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Histoire de mes assassins
A Delhi, un journaliste ayant échappé à une tentative d'assassinat se retrouve au tribunal face à ses cinq criminels issus de l'Inde rurale : Chaku, Kabir, Kaliya, Chini et Hathoda Tyagi, des anonymes, considérés par l'auteur comme victimes du système des castes, de la corruption et de la misère de l'Inde contemporaine.
590 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
59 people are currently reading
1291 people want to read
About the author
Tarun J. Tejpal
6 books77 followersTarun J Tejpal is a journalist, publisher, and novelist. In a 26-year career, he has been an editor with the India Today and the Indian Express groups, and the managing editor of Outlook, India’s premier newsmagazine. In March 2000, he started Tehelka, a news organisation that has earned a global reputation for its aggressive public interest journalism.
In 2001, Asiaweek listed Tejpal as one of Asia’s 50 most powerful communicators, and BusinessWeek declared him among 50 leaders at the forefront of change in Asia. In 2007 The Guardian named him among the 20 who constitute India's new elite. In 2009 BusinessWeek has named Tarun one of India’s 50 most powerful people.
Tarun's debut novel, The Alchemy of Desire, published in 2005, was hailed by Sunday Times as “an impressive and memorable debut”. Le Figaro called it a “masterpiece”; and Nobel Laureate V.S. Naipaul declared, “At last – a new and brilliantly original novel from India.” Translated into more than a dozen languages, in France the book won the Prix Millepages and was the finalist for the prestigious Prix Femina.
Tarun's second novel, The Story of My Assassins has been published in 2009 to rave reviews. Pankaj Mishra has said, "It sets new and dauntingly high standards for Indian writing in English", while Altaf Tyrewala has called it "an instant classic". He has just recently stepped down from his position as editor of the Tehelka magazine in light of charges of repeated sexual harassment brought against him by a female journalist.
In 2001, Asiaweek listed Tejpal as one of Asia’s 50 most powerful communicators, and BusinessWeek declared him among 50 leaders at the forefront of change in Asia. In 2007 The Guardian named him among the 20 who constitute India's new elite. In 2009 BusinessWeek has named Tarun one of India’s 50 most powerful people.
Tarun's debut novel, The Alchemy of Desire, published in 2005, was hailed by Sunday Times as “an impressive and memorable debut”. Le Figaro called it a “masterpiece”; and Nobel Laureate V.S. Naipaul declared, “At last – a new and brilliantly original novel from India.” Translated into more than a dozen languages, in France the book won the Prix Millepages and was the finalist for the prestigious Prix Femina.
Tarun's second novel, The Story of My Assassins has been published in 2009 to rave reviews. Pankaj Mishra has said, "It sets new and dauntingly high standards for Indian writing in English", while Altaf Tyrewala has called it "an instant classic". He has just recently stepped down from his position as editor of the Tehelka magazine in light of charges of repeated sexual harassment brought against him by a female journalist.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 99 reviews
November 3, 2017
„Civilizaţia este blana de miel cu care barbarismul se deghizează.”
„Povestea asasinilor mei” prezintă viața unui ziarist care trăiește într-o lume plină de violență, dar care este protejat prin apartenența la o castă superioară. Prima sută de pagini conturează portretul unui om care nu prea a cunoscut lipsurile, care are o soție frumoasă și o familie iubitoare, pe care nu o apreciază, petrecându-și timpul departe, la redacția unui ziar obscur sau în brațele amantei, Sara, o feministă militantă, de ale cărei idei nu este interesat și cu care are o relație bazată numai pe atracție. Este o viață searbădă, irosită, personajul fiind mereu în căutare de ceva pentru a-și ocupa plictiseala zilelor, netulburată nici măcar de tentativa de asasinat, adusă la cunoștință de către poliția locală. Este probabil partea cea mai puțin interesantă a volumului, totuși necesară pentru a realiza contrastul cu viețile celor cinci presupuși asasini ai săi, în care se vede cu adevărat forța narativă a autorului. Reușit este și modul în care se face simțit contrastul între civilizația citadină, a castelor superioare, și cea rurală, a săracilor, pentru care nu există speranță și nici dreptate într-o Indie, presupus modernă.
O carte recomandată, fără doar și poate.
Mai mult pe blog
„Povestea asasinilor mei” prezintă viața unui ziarist care trăiește într-o lume plină de violență, dar care este protejat prin apartenența la o castă superioară. Prima sută de pagini conturează portretul unui om care nu prea a cunoscut lipsurile, care are o soție frumoasă și o familie iubitoare, pe care nu o apreciază, petrecându-și timpul departe, la redacția unui ziar obscur sau în brațele amantei, Sara, o feministă militantă, de ale cărei idei nu este interesat și cu care are o relație bazată numai pe atracție. Este o viață searbădă, irosită, personajul fiind mereu în căutare de ceva pentru a-și ocupa plictiseala zilelor, netulburată nici măcar de tentativa de asasinat, adusă la cunoștință de către poliția locală. Este probabil partea cea mai puțin interesantă a volumului, totuși necesară pentru a realiza contrastul cu viețile celor cinci presupuși asasini ai săi, în care se vede cu adevărat forța narativă a autorului. Reușit este și modul în care se face simțit contrastul între civilizația citadină, a castelor superioare, și cea rurală, a săracilor, pentru care nu există speranță și nici dreptate într-o Indie, presupus modernă.
O carte recomandată, fără doar și poate.
Mai mult pe blog
September 13, 2022
Secțiunea cu aurolacii din gara New Delhi mi s-a parut de 5 stele.
November 28, 2016
Dacă n-ar fi existat tocmai personajul principal, jurnalistul de la a cărui tentativă de asasinat pleacă povestea, și povestea sa, i-aș fi dat cinci stele fără stau prea mult pe gânduri. Pentru că Tarun J. Tejpal așterne cale de aproape șase sute pagini cinci povești de viață (ale potențialilor asasini) care pur și simplu îți fac părul măciucă în cap. Violuri, omoruri, homosexualitate, sărăcie cruntă, caste asuprite și asupritoare, câini ucigași, stăpâni ucigași, ucigași plătiți, foamete, gelozie, ură, prostie, incompetență, tot tacâmul. Mai multe, pe FanSF: http://wp.me/pz4D9-2wv.
August 10, 2020
Like a lot of people, I discovered this book after watching the web-series Paatal-Lok and hearing the fracas about its uncredited storyline. It deserves to be known for more. It is an absolute travesty that this is a book which has a mere 520 odd reviews on GoodReads and is not even mentioned as a great work of our times in conversations and that Tejpal (his personal foibles apart) is not recognized (or even in the conversation) as one of the greatest writers of his age.
It's difficult to separate the art from the artist - especially in semi-autobiographical works like this where the protagonist whose name we never learn is clearly based on Tejpal himself. The book revolves around the character of Neeraj Kabi in the web-series and not Hathi Ram who is an interesting, albeit relatively minor character. I spent time reading about Tejpal and Tehelka after finishing the book and I hope he will receive justice, but am not optimistic about it (this book explains why people like him will get away with this). The loss of his precious news-magazine/website to its sorry state today where it looks like a college newsletter is clearly illuminating of how they've fallen. But despicable persons can produce great works of art which we can learn from - and we do consume them all the time, from Picasso to Naipaul to Polanski to Woody Allen (and I'm sure there are many closer home as well).
So apart from ruminations around 'should I give my money to an accused rapist', I'd encourage everyone to read this - use a pirated copy if you want (I chose the Audible version which is very very well read by Sunil Malhotra, balancing between slightly accented English and reverting to type for the Hindi words). The Story of My Assassins is different enough from Paatal Lok to make it worth your while even if you know the end (and if you don't, you will enjoy it even more).
The story is simple enough and based loosely of an incident from Tejpal's own life - where there was a plot to assassinate him which went awry. A large part of this book is from a first-person view of the nihilistic and callous journalist who has little regard or reverence for anything in life and how he deals with the aftermath of this murder attempt. His relationships with his colleague, his mistress, his 'spiritual guru', his wife and other minor characters. As I mentioned before, it's difficult to understand where the character ends and Tejpal begins - the snobbishness, the sexual deviance and the whole facade seems to fit perfectly well with the public image of the man today. Through these eyes we get a look at Delhi's corridors of power - small money and big money, the movers and the shakers.
But the book really hits its elements in the four back-stories of the five 'assassins'. This takes us to an India which we (the audience for books of this kind) choose to not think of and it takes us there in a manner so engaging that each of these could be 4 mini-novellas by themselves which I'd pay to read. With Chaaku, we go to inner Haryana - to the farmstead of Fauladi Fauji and his tank-driver son in the Army, the uncle Shauki in Mohali who runs a pilferage transport business and then back to Delhi and rising up in the corridors of powers with Mr. Healthy. With Kabir M - we travel all the way back to partition and Bareilly, the story of boys running off to Pakistan and being massacred, how this affected the psyche of a generation, the love of the movies, growing up in an environment beyond your own in a Convent School with Padres and chutter-putter ch*tiyas, being a part of a gang (and yet being distinct because of your religion) leading to police brutality and the solace men seek after they've lost all. Kalia and Cheeni take us to see the world of the station-boys, the origins from a family of snake charmers and how that community is coping, how death is just a part of this world on the tracks of New Delhi, how drugs, sodomy and fleeting moments of happiness can redefine living one day at a time. And with Vishal 'Hathoda' Tyagi we go far into Western UP and then the badlands of Chambal, and see how bandits mainstream themselves, seek political patronage and breed their hit-men, especially ones with special talents.
Each of these stories is incredibly descriptive, searingly real and (seem) impeccably well researched. They are not focused or to-the-point, no if that is what you are looking for, this is not the book. Even the minor characters have a rich tapestry of detail on which they're based upon and digression is the normal flow of things. The idiosyncrasies of the lands they come from - from across the cow belt - are elaborated upon in great detail and with a self-awareness of how readers of these books in English perceive the rest of the country and their limitations (knowing when it can 'talk-down' to us with a well-deserved condescension). Tejpal also does not over explain (although he is prone to repetition) - this is a book by an Indian for Indians and not for the white man and does not bother to necessarily wrap things up nicely and provide closure where the trail peters off. He is also a master craftsman with language - both English and Hindi, the prose is often exquisite.
I suppose it is only fair that I clarify this novel is not for everyone's tastes. It is pessimistic to a fault ("the Gods no longer descend on this godforsaken country" as the priest who reads Hathoda Tyagi's horoscope tells his parents), paints a depressing picture of India and its divides (chasms actually) which are clearly never going to be bridged. None of the characters are particularly likable - least of all our lying, philandering, dismissive protagonist whose best attribute seems to be his ability to think of the snarkiest responses to a situation in his head. There are gratuitous amounts of violence and sex which really make you worry what fetishes does Tejpal actually have going through his head. But if you can wince through those parts - you have an absolute treat on your hands.
The Story of My Assassins is also funny and witty in a dry sort of way, revealing without being moralistic or preachy - the world is what it is, we just play our roles - is the message we get again and again from various characters along with other gems. One of my favorite ones was a conversation between our protagonist and Hathi Ram who when asked if he would like an extra cup of key to loosen his tongue in a conversation where he is being especially taciturn says :
“One cup is friendship. Two is intimacy. And that is always reductive. As friends we talk about big things, philosophical things and national affairs. But in intimacy we will talk about wives and bosses and the price of milk and vegetables, and we will become small men obsessed with small things. So no more tea, my friend, no more.”
It's difficult to separate the art from the artist - especially in semi-autobiographical works like this where the protagonist whose name we never learn is clearly based on Tejpal himself. The book revolves around the character of Neeraj Kabi in the web-series and not Hathi Ram who is an interesting, albeit relatively minor character. I spent time reading about Tejpal and Tehelka after finishing the book and I hope he will receive justice, but am not optimistic about it (this book explains why people like him will get away with this). The loss of his precious news-magazine/website to its sorry state today where it looks like a college newsletter is clearly illuminating of how they've fallen. But despicable persons can produce great works of art which we can learn from - and we do consume them all the time, from Picasso to Naipaul to Polanski to Woody Allen (and I'm sure there are many closer home as well).
So apart from ruminations around 'should I give my money to an accused rapist', I'd encourage everyone to read this - use a pirated copy if you want (I chose the Audible version which is very very well read by Sunil Malhotra, balancing between slightly accented English and reverting to type for the Hindi words). The Story of My Assassins is different enough from Paatal Lok to make it worth your while even if you know the end (and if you don't, you will enjoy it even more).
The story is simple enough and based loosely of an incident from Tejpal's own life - where there was a plot to assassinate him which went awry. A large part of this book is from a first-person view of the nihilistic and callous journalist who has little regard or reverence for anything in life and how he deals with the aftermath of this murder attempt. His relationships with his colleague, his mistress, his 'spiritual guru', his wife and other minor characters. As I mentioned before, it's difficult to understand where the character ends and Tejpal begins - the snobbishness, the sexual deviance and the whole facade seems to fit perfectly well with the public image of the man today. Through these eyes we get a look at Delhi's corridors of power - small money and big money, the movers and the shakers.
But the book really hits its elements in the four back-stories of the five 'assassins'. This takes us to an India which we (the audience for books of this kind) choose to not think of and it takes us there in a manner so engaging that each of these could be 4 mini-novellas by themselves which I'd pay to read. With Chaaku, we go to inner Haryana - to the farmstead of Fauladi Fauji and his tank-driver son in the Army, the uncle Shauki in Mohali who runs a pilferage transport business and then back to Delhi and rising up in the corridors of powers with Mr. Healthy. With Kabir M - we travel all the way back to partition and Bareilly, the story of boys running off to Pakistan and being massacred, how this affected the psyche of a generation, the love of the movies, growing up in an environment beyond your own in a Convent School with Padres and chutter-putter ch*tiyas, being a part of a gang (and yet being distinct because of your religion) leading to police brutality and the solace men seek after they've lost all. Kalia and Cheeni take us to see the world of the station-boys, the origins from a family of snake charmers and how that community is coping, how death is just a part of this world on the tracks of New Delhi, how drugs, sodomy and fleeting moments of happiness can redefine living one day at a time. And with Vishal 'Hathoda' Tyagi we go far into Western UP and then the badlands of Chambal, and see how bandits mainstream themselves, seek political patronage and breed their hit-men, especially ones with special talents.
Each of these stories is incredibly descriptive, searingly real and (seem) impeccably well researched. They are not focused or to-the-point, no if that is what you are looking for, this is not the book. Even the minor characters have a rich tapestry of detail on which they're based upon and digression is the normal flow of things. The idiosyncrasies of the lands they come from - from across the cow belt - are elaborated upon in great detail and with a self-awareness of how readers of these books in English perceive the rest of the country and their limitations (knowing when it can 'talk-down' to us with a well-deserved condescension). Tejpal also does not over explain (although he is prone to repetition) - this is a book by an Indian for Indians and not for the white man and does not bother to necessarily wrap things up nicely and provide closure where the trail peters off. He is also a master craftsman with language - both English and Hindi, the prose is often exquisite.
I suppose it is only fair that I clarify this novel is not for everyone's tastes. It is pessimistic to a fault ("the Gods no longer descend on this godforsaken country" as the priest who reads Hathoda Tyagi's horoscope tells his parents), paints a depressing picture of India and its divides (chasms actually) which are clearly never going to be bridged. None of the characters are particularly likable - least of all our lying, philandering, dismissive protagonist whose best attribute seems to be his ability to think of the snarkiest responses to a situation in his head. There are gratuitous amounts of violence and sex which really make you worry what fetishes does Tejpal actually have going through his head. But if you can wince through those parts - you have an absolute treat on your hands.
The Story of My Assassins is also funny and witty in a dry sort of way, revealing without being moralistic or preachy - the world is what it is, we just play our roles - is the message we get again and again from various characters along with other gems. One of my favorite ones was a conversation between our protagonist and Hathi Ram who when asked if he would like an extra cup of key to loosen his tongue in a conversation where he is being especially taciturn says :
“One cup is friendship. Two is intimacy. And that is always reductive. As friends we talk about big things, philosophical things and national affairs. But in intimacy we will talk about wives and bosses and the price of milk and vegetables, and we will become small men obsessed with small things. So no more tea, my friend, no more.”
November 15, 2024
Foarte interesant și foarte talentat autorul! Cu o voce fermă, sigură, descrie o Indie contemporană în care inechitățile sociale între caste sunt așa de mari, încât nu prea lasă căi de ieșire din cotidian decât prin violență, crimă și corupție.
March 31, 2012
Six months after completing this book the appreciation for this writer and the work he has done has brought me back to write this review. The reasons to write this may be many but the strongest one is the fact that this author is extremely under rated.
I mean, in the world where in the name of Indian writers, we admire [Author:Arvind Adiga] and [Author:Arundhati Roy] but still a guy like [Author: Tarun Tejpal] who took the whole country with storm after his revolutionary magazine Tehelka remains under rated. It's nothing less but a shame.
The first work that I read of him The Valley of Masks was by pure accident and I never expected much from him. But after reading that book whenever someone asks me to suggest an Indian author that they can read, i can't help myself but to say "read Tejpal".
This book is unlike Adiga's The White Tiger(which won him the Booker) and Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire where the writer wants to exploit the desire of the non-Indians to see the misery and irony of a country.
Here, Tejpal gives a balance account of how the life of a poor and unfortunate Indian materializes when he lets fate take the handle of things.
The narrator in the book was planed to be attacked by 5 assassins who were handed the task to kill him. The actual attack never took place and all 5 were apprehended by the police.
Narrator is overwhelmed by the fact that he has been targeted to be assassinated with such grand a group of criminals. The hilarity and irony of the life of the narrator is captured well by the author.
The book gives us the story of all 5 culprits one by one and thus unfolds the plot of the great human tragedy. The author goes to great details to make us aware of the situation and psyche of all the 5 men.
Each story is tragic and refreshing at the same time.
After completing this one I was severely left wanting more of the author. I hope he comes out with another book soon.
March 31, 2022
পাতাল-লোক সিরিজটা এই বই থেকে অ্যাডাপ্টেড। বইটা বেশি ভালো, যেটা হওয়াটাই স্বাভাবিক- তবে বইটা বড্ড বেশি আন্ডাররেটেড।
March 8, 2021
Based on real events, primarily drawn heavily from the author's own challenging days at Tehelka of the defense-deal sting operation. The book describes the back stories of five suspects charged with a plot to kill the nameless narrator, a reporter. As the books goes into the details of the five men, we get to meet our own countrymen. People who, like many millions of Indians, are born on the dark fringes, and silently die there. People who have absolutely no hope, from the moment they are born to the moment they succumb to the wretchedness around. People who suffer the worst forms of poverty, torture and state apathy. People who are wronged, abused and damaged are the people who either lose the will to live or end up killing for the most insubstantial causes.
Tejpal did a brilliant job in describing the grim cycle of abuse and torture of the natives by the natives of the rural north India. I must admit, I wanted to do away with the book midway after the first assassin's backstory. The horrific details of brutality and the range of torture had grossed me out. But, the excellent word-play and tight narrative kept me glued to the book.
Many books by Indians, especially in English, are either grimly written depictions of inequality or light-hearted romps through the social strata of the middle class. But, in here, the actions and reaction have been very carefully observed and written without any veil of deception or humour. It makes the book so convincing to the people living in the country. And, these details make The Story of My Assassins stand out from among the thousands of titles published in India every year on the very subject.
It is a huge challenge to the reader, the 524 pages are continually disheartening without any respite from the depressing gloom of helplessness. I am deeply moved and would recommend this over and over, if it doesn't stir us as Indians, nothing ever will. It's definitely a gem but absolutely not for the faint hearted.
PS: Paatallok on Amazon Prime is based on this very book, which I am yet to watch.
Tejpal did a brilliant job in describing the grim cycle of abuse and torture of the natives by the natives of the rural north India. I must admit, I wanted to do away with the book midway after the first assassin's backstory. The horrific details of brutality and the range of torture had grossed me out. But, the excellent word-play and tight narrative kept me glued to the book.
Many books by Indians, especially in English, are either grimly written depictions of inequality or light-hearted romps through the social strata of the middle class. But, in here, the actions and reaction have been very carefully observed and written without any veil of deception or humour. It makes the book so convincing to the people living in the country. And, these details make The Story of My Assassins stand out from among the thousands of titles published in India every year on the very subject.
It is a huge challenge to the reader, the 524 pages are continually disheartening without any respite from the depressing gloom of helplessness. I am deeply moved and would recommend this over and over, if it doesn't stir us as Indians, nothing ever will. It's definitely a gem but absolutely not for the faint hearted.
PS: Paatallok on Amazon Prime is based on this very book, which I am yet to watch.
April 24, 2013
I could not get through this. I made it through part 1 and a bit into part 2, but this morning I pulled the plug. I just could not get the big picture and the details were grossing me out. Between the foul language and the graphic descriptions of beatings and torture I couldn't take it. I would listen to the details of some beating or carving but I had no idea who was speaking, how it fit into the story or why it was important. Maybe it was bad narrating, I don't know. I just couldn't take the torture descriptions anymore.
August 24, 2017
This is the second novel I've read from the Indian author Tarun J. Tejpal. The first title read was "the valley of masks" rated 3 stars. I like this novel much better the previous title. This is a very well written criminal thriller with multiple layers of suspense. The story evolves around a reporter who discovers live on television that the police foiled an attempted assassination against his person by arresting 5 assassins.
The author deliberately didn't develop the central character of the reporter because he's not the real target and to focus the attention of the real victims: the 5 arrested assassins. We learn nothing about the past of the reporter, but only about his current life after the foiled attempt assassination. We're served with an investigative reporter with one major success story with no powers, self-centered, and lost about what he really wants in his personal and professional lives.
The author did a great job in developping entirely all 5 characters of the assassins from almost their births to the time they were arrested by the police. The author dedicated a full chapter for each of the assassins, used creativity while staying realistic to described to us the entire life of these assassins. While they all came from different part of India, different religion, different background, and lived different lives, they shared many similitudes such as being born poor, having access to no education, suffering since birth from fear of, physical violence and verbal violence. They were all 5 criminals who had no choice in life because they were themselves born victims of the system leading them straight to a life of crime. The author used these characters, assassins and victims, to show the true lives of the poor, the real lives of the unseen in Bollywood movies, and the lives of the people who can't speak out for themselves on their own.
Furthermore, besides all the above and implicit denounciation of violence and corruption in the modern society, there is a great criminal suspense thriller for readers trying to discover who wanted to kill the reporter, who was/were the real victims in the story, and who's behind it all and most importantly why.
The author deliberately didn't develop the central character of the reporter because he's not the real target and to focus the attention of the real victims: the 5 arrested assassins. We learn nothing about the past of the reporter, but only about his current life after the foiled attempt assassination. We're served with an investigative reporter with one major success story with no powers, self-centered, and lost about what he really wants in his personal and professional lives.
The author did a great job in developping entirely all 5 characters of the assassins from almost their births to the time they were arrested by the police. The author dedicated a full chapter for each of the assassins, used creativity while staying realistic to described to us the entire life of these assassins. While they all came from different part of India, different religion, different background, and lived different lives, they shared many similitudes such as being born poor, having access to no education, suffering since birth from fear of, physical violence and verbal violence. They were all 5 criminals who had no choice in life because they were themselves born victims of the system leading them straight to a life of crime. The author used these characters, assassins and victims, to show the true lives of the poor, the real lives of the unseen in Bollywood movies, and the lives of the people who can't speak out for themselves on their own.
Furthermore, besides all the above and implicit denounciation of violence and corruption in the modern society, there is a great criminal suspense thriller for readers trying to discover who wanted to kill the reporter, who was/were the real victims in the story, and who's behind it all and most importantly why.
March 7, 2013
What struck me most about this book was the vivid and often gut wrenching portrayal of characters belonging to different strata of the Indian society. From gang members in UP to the outlaws in Bihar, the farmhouse owning foul mouthed elitists of Delhi to a caricaturized chai sipping woman activist, they all came alive inside my head. At the beginning of the book, the protagonist – a journalist in a loveless marriage, a downward spiral of a journalistic ambition with a single minded aspiration to satisfy his carnal desires seemed quite hollow and empty. Even after an assassination attempt on him, he walked through life with absolutely no passion .However; by the end of the book it was clear that the author does this intentionally. The reader takes a journey with the protagonist and by the end of this journey; the protagonist is weaned away from a state of listless uncaring attitude towards that of consciousness and maybe even a bit of compassion towards the people around him. And so is the reader. The story of the lives of the suspected assassins is gruesome and it would be fair to say that this isn’t a read for the faint hearted. Having read quite a few books on India, I can say with confidence that this is one of the most realistic and original piece of Indian literature with no pretensions both in terms of language and expression.
July 26, 2015
This might be the first book that I have EVER not finished. I always make a point to finish reading, but I just couldn't get into this one. This book was so difficult to read.... If I could have given it zero stars, I would have.
August 6, 2012
Stopped it in the middle.
January 4, 2013
This is not my cup of Tea.
February 22, 2017
I am not enjoying this book that much i would like something with more action and excitement. I am thinking of getting a new book
January 29, 2014
This is one of those books where I went into it expecting one thing, got something totally different, and was pleasantly surprised in that what I got was probably better than what I wanted anyhow.
From the title and a blurb, I knew that this was the story of a reporter for an Indian newspaper (which the author also is) who survives an assassination attempt and goes on to investigate those who tried to kill him. It was said to be based on a true story, and I went in expecting some kind of gritty, gripping high stakes political thriller, like a more literary and internationally aware version of a Tom Clancy novel or Lee Child novel or something.
Instead, this book is a sprawling, vulgar, delightfully horrific and sharply comedic stroll through every caste, institution, nook and cranny of modern Indian culture. One comparison that leaps to mind, for its portrayal of senseless, eternal bureaucracy for its own sake, is Catch-22. Another is Kafka at his most subtly, acidly funny. I would also compare the book, in its renderings of recognizable but weird and outsized characters, to something like A Confederacy of Dunces, or maybe the movies of John Waters if he were Indian... what a thought.
I learned a whole bunch about India. I learned what paan is, and a charpoy, and a chutiya (uh never call anyone from India that by the way). I learned about growing up among impoverished tribal farms where disputes were settled by murder, rape and arson. I learned about Indian courtrooms, the dealings therein vividly depicted as a grotesque hand-me-down cargo cult of British colonial rituals.
This is dangerous, I know, learning Indian culture from a work that might be the Indian equivalent of something like Trainspotting. There is bias and fantasy, to be sure. There is also a lot of hard truth, and a compassionate reporter's eye cast over a lot of human suffering. The whole section focusing on the train stations, and the children who lived under them, may be the most haunting section of the book.
Each of the assassins has his vivid own story of injustice and abuse, and the reporter of the framing story turns out to be a complete cad, bigot and dimwit from nearly page one. The inevitable reading guide notes mention that the author deliberately chose an unlikeable narrator to open up the material he wanted to share about modern India. Well, it worked, I was along for the whole filthy, tragic, hilarious ride.
It's a big novel, hard to get into due to the many foreign words, but just packed with one fascinating scene and riotous setpiece after another, floating deftly between truly sad realism and truly funny observations. Worth the work.
From the title and a blurb, I knew that this was the story of a reporter for an Indian newspaper (which the author also is) who survives an assassination attempt and goes on to investigate those who tried to kill him. It was said to be based on a true story, and I went in expecting some kind of gritty, gripping high stakes political thriller, like a more literary and internationally aware version of a Tom Clancy novel or Lee Child novel or something.
Instead, this book is a sprawling, vulgar, delightfully horrific and sharply comedic stroll through every caste, institution, nook and cranny of modern Indian culture. One comparison that leaps to mind, for its portrayal of senseless, eternal bureaucracy for its own sake, is Catch-22. Another is Kafka at his most subtly, acidly funny. I would also compare the book, in its renderings of recognizable but weird and outsized characters, to something like A Confederacy of Dunces, or maybe the movies of John Waters if he were Indian... what a thought.
I learned a whole bunch about India. I learned what paan is, and a charpoy, and a chutiya (uh never call anyone from India that by the way). I learned about growing up among impoverished tribal farms where disputes were settled by murder, rape and arson. I learned about Indian courtrooms, the dealings therein vividly depicted as a grotesque hand-me-down cargo cult of British colonial rituals.
This is dangerous, I know, learning Indian culture from a work that might be the Indian equivalent of something like Trainspotting. There is bias and fantasy, to be sure. There is also a lot of hard truth, and a compassionate reporter's eye cast over a lot of human suffering. The whole section focusing on the train stations, and the children who lived under them, may be the most haunting section of the book.
Each of the assassins has his vivid own story of injustice and abuse, and the reporter of the framing story turns out to be a complete cad, bigot and dimwit from nearly page one. The inevitable reading guide notes mention that the author deliberately chose an unlikeable narrator to open up the material he wanted to share about modern India. Well, it worked, I was along for the whole filthy, tragic, hilarious ride.
It's a big novel, hard to get into due to the many foreign words, but just packed with one fascinating scene and riotous setpiece after another, floating deftly between truly sad realism and truly funny observations. Worth the work.
March 28, 2017
The Outline
The storyline is fairly simple, and holds a good bit of promise. A gentleman is supposed to be attacked by a gang of 5 other "gentlemen". The book traces the lives of the supposed assassins - how they became criminals, how they were influenced by the society around them, what pulls and pressures operated upon them - what were their "majboori" in other words. It looks at the societal norms, ugliness in stark reality without making any defence of either side. It just states it like it is. These lives are intertwined with the life of the main protagonist, his wife, his mistress, his business partner and his spiritual guru. Stated on its own like that, the story holds tremendous promise - it is a story that can lay bare the entire gamut of life in India as it exists today; which is precisely why I picked it up.
The Profanity - far too much of it. It becomes an irritating narrative with the extent of the bad words used. The effect is to make it sound very rough and second rate
The needless background development and pointless detail, making the linkage of the various subplots very tedious. There is so much of background noise, that you frequently lose the plot of the story, and end up wondering how and where does what you are currently reading link up with the main story. Yes, there is some amount of humour, but the meandering style and profanity all but push the humour into extinction
I summation, this is not a book for me. There will, of course, be people who will like it: but I am not one of them. I prefer clean and polished writing- no profanity, with succinct but detailed background development and a to the point narrative. I would love to read a book that dwells on such a story line - how people (gundas) become what they are - but not in this style! If you are of similar tastes- as you can no doubt make out from my other posts- then avoid this one.
The storyline is fairly simple, and holds a good bit of promise. A gentleman is supposed to be attacked by a gang of 5 other "gentlemen". The book traces the lives of the supposed assassins - how they became criminals, how they were influenced by the society around them, what pulls and pressures operated upon them - what were their "majboori" in other words. It looks at the societal norms, ugliness in stark reality without making any defence of either side. It just states it like it is. These lives are intertwined with the life of the main protagonist, his wife, his mistress, his business partner and his spiritual guru. Stated on its own like that, the story holds tremendous promise - it is a story that can lay bare the entire gamut of life in India as it exists today; which is precisely why I picked it up.
The Profanity - far too much of it. It becomes an irritating narrative with the extent of the bad words used. The effect is to make it sound very rough and second rate
The needless background development and pointless detail, making the linkage of the various subplots very tedious. There is so much of background noise, that you frequently lose the plot of the story, and end up wondering how and where does what you are currently reading link up with the main story. Yes, there is some amount of humour, but the meandering style and profanity all but push the humour into extinction
I summation, this is not a book for me. There will, of course, be people who will like it: but I am not one of them. I prefer clean and polished writing- no profanity, with succinct but detailed background development and a to the point narrative. I would love to read a book that dwells on such a story line - how people (gundas) become what they are - but not in this style! If you are of similar tastes- as you can no doubt make out from my other posts- then avoid this one.
September 23, 2013
This is a tough book to read. The story of life in India is gruesome, and the plot is buried under such a lot of detail that it disappears. An investigative journalist and fornicator of the highest order is told that there has been an assassination attempt against him. He is closely guarded by a cynical police officer whose main preoccupation is getting by. Some young men are arrested, but there is curiously no proof that anything at all happened. There was probably no plot at all, and the young men, whose sad, horrible histories are described in detail for hundreds of pages each, are probably innocent of these charges, though not others.
I couldn't remain in the world of casual anal rape of boys, throw-away children growing up in the streets and learning to prey on people, police corruption and hopeless disrespect for humanity. It sickened me, even though the writing was superior.
I couldn't remain in the world of casual anal rape of boys, throw-away children growing up in the streets and learning to prey on people, police corruption and hopeless disrespect for humanity. It sickened me, even though the writing was superior.
November 3, 2010
Powerful, unapologetic, grim making of 5 criminals (or victims depending on your point of view). Tejpal does a good job of bringing the harsh realities of rural north India to the reader.
The first person chapters concerning the protagonist suffer from the sad fate of most Indian authors - "trying too hard to express oneself". If you would just grunt through these insignificant, boring & sometimes positively painful pages, you will be rewarded with yet another shock & awe chapter about a boy becoming a criminal.
The first person chapters concerning the protagonist suffer from the sad fate of most Indian authors - "trying too hard to express oneself". If you would just grunt through these insignificant, boring & sometimes positively painful pages, you will be rewarded with yet another shock & awe chapter about a boy becoming a criminal.
February 16, 2010
Il m'est tombé des mains à la page 100; bravement (j'avais envie de l'aimer!), je l'ai repris et ai continué jusqu'à la page 135... Mais rien à faire. Le style, les personnages, l'histoire, rien ne levait. Et d'une telle violence dans les détails en plus - vraiment gore par bout...
May 30, 2011
The book has started off really well...and am really looking forward to the evenings to finish it soon. Tejpal's acidic writing is delightful :)
I am done now, and I must say that the book was satisfying! I enjoyed reading it completely...and would recommend it to anyone who loves books :)
I am done now, and I must say that the book was satisfying! I enjoyed reading it completely...and would recommend it to anyone who loves books :)
November 15, 2011
It was not great, too much hindi abuse for my taste!!
June 13, 2013
just started
February 8, 2013
I read the through page 137 and just could not get into this book. So I moved on.
February 22, 2013
Didn't like it at all, could not finish. A boring man whose sexual adventures are over rated
October 2, 2014
May I didnt get the story. But personally didn't like it at all.
May 11, 2014
Language too crude and crass. Didn't like it. Somehow managed to finish the book, although almost gave up mid way.
December 2, 2015
I did not complete like or dislike this book, in a way I ended up feeling sorry for the "assassins"
June 16, 2020
This is a terrific book, right up there with Sacred Games for my favorite Indian novel. The depth and detail of the writing is stunning. I felt like I was back in India with all the sights and sounds and smells. this book really is the story of the assassins. It's four disconnected stories of how these young men came to be assassins. no one is spared in this book, all walks of life receive scathing descriptions. I see it is now a miniseries, looking forward to watching that. This book won't be for everyone. It's pretty gritty, has Hindi sprinkled throughout.
November 5, 2012
tarun j. tejpal might be placed in my list of authors to look forward to but this book from him has endangered his comfortable ensconcement and perhaps dangled his position in that list a bit but not quite sufficiently to perfectly displace his position. in the books that i have been.picking off late i discover a definite stream of thought that easily accepts determinism as the.primary driver of the world. but none are too openly admitting of it as it would then make them even indirectly seem as nazi apologetics. tarun's editor in the book was to be assasinated by fice hard criminals. now a criminal justice system would hardly look at the make up of a criminals mind unless he is clinically proven insane before kick starting proceedings. however tarun veers towards providing for a background to the criminals lives with grim and harsh storylines, descriptive and brutal violence (where he does an extremely good job of picturing the same), abject cruelty, a sense of powerlessness (which hardens into brutal brandishability of power), and upper echelons of society that are as unforgiving as can possibly be. this concoction brewing in the cauldron of society is what prepares the criminals ultimately and through these brews, tarun sort of fluidly explains the formation of criminals. however once all that was said and done, tarun timidly discards the criminals one by one from the storyline in a convenient fashion which was kind of a literary cheating for me. tarun could have taken a bolder stance here.and perhaps.kicked off a renewed debate, but his story shied away from there. the guru of the editor also though all throughout being very stoic is astutely used by tarun to support the ultimate criminality of the criminals. even though all throughout there are faint voices that would have absolved the criminals of their supposed crimes perhaps in another value systems. an example being inspector huthyam, who states that even those who do wrong are eventually playing their role im the drama of the universe. but then the inspector is hardly shown off as a character of strength and own decisiveness and hence this strain of thought is comfortably benumbed.
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