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The Vintage Book of Indian Writing 1947-1997
The indian subcontinent has produced some of the worlds greatest writers, and a body of literature unsurpassed in its sustained imagination, impassioned lyricism and sparkling tragi-comedy now salman rushdie and elizabeth west have collected together the finest indian writing of the last fifty years published to coincide with the anniversary of indias independence, it is an anthology of extraordinary range and vigour, as exciting and varied as the land that inspired it including works mulk raj anand gita mehta anjana appachana ved mehta vikram chandra rohinton mistry upamanyu chatterjee r k narayan amit chaudhuri jawaharlal nehru nirad c chaudhuri padma perera anita desai satyajit ray kiran desai arundhati roy g v desani salman rushdie amitav ghosh nayantara sahgal githa hariharan i allan sealy ruth prawer jhabvala vikram seth firdaus kanga bapsi sidhwa mukul kesavan sara suleri saadat hasan manto shashi tharoor kamala markandaya ardashir vakil
606 pages, Paperback
First published June 19, 1997
About the author
Salman Rushdie
203 books13.4k followersSir Ahmed Salman Rushdie is an Indian-born British and American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and Western civilizations, typically set on the Indian subcontinent. Rushdie's second novel, Midnight's Children (1981), won the Booker Prize in 1981 and was deemed to be "the best novel of all winners" on two occasions, marking the 25th and the 40th anniversary of the prize.
After his fourth novel, The Satanic Verses (1988), Rushdie became the subject of several assassination attempts and death threats, including a fatwa calling for his death issued by Ruhollah Khomeini, the supreme leader of Iran. In total, 20 countries banned the book. Numerous killings and bombings have been carried out by extremists who cite the book as motivation, sparking a debate about censorship and religiously motivated violence. In 2022, Rushdie survived a stabbing at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, New York.
In 1983, Rushdie was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He was appointed a Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France in 1999. Rushdie was knighted in 2007 for his services to literature. In 2008, The Times ranked him 13th on its list of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945. Since 2000, Rushdie has lived in the United States. He was named Distinguished Writer in Residence at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute of New York University in 2015. Earlier, he taught at Emory University. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2012, he published Joseph Anton: A Memoir, an account of his life in the wake of the events following The Satanic Verses. Rushdie was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in April 2023.
Rushdie's personal life, including his five marriages and four divorces, has attracted notable media attention and controversies, particularly during his marriage to actress Padma Lakshmi.
After his fourth novel, The Satanic Verses (1988), Rushdie became the subject of several assassination attempts and death threats, including a fatwa calling for his death issued by Ruhollah Khomeini, the supreme leader of Iran. In total, 20 countries banned the book. Numerous killings and bombings have been carried out by extremists who cite the book as motivation, sparking a debate about censorship and religiously motivated violence. In 2022, Rushdie survived a stabbing at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, New York.
In 1983, Rushdie was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He was appointed a Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France in 1999. Rushdie was knighted in 2007 for his services to literature. In 2008, The Times ranked him 13th on its list of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945. Since 2000, Rushdie has lived in the United States. He was named Distinguished Writer in Residence at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute of New York University in 2015. Earlier, he taught at Emory University. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2012, he published Joseph Anton: A Memoir, an account of his life in the wake of the events following The Satanic Verses. Rushdie was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in April 2023.
Rushdie's personal life, including his five marriages and four divorces, has attracted notable media attention and controversies, particularly during his marriage to actress Padma Lakshmi.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 2, 2012
Definitely worth reading -
1) With Pride and Prejudice by Nayantara Sehgal
2) All About H. Hatterr by G.V.Desani
3) Games at Twilight by Anita Desai
4) Big Bill by Satyajit Ray - Probably the best of the lot
5) Toba Tek Singh by Saadat Hasan Manto
6) Sharmaji by Anjana Appachana
Little diamonds each of these, in a treasure trove of a book.
1) With Pride and Prejudice by Nayantara Sehgal
2) All About H. Hatterr by G.V.Desani
3) Games at Twilight by Anita Desai
4) Big Bill by Satyajit Ray - Probably the best of the lot
5) Toba Tek Singh by Saadat Hasan Manto
6) Sharmaji by Anjana Appachana
Little diamonds each of these, in a treasure trove of a book.
July 17, 2016
A very elitist, biased collection of Indian writing. While some of the writings are absolute gems some are just way below the standard.
December 3, 2013
I enjoyed some stories more than others (and some I didn't like at all) but overall a great collection that introduced me to several writers new to me. The highlight for me was Toba Tek Singh by Saadat Hasan Manto.
July 18, 2026
People are various. Even in this one (England, in honour of our nearly-world-cup-win) there's such a variety of shapes and sizes. India is much bigger with many more people and an almost infinitely of differentness. Then there's this book, with a surprising lack of variety of style.
I read a lot. Huge variety of subjects, places, styles, characters and pace (I paused and waited for that word and, as I looked up, a bloke in a red t-shirt sped by on a racer and I thought 'speed' and I nearly wrote it here but, just in time, the proper word appeared. Minds are good like that). I thought that this variety would be reflected, to some extent, in this collection. It wasn't.
Salman and Elizabeth (the authors) might have done that. I imagine they have a set idea of what a good piece of writing is like. So I accuse them of this.
That (the same that as the aforementioned this) aside, they chose a pretty good style to jam-pack this book with. A style that, to borrow a word from my last sentence, I will call 'packed'. By this I mean that every single sentence is absolutely full to the brim with meaning. Dense sentences. And not just this, but sentences that are easy to read and pleasant to savour. And furthermore, they drive the stories forward well. That is, where a story is what we have.
A great many of the writings are parts of novels. In these, the stories are parts of bigger stories and so don't always have the same narrative thrust (I hope that's the right phrase). Some of them are rather confusing because a great number of characters are introduced in a half page without full explanation of who they all are. So the rest of the excerpt is spent in a state of suspension of understanding in the hope that sense will emerge and permeate out (my) mind osmiosically (pretty sure that's not a word). Mostly it does, but it's uncomfortable, but sometimes it doesn't, which is ... disappointing.
I skipped stuff I'd already read and other stuff that I intend to read soon. I wondered at times whether this book was a kind of a sampler to encourage people to read either the full novel, or other work by enjoyed authors, but that didn't work out well for me. The one novel I recognised as being something I might read was The God of Small Things (or something like that), but on reading the sample, I decided not to. Small boys being interfered with and small girls having their hearts broken by their mother is not a fare I feel I would enjoy.
Other than (all) that, I mostly enjoyed this book and ... and that's pretty much all I want to say.
Got to go now. Too many blokes on push bikes trying to catch my eye. I'll walk on.
I read a lot. Huge variety of subjects, places, styles, characters and pace (I paused and waited for that word and, as I looked up, a bloke in a red t-shirt sped by on a racer and I thought 'speed' and I nearly wrote it here but, just in time, the proper word appeared. Minds are good like that). I thought that this variety would be reflected, to some extent, in this collection. It wasn't.
Salman and Elizabeth (the authors) might have done that. I imagine they have a set idea of what a good piece of writing is like. So I accuse them of this.
That (the same that as the aforementioned this) aside, they chose a pretty good style to jam-pack this book with. A style that, to borrow a word from my last sentence, I will call 'packed'. By this I mean that every single sentence is absolutely full to the brim with meaning. Dense sentences. And not just this, but sentences that are easy to read and pleasant to savour. And furthermore, they drive the stories forward well. That is, where a story is what we have.
A great many of the writings are parts of novels. In these, the stories are parts of bigger stories and so don't always have the same narrative thrust (I hope that's the right phrase). Some of them are rather confusing because a great number of characters are introduced in a half page without full explanation of who they all are. So the rest of the excerpt is spent in a state of suspension of understanding in the hope that sense will emerge and permeate out (my) mind osmiosically (pretty sure that's not a word). Mostly it does, but it's uncomfortable, but sometimes it doesn't, which is ... disappointing.
I skipped stuff I'd already read and other stuff that I intend to read soon. I wondered at times whether this book was a kind of a sampler to encourage people to read either the full novel, or other work by enjoyed authors, but that didn't work out well for me. The one novel I recognised as being something I might read was The God of Small Things (or something like that), but on reading the sample, I decided not to. Small boys being interfered with and small girls having their hearts broken by their mother is not a fare I feel I would enjoy.
Other than (all) that, I mostly enjoyed this book and ... and that's pretty much all I want to say.
Got to go now. Too many blokes on push bikes trying to catch my eye. I'll walk on.
August 17, 2020
There's very little fat on the bone here, in this reviewers humble opinion, and the missing star is due entirely to how very much I wanted to continue with some of the stories that exist entirely in extracted form. I have a substantial reading list built us as a result of this book and I couldn't be happier about it
May 23, 2022
Read approx. 45% till 'The Trotter-Nama'. Will come back to it later. A collection of extracts and short stories from various Indian authors, giving a good sense of writing from that period. A great way to discover new authors.
Favourites so far:
Toba Tek Singh- Sadaat Hasan Manto
In the Mountains- Ruth Praver Jhabvala
The Collectors- Rohinton Mistry
and of course, Salman Rushdie himself.
Favourites so far:
Toba Tek Singh- Sadaat Hasan Manto
In the Mountains- Ruth Praver Jhabvala
The Collectors- Rohinton Mistry
and of course, Salman Rushdie himself.
August 5, 2024
I read this book a very very very long time ago and I do remember loving it and wanting to read more by Indian writers. They have a very sing songy (maybe flowery) way of words (from memory).
I will definitely keep this one in my personal collection and read again.
I will definitely keep this one in my personal collection and read again.
October 12, 2011
An excellent collection!
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews