelled to like any of the characters unfortunately.
Jul 02, 2008
Kathy
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Certain fiction set in Mexico – Night of the Iguana, Touch of Evil, novels whose titles I’ve lost - seems to remind me of Under the Volcano, which I read when I was about 12 and read again as an adult and found the same sort of bleak enchantment. The Zigzag Way evoked that kind of understated – even unstated – spiritual landscape that strongly affects the personnel of the story (and me). Like those spare folksongs we resurrected in the ‘60s, there’s more than meets the ear and the eye, and it’s
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Jan 16, 2012
Sharon
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how folks are can usually be explained by their past...just sometimes you don't know what that past is...
Nov 11, 2009
Shanrina
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It wasn't a bad read, but when all was said and done I'm not sure what the point of it was, either.
Feb 26, 2010
I din't like it but reading the description makes me think I should try it again.
May 14, 2009
Allison
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Some good passages on the difficulty and strangeness faced by people coming to Mexico from other countries in the early 1900s, but the main character's story is very thin, and I did not feel I got the "quiet, powerful epiphany" I was promised.
Feb 13, 2008
martin
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I can't figure this book out.
Three different but interconnecting stories linked fairly loosely by the silver mines of Mexico and the Cornishmen and native Americans who worked in them. I enjoyed the descriptions and the stories but was left wondering "why write it?"
I found it a little anti-climactic and still haven't understood the common theme between the various threads in the story (other than mining and Mexico)
Three different but interconnecting stories linked fairly loosely by the silver mines of Mexico and the Cornishmen and native Americans who worked in them. I enjoyed the descriptions and the stories but was left wondering "why write it?"
I found it a little anti-climactic and still haven't understood the common theme between the various threads in the story (other than mining and Mexico)
Jul 11, 2008
Diane
rated it:
A touch of magical realism, a nice bit of cultural and historical background, a gorgeous setting that provided me with some imaginary vacation memories since this isn't the year for real ones (and their real costs). A very short book, The Zigzag Way was a whisp, a tease that *poofed* itself out of my world when I wanted more -- much like the spirits the Mexicans seek on dia do los muertos.
Jan 29, 2012
julieta
rated it:
No conocía nada de Anita Desai, y no se si este fué lo mejor para empezar. Me gusta que mexico sea un elemento en la historia, pero no me parece nada del otro mundo la historia ni a donde la lleva. No pasa nada realmente importante, y ningun personaje llega a una conclusión.. las historias que se entremezclan tampoco llegan a ninguna parte.
Dec 10, 2008
Heather
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I just couldn't get into this one. It was too disjointed. Even though I enjoyed the storyline and Mexican history, it wasn't enough to pull the book through.
Dec 16, 2009
Elizabeth (Liz)
rated it: 
I feel like I learned more Mexico from this book that I by living here two years (although that could be a negative statement about how much I have learned by living here). Some people in my book group thought the ending didnt live up to the rest of the book, but I thought it tied it all together.
Aug 02, 2008
Natalie
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It took my a bit to get into this one, but the authors eloquence kept me interested. Quick little read and I appreciate the idea of knowing our history to know ourselves.
Sep 04, 2008
Ania
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I thought this book was missing something, more of a story? Maybe more of a climax? Either way - it was kind of boring and didn't really draw me in.
May 18, 2011
Mew
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I'm not sure I got the point of this. I enjoyed the historical element but that was it.
Feb 10, 2011
I've skimmed a few pages and I can't remember this book. Did I read it?
Apr 30, 2010
Ravneet
rated it:
I don't think I can carry on reading this anymore, not for now atleast! :(
