If you are looking for a light, fun read to lighten up your mood and freshen up your weekend, then do not read this book. A gripping and engrossing tale whose protagonist is a ship sailing in the Ganga towards the Indian ocean to go to the land of Mareech (Malaysia). Opium. A prince. An addict. A chamar. A farmer’s wife. A French missy born in India and bought up on a diet of Bengali by her wet nurse. A young wanna-be lascar lad. A convict. A hideaway pirate. A carpenter-turned-seaman Black American. An English officer. A shrewd money lender in search of moksha. White. Black. Indian. British. Hindu. Brahmin. Muslim. Bengali. American. Parsi-Chinese. Each one as different from the other. Each one from a different part of the world. True identities. Assumed identities. Various events – some likely some unlikely bring these people in close proximity to each other. What are the circumstances that intertwine the lives of such a motley of individuals on the eastern coast of India?
In
the first book of his Ibis trilogy, Ghosh doesn’t disappoint. The opium trade,
the atrocities of the British Raj, the plight of the poor farmers, the curse of
poverty and illiteracy, the hunger for power – each of these forms an important
element in the tapestry of this beautifully woven narrative. The novel takes
you to sea, slow and languid at times, turbulent at other just like the huge
ship Ibis that sails in the Ganga towards the Bay of Bengal and further. Ghosh has created a gripping narrative of a
cultural potpourri which is colourful and quite tantalizing at times. An
extremely well researched novel, freely interspersedl with desi dialects and
the ‘firang slang’ which brings to the reader
Bengal of the mid-nineteenth century makes for an intense read.
Haven't read it but it sounds interesting.
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