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We That Are Young

Preti Taneja (Goodreads Author)

3.53 · Rating details · 574 ratings · 113 reviews

When a billionaire hotelier and political operator attempts to pit his three daughters against one another, a brutal struggle for primacy begins in this modern-day take on Shakespeare's King Lear. Set in contemporary India, where rich men are gods while farmers starve and water is fast running out, We That Are Young is a story about power, status, and the love of a ...more

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Paperback, 496 pages

Published July 30th 2019 by Vintage (first published August 10th 2017)

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Jun 23, 2017 Paul Fulcher rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2017, indy-presses, sub-galley-beggar-2017-4, republic-of-consciousness-2018

Now deservedly shortlisted for the Desmond Elliot Prize, alongside the outstanding shortlist for the 2017 Republic of Consciousness Prize for 'gorgeous prose and hardcore literary fiction' from small, independent presses.

Edgar: The weight of this sad time we must obey.
Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
The oldest hath borne most. We that are young
Shall never see so much, nor live so long.

King Lear, Act 5 Scene 3

Postscript to my review: Disappointed this missed out on the Booker, ...more

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Mar 10, 2018 Hugh rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: modern-lit, favourites, read-2018, r-of-c-shortlist

Update 21/6/18. Now the well-deserved winner of the Desmond Elliott Prize 2018. Congratulations to Preti Taneja and all at Galley Beggar.

This vibrant, epic, ambitious transplantation of King Lear to modern India is by far the longest book on the Republic of Consciousness Prize shortlist, and looks a potential winner. Taneja keeps the essential elements of the familiar Shakespeare version of the story in place, but allows herself plenty of scope to explore the issues, extremes of wealth and Update 21/6/18. Now the well-deserved winner of the Desmond Elliott Prize 2018. Congratulations to Preti Taneja and all at Galley Beggar.

This vibrant, epic, ambitious transplantation of King Lear to modern India is by far the longest book on the Republic of Consciousness Prize shortlist, and looks a potential winner. Taneja keeps the essential elements of the familiar Shakespeare version of the story in place, but allows herself plenty of scope to explore the issues, extremes of wealth and poverty, corruption and factionalism of modern India.

It is probably easiest to list the main players with their Shakespeare equivalents:
Devraj Bapuji (Lear) - a super-rich magnate and owner of one of India's biggest companies, his daughters Gargi (Goneril), Radha (Regan) and Sita (Cordelia), his henchmen Ranjit (Gloucester) and Kritik (Kent), Ranjit's sons Jeet (Edgar) and the illegitimate Jivan (Edmund). Albany and Cornwall become Surendra and Bubu.

The story is told in six parts. The first five are told from the perspectives of the younger protagonists, and at the end of each chapter Bapuji gets to speak for himself, getting increasingly incoherent as the story proceeds. This structure breaks up the linear narrative, and in some cases leads to events being described more than once, from different viewpoints. The last part is shorter and ties up the loose ends.

In the first and longest part Jivan returns from America, where he has been living with his now dead mother for 15 years, and arrives on Bapuji's "farm" near Delhi - every lavish excess is described, and this allows Taneja to introduce the rest of the cast and the nature of the family business, and to describe background events and his childhood memories. Bapuji is the son of a Maharaja from Kashmir who has lost his land, and his mother Nanu who is still alive at 90 - he has built up the family firm from almost nothing, initially by exploiting the skills of Kashmiri craftsmen. One of Bapuji's pet projects is to build a luxury hotel in Srinagar, the Kashmiri capital. Over the course of Jivan's first day there, Bapuji announces his retirement plans to the family over lunch, and puts his daughters to the test, and by the end of the day both Sita and Jeet have disappeared, and Kritik has been dismissed for defending Sita. In Sita's case this is because she does not want to be married off, but wishes to pursue her own career as an environmental campaigner. Jeet has been living a double life, acquiring ancient artefacts for the company while maintaining a secret gay relationship, he goes into hiding because he believes this is about to be exposed.

The second part revolves around Gargi, who is initially presented as a conscientious daughter and worthy heir to the business, frustrated by India's archaic and sexist property laws. She resolves to rid the business of corruption, and modernise it - she wants to maintain the unity of the company and refuses to sign the papers that legitimise Bapuji's plans to split the business. The disappointments of her marriage to the impotent and largely useless Surendra are also described. In this part Gargi argues with Bapuji and refuses to accommodate the regular parties of his 100 henchmen.

The third part is about Radha, who is vain and hedonistic. She has been partying in Goa, but she and Bubu head for Srinagar when they hear that Bapuji and Nanu are heading there, having started to amass popular support by denouncing the company's activities and blaming his daughters. Radha starts an affair with Jivan, who is now employed as a company security man. Bubu is a corrupt playboy who has been allowed to control Radha's share of the business. Bapuji arrives to find that one of Kritik's deputies has been beaten left chained in the sun, quarrels with Radha and walks away from the hotel. The section ends with the blinding of Ranjit and the murder of Bubu - no attempt has been made to spare any of the brutality of the original.

In the fourth part we meet Jeet in his guise of Rudra the Naph. He has also journeyed to Srinagar, living among the untouchables on the rubbish dump and surviving as a holy man and storyteller. This is perhaps the most interesting part of the story, in that it is almost the only part in which the action moves away from the elite owning class. He encounters Bapuji in the storm (the heath becomes the dump), and is entrusted with looking after his father, and instead of leading him to Amarnath (Dover Cliffs) he takes him back to Delhi and the farm.

The fifth part returns to Sita, who is the least realised of the main characters. Her escape to Sri Lanka is barely described, and by the time we meet her she is in a safe house in Kashmir with Kritik and the increasingly feeble Bapuji. Unlike Cordelia, she defends her unmarried status. The remainder of the book plays out the rest of Shakespeare's denouement.

The language of the book is interesting - the dialogue includes a lot of Hindi, much of it untranslated, which can be a little frustrating for the untrained reader, though there is never much doubt about the more important events.

I was a little disappointed by the number of typographical errors, mostly incorrect homophones, but overall I can't find a strong reason not to award this book the full five stars and encourage others to read it. ...more

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Jul 19, 2017 Gumble's Yard rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2017, 2018, 2018r, 2018-republic-of-consciousness-long, 2018-republic-of-consciousness-shrt

NOW DESERVEDLY THE WINNER OF THE DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZE
TO FOLLOW ITS SHORTLISING FOR THE REPUBLIC OF CONSCIOUSNESS PRIZE (for which I was a judge)

Galley Beggar Press is a small publisher responsible which aims to produce and support beautiful books and a vibrant, eclectic, risk-taking range of literature and which declares an aim to publish books that are hardcore literary fiction and gorgeous prose – a description which has been taken as the criteria for the Republic Of Consciousness prize.

...more

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Jan 24, 2018 Jonathan Pool rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: rupublic-of-consciousness

We That Are Young has a feel to it that's not dissimilar to Salman Rushdie's recent, 2017, novel, The Golden House. That's praise. Both novels ultimately revolve around a big figure, a patriarch, who is revealed to be rather less worthy of the adulation that his status and visibility might indicate. Preti Taneja's Devraj Bapuji to Rushdie's Nero Golden.
Both books shine a spotlight on an India of the latter 20th century, far removed from the deference or degradation (depending on your viewpoint) We That Are Young has a feel to it that's not dissimilar to Salman Rushdie's recent, 2017, novel, The Golden House. That's praise. Both novels ultimately revolve around a big figure, a patriarch, who is revealed to be rather less worthy of the adulation that his status and visibility might indicate. Preti Taneja's Devraj Bapuji to Rushdie's Nero Golden.
Both books shine a spotlight on an India of the latter 20th century, far removed from the deference or degradation (depending on your viewpoint) of the indigenous population under the British Raj.
India, the modern nation, in Taneja's account is conveyed in its vastness, diversity, poverty and cruelty. It's well written and utterly convincing (to this reader who hasn't experienced the country at first hand)
The division into five sections (by character) and overlapping timelines works well bringing different perspective to events taking place over a very short time span. I found Jeet (Rudra) in the fictional city(slum) of Dhimbala to be the most striking of them.
The frequently pitiable lot of women (despite the exceptions of the two leading sisters, Garghi and Radha), is never far from the surface: "Sharam" (shame) from birth.
Families. Dynasties. Loyalty. Devotion. Power. Service. Poverty. Greed. Betrayal.
The Shakespearean, King Lear, framework is well worked, as the base emotions are given full rein.

The author is clear in her description of the book's theme, from the very first line, "it's not about land, it's about money".
This is amplified later on in the book(405)we that are young! We that are jigging on the brink of ruin; we that are washed in the filth of corruption;the mirage of new India is bemoaned.

Both Galley Beggar Press, and the Republic of Consciousness charter (We That Are Young is longlisted at the time of writing) state that they celebrate
‘hardcore literary fiction and gorgeous prose’.
I think this is a great advert for small presses, and though I'm not sure I would particularly describe the prose as "gorgeous", I certainly felt the commitment (or hardcore) in Preti Taneja's writing. ...more

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Oct 04, 2017 Doug rated it liked it · review of another edition

This should have been right smack dab in my wheelhouse, given my penchant for both Indian lit and Shakespeare (it's a modern retelling of Lear)... but I must say, despite some gorgeous prose, I found it for the most part rather tedious and almost gave up halfway through. In need of much judicious editing (the inciting incident of the patriarch's division of his spoils doesn't even occur into well over 100 pages into this LONG 553 pages!), I was also more than a little annoyed by the miniscule This should have been right smack dab in my wheelhouse, given my penchant for both Indian lit and Shakespeare (it's a modern retelling of Lear)... but I must say, despite some gorgeous prose, I found it for the most part rather tedious and almost gave up halfway through. In need of much judicious editing (the inciting incident of the patriarch's division of his spoils doesn't even occur into well over 100 pages into this LONG 553 pages!), I was also more than a little annoyed by the miniscule print of the Galley Beggar Press edition AND by the constant need to run to Google Translate, due to the many reversions to Hindi words and phrases - it may instill verisimilitude, but a glossary or footnotes would have been a welcome antidote to the author's contempt for her non-Indian readers!

As to the novel itself, sections of it are quite delightful and whereas Edward St. Aubyn's recent Hogarth version of the story, 'Dunbar' (which I read just prior to this, so maybe I was 'Leared' out by the time I got to this one), strays perhaps TOO far from the Shakespearian original, here Taneja clings a mite too steadfastly to certain elements that make little sense in a modern milieu (for example, the blinding of the Gloucester character - albeit one of the more viscerally rendered scenes). Most of the contemporary equivalents DO work, however, especially the scenes of Jeet (the Edmund character) amongst the dabhi (slum) dwellers - although these also somewhat pale in comparison to similar ones in Katherine Boo's outstanding 'Behind the Beautiful Forevers'.

And while the circularity of the structure, telling scenes over (and over ... and over) from the various viewpoints of the five main characters provides some interesting counterpoints, it also slows the action to an almost standstill. However, ultimately I am not sorry I read this, but doubt I would ever pick it up again for a re-read - even though NOW my copy has copious notes as to the translations...

** Fun Fact/'Easter Egg': On page 467, Taneja writes: 'Sita thinks he should be in rural England being nursed by aristocratic girls with names like Abby (for shelter), Florence (like the bulbul), or Megan (her skin pale as flushed pearls). Better he go to Switzerland or Dubai and rest at some hushed private clinic..." This is undoubtedly a terrific 'insider' tribute to St. Aubyn's simultaneously published 'Dunbar', as those are the names he uses for Goneril, Cordelia, and Regan - and his book opens with the Lear character escaping from just such a Swiss clinic! Cheeky! ...more

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Jul 04, 2017 Neil rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018, 2017, 2018-rofc

NOW RE-READ AFTER ITS INCLUSION ON THE REPUBLIC OF CONSCIOUSNESS PRIZE LONG LIST.

We That Are Young is published by Galley Beggar Press. Perhaps best known as the publisher that took the risk on A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing after everyone else had rejected it (it went on to win the Women’s Prize for Fiction), Galley Beggar Press is also the publisher of the wonderful Forbidden Line that I read earlier this year and which remains one of the most unusual books I have read in 2017.

My thanks to ...more

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Nov 27, 2017 Inderjit Sanghera rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A modern day re-telling of "King Lear", 'We Are That Young' is a brilliant exploration of greed, corruption and vice in modern India. The novel follows the aristocrat-cum-royal family of Devraj; a patriarch whose puissance dissolves once he cedes ownership of his company to his elder daughters, Garghi and Radha, only to rise, ephemerally, like a phoenix, in a haze of self-righteous indignation against the corruption inherent in the company he set-up, riding a wife of populism based on A modern day re-telling of "King Lear", 'We Are That Young' is a brilliant exploration of greed, corruption and vice in modern India. The novel follows the aristocrat-cum-royal family of Devraj; a patriarch whose puissance dissolves once he cedes ownership of his company to his elder daughters, Garghi and Radha, only to rise, ephemerally, like a phoenix, in a haze of self-righteous indignation against the corruption inherent in the company he set-up, riding a wife of populism based on deep-seated misogyny and malevolent nationalism, 'We Are That Young' both eschews the limitations so often placed on Indian literature, whilst at the same time exploring the problems inherent in modern Indian society; the uneven distribution of wealth, the rise of parochial religious fundamentalism and the cultural schizophrenia India is experiencing under the relentless waves of globalization.

There story is told via multiple narrators; Jivan, the illegitimate son of Devraj's right hand man, Ranjit, is the first and penultimate narrator. A vapid and ultimately egoistical young man, Jivan acts as the catalyst for the corruption and downfall of Garghi, trapped in a loveless relationship with a neurotic husband and Radha, married to the bellicose buffoon Bubu; Jivan is the key by which both characters break free from the shackles of their father, Devraj. Whilst objectively speaking the reader's sympathies should lie with Devraj, Tenaja, influenced partially by King Lear, paints Devraj as a chauvinistic egoist, more concerned with his pride and money than his daughters, propagating a philosophy which is a mix of bigotry, misogyny and populism any tragic elements of his downfall are skewered by his selfish characteristics. Again, although Garghi and Radha are ostensibly the villains of the story, Taneja's multi-faceted characterisation enables the reader to understand the reasons for their frustrations of being forever trapped in the roles society expects of them as women. The other principle characters are Ranjit's soon, Jeet, who undergoes a ultimately fruitless spiritual epiphany after going through an existential crisis about the emptiness of life and the meaningless of his wealth. The heroine of the story-and one of the few positive characters-is Devraj's youngest daughter Sita, whose truculence in refusing to marry sets off the chain of events which takes over the character's lives.

Beneath this Taneja's India shimmers forth via a blaze of colours and sounds; the effervescent sun-set on a sultry evening, the degradation of the slums, the superficiality of the super-rich, Taneja captures and describes modern Indian with a verve and vivacity which is reminiscent of Salman Rushdie, from the corrupt curmudgeons who hold power, to the servility of the poor and the weight of Westernization which Indian society is labouring under, Taneja is able to capture the complex, contradictory and often cruel contractions of a society undergoing constant flux and change and of a family which is driving and leading much of that change; a family which, like wider Indian society, becomes steadily dehumanised with money and power.
...more

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Mar 31, 2019 Katia N rated it liked it · review of another edition

I've picked up this book as it received a lot of positive reviews here and has won Desmond Elliot prize for the first novel. I have to admit I was somewhat underwhelmed. The author models her book on King Lear and sets it in the modern day India. In general, 2018 was the year of classic retelling by the modern authors in English language. I am not big fan of the idea, though of course I admit that all the literature in a way is the retelling of the books written before. At this case as well I I've picked up this book as it received a lot of positive reviews here and has won Desmond Elliot prize for the first novel. I have to admit I was somewhat underwhelmed. The author models her book on King Lear and sets it in the modern day India. In general, 2018 was the year of classic retelling by the modern authors in English language. I am not big fan of the idea, though of course I admit that all the literature in a way is the retelling of the books written before. At this case as well I felt quite ambivalent about King's Lear plot, and may be if I would not know about this fact, I would appreciate the book more. Broadly, she picks up the prototypes of the five young characters from the play and studies them.

Lets start with the positives:

- the language at the beginning of the book felt energetic and fresh. She uses the present tense throughout and that helps her builds up pace. It worked for the first 100 pages or so. But unfortunately, later it has become somewhat monotonic. And at the sentence’s level she is not always careful. We can get this: "She rises. Her blood is telling her to run, her head to stay and force answers. Her heart wants Gargi and Radha: her hands need to hold theirs." I was happy not to know what her legs, stomach and other body parts wanted at that minute as the list could go on.

- her villains are much more ambiguous in their motivations than in the original play and a bit more likeable. Especially it applies to the two older sisters and Jivan (Edmund). So it leaves the reader a space for contemplation . However, if someone reads this book without knowledge of the original play, this advantage would probably fade.

- sense of place. I am struggling with this one a bit. For the first 3 out of the 6 parts of the book, I did not feel any sense of place - it could be anywhere, in spite of numerous untranslated dialogue incepts in Hindu. And that was a bit frustrating as I wanted to know about India. However it has changed in the last parts. The part set inside a slum was the best in my opinion.

Now, negatives:

- unfortunately, it suffers from those pitfalls of the first novels: too long, too disjointed and not adequately resolved. I would want to know what happened at the end to the all of 5 main characters. Of course, I've got Shakespeare for that. But standalone, the author has left a lot of ends loose. Also some strange subplot with the poisoned apple has resurfaced in the last few pages. Why?

- I did not have a feeling it worked as a whole. As I mentioned, the book consists of 5 separate parts told on behalf of the one of the five young characters. It is written in a third person. The dialogue is often contrived and basic. Each of these parts looks more like a character study. The interaction with the rest of the story mainly happens through the King Lier's plot. So the feeling is that a certain new character is appearing on the scene and then dropped back into the darkness. I found it very irritating as the characters do not work with each other. Out of 5, the two parts were quite successful as stand alone novellas. And I hardly could care for another 3. I was only frustrated and not intrested, when Sita (Cordelia) was introduced, and very briefly at that, in the last part of the book for the first time while again the rest of the cast have fallen into the shadows. This is while in theory Sita would have a fantastic potential as a character as she was so different from the rest of the family.

- this novel should be nominated for the bad sex award. The sex scenes and fantasies, fortunately not numerous, were really off-putting ones and made me wince, which is really rare.

- India has appeared very stereotypical out of the book - the young nation and the young democracy with the huge inequality. One does not need to read this book for this. I did not get what Taneja thinks about it.

Overall, Deborah Levi is saying on the blurb that Taneja is the writer to watch and I agree with that. But in hindsight, I'd rather spend my time elsewhere than reading this book 540 pages in spite of some really good parts of it.

2 stars plus 1 which i always add for debut novels. ...more

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Jul 27, 2017 Jackie Law rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

We that are young, by Preti Taneja, is a fabulous reworking of King Lear. Having enjoyed a number of adaptations of this Shakespearean tragedy on stage I was familiar with the direction the arc of the story was likely to take. This did not in any way detract from my enjoyment. The book is big in size, scope and depth. The action is set in modern India and offers a masterclass in the country, its people, and the stubborness and hurt inherent in wider family feuds.

The tale opens with the return of We that are young, by Preti Taneja, is a fabulous reworking of King Lear. Having enjoyed a number of adaptations of this Shakespearean tragedy on stage I was familiar with the direction the arc of the story was likely to take. This did not in any way detract from my enjoyment. The book is big in size, scope and depth. The action is set in modern India and offers a masterclass in the country, its people, and the stubborness and hurt inherent in wider family feuds.

The tale opens with the return of a son, Jivan, banished to America with his mother when he was thirteen years old. Prior to this he had been one of five young playmates, although as the child of his father’s mistress had never been permitted full integration into the privileged lives of his friends. His half brother, Jeet, and he grew up alongside the three daughters of a hugely wealthy businessman, Devraj, who is also Jeet’s godfather. The girls – clever Gargi, beautiful Radha, and baby Sita – have in the intervening years grown into outwardly dutiful and obedient women.

Jivan returns on the cusp of change. The oppulent farm where the family now live is being prepared for Sita’s engagement celebrations. As Jivan is shown around, a lunch is taking place that will be the catalyst to Devraj’s ruination.

Economic growth has enabled India to consider itself a world player and with this has come a clash of cultures. Despite the quality and beauty of local products there is a hankering after western labels. Colour and vibrancy are being toned down, flesh exposed in imported attire. Women desire more freedom and opportunity than tradition permits.

Devraj demands that his daughters regularly demonstrate love and respect for him, in word and deed. When Sita unexpectedly refuses to conform he attempts to punish her by passing on the share of the business he had selected for her, his favourite, to her sisters. Gargi and Radha watch as he reacts to their little sister’s rebellion, envious of her courage but afraid of its effects. They fear their father may be going mad and determine to save the business for themselves.

The story is told from the points of view of each of the five former playmates, with occasional chapters in Devraj’s voice. Their’s is a life of excess, abuse and thwarted desire. When Jeet chooses to leave the farm the reader is offered a snapshot of the lives of India’s untouchables, a contrast that is shocking and telling. Those who grow up in comfort will struggle to understand the psychological effects of poverty, the cost of survival.

Devraj strives for a new India yet fights any attempt by his daughters to embrace change, to relinquish stifling traditions. This generational divide is all too familiar. Elders are eager to force the rules of their upbringing on their children, unappreciative of the differing challenges they must face in an evolving world.

The writing is stunning, evoking the sights, sounds and smells of the region, the extremes of wealth and poverty, the corruption and striving for a better way of life at all levels. Turns of phrase deserve to be savoured, imagery basked in. The story is labyrinthian and should not be rushed.

Although a literary feast this is also a highly readable story. It remains engaging, tense and compelling throughout, despite knowing how it must end. I wanted to applaud that last line, the author deserves all the commendations. Recommended without reservation. ...more

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Feb 26, 2018 Siddhartha rated it did not like it · review of another edition

A great book can be great at different levels, but a bad one doesn’t have that luxury. Mislaid by all the hype and praise from western critics made me pick up this book. Probably this is the worst book I read in a long time. Pathetic plotting, miserable attempt at adapting King Lear in Indian context, lack of real knowledge on the subcontinent is so evident. I got migraine by constant feel of something getting drilled into my brain. I hardly write reviews, but this time thought that it was my ...more

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Sep 07, 2018 Steve rated it it was ok · review of another edition

There are some fine individual passages in this book, but overall I found it quite badly flawed.

Firstly, it was simply too long – it needed an editor’s firmer hand.

Secondly, as several other reviewers have pointed out, the book is peppered with snatches of Hindi with no translation. So, for example, I read this:

...you have my farm, my office, my desk, my chair. Now my seminars and my boys. Nahin beti, nahin. Tum aisa nahin sakti ho. Do you think to have the whole Company for yourself?

What did ...more

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Feb 08, 2018 Viv JM rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: author-female, fiction-literary, z2018-author-female, read-in-2018

3.5 stars, rounded up for its audacity

"We That Are Young" is a retelling of Shakespeare's King Lear, set in India at the time of the anti-corruption riots (2011). It is creative and compelling but the writing made me feel rather feverish and discombobulated - I think this had a lot to do with the large amounts of untranslated Hindu interspersed throughout.

There were certainly moments of genius here, but I do think that (at over 500 pages) this book might have benefited from more ruthless ...more

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Aug 09, 2017 Preti rated it it was amazing · (Review from the author) · review of another edition

Shelves: wrote-it

We That Are Young by Preti Taneja

This spirited debut, one of the year’s most original novels, is an exquisite retelling of King Lear set in modern New Delhi
Review by Alexander Nurnberg

The Sunday Times, August 6 2017, 12:01am

Whoever was asked to write the blurb for Preti Taneja’s novel We That Are Young must have faced something of a quandary: when, or how (perhaps, even, whether) to reveal that it is a retelling of King Lear.

You can understand the problem. How best to acknowledge the ingenuity ...more

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Sep 17, 2017 Vaidya rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Almost literal application of King Lear to an Indian Company situation with family ownerships. But it is hard to replicate the same level of conspiracy, intrigue and killings in an Indian Company Boardroom context and that is the biggest chink in the story. Most plot points feel contrived, and some laugh-out-loud ridiculous. Using a Shakespeare tragedy to tell a story isn't all that new, and many have done a great job of it. Rohinton Mistry in Family Matters, Vishal Bhardwaj's movies for ...more

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Feb 21, 2018 Alan Teder rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018-reading-challenge, 2018-republic-of-consciousness-long, 2018-republic-of-consciousness-shor

I’m just not lidderary enough for this one.

A [2] average is the best compromise as my rating sense ranged from [1] to [3].

Intro
It was a real challenge to read and finish this book and I was proceeding for only 10 or so pages a day for the longest time. There were only brief segments that were compelling enough to get through more. I still find it an interesting exercise to try to define what my problems were, even if they might only be my own and no one else’s.

Structure and Pacing
The book is ...more

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Nov 01, 2018 Marc rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: first-book-i-read-by-this-author

I've been trying my hardest to work with this book for nearly three weeks (ever since I finished the Jivan section). I took breaks to read other things. I started reading King Lear. I read other reviews. I tried longer and shorter reading sessions. I just never connected with it. It felt tedious, overwritten, the characters felt flat...

It was like an emperor-has-no-clothes moment as almost everyone I know has rated it 4 or 5 stars and most of the reviews seem glowing. About the best I can say ...more

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Dec 26, 2018 enricocioni rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: gender, politics

One of those novels that feel like they contain whole universes. It's an Indian take on King Lear, but it works well both if you're familiar with Shakespeare's play and if you're not. If you're not, you can enjoy this as an epic tale of a powerful family's younger generation attempting to seize power from their elders, with plenty of backstabbing, violence, sex, and media manipulation. Plus, you won't know all the twists, and there are many. Also, it might be easier to find your own connections ...more

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Aug 21, 2017 Chris Chapman rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: zz-yr-2018

Has now won the Desmond Elliott prize. Richly deserved!

How to do justice to the ambition of this book? My favourite character was Jeet and I think he embodies its incredible scope. In fact he seems to spend the length of the book trying to work out who he is. At first this translates into a passion for using his father's wealth to con uneducated villagers out of priceless antiquities, and this could be seen as shameless opportunism and exploitation. But I don't think it's a coincidence that the ...more

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Jan 25, 2019 Geeta added it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2019

I'm not sure that a rating would do this complicated, layered book justice. It's not just a retelling of King Lear in modern India, and if you read it for that alone, you'll be disappointed. There's so much more going on, and while I agree the book could have used some editing, I read it compulsively.

It was hugely entertaining and engrossing, and you do not need to understand Hindi in order to follow what's going, if you don't let it bother. And if you need to read books where you "like" the ...more

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Feb 11, 2018 Jennifer rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, 2017-republic-of-consciousness, india

This sprawling tragic novel about a billionaire Indian family based on Shakespeare's King Lear is full of madness, corruption, murder, and deceit. Like Arundhati Roy's The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, the setting is largely Delhi and Kashmir. Taneja does an excellent job portraying modern-day India's new rich, the country's economic turmoil, and all its walks of life.

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Aug 10, 2018 Kasa Cotugno rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: arc, awards-winners, shakespeare-rewritten, culture-india, loc-asia-india-sri-lanka

This is the second "Lear" I've read in about a year, and while Dunbar, the Hogarth update version, written by Edward St. Aubyn was closer in tone to the original, this one, set in India was a more in depth rendering. I learned more about New Delhi rituals and customs, which slowed the progress of the narrative, and it could have been trimmed here and there. But the bones were present and made for pleasurable analysis.

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Jun 02, 2019 Bigsna rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Overwritten. Tedious. A lot of hard work to get to the end - and not even worth it. A modern retelling of King Lear, which I haven't read, and which one doesn't have to have read to appreciate this. But the writing was all over the place, there was so much said and so little to take away.

I picked it up because of the praise it was getting on a couple of podcasts, it's won some literary prizes and some readers really seemed to have loved it - but ultimately the book is completely lost on me. The ...more

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Mar 05, 2018 Aditya Vijaykumar rated it liked it · review of another edition

3.5. That took pretty long. Preti Taneja's prose is beautiful and layered, which suits an adaptation of King Lear. Unfortunately, her characters are not consistent. I had this feeling that the male characters were very weakly written. The women in the book are brilliant though, so layered and conflict-filled that you cannot help but love them.

And maybe this is just me, but I expected much more from the climax. It seemed too serendipitous to me.

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Feb 09, 2018 Smriti rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A more detailed review here on my blog: Sant Reads.

A little mad but very well written. I would have enjoyed it much more had I not known the plot to King Lear, but hey, that's the price you pay for knowing Shakespeare.

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Oct 31, 2018 Marks54 rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This novel is a retelling of King Lear in the context of an Indian Business Group circa 2010-2011. This is apparently a first novel and is well crafted and easy to read, sort of ... Where to start in looking at this one? Some thoughts ...

To start with, King Lear is one of the grimmest and darkest of the tragedies of Shakespeare and retelling it in a contemporary Indian setting does not change that. There is not much redemption here for anyone, especially the father and his three daughters. This This novel is a retelling of King Lear in the context of an Indian Business Group circa 2010-2011. This is apparently a first novel and is well crafted and easy to read, sort of ... Where to start in looking at this one? Some thoughts ...

To start with, King Lear is one of the grimmest and darkest of the tragedies of Shakespeare and retelling it in a contemporary Indian setting does not change that. There is not much redemption here for anyone, especially the father and his three daughters. This story unfolds in a very nasty world and most of those who venture close to the center of power do not end up well.

Why so grim? I do not think it is that the characters are especially nasty, but more that the story of Lear concerns the incredible frailty behind any social order such as a principality or as here a business group. Why does any complex social group have leaders and why do they matter? Why is securing and maintaining the trust and good will of family members important in so many settings? The patriarch of the story - Bapuji - tries to leave and pass on his businesses to his daughters but finds out that he does not understand them as well as he thought he did. His attempted exit triggers chaos, as all of the tenuous agreements and understandings among the major players in the organization become shaken and undone. Those who remain now start struggling for power without a good sense of what the new rules are or whom they can or cannot trust. We tend to take social order for granted much of the time, yet it rests on a fragile network of relationships, understandings, assumptions, and agreements among widely differing parties with different life histories and pursuing widely divergent goals. King Lear has been done and redone a lot in recent years. It does not end well. It cannot end well. This is often seen as the fault of the person at the top who goes mad and loses touch with reality. There is no doubt some of that going on here. It is also probable that the frailty of the social and personal context drives much of the chaos and that the departing leader need not be nuts to face a situation like Lear does or Bapuji does in the novel.

When mayhem descends, it comes from numerous sources. A first conflict is between family and non-family. A second obvious one has to do with gender, especially regarding the three daughters. There are many more conflicts at play here than these. There is also science and rationality versus tradition and local norms. There is the conflict between personal loyalty and naked self-interest. Then there is the generational conflict as the structures established by one generation are passed on to their descendants, who never established la business and never had to fight to their inheritance. There are also conflict drivers around religion and local conditions. Finally, politics seems to pervade everything. If you think about this too much, it begins to seem problematic to consider how anything ever happens at all anywhere.

What does situating the book in India do for the fundamental tensions of Lear? Is the Indian context just another setting for the Lear story or does the Indian context add anything. I would suggest that it does, since other particular tensions include caste tensions, East versus West tensions on several dimensions, and the weight of history, including the many foundational stories behind the company. There is also the tension stemming from the colonial tradition and its modern counterpart in globalization and the dominance of Western/American influences. Finally, thinking of the generational transition, coupled with gender, in the context of an India none too friendly to independently minded women takes a major effort if the reader is to make sense of it.

Does it make sense to tell this sort of a story in the context of a business group? I would say yes. Business firms are hugely complex collective actors in which high stakes are involved for those drafted into power struggles. Succession problems for medium and large firms are legion and modern organization structures developed directly as owner/founders found out that the next generation of leaders was either uninterested or incapable of carrying the founder’s torch, except for a very limited set of exceptional cases. Just think of the family histories of the Fords, Vanderbilts, or Rockefellers to see this in the American context or that of the Rothchilds for a European context. In the context of modern business groups, the corporate center is increasingly taking on governmental infrastructure responsibilities and the involvement of these groups in macro politics has been clear for a long time, for example for firms with long histories in politics such as DeBeers in South Africa or Jardine Matheson in China, or even more recently with the Bin Laden group in Saudi Arabia. Lots of people are affected by these groups and there is plenty of room for highly conflictual power struggles, especially in more developing contexts where Western norms and institutions are less than fully established and personal dynamics still reign supreme.

I do not want to push the business context too hard, however. This is much more than a story about planning for corporate succession. Such a view could turn Macbeth into a story of how not to run a high end bed and breakfast. Not only are many of the tensions in this fundamental to any large human organization, but the author provides rich background on most of the major characters, so that there need be few if any direct business takeaways. This is an adult story that readers will need to think about a little bit if they are to enjoy the book.

Overall, the author is very effective in telling her story. There is a lot of Indian context (and language) and I will be the first to plead ignorance about how effective she was. I try to be sympathetic and give the author the benefit of the doubt but it could be that the book is perhaps a bit longer than it needs to be. It is still entertaining (unless you are involved in the struggle, of course). ...more

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Apr 03, 2019 Harry McDonald rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: novels, read-in-2019

King Lear, transposed to a massive company in India: the Devraj Company. His three daughters have their own agendas, a nephew sent running from the house and his half brother returning from America.

I did genuinely get a lot out of reading this. But it's a bloody lot of reading when you know what's coming, and it really does match the Shakespeare beat for beat, but the beats are stretched over many many pages where they take only a few lines in the play. It takes a long time for anything to ...more

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Nov 09, 2018 Vivek Vikram Singh rated it did not like it · review of another edition

It should have been called - “we that are desperately trying to retell an epic story by setting it in a country and context about which we have extremely shallow knowledge but will pretend as we spent some summers there and foreign audiences wouldn’t be able to tell anyway and who cares if it is cloying and inaccurate and grating and stereotypical and references the only movie about India we know way too many times and we can get away with making people eat chholey with saag meat on private jets ...more

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Jul 12, 2018 LittleSophie rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: duty-finish, 2018

Despite the huge ambition and expansive vision of this book, the story ultimately didn't grab me. That might be due to the fact that I'm not really familiar with the play, but I found the plot a little contrived and lagging. It also didn't feel as if the novel's action truly called for a lenght of 500+ pages. The novel's strucutre of giving five characters a long part to narrate also didn't speed the story along, some voices read much more enjoyable than others.
However, contrary to many other ...more

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Sep 13, 2018 Azita Rassi rated it really liked it · review of another edition

An intricate, successful adaptation, modernization, and localization of King Lear but too long in my opinion.

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Oct 30, 2017 Lucy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favouritebooks, buzz-books-2017

We that are young is ambitious. So very ambitious, and so very good.

Most strikingly it’s a thorough and impressive academic exercise, but it’s also a great story, engrossingly told, a refreshing study of female sexuality and the male perception of it, and a Trainspotting-esque seminal moment in literature for young, wealthy Indians. And that’s not even mentioning the writing, which, by the way, is shockingly good.

This is a novel to spend a good amount of time with. It’s long already, before you We that are young is ambitious. So very ambitious, and so very good.

Most strikingly it’s a thorough and impressive academic exercise, but it’s also a great story, engrossingly told, a refreshing study of female sexuality and the male perception of it, and a Trainspotting-esque seminal moment in literature for young, wealthy Indians. And that’s not even mentioning the writing, which, by the way, is shockingly good.

This is a novel to spend a good amount of time with. It’s long already, before you factor in each sentence deserving to be poured over again and again. Every phrase works overtime, doing at least three jobs at once. The opening image is not only arresting - the sight of London from a plane - it also offers a decisive opening salvo from a character to whom India is the future, Colonialism far behind it. “The glittering ribbon of the Thames, the official stamps of the Royal parks, a bald white dome spiked with a yellow crown, are swallowed by summer’s deep twilight. The plane lifts, the clouds quilt beneath it, tucking England into bed to dream of better times. It is still yesterday, according to his watch. He winds the dial forwards. Now it is tomorrow…” And off to India he flies.

That’s Jivan, the first of five characters the story is filtered through: Jivan, Gargi, Radha, Jeet and Sita. Jeet is the son of a powerful Indian businessman - right hand man of Devraj Bapuji, who runs the India-monopolising ‘Company,’ Jivan is his bastard half-brother, returning from exile in America to claim his place in the family. Gargi, Radha and Sita and the three daughters of Devraj himself, who decides to split his business empire between them, based on how much they profess to love him.

Because yes, it’s a re-telling of King Lear. Devraj is Lear, Gargi, Radha and Sita are Goneril, Regan and Cordelia, and Jeet and Jivan are Edgar and Edmund. I knew it was inspired by Lear when I started reading, but my memory of how King Lear itself breaks down was hazy. I vaguely assumed the premise and characters drew on Shakespeare’s classic, and it was only a little Wikipedia-reminder of the plot later, that I realised how very closely We that are young follows the play. As an academic exercise it is rigorous. Each element may be transplanted to modern India, but they’re all there. Instead of Lear wandering on the heath, Devraj wanders the Dimbala basti - a slum. The French army becomes a wave of anti-corruption protestors. The love triangles are there, the deaths are there and the gruesome moments are there too. Even some original lines of the play are woven into the dialogue. But it not only captures the original with detailed accuracy, it adds to it. Like Shakespeare, but better.

The characters and relationships are rounded out beautifully. As a counterpoint to Jivan’s actions stands his beautiful love and grief for his dead mother. Devraj Bapuji is not only less sympathetically presented, but deeply disturbing. Gargi and Radha are complex and relatable, even as they destroy everything around them. And piled on top of that is the wealth of Indian political and social history, a vibrant representation of modern India in all of it’s contradictions and extremes, and a wonderful depiction of a woman’s perceived place in that, and wider, society.

It’s not perfect. As always with a selection of different perspectives, some spoke to me more than others. Unfortunately for me I preferred the first three, which meant my enthusiasm dipped towards the end. And, as the course of the various plot threads play out, and different motivations come to light, I wanted to delve back into some of the viewpoints we had left behind. Also, the faithfully followed drama from Lear can feel a little over-cooked for modern tastes - what we expect in Shakespeare is not what we’ve become accustomed to in modern literature. Eye-gouging, for example.

Either way, I keep coming back to the beauty of the language, and the vividness of Preti Taneja’s imagery. The book is peppered with throwaway lines like this: “The thunder sounds; getting closer, closer - a thousand frogs croaking at the back of the sky’s dark throat.” And one of my favourite elements of the novel is how vibrantly it articulates the lives of an underrepresented group in literature: wealthy young Indians. As it drops in and out of Hindi, with no translation, it feels almost like their Trainspotting moment, albeit in a rising, rather than falling, economy. It even has it’s own ‘Choose Life’ speech. Which feels like a good place to leave you:

“We that are the youngest, the fastest, the democracy, the economy, the future technology of the world, the global Super Power coming soon to a cinema near you, we, hum panch, that are the five cousins of the five great rivers, everybody our brother-sister-lover, we that are divine: the echo of the ancient heroes of the old times, we that fight, we that love, we that are hungry, so, so hungry, we that are young! We that are jiggling on the brink of ruin; we that are washed in the filth of corruption, chal, so what? Aise hi hota hai: we are a force that is all natural - slow - death - to Muslims, gays, chi-chi women in their skin-tights, hai! We that sit picnicking on the edge of our crumbling civilisation, we that party with shots and more shots, more shots as the world burns beneath us, as the dogs bark, as the cockroaches crow, as the old eat their young and the young whip their elders all wearing birthmarks of respect, we that present only the shadows of our selves behind our painted smiles, we that protest for the right to drink whisky-sours served to our beds at noon, we that eat our beef with chopsticks, we that twist tongues to suit our dear selves, we that worship the ancient religion of Lakshmi, of Shiva, of wealth creation and ultimate destruction, we that are the future of this planet, we that begin with this beloved India, will endure, yes it all belongs to us, and we will eat it all. All of it is ours, we that are India and no longer slaves: We that are young!” ...more

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Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
The Mookse and th...: 2018 RoC Shortlist: We That Are Young	70	78	Mar 05, 2019 05:16PM
21st Century Lite...: We That Are Young - Background and General - No Spoilers (Oct 2018)	21	41	Dec 30, 2018 08:33AM
21st Century Lite...: We That Are Young - Parts 2 & 3 (Gargi/Radha) - Spoilers (Oct 2018)	7	21	Nov 09, 2018 01:58PM
21st Century Lite...: We That Are Young - Part 1 (Jivan) - Spoilers (Oct 2018)	5	23	Nov 08, 2018 05:44PM
21st Century Lite...: We That Are Young - Comparison with King Lear (spoilers) (Oct 2018)	6	24	Oct 31, 2018 01:28AM

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About Preti Taneja

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Praise for WE THAT ARE YOUNG

WINNER OF THE DESMOND ELLIOT PRIZE 2018

Sarah Perry, chair of judges, said:

“Samira, Chris and myself were absolutely unanimous in our love and admiration for this novel, whose scope, ambition, skill and wisdom was, quite simply, awe-inspiring … all three of us sat together, shaking our heads, saying, ‘If this is her first novel, what extraordinary work will come next?’”

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