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Jan 31, 2011

John rated it:

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 believable o More...

11 comments like (14 people liked it)

Sep 02, 2007

Suresh rated it:

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 f More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Aug 30, 2007

Maura rated it:

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 More...

2 comments like (6 people liked it)

Sep 07, 2007

Lena rated it:

This book was a mixed bag for me. There is some great narrative in Mehta's tale of his return to the city of his youth as an adult. His description of learning how to navigate the corrupt bureaucracy in order to get enough cooking gas for his new flat was priceless. But as he begins to delve more deeply into explorations of politics, organized crime and the sex trade, particularly his growing friendship with a bar girl, the narrative outlasted my interest. I really enjoyed certain sections o More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 12, 2008

Jonathan rated it:

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 ne More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 07, 2007

Liza added it

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...

3 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 15, 2008

Zeenat rated it:

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 t More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 18, 2009

Matt rated it:

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...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Naresh rated it:

Very interesting if you care to learn how the streets/underground works in Mumbai. The book does a great job in describing Mumbai as if it were a living, breathing animal. Tons of history can be learned as well as interesting behaviors/facts about the crazy city.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 07, 2009

Pam added it

I'm officially giving up on this book.... Too many other things I want to read, so I'm done being tortured! I'm rather tired of the violence of this book. You feel overwhelmed by the force that keeps everything from working right in Mumbai and the sheer violence is so awful. One of the guys at work whose family lives in Mumbai fortunately said it is much better now. The underworld has imploded and computerization has made it more difficult to go around randomly killing people. What I like More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 28, 2011

Praj rated it:

Circa 1992. It was a regular school day on a lovely December morning(winters are warm not cold in Bombay).With just an hour left to mid-morning recess, there was a sudden flurry of anxious announcements calling certain students to report immediately with their belongings at the Principal’s office. After being little nosy about the happenings I go back to my daydreaming. Suddenly, I see my mother hurriedly demanding that I go and collect my younger sister from her classroom. As I walk t More...

8 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jun 21, 2011

Mohit added it

Maximum City @ The Review Cafe

If you are fascinated with Mumbai (just as I am) and you need to dive right into this vibrant city, look no further. Suketu Mehta takes us on a whirlwind tour of the city from his early days as a school going kid to the time when he comes back from US to write his book.
He takes us through the lives of different characters which are totally different from each other. Just to give you an example, he meets a successful film director, a More...

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Jan 16, 2012

Ramesh rated it:

This is a book I shouldn't have read. But I did, and now I have to live with it.

I now live in Navi Mumbai - that's the area initially slotted for the expansion of Mumbai, later sabotaged by the bigshots and now just a satellite city of Mumbai. I came here six months ago, and I had grown to love the place. I had decided everything they say about Mumabi must be hype or slander - I mean, if Navi Mumbai is this good, Mumbai should at least be a shade better, shouldn't it?

Aft More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 27, 2011

Nick rated it:

If Mexico City is, as my wife says, the PhD of cities, then Mumbai must be the post-doctorate. Suketu Mehta spent a few years there, describing it in a fluid, occasionally powerful prose. Between a beginning that describes it as the City of No and an ending on its most marginal occupants are some extraordinary set pieces. The first describes Mumbai's thriving gang world, including the favors the gangsters do for politicians. Vikram Chandra, who was working on the same themes and appears in the b More...

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Aug 20, 2011

Zaven is currently reading it

A true, modern story of the post-apocalyptic megalopolis.

POWER

The first section of this book disturbed me more than anything I can remember reading. The author takes us with him as he moves back to his birth city of Bombay, and we feel the disorientation and culture shock as he discoverers the ways it has been "ruined." I knew nothing about Bombay before reading this book, and the process of becoming acquainted with it through these chapters was often di More...

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Jun 14, 2011

Avidreader rated it:

This book is pathetic. All the author did was rent a bunch of hindi movies and rehashed them in detail. I simply can't understand the positive reviews--especially those of Indian readers, who have probably seen these movies over and over. The similarities are so striking, some of the dialogs have been quoted--verbatim. Not to mention the drivel at the beginningof the book-Mr.Mehta should be ashamed of himself for delving onmicro castism. In today's day and age only an incredibly regressive kind More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jan 25, 2011

Harish rated it:

As someone who grew up in Bombay (yes, I left about 7 years ago, so I'm still able to resist calling it Mumbai) I should say that I did not identify with everything in this book, but the essence of it appealed to me, I think. While I felt that the book looked at the city with (what seemed intentionally) a foreign eye, I would say to its credit that this did not hinder my ability to identify with the book, as much as my own ignorance of the many layers of Bombay, growing up as a kid.
I've a More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 28, 2010

Hiten rated it:

When you think of a city that personifies energy, dynamism, and crowds, you may think of New York. As vibrant as NYC is, for sheer levels of activity, it must take a backseat to Bombay (Mumbai). Bombay is, without exaggeration, the maddest, loudest, most crowded, most frenzied metropolis on the planet. That Suketu Mehta's Maximum City is able to reflect this energy in its entirety is a testament to his meticulous research, evocative writing style, and deep love for a place that was once home but More...

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Feb 15, 2010

Ryan rated it:

I can't say I've ever had a strong desire to move to Bombay, but this book was convincing enough that I safely believe it not the place for me. But, there's a certain subconscious, almost sadomasochistic draw to the place - as if moving there would be a particularly creative form of (potentially physical) suicide to the person I am today. Like Los Angeles - only 10 times stronger.

I came to this book via Mehta's interview in the Believer. He seemed a funny, smart guy and I figured More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 04, 2010

Tina rated it:

Mehta wrote a book in which he is not entirely honest with himself or his readers. This is not to say that he has grossly misrepresented the "characters" within the world of his non-fiction book (rather, it is apparent that they are perhaps the only "truth" within this book); rather, he is un-truthful with and about himself. This book, as Mehta frames it, is the author's journey back to the mythic land of his youth: Mumbai. Along (perhaps dragged) on this journey are his wife More...

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Dec 15, 2009

Frank rated it:

A lot of purple prose here, but some of it is really justified. After all, when you're surrounded by Muslim gangsters, Jainist monks, underage call girls, and Bollywood movie producers, all set against the backdrop of one of the world's strangest and filthiest cities, you're allowed to use a little literary hyperbole.

Mehta's a journalist who returns to his hometown of Bombay to explore the underworld and write some in-depth portraits of its denizens. He does a great job of it More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 19, 2009

Adam rated it:

Mr. Meta shows how powerful, useful and vital a journalist can be to society. Where no one is in the position of power to change such entrenched problems as the Rent Act, or resolve Hindu-Muslim racism and violence in Mumbai, the author brings to light these issues and their roots in personality, history, and politics in a way that opens a way to their solution. Moreover, no Indian could do what Mr. Meta does without being criticized, but since he is essentially an outsider considered 'cosmopoli More...

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Aug 15, 2009

Kristian added it

this book is about a boy named john brown and he is a very mysterious child. he went inbto the woods with his friend and met a guy named frankey b walter this man had alot of money. but only her needed one thing to complete his life to be the man he wanted to be and to find the thing that he wanted since he was a boy. it is the golden EYE. only found in mount apakapitchu. jon loods for it and finds it but he decides since he found it he should keep it and he could make close to 500 thousand doll More...

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Aug 05, 2009

Yvonn rated it:

I picked up this book because I had read that it had some "behind the scenes" stories about a Bollywood movie I'd seen and enjoyed, "Mission Kashmir". I got a whole lot more than I'd expected. Not only did the sections about the movie, actors and director supply wonderful insight into the film, there was so much about recent, and not so recent, political history, I found myself picking up information without even trying.
The contrast between the lives of the di More...

0 comments like

Jan 14, 2009

Preeti rated it:

The book helped me understand my country better. Gave me the chance to know more about individuals and communities that one is often curious about.
The book is thought provoking and definitely a read for those looking to know more about the city and country.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 12, 2010

Brian rated it:

I cannot remember the last book that I liked so much but took me so long to finish. The author, Bombay born, but who spent his adult life abroad, writes with a style more suited to Indian than American English. At first the frequent use of Hindi and Marathi phrases was arresting, but after a while, I approached their use as I would a conversation with native speakers in which clarification of every meaning is neither appropriate, nor necessary.

Mehta lays out the book in a series of More...

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Sep 02, 2011

Prashant rated it:

one of finest non fiction book ever written as lived in mumbai for two years i found your book a treatise on the subject,it seems true that you had written what you had seen, and that description was superb and fantastic. It is very well true that you fall in luv with this city, first u hate it then hate somewhat lesser than day by day slowly u fall in love with this city. i hv lived in mumbai for 2 yrs. for the first six months i detested the city like anything with all sorts of explanations th More...

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Jan 17, 2010

Cem rated it:

The best book that I have read about Bombay so far. Good detail, you can almost smell the sweating Shiv Sena mobs.

Gets into Hindu fundamentalism, Muslim mobsters, graft entrepreneurs, transexual heart-throbs, and daily life in a stinking, gorgeous fractal. Good stuff.

Lots of solid India cliches in the book (kinda like there is in this review) and you do get a lot of the "Slumdog Millionaire" landscape of grime and struggle.. but stereotypes tend to come from More...

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Oct 23, 2008

Shikha rated it:

Another incredible book on Bombay (I think I need to move on to another city). More raw than Shantaram and a few parts sensationalized (in my opinion), but an amazing account of the many layers and faces of Bombay, that made me even more fascinated and in awe of how the metropolitan megalith manages to stay afloat. My favorite quote: "You can go home again, and you can also leave again. Once more, with confidence, into the world." (It spoke to me. :))

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 17, 2011

Nycreader rated it:

This is an awful, shallow book. Quite honestly I couldn't get past the underworld part of the book. Suketu Mehta has made the most of his Bollywood connections. That part was such a hackneyed collection of anecdotes, all eerily similar to various scenes from much-watched Bollywood movies about the criminal element in Bombay. I question how much research Mr. Mehta has really done for this part of the book - apart from watching the aforementioned movies. Perhaps Mr. Mehta read one of the lead More...

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