Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found
by Suketu Mehta
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Read in September, 2007
recommends it for:
Indophiles Travel readers history buffs south-asian enthusiasts and watchers
I had heard about the book for a while now but just managed to pick the book few months ago at the airport during a business trip.
I loved the book mostly because I am from bombay as well and just like Suketu, I have moved to Bombay and back few times in my life. Everything in the book was very real for me and there were times when it felt like he literally took words out of my mouth. I would highly recommend this book to Indophiles, Travel readers and even history buffs. There are few thing...more
I loved the book mostly because I am from bombay as well and just like Suketu, I have moved to Bombay and back few times in my life. Everything in the book was very real for me and there were times when it felt like he literally took words out of my mouth. I would highly recommend this book to Indophiles, Travel readers and even history buffs. There are few thing...more
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Read in December, 2007
I toyed with creating a new category for this book: "Nonfiction Stranger Than Fiction." But no. Some of the stories and experiences of people that this book chronicles do seem very far-fetched (say, to mention just one out of several dozen, the former newspaper cartoonist who becomes boss of one of the strongest Hindu fundamentalist parties in the country – an Indian Rush Limbaugh – and who provokes some of the most violent riots in the country’s history.) But it is all believ...more
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Read in February, 2008
This was a compulsively readable book -- Mehta returns to the city of his youth and plunge into an examination of organized crime, political corruption, the police, the dance bars, the film industry and more. I was expecting, in part, an account of day-to-day life in Bombay, and there was very little of that; what this book really reminded me of was Mike Davis' City of Quartz, an examination of the faultlines of power in Los Angeles.
The book relies heavily on acquaintances that Mehta struck ...more
The book relies heavily on acquaintances that Mehta struck ...more
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Read in February, 2008
recommends it for:
Indophiles
Mehta returned to his native city as an adult and wrote this book over a couple year period. In it he spends time with police detectives, gangsters, political demagogues, bar room dancing girls, and Bollywood directors. The book gives a fascinating overview of one of the most densely populated, corrupt, polluted, and absurd cities on the planet.
Having just returned from two weeks in Bombay, where I finished this book, I looked at the city informed with Mehta's portrait. Walking next to me...more
Having just returned from two weeks in Bombay, where I finished this book, I looked at the city informed with Mehta's portrait. Walking next to me...more
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Read in February, 2007
recommends it for:
Friends, people interested in India/South-Asia, folks who love reading about cities
I rather haphazardly stumbled across Maximum City in an airport bookshop a couple months back and boy am I glad I did, because it perfectly hits one of my literary sweet spots: a fascination with modern cities. It's a well-researched and very detailed look at Bombay (or, as many call it now, Mumbai) as it exists today in all its tremendous beauty and unparalleled horror. Suketu Mehta has a wonderful talent for downloading a tremendous amount of information while also writing utterly fascinating ...more
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Read in March, 2008
recommends it for:
South Asian lit buffs
A native-Bombay boy returns to the newly christened Mumbai after living in New York. Started out as a wonderful narrative that reflected my own thoughts, criticisms and fears of returning to the homeland. Its an interesting read but requires some patience to get through.
Mehta delves into various aspects of the underworld and its control over the city of Bombay - which is fascinating, but I echo Sabrina's sentiments - homeboy could have used an editor. There were stretches of pages that were...more
Mehta delves into various aspects of the underworld and its control over the city of Bombay - which is fascinating, but I echo Sabrina's sentiments - homeboy could have used an editor. There were stretches of pages that were...more
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Read in December, 2007
I'm having a difficult time finishing this book. I usually read it for a few days and then need a break due to the overwhelming detail and drama that Mehta inserts into his prose. I honestly liked the beginning of the book in which Mehta made me feel as though I could see Bombay: crowding around a street stall for the best food in town, the need to bribe every public official for every little (and big) convenience, the dearth of toilets, the omnipresent din, the rich, the poor, etc. But now I'm ...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
Bombay: City of Dreams. City of Nightmares. City of the Vada Pav eaters. Love it, hate it – but read Mehta’s book and you’ll live it. Simply unputdownable!
This book will take you on the ride of your life – meet and chat with various Bombayites, weave through the underworld of Bombay and drinking scotch with the dons and cognac with the hit men, delicately touching the diversity of Bombay’s “cosmopolitan” characters, the sleazy world of “Mumbai” politics with Shiv Sena (the ...more
This book will take you on the ride of your life – meet and chat with various Bombayites, weave through the underworld of Bombay and drinking scotch with the dons and cognac with the hit men, delicately touching the diversity of Bombay’s “cosmopolitan” characters, the sleazy world of “Mumbai” politics with Shiv Sena (the ...more
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Read in August, 2007
I read this book when I was heading to India, and it did the trick of getting me excited about the tumultuous city where I'd be living. It's a little hard to get into, as I have difficulty getting interested in histories of politics, but Mehta has a pretty compelling storytelling technique where he lets you kind of be there while he's doing research, which I think is more effective in this book than just reading the results. Some of the sections were more interesting (to me) than others, and a...more
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Read in November, 2005
Suketu Mehta was born in Bombay and moved to NY when he was teenager. One day, as a father of two young children, he decided to go back to his former hometown, Bombay, to introduce his boys to their roots. Alas, Bombay has already changed; it even changed its name to Mumbai.
Here, in this book, Suketu Mehta traced the change in his beloved city, tracked down whom behind the change and the new shape of this city and why the change happened. From gangsters, dancing girls, cops, young entrepren...more
Here, in this book, Suketu Mehta traced the change in his beloved city, tracked down whom behind the change and the new shape of this city and why the change happened. From gangsters, dancing girls, cops, young entrepren...more
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Read in July, 2006
recommends it for:
anyone who likes pornography
I'm fascinated by the hype over Mehta's travelogue. This book portrays women as objects, poor people as criminals, and the Bollywood elite as deserving the resentment of a bitter New York based writer who can't quite find a place in the city of his youth.
So I'm struggling to understand what all the hype is about.
This is not, contrary to what reviews would lead us to believe, a book about Bombay. Instead, it's a book about being an outsider, and it does a decent job grappling with alienat...more
So I'm struggling to understand what all the hype is about.
This is not, contrary to what reviews would lead us to believe, a book about Bombay. Instead, it's a book about being an outsider, and it does a decent job grappling with alienat...more
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Read in February, 2008
One of the cliche books around Bombay/Mumbai. It could be that I feel it is a bit of an old hat since I have read books on similar themes the latest being "Shantaram".
The language is shorn of all elegance and eloquence and uses everyday English and most importantly the English dialect Indian readers are familiar with. Events, characters (fictional and some obviously not so fictional) stream in and out of the novel adding to the tapestry of a city torn between various halves. The bo...more
The language is shorn of all elegance and eloquence and uses everyday English and most importantly the English dialect Indian readers are familiar with. Events, characters (fictional and some obviously not so fictional) stream in and out of the novel adding to the tapestry of a city torn between various halves. The bo...more
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Read in October, 2007
recommends it for:
people interested in world affairs, travel, urban issues...
This book was fascinating to me, but I will also disclose that I love travel and knowing about the nitty-gritty to a place. This definitely isn't a travel book, but more like a raw view into a complex city that somehow is able to withstand collapsing on itself despite its shortcomings. Mehta describes his city from three angles: its gangs, Bollywood, and sex industry as lived by a trans-gender prostitute.
I chalk this title under my "good-to-know" column as Bombay / Mumbai is ever...more
I chalk this title under my "good-to-know" column as Bombay / Mumbai is ever...more
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Read in November, 2007
Admittedly, a little slow in many spots. However, I stuck with it and found Mehta's views of India to be very compelling. The book deals with many issues, including gang violence, police corruption, poverty, religious extremism, Bollywood, sex clubs...It didn't make me want to travel to India any time in the near future. If I ever do, I will be sure to steer clear of the trains, which have a shocking mortality rate.
The book wasn't ...more
The book wasn't ...more
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Read in April, 2008
As with so many of the books that I read, purchasing this book came after hearing an interview with the author - this time, i believe, during an NPR segment. Something about the transient nature of the author's life caught my attention, and for me, though I do not remember the interview in great detail, the book has begun to remind me of what it was that sparked desire in me and set me on the near compulsory link path to the Amazon search page.
I'm not very far into the book right now, 4.23.0...more
I'm not very far into the book right now, 4.23.0...more
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The writing started out vivid, inspired and passionate; I could feel how much the author loved the city he left behind as a child and re-entered as an adult. Even in the descriptions of all the inconveniences of leaving an industrial nation for a third world one you could feel his sentimentality for the place. However, the writing dwindles after the first few hundred pages into a simply re-telling of "he said, she said" which is quite uninspired and, at times, boring, despite the exc...more
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The effort and depth in which Mehta researched Bombay is nothing short of admirable. Reading this book gives you insight into aspects of the city you'd never come that close to (except maybe in movies). The writing is unimpressive and the book does border on overly sensational at times (I didnt need to read about more and more painful cases of police brutality twenty times!) but overall, the information is excellent. I suspect that visiting Bombay before and after reading this book would be t...more
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I'm about 150 pages in. It's giving me a good sense of how variegated, dense, beautiful and chaotic Bombay/Mumbai is. I'm guessing that is to some extend a picture of India as well, though a friend described Bombay as the NYCity of India, which suggests it is the extreme rather than the medium for intense juxtaposition and the dynamic of teeming masses in India.
>>
I want to read this in preparation for my trip to India later this month--two weeks in Chennai and Shadohl with my chu...more
>>
I want to read this in preparation for my trip to India later this month--two weeks in Chennai and Shadohl with my chu...more
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Read in February, 2007
recommends it for:
people interested in India (like me!) and those who like stories told by travellers
It was interesting to have a view from India, specially from Bombay/Mumbay 'from the inside'. Suketu Mehta, the author, is a journalist who's coming back to India with his family after many years living abroad.
The book shows the double mouvement of him finding everything so familiar, yet so strange.
To give an account of his experience, he meets various 'characters' who are willing to tell him (hence us) about their lives - his India is their India, and it gets pretty interesting when you ...more
The book shows the double mouvement of him finding everything so familiar, yet so strange.
To give an account of his experience, he meets various 'characters' who are willing to tell him (hence us) about their lives - his India is their India, and it gets pretty interesting when you ...more
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