The Calcutta Chromosome: A Novel of Fevers, Delirium & Discovery
by Amitav Ghosh
|
|
Sign in to Goodreads to see your friends' reviews of this book.
discuss this book
friend reviews (0)
To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.
lists with this book
Where's the love? Add this book to your favorite list.
other reviews (showing 1-20 of 188)
Read in February, 2008
Just completing the book, my mind is left swirling with unanswered questions but an implicit sense of understanding that there is something beneath this story about malaria and the scientist Ross across the past, present, and future. Strikingly, the known facts about Ross are presented in a new light - making it a mystery about his discovery - it made me think how all flashes of brilliance are mysterious, like how Archimedes said "eureka!" when he stepped into a bath and noticed the wa...more
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
add a comment
A mystery/thriller/scifi/postcolonial novel? If I hadn’t read Ghosh before and felt so comfortably trusting with him I might have stopped reading this early on. But I really liked what (I think?) I got out of this book. I’m not actually sure what that was but I had bodily chills for about an hour after finishing it. The striking epistemological/ontological theme developed slowly but not even remotely in full (and that’s the brilliance) is this: a counter-science—‘starting with the...more
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
add a comment
Read in March, 1999
This novel is set in three different time periods -the past, the present and the near future- and tells a fascinating and mysterious tale of secret histories, societies, viruses and information as a function of biology. There is a lush quality to the writing that sucked me in. Several years after reading it, it was actually assigned to me in a college course I took about the relationship between Media, globalization and Third World countries.
Incidentally, not long after reading this boo...more
Incidentally, not long after reading this boo...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in January, 2002
recommends it for:
people who like a bit weird mysteries.
The Calcutta Chromosome is impossible to categorise. It is partly a thriller, partly science fiction, partly (imaginary) medical history. It moves back and forth in time and in place, from colonial India to near-future USA. After a slow start, the book absorbs the reader in a confusing and multi-layered story. Ghosh writes in an engaging manner, with lots of humour. The protagonist, Murugan, grows on you and you start to sympathise with the poor man's quest. For sure, this book is not for everyo...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in January, 2008
This was recommended to me by a librarian friend of mine (from Calcutta, as a matter of fact). I was immediately caught up in this, but the next thing I knew, it was over! But I guess that's part of the whole point. That the idea of transference and 'crossing over' is a never ending, so the end of the book is a beginning in a sense. Maybe... I wouldn't say I really "get" it. But I enjoyed it. A fast read.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in January, 1995
My first ever book by A. Ghosh and because of this I bought four of his later books over the years. None matched the suspense of the first one, which I read in the hot summer in a poorly air-conditioned Texas dorm room. I could almost feel the delirium myself.
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
add a comment
Read in August, 2006
recommends it for:
people who can handle their conspiracy theories
Spoiler warning.
It made me freak out for several days afterwards, believing i would die, so I suppose in that sense it's effective. However, the whole alternation of character perspective and something about his style just doesn't do it for me. In a book like Hungry Tide, I can deal because it's amazing, but here the story can't hold it up.
It made me freak out for several days afterwards, believing i would die, so I suppose in that sense it's effective. However, the whole alternation of character perspective and something about his style just doesn't do it for me. In a book like Hungry Tide, I can deal because it's amazing, but here the story can't hold it up.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in February, 2008
Somewhat disjointed and disappointing. Follows a man who becomes obsessed with discovering what became of an early researcher who was hot on the trail of a cure for malaria. Involvement with a mysterious sect and their sacraficial rites becomes intertwined in the story.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
I'm enjoying it very much, though still waiting to see where it's going some 200 pages in - but it's interestingly geeky and sciencey and detective-like all the at the same time, and mostly in India which is a different spin.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in June, 2006
Excellent excellent excellent. It's about a conspiracy theory about who discovered the vector of malaria. When do you get postmodern science fiction magical realism set in the part of the world you most want to go? Hurrah.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
I learned that syphillis can kill malaria. Who knew? Now, I don't know if that's actually a true fact, but I believe what I read. Pretty cool book--it makes malaria and science and stuff interesting.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in January, 2003
A hybrid of genres including science and historical fiction, the text is ultimately a post-colonial/postmodern narrative that traces a cartography of physical/psychological transmission.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in January, 1993
I found this book really memorable. It has science, mystery, delirium (as the title mentions) all in a far-off land.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in July, 2002
I think the author was suffering from cerebral malaria when he wrote this book.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in August, 2008
