false 5 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2002 Thu May 22 07:33:03 -0700 2008 Thu May 22 07:46:37 -0700 2008 This is a threaded and layered story. The narrator's tier involves a young Indian man coming home to his parents' house from college in America. After a series of events, multiple characters begin telling stories. You'll have to read to find out why, but I'll just say that one of the characters is a century-old warrior-poet in the body of a monkey. No, it's not a silly book; how this comes about relates to Hindu beliefs.

The book deals primarily with themes of family tension, political tension, how people deal with ingesting new cultures (particularly between India/Britain and India/America), and generational differences. It covers a LOT of temporal ground, as you jump from story to story and era to era.

THE LOVE:
This was enthralling to me because I knew very little of the Indian culture. The story is great in entertainment terms, and I also appreciate the thematic meanings of the book. For both depths to succeed so deftly is rare in contemporary literature, so my enjoyment was probably a little influenced by surprise.]]>